Truth without a veil is always uninteresting to the human mind.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Can there be any truth which the human soul has not known? If the soul had not known it, it could not be truth; for truth is not a knowledge, it is the very self of humanity. The Truth is not a newly invented theory, not a dogma, not an idea; it is Reality itself. At the back of it is the self of humanity; therefore it is simple. But it is not simplicity that people seek, they are longing for complexity. Anything which will confuse, they are glad to take interest in.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: Simplicity and Complexity )
People like complexity. They do not want to take only one step; it is more interesting to look forward to millions of steps. Those who are seeking the Truth get into a maze, and that maze interests them. They want to go through it a thousand times more. It is just like children. Their whole interest is in running about; they do not want to see the door and go in until they are very tired. So it is with grown-up people. They all say that they are seeking Truth, but they like the maze.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume X – Sufi Mysticism: Sufi Poetry, Shamsuddin Muhammad Hafiz )
People are so fond of illusion that they, so to speak, revel in it. If someone awakens a person who is having an interesting dream, that person will say, ‘Oh, let me sleep on!’ They like looking at their dream. They do not want to wake up to Reality because Reality is not as interesting as the dream. Thus, amongst seekers of truth, we find only one in a thousand courageous enough to look at the immensity of Truth.
People love complexity and call it knowledge. A great many societies and institutions in the world which call themselves occult, esoteric and psychic, and by various other names, knowing that everyone is interested in complexity, cover the Truth. Instead of covering the Truth with one cover, they cover it with a thousand covers to make it more interesting. It is just like the customs that were followed in ancient times, when people came to worship and asked the priests how they should do it, and the priests would say, ‘How far do you live from the shrine?’ And when they said, ‘Two miles,’ the priests answered, ‘You must come on foot to the shrine and walk around it a hundred times before you may enter it.’ They gave the worshippers a good exercise before they were allowed to come in. Even today, the same thing is done. When seekers say, ‘I want to see Truth,’ but they wish to look for Truth in complexity, the Truth is covered under a thousand covers, and then the seekers are given a problem to solve.
Are there not many people interested in the mahatmas of the Himalayas, are there not many interested in the holy souls in remote places of Persia, many who look for a master in the center of Australia? Perhaps next year an article will appear declaring that a great soul has been born in Siberia. What is it all about? It is all the love of complexity, queer notions, strange ideas which do not lead souls any further. Therefore, mystics very often appear to be simple because sincerity makes them feel inclined to express the truth in simple language and in simple ideas. But because people value complexity, they think that what mystics say is too simple and that it is something which they have always known, that it is nothing new. However, as Solomon said, ‘There is nothing new under the sun.’
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume X – Sufi Mysticism: The Sufi Mystic )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Above this mind-mesh there is a Universal Condition which cannot be grasped by the human mind. Human beings can understand it through the heart faculty but not through the mind. Although mind was formed by the interplay of forces from the lower and upper worlds, and in this were the Heavens, as well as the Hells made from the earth, nevertheless the Light of Intelligence shining through the mind-mesh from above causes it to look below upon name and form.
Even when it looks up it does not see anything beyond this mesh which forms the sky of Malakut, the Mental Plane, even as a fish cannot see above the surface of the water. Personality on earth looking up only so far, the light is turned back towards earth, forming again between the Mental Plane and earth the Psychic Realm which is created by the reflections and emotions of humanity, but is not in reality a sphere such as the Physical Plane (Nasut), the Mental Plane (Malakut) and the Spiritual Plane (Djabrut). In reality it is subjective, formed by the mind turning in upon itself and its experiences.
The veil of Isis is this same sky of Malakut, and when once that is penetrated the Goddess is beheld in all Her Glory.