Failure, either in health or affairs, means there has been lack of self-control.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
The control of the self means the control of everything. What does it mean when we see a person fail time after time, or another person succeed time after time? It is just a matter of holding the reins of our affairs in our hands. When there is no rein there is failure. Failure means that there has been lack of self-control, whether it is a failure in affairs or in health.
In everyday during speech and action what is most necessary is to have a control of speech and action, for one automatically gives way to a word prompted by an inner impulse. Afterwards one finds that one should not have said it or perhaps one would have said it differently. The same thing is with the action. One feels “I should not have done so” after having done something, or one thinks “I should have done differently”, but once it is done it is too late to do it otherwise. In human nature there is an inner urge to express oneself and that urge so to speak pushes a word out of oneself before one has thought over it. And this all shows the sign of lack of control over oneself. It also is a sign of nervousness. Very often a person tries to answer somebody who has not yet finished speaking. Before a sentence is completed the answer is given. Such answer given to an incomplete idea is often not right. What generally happens in such cases, is that one takes all things that come from outside in life too much to heart and allows the outer things and influences to go into oneself deeper than they are due. In this way one becomes sensitive and out of it rises nervousness.
In order to practise self-control in everything one does in everyday life, the best thing is to develop in one’s nature a certain amount of indifference. Every word that is said to one need not be taken to be so important that it should upset one’s whole being, disturb one’s balance and rob one of one’s will power. There are things that matter, but there are many things in one’s everyday life which do not matter much and one often is apt to put an undue stress upon them.
Independence is achieved by indifference. It does not mean that one should take no heed of what another does or says. It only means to discriminate between important and unimportant things of everyday life, that every necessary and unnecessary thing must not demand so much of one’s attention, thought and feeling.
… All one says and does, and all that one thinks and feels, makes a certain strain upon one’s spirit. It is wise to avoid every chance of losing one’s equilibrium. One must stand peacefully but firmly against all influences that disturb one’s life. The natural inclination is to answer in defence to every offense that comes from outside; by that one loses one’s equilibrium. Self-control therefore is the key to all success and happiness. Besides this there are many who feel urged and obliged to say or do because someone asks of them, and in this way get weaker and weaker. There are others who roughly fight against it; and in this way both are in the error. The one who is able to keep equilibrium without being annoyed, without being troubled about it, gains that mastery which is needed in the evolution of life.
No principle must be blindly followed. Spiritual economy is not always a virtue if it disturbs harmony, if it in any way keeps one back from progressing, if it puts one in a worse condition. However, it is most necessary to know the science of spiritual economy, how to guard against all influences in one’s everyday life which come to disturb our tranquillity, the peace of our soul.
Our lives are so absorbed in worthless things; very little time has been left to us to think about life and the mystery of it. Absorbed as we are in worldly things, all these will take away all our lives and thoughts. But a fuller life should be lived.
At the back of all the misfortunes of humanity, the lack of patience, of self control, of consideration and equilibrium, the one reason is: the lack of self-discipline. Wherefore all mystics say, the medicine of all diseases is this: to be master of life. … Be wise as the serpent, the Bible says. The serpent is, in its stillness, a symbol of wisdom. It can rest its body for hours together without moving. How difficult it is for many to be motionless for a quarter of an hour. They can hardly be still for one moment if the photographer tells them so.
So they have no control over their own life, and as long as they have no control over their bodies and minds, they cannot gain that control over their spiritual life, they can never attain to that inner vision which is the benediction of life.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Nufs is unable to direct affairs. Nufs has no wisdom, and cannot see ahead. Nufs urges one to eat delicious food but sees no illness resulting. Nufs caters to passions and does not recognize weakness until too late. Nufs surrenders to vice and puts the blame elsewhere. A person under the sway of nufs seldom attains success and quickly loses the greatest success no matter what pain and sacrifice were undergone in the attainment.
Self-control surely wins success in the end, for body, mind, and heart follow the true course. By it, one shapes the mind first and the destiny afterwards. That is true freedom of Will which achieves success in relation to the ideal.