The soul’s true happiness lies in experiencing the inner joy, and it will never be fully satisfied with outer, seeming pleasures. Its connection is with God, and nothing short of perfection will ever satisfy it.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
People say, ‘Let us enjoy ourselves and be happy; there is plenty of sorrow in the world without choosing to mourn,’ and they strive after happiness in whatever way they can. But these passing and momentary joys do not give lasting happiness, and the people who pursue them are either asleep or dead. The soul’s true happiness lies in experiencing the inner joy, and it will never be fully satisfied with outer seeming pleasures. Its connection is with God, and nothing short of perfection will ever satisfy it. … Everybody has an ideal in life, and that ideal is the religion of their soul, and coming short of that ideal is what we term sin. The thoughtful and serious-minded repent in tears for their shortcomings, and thus prove themselves to be alive, while the shallow are angry at their fall, and are ready to blame those who seem to them to have caused it.
In the Bible it is said that no one will enter the realm of God whose soul is not born again. Being born means being alive. It is not only a happy disposition or an external inclination to merriment and pleasure that is the sign of a living soul. External joy and amusement may come simply through the external being of a person. However, even in this outer joy and happiness, there is a glimpse of the inner joy and happiness, and that is a sign of the soul having been born again. What makes the soul alive? It makes itself alive when it strikes its depths instead of reaching outward. The soul, after coming up against the iron wall of this life of falsehood, turns back within itself; it encounters itself, and this is how it becomes living.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
All the experiences of the outer world may be the greatest hindrances or the greatest help, or they may neither hinder nor help. Pleasure stands in our way when we are so attracted toward pleasure that the heart is lulled to sleep. Pleasure also stands in our way when we become ascetics and so shun pleasure. In this condition we have escaped the material aspects of pleasure but may be more than ever bound by the thought of pleasure. Whether this thought be of a negative nature or a positive nature, whether we seek or shun, we are bound.
The soul does not seek, the soul does not shun. The soul is not concerned with thought. It is concerned with the experience of God and can find this without regard to pleasure. Any experience can lead to God. Any experience can increase the clouds over the mind and can harden the heart. It is only when all attachment to experience is abandoned — including all thought connected with the idea of attachment — that the soul can find its peace and rest in God, and be concerned with God no matter what the material or mental circumstances.