In the Greek story of Orpheus and Euridice there is a beautiful teaching on this subject. The first part of the story is that Orpheus loved Euridice, who was among the degenerated people, and that shows that love even tried to bring up, or to raise a soul so thrown down deep in the depth of the earth. And then Orpheus knew that Euridice was taken to the other world, and he began to sing the song by the power of which he won the gods of the lower worlds. And that shows us what power word has, what power sound has, and how it appeals to cosmic forces. Gods of the lower world were the cosmic forces, planetary influences, the conditions which were destined, the spirits, the powers that held in their hands the reign of destiny.
This also shows [us] Orpheus is according to Arabic, it means the knower, the one who has the knowledge of life. In Arabic the knowledge of life is called arifat, and the knower is called arif—that the real knowledge is the knowledge of sound, the knowledge of rhythm, the knowledge of word and of note, and of rhythm. It is this knowledge which gives mastery in the higher, or mystical, or psychological music. As there is a saying of Wagner that, who has the knowledge of sound, knows everything.
He pleased the gods of the lower world and they gave him the promise that Euridice will follow you, she follows you; the condition is that you will not look back. Now this is the point which is concerned with the subject; that faith should have continued to the end. And there is another point, that one may have faith when climbing stairs a hundred steps; one may go with faith ninety five steps and one may lose it at that time. Before four steps are still to be climbed, one may lose faith; doubt may come and the whole journey is [spoiled]. And that very often happens, and in the lives of so many people, that they are face to face with their success, and yet they fail. They have just approached what they have wanted and then they lose. Nearly in every person’s life you see it. And the greater the person the more you see this because the greater the person, the more powerful his faith. And therefore he will , he is able to see the play of faith. And at the same time it is just like sending the kite so far, and before it reached further, it dropped.
And that enemy which causes this is doubt. As Orpheus went by the power of faith, Euridice was drawn. His faith was drawing Euridice. As he was going forward in faith, so Euridice was coming, following him. He could have gone to the other side of the world and Euridice would have followed him. As much faith he had, so far Euridice followed him. And there came doubt, the worst enemy of man, and said, look if she is really there. As soon as he turned his back, Mercury was there to lift her up and take her away.
One might do something for his whole life and may accomplish it to a great extent. And by the lack of little more faith, one would lose it, and all that is done may be spoiled in a moment’s time. How long it takes for a house, to [be built] ? And how long it takes to destroy it? How long it takes to make a business really prosperous? And how long it takes to fail? One moment. When one learns this principle and thinks on this, one begins to see that the whole world with all that we hear and see and touch and feel, all this is illusion in the [face] of faith. Faith alone is reality, and compared with faith all else is unreal. But since we do not see faith with our own eyes, it is very difficult to call faith real and all else unreal, because faith we do not see. Our eyes cannot see it and we do not know where it is.
And now a question how one can find faith in oneself, how one can develop faith? One can find faith by practising self-confidence as the first thing. Even in the smallest thing, have self-confidence. And today most of them have the habit, especially here, to say with everything perhaps. It seems that a new word has come, and in France it is most used, for everything they say perhaps. Perhaps I will, it will happen. It is a kind of polite word, or a word of refined people to show themselves pessimistic. I can see their reason, because they think that it is fanatic and it is presumptuous and it is simple to say it will be, or it will come, or it will be accomplished, or it will be fulfilled. But to say perhaps, this makes us free from responsibility, of having committed ourselves. The more pessimistic a person, the more perhaps he uses. And this perhaps has gone so deep in souls today, that they cannot find faith.
And after once self-confidence is developed, the second thing is to trust another with closed eyes. And one might think that this is not always practical, and one might think that it might lead one to a great loss. But at the same time that loss will be a gain. And even a thousand gains, compared with the loss of faith, will be as nothing. A person is richer if he has trusted someone and lost something, than if he had not trusted someone and had something [preserved] that will be one day taken away from him, he could have just as well given it up.
But you might say that every simple person is inclined to trust another. Yes, but the difference between the wise person who trusts bravely, and the simple person who trusts readily, is a great difference. The wise person who trusts, if he is influenced by another person that he may not trust another person or you must not trust, or even if he had a certain proof, even then that habit of trusting will remain [with] him. But that simple person, oh, but what are you doing? You are trusting someone,who you must not trust, his trust will change. That is the difference between the simple and the wise person. The foolish person trusts because he does not know better, the wise person trusts because he knows that to trust is the best.
And the third step towards the development of faith is trust in the unseen, to trust in something which one does not see, which the reason does not show where it is, how it is, how it can be brought up, how it can be obtained, how it can be reached. One does not see the reason, one only sees that it must be done, it must come. And it is that trust in the unseen which is called trust in God. Then, when you do not see before you any sign of something that should happen, and yet when you think that yes, it must happen, it will happen, it certainly must happen, and you have no doubt, then your trust is in God.
Inayat Khan
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