Friday, July 13, 2007

INSPIRATION

"In order to acquire spiritual knowledge, in order to receive inspiration, in order to prepare one's heart for the inner revelation, one must try to make one's mentality pliable, like water rather than like a rock."

Hazrat Inayat Khan


"If you happen to receive Divine Inspiration don't be proud of it for it comes to you by permission of God. When you have access to a certain spiritual stage never say that it is sufficient because there are countless other stages still to cover. As Muhiddin al-Arabi says, "Any end is only a stage towards Unity""

Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi

I thought I would try an experiment. I am posting the two sayings above about inspiration and asking my readers to comment on what they mean to them. Or you might give your own thoughts on Inspiration. I often do this in classes I lead. I will pose a question and then sit back and see what happens. One of the things that I always point out when doing this is there is no need to feel that you must be profound or extraordinarily meaningful. Just say what comes into your heart. It is a fear that most of us have; we fear that we are not clever enough to say something that will be important. We all have our story and we all have our particular point of view. So, what's your inspiration?

Love & Blessings, Musawwir

8 comments:

molly said...

Hi,
For the quote by HIK, my take is that the inquirant, preparing for inspiration, first quiets the mind and lets go of preconceived ideas, thoughts, judgments about the way things are supposed to be and our perception about how they are. From this more relaxed/empty state of mind, inspiration will find it's way in.

My impression of the second quote by Rumi is that everyone has the capacity to receive divine inspiration - it just might look, sound or feel different from mine or yours. My impression is that Rumi warns against letting the ego validify inspiration by categorizing it or giving it credence in order to falsely raise one above another.

For me, inspiration may come as an emotion, a feeling, a thought or idea different from what i have already heard. I have also found inspiration in words and deeds of others, in nature, and even in stressful situations.

thanks for asking.
love,
muhasaba

celticgoddess said...

Both comments have meaning to them. I have seen the one before. Inspiration comes from within and it takes time to adjust to any new feelings one may have.

Anonymous said...

Inspiration is the fruit of silence and loneliness.

Anonymous said...

let your mind open, dispell prelearned judgement and be accepting of new ideas..to grow spiritually.
Then when you do recieve a divine inspiration, accept it, be thankful for what the universe has given you and realize it is only one more step of growth to unity, there is more on this journey. Everyone on the journey is at a different stage but that makes no one person greater than the other.

Anonymous said...

"Inspiration is the fruit of silence and loneliness." I like that. Thank you.

Eklutna said...

I think I'm grateful to have a good idea who the immediate beings my inspiration comes through are. Perhaps I feel more "mentored," even though it's my assumption that there's only one source,

Amidha

P.S. Where are you, Musawwir? Still having computer problems?

Anonymous said...

When I was in fifth grade, I made a poster that proclaimed, "Inspiration is the delayed result of thinking hard," and everybody thought that I was a genius (or had stolen the idea from somewhere!)

Now I tend to think that inspiration is what the word really says--"breathing in." It's all out there to be breathed in, if we can only learn to breathe properly. And when we are paying attention, waiting for a clue, we are more likely to catch the hint.

During a recent Shahabuddin lecture, for instance, Shahabuddin was talking about the origin of sound in vibration and the sounds of the earth having a certain effect. He gave the example of birdsong, and as he finished the sentence, a bird outside trilled and chirped and the listeners all laughed softly.

"It's been doing that all morning," Shahabuddin said. "You just weren't attuned to it before."

I think that inspiration is like that. You are already looking for something, whether you are conscious of the looking or not. And then the looking opens you to the finding.

That's inspiration, I think.

Look at Rumi, whirling around his pole, SPEAKING his poetry, with its complex rhythm and rhyme scheme, its elaborate wordplay, its amazing subtle unity. If the Masnavi is not inspired, I have no idea what inspiration is. Mevlana just breathed in the Divine and breathed out divine poetry.

Anonymous said...

On the quote by HIK - One of the principles of practice for tai chi and kung fu is to 'flow like water'. Now, this may sound reasonable to you for tai chi but not kung fu. Isn't kung fu hard and forceful? The paradigm is that water is in fact the strongest natural force. It flows around obstacles, not wasting energy on doing 'battle', and in the process, in time, it molds and shapes the earth - even rock! Think of the Grand Canyon! So to be like water rather than rock is not to be not strong - but to allow your pliableness to be a strength.