The Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan      

        (How to create a bookmark)

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, Saf

1.2, Tat Twam Asi

1.3, The Glance of the Seer

1.4, Divine Evidence

1.5, Openness

1.6, Movement (1)

1.7, Movement (2)

1.8, The Study of the Whole

1.9, The Mystery of Expression

1.10, Different Qualities of Mind

2.1, The Reproduction of the Mental Record

2.2, Impression

2.3, The Balance of Life

2.4, The Language of the Mind

2.5, The Influence of Experience

2.6, Intuition

2.7, Evidence of the Thought

2.8, The Activity of Mind

2.9, Likes and Dislikes

2.10, Viparit Karna

3.1, Reason Is Earth-Born

3.2, The Word and the Idea

3.3, The Expression and the Idea

3.4, The Power of Words

3.5, The Re-Echo of the Past

3.6, Interest in All Things

3.7, Vairagya

3.8, A Silent Music

3.9, Three Ways To Develop Insight

3.10, Tranquility

Vol. 13, Gathas

Insight

1.3, The Glance of the Seer

The glance of the seer is penetrating, and in this it differs from the glance of the ordinary man. It has three characteristics (qualities).

  1. The first characteristic of the glance of the seer, penetration, depends upon clearness of vision.
  2. The second characteristic, the uncovering of objects, depends upon the illumination of the soul.
  3. But the third, the greatest, comes from confidence in the self, called Iman.

This is not actually creating, but it is awakening that particular quality, which was perhaps asleep. This is quite natural, as we see in the ordinary course of life that by fear we create in others dreadful qualities, and when we love we create kindness. It is possible to turn a friend into an enemy by thinking that he is an enemy, and also it is possible to change an enemy into a friend by expecting him to be a friend. Therefore the tendency of the mystic is to turn everything into that which he wishes it to be. To turn what is ugly into beauty, and beauty into ugliness, this is what the vision can accomplish.

This proves to a deep thinker that things are not what they appear to be, but we make them as they are. The whole life may be made into a thing of complete ugliness or it may be made into a sublime vision of perfect beauty. The Lord of the yogis, Shiva, is pictured with a cobra on his neck which means that death, which frightens everyone, is accepted by him as life. That shows that even death can be made into life, and it is only the difference of the point of view that makes life death.

The first characteristic of the glance of the seer, penetration, depends upon clearness of vision. The second characteristic, the uncovering of objects, depends upon the illumination of the soul. But the third, the greatest, comes from confidence in the self, called Iman.