The Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan
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Volume SayingsSocial GathekasReligious GathekasThe Message PapersThe Healing PapersVol. 1, The Way of IlluminationVol. 1, The Inner LifeVol. 1, The Soul, Whence And Whither?Vol. 1, The Purpose of LifeVol. 2, The Mysticism of Sound and MusicVol. 2, The Mysticism of SoundVol. 2, Cosmic LanguageVol. 2, The Power of the WordVol. 3, EducationVol. 3, Life's Creative Forces: Rasa ShastraVol. 3, Character and PersonalityVol. 4, Healing And The Mind WorldVol. 4, Mental PurificationVol. 4, The Mind-WorldVol. 5, A Sufi Message Of Spiritual LibertyVol. 5, Aqibat, Life After DeathVol. 5, The Phenomenon of the SoulVol. 5, Love, Human and DivineVol. 5, Pearls from the Ocean UnseenVol. 5, Metaphysics, The Experience of the Soul Through the Different Planes of ExistenceVol. 6, The Alchemy of HappinessVol. 7, In an Eastern Rose GardenVol. 8, Health and Order of Body and MindVol. 8, The Privilege of Being HumanVol. 8a, Sufi TeachingsVol. 9, The Unity of Religious IdealsVol. 10, Sufi MysticismVol. 10, The Path of Initiation and DiscipleshipVol. 10, Sufi PoetryVol. 10, Art: Yesterday, Today, and TomorrowVol. 10, The Problem of the DayVol. 11, PhilosophyVol. 11, PsychologyVol. 11, Mysticism in LifeVol. 12, The Vision of God and ManVol. 12, Confessions: Autobiographical Essays of Hazat Inayat KhanVol. 12, Four PlaysVol. 13, GathasVol. 14, The Smiling ForeheadBy DateTHE SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS | Heading 1. Our Physical Constitution2. The Experience of the Soul3. The Destiny of the Soul |
Sub-Heading -ALL-The Elements of the BodyThe Mystical Significance of the BodyThe Nature of the Senses and Their OrgansThe Source of Bodily DesiresThe Source Of EmotionsThe Constitution of the MindThe Constitution of the HeartThe Influence of the Mind Upon the Body, and of the Body Upon the MindThe Soul in Itself AloneThe Soul with the MindThe Soul with Mind and Body |
Vol. 5, Metaphysics, The Experience of the Soul Through the Different Planes of Existence1. Our Physical ConstitutionThe Soul in Itself AloneThe soul in itself alone is no other than consciousness, which is all-pervading. But when the same consciousness is caught in a limitation through being surrounded by elements, in that state of captivity it is called soul. The Chinese use the simile of a bee when describing the soul. It is symbolical, and really denotes the eye, the pupil of which is like a bee; in other words the nature of the soul may be studied in the nature of the eye. All things exposed to the eye are reflected in it for the moment, and when the eye is turned away the reflection is in it no more. It had received it for the moment only. Such is the nature of the soul. Youth, age, beauty, ugliness, sin, or virtue, all these are before the soul when they are exposed to it during the physical or mental existence; and the soul, interested in the reflection, may be for the time attracted and bound by the object reflected; but as soon as the soul turns away it is free from it. Amir Minai, the Hindustani poet, says, "However fast I am bound by earthly ties, it will not take a moment to break them. I shall break them by changing sides." Every experience on the physical or astral plane is just a dream before the soul. It is ignorance when it takes this experience to be real. It does so because it cannot see itself; as the eye sees all things, but not itself. Therefore the soul identifies itself with all things that it sees, and changes its own identity with the change of its constantly changing vision. The soul has no birth, no death, no beginning, no end. |