Reflections II - 7

Aspects on Sufi viewpoints

by Hidayat I. Khan - see book 'Geistige Freiheit' - click here

We cannot stop the natural course of life with either material or spiritual abilities, just as we cannot hope to stop the rain simply because we do not wish to get wet. In the same way, we cannot oblige others to act and think as we wish, but we could make every effort to become an example to those who might thereby be inspired.

Inner consciousness can only be developed along a very thorny path called the Art of Personality. The journey on this path requires constant efforts to forge the character into a living example of Love, Harmony and Beauty, so that one may be a bringer of happiness, overlooking all that which disturbs one when others are not in accord with one’s own thinking, and making every effort to work on one’s own failures, rather than judging others.

Even in a fall there is a hidden stone on which to rise above shortcomings, distinctions and differences, tuning one’s ego to a higher pitch, in harmony with those whom one meets, and in whose company one might then discover sparks of hidden guidance.

There is no experience in life which is really worthless, and there is not one moment which is really wasted, providing one is wise enough to carefully assemble bits and pieces of past memories and learn from these with the idea of accomplishing one’s life's purpose, although one’s visions of right and wrong might not always correspond to those of others.

Any role that one plays as actor in the game of life soon becomes an intoxication, and in that spell one clings to the illusion of one’s identity, but as soon as one discovers that nothing is really absolute, one realizes that all is but a moment's game, whatever be one’s conditions, whether bright or gloomy, and that all values are only worth what they are in comparison to others, depending on the angle from which they are considered, being only true to a certain extent in comparison to unlimited truth, which is beyond all speculative theories.

The self which one clings to, and which is only an illusion of one’s true identity, is, however, the channel through which the soul is ultimately the spectator of all happenings, reflected as impressions upon a mirror, yet the images have only reached its surface, without causing any permanent alteration, leaving the mirror of the soul immaculately pure.

Hidayat Inayat-Khan