Here in the conclusion of this text Hazrat Inayat Khan now begins to talk about practical ways of freeing oneself from ‘the mechanism.’ The first part of the text may be found here.

Very often people have asked me if there is any practice, any study, anything which one can do in order to develop will-power; and I have answered that yes, there are many practices and many ways, but the simplest and best practice which one can follow without being taught is to have one’s reactions always in hand.

‘I cannot endure’,’I cannot stand’, ‘I cannot sustain’, ‘I cannot have patience’, all mean to me, ‘I am weak’.

Such words as ‘I cannot endure’, ‘I cannot stand’, ‘I cannot sustain’, ‘I cannot have patience’, all mean to me, ‘I am weak’. By speaking thus we only admit in other words that we are weak. And can there be anyone in the world who is a worse enemy to us than our own weakness? If the whole world were our friend, that one enemy, our weakness, would be enough to ruin our life; but once this enemy is conquered we can stand against all those who come into conflict with us.

Now the question is how one should set to work in this development. One must also take into consideration one’s physical condition. The nervous system must be in a proper condition. It is from nervousness that man goes from bad to worse, and even a good person with good intentions may prove to be otherwise, for he may have good intentions but he cannot carry them out because his nerves are weak. What he needs is the habit of silence, of concentration, of meditation. A person who continually goes on talking or doing things and does not meditate for a while, who does not take a rest, cannot control his nervous system and keep it in order. If there is anything that can control the nervous system it is right breathing; and when that right breathing is done, together with a concentration of thought, then the nervous system is greatly fortified.

Besides there are many things which cause unhappiness, and these can often be avoided by keeping the nervous system in hand. When we look at it from a higher point of view, this can be done by denying the impulses which sometimes arise suddenly and which clamor for an answer. What is called self-denial is really this: that one controls one’s thoughts and wishes and desires and passions. But that does not mean retirement from life in the world; it only means taking oneself in hand.

 It is never too soon to begin control, and it is never too late to improve it. If that kind of education is given from childhood, wonderful results can be brought about. In ancient times in India, though one sees very little of it now, the youths were trained in asana, a certain way of sitting, of walking, of standing; and by that they first achieved control over their muscles and nerves. It would be of immense value if education today adopted both the study of controlling reactions and the practice of it in sports and gymnastics. If a youth of twelve to sixteen years could learn to breathe clearly and rhythmically and deeply enough, that alone would be something.

The control of the reaction will always give a certain amount of pain, but at the same time it is by suffering that one will gain the power to rise above it. But of course if it is not understood rightly one might endanger oneself. There is a danger in both cases; on one side there is a pit, on the other side there is water. There may be a person who by being afraid of getting hurt or oppressed by someone, is always keeping his thoughts and feelings suppressed; if he had expressed them he would have become a very bad man, but by not having been able to express them he has been ruined. Therefore one should develop one’s discrimination in order to analyze the reaction, to understand it before it is expressed. One should always ask oneself, ‘That which is in my hand now, shall I not throw it away? By throwing it away, shall I do something wrong? Where shall I throw it? Will it fall on my head? What will become of it?’ A man should know what he has in his hand. If in order to avoid breaking another person’s head he has broken his own head, he has done wrong too.

Then what should he do? He should first weigh and measure the impulses that come to him. Instead of throwing the impulse out automatically he should first weigh it, analyze it, measure it, and use it to the best advantage in life. A stone is not only used to break another person’s head or to break one’s own head, but is also used to build houses. Use everything where it will be most useful, where it will be of some advantage. All such things as passion and anger and irritation one looks upon as very bad, as evil, but if that evil were kept in hand it could be used for a good purpose because it is a power, it is an energy. In other words evil, properly used, becomes a virtue; and virtue wrongly used becomes an evil. For instance, when a person is in a rage, or when he really feels like being angry, if he controls that thought and does not express it in words, that gives him great power. Otherwise the expression has a bad effect upon his nerves. His control of it has given him an extra strength which will remain with him. A person who has anger and control is to be preferred to the person who has got neither.

Does not self-control take away spontaneity? Self-control gives a greater spontaneity. It develops thought-power; it makes one think first about every impulse, which otherwise would have manifested automatically. In other words: hold the word between the lips before it drops out.

Is impulse, before it is controlled, wrong in itself, or is it good? When one thinks about the origin of impulse one goes in quite a different direction of thought. Then one has to think in what direction it is facing; also of the direction of the mind, whether it is in illumination or in darkness. The mind is sometimes illuminated, sometimes in darkness. One should think about the condition of the mind at the time.

There is another thing to be considered in this connection: a person may have good intentions and his mind may be focused on good ideas; and then another with evil intentions and wrong ideas says or does something which automatically turns the mind of the first person to evil against his own will. There is the word of the Bible, ‘Resist not evil’. Sometimes evil will come like fire thrown by a person into the mind of another. A fire then starts in that mind which had been without it, and in reaction it too expresses that fire. To resist evil is to send fire in answer to fire; in other words to partake of the fire that comes from another. But by not partaking of it one casts the fire out and the fire falls on the person who threw it.