FROM: THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION
In spite of the justice and
injustice we see on the surface of this world, a keen insight into one's
own life will teach that there is no comparison between our faults and
our good actions. The good actions, in comparison to our faults, are so
few that if we were judged we should not have one mark to our credit. It
does not mean that justice is absent there. It only means, what is behind
law? Love. And what is love? God. And how do we see God's love, in what
form? In many forms; but the most beautiful form of the love-of God is
His compassion, His divine forgiveness. Considering these things, we realize
that we have a duty towards God.
(PURPOSE OF LIFE)
And it is, therefore, in the
knowledge of self that there lies the fulfillment of life. The knowledge
of self means the knowledge of one's body, the knowledge of one's mind,
the knowledge of one's spirit; the knowledge of the spirit's relation to
the body and the relation of the body to the spirit; the knowledge of one's
wants and needs, the knowledge of one's virtues and faults; knowing what
we desire and how to attain it, what to pursue and what to renounce. And
when one dives deep into this, one finds before one a world of knowledge
which never ends.
(PURPOSE OF LIFE)
FROM THE MYSTICISM OF SOUND AND MUSIC
Question: Why is it - if music
is rhythm - that so often musicians are temperamental and easily disturbed.
Answer: But is it not beautiful to have a little temperament? Life is unmusical
when there is no temperament. A person who does not get angry once in a
while does not live! It is human nature to have all kinds of minor faults.
The joy is in overcoming these faults. Music is not all sadness. There
are higher octaves and lower octaves. Music is all. That is why music is
even greater than heavens.
(THE PSYCOLOGICAL INFLUENCE OF MUSIC)
He overlooks the fault of others,
considering that they know no better. He hides the faults of others, and
suppresses any facts that would cause disharmony. His constant fight is
with the naf, the root of disharmony and the only enemy of man. By crushing
this enemy man gains mastery over himself; this wins for him mastery over
the whole universe, because the wall standing between the self and the
Almighty has been broken down.
(HARMONY)
Besides, reason is the servant
of the mind. The mind feels like praising a person - reason at once brings
a thousand things in praise of him, in his favor. The mind has a desire
to hate a person - at once reason brings perhaps twenty arguments in favor
of hating him. So we see that a loving friend can find a thousand things
that are good and beautiful in his friend, and an adversary will find a
thousand faults in the best person in the world - and he has reasons.
(REASON)
FROM: THE ART OF PERSONALITY
Crime is natural. If crime
were not natural, from where would it come? All men are subject to fault;
their very virtues develop into faults. The great teacher has therefore
taught patience, which means to be patient, and not to expect patience.
He has taught respect, which means to show respect, not to demand it.
(PROSTITUTION)
Faults? Everyone has faults.
Oneself, one's friend, and one's enemy are all subject to faults. The one
who wishes that his own faults should not be disclosed must necessarily
consider the same for the others he meets. The one who knows what the relation
of friendship is between one soul and another, the tenderness of that connection,
its delicacy, its beauty, and its sacredness, that one can enjoy life in
its fullness, for he is living; and in this manner he must some day communicate
with God.
(CHARACTER-BUILDING)
Free will is given to attend
to one's own duties, to gain one's own objects, to attend to one's own
affairs, and when that free will is used in trying to find out about others,
the weaknesses of others, the lacks of others, the faults of others, one
certainly abuses free will.
(CHARACTER-BUILDING)
To want to know about another
is very often a lack of trust. One who trusts does not need to unveil,
does not need to discover what is covered. He who wishes to unveil something,
wishes to discover it. If there is anything that should be discovered first,
it is the self. The time that one spends in discovering others, their lives,
their faults, their weaknesses, one could just as well spend in discovering
one's soul. The desire to know is born in the soul. But man should discern
what must be known, what is worth knowing. There are many things not worth
troubling about.
(CHARACTER-BUILDING)
How often man forgets that
although he is talking about someone in his absence, yet it is spoken in
the presence of God. God hears all things and knows all things. The Creator
knows about His creatures, about their virtues and faults. God is displeased
by hearing about the fault of His creature, as an artist would be displeased
on hearing bad remarks made by anyone on his art. Even though he acknowledged
the defect of his art, he would still prefer finding it himself, and not
anyone else. When a person speaks against someone his words may not reach
the other, but his feelings reach him. If he is sensitive he knows of someone
having talked against him; and when he sees the person who has been talking
against him, he reads all he has said in his face, if he be sensitive and
of a keen sight. This world is a house of mirrors, the reflection of one
is mirrored upon another. In this world where so many things seem hidden,
in reality nothing remains hidden; everything some time or other rises
to the surface and manifests itself to view.
(CHARACTER-BUILDING)
For those who really learn
to be just, their first lesson is what Christ has taught: 'Judge not, that
ye be not judged.' One may say, 'If one does not judge, how can one learn
justice?' But it is the one who judges himself who can learn justice, not
the one who is occupied in judging others. In this life of limitations
if one only explores oneself, one will find within oneself so many faults
and weaknesses, and when dealing with others so much unfairness on one's
own part, that for the soul who really wants to learn justice, his own
life will prove to be a sufficient means with which to practice justice.
(THE ART OF PERSONALITY)
We must give our every day's account
to God, our divine Ideal; lay before Him our shortcomings, humbly repentant,
without missing a day, and ask for help from Him who is almighty, to give
us strength and courage to do better tomorrow.
MORAL CULTURE
Sometimes by constantly dwelling
on the faults of the enemy one impresses one's own soul with the same faults,
and focuses them upon the soul of the enemy;if he lacks these faults, they
may by reflection develop in him and cause him to become a still more bitter
enemy.
(OUR DEALINGS WITH OUR ENEMIES)
When we see with the brain we see so many faults in others; but when we see through feeling, we can only try to reason out how we can justify their having done as they did, or at least tolerate their having done so, through weakness or by mistake, which is natural to every man since Adam, the father of humanity, was liable to faults.
The more feeling develops in
the heart of man, the more forgiving he becomes. For to him the world's
inhabitants appear as little children, just as small as they appear to
him who flies in an aeroplane; and as one is ready to forget the faults
of children, so the wise are ready to forgive the faults of men.
(OUR DEALINGS WITH WRONGDOERS)
There are cases where one cannot
show kindness; but yet one can be tolerant. There are cases where one cannot
forgive; and yet revenge, for a humane person, is an unnatural thing. One
can overlook the faults of another; and by that one will give less occasion
for disagreement and still less occasion for enmity.
(OUR DEALINGS WITH ENEMIES)
FROM HEALING AND THE MIND WORLD
The third way of purifying
the mind is by attitude; by the right attitude towards life. That is the
moral way and the royal road to purification. A person may breathe and
sit in silence in a thousand postures, but if he does not have the right
attitude towards life, he will never develop; that is the principal thing.
