The Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan

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There is beauty of thought, and great beauty of feeling, of sentiment, of kindness, of self-sacrifice, of selflessness. And yet there is a still greater progress that a soul can make: the seeking of the source of beauty. It is said, "The gift is nothing without the giver." There is no doubt a beauty in listening to the composition of a great musician, but there is at the same time a desire in the heart to meet that composer and thank him personally. What a satisfaction, when we have not only heard the music but seen the composer! We can say how delighted we are, and how much his music has pleased us. Or there is a very good picture which we have admired; but it would be a still greater delight to be able to tell the painter how much we have enjoyed it. So it is with the love of goodness: that constant gathering of goodness, the constant comfort of looking for goodness in everybody, the constant consciousness of doing good to another, the constant delight in one's own goodness. There is no limit to such progress. One may say, "This goodness belonged to my father, to my mother, to my beloved, to my friend, to my acquaintance, to a stranger." But when it is all summed up, to whom does it belong? Is there nobody whom one can thank for it?


 
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