When we look at the ocean, we can only see that part of it which comes within our range of vision; so it is with the Truth.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
As there is water in the depths of the earth, so there is Truth at the bottom of all things, false or true. In some places, one has to dig deep; in other places, only a short distance; that is the only difference. But there is no place where there is no water. One may have to dig very, very deep in order to get it; but in the depths of the earth, there is water, and in the depths of all this falsehood that is on the surface, there is Truth. If we are really seeking for the Truth, we shall always find it.
We with our learning become so proud that we think there is nothing else worthy of attention. We do not know that there is a perfection of wisdom before which we are not even like a drop in the ocean. We look at the surface of the ocean, yet we are so small that we cannot even be compared with one of its drops, limited as we are in intellect and knowledge. We seek to find out about the whole of creation, whereas those who have touched it have bowed before God, forgetting their limited selves. After that, God remained with them and spoke through them. These are the only beings who have been able to give any Truth to the world.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume IX – The Unity of Religious Ideals, Part I: Prayer )
When we consider the mystics and thinkers who look at life from a spiritual point of view, they all agree, be they Yogis, Sufis, Buddhists, or Christians — it does not matter which. When they arrive at a certain stage of understanding they all agree, they all have the same experiences, they all have the same realization to which they come in spite of all differences of form: those who look at the surface see variations, but those who look below the surface see One and the same Truth hidden beneath all religions, which have been given at different times by different masters. Naturally, therefore, the method of expression is different, but when one comes to the Essence it is all One and the same, and those who are spiritually evolved come to the conclusion that they do not differ one from the other in their belief.
All beliefs are simply degrees of clearness of vision. All are part of One Ocean of Truth. The more this is realized the easier is it to see the true relationship between all beliefs, and the wider does the vision of the One Great Ocean become. Limitations and boundaries are inevitable in human life; forms and conventions are natural and necessary; but they none the less separate humanity. It is the wise who can meet one another beyond these boundaries.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Nevertheless, it is possible to become one with the Ocean through selfless concentration, and it is also possible to become as one with Truth by selfless concentration. That light which falls below the mind-mesh depends upon the personality’s degree of awakening. To increase the light it is necessary to develop the personality, and for this there is a definite spiritual method, the chief point of which is the education of the heart, which is not so much an education but an increase in life’s experience. The more one can imbibe of Life itself, the more one can appreciate Truth, and when one reaches that stage when one feels at one with the whole stream of Life, one is not far from the goal.