The wise one should keep the balance between love and power; one should keep the love in one’s nature ever increasing and expanding, and at the same time strengthen the will so that the heart may not easily be broken.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Many seek protection from all hurting influences by building some wall around themselves. But the canopy over the earth is so high that a wall cannot be built high enough, and the only thing one can do is to live in the midst of all inharmonious influences, to strengthen the will power and to bear all things, yet keeping the fineness of character and a nobleness of manner together with an ever-living heart. To become cold with the coldness of the world is weakness, and to become broken by the hardness of the world is feebleness, but to live in the world and yet to keep above the world is like walking on the water. There are two essential duties for those of wisdom and love; that is to keep the love in our nature ever increasing and expanding and to strengthen the will so that the heart may not be easily broken. Balance is ideal in life; we must be fine and yet strong, we must be loving and yet powerful.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Power is what God gives naturally to us, and love is what we should give naturally to God. Power enters with every breath. This can easily be demonstrated without any knowledge of metaphysics, for the person who does not breathe will surely lose the connection between the physical body and the subtle bodies and pass from form. It is the use of breath which can be the most valuable thing in life.
[ This power is prana, vitality, the life-force, Al-Hayy, and it isn’t separated from or different to the All Pervading Life in Space, mentioned in Nayaz, the Healing Prayer. When we practice watching our breath, gently and lovingly putting our breath in a calm, gentle, slow, balanced, and refined rhythm, the amount of power, or prana, that enters on the breath increases, automatically, without any more effort on our part than breathing in that slow, refined manner. And if we then gently engage and focus our loving attention (Ar-Raqib) on the process, observing, noticing, being present with it, while we relax more, refine it more, open more deeply and completely … we can then intentionally, consciously, draw more prana in during our inhalations, and release more wastes, toxins, and impressions during our exhalations, than is possible during default, taken-for-granted, unconscious, or unaware breathing. — Muiz ].
If the body tries to collect power and express power without love, it will be like a balloon bag being filled with gas. It has only a certain capacity and to exert it beyond that capacity will cause damage or destruction. Likewise the love for God which is unbalanced, which makes one mad with love or fervent with devotion does not give God the opportunity to use the pious person as an instrument. God wants to express that power through the pure vehicle and the person has not made the vehicle ready. This shows weakness of Will even in the midst of Love, which is intoxicating.
Will is strengthened by keeping the balance between Power and Love which are both aspects of Will. Urouj and Nasoul, inhalation and exhalation, the upward and downward currents must be kept in balance and rhythm in order to secure maximum efficiency. If there is too much power, even the physical heart will be strained; if there is too much love, it will experience pleasure and pain, ecstasy and suffering. But if the love is ever expanding, ever growing and made sober by the desire to do God’s will, then the person will also be a receptacle of power expressed or concealed. Even the gentlest saint may be a most majestic person through the attunement of will and breath to God.