But the question is, what is the right attitude? The right attitude depends
on how favorably one regards one's own shortcomings. Very often one is
ready to defend oneself for one's faults and errors, and is willing to
make one's wrong right. But one has not that attitude towards others. One
takes them to task when it comes to judging them. It is so easy to disapprove
of others! It is so easy to take a step further and to dislike others,
and not at all difficult to take a step further still and to hate others.
And when one is acting in this manner, one does not think one does any
wrong. Although it is a condition which develops within, one only sees
it without; all the badness which accumulates within, one sees in another
person. Therefore man is always in an illusion; he is always pleased with
himself and always blaming others. And the extraordinary thing is, that
it is the most blameworthy who blames most. But it is expressed better
the other way round: because one blames most, one becomes most blameworthy.
(MENTAL PURIFICATION)
Purification of the
mind therefore means to purify it from all undesirable impressions; not
only of the shortcomings of others, but one must arrive at that stage where
one forgets one's own shortcomings. I have seen righteous people who have
accused themselves of their errors until they became error themselves.
Concentrating all the time on error means engraving the error upon the
mind. The best principle is to forget others and to forget ourselves and
to set our minds upon accumulating all that is good and beautiful.
MENTAL PURIFICATION
FROM SPIRITUAL LIBERTY
Some believers in God say in
support of reincarnation, 'God is just. There are many who are lame or
blind or unhappy in life, and this is the punishment for the faults they
have committed before, in a former incarnation. If it were not so, that
would be injustice on the part of God.' That makes God only a reckoner
and not a lover, and it restricts Him to His justice like a judge bound
by the law. The judge is the slave of law, the forgiver is its master.
In fact we ourselves, limited as we are, have mercy in us, so that often
if someone has done something against us we would forgive. If he only bows
before us we say, 'He has humiliated himself, I will forget.' Even if a
son has caused his mother much sorrow, when he is in trouble, he only needs
to say, 'Mother, I have done this, but you are the one to whom I can come
for sympathy', and she will say, 'My child, I forgive you, though at the
time it made me sad.' If we, who are full of faults and errors, have in
us that little spark of mercy inherited from God and can forgive, how can
we think that God, the most Merciful, will reckon our faults like a judge?
We are as little children before Him. Regarding God as a personal being,
how can we think that He, whose being is love, whose action is love, who
is all love, can weigh our actions as a judge would?
(REINCARNATION)
FROM THE ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS
It is of no use to praise God for
His beauty, and then to criticize and find faults in His creation; for
one's life to be prayerful one must always seek the good in man.
(THE PRAYERFUL ATTITUDE)
The second aspect of prayer
is laying one's shortcomings before the unlimited Perfection of the Divine
Being, and asking His forgiveness.
PRAYER
Everybody has an ideal in life, and
that ideal is the religion of his soul, and coming short of that ideal
is what we term sin. The thoughtful and serious-minded man repents in tears
for his shortcomings, and thus proves himself to be alive, while the shallow
man is angry at his fall, and is ready to blame those who seem to him to
have caused it. He is apparently dead. This shows that it is blessed to
mourn over our imperfections, and by so doing we are striving after perfection,
and thus fulfilling the command of Christ, 'Be ye perfect even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect.'
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MORN
When one does not realize the attitude
is wrong it means that at that time one closes one's eyes. The eyes do
not fail one; one closes them. Man does not like to admit his wrong attitude
to himself; he is afraid of his own faults. But the man who looks his own
error in the eye, the man who criticizes himself, has no time to criticize
others. It is that man who will prove to be wise. But human nature is generally
such that one does something quite different. Everyone seems to be most
interested in criticizing another. If one would criticize oneself, there
are endless faults, however saintly or wise one may be; there are no end
of faults in a human being; and the consciousness of correcting one's faults,
of making oneself better, of taking hold of the right attitude, is the
only secret of success, and by it one attains to that goal which is the
object of every soul.
(THE SECRET OF LIFE)
For with all the errors and
mistakes and shortcomings we find in our external life, we see a perfect
hand working behind it all. And if we looked at Life a little more closely
than we generally do we would certainly find that all the lacks and errors
and mistakes and faults add up to something, making life as complete as
the wise hand which is working behind it wishes it to be.
WHAT IS WANTED IN LIFE
The worldly struggle is outward struggle. The struggle on the spiritual path is inward struggle. No sooner does one take the spiritual direction than the first enemy one meets is one's own self. What does the self do? It is most mischievous. When one says one wants to fight it, it says, 'I am yourself. Do you want to fight me?' And when it brings failure, it is clever enough to put the blame on someone else.
Do all those who have failed in life accuse themselves? No, they always accuse another person. When they have gained something they say, 'I have done it.' When they have lost something they say, 'This person got in my way'. With little and big things, it is all the same. The self does not admit faults; it always puts the blame on others. Its vanity, its pride, its smallness, and its egotistical tendency which is continually active, keep one blind.
I remember a Persian verse made by my murshid which relates to the self: 'When I feel that now I can make peace with my self, it finds time to prepare another attack.' That is our condition. We think that our little faults, since they are small, are of no consequence; or we do not even think of them at all. But every little fault is a flag for the little self, for its own dominion. In this way battling makes man the sovereign of the kingdom of God. Very few can realize the great power in battling with and conquering the self.
But what does man generally
do? He says, 'My poor self, it has to withstand the conflicts of this world;
should I also battle with this self?' So he surrenders his kingdom to his
little self, depriving himself of the divine power that is in the heart
of man.
THE STRUGGLE OF LIFE 2
When we blame another person,
when we dislike somebody, we overlook the same element in ourselves. There
is no soul in the world who can say, 'I have not this in me'. If only he
were just! For mostly it is the unjust person who blames another. The more
just we become, the more silent will we be in all circumstances. If outwardly
we see faults in others, inwardly there is the sum total within ourselves.
For instance the little child cannot help loving. If a thief comes, or
a robber, the child wants to love him and smiles at him. Why is it? Because
a thief is not awakened in the child. The child is from heaven, the thief
from the earth. There is no place for him there; that is why he is no thief
to the child. We accept something because we already have it in us. If
we consider our knowledge, a thousand things we seem to have experienced,
we find that other people have told us most of them and we believed them
at once. As soon as a person tells us about someone wicked, we think, 'Now
we know, we can be quite sure about it'. But when a person comes along
and says, 'I have seen a most wonderful thing; this man is so good', everyone
thinks, 'Is it really true? Is it possible to be as good as that? Is there
not anything bad in him?' Good is unnatural to many people.
