by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan:You wish to call a halt to the stress and disarray of the rat race in which you are inevitably embroiled. You feel over stressed by vying with the Jones and wish to protect yourself from the ego trips of would-be friends. You seek a peaceful break from continuous activity, solace from pent-up emotions, freedom from the prison you may have built for yourself. You sit in as quiet a place as you can find. You sit down to meditate, seeking tranquility and composure.

Normally our thoughts are monitored by the need to take action. No sooner we suspend activity, our mind has difficulty organizing itself. This is precisely what we learn in meditation.

Notwithstanding, your mind is idling, apparently randomly, even turbulently, agitated by undisclosed emotions that evade scrutiny.

Is it not surprising that Yoga devalidates that mode of thinking as misleading (maya)? These constructs of our commonplace mind cannot make sense of the wide context of what is implied behind what we try to explain. If we watch them carefully, we will realize that they are ambiguous, do not fit into a coherent pattern. Consequently our mind toggles between one way of looking at the problem then another, then perhaps still another. Hence the aimless erring of our thoughts when we try to make them orderly.

Let us distinguish two steps:

We carry impressions with us, maybe throughout our lives, unless by the insight gained in meditation we are able to find them and correct them if they are flawed.

The criterion delineating how desirable impressions are selected is based upon whether they resonate with ‘who you are.’

The criterion defining the metaphoric sentinel in you is your sense of ‘me or not me’ (as the immune system in our body rejects a transplant that does not conform to our DNA). It is a strong sense of your identity, your values, your motivations that will help you reject any thought, impression or emotion that is incompatible or obstructive. Otherwise we suffer from an indigestion of impressions which we cannot deal with.

There is a totally other dimension of who we are, of our identity, in addition to the personal, peri-personal (or cosmic), subliminal and transcendental dimensions of our identity. Actually, who we think we are is only half of our total being. Whether we know it or not (generally not) our complete person includes that elusive ‘other half.’ Our complete person is called a syzygy – two in one: animus, anima. Even the stars and the electrons exist as interdependent pairs.

The other half is what is commonly called our twin soul; he or she may be known to the half we normally think we are, or we may never have met in this world, or he or she may not be incarnated. The encounter on earth (ever so rare as in the cases of Romeo and Juliet or Leila and Majnun or Abelard and Eloise) is of course dramatic and ecstatic for one’s soul and heart. Even body functions aroused are sublimated. Consequently, the search for the twin soul on earth or in the higher spheres.

Unfortunately in these and most cases the relationship with the twin soul does not fit into conventional boundaries and is condemned by conservatives and conformists.

We may distinguish two prototypes of relationships: (i) where our characteristics differ and, ideally, complete each other; (ii) where we find ourselves in sync with a person similar to ourselves – this is affinity. Discovering oneself in ‘another oneself’ helps one to know oneself. That is why one is continually in search of oneself in a person who is better able to actualize who one is potentially than oneself. On the other hand, one is enriched by finding in a person different from oneself characteristics that one does not have, or has insufficiently. These are the forces that draw people together. There are, of course, degrees of affinity or completion, but this attractive force reaches its optimum point in the unique case of the twin soul.

In most cases people settle for a relationship (for convenience – or not so convenient) that satisfies perfunctory needs. But the more sensitive and idealistic a person becomes, the more crucial the need for affinity or completion through complementarity. It becomes desperate.

That which is gathered from outside is a concretization of an inherent (proto-critic) knowledge that lies virtually in the subliminal depths of our psyche. For example, how do you know that a round table is round or an orange is spherical? Because roundness is implicit regardless of tables and a sphere is an innate notion irrespective of oranges or planets. By arousing these inherent notions, one discovers a bountiful underpinning of what we call reality.

Hazrat Inayat Khan points out that the actualization of the divine archetypes in the exemplars adds something to the state prior to existence.

However he points out that grasping the sense of archetypal principles accedes to a higher sense of meaningfulness.

An example is found in that our DNA genes evolve further to adapt to new infections. A storm or a psychological confrontation may clear a blocked situation. While at first disturbing, these impressions prove enriching if one practices mastery.

The T-cells of our body destroy the anti-genes by absorbing them, then disintegrating them. How can undesirable thoughts be destroyed? Must this always be done by the person who created them?

Hazrat Inayat Khan draws our attention to the fact that we are endowed with the divine power. It is buried in our free will and can be aroused by discovering our divine inheritance.

Hazrat Inayat Khan is saying that divine will is delegated by discovering in our identity our divine inheritance. One may ask: how does this tally with his statement:

Hazrat Inayat Khan sees how the divine will and human will are connected.

What stands in our way is our identifying with our commonplace self-image that is incomplete and falls short of who we are.

Our ego obstructs us from delegating the divine will.

The divine manner becomes manifest through man. Where does this power come from? I would answer, “The Divine Spirit is hidden in the heart of man, and the more the heart is disclosed, the more the Divine Spirit finds the chance of rising to its fullness.”