The Purification

Readers who come to the contemplative traditions for their mysticism are often surprised by what they find first. They look for techniques of meditation and accounts of union, and they find instead rules of conduct: do not harm, do not lie, do not steal, do not grasp. The manuals of the path, in nearly every tradition, begin not with the summit but with the moral life, and they insist that the summit cannot be reached by skipping it. This essay asks why.

Blessed are the pure in heart§

The sentence that sums up the agreement comes from the Sermon on the Mount: blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.¹1 Matthew 5:8. The Beatitude does not say that the pure in heart deserve to see God, as a reward is deserved. It says that they shall see him, as an eye that is clear sees what is in front of it. Purity is a condition of the seeing, not a payment for it.

The Upaniṣads say the same thing in the language of knowledge. The Kaṭha Upaniṣad, having described the self hidden in the heart, warns that no one who has not first turned from wickedness, and is not tranquil, subdued and at rest in mind, can reach the self even by knowledge (Müller 1884, Kaṭha I.2.24). The first essay in this series described the principle behind such warnings: like knows like, and the knower must become like what it would know. If the real is good, a knower bent on harm, deceit and grasping is unlike it in exactly the respect that matters.

Plato’s Socrates draws the conclusion in the Phaedo. The virtues, he says, are not a trade of one pleasure or fear for another, like coins exchanged; true virtue is a purification, and wisdom itself is the means of it.²2 Plato, Phaedo, paragraph 126, translated by Benjamin Jowett: “Yet the exchange of one fear or pleasure or pain for another fear or pleasure or pain, and of the greater for the less, as if they were coins, is not the exchange of virtue. O my blessed Simmias, is there not one true coin for which all things ought to be exchanged?--and that is wisdom; and only in exchange …” Read in context Socrates on virtue as purification, in Benjamin Jowett’s translation. The philosopher’s ethics is not separate from his knowledge. It is the cleaning of the instrument with which he knows.

The first step on every map§

The traditions that left maps of the path all put purification at the start. Patañjali’s eight limbs of yoga begin with the restraints (yama), non-harming, truthfulness, not stealing, chastity and non-possessiveness, which he calls a great vow, binding on everyone in every circumstance; then the observances; and only after these the postures, breath and the inner disciplines (Patañjali 1914, II.29–31).

Buddhism describes the path as three trainings: in conduct, in concentration and in wisdom, in that order. A single verse of the Dhammapada, often called the teaching of all the Buddhas, compresses it: to avoid all evil, to cultivate the good, and to purify one’s mind (The Buddha 1881, v. 183). The Christian contemplatives inherited from Pseudo-Dionysius a scheme of three ways, purgative, illuminative and unitive, which Bonaventure and his successors made the standard map of the inner life.³3 Bonaventure set out the scheme in The Triple Way (De triplici via); it draws on the purification, illumination and perfection of Pseudo-Dionysius’s Celestial Hierarchy. The purgative way comes first.

The Sufis speak of the purification of the soul (tazkiyat al-nafs), and find its stages in the Qurʾān: the soul that commands to evil (Palmer 1880, 12:53), the soul that reproaches itself (Palmer 1880, 75:2), and the soul at peace, invited to return to its Lord well pleased (Palmer 1880, 89:27–28). Another verse puts the whole matter in five words: he prospers who purifies it (Palmer 1880, 91:9).

Why ethics comes first§

The traditions give several reasons, and together they make the order of the path look less like a rule and more like a necessity.

First, desire distorts perception. A mind that wants something sees the world as a field of means and obstacles to it; it cannot see anything as it is. The Imitation of Christ puts it simply: if you were good and pure within, you would see all things without hurt and understand them rightly; as each one is inwardly, so he judges outwardly.⁴4 Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, paragraph 2.4.2, translated by William Benham: “If thou wert good and pure within, then wouldst thou look upon all things without hurt and understand them aright. A pure heart seeth the very depths of heaven and hell. Such as each one is inwardly, so judgeth he outwardly. If there is any joy in the world surely the man of pure heart possesseth it, and if there …” Read in context From the chapter “Of a pure mind and simple intention”, in William Benham’s translation. Purification is first of all a cleaning of the lens.

Second, a troubled conscience makes stillness impossible. The early Buddhist texts describe a chain: one who keeps the precepts has no remorse; one without remorse is glad; gladness brings joy, joy brings calm, and a calm mind is easily concentrated. The person who has harmed others and lies awake rehearsing it cannot sit still long enough to know anything. Ethics is the ground that makes attention possible, which is why the next essay in this series turns to attention.

Third, the practices are powerful, and power without goodness is dangerous. Every tradition knows of practitioners who gained concentration, insight or a reputation for holiness and used them to dominate others. Patañjali himself warns that the extraordinary powers that may come with practice are obstacles to the goal (Patañjali 1914, III.37). The moral disciplines are not decoration on the path. They are its guard rails.

Fourth, and most simply, the goal itself is good. Whether the traditions call it God, Brahman, the One or the Way, they do not describe it as a neutral fact but as goodness, beauty and love. A person cannot become one with the good by becoming worse. Whatever else the summit is, it is not reached by a road that runs away from it.