THE STRUGGLE OF LIFE 2
The further one goes, the more difficulties there are; one finds greater faults in oneself as one advances along the spiritual path. It is not because the number of faults has increased; but the sense has become so keen that one regards differently faults which formerly one would not have noticed. It is like a musician: the more he advances and the better he plays, the more faults he notices. He who does not notice his faults is in reality becoming worse. There is no end to one's faults. To think of them makes one humble.
To say, 'God is in me' before
one has realized this other, metaphysical aspect of truth, is not humble
but profane. God is in the depth of the heart, but to know this is of no
use when the doors of the heart are not open. It is the realization of
the innumerable faults which makes one humble and effaces the little self
from one's consciousness. And it is in the effacement of the self that
real spiritual attainment lies.
THE STRUGGLE OF LIFE 2
Man's contact with the outer
world is such that there is a continual mechanical interchange going on;
every moment of his life he is partaking of all that his senses allow him
to receive. Therefore very often the man who is looking for faults in others,
who is looking for evil, even though he may not be a wicked person, is
yet partaking unknowingly of all that is evil. Once deceived, a person
is always on the look-out; even with someone who is honest he will look
for deceit, as he holds that impression within himself. Thus a hunter who,
comes from the forest where he has just received a blow from a lion, will
shrink even from the caress of his mother; and when we consider how many
impressions, agreeable and disagreeable, we receive from morning till evening,
we realize how someone may become wicked without meaning to.
THE INTERDEPENDANCE OF LIFE WITHIN
AND WITHOUT
What is it to have self-discipline? It is to be able to say, 'I can' and not 'I cannot'. No doubt the words 'I cannot' are often used when a person does not think it would be wise or just to do a certain thing. In that case it is different. But when there is something he believes to be just, to be good, to be right and he still thinks, 'I cannot', it is then that self-discipline is lacking. When a person says, 'I cannot tolerate, I cannot endure, I cannot bear, I cannot forgive', these are all signs of lack of self-discipline.
Some people say, 'I cannot
rise above my faults.' The only way to overcome one's faults is by struggle,
struggle in the spiritual path. Such a struggle is faced for instance by
a person who during a disagreeable conversation has an inclination to retort;
he does so, but at the same time the power to fight, to give back, has
left him. By dispersing his force in returning insult for insult he has
lost his power. By controlling this inclination his power would have been
a thousandfold greater, although at the moment when something like this
happens, and one humiliates oneself and crushes one's pride and one's self,
one feels crushed both ways: by not answering and then by the crushing
of one's self. And to be able to say, 'I have answered him back!' gives
one a certain pride, a certain satisfaction.
THE PATH OF ATTAINMENT
There is still another side
to it: how much our favor and disfavor play their part in discerning right
and wrong. In someone whom we love and like and admire we wish to see everything
wrong in a right light. Our reason readily comes to the rescue of the loved
one. It always brings an argument as to what is right and what excuses
his wrong. And how readily do we see the faults and errors of the one whom
we disfavor; and how difficult it is for us to find a fault, even if we
wanted to, in someone we love! Therefore, if in the life of Christ we read
how he forgave those who were accused of great faults or great sins, we
can now see that it was natural that the one who was the lover of mankind
could not see faults; the only thing he could see was forgiveness. A stupid
or simple person is always ready to see the wrong in another and ready
to form an opinion and to judge. But you will find a wise person expressing
his opinion of others quite differently, always trying to tolerate and
always trying to forgive still more. The present is the reflection of the
past, and the future will be the echo of the present; this saying will
always prove true.
THE LAW OF ACTION
Then he rises to the state in which
he feels that all that is done to him comes from God, and when he himself
does right or wrong he feels that he does right or wrong to God. To arrive
at such a stage is true religion. There can be no better religion than
this, the true religion of God on earth. This is the point of view which
makes a person God-like, divine. He is resigned when badly treated, but
for his own shortcomings he will take himself to task, for all his actions
are directed towards God.
ACTION
The Sufis of Persia have classified the evolution of personality in five different grades. The first is the person who errs at every step in his life and who finds fault with others at every moment of his life. One can picture this person as someone who is always likely to fall, who is on the point of tumbling down; and when he falls he at once catches someone else and pulls him down with him. This is not rare if we study the psychology of man. The one who finds fault with another is very often the one who has the most faults himseIf. The right person first finds fault with himself; the wrong person finds fault with himself last; only after having found fault with the whole world does he find fault with himself. And then everything is wrong, then the whole world is wrong.
The next grade of personality is that of the one who begins to see the wrong in himself and the right in the other. Naturally he has the opportunity in his life to correct himself because he finds time to discover all his own faults. The one who finds fault with others has no time to find fault with himself. Besides he cannot be just; the faculty of justice cannot be awakened unless one begins to practice that justice by finding the faults in oneself.
The third person is the one who says, 'What does it matter if you did wrong or if I did wrong? What is needed is to right the wrong.' He naturally develops himself and helps his fellow-men also to develop.
Then there is the fourth man, who can never see what is called good without the possibility of its becoming bad, and who can never see what is called bad without the possibility of that bad turning into good. The best person in the world cannot hide his faults before him and the worst person in the world will show his merit to his eyes.
But when man has risen to the
fifth grade of personaLity, then these opposite ideas of right or wrong,
good or bad, seem to be like the two ends of one line. When that time has
come he can say little about it, for people will not believe him, while
he is the one who can judge rightly, yet he will be the last to judge.
THE LAW OF ACTION
A man may not always be able
to tell when an action is right in regard to particular circumstances,
or when it is wrong; but he can always remember this psychological principle,
and judge as to whether the action or word robs him of that inner strength
and peace and comfort which form his natural life. No man can judge another;it
is a man's self that must be his judge. Therefore it is no use to make
rigid standards of moral or social purity. Religion has made them, schools
have taught them, yet the prisons are full of criminals and the newspapers
are daily more eloquent about the faults of humanity. No external law can
stop crime. It is man himself who should understand what is good for him
and what is not; he should be able to discriminate between what is poison
and what is nectar. He should know it, measure it, weigh it and judge it;
and that he can only do by understanding the psychology of what is natural
to him and what is unnatural. The unnatural action, thought, or speech
is that which makes him uncomfortable before, during, or after it has taken
place; for his sense of discomfort is proof that in this case it is not
the soul which is the actor. The soul is forever seeking something which
will open a way for its expression and give it freedom and comfort in this
physical life. In reality the whole life is tending towards freedom, towards
the unfoldment of something which is choked up by physical life; and this
freedom can be gained by true purity of life.
PURITY OF LIFE
We have seen what it means
to purify the life of the body and of the mind; but there is a further
purity which is the purity of the heart, the constant effort to keep the
heart pure from all the impressions which come from without and are foreign
to the true nature of the heart, which is love. And this can only be done
by a continual watchfulness over one's attitude towards others; by overlooking
their faults, by forgiving their shortcomings, by judging no one except
oneself. For all harsh judgments and bitterness towards others are like
poison; to feel them is exactly the same as absorbing poison in the blood:
the result must be disease. First disease in the inner life only, but in
time the disease breaks out in the physical life; and these are illnesses
which cannot be cured. External cleanliness does not have much effect upon
the inner purity; but inner uncleanness causes disease both inwardly and
outwardly.
