The afterlife is like a gramophone; our mind brings the records; if they are harsh, the instrument produces harsh notes, if beautiful then it will sing beautiful songs. It will produce the same records that we have experienced in this life.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
One characteristic of the mind is that it is like a gramophone record: whatever is impressed upon it, it is able to reproduce. And another characteristic of the mind is that it does not only reproduce something, but it creates what is impressed upon it. If ugliness is recorded, it will produce disagreement, disharmony. The learning of concentration clears the record, makes it produce what we like, not what comes automatically.
[ As the technology for recording sounds, and images, evolved and then spread through mainstream culture, so the similes and metaphors used to describe the workings of the mind and memory, and the stored impressions and patterns which influence or control our behaviors changed too. The terminology more or less kept pace with the current recording media. In Pir-o-Murshid’s day it was the ‘gramophone’ or ‘victrola’, and ‘phonographic records’. When recording media changed from flat, shellac and then vinyl disc records to magnetic tape (reel to reel, and then cassettes), we began calling the stored impressions and patterns tapes that could be changed. And when personal computers became widespread, the ‘tapes’ simile was replaced by ‘programs’. — Muiz ]
There is a story of a murshid and a mureed. The mureed said, ‘O, Teacher, I should like to see heaven.’ The teacher said, ‘Yes, this is the way you should meditate in order to see heaven.’ So the mureed went and did so; but the vision of heaven which the mureed had was not as described in the scriptures, a place where one enjoys nothing but comfort and luxury, milk and honey, marble halls and white robes, beautiful gems and jewels, garlands of flowers, and the waving of palms. The mureed could not see any of these, and asked, ‘Has the murshid perhaps shown me a wrong heaven, or have the prophets given a wrong message in the scriptures?’
So the mureed went back to the teacher saying, ‘Now I should like to see hell.’ The murshid said, ‘Yes, this is the way you should meditate in order to see hell.’ And then the mureed did this, and saw in a trance that there was certainly such a place, but there was no fire or snakes or serpents or thorns or tortures or imps or flames such as have been described to people throughout the ages. Not understanding whether the visions were right or wrong, the mureed went back to the teacher, and said, ‘I have seen in this way: I have not seen in heaven the things that are promised, nor have I seen in hell the things which are foretold as being there.’ ‘O,’ the teacher said, ‘all the things promised for the hereafter you will have to take there from here. They are not kept ready for you; you will have to bring them with you. If you take sorrows with you, you will find them there; if you take hatred, you will find it there. Your mind is like a gramophone record [ or cassette tape, computer program ], and if you use a harsh voice, the instrument produces a harsh note; if beautiful words and tones, it will sing beautiful words and tones. It will produce the same record that you have experienced in life. Indeed you have not to wait till after death in order to experience it; you are experiencing it even now.’
Everything is reproduced before us now, if we would only listen to it and perceive it. Every good or bad word or deed is reproduced before us, though it seems as in a dream.
If we watched life keenly, we should see how true this is. Joy, sorrow, love, all depend on our thought, on the activity of our mind. If we are depressed, if we are in despair, it is still the work of our mind; our mind has prepared that for us. If we are joyful and happy, and all things are pleasant, that also has been prepared for us by our mind.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: Stilling the Mind )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
So much attention is paid to the mind in the earthly life and consequently it absorbs all the vital energy. This in itself hastens the disintegration of the physical body, and also increases the potential life in the mental sphere, Malakut. Years upon years of habit produce idiosyncrasies between the atoms of the body of far more lasting nature than the body itself. So strong are the thoughts of some people that it takes ages to adjust them to the universal harmony.
The condition that takes place after the disintegration of the physical body is only different from this earthly condition in that there is no longer the gross body to impede activity and progress. After the body’s disintegration our thoughts and wishes shape themselves much more quickly; they are more pliable. This enables one to achieve results in far less time even though the life is very, very much longer; by this is heaven or hell shaped, not created, but shaped out of the sphere.
This makes it appear that we have will-power, even tremendous will-power, but it is not so. What is true is that the concentration of desire always controls thought vibrations. We cannot see this while on earth because of the denseness of earth; in the mental sphere we see it and apparently control it. But it is nothing but the operation of Law there. We see the Law directly in that sphere, whereas it is hidden beneath the gross matter in this sphere where it also works but operates much more slowly.