I remember one night sitting by the window as the rain fell endlessly. I had just come back from a therapy session, full of analysis and interpretations of myself, my childhood, my relationship with my father. But none of those wise words could bring that dry tree inside my chest back to life. Suddenly, without thinking, I turned on the radio. The sound of a ney (Persian flute) emerged from the cracks of an old melody. In that moment, tears flowed involuntarily. Not for any specific reason, not to solve a problem. Just a pure presence, a “pure now” that filled my entire being. That night I understood that some doors cannot be opened with logic alone; sometimes you have to sit quietly and let the incomprehensible come to you on its own.
Why is the mind afraid of silence?
We have grown up in a civilization that has taught us that everything must have an explanation. From Descartes to Kant, rationality has been considered the only valid path to truth (Nasr, 2016/1395 HS). But my personal experience and what I have read in mystical texts say otherwise. When Rumi says, “Die to your ego before you die physically,” he is speaking of the very thing that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2017/1396 HS) in positive psychology called “flow”: a state in which the individual lets go of mental control and becomes immersed in the moment. Both point to the same idea: letting go of control is the condition for understanding the deepest layers of existence.
The Incomprehensible; that which the physical eye cannot see
The Quran states, “Vision perceives Him not” (Al-An’am 103). Not that He is unseen, but that He cannot be seen with these physical eyes. In Western philosophy, Heidegger speaks of “the silence of discourse” as a way to approach pure being (Asadi, 2018/1397 HS). This means that when language and logic hit a wall, silence opens a new path. Once I asked a master of mysticism, “How can I know that there is something beyond this world?” He laughed and said, “Don’t try to know. Just be.” It took me years to understand the meaning of that sentence.
Intuition; a language that speaks before thought
Perhaps it has happened to you as well that suddenly, without any reasoning, you know the answer to a problem. Bargh (2017), in his theory of unconscious processing, shows that the human brain recognizes patterns before we consciously decide. Our mystics have long called this “heart-knowing” (Daylami, 2010/1389 HS). The difference is that heart-knowing does not seek proof, but experience. Like smelling a flower whose fragrance you can never fully describe to another person.
When “conscious ignorance” comes to help
Accepting that we do not know is difficult. But Ibn Arabi, in Fusus al-Hikam, says that this very “conscious ignorance” is a necessary condition for discovering meaning. In existential psychotherapy, Irvin Yalom (2013/1392 HS) emphasizes that confronting fundamental anxieties (death, loneliness, meaninglessness) requires us to stop searching for definitive answers. In my counselling sessions with clients, I have seen a liberating moment arrive when they say, “I don’t know why I feel this, but I accept it.” Right there, a door opens.
Spiritual transformation; the fruit of existential openness
What is the result of all this? Reaching that “existential openness” in which we no longer need to classify and control everything. This state is seen not only in Eastern mystical texts (Zen, Sufism) but also in positive psychology research. In my view, spiritual transformation means that when we stop trying to understand the incomprehensible, it reveals itself to us. Not in the form of words, but in the form of a silence that is full of presence.
References
1. Asadi, M. (2018/1397 HS). Heidegger and the Language of Silence. Tehran: Ghoghnus.
2. Pournamdarian, T. (2001/1380 HS). Travel in Fog: A Reflection on Mystical Poetry. Tehran: Ney.
3. Daylami, A. (2010/1389 HS). Heart-Knowing in Islamic Mysticism. Qom: Institute of Islamic Culture and Thought.
4. Nasr, S.H. (2016/1395 HS). Reason and Mysticism. Translated by A. Rahmati. Tehran: Sohravardi.
5. Yalom, I. (2013/1392 HS). Existential Psychotherapy. Translated by S. Habib. Tehran: Ney.
6. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2017/1396 HS). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Translated by S. Mohammadi. Tehran: Rushd.
7. Bargh, J. (2017). Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do. Simon & Schuster.
