ANALOGY OF THE GARDENER

 Until you can see yourself clearly and constantly for what you are really like, you have to rely upon the assessment of a teacher: the ‘gardener’ of Rumi’s comparison:

‘A gardener going into an orchard looks at the trees. He knows that this one is a date, that one a fig, the other a pomegranate, a pear or an apple. To do this, he does not have to see the fruit, only the trees.’*