PURITY OF LIFE
What should we acknowledge?
That which we always escape from acknowledging, that is to say our faults.
By acknowledging our faults we shall kill them. But it is the one thing
we want to hide, that we want to keep hidden even from our own sight. To
look one's own fault in the face is the best thing one can do; to analyze
it, to weigh it, to measure it, and to understand it better. By this one
either destroys it or understands it, or one turns the same fault into
a merit.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
FROM: IN AN EASTERN ROSE GARDEN
We may think many people are doing wrong, yet we do not know what is wrong for them and what is not wrong; we do not know what is right for them and what is not right. We ourselves may be doing many things that we think right, but really are wrong to others; and others do things that appear to us to be wrong, and yet are acting rightly in their case. It is just a matter of looking at it from the other person's point of view.
How few there are in this world
who stop to think whether the actions of another are right for him! We
are so ready to accuse another, and we are so ready to hide our own faults.
Did we but took at right and wrong from his standpoint, we should find
that the meaning of right and wrong would change.
NATURES RELIGION
There are two aspects of our being: the will-power or governing power, and the vehicles, the mind and the body. Both are governed and controlled by that one governing power. In one aspect of our being we are king, in the other aspect we are minister, and in a third aspect we are servant. We are minister when our mind works, and we are servant when the body works. We are king when the will-power works.
When this power loses its control
over the mind, then our thoughts become disordered; they dwell in any regions
and wander on any lines, even those which our moral standard has perhaps
not drawn for them. And our body also works in a disorderly way when the
power of the will is lost. Therefore all illnesses, all failures, all disappointments
and faults in life are caused by just one thing: weakness of will-power.
WILL POWER
And no one would do wrong if his
will-power helped him to do right, for how could he do something which
the scripture of his own heart tells him to be wrong, had not his will-power
failed him? Therefore those who repent after their crimes, faults, and
failures show thereby that it is not that they wanted to do or have these
things, but that their will-power failed them. The will-power was not strong
enough to help them to carry out their own standard of good, as it should
help all men through the journey of life.
WILL POWER
Life in general is like a plant with thorns. Wherever we wish to take hold, there we find a thorn. The more our eyes are opened, the more, wherever we put our hand, do we get thorns, the thorns of selfishness; for every ego wants what is best for itself and is not ready to give. Yet if we tried out of curiosity to become a rose instead of a thorn, we would make our life worth while.
When we begin to see our own
faults, then we see how much more we should deserve the name of human beings.
CHARACTER AND FATE
The Qur'an says that Allah taught man by the pen of His nature. It is our nature to create and by creating our art in harmony with nature we can prove our skill. The art we produce is according to the nature of ourselves, for we are the creator.
Secondly, the picture appears
on the paper; this is the present stage. Thirdly, the picture itself inspires
the painter. As it progresses he sees that in a certain place there ought
to be a different color; this is not right, that is not right, and so on.
And as he looks at the picture, he sees its faults, and so he alters it
here and there. So it is with each life. One stage of our life is predestined,
the next part is that which we perform, and a third part of our life is
that which is the effect of our actions. As we sow, so we reap. All that
we do, we see in its reaction, and the reaction changes our life. The painter
sees he must finish the picture differently, and so our actions tell us
whether we ought to act differently.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF PAST, PRESENT AND
FUTURE
For friendship changes man's point of view. An unfriendly man, as soon as he sees another person, sees him from his own critical point of view. He has his preconceived ideas, and therefore he is not allowed by Providence to see the good side of the other. But the one in whom the friendly spirit is awakened always overlooks little errors, faults, mistakes; his sympathy and his love naturally help him to rise above the faults of man. That is the story of Jesus Christ, the friend of humanity, before whom the greatest sinners were brought; but the attitude of the Master was always forgiving. Those who brought them were unfriendly; the Master was friendly.
Life is as we look at it. If
we wish to find faults we can find faults in the best person in the world,
and if we wish to find good points we can fund good points in the worst
person in the world. It is as we see life
FRIENDSHIP 1
And the third important thing
in friendship is overlooking. No man in the world is faultless, no soul
in the world is perfect. If on our part there is no desire to overlook
our friends' shortcomings, there can be no more friendship. Friendship
is maintained by recognizing that a human being is imperfect, that he has
his faults and shortcomings. There is always something in him to overlook,
and if we go on doing so, there is always the possibility that he may develop
those very qualities which are lacking, for we may add to our friend qualities
that are wanting in him.
FRIENDSHIP 2
FROM: SUFI TEACHINGS
The person who sees the good in others
will see more and more good. The person with a fault-finding tendency will
see so many faults that at last even the good seems bad in his eyes; the
eyes themselves are bad.
BALANCE
Overlooking is the first lesson
of forgiveness. This tendency springs from love and sympathy; for of whom
one hates one notices every little fault, but of whom one loves one naturally
overlooks the faults, and very often one tries to turn the faults into
merits. Life has endless things which suggest beauty, and numberless things
which suggest ugliness. There is no end to the merits and no end to the
faults, and according to one's evolution is one's outlook on life.
OVERLOOKING
One never can say, "I have
enough tact". It is never enough. A real tactful person, having proved
not to be tactful enough in his everyday life, finds more faults with himself
than a tactless person. As one becomes more tactful so one finds more fault
with oneself, because there are so many shortcomings: actions manifest
themselves automatically, words slip off from the tongue, and then the
tactful one thinks and sees that he did not do right. But as Saadi says,
"Once it is done then you, thoughtful one, repent of it. This is not the
time to repent, you ought to have controlled yourself first".
TACT
The Sufis say, "Neither are
we here to become angels", nor to live as the animals do. We are here to
sympathize with one another and to bring to others the happiness which
we always seek". Yes, there are many thorns on the path of life, but looking
at ourselves we see the same faults, if not more, as those of others which
prick like stings, like thorns. Therefore if we spare others the thorn
that comes out of us, we will give that much help to our fellowmen - and
that is no small help
TACT
Besides, when one idealizes
a person one wishes to cover one's eyes from all his shortcomings, one
wishes to see only what is good and noble in him; but there come moments
when the other side of that person is also seen, for goodness cannot exist
without badness and beauty cannot exist without the lack of it. Very often
beauty covers ugliness and ugliness covers beauty, very often goodness
covers evil and evil goodness; but both opposites are always present. If
not, man would not be man.
