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 History of the SufisSufismThe Sufi's AimThe Different Stages of Spiritual DevelopmentThe Prophetic TendencySeeingSelf-DisciplinePhysical ControlHealthHarmonyBalanceStruggle and ResignationRenunciationThe Difference Between Will, Wish, and DesireThe Law of AttractionPairs of OppositesResist Not EvilJudgingThe Privilege of Being HumanOur God Part and Our Man PartMan, the Seed of GodEvolutionSpiritual Circulation Through the Veins of NatureDestiny and Free WillDivine ImpulseThe Law of LifeManifestation, Gravitation, Assimilation, and PerfectionKarma And ReincarnationLife in the HereafterThe Mystical Meaning of the ResurrectionThe Symbol of the CrossOrpheusThe Mystery of SleepConsciousnessConscienceThe Gift of EloquenceThe Power of SilenceHolinessThe EgoThe Birth of the New EraThe Deeper Side of LifeLife's MechanismThe Smiling ForeheadThe Spell of LifeSelflessnessThe Conservative SpiritCharacter-BuildingRespect and ConsiderationGraciousnessOverlookingConciliationOptimism and PessimismHappinessVaccination and InoculationMarriageLoveThe HeartThe Heart QualityThe Tuning of the Heart (1)The Tuning of the Heart (2)The Soul, Its Origin and UnfoldmentThe Unfoldment of the SoulThe Soul's DesireThe Awakening of the Soul (1)The Awakening of the Soul (2)The Awakening of the Soul (3)The Maturity of the SoulThe Dance of the Soul |
Sub-Heading -ALL-Awake and Asleep1st Stage of Consciousness2nd Stage of Consciousness3rd Stage of Consciousness4th Stage of Consciousness5th Stage of Consciousness1st Stage in Awakening: Dissatisfaction2nd Stage in Awakening: Bewilderment3rd Stage in Awakening: Sympathy4th Stage in Awakening: Revelation |
Vol. 8a, Sufi TeachingsThe Awakening of the Soul (2)2nd Stage of ConsciousnessThe second aspect is when a person is asleep and yet is experiencing life exactly as he does on this plane of the physical world. This is the dream state; we call it a dream when we have woken up and have passed that stage. At the time of dreaming that state is as real as this state in the physical world, and nothing is lacking in the dream that we find here. While dreaming we never think that it is a dream, but many things which we cannot find here on the physical plane we can find in the dream state. All the limitations and all that we lack in this life are provided for in the dream state. All that we are fond of, all that we would like to be, and all that we need in our life, are easier to find in a dream than in the wakeful state. When we wake up and return to this life, we call it real and the other a dream, and we say that it was imagination, without any reality; we think that only on this physical plane are we awake, that only this is real. But is yesterday as real as today? Everything that has happened from the moment we came to earth, all that is past, is all yesterday; only just now is today. If it is not a dream, then what is it? We only recognize that which we saw in the dream as being just a dream; but all that is past is in reality nothing but a dream. It is 'just now' which gives us the feeling of reality, and it is that which we are experiencing which becomes real to us, whereas that which we are not experiencing, of which we are not conscious, does not exist for us at this moment. Thus everyone has his own life and his own world. His world is that of which he is conscious; and in this way everyone has his heaven and his hell made by himself. We live in the world to which we are awakened, and to the world to which we are not awakened we are asleep. We are asleep to that part of life which we do not know. Another experience is that of the man who lives in the world of music, whose thoughts and imaginings are about the composition of music, who enjoys it, to whom music is a language. He lives under the same sun as everybody else, and yet his world is different. Beethoven, who could no longer hear music with his ears, enjoyed the music he read and played, while perhaps another man with excellent hearing did not hear it. Beethoven's soul was in it, and the music was in himself. Thus there is the kind of experience we have through our senses, our five senses; but this is one world, one plane of existence, and there is the other existence which we experience in the dream, and that is a world too, a different world, with different laws. Those who consider the dream only as a dream do not know the importance, the greatness, the wonder of it. The dream plane is more wonderful than the physical plane, because the physical plane is crude, limited, and poor, and is subject to death and disease; the other plane which one experiences in the dream is better, purer, and one has a greater freedom there. |