You can have all good things - wealth, friends, kindness, love to give and love

to receive - once you have learned not to be blinded by them, learned to

escape from disappointment, and from repugnance at the idea that things are
not as you want them to be.
Bowl of Saki, May 1, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
Do not expect much from friends. Why must they be as you want them to be? They are not made by
you. They are as they are. You must try to be for them what they expect you to be. It matters little if
your friend proves to you to be a friend. What matters is, if you prove to be a friend.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/XII/XII_III_1.htm


However evolved we may be with our education and experience, yet what are we really seeking?
Things from which we cannot derive any lasting gain. From these false things we gain the experience
that the things to which we have hitherto attached importance and which we have valued are things
that do not last. We learn at length that it would be wise to remember that all these objects and ideals
and aspirations which we have in life should be judged according to whether they are dependable or
not, lasting or not.

After we have perceived the truth that this or that is not to be depended upon, we find that it is not
necessary to renounce them all, to give up everything in life. We can be in the crowd just as well as in
seclusion in the wilderness. We can have all good things, wealth, friends, kindness, love to give and
love to take once we have learned not to be blinded by them, learned to escape from disappointment,
learned to escape from repugnance at the idea that the things are not as we would want them to be. A
man can still attend to business, he may attain wealth, he can carry out all those things, but now his
eyes are wide open; before, they were blind. This is the teaching of life. ...

It is not the actual literal renunciation which counts, it is the personal abandonment of belief in the
importance of transient things. ... If there is such a thing as saintly renunciation, it is renouncing small
gains for better gains; not for no gains, but seeing with open eyes what is better and what is inferior.
Even if the choice has to lie between two momentary gains, one of these would always be found to be
more real and lasting; that is the one that should be followed for the time. When we take the torch of
wisdom to show us our path through life, we will end by realizing what is really profitable in life and
what is not.
Those who have given deep thoughts to the world are those who have
controlled the activity of their minds.
Bowl of Saki, May 5, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:
He is thoughtful whose mind is directed by his will, whose mind fulfills his intentions, whose
mind is under the control of his intention. ... Only those who have controlled the activity of
their minds have given deep thoughts to the world. Those whose minds are working
mechanically like a machine, or just reflecting the activity of those around them, may appear
to be living beings, but the mystic would say differently; for it is not till a person has gained
mastery over his mind, till he is above this activity, that he is a ruling power, a true person.

When we think about it, we find that all the things that are accomplished in this world are
accomplished by the power of mind. ... Whatever man creates in science, in art, in
phenomena or wonder making, in poetry, in music, in pictures, in everything that he brings
into being, is all achieved by the power of mind. ... If he does not control his mind, he is not a
master but a slave. It lies with his own mind whether he shall be master, or whether he shall
be slave. He is slave when he neglects to be master; he is master if he cares to be master.

Mastery lies not merely in stilling the mind, but in directing it towards whatever point we
desire, in allowing it to be active as far as we wish, in using it to fulfill our purpose, in causing
it to be still when we want to still it. He who has come to this has created his heaven within
himself; he has no need to wait for a heaven in the hereafter, for he has produced it within his
own mind now.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VII/VII_16.htm


People pursue spirituality with their brain: that is where they are mistaken. Spirituality is
attained through the heart. What do I mean by the heart? Is it the nervous center in the midst
of the breast, the small piece of flesh that doctors call the heart? No, the definition of the
heart is that it is the depth of the mind, the mind being the surface of the heart. That in us
which feels is the heart, that which thinks is the mind. It is the same thing which thinks and
feels, but the direction is different: feeling comes from the depth, thought from the surface.
When thought is not linked with feeling it is just like a plant rising up from the earth, the root
of which has not gone deep. A thought without feeling is a powerless thought; it is just like a
plant without a deep root. A tree the root of which has gone deep into the earth is stronger,
more reliable, and so the thought deeply rooted in the heart has greater power.