three miracles of jesus

There

are three miracles of our

Brother Jesus not yet recorded in the Book:

the first that he was a man like you and me; the second that

he had a sense of humor; and the third that he

knew he was a conqueror though

conquered.

 

Kahlil Gibran

 

Why do

people hate Jesus,

or at least prefer the ethereal dead

version known as Christ? Because Jesus made

outrageous demands: Love your enemy,

renounce material possessions,

give all you have to

the poor.

 

Barbara Ehrenreich

 

A

conservative is

someone who admires radicals

centuries after they’re

dead.

 

Leo Rosten

 

 

Think of the life

of the great Master Jesus Christ

who was the soul of religion — one sees

that from beginning to end there was nothing

but love and forgiveness. The best expression of love

is that love which is expressed in forgiveness.

Those who came with their wrongs, errors,

imperfections, before the love, that was

all forgiven; there was always a

stream of love which

always purified.

 

Hazrat Inayat Khan

 

the mystic develops a wider outlook

like so

 

While some blame

another for causing him harm,

the wise one first takes

himself to task.

 

The worldly struggle is outward struggle. The struggle on the spiritual path is inward struggle. No sooner does one take the spiritual direction than the first enemy one meets is one’s own self. What does the self do? It is most mischievous. When one says one wants to fight it, it says, ‘I am yourself. Do you want to fight me?’ And when it brings failure, it is clever enough to put the blame on someone else.

Do all those who have failed in life accuse themselves? No, they always accuse another person. When they have gained something they say, ‘I have done it.’ When they have lost something they say, ‘This person got in my way’. With little and big things, it is all the same. The self does not admit faults; it always puts the blame on others. Its vanity, its pride, its smallness, and its egotistical tendency which is continually active, keep one blind.

By a study of life the Sufi learns and practices the nature of its harmony. He establishes harmony with the self, with others, with the universe and with the infinite. He identifies himself with another, he sees himself, so to speak, in every other being. He cares for neither blame nor praise, considering both as coming from himself.

If a person were to drop a heavy weight and in so doing hurt his own foot, he would not blame his hand for having dropped it, realizing himself in both the hand and the foot. In like manner the Sufi is tolerant when harmed by another, thinking that the harm has come from himself alone.

He overlooks the faults of others, considering that they know no better. He hides the faults of others, and suppresses any facts that would cause disharmony. His constant fight is with the Nafs (the self-centered ego), the root of all disharmony and the only enemy of man.

The mystic develops a wider outlook on life, and this wider outlook changes his actions. He develops a point of view that may be called a divine point of view. Then he rises to the state in which he feels that all that is done to him comes from God, and when he himself does right or wrong, he feels that he does right or wrong to God. To arrive at such a stage is true religion. There can be no better religion than this, the true religion of God on earth. This is the point of view that makes a person God-like and divine. He is resigned when badly treated, but for his own shortcomings, he will take himself to task, for all his actions are directed towards God.

 

Hazrat Inayat Khan

 

the pain of being stretched

bisa butler

 

Tagore says:

‘When the string of the violin

was being tuned it felt the pain of being

stretched, but once it was tuned then it knew why it

was stretched’. So it is with the human soul. While the soul

goes through pain, torture and trouble it thinks that it would

have  been much better if it had gone through life without

it. But once it reaches the culmination of it then,

when it looks back, it begins to realize why

all this was meant: it was only meant

to tune the soul to a

certain pitch.

 

Hazrat Inayat Khan

wahiduddin’s web

 

the source of light and darkness

ian bird, cape fear

 

One learns to understand

that there is a world in one’s self,

that in one’s mind there is a source of

happiness and unhappiness, the source of

health and illness, the source of light and darkness,

and that it can be awakened, either mechanically or at will,

if only one knew how to do it. Then one does not blame his

ill fortune nor complain of his fellow man. He becomes

more tolerant, more joyful, and more loving toward

his neighbor, because he knows the cause of

every thought and action, and he sees

it all as the effect of a

certain cause.

 

…Therefore, the work

of the mystic is to be able to read

the language of the mind. As the clerk

in the telegraph office reads letters from the

ticks, so the Sufi gets behind every word spoken to

him and discovers what has prompted the word to come out.

He therefore reads the lines which are behind man’s thought,

speech, and action. He also understands that every kind of

longing and craving in life, good or bad, has its source

in deep impression. By knowing this root of the

disease he is easily able to find out its cure.

No impression is such that it

cannot be erased.

 

Hazrat Inayat Khan

wahiduddin’s web