What is attainment?
The secret of life is the desire to attain something; the absence of this makes life useless. Hope is the sustenance of life; hope comes from the desire to attain something.
The one who strives to attain the things of this world finds the proof of having attained them by holding things. Spiritual attainment on the contrary wants to take possessions away. It does not even allow one to possess oneself.
The spiritual person without any possessions is still rich
The one who does not even possess himself is conscious of his own limitation.
Spiritual knowledge does not lie in learning something but in discovering something; in breaking the fetters of the false consciousness and in allowing the soul to unfold itself with the light and power
What does the word “spiritual” really mean? Spiritual means spirit-consciousness.
When a person is conscious of his body, he cannot be spiritual.
Every soul is born a king; it is only afterwards that he becomes a slave
An intellectual thinks that by adding to his knowledge he may attain spiritual knowledge. This is not so. The secret of life is boundless, but knowledge is limited.
The way of spiritual attainment is contrary to the way of material attainment. For material attainment one must take; for spiritual attainment one must give.
In material attainment one must learn. In spiritual attainment one must unlearn.
Neither objects nor beings are lost; they may be temporarily away, but, they are still there.
Nothing made can ever be destroyed.
No relations and consciousness are ever separable. The separation is outward; inwardly there is no separation.
Spiritual attainment is to be reached by the raising of consciousness from limitations to perfection.
Sufism avoids words, words from which differences and distinctions arise. Words can never express the truth. Words promote argument. All the differences between religions are differences of words. In a sense they do not differ, for they all come from one source and to the same source they return. The way of the Sufi is that if he does not agree with somebody in a particular idea he takes a step higher instead of differing on the lower plane. For the wise person there is no difference.
The main things that Sufism teaches is to divce deep within oneself and to prepare the mind and body for contemplation so as to make one’s being a shrine of God for which is the purpose for which it was created.
What is needed first, both for worldly and spiritual attainment is to gain self-discipline.
Many experience, although few now why that things go wrong when one’s self is not disciplined. Those who give way to anger passion, or emotions may seem for the moment successful, but they cannot continually succeed in life.
Very often misfortunes follow, and illness or a failure, the reason is that one’s weakness gives way to another and so the person who goes down continues to go down. It is naturally sometimes to take a downward step, for the path of life is not even. The wise way is to ensure that if one has gone down one step the next step should be taken upward. No doubt it means resisting the force that pulls one down, but only that resistance ensures the safety of life.
No matter how deep one has fallen, it is wise to raise one’s eyes upward and to try to rise instead of falling.
People who blame destiny for their failure take the way of least resistance. There are no difficulties in life that are really insurmountable, because they will become less for the man who struggles with life as he goes forward.
The man who takes his path easily finds that the difficulties become more numerous as he goes.
Difficulties rise over the head of him, who looks at them with ease.
Man is the king of his domain.
What is self-discipline?
It is to be able to say “I can” and not “I cannot”
Do doubt the words “I cannot” are often used when a person does not think it woul dbe wise to do a certain thing.
When a person says “I cannot tolerate, I cannot endure, I cannot bear, I cannot forgive,” these are the signs of a lack of self-discipline.
One must picture himself as two beings: one the king, the other the servant. When one of them expresses a wish, it is the king who wishes, and the part that says “I cannot” is the servant. If the servant says this the king is in the place of the servant. The more the servant rules the king obeys. In this way naturally conflict arises and that reflects upon the outer life; one’s whole life becomes unlucky..
If man does not realise the kingdom of God within himself nor realise his spirit to be a king, he does not accomplish the purpose of his life.
The secret of the working of the whole universe is in the duality of nature. In all aspects of nature two forces are working and it is their action which balances life.
Enthusiasm or action is not sufficience; knowledge and capacity for work are also necessary.
Power without knowledge may prove helpless.
Success, however small, is a step/forward to something greater.
The greatest fault of nature is that every man thinks that he knows best.
It is most difficult in life to possess power and knowledge, and together with these to have a clear vision.
The best way to keep the vision clear is by retaining the balance between power and knowledge.
One should remember that in the path of attainment one must first feel strong enough to bear the burdens of what one strives to accomplish.
Man must first become entitled to have what he wishes to have; this makes it easier for him to gain what he wishes to gain, it attracts him toward what he wishes.
Desiring is one thing, imagining is another. It is not imagination which help in the attainment, it is the earnest desire.
In the path of attainment one must keep the eye of justice open.
If the object is clear to one, then it is easier to attain.
Stages to attainment
The are four stages to attainment:
- The object one wishes to attain must be concrete and in one’s mind
- IT must be reasoned out how the desire can be materialised.
- The material is to be obtained and used for its purpose.
- Composing or the building of that object
Both the impulse to attain a thing and the control of that impulse are necessary. Very often a man loses the chance of attaining something through his over-enthusiasm which put his life out of balance. At the same time the power of impulse is a great power and the person who has no strength is his impulse must certainly lose. One should strike a balance between impulse. There must be impulse, but it must be under control.
The balance should be kept by realising that nothing which the Earth can offer is more precious than one’s soul.
In the path of attainment, confidence is necessary. Over-enthusiasm is intoxicating.
There are many child-like people who do not know what is their object in life. One minute they think it is one thing, another minute they think it is another thing. In the end they come to nothing because they have no object set before their view. No one can depend upon a person like this.
The person who does not know his own mind cannot help his fellow men
Truth is a thing that must be discovered. We have to prepare ourselves to realise it.
No blessing is more valuable than anything, for every blessing is attached to a confiction. Where there is no conviction there is nothing. The secret of healing, the mystery of evolving, the power of all attainments, and the way to spiritual realisation, will come from the strengthening of that believe which is a conviction, so that nothing can ever change it.
It is a great mistake for anyone to interfere with the conception of God held by another, or to think that another should have the same conception of God as he has himself. It is impossible.
Make God as great and as perfect as your imagination can. It is in order to help man to perfect God in himelf that the tecachers gave various prayers, the prayers to God. Calling Him the Judge, the Forgiver, the most Compassionate, the most Faithful, most Beautiful, most Loving. All these attributes are our limited conceptions. God is greater than what we can say about him.
A person who sees good points in others and wants to add what is lacking in others becomes nobler every day.
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