MYSTIC PERSON -- BY HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN

Below is a beautiful description of a Mystic Person given by Piro-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan  (1882-1927), the revered Indian Master who brought Sufism to the Western world.

 

FROM “THE INNER LIFE AND THE PURPOSE OF LIFE” BY HAZARAT INAYAT KHAN

 

 MYSTIC PERSON

 Mysticism is not a thing which is learned…………..it is a temperament.

A mystic may have his face turned toward the north while he is looking toward the south; A mystic may have his head bent low and yet he may be looking up; his eyes may be open outwardly while he may be looking inwardly; his eyes may be closed and yet he may be looking outwardly.

The average man cannot understand the mystic, and therefore people are always at a loss when dealing with him. His “yes” is not the same yes that everybody says; his “no” has not the same meaning as that which everybody understands. In almost every phrase he says there is some symbolical meaning. His every outward action has an inner significance. A man who does not understand his symbolical meaning may be bewildered by hearing a phrase which is nothing but confusion to him. A mystic may take one step outwardly, inwardly he has taken a thousand; he may be in one city and may be working in another place at the same time. A mystic is a phenomenon in himself and a confusion to those around him. He himself cannot tell them what he is doing, nor will they understand the real secret of the mystic for it is someone who is living the inner life and at the same time covering that inner life by outer action; his word or movement is nothing but the cover of some inner action.  Therefore those who understand the mystic never dispute with him. When he says “go,” they go; when he says “come,” they come; when he comes to them they do not say, “do not come,” they understand that it is the time when he must come; and when he goes from them, they do not ask him to stay for they know it is the time when he must go.

Neither the laughter of a mystic, nor his tears are to be taken as any outward expression which means something. His tears may perhaps be a cover for very great joy, his smile, his laughter, may be a cover for a very deep sentiment. His open eyes, his closed eyes, the turning of his face, his glance, his silence, his conversation, nothing means the same that one is accustomed to understand. Yet it does not mean that the mystic does this purposely, he is so made; no one could purposely do it even if he wished, no one has the power to do it. The truth is that the soul of the mystic is a dancing soul. It has realized that inner law, it has fathomed that mystery for which souls long, and in the joy of that mystery the whole life of the mystic becomes a mystery. You may see the mystic twenty times a day and twenty times he will have a different expression. Every time his mood is different, and yet his outward mood may not at all be his inner mood. The mystic is an example of God’s mystery in the form of man.