At the cost of one failure, the wise learn the lesson for the whole of Life.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
It happens very often that we find that those who have been successful in Life go on being successful, and that those who have once failed go on failing. Looked at this from a psychological point of view, the reason is that the first people were impressed by their success and so continued to be successful, and the others, who were impressed with their failure, continued to have failures because that impression suggested failure to them. But it is not because of the displeasure of God that unfortunate souls continue to be unfortunate in everything they do. It is that the suggestion of misfortune, of misery, keeps them miserable throughout their lives.
Reasoning is a faculty which the mystics use and which they may develop like anyone of common sense, any practical person. The difference is only that the mystics do not stop at the first reason, but wish to see the reason behind all reasons. Thus, in everything, whether right or wrong, the mystics seek for the reason. The immediate answer, however, will be a reason that does not satisfy them, for they see that behind that reason there is yet another reason. … The nature of Life is such that it easily excites the mind and makes one unhappy in an instant. It makes one so confused that one does not know where to take the next step. In contrast with this, the mystics stand still and inquire of Life its secret; and from every experience, from every failure or success, the mystics learn a lesson. Thus, both failure and success are profitable to them.
The ideal of a mystic is never to think of disagreeable things. What one does not want to happen one should not think about. [ This is not in the sense of psychological denial … where in conversation, and on the surface of the mind the thoughts of negative or disagreeable situations are avoided out of fear, all the while continuing, in the depths, to hold them and nurse them with the energy of a fear-based concentration. Rather one engages in ongoing conscious control over the direction of thoughts and feelings, steering them away from obsessive negative concentrations, and into more positive and productive channels, by cultivating an active, positive, and radiant attitude. Instead of expending time and energy in attempting to mentally prevent negative thoughts and feelings, which merely suppresses the activity on the surface, without addressing the concentration being held in the depths, the constant redirection of mental and emotional activity into positive channels slowly and gradually withdraws the vital energy from the negative concentrations, and over time extinguishes them, allowing for an integration of the surface and the depths — Muiz ] Mystics erase from the mind all the disagreeable things of the past. They collect and keep their happy experiences, and out of them, they make a paradise. Are there not many unhappy people who keep part of the past before them, causing them pain in their heart? [ Chewing on it, nursing it, revisiting the “story” about it again and again, wallowing in how bad, or painful, or unfair it was. — Muiz ] Past is past; it is gone. There is eternity before us.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
There is only one failure — heedlessness toward God. There are no other failures. We fail because we are blind or ignorant, and when we are sincere that which appeared to have been a failure will prove later to be a test which came to prepare us for a much greater success than we would have dreamed about, when that experience arose.