In the deeply inspiring text on the message of Christ, the second portion of which was recently posted here, Hazrat Inayat Khan makes the point that we are all born in a state of innocence, but that our purity and simplicity get covered over by our worldly experiences. The more worldly a person becomes, he tells us, the more the beauty and angelic attributes are covered by the knowledge of the complications of the world. As he develops, he tries to learn still more, and to bury the spirit of innocence as deep as possible, until the Christ-spirit is altogether covered. What he knows is what he has learned in this mortal life, this false life. And what can the knowledge of falsehood bring? Falsehood.

And of course, falsehood does not satisfy us. We reach for the glitter and the glitz because they grab our attention—we are easily dazzled by sensation and shine. But inevitably—sometimes sooner, sometimes later—the superficial will let us down. Happiness, the profound longing of every heart, cannot be built on impermanence.

And if, instead of the false, we wish to seek the true? The way to truth offered by the Sufi path is to remove the cover over the Christ spirit, to erase that falsehood from the soul. Hazrat Inayat says, Every process of meditation and concentration is to wash the soul of the stains of earthy experiences. The real use of any exercise or practises is that the Christ-voice may become audible, that the light may manifest.

This does not mean that the earthly experiences are somehow forgotten—that as a result of our meditations we will lose the memory, for example, of the television program we just watched, or our various passwords and pin codes, or how to find our way to the supermarket. It only means that we will see that worldly knowledge for what it is: a temporary mask over the eternal.

And when we are able to distinguish the mask from the reality, thenceforth wisdom guides us in our path through life, because we see with clarity what matters, and what does not.