IDEAL
When one sees among one's friends, one's relatives, something which attracts one most it is perhaps the side of their nature which is innocence. People forgive those who are dear to them, they tolerate their faults. They say, "He is wrong, but he is innocent". There is a purity which is divine and which attracts everyone. Innocence is like a spring of water purifying all that is foreign to heart and soul.
How can we attain innocence?
Innocence is not foreign to our nature; we have all been innocent, and
by being conscious of that nature we develop it. By admiring, by appreciating
that nature we develop it too, for all things which we admire become impressions.
Those who have a bad nature but have collected good impressions will in
time turn their nature.
INNOCENCE
Question: How to attain peace when
our life is often so difficult?
Answer: No doubt, life is difficult
for many of us, but very often we make it even more difficult for ourselves.
When we do not understand the real nature and character of life we make
our own difficulties. I can assure you that in every man's life five percent
of his difficulties are brought about by the conditions of life, and ninety-five
percent are difficulties caused by himself.
Now you will ask: When the
difficulties come from ourselves, where do they come from? We do not like
struggle in life, we do not like strife, we only want harmony, we only
want peace. It must be understood, however, that before making peace war
is necessary, and that war must be made with our self. Our worst enemy
is our self: our faults, our weaknesses, our limitations. And our mind
is such a traitor! What does it? It covers our faults even from our own
eyes, and points out to us the reason for all our difficulties: others!
So it constantly deludes us keeping us unaware of the real enemy, and pushes
us towards those others to fight them, showing them to us as our enemies.
STRUGGLE AND RESIGNATION
All our errors and faults come
from impatience. It is not that the soul wants something which is wrong,
but we do not stop to weigh our acts. We seize upon the first thought that
comes to us without weighing or considering it. Nowadays the wish for variety
has grown so strong that we always wish for new surroundings, new friends,
new faces, and our thoughts change every moment. If we could hold our thought,
we should increase its power. We think, "It is only a thought, it will
pass". In reality, by our thought we create a spirit, a jinn, a genius,
that acts and works and achieves. The more patiently we think a thought,
the stronger the thought becomes.
PATIENCE
FROM: THE UNITY OF RELIGIOUS IDEALS
Friends, love is a great inspirer of law, and the one who has not love, he may read a thousand books of law, he will always accuse others of their faults and he will never know his own faults. But if love has wakened in your heart, then you do not need to study law, for you know the best law, for all law has come from love and still love stands above law.
People say that there will
be justice in the hereafter and we shall all have to show the accounts
of our deeds. In the first place, we ourselves do not know the account
of our deeds. Besides, if God is so exacting as to ask you of every little
evil everyone has committed, then God must be worse than man, because even
a fine man overlooks his friend's faults, a kind man forgives a person's
faults. If God is so exacting as that, He must be an autocratic God. It
is not true; God is not Law, God is Love. Law is the law of nature, but
God's Being is not Law, God's Being is Love. And therefore the right conception
of life and insight into right and wrong, good and bad, is not learned
and taught by book-study. As the Sufi says: all virtues manifest by themselves
once the heart is wakened to love and kindness.
THE SUFI'S RELIGION
The question arises in the
inquiring mind: If God is within man, all our troubles and difficulties,
our feelings and our attitude towards Him, our faults, are known to Him--what
need is there to express them in prayer? It is like saying, "Because I
love a certain person, why should I show it?" Expression is the nature
of life. When every part of man's mind and body expresses his feeling,
his thought, his aspiration, then it produces its full effect.
PRAYER
To ask forgiveness of another
produces a proper sense of justice in one's mind. He perceives the need
for asking God to pardon his faults. When he asks for forgiveness, that
forgiveness develops in his nature too, and he becomes ready to forgive
others. Christ says in His prayer, "Forgive us as we forgive others." The
virtue, the secret, is in that. By asking forgiveness of God, you give
up the desire to demand forgiveness from your fellow man, and you desire
to give forgiveness to him.
THE EFFECT OF PRAYER
And then the question of the forgiveness of sin. Is not man the creator of sin? If he creates it, he can destroy it also. If he cannot destroy, his eider brother can. The one who is capable of making, he is capable of destroying. He who can write something with his pen, can rub it with his eraser from the surface of the paper. And when he cannot do it, then that personality has not yet arrived at completeness, at that perfection to which all have to go. There is no end to the faults in man's life, and if they were all recorded, and there was no erasing of them, life would be impossible to live. The impression of sin, in the terminology of metaphysics, may be called an illness, a mental illness. And as the doctor is able to cure illness, so the doctor of the soul is able to heal. And if people have said that through Christ sins are forgiven, that can be understood in this way, that love is that shower by which all is purified. No stain remains.
What is God? God is Love. When
His mercy, His compassion, His kindness are expressed through a God-realized
personality, then the stains of one's faults, mistakes, and wrongdoings
are washed away, and the soul becomes as clear as it has always been. For
in reality no sin nor virtue can be engraved or impressed upon a soul;
it can only cover the soul. The soul in itself is Divine Intelligence;
and how can Divine Intelligence be engraved either with sin or virtue,
or happiness or unhappiness? For the time it becomes covered with the impression
of happiness or unhappiness; and when these clouds are cleared from it,
then it is seen to be divine in its essence.
JESUS
FROM: THE PATH OF INITIATION AND DISCIPLESHIP
One person will perhaps learn nothing all his life, whereas another will learn all five lessons in a short time. There is a story of a person who went to a teacher and said to him, 'I would like to be your pupil, your disciple.' The teacher said, 'Yes; I shall be very glad.' This man, conscious of so many faults, was surprised that the teacher was willing to accept him as a disciple. He said, 'But I wonder if you know how many faults I have?' The teacher said, 'Yes, I already know your faults, yet I accept you as my pupil.'--'But I have very bad faults,' he said, 'I am fond of gambling.' The teacher said, 'That does not matter much.'--'I am inclined to drink sometimes,' he said. The teacher said, 'That does not matter much.'--'Well,' he said, 'there are many other faults.'
The teacher said, 'I do not
mind. But now that I have accepted all your faults, you must accept one
condition from your teacher.'-'Yes, most willingly,' he said. 'What is
it?' The teacher said, 'You may indulge in your faults, but not in my presence;
only that much respect you must reserve for your teacher.' The teacher
knew that all five attributes of discipleship were natural to him, and
he made him an initiate. And as soon as he went out and had an inclination
to gamble or to drink he saw the face of his murshid before him. When after
some time he returned to the teacher, the teacher smilingly asked, 'Did
you commit any faults?' He answered, 'O no, the great difficulty is that
whenever I want to commit any of my usual faults my murshid pursues me?
DISCIPLESHIP
Nevertheless a disciple will often
feel that since he became a disciple he finds many more faults in himself
than he had ever seen before. This may be so, but it does not mean that
his faults have increased; it only means that now his eyes have become
wider open so that every day he sees many more faults than before.
