We continue with the series of teachings by Hazrat Inayat Khan on the subject of mysticism. The previous post in the series may be found here. The master’s description of the way in which a mystic harmonises with all might remind readers of this Nasrtuddin story posted earlier.

If you ask a person what is the nature of life, he will say, “The further we go in the strife for happiness the further we are removed from it.” This is true. But he takes the wrong way who does not know that unhappiness does not exist. Besides, happiness is more natural than unhappiness, as good is more natural than evil, and health than illness. And yet man is so pessimistic. If you tell him the good of anyone he cannot believe this to be true. But if you tell him the bad of a person, he says, “Yes, that is really true.”

The scripture of the mystic is human nature.

The work of the mystic therefore is to study life. For the mystic life is not a stage play or an amusement; for the mystic it is a school, to learn every moment of life. It is a continual study. Therefore the scripture of the mystic is human nature. Every morning he turns a new page of this scripture. And the Great Ones who have brought the Message to the world from time to time and whose books have become scriptures to the world, which has kept such scriptures for thousands of years, from which generations of people have taken their spiritual food, is their interpretation that they have given. And therefore the sacred scriptures are always with the same sacred feeling, always behind.

The mystic has a respect for all religions and he understands all the different and contrary ideas, for he understands everyone’s language. The mystic can agree, without having to dispute, with the wise, the foolish and the simple one. For he sees that the nature of facts is such that they are true in their places; he understands every aspect of their nature. The mystic sees from every point of view. He sees from the point of view of each person and that is why he is harmonious with all. A man comes to a mystic and says, “I cannot believe in a personal God, it means nothing to me.” Then the mystic answers, “You are quite right.”  Another man says, “The only way of making God intelligible is in the form of man.” The mystic says, “You are right.”  And another man says, “How foolish of these people to make of this man a God; He is above comprehension.”  And the mystic says, “You are right.”  For a mystic understands the reason behind all the opposing arguments. Once a missionary came to a Sufi in Persia, as he had desired to make a discussion and prove his point of view to be the right one about the Sufi teachings. The Sufi, in his silent, quiet attitude of rest, was sitting, and his two and three pupils by his side. And the missionary asked some questions. The mystic answered, “You are right.”  But the man went on to dispute and the Sufi said only, “That is quite true.” Then he took another turn and put his questions in an eloquent manner. The man was very disappointed as there was no opportunity for argument. The Sufi saw the truth in all. The truth is like a piano, the notes may be high or low, you may strike a C or an E, but they are all notes.

And so the difference between the ideas is like that between notes. So in daily life with the right and the wrong attitude. If we have the wrong attitude all things are wrong, if we have the right all things are right. The man who mistrusts himself, will mistrust his best friend. The man who trusts himself, will trust everyone.

Things which seem to be apart, such as right and wrong, light and darkness, form and shadow, before the mystic they come so close that it is only a hair’s breadth that divides right and wrong. Before the mystic there opens out an outlook on life, an outlook in which there is the purpose of life. The question which the mystic puts to himself is, ”Which is my being? My body? No. This body is my possession. I cannot be that which I possess.”  He asks himself, “Is it my mind?” The answer comes, “No. The mind is something I possess, it is something one witnesses. There must be a difference between the knower and the known.” By this in the end the Sufi comes to an understanding of the illusionary character of all the things he possesses. It is like a man who has a coat made; it is his coat, it is not himself.

Then the mystic begins to think, “It is not myself who thinks, it is the mind. It is the body which suffers, it is not myself.” It is a kind of liberation for him to know, “I am not my mind.”  For man wonders, “One moment I have a good thought, another moment a bad thought, a right thought or a wrong, one moment an earthly thought, the other moment a thought of Heaven. It is like a moving picture, and it is I who see, who am dancing there.”

By seeing this the mystic liberates his self, which, owing to his illusion, was buried under mind and body. What men call a soul, that was lost; it was a soul not aware of the mystical truth, that body and mind are the vehicles by which to experience life. And it is in this way that the mystic begins his journey towards immortality.

To be continued…