Man is made of two qualities: the receiving quality and the repelling quality, and this he shows in all aspects of his life. For instance physically he receives and at the same time becomes a kind of subject to the influences, to illnesses, all that his body accepts or admits in itself. For instance if there were two or three persons in the same atmosphere they are not affected in the same way. One receives even physical illnesses, one repels the same. Besides that there is one person who will take physical magnetism at once like a sponge, and another will reject it.
And when we come to the question of mind, we find the same tendencies working continuously. A person who is subject to receive worries and pains and sorrows and troubles and so on will attract these things to himself, while another person, wherever he goes, he attracts all joy and pleasure, even a little possibility of pleasure he will attract at once. One might ask what makes this so; what is it? And the answer is that what one collects in oneself he becomes that same thing. For instance in the form of food, way of living, in the way of sound, physical atoms that help him to live a life physically healthy. And so it is with the mind; if one is accustomed to absorb sorrow, then naturally he attracts the atoms of sadness which become his being. If a person is always accustomed to collect good impressions, joy, etc., he naturally becomes a happy person, he rejects what makes him unhappy.
It is therefore you find two opinions. If you asked one person: What is your opinion about the world, they will reply: The world is terribly gloomy, there is everywhere sorrow and distress, nothing to make it worth living—think to what extent sorrow exists, falsehood exists—it is not worth- while living. And you will ask another person who will say: Everything is to be found here, it is a privilege to live in this world; no promise of paradise will give him the desire to leave this. Does not this show that it is not the world but the person himself? It is that if there is a possibility of sorrow there will be every possibility here, and if there is a possibility of joy there is every opportunity. It depends entirely on what one is seeking for.
But one would say: no one would seek for sorrow, but although (. . . one does not know it?) there are persons who go automatically towards it. Myself I have seen people who after a malady of twenty years, part from it as if leaving an old friend. Only what happens is this, that one calls pain, sorrow an enemy, but it is a dear enemy. One who becomes accustomed to suffer the pain it becomes unconsciously his friend. As very often a person complains all the time of his friend, yet loves him well. It is not everyone’s work to decide definitely (for himself) what he is seeking.
The first step that a person makes in himself knowing what his soul seeks, that soul is blessed. What happens is that days pass and a man knows not veritably what he is seeking. Only after meeting the thing he knows what he seeks. If he practises even for a whole life in knowing he wanted, he would make a great progress.
A great yearning for happiness that gives happiness. It is so useless to say there so much good in suffering.
Besides that happiness is the nature of man and this being the original nature, man continues to desire happiness. No doubt if we look at life philosophically, nothing is wasted, suffering has its reward also. Nevertheless it is not a method through which to pass. Those who consider suffering a virtue, and desire pain, make a great error. If one could only pass through the suffering that life throws upon one, one has already done a great deal. In ancient times people, in order to arrive at spirituality, tortured themselves. It is not really meant, one should not imitate. Of course those who in order to make an experiment brought upon themselves that is an experiment. For an instance if a person, in order to . . . and went to the North Pole or venture in an aeroplane, and to a very far distant place—that is another thing. But suffering in itself is not really a virtue. The virtue is to fight it bravely and courageously, and with a hope that you will one day break the cloud, and come out of it. But one holds it,—it is my friend—, —I wish to have it, hold it—, I happen to see a great many cases of this sort.
Inayat Khan
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