FOUR KINDS OF DISCIPLESHIP
FROM: PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, MYSTICISM
The knowledge that the mystic
seeks after is self knowledge, the knowledge of one's self, within and
without, the only knowledge that is worth attaining. It is contrary to
the general tendency of man; man always wants to know what is before him,
and that is why he sees more faults in another and less in himself. He
think that if anyone is wrong it is the other, because he is less conscious
of his own mistakes.
SELF-KNOWLEDGE
The more one understands oneself, the more one finds that everything that is lacking in others is also lacking in oneself. Does a person become less by finding faults in himself? No, he becomes greater, for he not only finds that all the faults which are in others are also to be found in him, but that all the merits of the others are also his own merits. With faults and merits he becomes more complete; he does not become less.
What a great treasure it is
when a man has realized that in him are to be found all the merits and
all the faults which exist in the world, and that he can cultivate all
that he wishes to cultivate, and cut away all that should be removed! It
is like rooting out the weeds and sowing the seed of flowers and fruits.
One finds that all is in oneself, and that one can cultivate in oneself
what one wishes.
SELF KNOWLEDGE
The difference between the wise and
the foolish is only this, that the foolish looks at another whereas the
wise looks at himself. Besides it is most wonderful to see how the person
who is most at fault sees many faults in others. Because he looks at others
he has not yet been able to look at himself, but the moment he begins to
look at himself he does not look at others any more; he then has so much
to look at in himself that both his hands are full.
THE TUNING OF THE SPIRIT
FROM: THE VISION OF GOD AND MAN
Overlooking the faults of others
with politeness, tolerance, forgiveness, and resignation is regarded as
a moral virtue in the East. Man's heart is visualized as the shrine of
God, and even a small injury in thought, word, and deed against it is considered
as a great sin against God, the Indwelling One. Gratitude is shown by the
loyalty of the Orient and by being true to the salt; the hospitality of
a day is remembered throughout all the years of life, while the benefactor
never forgets humility even in the midst of his good deeds. There is an
Eastern saying, 'Forget thy virtues and remember thy sins'.
EASTERN TRAINING
FROM: THE ESOTERIC PAPERS
Respecting another, enduring a person
or an action which is uncongenial to oneself, tolerating all, overlooking
the faults of others, covering the weaknesses that one finds in one's fellow-men,
willing to forgive, all these things are the first lessons in self-denial.
TRAINING BY ABSTINENCE
The ego is trained by a Sufi as a horse is trained by man. A bridle is put upon it and man holds the reins in his hand. This training is called by the Hindus Hatha Yoga, which means to gain the control of one's self by means of abstinence. Often, when man does wrong, it is not that he likes to do wrong, but that he is not able to prevent himself from acting in that way. In the first place, wrongdoing is almost always the consequence of the appetites and passions, or for the gratification of vanity. Fasting and special postures are often practiced by the mystics for the same reason. The more man gives way to the appetites and passions the more he is enslaved by them, until he reaches a state where he speaks and acts against his own conscience. Such faults as treachery, flattery, falseness, and all others of the kind come from lack of will-power and from giving way to the passions.
For training the ego it is not absolutely necessary to abstain from all physical desires; the idea is to master the desire instead of allowing it to master one. The complaint of every soul and the remorse of every soul is always of the same thing, the enslavement of man through yielding to his desires. One allows the desire to master one when one identifies oneself with the desire; and one pities oneself, which makes things worse. And the desire for the momentary joy becomes an excuse for having given way. For instance, a person who gets up later makes the cold an excuse; he had to, he says, because it was cold. Reason always supplies an excuse for everything. But one cannot escape the consequences, and the remorse that follows proves that a fault has been committed.
And once a person has accustomed himself to his faults, the sense of his fault becomes less keen; then he no longer troubles about them. Then he becomes a slave to his faults, he is like a worm, and his faults become his life. That is why in the language of the Hindus the word for hell means a place full of worms. In other words, he feeds on his faults and his faults find their nourishment in him. To a keen sight such cases are not rare. There are some cases that everyone can see, others are hidden.
Those who know its value consider
the training of the ego the most important thing in life. The first
lesson in this training is to ask, "Why must I have a certain thing?
Why must I not have it? If it is not good for me why should I have
it? And if it is good for me why should I not have it?" What
a person has acquired the habit of speaking with his ego in this way about
every physical appetite, he will always be able to do what he ought to
do.
GATHAS 2 MORALS - The Ego Is Trained
As a Horse
Verily, blessed are the innocent,
who do not notice anybody's fault, and the greater credit is to the mature
souls, who, recognizing a fault, forget it and so forgive. How true
are the words of Christ, "Let those throw a stone who have not sinned."
The limitations of human life make man subject to faults; some have more
faults, some have less, but there is no soul without faults. As Christ
says, "Call me not good."
GATHA 2 METAPHYSICS - FORGIVENESS
A good person proud of his
goodness turns his pearls into pebbles. A bad person, full of remorse
for his faults, may turn his pebbles into jewels.
GATHA 3 MORALS - SELFLESSNESS
There is generally a tendency
seen in those treading the spiritual path to feel discouraged at having
bad impressions upon their heart of their own faults and shortcomings.
And they begin to feel that they are too unworthy to have anything to do
with things of a sacred nature. But it is a great error, in spite
of all the virtue humility has in it. When one acknowledges something
wrong in oneself one gives that wrong a soul out of one's own spirit, and
by withdrawing from all that is good and beautiful, spiritual and sacred,
instead of developing the spirit of rejecting all errors, in time one becomes
a receptacle of what is wrong. He goes on disapproving and yet collecting
errors, so producing within himself a perpetual conflict that never ends.
When man becomes helpless before his infirmities he becomes a slave to
his errors, he feels within himself an obedient servant to his adversary.
The greater the purity developed
in the heart the greater becomes the power of man. As great the power
of man within himself so great becomes his power on others. A hair's
breadth can divide power from weakness, which appear to have as wide a
gulf between them as between land and sky.
GATHAS 3 - EVERYDAY LIFE - Reject
the Impression of Errors and Shortcomings
Every step one takes in evolution
changes one's ideal. In your stage, if you love a jasmine today,
it is possible that in your next step in evolution you may have grown above
it and you love a rose. And it is not necessary that you should keep
to the jasmine when your evolution brings you to the love for the rose
-- thus one is kept from progressing. Contentment is a great virtue,
but it is a virtue only when you have mastered the thing and risen above
it. But if you are contented before you have mastered, then contentment,
in that case, is a weakness. Things in themselves are not merits
-- neither are they faults -- but they become so by their proper
or improper use. Thus merits may become faults and faults become
merits. Therefore let the wise choose the path of wisdom, and by
that torch they may journey through life.
