To become cold from the coldness of the world is weakness, to become broken by the hardness of the world is feebleness, but to live in the world and yet to keep above it is like walking on the water.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
The spiritual path is easiest if there is not something pulling one from behind; and that force is the life in the world, one’s friends, surroundings, acquaintances, and one’s foes. Remain, therefore, in the world as a traveler making a station on your way. Do all the good you can to serve and succor humanity, but escape attachment. By this in no way will you prove to be loveless. On the contrary, it is attachment which divides love, and love raised above attachment is like a rain from above nourishing all the plants upon the earth.
( from Sangitha, Series I: Nasihat [ unpublished ] )
There is only one thing that helps us to rise above conditions, and that is a change of outlook on life. This change is made practicable by a change of attitude. … For the Sufis, therefore, not only patience to bear all things is necessary, but to see all things from a certain point of view that can relieve them for that moment from difficulty and pain. Very often it is one’s outlook which changes a person’s whole life. It can turn hell into heaven, it can turn sorrow into joy. When we look from a certain point of view, every little pin-prick feels like the point of a sword piercing the heart. If we look at the same thing from a different point of view, the heart becomes sting-proof. Nothing can touch it. All things which are sent forth at us as bullets drop down without ever having touched us.
What is the meaning of walking upon the water? Life is symbolized as water. There is one person who drowns in the water, there is another who swims in the water, but there is still another who walks upon it. Those who are so sensitive that, after one little pin prick, are unhappy throughout the day and night are the people of the first category. Those who take and give back and make a game of life are the swimmers. They do not mind if they receive one knock, for they derive satisfaction from being able to give two knocks in return. But those whom nothing can touch are in the world and yet are above the world. They are the ones who walk upon the water; life is under their feet, both its joy and its sorrow.
Verily, independence and indifference are the two wings which enable the soul to fly.
To become cold with the coldness of the world is weakness, and to become broken by the hardness of the world is feebleness, but to live in the world and yet to keep above the world is like walking on the water. There are two essential duties for those of wisdom and love; that is to keep the love in our nature ever increasing and expanding, and to strengthen the will so that the heart may not be easily broken. Balance is ideal in life; one must be fine and yet strong, one must be loving and yet powerful.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
This is the very test of life and it affects humankind on all planes. Thus in the physical body, when we are losers in the battle of life, whether through our own weakness in the economic field or because of heedlessness, often this takes the form of cold in the extremities. This is due to poor circulation, which in turn is the result of lack of life-force in the heart.
The struggle for life is a battle and very often those who are unwilling to fight others are likewise unwilling to overcome their own weaknesses. This shows absence of life and power. The purpose of the purification of heart is in the highest degree scientific when viewed from this aspect, as the soul through the heart replenishes the energy in all of one’s vehicles down to the utmost cell.
From the emotional point of view, the order and rhythm of the circulation is necessary to maintain health and vigor, and also in order that one not be overcome through external forces. In meeting the struggles of existence, a bold posture is put on through concentration on the heart. This boldness is inner not outer; it is a fine courage which may be hidden by meekness and a true humility. It knows no fear, yet it disdains neither anger nor egotism. This shows the control of heart and will over mind.
And the mind, thus handled, may keep its opinions or change them. But mind is not opinion. Opinion is a fixation of mind due to the nufs. Opinions are like hardening and sculpturing mind-stuff into images and then worshiping the images. This is a kind of idolatry. Mind freed from opinion is the master-mind. In this the water element is symbolic of the mind-stuff (or akasha), which rises and falls but never sweeps over the head of the one who has mastery.