We continue with the lecture presented by Hazrat Inayat Khan while sailing to New York near the end of 1925. The first portion of the talk may be found here.
We discuss and argue and dispute very often, on what? On a reason. Two persons disputing , each of them has a reason. Each one thinks his reason the right one. They may dispute for years and yet will arrive nowhere because the reason of each is different. Therefore, to think more is to see behind. And the moment one has begun to see behind reason, one will look at life quite differently. Then one finds that where one puts a blame, perhaps behind that blame there is something to praise, and where there is something to praise, perhaps there is a reason for blame. One will begin to see what is behind all things and that will give him the proof that the whole life is a kind of unfoldment.
The deeper you look at life, the more it unfolds itself, allowing you to see more keenly. If I were to say that life is revealing, it would not be an exaggeration. It is not only human beings who speak, but even plants and trees who speak and all nature, if only the ears can hear, speaks, in the sense that it reveals itself, reveals its secret, its nature. In this way, when we communicate with the whole of life, then we are never alone; then the life becomes worth living.
The thoughtful of all ages have considered the source of creation as one and the same. A great scientist will tell you today that the cause behind creation is motion, vibration. He will go so far and say, “It is motion”. But if from motion or vibration this manifestation has come before our view, then that motion is not lifeless. If that motion is life itself, then it is intelligent, although it is not intelligent in the sense we understand the word intelligence. We know the most limited sense of it; the limited brain we call intelligence. We say that one thing is intelligent because it is living and other thing where we do not distinguish life, we call this an unintelligent thing. In this way duality comes by our experience of defining what we call intelligent. But a scientist of India, visiting the West, was pointing out that even trees breathe. If that is true, then the trees are living. And if today it is proved that trees are living, it will also be found that stones are living, that all we see is living. Then it all comes from one source, which is the very life of all things, and not only life but intelligence also, that what religion calls God. Whatever we call it, it is the same. The difference is only in name.
The difference of religious faiths, where does it come from? From looking superficially. People discuss over things which in essence are the same. The difference is only in words. And it is a keen observation of life that in time wakens in us that sight that, when once the light is thrown upon life, life begins to reveal itself. As the great poet of Persia, Sa’di, has said, “Even the leaves of the tree become as sacred pages of the sacred book once the eyes of the heart are open.”
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Q.: What do you think is the best means to bring about better understanding and tolerance between those of different beliefs?
A.: I think that the efforts which are made by missionaries of different faiths to convert those who do not belong to their faiths, their efforts are of not great importance today. The efforts we can make today must be to bring about an understanding among the followers of different religions by the way of writing or speaking or preaching the religion instead of a religion, which means by trying to explain the truth of Christianity to the Buddhists in the realm of Buddhism, to the Christians Buddhism in the realm of Christianity. To compare with their own teachings, not in order to make a difference, but to make them understand that it is all the same thing, that the effort of every great teacher was to make humanity come to this understanding. But one community has said, “My church is the only thing which will save you.” The other said, “My temple or pagoda is the only thing worth while.” The great teachers had no desire to further the cause of any particular religion, community or church, but they wanted to bring about that religion which is the religion of humanity, which stands above all divisions. That service is of greater importance, which does not take away from religion, but puts a new light on the religion a person has, and makes a person more tolerant by the understanding of the ideal of the others.
To be continued…