When a diamond is pulled from the ground it doesn’t look like what you see in engagement rings, it’s a diamond in the rough. It’s sort of a cloudy look, and then it’s taken and processed. First they put it in a tumbler which kind of smooths it out a little bit, and then they look at it and decide how to facet it. They take parts of it off so that it can reflect the light.
This is what a sheikh does to his students; he takes students who come to him in the rough, and begins the process of making it possible for them to reflect the light, to reflect the truth.
Now, a lot of the sheikh’s work is done just by being who he is, and being the example for the students, so the students can see what it’s like in the process. So, the student has the end result in front of him. And the sheikh is often referred to; the teacher is often referred to, as a mirror, and he’s a mirror for a lot of reasons. And as you understand more, you understand more about what the mirror is like because you start becoming the mirror.
At first the mirror just reflects possibilities of what you can be. Those possibilities are limited to how much of yourself you’ve let go. So what you’re able to see is a projection of the way your mind thinks, and the way your mind thinks will form the image of the teacher.
I know people who, when they first see a teacher and report to me what they see, come away with very, very strange projections. Some project an exalted being, some project animal qualities. Some people are so stuck in their animal qualities that they can only project animal qualities. So it’s evident that the first step in this process is a step where no matter what your mind is telling you, there’s a voice with some strength coming from your heart that says, “Sit still and listen,” that says, “Pay attention, even though you don’t understand what’s going on. Don’t run away.”
Because the inclination when you’re with something that is foreign to you, that you’re uncomfortable with, is to run away. Most people are looking for a comfort zone. They’re not looking to be tumbled in a tumbler and have parts of them cut off. That’s not their intention. But in reality, unless you’re willing to go through that, you can’t come out on the other side.
Now, the other part that makes this difficult is that in ignorance it’s impossible to understand wisdom. In ignorance it’s impossible to understand the nature of what’s exalted. As our teacher often said to us, “Only God can know God. Only God can understand the qualities of God. Only the qualities can understand the qualities.”
So if you are not within the qualities, you can’t understand the qualities; you imagine the qualities. And that imagination, in effect, hinders your progress because your imagination comes from the mind, and your reality comes from the heart. And as long as the mind is the functioning entity within you that guides everything that you’re doing, you haven’t moved into the area that can touch reality…
