Earthly knowledge is as clouds dimming the sight, and it is the breaking of these clouds — in other words, purity of heart — that gives the capacity for the knowledge of God to rise.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
We all are pupils, and what we can do in life is to qualify ourselves to become true pupils. It is the receptivity of our heart and the passivity of our mind, it is the eagerness, the thirst and hunger after truth, it is the direction of our whole life to that Ideal from whom all light and truth come, that alone can bring us truth and the knowledge of God. All knowledge of the earth is as clouds covering the sun. It is the breaking of these clouds and clearness of the sky, or in other words the purity of heart, which give the capacity for the knowledge of God.
How many things there are in life that we should be grateful for, but in our troubles and in the miseries around us, the things for which we should be grateful are forgotten; and instead of thankfulness we develop an ungrateful nature. The more complaining we are, the less gratitude we show in our nature, and the more our gratitude develops, the more we will begin to understand. Sa’adi says, ‘the sun, the moon, the planets, the air, the water and the earth are all serving you, aiding life’s purpose and preparing for your food. Yet you regard all this unthankfully, absorbed in your own little troubles which are as nothing before the great forces of nature, always working, night and day’. Our little troubles overwhelm and disorder our life, and by our absorption we are robbed of the knowledge of God’s perfection and greatness.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
“Sight” is more powerful than the eyesight and subtler than the mind. This Sight is insight [ aka Kashf — Muiz ], which is to say, the sight of the soul independent of its vehicles. In the sphere of matter, it is necessary to become accustomed to a light more dim, the very dimness of which beclouds the mind and keeps it in a sort of haze.
It is oneness of purpose, oneness of character, and the freeing of mind from its subservience to matter that takes it from this hazy condition. Purity of body means body as body, purity of mind means mind as mind, purity of heart means heart as heart. The body has its music and its laws, the mind has its music and its laws, and while heart is greater than any law, it still has its music. Therefore spiritual development is an attunement; yet strange and marvelous to tell, this attunement brings with it all knowledge of all planes.