The Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan      

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Volume

Sayings

Social Gathekas

Religious Gathekas

The Message Papers

The Healing Papers

Vol. 1, The Way of Illumination

Vol. 1, The Inner Life

Vol. 1, The Soul, Whence And Whither?

Vol. 1, The Purpose of Life

Vol. 2, The Mysticism of Sound and Music

Vol. 2, The Mysticism of Sound

Vol. 2, Cosmic Language

Vol. 2, The Power of the Word

Vol. 3, Education

Vol. 3, Life's Creative Forces: Rasa Shastra

Vol. 3, Character and Personality

Vol. 4, Healing And The Mind World

Vol. 4, Mental Purification

Vol. 4, The Mind-World

Vol. 5, A Sufi Message Of Spiritual Liberty

Vol. 5, Aqibat, Life After Death

Vol. 5, The Phenomenon of the Soul

Vol. 5, Love, Human and Divine

Vol. 5, Pearls from the Ocean Unseen

Vol. 5, Metaphysics, The Experience of the Soul Through the Different Planes of Existence

Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness

Vol. 7, In an Eastern Rose Garden

Vol. 8, Health and Order of Body and Mind

Vol. 8, The Privilege of Being Human

Vol. 8a, Sufi Teachings

Vol. 9, The Unity of Religious Ideals

Vol. 10, Sufi Mysticism

Vol. 10, The Path of Initiation and Discipleship

Vol. 10, Sufi Poetry

Vol. 10, Art: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Vol. 10, The Problem of the Day

Vol. 11, Philosophy

Vol. 11, Psychology

Vol. 11, Mysticism in Life

Vol. 12, The Vision of God and Man

Vol. 12, Confessions: Autobiographical Essays of Hazat Inayat Khan

Vol. 12, Four Plays

Vol. 13, Gathas

Vol. 14, The Smiling Forehead

By Date

THE SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS

Heading

1. Mental Purification

2. The Pure Mind

3. Unlearning

4. The Distinction Between the Subtle and the Gross

5. Mastery

6. The Control of the Body

7. The Control of the Mind

8. The Power of Thought

9. Concentration

10. The Will

11. Mystic Relaxation (1)

12. Mystic Relaxation (2)

13. Magnetism

14. The Power Within Us

15. The Secret of Breath

16. The Mystery of Sleep

17. Silence

18. Dreams and Revelations

19. Insight (1)

20. Insight (2)

21. The Expansion of Consciousness

Sub-Heading

-ALL-

Becoming Natural

1. Purification by Stilling the Mind

2. Purification by Breathing

3. Purification by Attitude

3a. Attitude Toward Others

3b. Attitude Toward Self

Vol. 4, Mental Purification

1. Mental Purification

3a. Attitude Toward Others

The right attitude depends on how favorably one regards one's own shortcomings. Very often one is ready to defend oneself for one's faults and errors, and is willing to make one's wrong right. But one has not that attitude towards others. One takes them to task when it comes to judging them. It is so easy to disapprove of others! It is so easy to take a step further and to dislike others, and not at all difficult to take a step further still and to hate others. And when one is acting in this manner, one does not think one does any wrong. Although it is a condition which develops within, one only sees it without; all the badness which accumulates within, one sees in another person. Therefore man is always in an illusion; he is always pleased with himself and always blaming others. And the extraordinary thing is, that it is the most blameworthy who blames most. But it is expressed better the other way round: because one blames most, one becomes most blameworthy.

There is beauty of form, of color, of line, of manner, of character. In some persons beauty is lacking, in other persons there is more of it; it is only the comparison that makes us think that one person is better than the other. If we did not compare, then every person would be good; it is the comparison which makes us consider one thing more beautiful than another. But if we looked more carefully we should see the beauty that is in that other one too. Very often our comparison is not right for the very reason that although today we determine in our mind what is good and beautiful, we are liable to change that conception in a month's, a year's time. That shows us that when we look at something, we are capable of appreciating it if its beauty manifests to our view.

There is nothing to be surprised at when one person arrives at the stage where he says,

  • "Everything I see in this world, I love it all in spite of all pains and struggles and difficulties; it is all worth while".
  • But another says, "It is all miserable, life is ugly; there is no speck of beauty in this world."

Each is right from his point of view. They are both sincere. But they differ because they look at it differently. Each of these persons has his reason to approve of life or to disapprove of it. Only, the one benefits himself by the vision of beauty and the other loses by not appreciating it, by not seeing the beauty in it.

By a wrong attitude, therefore, a person accumulates in his mind undesirable impressions coming from people, since no one in this world is perfect. Everyone has a side which can be criticized and wants repairing. When one looks at that side, one accumulates impressions which make one more and more imperfect because they collect imperfection; and then that becomes one's world. And when the mind has become a sponge full of undesirable impressions, then what is emitted from it is undesirable also. No one can speak ill of another without making it his own; because the one speaking ill of others is ill himself.

Thus the purification of the mind, from a moral point of view, should be learned in one's everyday life:

  • By trying to consider things sympathetically, favorably,
  • By looking at others as one looks at oneself,
  • By putting oneself in their position instead of accusing others on seeing their infirmities.

Souls on earth are born imperfect and show imperfection, and from this they develop naturally, coming to perfection. If all were perfect, there would have been no purpose in their creation. And manifestation has taken place so that every being here may rise from imperfection towards perfection. That is the object and joy of life and for that this world was created. And if we expected every person to be perfect and conditions to be perfect, then there would be no joy in living and no purpose in coming here.