"Insight into life is the real religion, which alone can help men to understand life."  Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Say to yourself, 'My ideal, my religion, my desire is to please my Lord before whom I bow my head. So when I am before anyone, I am before my Lord, my God. I must take care always to be considerate and thoughtful, lest I hurt my God.' That is the real religion. If you take care not to hurt a loved one, a friend, but do not mind hurting a servant, or wicked or foolish person, that will not be real religion. Love will recognize the ideal of love, the divine ideal, in every heart, and will refrain from using words which will make others unhappy; words expressing pride, thoughtless words, sarcastic words, any word which will disturb a person's peace of mind, or hurt his sensibilities.

Good deeds, kindness, forgiveness, tolerance, acts of love, none of these are ever lost, and some day they will return to us. Even if the recipient appears ungrateful or heedless, it is all the same. There is no need to be disappointed even if he proves to be unworthy of our kindness and our love. When we realize that all life is one life, we discover that it is to that life that we give our love and kindness and mercy. Then it is bound to return to us, if not today, perhaps next week. If not next week, perhaps next year. If not here, then somewhere where we never expected it could possibly come. 'Thou shalt find it after many days.'

Though there may still be time to awaken to a true understanding of these things, it is often too late by the time that sufferings, troubles, and misery have come to the individual or to the multitude. If someone has so far failed to understand them before they actually came, perhaps he will never understand. When there is some little pain or he feels bad in himself, he may think he has some illness. But if he does not think about it, if he takes no notice of it, something worse may come. And so it has been with the world. The worst evil that has ever been should show man that it is now time to awaken and understand that it is not a study of national or social problems, not a study of religious questions that will bring an everlasting peace; but it is the insight into life which is the real religion and which alone can help man to understand life.

The heart has its own language. 

The heart knows a hundred thousand ways to speak.

Rumi

We, unaccustomed to courage

exiles from delight

live coiled in shells of loneliness

until love leaves its high holy temple

and comes into our sight

to liberate us into life.

Love arrives

and in its train come ecstasies

old memories of pleasure

ancient histories of pain.

Yet if we are bold,

love strikes away the chains of fear

from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity

In the flush of love’s light

we dare be brave

And suddenly we see

that love costs all we are

and will ever be.

Yet it is only love

which sets us free.

Maya Angelou

Love is not consolation; it is light.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Learning how to love is the goal and the purpose of spiritual life -- not learning how to develop psychic powers, not learning how to bow, chant, do yoga, or even meditate, but learning to love. Love is the truth. Love is the light.

Lama Surya Das 

Getting doors open

one after the other

is the essence of Prayer.

Every door is a passage,

another boundary we have

to go beyond.

We squeeze ourselves through, 

and then we go. 

Farther.

After all,

the purpose of the Prayer

is not to stand and bow 

all day long.

The purpose is to possess 

continuously

that fragrant state

which appears to you

in Prayer.

Asleep or awake,

writing or reading, 

in every state

never be empty

of Remembrance.

Be rather one of those moving 

constantly

within Prayer.

Rumi

He is wise who treats an acquaintance as a friend, and he is foolish who treats a friend as an acquaintance, and he is impossible who treats friends and acquaintances as strangers; you cannot help him. Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: Friendship as the average person understands it is perhaps little more than acquaintance; but in reality it is more sacred than any other connection in the world. To a sincere person, entering into friendship is like entering the gates of heaven; and a visit to his friend is a pilgrimage to a true loving friend. When, in friendship, a thought arises, 'I will love you as you love me,' or, 'I will do to you as you do to me,' this takes away all the virtue of the friendship, because it is a commercial attitude, prevalent everywhere in the commercial world: everything is done for a return, and measure is given for measure. ... One ought to look upon acquaintanceship as the sowing of the seed of friendship, not as a situation forced upon one; for those who turn their backs on a man and look at him with contempt also do that to God. To think, 'That person is perhaps of no value; that person is of no importance,' is impractical, besides being unkind. As all things have their use, both flowers and thorns, both sweet and bitter, so all men are of some use; what position, what class, what race, what caste they belong to makes no difference. Friendship with good and bad, with wise and foolish, with high and low, is equally beneficial, whether to yourself or to the other. What does it matter if another be benefited by your friendship, since you would like to be benefited by someone else's friendship? He is wise who treats an acquaintance as a friend, and he is foolish who treats a friend as an acquaintance, and he is impossible who treats friends and acquaintances as strangers; you cannot help him.

"The wisdom and justice of God are within us, and yet they are far away, hidden by the veil of the limited self."  Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Whenever wars have occurred, whenever there has been bloodshed in the world, whenever there have been revolutions and upheavals in life, all the various disasters that have taken place are due to these same causes: on the one side man's selfishness, and on the other his lack of understanding of the law of nature and the law of happiness.

