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

PHILOSOPHY 1

PHILOSOPHY 2

PHILOSOPHY 3

PHILOSOPHY 4

PHILOSOPHY 5

MYSTICISM 1

MYSTICISM 2

MYSTICISM 3

MYSTICISM 4

MYSTICISM 5

MYSTICISM 6

MYSTICISM 7

METAPHYSICS 1

METAPHYSICS 2

METAPHYSICS 3

METAPHYSICS 4

PSYCHOLOGY 1

PSYCHOLOGY 2

PSYCHOLOGY 3

PSYCHOLOGY 4

PSYCHOLOGY 5

PSYCHOLOGY 6

PSYCHOLOGY 7

BROTHERHOOD 1

BROTHERHOOD 2

MISCELLANEOUS I

MISCELLANEOUS 2

MISCELLANEOUS 3

MISCELLANEOUS 4

MISCELLANEOUS 5

MISCELLANEOUS 6

MISCELLANEOUS 7

RELIGION 1

RELIGION 2

RELIGION 3

RELIGION 4

ART AND MUSIC 1

ART AND MUSIC 2

ART AND MUSIC 3

ART AND MUSIC 4

CLASS FOR MUREEDS 1

CLASS FOR MUREEDS 2

CLASS FOR MUREEDS 3

CLASS FOR MUREEDS 4

CLASS FOR MUREEDS 5

CLASS FOR MUREEDS 6

CLASS FOR MUREEDS 7

CLASS FOR MUREEDS 8

Sub-Heading

-ALL-

Illusion and Reality

The Philosophy of Form

Kismet

What in Man Lives and What Dies

THE SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS

PHILOSOPHY 3

Illusion and Reality

The problem of illusion and reality can alone be solved by the study of nature, in nature especially is the realization of the self. The wise understand that the consciousness is covered under all the garments of man's planes of existence. In fact the sources such as mind and body, which build up the personality of an individual, are changeable and liable to destruction, therefore neither the body nor the mind can be called a reality, as such is the nature of their functions, their work and their outcome.

The nature of illusion is such that the facts of nature lose their importance after passing from their present state. For instance you are not suffering the pain which you may have suffered yesterday or you may not feel the comfort you may have experienced formerly. And if your past condition is of no importance to you just now, the joy or sorrow that you may be experiencing just now will not be with you to-morrow. Such is the case with every moment of life, that which at present seems a reality, when passed becomes a dream and an illusion. This shows that there is nothing within or without which you may call a stable state of existence but in consciousness alone, that is, the consciousness you can recollect you had, the faculty of consciousness when a child, although now childhood may have become a dream to you, and everyday's joy and sorrow in life came and passed.

The loss and gain in life performed its part, and disappeared, did good or bad, and was finished with. The one came and the other passed away from your sight. If you can say that anything ever remained with you constantly it would be no other than consciousness. Although it is difficult for every person to know even what is meant by consciousness, because of its mind-like nature, it has no color or form by which it may be distinguished. The consciousness is the only function by which a person experiences all planes and phases of life and being occupied with names and forms reflected in it, it loves its own sight just like a mirror which shows the object reflected in it instead of its (own) existence, which witnessed all coming and going and yet it is as it has ever been.

Therefore the Sufi centers his delight in consciousness, the permanent beloved, instead of running after passing shadows, but consciousness also shows its limitation, its time of becoming conscious and again its nature of ceasing to be the same. This shows that its origin must be in its opposite state meaning unconsciousness which is called "eternal consciousness" by mystics and "darkness" in the Qur'an. This state can be realized as the most real, steady and unchangeable one existence. The seekers of this never cast even a glance towards illusionary existence.

"We shall lift the veil from thine eyes and thy sight shall be keen." Qur'an.

This shows that the lifting of the veil of illusion is the illumination or the keen sight.

"Come o friend from thy illusionary prison, if thou once happenest to be here thou wilt enjoy it so much, that thou shalt never more desire to return to the same illusion."-Bedil.

The spirit of consciousness has formed all things and beings from negative to positive existence out of nothing else but its own essence. This shows that all the capable and incapable things of analysis are the manifestations of consciousness. But the positive existence can be analyzed by the material self of man. But that self is unable to analyze the negative things and beings for it is out of reach. The Sufi therefore attains the freedom of his consciousness first, and thus liberating his view he can analyze both by staying apart from them. This idea is taught by Christ in the phrase, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added on to thee. "