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 The Religion of the Heart

#2 The Belief in God

#3 Religion

#4 The Manner of Prayer

#5 The Present Need of the World for Religion

#6 "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

#7 Religion: Universality or Exclusivity?

#8 Humility in prayer

#9 The Need for Prayer

#10 The Prophet

#11 How the Wise Live in the World (1)

#12 How the Wise Live in the World (2)

#13 The Christ Spirit

#14 The Sufi Form of Worship

#15 Degrees in the Spiritual Hierarchy

#16 Stages in Following the Message

#17 The Message of Unity

#18-19 The Coming World Religion

#20 The Purpose of All Beings

#21 Christ

#22 Buddha

#23 Krishna

#24 Zarathushtra

#25 Rama

#26 Abraham

#27 Muhammad

#28 Is Sufism a Religion?

#29-30 The Religion of All Prophets

#31-32 The God Ideal

#33 Moses

#34 The Universal Worship (1)

#35 The Universal Worship (2)

#36 The Religion of All Prophets (3)

#37 The Universal Worship (3)

#38 The Idea of Sacredness

#39 The Universal Worship (4)

#40 Attaining the Inner Life Through Religion

#41 The Kingship of God

#42 Belief and Disbelief in God

Sub-Heading

-ALL-

Religious Gathekas

#16 Stages in Following the Message

There are three stages of action through which the sincere followers of the message have to pass, and the difficulty is that each stage has the tendency to keep back the followers of the message from going to the next stage. The reason is that every stage has no end of interest and happiness in it. Another thing is that one stage is quite different from another stage, and therefore each stage is a kind of contrary action to the previous stage.

Now these three stages may be called

  1. receiving the message,
  2. assimilating the message, and
  3. representing the message.

  1. For a sincere mureed, the first stage can be so interesting that he may think it is never enough. The heart of the seeker after truth is never full of that endless knowledge. Fill it, and there is still a place to fill. One may receive for ages and it is yet never enough. When the receiver of the message is in that stage, then the activity of the further stages remains unaccomplished.

  2. The stage of assimilation is most necessary; very few can imagine how long it takes for the spirit to assimilate knowledge of truth. One assimilates it by the power of contemplation, by pondering over the subjects that one hears, by practicing the teachings in one's life, by looking at the world from the point of view which has been told, and by observing one thing in its thousand different positions. Many, before assimilating the knowledge, wish to reason with it, discuss it, justify it, and see how it fits in with their own preconceived ideas. In this way they disturb the digestive fire of the spirit, for as the mechanism of the body is always working to help assimilate food, so the spirit is constantly working to assimilate all that one learns through life.

    Therefore, it is a matter of patience which requires taking life easily without troubling the mind too much and allowing the knowledge which one has received as a food of the spirit to have time to be assimilated. By trying to assimilate knowledge too fast man loses his normal health; it is just like taking a drug to help digest food, which is not beneficial in the end.

  3. The third process is also necessary; those who care little for the third stage, representing, miss a great deal in life. A person who has seen something beautiful, who has heard something harmonious, who has tasted something delicious, who has smelled something fragrant, alone has enjoyed it, and yet not completely. The complete joy is in sharing one's joy with another. The selfish one enjoys himself and does not care for others. Whatever he enjoys, things of the earth or things of heaven, his enjoyment is not complete. In this third stage, following the message is fulfilled, when has heard and pondered upon it and passed the same blessing to others.