Those who have given deep thoughts to the world are those who have controlled the activity of their minds.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
They are thoughtful whose minds are directed by their wills, whose minds fulfill their intentions, whose minds are under the control of their intentions. … Only those who have controlled the activity of their minds have given deep thoughts to the world. Those whose minds are working mechanically like a machine, or just reflecting the activity of those around them, may appear to be living beings, but the mystics would say differently; for it is not till people have gained mastery over their minds, till they are above this activity, that they are ruling [ ie intentional — Muiz ] powers, true humans.
When we think about it, we find that all the things that are accomplished in this world are accomplished by the power of mind. … Whatever is created in science, in art, in phenomena or wonder-making, in poetry, in music, in pictures, in everything that humanity brings into being, is all achieved by the power of mind. … If we do not control our minds, we are not intentional directors but captives. It lies with our own minds whether we shall be intentional director, or whether we shall be captive. We are captive when we neglect to be intentional director; we are director if we care to be director.
Mastery lies not merely in stilling the mind, but in directing it towards whatever point we desire, in allowing it to be active as far as we wish, in using it to fulfill our purpose, in causing it to be still when we want to still it. Those who have come to this have created their heaven within themselves; they have no need to wait for a heaven in the hereafter, for they have produced it within their own mind now.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: Stilling the Mind )
People pursue spirituality with their brain: that is where they are mistaken. Spirituality is attained through the heart. What do I mean by the heart? Is it the nerve center in the midst of the breast, the small piece of flesh that doctors call the heart? No, the definition of the heart is that it is the depth of the mind, the mind being the surface of the heart. That in us which feels is the heart, that which thinks is the mind. It is the same thing which thinks and feels, but the direction is different: feeling comes from the depth, thought from the surface. When thought is not linked with feeling it is just like a plant rising up from the earth, the root of which has not gone deep. A thought without feeling is a powerless thought; it is just like a plant without a deep root. A tree the root of which has gone deep into the earth is stronger, more reliable, and so the thought deeply rooted in the heart has greater power.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Just as continual attention to the body draws our interest from the Life in general to ourselves in particular, so continual attention to the mind attracts us toward our thoughts and away from the world. But since this condition is more subtle, we do not see that by this we live in a world of our own creation. We send out vibrations and we give them a value — which is not a real value but one coined by these very vibrations.
Nothing has any value except by a universal standard of measurement. The wise therefore seek this universal standard and find that it is only discovered when their own thoughts are laid aside and measured in comparison with the thoughts of others and with the vibrations of the Universe in general. To do this, it is found necessary to control all activity of mind, then to determine what actions are valuable and important, and then to make each function of the mind purposive and profitable. This means to employ mind and not permit the mind to employ the self falsely.
[ This type of loving mental discipline and focus is called Mindfulness in Zen, Vipassana, and Tibetan Buddhist lineages. It is an English translation of the Pali word “sati”, which in the Indian Buddhist tradition implies awareness, attention, or alertness, as well as “vipassana”, which means insight cultivated by meditation. In the Sufi tradition the practice of Darood, which combines awareness of breathing and focus of mind, is a first step towards cultivating Mindfulness. See also my commentary at the bottom of the Bowl of Saki for 01 May. — Muiz ]