Purification in ordinary life§

The monastic manuals can make purification sound like the business of monks. The traditions themselves extend it to everyone, and much of it happens in ordinary life. The Buddha’s eightfold path includes right livelihood: earning one’s living without harming others. The Jains, who give monks five great vows of non-harming, truthfulness, not stealing, chastity and non-possession (Mahāvīra 1884, Ācārāṅga Sūtra II.15), give lay people lesser vows of the same shape, so that a merchant or a farmer walks a gentler form of the same road.

Islam builds purification into the rhythm of daily and yearly life. The ritual washing before each prayer is a bodily image of it. The obligatory alms are called zakāt, a word that carries the sense of purification: wealth is made clean by being shared. Judaism’s commandments sanctify eating, working, resting and speaking, so that the whole of life becomes a field in which the self is disciplined and offered. The Bhagavad Gītā makes the same move for the duties of one’s station: work done without attachment to its fruits purifies the one who does it, and need not be abandoned for the forest.

This matters for readers who are not about to enter a monastery. On every account, the first purification is available where one already lives: in how one earns, spends, speaks and treats the people nearest. It is less dramatic than the ascetic feats of legend, and harder to keep up.

Simplicity§

The Daoists, who distrusted moral rules as much as anyone, arrive at a similar place by another road. The Daodejing advises the ruler to discard cleverness and contrivance and to hold fast to what is simple: plain views and true courses, it says, avoid selfish ends and many desires.⁵5 Laozi, The Tâo Teh King, chapter 19.2, translated by James Legge: “Those three methods (of government) / Thought olden ways in elegance did fail / And made these names their want of worth to veil; / But simple views, and courses plain and true / Would selfish ends and many lusts eschew.” Read in context James Legge’s verse rendering of chapter 19. Purification, on this view, is less a matter of adding virtues than of removing what complicates: fewer wants, fewer schemes, fewer masks.

The Imitation of Christ, from the other side of the world, uses almost the same word. By two wings, it says, a person is lifted above earthly things: simplicity and purity. Simplicity belongs to the intention, purity to the affection; simplicity reaches toward God, purity grasps and tastes him.⁶6 Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, paragraph 2.4.1, translated by William Benham: “By two wings is man lifted above earthly things, even by simplicity and purity. Simplicity ought to be in the intention, purity in the affection. Simplicity reacheth towards God, purity apprehendeth Him and tasteth Him. No good action will be distasteful to thee if thou be free within from inordinate affection. If thou reachest after and seekest, nothing but the …” Read in context William Benham’s translation. A simple intention is one that wants one thing. Kierkegaard later made the phrase the title of a book: purity of heart is to will one thing.⁷7 Søren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing (1847), the English title of the first part of his Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits.

What purification is not§

It is not contempt for the body. Some ascetic traditions did treat the body as an enemy, and the traditions themselves corrected them: the Buddha’s first discourse rejects self-mortification as firmly as indulgence. Tagore’s prayer gives the opposite motive: he will keep his body pure because the living touch of the divine is upon all his limbs, and keep untruths from his thoughts because the divine is the truth that lit his reason.⁸8 Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, poem 4, translated by Rabindranath Tagore: “Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing that thy living touch is upon all my limbs. I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind. I shall ever try to drive all evils away …” Read in context Tagore’s translation of his own Gitanjali. Purity, here, is reverence, not disgust.

It is not outward show. Kabīr mocks the yogi who dyes his garments instead of dyeing his mind in the colours of love, who grows matted locks and reads the Gītā and becomes a mighty talker.⁹9 Kabīr, Songs of Kabir, poem LXVI, translated by Rabindranath Tagore: “The Yogi dyes his garments, instead of dyeing his mind in the colours of love: / He sits within the temple of the Lord, leaving Brahma to worship a stone. / He pierces holes in his ears, he has a great beard and matted locks, he looks like a goat: / He goes forth into the wilderness, killing all his …” Read in context Rabindranath Tagore’s translation. Every tradition has its versions of this warning, because every tradition has seen purification turned into a costume.

It is not judging others. The Imitation, so severe with its reader, is gentle about everyone else: look to yourself, it says, and do not judge the deeds of others; in judging others a man labours in vain and often errs.¹⁰10 Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, paragraph 1.14.1, translated by William Benham: “Look well unto thyself, and beware that thou judge not the doings of others. In judging others a man laboureth in vain; he often erreth, and easily falleth into sin; but in judging and examining himself he always laboureth to good purpose. According as a matter toucheth our fancy, so oftentimes do we judge of it; for easily do we …” Read in context From the chapter “On avoiding rash judgment”. Purification turned outward becomes moralism, which is one more form of the self-assertion it was meant to undo.

And it is not a price paid for union, at least in the theistic traditions. Their teachers insist that the deepest purifications are not the work of the seeker but are undergone, often painfully, at the hands of God. The sixth essay in this series returns to that darker stage. Here it is enough to say that the seeker’s own efforts at purification are a beginning, not a purchase.

Never finished§

One more feature of the traditions’ accounts deserves notice, because it is easily mistaken for exaggeration. The further the saints advance, the more sharply they see their own faults. People who seem to others to be very good describe themselves as great sinners, and they mean it. This is not false modesty. It is a consequence of the purification itself: as the lens clears, smaller specks become visible. A person who thinks themselves already pure has, by this measure, barely begun.