Our limited self is like a wall separating us from the Self of God. God is as far away from us as that wall is thick. The wisdom and justice of God are within us, and yet they are far away under the covering of the veil of the limited self. Whoever has arrived at that realization of the nature of God's justice is able to see all things in a different way from others. His whole outlook on life becomes different. ...

Man has now become cold, ignorant, and blind to the law that life depends on the happiness of those with whom we live. The whole of life is one. In all these different names and manifestations life is one. The true thought is, 'If my wife is not happy, if my children, my neighbors, my servants are not happy, how can I ever be happy?' An insult given to someone will one day return. How simple it is. Yet how difficult for man to understand! It is simple to him who observes life keenly. It is difficult to him who is absorbed in himself.

Where are you, my beloved? Are you in that little

Paradise, watering the flowers who look upon you

As infants look upon the breast of their mothers?

Or are you in your chamber where the shrine of

Virtue has been placed in your honor, and upon

Which you offer my heart and soul as sacrifice?

Or amongst the books, seeking human knowledge,

While you are replete with heavenly wisdom?

Oh companion of my soul, where are you? Are you

Praying in the temple? Or calling Nature in the

Field, haven of your dreams?

Are you in the huts of the poor, consoling the

Broken-hearted with the sweetness of your soul, and

Filling their hands with your bounty?

You are God’s spirit everywhere;

You are stronger than the ages.

Do you have memory of the day we met, when the halo of

You spirit surrounded us, and the Angels of Love

Floated about, singing the praise of the soul’s deed?

Do you recollect our sitting in the shade of the

Branches, sheltering ourselves from Humanity, as the ribs

Protect the divine secret of the heart from injury?

Remember you the trails and forest we walked, with hands

Joined, and our heads leaning against each other, as if

We were hiding ourselves within ourselves?

Recall you the hour I bade you farewell,

And the Maritime kiss you placed on my lips?

That kiss taught me that joining of lips in Love

Reveals heavenly secrets which the tongue cannot utter!

That kiss was introduction to a great sigh,

Like the Almighty’s breath that turned earth into man.

That sigh led my way into the spiritual world,

Announcing the glory of my soul; and there

It shall perpetuate until again we meet.

I remember when you kissed me and kissed me,

With tears coursing your cheeks, and you said,

“Earthly bodies must often separate for earthly purpose,

And must live apart impelled by worldly intent.

“But the spirit remains joined safely in the hands of

Love, until death arrives and takes joined souls to God.

“Go, my beloved; Love has chosen you her delegate;

Over her, for she is Beauty who offers to her follower

The cup of the sweetness of life.

As for my own empty arms, your love shall remain my

Comforting groom; you memory, my Eternal wedding.”

Where are you now, my other self? Are you awake in

The silence of the night? Let the clean breeze convey

To you my heart’s every beat and affection.

Are you fondling my face in your memory? That image

Is no longer my own, for Sorrow has dropped his

Shadow on my happy countenance of the past.

Sobs have withered my eyes which reflected your beauty

And dried my lips which you sweetened with kisses.

Where are you, my beloved? Do you hear my weeping

From beyond the ocean? Do you understand my need?

Do you know the greatness of my patience?

Is there any spirit in the air capable of conveying

To you the breath of this dying youth? Is there any

Secret communication between angels that will carry to

You my complaint?

Where are you, my beautiful star? The obscurity of life

Has cast me upon its bosom; sorrow has conquered me.

Sail your smile into the air; it will reach and enliven me!

Breathe your fragrance into the air; it will sustain me!

Where are you, me beloved?

Oh, how great is Love!

And how little am I!

Khalil Gibran

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying

Friedrich Nietzsche

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPCvnloDLO8

If it is love you are looking for,

Take a knife and cut off the head of fear.

Through Love,

disaster becomes good fortune.

Through love,

a prison becomes a garden.

Love has come to rule and transform;

Stay awake, my heart, stay awake.

Do not call a cup Sea;

Do not call mad the sage of Love.

Eat on and on, you lovers, at Eternity’s table;

Its feast is forever;

And spread out for you.

Rumi

"We cover our spirit under our body, our light under a bushel; we never allow the spirit to become conscious of itself." Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

The life one recognizes is only the mortal aspect of life. Very few have ever seen or been conscious of the immortal aspect at all. Once one has realized life, that which one has hitherto called life is found to be only a glimpse or shadow of the real life that is beyond comprehension. To understand it one will have to raise one's light high from under the cover that is hiding it like a bushel. This cover is man's mind and body; it is a cover that keeps the light active on the world of things and beings. 'Do not keep your light under a bushel' means that we are not to keep the consciousness absorbed in the study of the external world, and in its pleasures and enjoyments.

