When we dive within, we find that our real self is above the perpetual motion of the universe.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
There is in humanity a false self and a real self. The real self contains the eternal; the false self contains the mortal. The real self has wisdom; the false self ignorance. The real self can rise to perfection; the false self ends in limitation. The real self has all good, the false self is productive of all evil. One can see both in oneself: God and the other one. By conquering the other one, one realizes God. This other power has been called Satan; but is it a power? In reality it is not. It is, and it is not. It is a shadow. We see shadow and yet it is nothing. We should realize that this false self has no existence of its own. As soon as the soul has risen above the false self, it begins to realize its nobility.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness: The Struggle of Life (2) )
In order to see this question more clearly one must picture oneself as two beings, one the ruler and the other the servant. When one of them expresses a wish, it is the ruler who wishes. And the part that says, ‘I cannot,’ is the servant. If the servant has the way, then the ruler is in the place of the servant. And the more the servant has its way, the more the servant rules and the ruler obeys. In this way naturally conflict arises and that reflects upon the outer life; one’s whole life becomes unlucky. One may be pious or good or religious, it makes no difference. If one does not realize the realm of God within oneself nor realize the spirit to be a ruler one does not accomplish the purpose of life.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness: The Path of Attainment (1) )
The soul is a dweller in heaven. It is able to see more than the eyes can see. It is able to hear more than the ears can hear. The soul is able to expand further than we can journey. The soul is able to dive deeper than any depths that we can ever touch. The soul is able to reach higher than we can reach by any means. Its life is freedom, it knows nothing but joy and sees nothing but beauty. Its own nature is peace, and its being is Life itself. It is not intelligent. It is intelligence itself. It is spirit. Its nature is not human but divine. … We are a process. Manifestation is a process through which the spirit goes from one condition to another condition, from one pole to another pole. And through this whole process the attempt of the spirit is to find itself. … The highest perception of freedom comes when we have freed ourselves from the false ego, when we are no longer what we were. All the different kinds of freedom will give a momentary sensation of being free, but true freedom is in ourselves. When one’s soul is free, then there is nothing in this world that binds one; everywhere one will breathe freedom, in heaven and on earth.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: The Freedom of the Soul (2) )
It is therefore that the Sufis seek God as their love, lover and beloved, their treasure, their possession, their honor, their joy, their peace; and their attainment in its perfection alone fulfills all demands of life both here and hereafter.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Strictly speaking, above the mind-mesh there is only One Self — call it Atman, Dharmakaya, Ruh, Soul, or what you will. It is our aspect of it that gives it a name — seeing partly from below the mind-mesh and partly from above through realization — but the Reality in us is nothing but That.