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

Superstitions, Customs, and Beliefs

Insight

Symbology

Breath

Morals

Everyday Life

Metaphysics

Sub-Heading

-ALL-

1.1, Belief and Superstition

1.2, Belief

1.3, Customs (1)

1.4, Customs (2)

1.5, Hanuman

1.6, Bells and Gongs

1.7, The Custom of Drinking the Health of Friends

1.8, The Origin of the Custom of the Seclusion of Women

1.9, The Custom of the Seclusion of Women (1)

1.10, The Custom of the Seclusion of Women (2)

2.1, "Eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood"

2.2, Customs of Courtesy

2.3, Customs of the Marriage Ceremony

2.4, The Horse

2.5, Oracles Among the Ancient Greeks

2.6, The Greek Mysteries (1)

2.7, The Greek Mysteries (2)

2.8, The Greek Mysteries (3)

2.9, The Banshee

2.10, The Psychology of the Shadow

3.1, Toasts

3.2, Wedding Customs

3.3, Funeral Customs

3.4, The Swansong

3.5, Customs at the Birth of a Child in India

3.6, The Superstitions of the Days Existing in the East

3.7, Unlucky Numbers

3.8, The Mysteries of Omens

3.9, The Influence of Time

3.10, Planetary Influences

Vol. 13, Gathas

Superstitions, Customs, and Beliefs

2.1, "Eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood"

There is a remarkable phrase in the Bible, where it says, "Eat My flesh and drink My blood," says Christ. What does He mean by saying this? He means in the first place that what a living being loves most is his food, what he loves most he eats. It has been proved in ferocious and dreadful famines, by people eating their own children, that food is dearer than their own child.

The word of Christ, therefore, "Find out, what it is in Me that you love, which may become your nourishment, which may become your food. It is not this, My flesh and blood; this will not be sufficient to satisfy your appetite. There is another part of My being, which is in abundance and can nourish My numberless devotees. Therefore before trying to eat My flesh and blood, try to find out on what plane I really exist and what is My true being."

The lives of all the great saints show that not only their adversaries and opponents but also their near and dear friends have proved to be among their worst enemies. There is a creature which loves its mate so much that it eats it.

Now as to the question what it is that Christ speaks of as his flesh and blood: His flesh is the knowledge of God and His blood is the love of God; because it is love that has a tendency, so to speak, to excite the circulation, and it is knowledge which has the tendency to strengthen, making man firm, of which flesh is the symbol. One thing without the other would be abnormal. For instance flesh without blood, or blood without flesh, both are not normal conditions. What gives normal health to the body and to the soul is flesh and blood both. In the religious custom of the sacrament of bread and wine it is this secret which is symbolically expressed.