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

2.6, The Greek Mysteries (1)

The little that is known of the Greek Mysteries has been very variously interpreted. Some have supposed them to have been a course of agriculture, taught secretly, others a mummery carried on for centuries by the priests. What is known with certainty is the high esteem in which they were held and the strict secrecy which attended them. The word means silence; to be initiated was "to be made silent."

Access to the lesser mysteries was easy. Tens of thousands were initiated. The temples in which the rites were practiced were under the protection of the state. In them were enacted the lives of the gods in whose name the mysteries were celebrated, and great use was made of music. The mysteries were held to remove the fear of death and to give assurance of the survival of the departed. Those who had been initiated were believed to be happy after death, while others led a dismal life hereafter, clinging to their graves.

The preparatory training for the greater mysteries was very severe. Fasting was undergone, abstinence of all sorts, extremes of heat and cold had to be endured, and the candidates swam through water for days and had to walk through fire. The training often lasted many years. After initiation, in the beginning all was darkness, dread and dismay; then a marvelous light was seen and shining forms came to meet the initiate.

The initiate experienced while on earth the state of the soul dissociated from the body. A Greek writer says, "Here all instruction ceases; one beholds the nature of things."

Apuleius, who had received all the initiations of the mysteries, says,

"I went to the boundary between life and death, I passed through the four elements, I stood on the threshold of Proserpina, at the time of deepest midnight I saw the sun shine in brightest splendor, I saw the greater and the lesser gods and revered them near at hand."

The initiate was said to be received, while living on earth, among the immortal gods, and made as one of them.