To learn to adopt the standard of God, and to cease to wish to make the world conform to one’s own standard of good is the chief lesson of religion.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
When people came to Christ accusing a person of doing wrong, the Master could not think of anything else but forgiveness. For he did not see in the wrongdoer what the others saw. To distinguish between right and wrong is not the work of an ordinary mind, and the curious thing is that the more ignorant one is, the more ready one is to do so.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VIIIa a – Sufi Teachings: Pairs of Opposites )
The religious people, full of dogmas, are often apt to make these too rigid and they expect the godly or God-conscious to fit in with their standard of goodness. If those do not fit in with their particular idea of piety they are ready to criticize those others. But the thought and life of Krishna were used by the artist, the poet and the musician; and out of this came a new religion, a religion of recognizing the divine in natural human life.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume IX – The Unity of Religious Ideals, Part IV: Krishna )
Every mind has its particular standard of good and bad, and of right and wrong. This standard is made by what one has experienced through life, by what one has seen or heard; it also depends upon one’s belief in a certain religion, one’s birth in a certain nation and origin in a certain race. But what can really be called good or bad, right or wrong, is what comforts the mind and what causes it discomfort. It is not true, although it appears so, that it is discomfort that causes wrongdoing. In reality, it is wrongdoing which causes discomfort, and it is right-doing which gives comfort.
The discrimination between good and evil is in our Soul. Everyone can judge that for themselves, because in everyone is the sense of admiration of beauty. … Happiness only lies in thinking or doing that which one considers beautiful. Such an act becomes a virtue or goodness.
from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VII/VII_31.htm
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: The Presence of God )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Prayer is a good thing; praying “Thy will be done” is always helpful, but one also must act in such a way that the prayer becomes a reality. This is the fulfillment of prayer. To pray and then leave the matter to fate is to experience the desire of the prayer without the desired or beneficial results.
Real prayer is to attune the whole being so that the Divine Light may bring about the fulfillment of prayer. This can only be done when one ceases to place any obstacle in the path of the prayer. When thought-force or logic are applied to prayer, the wish (and the breath which starts to take that wish to Heaven) is caught in the mind-mesh and either does not return, or returns in a form not always acceptable or good. This has led some people to deny the efficacy of prayer, but really this is not prayer because as soon as mental obstacles obtrude in the path of that prayer, it cannot reach Heaven, cannot touch the ear of God.
It is by mental conformation, by keeping the heart pure, and controlling mind by will, that one is enabled both to reach God and also to receive from God. This identifies life and religion which is most desirable. When one is given the strength and inspiration to accomplish or cooperate in the accomplishment of the desire of prayer, that is the highest successful fulfillment of prayer. This is done by keeping the feelings awake above the mental net of Samsara.