1916-, Indian/British Sufi Master, Writer
Adversity
Those issues that you face are not fixed in time and space; they are relative to your particular viewpoint and subject to constant change. In fact, much of the pain caused by our problems stems in part from our own unchanging biases in terms of how we interpret our personal difficulties to ourselves.
Awakening: A Sufi Experience , 1999
Appearance / Form
All that shimmers on the surface of the world, all that we call interesting, is the fruit of inebriation and ignorance.
Ibid.
Art
The ultimate work of art is ourselves, our personality. We are each endowed with the faculty of being able to become what we want to become; life is a great loss if we don't avail ourselves of this potential.
Ibid.
Autonomy / Control
No force anywhere on earth is as imperialistic as the human soul. It occupies and is occupied in turn, but it always considers its empire too narrow. Suffocating, it desires to conquer the world in order to breathe.
in Lawrence LeShan, How to Meditate , 1974
Balance
The great skill of life is to be able to maintain the innocence of a child in one's heart while at the same time possessing mastery and control. The combination of these two modes of being is a great art.
Awakening: A Sufi Experience , 1999
Belief / Religion
The need for believers of many faiths who feel strongly compelled to free themselves from outdated belief systems such as dogma, superstition, customs, prescriptions, and hackneyed concepts is growing increasingly stronger. Here, doubt is not an enemy of faith, but a servant that can help liberate individuals from the constraints of narrow conditioning, replacing theoretical belief with direct mystical experience.
Ibid.
Cause
The future is not there waiting for us. We create it by the power of imagination.Wisdom for The Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing , © 2004