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 PHILOSOPHY 1PHILOSOPHY 2PHILOSOPHY 3PHILOSOPHY 4PHILOSOPHY 5MYSTICISM 1MYSTICISM 2MYSTICISM 3MYSTICISM 4MYSTICISM 5MYSTICISM 6MYSTICISM 7METAPHYSICS 1METAPHYSICS 2METAPHYSICS 3METAPHYSICS 4PSYCHOLOGY 1PSYCHOLOGY 2PSYCHOLOGY 3PSYCHOLOGY 4PSYCHOLOGY 5PSYCHOLOGY 6PSYCHOLOGY 7BROTHERHOOD 1BROTHERHOOD 2MISCELLANEOUS IMISCELLANEOUS 2MISCELLANEOUS 3MISCELLANEOUS 4MISCELLANEOUS 5MISCELLANEOUS 6MISCELLANEOUS 7RELIGION 1RELIGION 2RELIGION 3RELIGION 4ART AND MUSIC 1ART AND MUSIC 2ART AND MUSIC 3ART AND MUSIC 4CLASS FOR MUREEDS 1CLASS FOR MUREEDS 2CLASS FOR MUREEDS 3CLASS FOR MUREEDS 4CLASS FOR MUREEDS 5CLASS FOR MUREEDS 6CLASS FOR MUREEDS 7CLASS FOR MUREEDS 8 |
Sub-Heading -ALL-ArtNatureCopying (1)ImprovingCopying (2)ImprovementIllusion in ArtThe Art of Copying NatureThe Art of ImprovementThe One Who ImprovesObservationSymbology |
THE SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERSART AND MUSIC 3NatureNature is the perfection of whatever choice man can make, and this itself is the proof that it is a creation of a Creator Who has not created blindly, but with intention and choice, proving thereby His perfect wisdom and skill. Nature therefore is the art of an Artist Who has made it to come up to His choice. Mineral, vegetable, animal, even human creation are from Him, but in the human creation He changes His choice by experiencing life through a human mind and body. As the perfect spirit, God creates in nature all He wishes to come into being, and does not find anything lacking, for He has the capability of creating what is not there. But when the ray of the same Spirit works through the human garb, in the first place it is incapable of seeing nature as a whole and enjoying the perfection of its beauty. And yet, being the ray of the perfect Spirit, and as by nature it seeks perfection, it wants to create what it does not find there, and it is this which brings about the necessity for action. Nature therefore is an action of God, and art the reaction of man. Art is divided into two classes: imitation (copying), and production (improving and improvising). The first wave of the artistic impulse is to imitate what he admires, and in this there are two tendencies that the artist shows, to copy and to improve. There is one artist who is more capable of copying, another of improvising. The skill in both aspects is equally great. To copy nature fully is beyond human capacity, and the greater an artist is in his art, the better he can copy nature. To copy nature, not only a keen observation but a deeper insight into the object before him is necessary. The improvising faculty may show in certain ways greater, for the artist tries to make the copy of nature better than it is; in reality nature cannot be bettered, considering it as a whole. But when nature is observed in its parts it most often requires to be made better; and the ray of the Creator's spirit, which is the soul of the artist, tries to perfect that piece of nature which is imperfect when taken as apart from nature, proving thereby the action of God and the reaction of man. |