We cover our spirit under our body. We cover our light under a bushel. We never allow the spirit to become conscious of itself. ... when the soul is illuminated it will desire to find some other soul illuminated in like manner, and will find great joy and bliss in its society. Such a one will surely find others who are on the verge of illumination. Even a drunkard will find others to drink with. And so it is mystically. A very little light can be turned into a flame, and that flame into a very big flame.

Why is it better to become a mystic than to remain a drunkard? As a matter of fact a drunkard will never be satisfied. The mystic will look for what Omar Khayyam calls wine, the wine of the Christ, after drinking which no one will ever thirst. He will always seek the wine whose intoxication never wears off. It is the only wine: the intoxication of the divine love.

According to the belief of a Sufi the heart is the shrine of God, and when the doors of the shrine are closed it is just like a light being hidden under a bushel... God is Love. If He is love He does not stay in the heavens. His earthly body is the heart of man.

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Unlock the power of the heart !

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.

Joseph Campbell

How do you react when you think you need people’s love? Do you become a slave for their approval? Do you live an inauthentic life because you can’t bear the thought that they might disapprove of you? Do you try to figure out how they would like you to be, and then try to become that, like a chameleon? In fact, you never really get their love. You turn into someone you aren’t, and then when they say “I love you,” you can’t believe it, because they’re loving a facade. They’re loving someone who doesn’t even exist, the person you’re pretending to be. It’s difficult to seek other people’s love. It’s deadly. In seeking it, you lose what is genuine. This is the prison we create for ourselves as we seek what we already have.

Byron Katie

Reacting from love may not give us love in return, but the love we release will penetrate the heart and mind of the recipient, which will bloom with understanding at a later time, when their spirit is ready to awaken.

Awake my dear,

Be kind to your sleeping heart

Take it out to the vast field of light

and let it breathe  

Hafiz

Let us fall in love again and scatter gold dust all over the world.

Let us become a new spring and feel 

the breeze drift in heaven’s scent.

Let us dress the earth in green and 

like the sap of a young tree.

Let the grace from within us sustain us.

Let us carve gems out of our stony hearts 

and let them light our path to Love. 

The glance of Love is crystal clear and 

we are blessed by its light.

Rumi

It is time to start the journey,

we have seen enough of this world,

it is time to see another.

These two gardens may be beautiful,

but let us pass beyond them and go to the gardener.

Let us kiss the ground and flow like a river towards the ocean.

Let us go from this valley of tears. 

Let us bring the color of blossom to our pale faces.

Our hearts shiver like autumn leaves about to fall. 

In this world of dust, there is no avoiding pain or feeling exiled.

Let us become like beautifully colored birds

and fly to the sweet land of paradise.

Everything is painted with the brush of the invisible one,

let us follow the hidden signs and find the painter. 

It is best to travel with companions, on this perilous journey.

We are like rain splashing on a road,

let us find our way down the spout.

We are like an arched bow with the arrow in place,

let us become straight and release the arrow towards the target. Let us begin the journey home. 

Rumi

In love lies our spiritual growth.

The more we love, the closer we are

to the spiritual experience.

Paulo Coelho

"You can have all good things - wealth, friends, kindness, love to give and love to receive - once you have learned not to be blinded by them, learned to escape from disappointment, and from repugnance at the idea that things are not as you want them to be."  Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Do not expect much from friends. Why must they be as you want them to be? They are not made by you. They are as they are. You must try to be for them what they expect you to be. It matters little if your friend proves to you to be a friend. What matters is, if you prove to be a friend.

However evolved we may be with our education and experience, yet what are we really seeking? Things from which we cannot derive any lasting gain. From these false things we gain the experience that the things to which we have hitherto attached importance and which we have valued are things that do not last. We learn at length that it would be wise to remember that all these objects and ideals and aspirations which we have in life should be judged according to whether they are dependable or not, lasting or not.

After we have perceived the truth that this or that is not to be depended upon, we find that it is not necessary to renounce them all, to give up everything in life. We can be in the crowd just as well as in seclusion in the wilderness. We can have all good things, wealth, friends, kindness, love to give and love to take once we have learned not to be blinded by them, learned to escape from disappointment, learned to escape from repugnance at the idea that the things are not as we would want them to be. A man can still attend to business, he may attain wealth, he can carry out all those things, but now his eyes are wide open; before, they were blind. This is the teaching of life. ...

It is not the actual literal renunciation which counts, it is the personal abandonment of belief in the importance of transient things. ... If there is such a thing as saintly renunciation, it is renouncing small gains for better gains; not for no gains, but seeing with open eyes what is better and what is inferior. Even if the choice has to lie between two momentary gains, one of these would always be found to be more real and lasting; that is the one that should be followed for the time. When we take the torch of wisdom to show us our path through life, we will end by realizing what is really profitable in life and what is not.

painting credit: Sofan Chan