Life is a continual series of experiences, one leading to the other, until the soul arrives at its destination.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
The truth is to be realized from all things, from religion, from philosophy, from science, from art, from industry. The only difference is that one takes a shorter way and the other takes a longer way. One goes round about and the other takes a straight path. There is no difference in the destination; the only difference is in the journey, whether one goes on foot or whether one drives, whether one is awake or whether one is asleep and is taken blindly to the destination, not knowing the beauties of the way.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness: Chapter 21 – The Meaning of Life )
‘I passed away into nothingness — I vanished; and lo! I was all living.’ All who have realized the Secret of Life understand that Life is One, but that it exists in two aspects. First as immortal, all-pervading and silent; and secondly as mortal, active, and manifest in variety. The soul being of the first aspect becomes deluded, helpless, and captive by experiencing life in contact with the mind and body, which is of the next aspect. The gratification of the desires of the body and fancies of the mind do not suffice for the purpose of the soul, which is undoubtedly to experience its own phenomena in the seen and the unseen, though its inclination is to be itself and not anything else. When delusion makes it feel that it is helpless, mortal and captive, it finds itself out of place. This is the tragedy of life, which keeps the strong and the weak, the rich and poor, all dissatisfied, constantly looking for something they do not know. The Sufis, realizing this, take the path of annihilation, and, by the guidance of a teacher on the path, find at the end of this journey that the destination was they themselves. As Iqbal says:
I wandered in the pursuit of my own self; I was the traveler, and I am the destination.
The individual soul is a shoot that springs from the all-pervading Spirit, its goal being its origin; and every attachment it has on its way is, no doubt, a detaining on the journey. The soul is never fully satisfied so long as it has not reached its destination. The love of the external world is a rehearsal before the performance, which is the love of God, the Inner Being.
( from Sangatha, Series II, Tasawwuf [ unpublished ] )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
There are three apparent aspects of Life, they being apparent not real. The first is the complete Pleroma, the fullness of all things, which is God, which includes all others and touches them within and without, and yet the Pleroma is not touched by them, even as the sun is not affected by earth or clouds.
Then there is the life in creation — for creation or prakrit [ Sanskrit: “ordinary”, “natural”, “arising from the source” (thus secondary and dependent) — Muiz ] or nature could not be if there were not Life. In its sphere of forms and forces, there is the interplay of mineral, animal, and vegetable worlds; into this arena one is drawn and becomes the prey of samsara [ Sanskrit: “wandering” or “world”, with the connotation of cyclic, circuitous change. It also refers to the theory of rebirth and the cyclicality of all life, matter, existence — Muiz ].
Then there is life as viewed from the individual standpoint, regarding each soul as separated; this is the human point of view and stands between the other viewpoints. But this view is an illusion, and the whole purpose of human existence is to enable us to escape this illusion.