You cannot be both horse and rider at the same time.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
The ego has two sides: the first one is the one we know, and the next one we must discover. The side we know is the false ego which makes us say, ‘I’. What is it in us that we call ‘I’? We say, ‘This is my body, my mind, these are my thoughts, my feelings, my impressions, this is my position in life.’ We identify our self with all that concerns us and the sum total of all these we call ‘I’. In the light of Truth this conception is false, it is a false identity. If the hand is broken off, or a finger is separated from this body, we do not call the separate part ‘I’, but as long as it is connected to the body, we call it so. This shows that all the false ego imagines to be its own self is not really its self.
Besides, it must be remembered that all that is composed, all that is constructed, all that is made, all that is born, all that has grown, will be decomposed and destroyed, will die and will vanish. If we identify our ego with all these things which are subject to destruction, death and decomposition, we make a conception of mortality, and we identify our soul which is immortal, we identify our Self, with all that is mortal. Therefore, that is the false ego.
Now, coming to the most important truth about spiritual attainment: those who are thoughtful and wise, those who go into the spiritual path, do not take this path in order to perform wonders or to know curious things, to perform miracles or other wonderful things. That is not their motive. Their motive is to rise above the false ego and to discover the Real. That is the principal motive of spiritual attainment. For no one will consider it wise to be under a false impression, to be under the impression that ‘I exist,’ when one has nothing to depend upon in one’s existence. Therefore, striving in the spiritual path is breaking away from the false conception that we have made of ourselves, coming out of it, it is realizing our True Being and becoming conscious of it. No sooner do we become conscious of our True Being and break the fetters of the false ego, than we enter into a sphere where our soul begins to realize a much greater expansion of its own being. It finds great inspiration and power, and the knowledge, happiness, and peace, which are latent in the spirit.
By reasoning with oneself and by trying to study oneself analytically it is possible to get nearer to the true knowledge of one’s being. If we consider that every part that constitutes our being has its own name — the hand, the foot, every part of our being has a different name, quality and purpose, and even a separate form — what is it then in us which says ‘I’ and identifies itself with what it sees? It is not our head, hand or foot which says ‘I’ nor is it the brain. It is something that we cannot point out which identifies itself with all these different parts and says ‘I’ and ‘mine’ and knows itself to be the person who sees. This in itself is ignorance, and it is this which the Hindus have called avidya [ opposite of ‘vidya’. The Upanishads describe two types of knowledge: lower knowledge (ie outer knowledge – occupational information, religious sacrifices and rituals, obligatory duties, etc) and higher knowledge (of the Self, Atman, and the Supreme Self, Paramatman). The lower knowledge is often equated with ignorance (avidya) and the higher with true knowledge (vidya). Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan and Murshid SAM describe the same two categories referring to the lower as the knowledge of name and form, which Murshid SAM defines as operating ‘below the mind-mesh’, and True Knowledge, or Wisdom, which operates above the mind-mesh, free from the distortions, limitations, and mis-identifications of the ego-self, or nafs. — Muiz ].
How can you be that which you possess? You cannot be the horse and rider at the same time, nor can you be carpenter and tool at the same time. Herein lies the secret of mortality and immortality.
… The idea is that there is one sky which is our own being; in other words, we can call it an accommodation. What has taken possession of this accommodation? A deluded ego that says, ‘I.’ It is deluded by this body and mind and it has called itself an individual. When we have a ragged coat we say, ‘I am poor’. In reality our coat is poor, not we. What this capacity or accommodation contains is that which becomes our knowledge, our realization, and it is that which limits us. It forms that limitation which is the tragedy of every soul.
Now, this capacity may be filled with self, or it may be filled with God. There is only room for one. Either we live with our limitation, or we let God reign there in Unlimited Being.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume X – Sufi Mysticism: Sufi Poetry, Fariduddin Attar )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
You are either the positive pole or the negative pole, the teacher or the pupil, jelal or jemal, leader or follower. In another aspect, horse represents mind and rider Will; either the mind overshadows Will or Will directs and controls mind. There are no alternatives. But when one keeps in Darood and in unity with God, the part that one may play in the world does not matter. One may assume a seeming negativity [ that is, a responsive, lunar passivity rather than an active, solar positivity — Muiz ], but one’s full, honest, and real negativity is only toward God and God’s Messengers. Toward all the rest of the world, inwardly one keeps a positive atmosphere and attitude when one knows, and a negative (or receptive) one when one does not know.