The Lexicon
Transformation and the path
Purification
Purification is the first labor of the spiritual life, the cleansing of the heart and mind of all that obscures the divine light. Before the soul can be illumined it must be emptied of attachment, pride, and the clinging of the false self; the mirror must be polished before it can reflect. The contemplatives named this the purgative way, the threshold stage of effort and letting-go that prepares the ground for everything that follows.
Carried by 32 teachers · across 5 traditions · 8 quotes
John of the Cross calls the deepest phase of it the dark night, in which even spiritual consolations are stripped away so that the soul learns to rest in pure faith. The Sufis polish the heart through remembrance; the alchemists begin with calcination, the burning away of impurity. To be purified is to consent to this emptying, trusting that what is taken is only the dross, and that what remains is the gold of the true self.
In their words
Lofty thoughts, high ideals, and worthy ambitions stimulate and inspire the mind, and thence react upon the body imparting to it purity, sweetness, soundness, and vigor.Grenville Kleiser
By an undivided and absolute abandonment of yourself and everything, shedding all and freed from all, you will be uplifted to the ray of the divine shadow.Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
To reach satisfaction in all, desire its possession in nothing. To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge of nothing.John of the Cross
Don't turn your head. Keep looking at the bandaged place. That's where the light enters you.Rumi
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.Gospel of Matthew 5:8