It is not the solid wood that can become a flute, it is the empty reed.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
There is a saying of Jalaluddin Rumi, ‘Fire, water, air, and earth are God’s servants, … they are ready to obey God’s every command.’ If the elements are the obedient servants of God, cannot humankind be a greater and better instrument?
In point of fact God is the Messenger. … The tide of the sea surges, and when the sea has that motion it is called tide, but in reality the tide is the sea itself.
It is not solid wood that can become a flute, but the empty reed. It is the perfection of that passiveness in the heart of the Messenger which gives scope for the Message from above; for the Messenger is the reed, the instrument. The difference between the Messenger’s life and the life of the average person is that the latter is full of self. It is the blessed soul whose heart is empty of self, who is filled with the light of God.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
From the standpoint of body, body is at its best when it is kept clean from poisons within and contamination without. But the same holds true for mind. We keep on filling the mind with all kinds of thoughts. This does not enlarge mind, rather it puts tremendous weight upon mind. Through meditation mystics clear the mind from all extraneous thoughts until it becomes like a polished mirror. This polished mirror may reflect the light from above or the shadow from below. This is the real use of mind unaffected by self.
Pure mind is the result of the unity of a person within themself when the light of the intelligence pouring from and through the heart lightens every part of the being. In Christian terminology, this light is Logos, which lightens everyone who has ever come into the world. This makes all genius, all music, and all human intelligence possible.