As life unfolds itself to us, the first lesson we learn is humility.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Every moment of our life, if we can see wisely, contains some fault or error, and asking pardon is just like purifying the heart and washing it white. Only think of the joy of humbling yourself before God! … humbling yourself before that Spirit, that Ideal, who is the true Parent, on Whose love you can always depend — it is a spark of that love which expresses itself in the earthly parents — and in whatever manner you humble yourself before God, it can never be enough. To humble your limited self before The Perfection, that is to deny yourself. Self denial is not renouncing things, it is denying the self, and its first lesson is humility.
( from Religious Gathekas #8: Prayer [ unpublished ] )
This is self-denial: that we say, ‘I am not, Thou art;’ or that artists looking at their pictures, say, ‘It is Thy work, not mine;’ or that musicians, hearing their compositions, say, ‘It is Thy creation, I do not exist.’ That soul then is in a way crucified, and through that crucifixion, resurrection comes. There is not the slightest doubt that when we have had enough pain in our lives we rise to this great consciousness. But it is not necessary that only pain should be the means. It is the readiness on our part to efface our part of consciousness and to efface our own personality, which lifts the veil that hides the spirit of God from our view.
As life unfolds itself to us, the first lesson it teaches is humility; the first thing that comes to our vision is our own limitedness. The vaster God appears to us, the smaller we find ourselves. This goes on and on until the moment comes when we lose ourselves in the vision of God.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
This living unfoldment is a process, not an accomplishment. It does not come from book learning or prayer or asceticism or from change in regimen or vain breathing exercises. It comes only through the grasping of life. And how is life grasped? It is either through actual pain and suffering, or worldly experience, or inner awakening through the Grace of God, as in meditation and Zikr.