~ Thought ~

Thought is a wave of the mind. The difference between thought and imagination is that the former is an activity of the mind directed with intention, an imagination is an activity, which is not directed intentionally but rises mechanically, like the waves of the sea. Therefore imagination has less power than thought. No doubt the imagination of a man with a powerful mind will also have an influence and an outcome. But thought, intentionally directed, has strength of will with it, and therefore its power is great.

A clear mind can have a clear thought, and therefore clearness of thought depends upon the cleanliness and the awakening of the centers. When the organs of the body, and especially the centers, are not in a clean and normal condition, then one's own thought is unclear to oneself, and the thought of others still less clear. Man in reality is by nature a mind reader, and the state of body and mind is abnormal when he cannot read thought. To one to whom his own thought is clear, the thought of another person will be clear also. It is he who does not know himself, who does not know others. It is the knowledge of self, which enables man to know others. Man's thought may be likened to a rubber ball. It can be directed to any point one wishes to hit, but there is also a likelihood that the thought so directed would rebound and hit oneself. A thought of love sent to another must rebound and bring love to oneself, and likewise the thought of hate.

Thought depends upon mind, as the plants depend upon the soil in which they are sown. Fruits and flowers grown in one kind of soil are sweet and fragrant, in another kind of soil they may lack that sweetness and fragrance. Therefore the wise know the mentality of a person by his thought, they know from which soil that thought comes. As water is found in the depth of the earth so love is hidden beneath every heart, only the difference is that in one part of the earth the water is far down below the earth, in another part of the earth it can be found quite near. And it is that water that makes the earth flourish. And so it is the love element, which makes the ground which we call the mind a fertile ground. Every thought coming from a fertile and flourishing ground must bear some fruit. A loving person's life itself is a garden. But otherwise, if it is a barren soil, from there you expect nothing but volcanic eruptions, the volcano that destroys itself and its surroundings. Every element in the form of a thing or being, which is destructive, must of necessity destroy itself first.

In order to make thought fruitful mental culture is necessary. First the digging of the ground. The inner culture of the Sufis begins with the digging of this ground. What is meant by zikr is this digging process. But it is not only the exercise; it is living the life. Digging the ground is what may be called consideration. It is constant consideration, which cultivates the mental ground. Then one must water this ground, and this water is the love element, to give and to receive love. Give more and take little is the principle. And when in a ground so cultivated and so watered the thought-plants will spring, they must necessarily bring forth sweet fruits and fragrant flowers.