One who can live up to one’s ideal is the ruler of life; one who cannot live up to it is life’s slave.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
The ideal life is at least to try to live up to one’s ideal. But in order to have an ideal one must first awaken to an ideal. Not everyone possesses an ideal; many people do not know of it. It is no exaggeration to say that the wars and disasters we have gone through, the unrest that all feel, and the disagreement among the people which is sometimes seen and sometimes not seen, are all caused by one thing and that is the lack of an ideal.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness: The Deeper Side of Life )
Is it power which is the object of spiritual people, or is it inspiration? It is in fact neither of these things which spiritual people pursue, but all such things as power and inspiration follow them as they proceed on their path towards the spiritual goal. The goal of spiritual people is self-realization, and their journey is towards the depth of their own Being, their God, their ideal.
God is the ideal that raises humankind to the utmost reach of perfection. … There is no ideal that can raise the moral standard higher than the God-ideal, although Love is the root of all and God is the fruit of this. Love’s expansion and Love’s culmination and Love’s progress all depend upon the God-ideal.
That which makes us esteem those whom we esteem is their ideal. That which raises us from earth to heaven is our ideal. And that which pulls us down from the heavens to the earth is also our ideal. When we do not live up to our ideal, we fall to earth. And when we raise our ideal we go from earth to heaven. We can rise to any height, according to the stature of our ideal.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: The Ideal Life )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
It is better to be obedient to a simple standard than to strive for some unattainable goal. Success does not depend upon the goal, success depends upon our overcoming obstacles. Many think that if they claim some noble ideal or moral standard they are fulfilling duty in life. This is a conclusion of humanity. Success comes from mastering our own weaknesses, and if we do not coordinate the efforts of thought, speech and deed, we cannot accomplish much. It is this unity of our self with our self that brings us sooner or later to full realization of Unity.