To learn the lesson of how to live is more important than any psychic or occult learning.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
To learn the lesson of how to live is more important than any psychic or occult learning. Every day we think we have learned the lesson, But if we had, the world would have become a heaven for us now. We may seek the higher knowledge or the higher things, but the very smallest thing, the control of all the creatures of the mind, which seems as nothing compared with the higher knowledge, once learnt and acted upon is greater than all. …
Our selfishness shows itself in wanting to get the better of our fellow beings. If we developed humanity [ humaneness, benevolence ] we should do differently. We should be satisfied with a slice of bread if there were another in need, but as it is, it happens that even when we are fed ourselves, we do not wish anyone else to share the food. The human heart can only be really satisfied by knowing that the other person is happy. True pleasure lies in the sharing of joy with another. [ In the Buddhist teachings this sympathetic or vicarious joy is called Mudita — Muiz ] From the day that we realize this we begin to act as human beings; hitherto we have not done so even though we have human forms.
The hustle and bustle of life leaves us very little time to think of our general condition. The only news we receive is from the newspapers, and so we depend upon the papers for our ideas; and the intoxication of life leaves us very little time to think about the real meaning of life. When we look around us and consider the condition of the nations today, we find that in spite of all the progress, there is an increase in ill-feeling between them. Friendship only exists for self-interest. A nation only thinks about its own interest whether it has to deal with friend or enemy. …
What is needed today is an education that will teach humanity to feel the essence of its religion in everyday life. We are not put upon this earth to be an angel. We need not be praying in church all day long, nor go into the wilderness. We need only to better understand life. We must learn to set apart a certain time in the day to think about our own life and doings. We must ask ourselves, ‘Have I done an honest deed today? Have I proved myself worthy in that place, in that capacity?’ In this way, we can make our everyday life a prayer. …
[ This is a reference to the Islamic religious practice, and the Sufi mystical exercise of Muhaasibah, or Muhaasibat an-nafs (محاسبة النفس), from the root H-S-B. The Divine Name Al-Hasiib (also written Hasib or Haseeb), comes from the same root. Physicians of the Heart says that Al-Haseeb is the “action of the accounting of the full meaning of everything”, in the grammatical form of short ‘a’ long ‘ee’ which means Omnipresence, touching all points everywhere. Muhaasibah is a daily practice of loving, honest, and sober observation. It is a retrospection, self-examination with self-accountability, while remembering that this honest evaluation is held within the container of Divine Mercy. In equanimity one evaluates one’s internal and external behaviors and motivations and the impact they have on one’s Heart and on other, taking full responsibility for them. As such, it is not at all a self-flagellation, or condemnation, or judgmental punishment. Rather working to become completely accountable in this loving and forgiving way allows for a new beginning of what is possible. It brings Realization. — Muiz ]
The need of the world today is not learning, but how to become considerate towards one another. To try and find out in what way happiness can be brought about, and in this way to realize that peace, which is the longing of every soul; and to impart it to others, thereby attaining our life’s goal, the sublimity of life.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad) Samuel L. Lewis
Transcendental knowledge which is confined to the universe of limitation is subject to limitation. The knowledge of the psychic realm may take one beyond earth, but it does not take one to God. The knowledge of the mental and psychic and physical may seem to be without limit, yet it is nothing compared to the knowledge which transcends these spheres. Even all the heart can give as heart alone, separated from the pure stream of life, even that, which appears unlimited to the intellectual, even that is nothing to the comprehension of life itself which comes through self-sacrifice, through union with the source of all things and thoughts.