The Bowl of Saki Commentary
Commentary for:
When you stand with your back to the sun, your shadow is before you; but when you turn and face the sun, your shadow falls behind you.
Commentary from Hazrat Murshid SAM (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti, Samuel L. Lewis):
The Bowl of Saki Commentary, copyright © 1981, 2012 Sufi Ruhaniat International. All rights reserved.
This statement describes the difference between the average person and the illuminated soul. It is primarily a difference of will, not of capability. Average people, who are under the sway of external influence, permit their will to be deceived by the mind. They look down from above, like someone leaning over the wharf and gazing into the depths of the ocean. All they see are reflections and shadows. So they become caught in this web, which is nothing but the shadow of the vibrations interpenetrating in the mind-mesh.
When one turns to the path of God one begins to look upward. Therefore spiritual education is called a turning and a tuning. Then the shadow-thoughts and the shadow-words and the shadow-interests fade into nascence, and the whole attention is focused upon God and Unity. This is the meaning of the Sufi Invocation, "Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty, the Only Being; United with All the Illuminated Souls, Who form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance."