THE MYSTICAL MEANING OF THE CROSS.

The cross which is usually taken as the symbol of the cross on which Christ was crucified, has many different mystical meanings.

1. The Shape.
It shows a vertical and horizontal line. Everything that exists extends vertically and horizontally. In this sense the cross is the symbol of manifestation.

2. The Cross as the representation of Truth and Falsehood.
Truth lives, remains and stands upright. False is that which falls and is dead. While the body is alive, it stands upright, as it dies, it falls down. But what has died is the false self, the mortal self. This is Fana or destruction. The cross shows that in fana, in the ending of the mortal, of that which is changing, dying, every moment, what remains standing and eternal is the immortal life. What is not Fani, the Sufi calls Baqi. The death of the mortal is the birth of the immortal life. Mutu Qabla Anta Mutu. [Hadith].

3. Definition of Space.
The materialist is puzzled by the talk of two worlds. The world outside he knows well but when you speak of the other world or the next world, he does not understand. Space is that which can accommodate, which can contain. Everywhere without us is space. But within us there is also space. The space within , however, extends in a different direction. The space within is much vaster than the space without. It contains all the 18000 universes within it. In this meaning the cross signifies the two worlds. The next world does not lie beyond the stars but within man. This entire world is contained in the dimension within. Murshid says that when he looks at the world, he feels himself to be a drop in the ocean, but when he closes his eyes and looks within, the whole world is but a drop in the ocean of his being.

Although this symbol has come to be identified with Jesus but it has been known to mystics as an important symbol of Truth since much longer.

The mystery of the cross contains the truth of the journey towards a spiritual ideal. Primarily speaking, man’s ego or self is his enemy and stands as a hindrance to his progress. Feelings such as pride, conceit, jealousy, envy and contempt are all feelings which hurt others and make one’s own life miserable. The more egoistic a person is the more miserable a life he has in the world.

This brings us to the concept of the nafs, as the ego is called in Sufism. The nafs seems to be a natural development in man’s life. The more worldly wise we become the more the ego becomes rooted in us. Man does not bring his faults with him. He is born innocent, a friendly spirit to everyone, with purity of heart and beauty of nature. The infant is the pure soul that attracts everyone. But while growing up in the world, the same individual creates within himself all that is hurtful and harmful to himself and others. This creation is the nafs or the ego. Yet at the same time buried within the depths of his being is that light of the soul which is his original inheritance, the divine goodness that he has inherited from God. The spiritual path is all about awakening to our original heritage.

A longing of rest, joy and peace is natural to man, because that is the Source of his origin.
Man comes to be the possessor of two natures: one is in the depth of his heart and the other is which has developed from his coming on earth. Therefore Allah says in the Quran that every child is born a Muslim [in a state of surrender to That Which Alone Is], its primordial nature.

In life a struggle arises between these two natures. The nature in the depth of the heart yearns for something, longs for it and must attain it. It normally understands That which it yearns for as goodness and peace in life. When it cannot find it, an inner conflict is born. Man actually creates his own disharmony in his soul and then treats others in the same way. He is not satisfied with his own life, nor with others against whom he has complaints, but mostly the cause lies within man himself. According to Murshid there is only One Law and that is the Law of reciprocity. Whatever man gives he receives back, but he never sees that. Man ordinarily thinks that whatever his soul yearns for, love, goodness, harmony, friendship, peace, others must give him. But when it comes to giving, he does not give because he lives in the life of the ego. The ego is the false self that man himself has created. This is the same as the conception of satan. Satan runs through man alongside the blood in his bloodstreams. [Hadith]

People divide the world between two spirits, a small part of humanity for God, and a greater part for Satan, thus making the control of the satan-spirit larger. If we truly understood the meaning of the idea of satan we would know that it is nothing but the spirit of error which has gathered and collected in man after coming on earth.

When an awakening comes in man’s life and he begins to see life deeply then he begins to see the satan-spirit as apart from his real original being. He recognizes this as the power of opposition against his natural freedom and inclination. Sometimes he sees himself conquering this force and sometimes he sees himself being conquered by it. The experience of man at this stage is that when he finds himself strong in this battle, he is thankful and satisfied, and when he finds himself weak, he repents and is ashamed of himself.

This marks the start of another phase in man’s life. There is constant struggle between his true spirit and the ego. The nafs is ever-present and substantially so because it was created in the heart of man and has therefore become a very real part of his being. This conflict itself maybe pictured as the form of the cross.

This cross man carries on his back during the period of his progress. The ugly passions, the love of comforts, the satisfaction in anger and bitterness is all that has to be fought. When these are conquered then there is a still subtler enemy he must face. This enemy is in the mentality, the sensitivity to what others say and their opinions about oneself. Here again the nafs appears in another guise. The crucifixion at this point is that of the thought of self. This battle is fought until there exists no self before the vision of God. This is the real crucifixion. But with this crucifixion comes still another, which is the perfection of the soul. This is not self-denial , but the denial of the false-self. We know through our own experience in human interaction that which attracts us to others is the fineness and selflessness of spirit and that which repels us is the grossness of the nafs.

When Christ said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit", he did not mean poor in divine spirit but the poor in the self-created spirit. This is what the Prophet Muhammad s.w meant when he said, "Faqro fakhri" "Poverty is my Pride".

The only way to recognize true spiritual development is to see to what extent is there selflessness in one.

However much a person pretends to be spiritual and godly, the true nature of the ego lies in its tendency to leap out, and just as the fake diamond fails when put to the test, the ego too shows up in an unperfected soul. A personality must show that it has touched the Larger Self.

There is a still higher mystery of the cross which can be seen in the life of the prophets and the holy beings. No one can enter the abode of God, who has not been crucified as defined above. It is only the one who has sacrificed the limited "I’ who can enter Divine Companionship. This spirit is found in the ordinary lover to a small extent. True love is that which when finds root in the heart of man empties him completely of the thought of self. Loving God to the point of forgetting the self is only the destiny of the blessed ones.
The life of such individuals carries the mark of the cross everywhere. They live in a world full of falsehood, treachery and deceit, yet whatever they do and think only proves that their focus is not the world outside but the world within. You live amongst people but at the same time look at the world from a different place than ordinary people. Every teacher who delivers a portion of the message of God has to carry the cross because others do not understand their language. They are forced to speak in a language which is not their own and say something different from what they are truly realizing. Just as the reed flute produces a melody only after holes are made in it and it has been emptied, similarly, the broken heart accompanies the spirit of the teacher, by bearing and carrying his cross, his self becomes hollow like the reed flute.

As a spiritual exercise, try and see where you are in relation to the cross of your life? Which dimension of the cross effect have you experienced, if at all? Does the above discourse help you understand the cross of your destiny better? If so, how would this discourse help you alter the way of dealing with the cross effect?

Phrase for contemplation:
This is not my body-------It is the Temple of God.