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 The Smiling ForeheadThe Heart QualityThe Heart - AphorismsThe Four PathsLoveThe Story of HatimThe Difference between Will, Wish and DesireDestiny and Free WillFree Will and DestinyKismetFree Will - AphorismsThe SeerSeeingThe Different Stages of Spiritual DevelopmentThe Prophetic Tendency - The Prophetic MissionPoints of View held by Spiritual PersonsHigher SpiritualismThe Process of Spiritual UnfoldmentThe Awakening of the SoulSufi TeachingsThe Dance of the SoulThe Deeper Side of LifeMan, the Seed of GodSufi PhilosophyThe Gift of EloquenceEvolution of the WorldEvery Man has his own little WorldMarriageSpirituality, the Tuning of the HeartOptimism and PessimismConscience - Questions and AnswersJustice and Forgiveness - Questions and answersPairs Of opposites used in Religious TermsInsightThe Law of AttractionThe Liberal and the Conservative Point of ViewThe Law of LifeThe Law of ActionThe Soul, Its Origin and UnfoldmentThe Unfoldment of the SoulDivine ImpulseThe Symbol of the CrossThe Mystical Meaning of the ResurrectionSpiritual Circulation through the Veins of the UniverseThe Divine Blood Circulating Through the Veins Of the Universe |
Sub-Heading -ALL-AphorismsQuestions and Answers |
Vol. 14, The Smiling ForeheadLoveQuestions and AnswersQuestion: Can love exceed wisdom or can wisdom exceed love? What happens in either case? Is love measured according to love, or is wisdom measured according to love? Answer: It is true that wise is loving and loving is truly wise, although in one person wisdom may be predominant and in another love. But both love and wisdom are needed. The cold-hearted man is never wise, and the really warm-hearted person is never foolish. Yet both these qualities, love and wisdom, are distinct and separate, and it is possible that a person may be loving but lacking wisdom, and it happens that a person who is wise may be lacking love to some extent. But no one can be wise if love is absent from his heart-call him clever. And no one will be truly loving if wisdom has not illuminated his heart, for love comes from wisdom and wisdom comes from love. It is very difficult to say what love is and how one can love. Is it embracing people and running after them and saying sweet words to them? What could one show when one is loving?-for every person has a different way of expressing his love. One person perhaps has love hidden in his heart which does not manifest, and another person's love comes out in his words and actions. The love of one person rises like vapor and charges the whole atmosphere, and another person's love is like a spark hidden in a stone: outside the stone is cold, inside there is a spark. Therefore to judge who has love and who has not is not in the power of every person, it is a very difficult thing. For instance love is a fire rising from a cracker calling out, "I am love!" but it burns out and is finished. There is also fire in the pebble which never manifests. If you hold the pebble it feels cold, yet at the same time the fire is there. Some day you can strike it and it is there, it is dependable, it lasts. As many people as there are, so many are the different qualities of their love, and one cannot judge. Question: Is jealousy inseparable from human love? Answer: It is like asking, "Is the shadow separable from the body?" Where there is form there is shadow; where there is human love there is Jealousy. Love can bring out what is worst and best in man. Love can take many forms, even that of indifference. I remember I went once for a relative to the house of a physician, an Indian physician who had a very ancient method of writing his prescriptions. Each took him nearly ten minutes. I was shown into a small room where fifteen to twenty people were already waiting, and I sat down among them. He continued to write prescriptions for all who came, and when he had finished with those who were before me he began to write prescriptions for those who had come after me. I had thought that the physician, as a friend of the family, would have seen me first, but he went on until he had seen everyone, and I was the last. Finally he said to me, "Now tell me what you have to say." I told him, and he wrote out the prescription without any haste, and when I was leaving he said, "I hope you understand that I did not want to see you while all the other patients were still there. I wanted to see you at leisure." He was doing me a favor, and though he tried my patience it was still a majestic sort of favor, It gave me a good example of love in the form of indifference. With indifference one still must have sympathy and love; be more and more sensitive as one evolves. |