The Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan      

        (How to create a bookmark)

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, Sense of Beauty and Sincerity

1.2, The Jarring Effect of the Ego of Another

1.3, "What is the Ego?"

1.4, What the Ego Needs and What It Does Not Need

1.5, Constant Battle With the Ego

1.6, The Animal Side of Man's Ego

1.7, Self-Consciousness

1.8, Vanity

1.9, The Three Parts of the Ego

1.10, Three Stages Through Which the Ego Develops

2.1, Necessity and Avidity

2.2, Training by Abstinence

2.3, The Two Sides of the Human Ego

2.4, Training Is As Well a Science As an Art

2.5, Training by Refraining from Free Impulses

2.6, The Ego Is Trained As a Horse

2.7, Training the Mental Ego

2.8, Humility

2.9, Forgiveness

2.10, "Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit"

3.1, The Manner of Friendliness

3.2, Adab (Respect) (1)

3.3, Adab (Respect) (2)

3.4, Respect

3.5, Khatir (Consideration)

3.6, Tawazeh (Sharing with Others)

3.7, Hay (Modesty)

3.8, Modesty

3.9, Ghairat (Honor)

3.10, Inkisar (Selflessness)

Vol. 13, Gathas

Morals

1.3, "What is the Ego?"

"Know thyself and thou wilt know God," said the great Sufi philosopher Ali.

To know the self is the most difficult thing in the world, because what man can perceive first is a part only of the self, a limited part. When man asks himself, "What is it in me that is I?" he finds his body and his mind, and in both he finds himself limited and apart from others. And it is this conception of his being that makes man realize himself as an individual.

If man dived deep enough within himself he would reach a point of his ego where it lives an unlimited life. It is that realization which brings man to the real understanding of life, and as long as he has not realized his unlimited self he lives a life of limitation, a life of illusion. When man in this illusion, says "I," in reality it is a false claim. Therefore everyone has a false claim of "I" except some who have arrived at a real understanding of the truth. This false claim is called in Sufic terms Nafs, and the annihilation of this false self is the aim of the sage. But no doubt to annihilate this false ego is more difficult than anything else in the world, and it is this path of annihilation that is the path of the saints and the sages.

One may ask, "Why should one take the trouble to annihilate the ego? Since life is full of pain and suffering why add to this suffering?" The answer is that even if an operation will cause one suffering, it is better to endure it in order to be cured.

The inborn nature of the ego is intolerance, that is its nature because there are other egos that jar it. It is therefore that when two cocks meet they want to fight. The reason is that the ego of one jars upon the other. Even a silent life, such as that of a rock, can jar upon another ego, for instance that of a bull, who wants to hurl himself upon it and break it with his horns.

It is the nature of the ego to exist alone, and it cannot allow another to exist. No doubt the reason is still deeper, it belongs to the deep side of metaphysics, but the moral aspect can be understood.

The finer an ego becomes the less it jars upon others. In the different degrees of evolution of man one sees this gradual development of the ego. There are people who seem to have no thorns, and yet they have a thorn which makes itself felt in the presence of another -- it is their ego. Others are like the rose with its softness, beauty and fragrance. No doubt not everyone is a rose, but everyone desires the rose and not the thorn.

The best training is to try to turn this thorny ego into a rose. It is very hard. And the finer and the more evolved the ego the harder life becomes for man. The higher and the more refined you are the greater trials you will have to go through in life; the more sensitive you become the more you will have to suffer. The thorn cannot hurt another thorn, but the slightest thing can hurt a rose. It is not surprising if an ego that has become a flower does not wish to live among thorns, but that is its destiny, and in spite of all sufferings it is preferable to be a rose rather than a thorn.

To return to the question why one ego jars another, the answer is that one must understand the nature of the other egos. When one dog barks at another and the other wags his tail, it is to let the other understand him and not fight with him. It is this moral that Christ taught from beginning to end.

If you wish to experience fully the beauty of life you must make your ego as fine as possible. This allows the grosser egos to come into contact. It is from that, that good and evil have come. It is always from the grosser ego that what we call evil comes, and it is from the finer ego that that comes which we call good.