GITHA 1 THE PATH OF ATTAINMENT -
ATTITUDE
Prayer is a concentration and fear is a concentration, and as prayer brings things that are desired by the prayerful, so fear brings things that are feared, and in both cases mastery is absent. In the first case there is weakness owing to dependence upon another, and the other case, still greater weakness that makes one fear. Mastery lies in creative concentration of mind. The mind impressed by one's faults and by one's weaknesses becomes feeble and meets failures, and cannot hold a desired thought with hope and trust. In that case prayer alone comes to his rescue, when he thinks, "I am wicked and weak, but Thou art forgiving and almighty, my Lord. I have no power to accomplish my desire, but Thou are most powerful." In this way one can keep alive the flame of trust and hope, in spite of one's faults and weaknesses. Sometimes one can, and sometimes one cannot. One cannot when one's mind is too much impressed by one's weakness and faults, and when one thinks, "It is impossible that I shall be forgiven," and when one thinks, "God is too far away to listen to my prayers. I, the sinner, am living in the wicked world, and God, the Holy of Holies, is in Heaven."
Still worse is the condition
of that person whose mind is impressed by his faults and weaknesses and
has no God-Ideal to hold on to. He is neither here nor there.
But when man arrives at this conviction that he himself and God are not
two, and if God is the sun that his soul is the ray, and if God is the
root that he is the fruit, and if God is the sea, that he is its bubble,
then he becomes part of nature's government. He is no more a machine,
he is a man. He has a will of his own, which is not apart from the
will of God, and according to his self-expansion and according to his self-confidence,
and according to his power of concentration, he accomplishes things, even
such things that appear above human limited power.
GITHA 3 CONCENTRATION THE
ABSENCE OF MASTERY IN BOTH PRAYER AND FEAR
There are five principal stages of evolution recognized by the Sufis, named as five conditions of Nafs, the ego. Every condition of the ego shows its pitch of evolution. As there are five elements, and five notes recognized by the ancient musicians, so there are five egos, each showing a certain pitch.
Ammara is the condition of ego when it is blinded by passions. This shows the animal in man, and it is its fullness which is meant by the word "devil." Man absorbed in his passions and emotions is a kind of drunken person. He cannot always see the right, the right way in thinking, saying, or doing. No doubt there are moments when every drunken person is sober, when he realizes his follies. But very often the longing for being intoxicated again sounds louder in his head, above the soft murmuring of his follies.
Lawwama is the condition of the mind which is full of thoughts, good and bad, over which the ego reigns, self covering the truth. He has bitterness or spite against another, or he has his ways of getting all he desires cleverly, or he finds fault with the others. He is worried about himself, anxious about his affairs, troubled about unimportant things; he struggles along through life, being confused by life itself. It is not that his passions and emotions trouble him, what troubles him is his own thoughts and his feelings.
Then there is the third, Mutmainna, the person who, after his troubles and struggles through life, has arrived at a certain state of balance, of tranquility, and, by having arrived at this stage, is beginning to enjoy, to some degree, the happiness which is within. He then concerns himself little with the others for his own happiness. He then troubles little with the others for their faults. He knows then how to throw off oneself the load of anxieties and worries that life in the world puts upon one's shoulders. He is then able to harmonize with others, to agree with others, and thus he brings harmony within himself, in his own atmosphere, and spreads harmony around and about him, harmonizing the whole atmosphere.
The fourth is Salima, who has arrived at a point where, though he be in the midst of the life of the world, yet he can rise above it. So life does not trouble him so much as it can trouble others. To him life is of no importance. Yet he fulfills his obligations, his duties in the world in the same way as everyone else. He is the one of whom it maybe said that he is "in the world but is not of the world." His love embraces every soul that seeks refuge under his influence. His peace stills the mind of all he meets, regulating it to the same rhythm as his own. When the soul has arrived at this point, it becomes a blessing to oneself and to the others.
And then there is the fifth, Alima, or God-consciousness. His language becomes different. You cannot understand what his "no" means, what his "yes" means. You cannot very well comprehend the meaning of his smiles or of his tears. He may be sitting before you, but his is not there. He may be speaking with you, and yet communicating somewhere else. He may be among all and yet absent. You may think you hold him; he is not there. It is this soul which proves the fulfilling of that purpose for which it came on earth.
The soul has not come to the
earth to die the death of helplessness or continually to suffer pain and
miseries. The soul has not come on earth that it may remain all through
life perplexed and deluded. The purpose of the soul is that for which
the whole creation has been busied, and the fulfilling of that purpose
it is which is called God-consciousness.
SANGATHA 1
When we consider faults, every person
has his faults; you will find unlimited faults even in your Murshid.
And if that is the condition of life, we shall be always in agitation about
another because of the faults of the other. If your Murshid himself
admits having numberless faults, you can naturally expect many more faults,
or at least as many, in the mureeds. In order to meet with such conditions
in life, the only thing is to tolerate, to endure, and to forgive.
And that one can do by thinking, "I am subject to faults also, and therefore
if I will endure, tolerate and forgive the trespasses of the others, I
shall be forgiven also." That you can do, not only with your co-workers,
also with your Murshid. For you know that Murshid does not claim
to do it, but tries it just the same.
SANGATHA 1 ADVICE
Among us we have our brothers and
sisters in this family of the Sufi Order. Everyone may have some
faults, as none of us can say that he is without them. But what is
the duty of real brothers and sisters? To cover the faults of one
another. When this tendency is not awakened, there is no sympathy
in that person. There is no oneness in that person who does not see
in the faults of another his own faults. It is the message of brotherhood
that we are working for.
SANGATHA 1
That was the lesson to understand human psychology in the right way. It is to see and not to see at the same time. It does not mean that one must close one's eyes to the faults of the others; that would be a wrong thing also, because then one will not be acquainted with human nature fully. If one is a student of human nature, if one is seeking after Truth, he need not close his eyes to the faults of the others to study them; and instead of reacting, one must find those faults in oneself. What generally one does is that one sees the fault of another and one never traces that fault in oneself.
It is very amusing that when two persons discuss another person's lacks, they become such great authorities, as if each of them never knew that the wrong that the third person does, he does. One talks with the other as if they were faultless for the whole life. By finding in oneself that which is lacking the others one corrects oneself, at the same time one studies human nature.
The next step toward the understanding of human psychology is to find out the cause behind the faults people have. For every person sees only the faults, he does not see the cause which is behind the fault. Sometimes the cause is in the mind of the person; sometimes the cause is in the body of the person; sometimes the cause is deeply rooted in his spirit. And as soon as one realizes these causes, then one realizes in oneself also the same cause hidden behind one's own faults.
And by reaching the cause and
by correcting oneself, one is able to understand another person better.
