The source of Truth is within us; we ourselves are the object of our realization.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
In point of fact Truth is simple; it is we who make it difficult for ourselves. For all other aspects of knowledge we have to get from outside, but Truth is something which is within us ourselves. It is something which is nearest to us though we imagine it to be farthest; it is something which is within, though we imagine it to be outside; it is knowledge itself we want to acquire. Thus seekers are engaged in a continual struggle: struggle with themselves, struggle with others, and struggle with life. And at the end of the journey they always find that they have traveled because it was their destiny to travel, and they discover that their starting-point is the same as their final goal.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VIII – Sufi Teachings, Part 4: The Maturity of the Soul )
Then the question arises: what is the way to attain the Truth? Can it be attained through study? The answer is that the source of realizing the Truth is within us. We are the object of our realization. There are words of Hazrat ‘Ali, saying that the one who knows self truly knows God.
Humans, absorbed from morning till evening in our occupations which engage our every attention to the things of the earth and of self interest, remain intoxicated. Seldom there are moments in our life, brought about by pain or suffering, when we experience a state of mind which can be called soberness. Hindus call this state of mind Sat, which is a state of tranquility. We then begin to become conscious of some part of our being which we find to have almost covered our eyes. When we look at life from this point of view we find that an individual who claims to be a living being is not necessarily living a full life. It is only a realization of inner life which at every moment unveils the soul, and brings before us another aspect of life in which we find fullness, a greater satisfaction, and a rest which gives true peace.
Heaven is not a country or a continent; it is a state, a condition within ourselves, only experienced when the rhythm is in perfect working order. If we know this, we realize that happiness is our own property. We are our own enemy: we seek for happiness in the wrong direction and never find it. It is a continual illusion. We think, ‘If I had this or that I should be happy for ever’, and we never arrive at happiness because we pursue an illusion instead of the Truth. Happiness is only to be found within, and when we tune ourselves we find all for which our soul yearns within ourselves.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
It is the discriminating faculty of the human mind that makes life so interesting, causes all this diversity and diversion yet at the same time makes for every sort of difficulty. The highest vibrations and the lowest are as One in principle, but through the analytical faculty of intellect they appear different and thus this faculty makes it difficult or impossible for one to realize Unity. It is the realization of Oneness that takes a person above all discrimination and distinction. When this is accomplished you at once realize your Unity in essence with all things, and with all thingness. But this also takes one above the realm of words and thoughts; these distinguish and define and are not of the nature of Absolute Unity.