Our spirit is the real part of us, the body but its garment. We would not find peace at the tailor’s because our coat comes from there; neither can the spirit obtain true happiness from the earth just because our body belongs to earth.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Spirituality is contrary to materiality. Those who are conscious of matter alone are material, those who become conscious of spirit also, are spiritual. Those who think, ‘I am my body’, and see no further, are material. They may as well say, ‘I am my coat’, and when the coat is worn out they may say, ‘I am dead.’ Those who are conscious of the spirit, to them their body is a coat, and as by taking off their coat they do not die, so even by the death of this body the spirit-realized soul does not die.
Once a person has advanced in spirituality, nothing matters to them — neither what they eat and drink, for they live in the spirit the most part of their life; for them the body is a coat and they do not care if it is full of holes or if it is patched. But for a person who has yet to develop spiritually and who follows a process, consideration is necessary; it is most necessary that the body should be kept pure, outwardly and inwardly, that it may become a suitable vehicle for the manifestation of the spirit.
Those who seek for happiness from external sources are never really satisfied. They imagine that if they could have a certain sum of money they would be happy, but if they get it they are not really content. They want more. No earthly happiness is lasting: it never remains. … The Bible says, ‘The spirit quicks, the flesh profits nothing.’ Our spirit is the real part of us. The body is but a garment. There is absolute peace in the abode from whence the spirit came, and the true happiness of the soul lies in that peace. As we would not find peace at the tailor’s just because our coat came from there, so the spirit cannot get true happiness from the earth just because the body belongs to the earth. The soul experiences life through the mind and body and enjoys it, but its true happiness lies in peace.
In order to gain this peace we have to begin with ourselves. There are fights going on within us between spirit and matter. Struggles for our daily bread, and want of peace in our surroundings. We must first get this peace within ourselves before we can talk of peace in the world. Then we must be at peace with our surroundings, and never do or say anything that disturbs that peace. All thoughts, words, and actions that disturb the peace are sin, and all thoughts words, and actions that create peace are virtue.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad) Samuel L. Lewis
Ishk keeps the parts of the body together, unifies the mind, coordinates the body, mind, and heart. Ishk brings joy and Ishk leads to peace. Ishk may be found in matter and yet out of matter. Without Ishk there could be no matter, yet the existence of Ishk is not dependent on matter. The spiritual life is the life in and of Ishk in other words, of love. This is true here now, heretofore, and hereafter. The word Logos which appears in the New Testament is nothing but a variation of Ishk; only it includes in its meaning Sound, Breath, and Intelligence. The best translation for Logos is Intelligence — in Sufi terminology, Ilm
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