Intuition – quotations from Hazrat Inayat Khan

1. Guidance and Intuition
There is a stage of evolution in one’s life when one arrives at a state when every question is answered by the life around him. The answer to his question comes as the re-echo of the very question. For every thought of a sage, everything becomes an accommodation to help it to resound, and in this resonance there is an answer. In point of fact the answer is in the question itself. The answer wells up from the depth of all existence, like the sound of a bell being struck, or the splash of water, or the crackle of the firecracker: each reveals its condition when struck, like the knock on the door.

There is a knowledge that one can perceive with the senses, and there is a knowledge that one can perceive with the mind alone, and a knowledge that can be realized by the soul.

It is the seer’s own soul that becomes a torch in his hand; it is his own light that illuminates his path. It is just like directing a searchlight into dark corners which one could not see before so that the corners become clear and illuminated. It is like throwing light upon problems that one did not understand before, like seeing through people with x-rays when they were a riddle before. He who looks at this marvel begins to see the divine evidence in every face, as a person can see the painter in his painting.

2. Universal mind
There is a still deeper sphere to which our memory is linked, and that sphere is the universal memory, in other words, the divine mind.

How is higher consciousness attained? By closing our eyes to our limited self and by opening our heart to the God who is all perfection, who is in heaven and on earth and who is within and without, the God who is all in all, who is visible, tangible, audible, perceptible, intelligible, and yet beyond man’s comprehension.

Spirituality is not a certain knowledge, spirituality is the expansion of consciousness. The wider the consciousness expands, the greater is one’s spiritual vision. And when once the consciousness expands so much that it embraces the whole universe, it is that which is called divine perfection.

3. Shaghal
In order to attain to inner knowledge the Sufi covers the other side of the soul, so that its mirror part may face the spirit instead of the outer world. As soon as he is able to accomplish this he receives inspirations and revelations.

Turn the eyes back, turn the eyes within. Then the same eyes that are able to see without are able to see within. Sometimes the third eye sees through the two eyes, and then the same eyes see things more clearly than they would otherwise.

When I open my eyes to the outer world I feel myself as a drop in the sea; but when I close my eyes and look within, I see the whole universe as a bubble raised in the ocean of my heart.

To gain insight into things the mystic enters into the depths of the whole mechanism of the universe.

The one who tunes himself not only to the external but to the inner being and to the essence of all things gets an insight into the essence of the whole being, and therefore he can to the same extent find and enjoy even in the seed the fragrance and beauty which delight him in a rose. He, so to speak, touches the soul of the thought. It is just as by seeing the plant one may get an idea of the root. And in this way things unknown are known and things unseen are perceived by the mystic, and he calls it revelation.

[re listening to Saut-e Sarmad:] A heavenly bliss then springs in the heart of a Sufi, his mind is purified from sin, his body from all impurities, and a pathway is opened for him towards the world unseen; he begins to receive inspirations, intuitions, impressions, and revelations without the least effort on his part. He is no longer dependent upon a book or a teacher, for divine wisdom, the light of his soul, the Holy Spirit, begins to shine upon him. As Sharif says, ‘I by the light of soul realize that the beauty of the heavens and the grandeur of the earth are the echo of Thy magic flute’. II p67

3. Spirit
The qualities of all things are to be found in their spirit rather than in the things themselves.

It is disclosure of one’s own spirit that unveils all things.

The created spirit (Angel Spirit) commands the forms and figures in which a man perceives himself and other beings – in dreams, and, in the one who has unveiled his perceptions, in the waking state. Gives access to realities ‘embodied’ in the subtle worlds.

There is a stage at which, by touching a particular phase of existence, one feels raised above the limitations of life and given that power and peace and freedom, that light and life, which belong to the source of all beings. In that moment of supreme exaltation one is not only united with the source of all beings, but dissolved in it, for the source is one’s self. It is just like touching the presence of God, when one’s consciousness has become so light and so liberated and free that it can raise itself and dive and touch the depths of one’s being.

4. Sensing, experiencing
The seer’s discerning of the condition of those before him and away from him is likened to the process of eating and digesting. The mouth distinguishes between sweet and sour, vegetable and cereal, but once food is swallowed, then what is felt about it is the feeling, not the outer distinctions but the inner essence. Therefore the seer re-analyses something which the person whom he sees has analyses with his mind. He becomes what his mind has experienced, and likewise with his soul.

5. Imagination
Every imagination is intuition until it has been corrupted by reason, and when the intuition is corrupted by reason it becomes fantasy. For as soon as we begin to think it out, we at once descend from the higher, the spiritual source of information, and use earthly means to establish what belongs to heaven. Therefore the first condition is to separate this outer knowledge from the inner knowing.

6. Glance
The eye of the seer becomes like a sword that cuts open, so to speak, all things, including the hearts of men, and sees clearly all they contain. This glance opens, unlocks, and unfolds things. It is not actually creating, but it is awakening that particular quality which was perhaps asleep.

The first thing to do is to get control of the glance. The next is to get control of the feelings. And the third is to get control of the consciousness.