God is within you; you are God’s instrument, and through you God expresses God’s own Self to the external world.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
In reality God is within us; we are the instrument of God and through us God experiences the external world. Prayer is the way of conveying the God within to the God without; and thought, speech and gesture make the prayer complete.
( from
Unpublished Papers from the Nekbakht Foundation Archives: Prayer – 8 May 1921 and 15 May 1921 )
The words ‘within us’ might confuse some people. They might think ‘within us’ means inside each one’s body; but that is because we are ignorant of our Self. We have a very poor idea of our Self, and this keeps us in ignorance of our real Self. If we only knew how large, how wide, how deep, how high is our being, we would think, act, and feel differently; but with all our width, depth, and height, if we are not conscious of them, we are as small as we think our Self to be. The essence of milk is butter, the essence of the flower is honey, the essence of grapes is wine, and the essence of life is wisdom.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: Chapter 34 – Intellect and Wisdom )
For the secret of all knowledge that one acquires in the world, whether worldly knowledge or spiritual knowledge, is the knowledge of the Self. For instance, music is played outside, but where is it realized? It is realized within. A good word or a bad word is spoken outside, but where is it realized? It is realized within. Then where is the realization of this whole manifestation, all this creation that stands before us in all its aspects? Its realization is within. And at the same time the error of humanity always continues. Instead of finding it within they always want to find it without. It is just like those who want to see the moon and look for it on the ground. And if they sought for thousands of years for the moon by looking on the earth, they will never see it. They will have to lift up their heads and look at the sky. And so with those who are in search of the mystery of life outside; they will never find it. For the mystery of life is to be found within.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
How is a priori reasoning possible? How is a posteriori reasoning possible? There must be something beyond mind to do this. If mind is greater than reason, then mind is essence and mind can of itself apprehend all things — then mind is creator and destroyer. In other words, Mind would be God. But since we actually find mind limited, and mind learning through reason, reason must be greater than mind.
But what is this reason? It is Logos, the Universal Sense. Intuition is not different from reason or antagonistic to it, but it is free from time-processes and also from spatial and egoistic influences. In other words, it gives the answer immediately, but it is the same answer as would come through reason.
This shows that there is something much deeper and more fundamental than mind, which mind cannot conceive but which mind can reflect. This is Soul, which is nothing but God. Mind is dependent upon reason and reason upon Soul. In other words, God is the true experiencer of all things Who uses the human mind as an observing station. We are only our thought of Self, but when our thought is identified with God’s thought, one becomes God. Such a one is called a Buddha, sometimes Mahatma.