Seeing ... part 5

Finally there is the question of seeing and not seeing. This is understood by the mystics as being able to see at will, and also being able to overlook. It is not easy for a person to overlook, it is something one must learn. There is much that man is able to see and that he must see; and there is much that he should not see, that it is better he does not see. If we cannot see, that is a disadvantage; but there is no disadvantage in not seeing something that we should not see. There are so many things that can be seen that we may just as well avoid seeing those we should not.

The one who is held by what he sees lacks mastery. Although he does not want to see it, he cannot help seeing it; but the one who has his sight under control, sees what he wants to see, and what he does not want to see he does not see. That is mastery. And as it is true of the eyes, that we see what is before us and we do not see what is behind us, so it is true of the mind: what is before it, it sees and what is behind it, it does not see. Naturally, therefore, if this objective world is before a person's eyes, the other world is hidden from his sight, because he sees what is before him and not what is behind him. And as it is true that what is behind us we can only see by turning our head, so also it is true that what the mind does not see can only be seen when the mind is turned the other way. What is learned in esotericism and in mysticism is the turning of the mind from the outer vision to the inner vision.

One might ask, what profit do we derive from this? If it is profitable to rest at night after a whole day's work, so it is profitable to turn one's mind from this world of variety in order to rest it and to give it another experience which belongs to it, which is its own and which it needs. It is this experience which is attained by the meditative process. A person who is able to think but not able to forget, a person who is able to speak but not able to keep silent, a person who is able to move but not able to keep still, a person who is able to cry but not able to laugh - that person does not know mastery. It is like having one hand, it is like standing on one foot. To have complete experience of life one must be able to act and to be still, one must be able to talk and to keep silent.

There are many precious things in nature and art, things that are beyond value, yet there is nothing in this world that is more precious than sight; and the most precious of all is insight, to be able to see, to be able to understand, to be able to learn, to be able to know. That is the greatest gift that God can give, and all other things in life are small compared with it. If there is anything that one can do to enrich one's knowledge, to raise one's soul to higher spheres, to allow one's consciousness to expand to perfection, it is to do everything one possibly can to open one's sight, which is the sign of God in man. It is the opening of the sight which is called the soul's unfoldment.