Through motion and change, life becomes intelligible; we live a life of change, but it is constancy we seek. It is this innate desire of the soul that leads us to God.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Humanity placed in the midst of this ever-changing world yet appreciates and seeks for constancy somewhere. We do not know that we must develop the nature of constancy in ourselves; it is the nature of the soul to value that which is dependable. But is there anything in the world on which one can depend, which is above change and destruction? All that is born, all that is made, must one day face destruction. All that has a beginning has also an end; but if there is anything one can depend upon it is hidden in the heart of humanity, it is the divine spark, the true philosopher’s stone, the real gold, which is our innermost being.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness, Part I: The Alchemy of Happiness )
What is this mortal world? What is this physical existence? What is this life of changes? If it were not for belief, what use is it all? Something which is changing, something which is not reliable, something which is liable to destruction. Therefore it is not only for the sake of truth, but for life itself that one must find belief in oneself, develop it, nurture it, allow it to grow every moment of one’s life, that it may culminate in faith. It is that faith which is the mystery of life, the secret of salvation.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume IV – Mental Purification and Healing, Part I: Health – Section XII )
The whole of the external life is nothing but a succession of experiences, one after the other, night and day. That is why it is called a journey. Yet there is a part of Life from which this life of changes has sprung; the Life which is everlasting, which is eternal, the Life to which all things return; and that Life is the goal. Therefore, Life is not only a journey; it is a goal. The goal is the stable part of Life, the source of Life; the manifested life called creation is the journey.
In this way we see that there are really two journeys. There is the journey from the goal to the life in the world, and there is the journey from the life in the world to the goal. And both journeys are natural. As it is natural to go forth from the eternal goal, so it is natural to go from the changing life to the Life which is unchangeable.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
No matter what our aim or object in life, its security does not bring us happiness. There is a constant struggle between our attraction toward joy and our attraction toward peace. This struggle causes our involution and evolution, and its end is not attained until the two are brought into equilibrium and coalesced. That is to say, the nature of God or Nirvana is not a dead peace, but Life in its fullness, Love in its magnificence, Light beyond our conception. When we have tired of changing phenomena and seek God alone, we find that constancy, that peace, that joy.