The Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan      

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Volume

Sayings

Social Gathekas

Religious Gathekas

The Message Papers

The Healing Papers

Vol. 1, The Way of Illumination

Vol. 1, The Inner Life

Vol. 1, The Soul, Whence And Whither?

Vol. 1, The Purpose of Life

Vol. 2, The Mysticism of Sound and Music

Vol. 2, The Mysticism of Sound

Vol. 2, Cosmic Language

Vol. 2, The Power of the Word

Vol. 3, Education

Vol. 3, Life's Creative Forces: Rasa Shastra

Vol. 3, Character and Personality

Vol. 4, Healing And The Mind World

Vol. 4, Mental Purification

Vol. 4, The Mind-World

Vol. 5, A Sufi Message Of Spiritual Liberty

Vol. 5, Aqibat, Life After Death

Vol. 5, The Phenomenon of the Soul

Vol. 5, Love, Human and Divine

Vol. 5, Pearls from the Ocean Unseen

Vol. 5, Metaphysics, The Experience of the Soul Through the Different Planes of Existence

Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness

Vol. 7, In an Eastern Rose Garden

Vol. 8, Health and Order of Body and Mind

Vol. 8, The Privilege of Being Human

Vol. 8a, Sufi Teachings

Vol. 9, The Unity of Religious Ideals

Vol. 10, Sufi Mysticism

Vol. 10, The Path of Initiation and Discipleship

Vol. 10, Sufi Poetry

Vol. 10, Art: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Vol. 10, The Problem of the Day

Vol. 11, Philosophy

Vol. 11, Psychology

Vol. 11, Mysticism in Life

Vol. 12, The Vision of God and Man

Vol. 12, Confessions: Autobiographical Essays of Hazat Inayat Khan

Vol. 12, Four Plays

Vol. 13, Gathas

Vol. 14, The Smiling Forehead

By Date

THE SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS

Heading

Superstitions, Customs, and Beliefs

Insight

Symbology

Breath

Morals

Everyday Life

Metaphysics

Sub-Heading

-ALL-

1.1, The Power of Breath

1.2, The Culture of the Breath

1.3, Sending the Breath

1.4, Five Aspects of Breath -- 1: The Air Stream

1.5, 2: The Electric Current of Breath

1.6, 3: The Rhythm of Breath

1.7, 4: Breath the Bridge to God

1.8, 5: Breath the Vehicle of the Self

1.9, The Mysticism of Breath

1.10, Color and Sound

2.1, Swinging Breath

2.2, Regularity of Breath

2.3, The Life-Power

2.4, Full Breath

2.5, The Rhythmic Breath

2.6, Be Conscious of Every Breath

2.7, Direction of Breath

2.8, Breath in the Development of Mind

2.9, Contraction and Expansion

2.10, Communication Through the Breath

3.1, The Length and Breadth of Breath

3.2, Inspiration

3.3, Thought Reading

3.4, Nafs-i-Garm

3.5, The Unknown Dimension

3.6, Breathing and Meditation

3.7, Breath Is Likened to Water

3.8, Breath and Magnetism

3.9, The Subtle Waves of Breath

3.10, The Mystery of Breath

Vol. 13, Gathas

Breath

2.1, Swinging Breath

The breath is like a swing which has a constant motion, and whatever is put in the swing, swings also with the movement of the breath.

Fikr, therefore, is not a breathing practice. In Fikr it is not necessary that one should breathe in a certain way, different from one's usual breathing. Fikr is to become conscious of the natural movement of the breath, and picturing breath as a swing, to put in that swing a certain thought, as a babe in the cradle, to rock it. Only the difference in rocking is an intentional activity on the part of the person who rocks the cradle.

In Fikr no effort must be made to change the rhythm of the breath; the breath must be left to its own usual rhythm. One need not try even to regulate the rhythm of the breath, for the whole mechanism of one's body is already working rhythmically. So the breath is rhythmical by nature and it is the very breath itself which causes man to distinguish rhythm. What is important in Fikr is not the rhythm but the concentration. Fikr is swinging the concentrated thought with the movement of breath, for breath is life and it gives life to the thought which is repeated with the breath.

On the rhythm of the breath the circulation of the blood and the pulsation of the heart and head depend; which means that the whole mechanism of the body, also of the mind, is directed by the rhythm of the breath. When a thought is attached to the breath by concentration, then the effect of that thought reaches every atom of one's mind and body.

Plainly speaking, the thought held in Fikr runs with the circulation of the blood through every vein and tube of the body, and the influence of that thought is spread through every faculty of the mind.

Therefore the reaction of the Fikr is the resonance of the same thought expressing itself through one's thought, speech and action. So in time the thought one holds in Fikr becomes the reality of one's self. So he who contemplates on God in time arrives at a state where his self turns into the being of God.