He who has failed himself has failed all; he who has conquered himself has won all. -Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: There is no reason for anyone to feel discouraged by his weaknesses or deficiencies, or by his actions that have dissatisfied him, or by anything in life that has failed. He should forget the past that has failed him, and begin to construct and mold his future as he would wish it to be. Considering that as a branch is not separate from the bough, and the bough is not separate from the stem, so with all our limitations we are not separate from the will of the Unlimited One. from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VII/VII_5.htm I remember a Persian verse made by my murshid which relates to the self: 'When I feel that now I can make peace with my self, it finds time to prepare another attack.' That is our condition. We think that our little faults, since they are small, are of no consequence; or we do not even think of them at all. But every little fault is a flag for the little self, for its own dominion. In this way battling makes man the sovereign of the kingdom of God. Very few can realize the great power in battling with and conquering the self. But what does man generally do? He says, 'My poor self, it has to withstand the conflicts of this world; should I also battle with this self?' So he surrenders his kingdom to his little self, depriving himself of the divine power that is in the heart of man. There is in man a false self and a real self. The real self contains the eternal; the false self contains the mortal. The real self has wisdom; the false self ignorance. The real self can rise to perfection; the false self ends in limitation. The real self has all good, the false self is productive of all evil. One can see both in oneself: God and the other one. By conquering the other one, one realizes God. This other power has been called Satan; but is it a power? In reality it is not. It is and it is not. It is a shadow. We see shadow and yet it is nothing. We should realize that this false self has no existence of its own. As soon as the soul has risen above the false self, it begins to realize its nobility. from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VI/VI_13.htm

According to the ideas of the mystics the world in which we make our life is an Akasha, and Akasha means capacity

Man forms his future by his actions; his every good or bad action spreads its vibrations and becomes known throughout the universe. by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: According to the ideas of the mystics the world in which we make our life is an Akasha, and Akasha means capacity. It is pictured by them as a dome; and whatever is spoken in it has its echo. Therefore no one can do, say, or think anything for one moment which will become non-existent. It is recorded; and that record is creative. It is not only what one does, says, or thinks that is recorded in the memory or in the atmosphere, but that record also creates at every moment, so that every line and letter of it becomes the seed or the germ that produces a similar effect. from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VI/VI_33.htm The law of cause and effect is as definite in its results in the realm of speech and thought as in the physical world. ... Man forms his future by his actions. His every good or bad action spreads its vibrations and becomes known throughout the universe. The more spiritual a man is, the stronger and clearer are the vibrations of his actions, which spread over the world and weave his future. from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/V/V_1.htm Wherever a person goes there he takes his influence, thereby creating harmony or inharmony in the atmosphere. As a person who is drunken feels most delighted to see another person also drunken in the same way as he, and enjoys his company and offers him a drink, so the inharmonious person creates inharmony, and so the harmonious person spreads the vibrations of harmony, tuning the whole atmosphere to the pitch of his soul. ~~~ "Sangatha I, Tasawwuf", by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)

Wisdom is intelligence in its pure essence - Hazrat Inayat Khan

Wisdom is intelligence in its pure essence, which is not necessarily dependent upon the knowledge of names and forms. by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: Often people confuse the two terms intellect and wisdom; sometimes they use the word intellect for wisdom, sometimes wisdom for intellect. In point of fact these are two different qualities altogether. The knowledge which is learned by knowing names and forms in the outside world belongs to the intellect; but there is another source of knowledge, and that source of knowledge is within oneself. The words 'within oneself' might confuse some people. They might think 'within oneself' means inside one's body; but that is because man is ignorant of himself. Man has a very poor idea of himself, and this keeps him in ignorance of his real self. If man only knew how large, how wide, how deep, how high is his being, he would think, act, and feel differently; but with all his width, depth, and height, if man is not conscious of them he is as small as he thinks himself to be. The essence of milk is butter, the essence of the flower is honey, the essence of grapes is wine, and the essence of life is wisdom. Wisdom is not necessarily a knowledge of names and forms; wisdom is the sum total of that knowledge which one gains both from within and without. from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VII/VII_34.htm Intellectual knowledge has much to do with the brain, while wisdom comes from within the heart. In wisdom both head and heart work. One may call the brain the seat of the intellect, and the heart the throne of wisdom; but they are not actually located in the brain or in the heart. Wisdom may be called spiritual knowledge but the best definition of wisdom would be perfect knowledge, the knowledge of life within and without. How does one pursue the wisdom which is within? By first realizing that intuition exists within oneself. ... It is not meant by this that everyone should become a kind of super-being. It is not meant at all that people should be able to perform wonders or miracles; it is only intended that they should live a fuller life and become real human beings, in order to bring about better conditions in the world. What do we want? We want human beings. It is not necessary that everyone should become religious, or exceedingly pious, or too good to live. We want wise men in business, in politics, in education, in all walks of life; those who do not live only on the surface and those who do not believe only in matter, but who see life both within and without. It is such souls who will produce beauty; it is such souls who will harmonize the world, who will bring about the conditions we need today. from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VII/VII_34.htm

