For the John Templeton Foundation, I wrote about the intersection of Sufism and psychological insight through the metaphor of the mirror.
The 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic Jalal al-din Rumi returned time and again to the metaphor of the mirror. “A Friend is a mirror of clear water,” he wrote. “I see my gains in you, and my losses.” Elsewhere he said, “If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”
Sufism is a tradition of Islamic teachings and practices focused on cultivating the experience of the presence of divine love and wisdom. Because Sufi teachings encourage people to seek God through direct individual experience as well as orthodox Islamic practice, Sufi practices can take on an experimental nature focused on experiencing divine love while also receiving wisdom and — to use the modern term — psychological insight.