To all SYs, my pranaam to a priceless gem from Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan

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" The Realization of the Inner Life

 

The principle of the one who experiences the inner life, is to

become all things to all men throughout his life. In every

situation, in every capacity, he answers the demand of the moment.

Often people think that the spiritual person must be a man with sad

looks, with a long face, with a serious expression, and with a

melancholy atmosphere. Really speaking, that picture is the exact

contrary of the real spiritual person. In all capacities the one who

lives the inner life has to act outwardly as he ought in order to

fit the occasion;he must act according to the circumstances, and he

must speak to everyone in his own language, standing upon the same

level, and yet realizing the inner life.

 

For the knower of truth, the one who has attained spiritual

knowledge and who lives the inner life, there is no occupation in

life which is too difficult; as a business man, a professional man,

a king; as a ruler, a poor man, a worldly man; as a priest or monk,

in all aspects he is different from what people know and see of him.

To the one who lives the inner life the world is a stage; on this he

is the actor who has to act a part in which he has sometimes to be

angry and sometimes loving, and in which he has to take part both in

tragedy and comedy. So also the one who has realized the inner life

acts constantly; and, like the actor who does not feel the emotions

he assumes, the spiritual man has to fill fittingly the place in

which life has placed him. There he performs everything thoroughly

and rightly, in order to fulfil his outer commission in life. He is

a friend to his friend, a relative to his relatives. With all to

whom he is outwardly related he keeps the right relationship with

thought, with consideration; and yet in his realization he is above

all relationships. He is in the crowd and in the solitude at the

same time. He may be very much amused, and at the same time he is

very serious. He may seem very sad, and yet there is joy welling up

from his heart.

 

Therefore the one who has realized the inner life is a mystery to

everyone; no one can fathom the depth of that person, except that he

promises sincerity, he emits love, he commands trust, he spreads

goodness, and he gives an impression of God and the truth. For the

man who has realized the inner life every act is his meditation; if

he is walking in the street it is his meditation; if he is working

as a carpenter, as a goldsmith or in any other trade or business,

that is his meditation. It does not matter if he is looking at

heaven or at the earth, he is looking at the object that he

worships. East or west or north or south, upon all sides is his God.

In form, in principle, nothing restricts him. He may know things and

yet may not speak; for if a man who lives the inner life were to

speak of his experiences it would confuse many minds.

 

There are individuals in the world who from morning until evening

have their eyes and their ears focused on every dark comer, wanting

to listen, or to see what they can find out; and they find out

nothing. If someone were to tell such people wonders, he would have

a very good occupation, the whole world would seek him. But such is

not the work of the self-realized man. He sees, and yet does not

look;if he were to look, how much he would see! There is so much to

be seen by one whose every glance, wherever it is cast, breaks

through every object and discovers its depth and its secret. And if

he were to look at things and find out their secrets and depths,

where would it end, and of what interest is it to him?

 

The inner life, therefore, is seeing all things and yet not seeing

them; feeling all things and not expressing them, for they cannot be

fully expressed; understanding all things and not explaining. How

far can such a man explain, and how much can another understand?

Each according to the capacity he has, no more. The inner life is

not lived by closing the eyes; one need not close one's eyes from

this world in order to live it, one can just as well open them.

 

The exact meaning of the inner life is not only to live in the body,

but to live in the heart, to live in the soul. Why, then, does not

the average man live an inner life when he too has a heart and a

soul? It is because he has a heart, and yet is not conscious of it;

he has a soul, and knows not what it is. When he lives in the

captivity of the body, limited by that body, he can only feel a

thing by touching it, he sees only by looking through his eyes, he

hears only by hearing with his ears. How much can the ears hear and

the eyes see? All this experience obtained by the outer senses is

limited. When man lives in this limitation he does not know that

another part of his being exists, which is much higher, more

wonderful, more living, and more exalted. Once he begins to know

this, then the body becomes his tool, for he lives in his heart. And

then later he passes on and lives in his soul. He experiences life

independently of his body; and that is called the inner life. Once

mart has experienced the inner life, the fear of death has expired;

because he knows death comes to the body, not to his inner being.

When once he begins to realize life in his heart and in his soul,

then he looks upon his body as a coat. If the coat is old he puts it

away and takes a new one, for his being does not depend upon his

coat. The fear of death lasts only so long as man has not realized

that his real being does not depend upon his body.

 

The joy, therefore, of the one who experiences the inner life is

beyond comparison greater than that of the average man living only

as a captive in his mortal body. Yet the inner life does not

necessitate man's adopting a certain way of living, or living an

ascetic or a religious life. Whatever his outer occupation be it

does not matter; the man who lives the inner life lives it through

all. Man always looks for a spiritual person in a religious person,

or perhaps in what he calls a good person, or in someone with a

philosophical mind, but that is not necessarily the case. A person

may be religious, even philosophical, he may be religious or good,

and yet he may not live the inner life.

 

There is no distinct outward appearance which can prove a person to

be living the inner life, except one thing. When a child grows

towards youth, you can see in the expression of that child a light

beaming. out, a certain new consciousness arising, a new knowledge

coming which the child has not known before. That is the sign of

youth, yet the child does not say so; he cannot say it, even if he

wanted to, he cannot explain it. And yet you can see it from every

movement that the child makes; from his every expression, you can

find that he is realizing life now. And so it is with the soul. When

the soul begins to realize the life above and beyond this life, it

begins to show; and although the man who realizes this may refrain

from purposely showing it, yet from his expression, his movement,

his glance, his voice, from every action and from every attitude,

the wise can grasp and the others can feel that he is conscious of

some mystery.

 

The inner life is a birth of the soul; as Christ said, that unless

the soul is born again it cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore the realization of the inner life is entering the kingdom

of heaven; and this consciousness when it comes to the human being

shows itself as a new birth, and with this new birth there comes the

assurance of everlasting life. "

 

THE INNER LIFE

The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan

http://murshid.net/the-inner-life/realization-of-inner-life.html