It is not by thinking, "We must be tolerant," that a person can be tolerant;
because knowing of the virtues is not necessarily living a virtuous life;
it is by seeing the cause of every fault in oneself that one is able to
have an insight in human nature.
SANGATHA 2
A person who sees cause and
effect of every word, of every thought, of every movement, of every change
of expression, that is the person who reads between the lines, that is
the person whose glance is like an X-ray; it sees through a person.
No doubt it is this person who will find more faults, lacks, wants in human
nature naturally, and it is this person who will be less affected by it
or at least less react upon it, overlook it and rise above it. The
person who sees the most complains the least, the person who sees the least
complains the most. The reason is that he does not see the lack,
but he sees the cause; and when he sees the cause he sees the effect. Is
there another study, history or geography or chemistry or science, another
study more interesting than this study of human nature? The study
of human nature builds a bridge between man and God.
SANGATHA 2
One need not trouble about anybody's
fault. And how far one is advanced, one must know that the more advanced
you are, the more faults one will find with oneself. I do not mean
that advancement adds faults; I only mean that advancement makes your sight
so keen that at every stage further, more faults manifest before you which
were perhaps unknown to you before. The attitude of the treader on
the spiritual path toward the wrong-doer must be tolerance, of forgiveness,
also of indifference.
SANGATHA 2
It is that person who will
cover the faults of another. It is that person who will screen the
lacks of another, who out of the sense of honor will have respect for another.
It is that person who out of the sense of dignity will appreciate the sense
of dignity in another.
SANGATHA 3
We learn in life much by our
faults and mistakes. If a person falls, he learns by his fall.
THE AIM OF LIFE 2
Q. Does the practice of not blaming others mean that we must not see the faults of anyone, that we rise above it? A. No. In the first place it is a question of self-restraint or self-control, politeness, kindness, sympathy, graciousness, of a worshipful attitude toward God, the Creator of all beings, Whose children we all are, good or bad. If any person's child happened to be homely in appearance, would it be polite to say before the parents "Your child is homely?" Then the Father-Mother of all beings is there, comprehending and knowing what is going on in every person's heart. He creates all, with their faults and merits. When we are ready to judge, it is certainly before the Artist Who has made them, not behind His back, but in His Presence.
If we realized this, it would
not be difficult to feel the Presence of God everywhere. Besides this,
there is always one's favor and disfavor connected with it. If we see more
faults, it means we close our hearts to the favorable attitude, and we
open our hearts to the unfavorable attitude in order to criticize them.
Yes, there comes a time after a continual practice of this virtue when
we see the reason behind every fault that appears to us in anyone we meet
in our life; we become more tolerant, we become more forgiving.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Another thing, the life of the individual is not in his control. Every rising wave of passion or of emotion or of anger or of wrath or of affection carries away his reason, blinds him for the moment, so that he can easily give in to mistakes, and in a moment's impulse can give way to an unworthy thought or action. Then comes remorse. But still, a man who wishes to learn, who wishes to improve himself, a man who wishes to go on further in his progress, at the thought of his faults and mistakes will go on, because every fault will be a lesson, and a good lesson. Then he does not need to read in a book or learn from a teacher, because his life becomes his teacher.
However one should not for one's personal experience wish for the lesson. If one was wise, one could learn the lesson from others, but at the same time one should not regard one's fault as one's nature. It is not one's nature. A fault means what is against one's nature. If it was in one's nature, it could not be a fault. The very reason that it is against one's nature makes it a fault. How can nature be a fault? When one says, "I cannot help being angry and I cannot help saying what I want to say when I feel bitter," one does not know that one could if one wished to. I mean to say, that he does not wish to, when he says, "I cannot help." It is lack of strength in a man when he says, "can't." There is nothing which he can't. The human soul is the expression of the Almighty and therefore the human mind has in his will the power of the Almighty, if only he could use that power against all things which stands in his way as hindrances on his journey to the goal.
By regarding some few things
in life as faults, one often covers up little faults, which sometimes are
worse than the faults which are pointed out by the world. For instance,
when a younger person is insulting to an elderly person, people do not
call it a very great fault. Sometimes such a little fault can rise and
make a worse effect upon his soul than the faults which are recognized
faults in the world. A person by a sharp tongue, by an inquisitive nature,
by satiric remarks, by thoughtless words, can commit a fault which can
be worse than so-called great sins.
RELIGION - RELIGION 1 - PURITY OF
LIFE
A man becomes a gentleman, not by becoming rich or in a high position. No, when the rough edges of his character are ut, just like a diamond, then he becomes a gentleman. and if one judged oneself, and did not judge the others, one will find how very difficult it is to become a gentleman. No doubt man keeps on in a kind of intoxication, not knowing his own faults.
He is always busy finding fault
with the others, always he is complaining that the rough edges trouble
him from the others, and so the whole life goes, the life which is the
greatest opportunity to rise and to become better. And that one who feels,
after having the rough edges of the other hurt, that says "the rough edges
on my part must also hurt the others," when he begins to cut those rough
edges, then he begins to learn the art. For other arts cannot be compared
with the art of personality. The character is not born with man's birth,
the character is built after coming here. But even if a person can call
himself a human being, still he has not yet known that greater art still,
which may be rightfully called a true religion.
ART AND RELIGION
FROM THE SAYINGS OF HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Those who try to make virtues out
of their faults grope further and further into darkness.
SAYINGS
We give way to our faults by being
passive towards them.
SAYINGS
Worrying about the faults of others
is an unnecessary addition to the worry we have over our own faults.
SAYINGS
I have learned more by my faults
than by my virtues; if I had always acted aright, I could not be human.
SAYINGS
Faults and merits both serve as steps
to those who go up as well as to those who go down.
SAYINGS
Great people have great faults, but
their greatness is their greatest fault.
SAYINGS
A great person is great with his
faults and merits.
SAYINGS
The lover is blind to the faults
of the one he loves, and the hater is blind to the merits of the one he
hates.
SAYINGS
Even the faults of the meritorious
soul become merits, and
even merits of the faulty one turn
into faults.
SAYINGS
One's own self has the right to accuse
oneself of one's faults, rather than anyone else.
SAYINGS
When we find faults and see no excuses,
we are blind to the Light which can free a person from his faults and give
rise to that forgiveness which is the very essence of God, and which is
to be found in the human heart.
SAYINGS
Love is the shower by which sin is
purified; no stain remains. What is God? God is love. When His mercy, His
compassion, His kindness are expressed through a Godrealized personality,
then the stains of sins, faults, and mistakes are washed away and the soul
becomes clear.
SAYINGS
Meet your shortcomings with a sword
of self-respect.
SAYINGS
O Thou, the Perfection of Love, Harmony
and Beauty! All-powerful Creator, Sustainer, Judge and Forgiver of our
shortcomings
SAUM