Love brought man from the world of unity to that of variety, and the same force can take him back again to the world of unity from the world of variety. , by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: Sufis take the course of love and devotion to accomplish their highest aim, because it is love which has brought man from the world of unity to the world of variety, and the same force can take him back again to the world of unity from that of variety. Love is the reduction of the universe to the single being, and the expansion of a single being, even to God. (Balzac) Love is that state of mind in which the consciousness of the lover is merged in that of the object of his love; it produces in the lover all the attributes of humanity, such as resignation, renunciation, humility, kindness, contentment, patience, virtue, calmness, gentleness, charity, faithfulness, bravery, by which the devotee becomes harmonized with the Absolute. As one of God's beloved, a path is opened for his heavenly journey: at the end he arrives at oneness with God, and his whole individuality is dissolved in the ocean of eternal bliss where even the conception of God and man disappears. from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/V/V_1.htm Seeing the nature and character of life the Sufi says that it is not very important to distinguish between two opposites. What is most important is to recognize that One which is hiding behind it all. Naturally after realizing life the Sufi climbs the ladder which leads him to unity, to the idea of unity which comes through the synthesis of life, by seeing One in all things, in all beings. ... in whatever age the wise were born, they have always believed the same: that behind all is oneness, and in the understanding of that oneness is wisdom. A person who awakens to the spirit of unity, a person who sees the oneness behind all things - his point of view becomes different and his attitude therefore changes. He no longer says to his friend, 'I love you because you are my friend'; he says, 'I love you because you are my self'. from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/XIV/XIV_2_12.htm

Sufi teaching on the subject of LACK OF UNDERSTANDING

"All tragedy of life, all misery and inharmony are caused by one thing and that is lack of understanding. Lack of understanding comes from lack of penetration. The one who does not see from the point of view from which he ought to see becomes disappointed because he cannot understand. It is not for the outer world to help us to understand life better; it is we ourselves who should help ourselves to understand it better."

-Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi

The heart is not living until it has experienced pain - Hazrat Inayat Khan

If there were no pain, one would not have the experience of joy. It is pain which helps one to experience joy. Everything is distinguished by its opposite and the one who feels pain deeply is more capable of expressing joy. If there were no pain, life would be most uninteresting; for it is by pain that penetration takes place, and the sensation after pain is a deeper joy. Without pain the great musicians, athletes, discoverers, and thinkers would not have reached the stage they have arrived at in the world. If they had always experienced joy, they would not have touched the depths of life.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VI/VI_17.htm

Those who have avoided love in life from fear of its pain have lost more than the lover, who by losing himself gains all. The loveless first lose all, until at last their self is also snatched away from their hands. The warmth of the lover's atmosphere, the piercing effect of his voice, the appeal of his words, all come from the pain of his heart. The heart is not living until it has experienced pain. Man has not lived if he has lived and worked with his body and mind without heart. The soul is all light, but all darkness is caused by the death of the heart. Pain makes it alive. The same heart that was once full of bitterness, when purified by love becomes the source of all goodness. All deeds of kindness spring from it.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/V/V_22.htm


A person who has never experienced pain cannot sympathize with those suffering pain. ... Sympathy is something more than love and affection, for it is the knowledge of a certain suffering which moves the living heart to sympathy.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/XIII/XIII_21.htm


Suffering is always a blessing. If it is for higher ideas, for God, for an ideal, it takes a person at once to the highest heaven. If it is for lower ideas, for the ego, for pride, for possessions, it takes a person to the lowest depth of hell. But there, after much suffering, after a long, long time, he loses these ideas and is purified. That is why the Christian religion shows the symbol of the cross, of suffering. How high our ideal may be, how low our ideal may be, in the end each pain has its prize.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VIII/VIII_2_7.htm

Sufism's teaching on self-pity

Self-pity is the worst poverty; it overwhelms man until he sees nothing but illness, trouble and pain. by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: If one studies one's surroundings one finds that those who are happy are so because they have less thought of self. If they are unhappy it is because they think of themselves too much. A person is more bearable when he thinks less of himself. And a person is unbearable when he is always thinking of himself. There are many miseries in life, but the greatest misery is self-pity. from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IV/IV_29.htm Man is mostly selfish, and what interests him is that which concerns his own life. Not knowing the troubles of the lives of others he feels the burden of his own life even more than the burden of the whole world. If only man in his poverty could think that there are others who are poorer than he, in his illness that there are others whose sufferings are perhaps greater than his, in his troubles that there are others whose difficulties are perhaps greater than his! Self-pity is the worst poverty. It overwhelms man and he sees nothing but his own troubles and pains, and it seems to him that he is the most unhappy person in the world, more so than anyone else. A great thinker of Persia, Sa'di, writes in an account of his life, 'Once I had no shoes, I had to walk barefoot in the hot sand, and how miserable I was. Then I met a man who was lame, for whom walking was very difficult. I bowed down to heaven at once and offered thanks that I was much better off than he who had not even feet to walk upon.' This shows that it is not a man's situation in life, but his attitude towards life that makes him happy or unhappy. ... When Jesus Christ said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God,' this teaching was an answer to the cry of humanity: some crying, 'I have no wealth,' others crying, 'I have no rest,' others crying, 'My situation in life is difficult,' My friends are troubling me,' or, 'I want a position, wealth.' The answer to them all is, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.' from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VIII/VIII_2_40.htm ~~~ Self-pity is the worst poverty; it overwhelms man until he sees nothing but illness, trouble and pain.