The Shining Mirror Of Consciousness

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

In his Mathnavi, Jalal-al-Din Rumi offers this allegorical reflection on two distinct paths to spiritual fulfilment. 

‘There arose a contention between the Greeks and the Chinese in the art of painting and picturing. The Chinese said: “‘We are the better artists”. The Greeks said: “The superiority in power and excellence belongs to us”.  

“I will put you to the test….,” said the Sultan, “and see which of you are approved in your claim”.

The Chinese and the Greeks began to debate: The Greeks retired from the debate. 

Thereupon at the suggestion of the Chinese the Sultan assigned each group a room, the two rooms facing each other with an intervening curtain. The Sultan provided lavishly out of his royal treasury the hundred colours the Chinese had asked for. 

The Greeks said: “No tints and colours are proper for our work. Nothing is needed except removing the rust”.  

Closing the intervening door each group set about its respective work. The Chinese beat drums of joy when the task was finished. 

Verily, the Chinese painting robbed the Sultan of his wits. 

He then moved towards the Greek room. The curtain was removed. All that the Sultan had seen on the Chinese walls was reflected in the much polished and burnished surface, freed from rust and stain, of the Greek wall and glowed more beautifully than what he had seen in the Chinese room. It was a ravishing sight. It snatched the eyes from their sockets’. 

Rumi goes on to tell us that the Greeks in his story are the Sufis, who:

‘Have burnished their breasts and made them pure from greed, cupidity, avarice and hatred. They that have burnished their breasts, have escaped from mere scent and colour. They behold beauty at every moment without tarrying. 

There is a way from many-colouredness to colourlessness. Before the mirror of the heart, understanding becomes silent’.  

There is so much meaning here for seekers on the Yogic path.

Please allow me to share some of my own insights.  

The Chinese in the story represent those who follow an exoteric, outward ritualistic path, beautiful and true in its own way. 

The Greeks represent the esoteric path, the inward journey of self-discovery.

The Greeks are the Sufis, who represent the inner dimension of Islam, the seekers of the Truth. 

It is evident which path Rumi favours, as he was himself a realised Shaykh and master of Sufism. 

The Sultan represents God or the Supreme. 

In the story, the Greeks ‘retired from the debate’, an allusion to retreat or to the contemplative path. 

A debate requires two contending parties, but the Greeks chose the ‘non-dual’ path of ‘not-two’.   

For their work, the Chinese request the 100 colours from the ‘Royal Treasury’. 

The ‘Royal Treasury’ represents the bounty of Mother Prakriti, which endlessly draw the senses outwards, and distracts us from the inner quest. 

In other words, the bewitching beauty of Maya (symbolised by the curtain or veil that separates the two rooms).    

The Greeks turn away from the ‘tints and colours’ to set about ‘removing the rust from their wall’. 

In the spirit of the Taoist saying, ‘in the path of Knowledge one gains something every day, and in the path of Wisdom one removes something every day’.     

The Sufis ‘burnish their breasts’ and polish ‘the mirror of the heart’. 

In yogic terms, this is akin to the cleansing of the ‘Buddhi mirror’. 

The Buddhi is the most subtle aspect of the mind and the conduit of consciousness. 

In its ‘lower’ aspect it is the intellect with all its analytical functions; but there is another part of it, which ‘awakens’ with spiritual practice, like a lotus bud opening to the sun.    

Mystics of all tradition hold that the spiritual heart in the centre of the breast is the supreme organ of jnana or higher wisdom, indeed the true source of our consciousness itself.   

‘That by shining, all this shines’

Katha Upanishad      

Just as the moon has no intrinsic light but reflects the light of the sun, so the Buddhi reflects into the mind (manas) the light of consciousness streaming from the Atman or Purusha (the ‘Shining Principle’). 

And as the Buddhi becomes more ‘sattvic’ with spiritual practice, it reflects, and is bathed in, the radiant light of spiritual wisdom. 

And hence the archetypal symbol for the Buddhi is that of a mirror.  

However, our Buddhi mirror is prone to be covered by dust and grime, the effect, among other things, of ignorance, negative traits, the distortions of tamas and rajas, and the eclipse of the ego.  

Thus, a Buddhist master has said:

‘Just as it is in the nature of a mirror to shine, so all beings at their origin possess spiritual illumination. When, however, passions obscure the mirror, it becomes covered over, as if with dust. When false thoughts, under the direction of the master, are overcome and destroyed, they cease to proclaim themselves. Then is the Intellect illumined, in accordance with its nature, and noting remains unknown. It is like the polishing of a mirror’.

Tsung-mi         

All the paths of Yoga are means of polishing the Buddhi mirror. 

The Sufi Path is one of love and gnosis, in yogic terms the paths of Bhakti and Jnana Yoga.   

Bhakti Yoga puts the flame of love to the damp wood of the heart and that way burns off impurities.  

Japa is a powerful means, particularly the Gayatri Mantra, the supreme invocation for illumination of the Buddhi:

‘Dhiyo Yonah Pracodayat’

Jnana Yoga is a path of self-emptying. Like the Greeks, one sets about peeling off the layers of ‘all that we are not’ in the ‘exfoliating’ process of ‘not this’, ‘not that’. 

And, in the eightfold path of Patanjali Yoga, the Buddhi becomes so sattvic that the ‘face in the mirror’ and its reflection, the ‘seer and the seen’, become one. 

In the words of Rumi, the Sultan’s eyes are ‘snatched from their sockets’ and ‘understanding becomes silent’.    

There is so much more one could say about this mysterious story of the painting competition between the Greeks and the Chinese; but I will leave it to you, dear friend; after all, rumination (manana) is another means of purifying the Buddhi. 

It is your turn now, so what is it you see reflected in the mirror? 

Hari Om Tat Sat.

Michael  McCann