There exists a legend in the world of Islam, and some believe that it really did occur -- some say once, and some say it happened more than once -- that the angels from heaven descended on earth and cut open the breast of the Prophet; they took away something that was to be removed from there, and then the breast was made as before. According to the Sufi point of view this is a symbolical legend. It explains what is necessary in the life of man, to allow the plant of divine love to grow in his heart. It is to remove that element which gives the bitter feeling.

Just as there is a poison in the sting of the scorpion, and as there is a poison in the teeth of the snake, so there is poison in the heart of man which is made to be the shrine of God. But God cannot arise in the shrine which is as dead by its own poison; it must be purified first and made real for God to arise. The soul who had to sympathize with the whole world was thus prepared, that the drop of that poison which always produces contempt, resentment and ill-feeling against another, was destroyed first. So many talk about the purification of the heart, and so few really know what it is.

Some say to be pure means to be free from all evil thought, but there is no evil thought. Call it evil or call it devil, if there is any such thought it is the thought of bitterness against another. No one with sense and understanding would like to keep a drop of poison in his body, and how ignorant it is on the part of man when he keeps and cherishes a bitter thought against another in his heart. If a drop of poison can cause the death of the body, it is equal to a thousand deaths when the heart retains the smallest thought of bitterness.

In this legend cutting open of the breast is the cutting open of the ego, which is as a shell over the heart. And taking away that element is that every kind of thought or feeling against anyone in the world was taken away, and the breast, which means the heart, was filled with love alone, which is the real life of God.