It is more important to find out the truth about one's self, than to find out the truth of heaven and hell.

     Bowl of Saki, October 26, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

The awakened soul looks about and asks: 'Who is my enemy?' While the unawakened soul thinks that it is his neighbor or his relation who is his enemy, the awakened soul says, 'It is my self; my ignorant ego is my enemy; and it is the struggle with this enemy that will bring me light and raise me from the denseness of the earth.'

   from  https://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IX/IX_28.htm


When a person really wants to find the way, it is not very far from him. It depends on the sincerity of the desire to find it whether it is far or not. What is necessary for finding it is not much reading, or discussion or argument, but a practical study of self. One questions one's own self: what am I? Am I a material body, or a mind, or something behind a mind? Am I myself or my coat? Is this object "me," or something different? Is this body my cover, or myself?

   ~~~ "Supplementary Papers, Philosophy V", by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)


What is it then in man which says 'I' and identifies itself with what it sees? It is not our head or foot which says 'I' nor is it in the brain. It is something that we cannot point out which identifies itself with all these different parts and says 'I' and mine.

   from  https://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VIII/VIII_2_7.htm


There is One Truth, the true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of all wisdom. Hazrat Ali says, 'Know thyself, and thou shalt know God.' ... The Sufi recognizes the knowledge of self as the essence of all religions; he traces it in every religion, he sees the same truth in each, and therefore he regards all as one. Hence he can realize the saying of Jesus; 'I and my Father are one.' The difference between creature and Creator remains on his lips, not in his soul. This is what is meant by union with God. It is in reality the dissolving of the false self in the knowledge of the true self, which is divine, eternal, and all pervading. 'He who attaineth union with God, his very self must lose,' said Amir.

   from  https://wahiduddin.net/mv2/I/I_I_1.htm



   ~~~ It is more important to find out the truth about one's self, than to find out the truth of heaven and hell.