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, Sense of Beauty and Sincerity

1.2, The Jarring Effect of the Ego of Another

1.3, "What is the Ego?"

1.4, What the Ego Needs and What It Does Not Need

1.5, Constant Battle With the Ego

1.6, The Animal Side of Man's Ego

1.7, Self-Consciousness

1.8, Vanity

1.9, The Three Parts of the Ego

1.10, Three Stages Through Which the Ego Develops

2.1, Necessity and Avidity

2.2, Training by Abstinence

2.3, The Two Sides of the Human Ego

2.4, Training Is As Well a Science As an Art

2.5, Training by Refraining from Free Impulses

2.6, The Ego Is Trained As a Horse

2.7, Training the Mental Ego

2.8, Humility

2.9, Forgiveness

2.10, "Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit"

3.1, The Manner of Friendliness

3.2, Adab (Respect) (1)

3.3, Adab (Respect) (2)

3.4, Respect

3.5, Khatir (Consideration)

3.6, Tawazeh (Sharing with Others)

3.7, Hay (Modesty)

3.8, Modesty

3.9, Ghairat (Honor)

3.10, Inkisar (Selflessness)

Vol. 13, Gathas

Morals

1.10, Three Stages Through Which the Ego Develops

There are three different stages through which the ego develops and reaches the ideal state.

  1. The first stage is called Ammara by Sufis, and in this the ego is satisfied by the satisfaction of the passions and the appetites.

  2. From this animal stage the ego may rise to a higher stage, which is man's ego, and that stage is the gratification of vanity. This ego is termed by the Sufi Lauwama, and this stage in the beginning causes a person to act in every way that is likely to cause harm and to be hurtful and unjust to others.

  3. This continues until he learns to understand the true nature of vanity, since all good as well as all evil is born of vanity. When vanity ceases to cause man to do evil he has reached the human stage, Mutmaina.

    But when vanity causes man to do good the ego becomes humane, using this word in the oriental sense, in which it means more than human, as it is derived from the two words, Hu, divine, and Manas, mind.

The first lesson that the ego must learn in order to develop into the humane state is that of pride in the form of self-respect. As man has the inclination to have good clothes and good ornaments in order to appear in the eyes of others as what he considers beautiful, so he must feel the same inclination towards the building of personality by the ornamentation of every action and manner in the way that he considers good and beautiful.