The Grace Of God

Some of the temptations, the trials we face, have changed very little throughout the history of humankind.
The grace of God is that power which enables us to become useful, normal persons.
The grace of God is also manifest in our love for others, compassion for their problems, and a real willingness to help them.
The grace of God also manifests itself as peace of mind and serenity.
We can have abundant power, love, and serenity in our lives if we ask God for them each day.

I pray that I may see God's grace in the strength, love, and serenity in my life.
I pray that I may be grateful for the things I have received through the grace of God.

Making God A Reality

The work of the inner life is to make God a reality, so that He is no more an imagination; that this relationship that man has with God may seem more real than any other relationship in the world; and when this happens, then all relationships, however near and dear, become less binding.
But at the same time, a person does not thus become cold; he becomes more loving.
It is the godless man who is cold, impressed by the selfishness and lovelessness of the world, because he partakes of those conditions in which he lives.
But the one who is in love with God, the one who has established his relationship with God, his love becomes living.

The purpose of one's whole life
is to make God a reality.

Centered In God

Once I am born of the spirit, that is my life's breath.
Within me is the Life of life, so that I can never perish.
The Life down through the ages has kept God's children through peril, adversity, and sorrow.
I must try never to doubt or worry but to follow where the Life leads me.
How often, when I am least aware, God goes before me to prepare the way, soften a heart, or put aside a resentment.
As the Life spirit grows, my natural wants become less important.


I pray that my life may become centered in God more than in myself.
I pray that my will may be directed toward doing God's will.

Seek Him In All Souls

by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

As fruit ripens in the course of nature, so it is in the course of nature that the soul should mature; and it is no use being disappointed or disheartened about ourselves and about those near and dear to us, worrying because our husband, wife, father, or mother does not look at spiritual matters in the same way as we do.

In the first place no man, however wise or pious, has the right to judge another soul.

Who knows what is hidden behind every action, appearance, speech, and manner?

No one.

And when a person begins to know what is hidden in the human soul, in spite of all deluding appearances he will have respect, a respect for mankind, as he realizes that in the depth of every soul is He whom one worships.

Just as the religious person has a religious attitude in a temple, so the Sufi has that attitude before every being, for to him every being is the temple of the divine.

Therefore the Sufi is always before his Lord.

Whether a servant, a master, a friend, or a foe is before him, he is in the presence of God.

For the one whose God is in the high heavens there is a vast gulf between him and God, but the one who has God always before him -- he is always in God's presence, and there is no end to his happiness

God is in all things, and still more He is in all beings.

Seek Him in all souls, good and bad, wise and foolish, attractive or unattractive, for in the depth of each there is God.

Man swimming in the sea does not know the fish living in the sea, so we living in God do not recognize all souls living in God also.

He is all around and about us at every moment, we are living His life, we are breathing His breath, and yet we are ignorant of the perfection of beauty which unites and inspires every soul.

Seek Him in all souls,
good or bad,
wise and foolish,
attractive and unattractive;
in the depths of each there is God.

The Secret Of God

by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

The knowledge of God is beyond man's reason.

Man only perceives things he is capable of perceiving.

He cannot raise his imagination above what he is used to, and he cannot reach beyond his imagination to where the being of God is.

The secret of God is hidden in the knowledge of unity.

Man thinks, 'What can unity give me? Can it bring me happiness? What is there in it?'

He can get the answer by observing and studying life more closely.

See what an atmosphere the harmony of ten people can create; the power of love and the influence created by ten people is much greater than that created by one.

Think then what would be the blessing for humanity if nations, races, and communities were united!

The pairs of opposites keep us in an illusion and make us think, 'This is this, and that is that'.

At the same time by throwing a greater light upon things we shall find in the end that they are quite different from what we had thought.

Seeing the nature and character of life, the Sufi says that it is not very important to distinguish between two opposites.

What is most important is to recognize that One which is hiding behind it all.

Naturally after realizing life the Sufi climbs the ladder which leads him to unity, to the idea of unity which comes through the synthesis of life, by seeing One in all things, in all beings.

The knowledge of God is beyond man's reason;
the secret of God is hidden in the knowledge of unity.

The Purpose Of Life

By Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

As to the religion and the moral of the mystic, the mystic has one moral and that is love.

And he has one aim in his religion and that is to make a God a reality.

Therefore, his God becomes a greater God than the God of millions of people who only imagine that there is a God somewhere.

To him God is a reality.

The work of the inner life is to make God a reality, so that He is no more an imagination; that this relationship that man has with God may seem more real than any other relationship in the world; and when this happens, then all relationships, however near and dear, become less binding.

But at the same time, a person does not thus become cold; he becomes more loving. It is the godless man who is cold, impressed by the selfishness and lovelessness of the world, because he partakes of those conditions in which he lives.

But the one who is in love with God, the one who has established his relationship with God, his love becomes living ...

Why is it that among simple and illiterate people a belief in God is to be found, and among the most intellectual, there seems to be a lack of that belief?

