Behind us all is one spirit and one life; how then can we be happy if our neighbor is not also happy?
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Selfishness may begin with the thought, ‘As long as my country is benefited, that benefits me;’ and then it will narrow down to, ‘If my family is benefited, if we become wealthy and have desirable things, that is sufficient for the present!’ And then it narrows down again, ‘For my father, or mother, or husband, or wife, or children,’ until it ends in, ‘Nothing matters as long as I am happy myself.’ This person has now become cold, ignorant, and blind to the law that life depends on the happiness of those with whom we live. The whole of life is one. In all these different names and manifestations Life is One. The true thought is, ‘If my spouse is not happy, if my children, my neighbors, my servants are not happy, how can I ever be happy?’
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: Chapter 23 – The Desire of Nations )
Therefore the Prophets and Masters have warned humankind against the intoxication of self-interest and egoism. The world, the nation, the family can be pictured as one single body and when one part of the body has pain, although the other part has no pain, the person feels sick. Therefore you can never be happy unless you see your sibling and your neighbor happy also. But very few people think this way; very few see it from the true point of view. … For people must have a perfect ideal to which they direct their activities. When the ideal is imperfect, the progress is imperfect also. … The work of the spiritual person is to forget the false self and so to realize the true self which is God, and this true self not only in self, but in one’s neighbor also. All efforts as socialism, league of nations, all peace movements are striving to bring a better understanding, to bring peace and kinship but the ideal is not realized. It can be seen in the teachings of the Masters who have come from time to time to earth to give light to humanity. It does not mean that all these efforts directed to harmony and kinship are wasted, but the essential part is missing.
( from The Supplementary Papers: Part V – Kinship (Brotherhood) II , Section 2 – Kinship (Brotherhood) )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Happiness is the condition of the heart. Heart touches every other heart. What is wished in the heart is wished for all persons or is not wished. That is the test of wish in the head or in the heart. A Bodhisattva does not cease wishing; rather Bodhisattva’s wishes are for all humanity. This shows the nature of heart, which cannot and does not discriminate.
Can the unhappiness of another dull one’s spirit? No, sympathy does not mean to let the shadow of another fall upon one’s being; it is to let one’s light bring life to another. Spiritual gifts must be shared or they will be taken away from one, for they are for all of God’s children and not for a favored few.