Distill Yourself
Even before I began distilling, I had already reflected on the inner aspect of the distillation process that produced my perfume ingredients.
As a perfumer using my essences to cure myself and my family, I had searched for their meanings and the reasons for their power.
Frequenting the Sufis was the key to this understanding.
“You can learn to love only by loving,” says Rumi, and you can learn to distill only by distilling.
The more I distill and teach others how to do it, the more I realize the fascination that distilling exerts on all people who come across it.
The transformation of raw matter into pure spirit appears to us like a sort of good magic. I have been pondering for some time the appeal that distillation holds for human beings.
I believe that distillation reveals a primordial spiritual process of humanity in the material world. The distillation of oneself.
Distilling yourself means eliminating all that makes you a person to become the pure spirit of your person.
Distillation is a process that is painful to the plant, and the distillation of the self is painful to our ego.
For the plant, it is the destruction of its material part by the fire of the steam—that part which is not its own perfume.
For the mystic, it is the destruction of the ego by the fire of love.
Steam dissolves the perfume of the plant, and love dissolves the pure spirit of the person.
After this, a condensation must occur to separate the spirit from the solvent.
Burning steam cools to become cool water again, and burning love cools to become a thirst-quenching love.
In both cases, distillation allows the pure spirit to take a material form without actually being material. “Be in this world without being from this world.”
The essential oil is a material liquid, but it evaporates entirely to become a smell, and the spirit of the mystic prevails so much on his material body that he can walk on the water and fly in the air.
It is no more possible to describe what it is to become the pure spirit of your person than it is to describe love. But when you experience even a little of it, you know it.
No distillation can occur without a distiller doing it. The distillation of yourself requires a person who puts you in the alembic and lights the fire to boil the water. This is the spiritual guide.
We are either searching for or fleeing from such a person, but in any case, if you are destined to be distilled, you will be caught by the distiller.
The greatest distillation is death, when the soul is torn from its material body to go back to its lord. Nobody can escape from it.
This is why the Sufis say: “Die before you die.”
Alchemy is not the science of turning lowly lead into gold through various processes of purification. It is the science of transforming crude humans into divine creatures through multiple processes of purification.
Distillation, decantation, and filtration are all alchemical processes that demonstrate parallel methods of spiritual purification.
The distiller is the Sheikh, the Guru, the Master…
A spiritual distiller is necessary for the spiritual distillation of the human being, just as the distiller is for the material distillation.
To understand how necessary these persons are, let us consider that distillation is an event that cannot take place in the universe without a distiller.
Ramadan mubarak Karim. Al Hamdulillah.
Ramadan Kareem Abdes Salaam
This post is one of the most amzing I have ever read. Mashallah, I am extremly impressed.
Would be possible to re-post this with all the reference needed on the website that I own?
Thank you so much for the spiritual message and for the high emotions created by the beautiful words.
All the best and peaceful Ramadan
My kinddest regards, Leila
Ramadan mubarak Karin. Al Hamdulillah.
Hayyaka_llah Sidi AbdesSalaam
Ramadan Karim!
Ramadan mubarak Karin. Al Hamdulillah.
The beauty of this post is overwhelming. It feels as though you reached into my heart and enticed my essence to go deeper, and bring that Beauty into the world.
Mashallah!
Perfect for Ramadan, Alhumdulillah.
Ramadan mubarak Karin. Al Hamdulillah.
The beauty of this post is overwhelming. It feels as though you reached into my heart and enticed my essence to go deeper, and bring that Beauty into the world.
Mashallah!
Perfect for Ramadan, Alhumdulillah.
The beauty of this post is overwhelming. It feels as though you reached into my heart and enticed my essence to go deeper, and bring that Beauty into the world.
Mashallah!
Perfect for Ramadan, Alhumdulillah.