The answer is that the intellectual ones have their reason.

They will not believe in what they do not see...

But the process that the wise consider best for the seeker after truth to adopt is the process of first idealizing God and then realizing God.

Among millions of believers in God, there is hardly one who makes God a reality, to so many He is an imagination, to many He is in a mosque, a church, or a temple.

Many wonder if God is really.

Many others think God is goodness, He is a personality separate from us, He is most high, most pure, most beautiful, but He is separate and difficult to reach.

Many think that as it takes so long to reach this planet or that, God must be further away still.

The purpose of one's whole life is to make God a reality.

What is Spirituality?

What spirituality means to me is having a relationship I nurture with the my Creator, however I define that.

It means believing I have an inner voice that is eager to offer me guidance whenever I are at a loss about what to do.

Practicing a spiritual life also relieves me of the burden of worrying about the future.

I know it will take care of itself, in the same way I'll be taken care of.

As I move through life, I continue to be confronted by conflict and problems over which I have no control.

That's the learning curve, nothing more.

I'll always be on this path.

The good news is that my response to the struggle will change in proportion to my willingness to seek God's help.

How I see God and my life should keep changing.

Will I do my part to open my eyes wider today?

Who do your serve?

Do you want the full and complete satisfaction that you find in serving God and all the satisfactions of the world also?

It is not easy to serve both God and the world.

It is difficult to claim the rewards of both.

If you work for God, you will still have great rewards in the world.

But you must be prepared to sometimes stand apart from the world.

You cannot always turn to the world and expect all the rewards which life has to offer.

If you are trying sincerely to serve God, you will have other and greater rewards than the world as to offer.

I pray that I may not expect too much from the world.

I pray that I may also be content with the rewards that come from serving God.

"I will never leave nor forsake thee."

"I will never leave nor forsake thee."

Down through the centuries, thousands have believed in God's constancy, untiringness, and unfailing love.

God has love.

Then forever you are sure of His love.

God has power.

Then forever you are sure, in every difficulty and temptation, of His strength.

God has patience.

Then always there is One who can never tire.

God has understanding.

Then always you will understand and be understood.

Unless you want Him to go, God will never leave you.

He is always ready with power.

I pray that I may feel that God's love will never fail.

I pray that I may have confidence in His unfailing power.

The Unseen

The spiritual life depends upon the Unseen.

To live the spiritual life, you must believe in the Unseen.

Try not to lose the consciousness of God's spirit in you and in others.

As a child in its mother's arms, stay sheltered in the understanding and love of God.

God will relieve you of the weight of worry and care, misery and depression, want and woe, faintness and heartache, if you will let Him.

Life up your eyes from earth's troubles and view the glory of the unseen God.

Each day try to see more good in people, more of the Unseen in the seen.

I pray that I may rest and abide in the presence of the unseen God.

I pray that I may leave my burdens in His care.

Cure for Disharmony & Disorder

The grace of God cures disharmony and disorder in human relationships.

Directly you put your affairs, with their confusion and their difficulties, into God's hands.

He begins to effect a cure of all the disharmony and disorder.

You can believe that He will cause you no more pain in the doing of it than a physician, who plans and knows that he can effect a cure, would cause his patient.

You can have faith that God will do all that is necessary as painlessly as possible.

But you must be willing to submit to His treatment, even if you cannot now see the meaning or purpose of it.

Why does God allow pain and suffering in the world

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed.

As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation.

They talked about so many things and various subjects.

When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: 'I don't believe that God exists.'

'Why do you say that?' asked the customer.

‘Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist.

Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people?

Would there be abandoned children?

If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain.

I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things.'

The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument.

The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.

Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long , stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard.

He looked dirty and unkempt.

The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber:

'You know what? Barbers do not exist.'

'How can you say that?' asked the surprised barber. 'I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!'

'No!' the customer exclaimed. 'Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.'

'Ah, but barbers DO exist!

That's what happens when people do not come to me.'

'Exactly!' affirmed the customer. 'That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world.'

Veiled Truth

The truth need not be veiled,
for it veils itself from the eyes of the ignorant.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Excerpts from commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

It is the deaf ears of the heart and the closed eyes of the soul which prevent man from seeing and hearing it. There is a verse of a Hindustani poet which says:

0' self, it is not the fault of the divine Beloved
that you do not see Him, that you do not hear Him.
He is continually before you and He is continually speaking to you.
If you do not hear it and if you do not see it, it is your own fault.

It is for this purpose that every soul has been created and it is in the fulfillment of this that man fulfills the object of God.

Man is the most egoistic being in creation. He keeps himself veiled from God, the perfect Self within, by the veil of his imperfect self, which has formed his false ego. ... and when the ego is absolutely crushed, then God remains within and without, in both planes, and none exists save He.

Spiritual House

All of us are given a spiritual "house" 

to build, to live in, and 

to hand on to future generations: 

what will yours look like?

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Enlightenment is the result

 of your thoughts being 

a certain distance apart.

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