The Polished Mirror -Reflecting the Brilliant Sun of Your Divine Nature
Your heart can be likened to a mirror. When it is clouded up with the dust of self-centered desires, it is like turning your mirror towards a landfill…the county dump. You will reflect worthless trash. Your thoughts will be filled with meaningless distractions and you will attract unworthy elements to yourself because like attracts like. On the other hand, the more you turn your mirror towards the light, towards heavenly attributes and qualities, the more you will begin to attract happiness, joy and find real and lasting fulfillment in your life.
“One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Baha’u’llah.” – Shoghi Effendi, Baha’i Administration, p 66)
These eternal principles are the same as those put forth by all the great saints and masters. They are the same principles that Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount. These Divinely charged principles, faithfully practiced, change the very fabric of existence because of their power.
We can greatly accelerate our mirror polishing by focusing on one, key Divine principle. The Principle of loving our enemies as friends. Really. Sounds nice in theory, but how does loving one’s enemy polish the mirror any faster than say, regular prayer, giving to the poor or being a person of high morals?
The principle of “turning the other cheek” when your first response would be to “hit back”, is what all the other principles lead you towards. It is an exquisite art to forgive your enemy.
““…ye must show forth tenderness and love to every human being, even to your enemies, and welcome them all with unalloyed friendship, good cheer, and loving-kindness. When ye meet with cruelty and persecution at another’s hands, keep faith with him; when malevolence is directed your way, respond with a friendly heart. To the spears and arrows rained upon you, expose your breasts for a target mirror-bright; and in return for curses, taunts and wounding words, show forth abounding love.” (Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 20)
The act of returning kindness for cruelty is at the heart of all successful revolutions. You can revolutionize your life, polish the mirror of your heart and step into the ministry that only you can perform and must perform by practicing this radical and exquisite art: the art of forgiveness.
“Thus will all peoples witness the power of the Most Great Name, and every nation acknowledge the might of the Ancient Beauty, and see how He hath toppled down the walls of discord, and how surely He hath guided all the peoples of the earth to oneness; how He hath lit man’s world, and made this earth of dust to send forth streams of light.” (Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 20)
When an unexpected miracle of forgiveness occurs, a spot of dust is erased from your mirror. A light is uncovered. Do this enough and soon you’re nice and shiny. Then will your Polished Mirror reflect the Sun of the Divine…and not a garbage dump.
~ D.Oraea Varis
Note: The ideas expressed herein are based solely upon the author’s experiences and do not seek to represent any official Baha’i viewpoint