277 pagesThe Art of Being and Becoming gathers Inayat Khan's teachings on what the Sufis consider the fruit of the whole creation -- the divine art of creating the human personality. This volume gives methods for training the ego, tuning the heart, and developing will power, all to help one develop and perfect a natural way of being in the world.
"If there can be a definition of spirituality, it is the tuning of the heart. Tuning means the changing of pitch of the vibration. The tuning of the heart means the changing of vibrations, in order that one may reach a certain pitch that is the natural pitch; then one feels the joy and ecstasy of life, which enables one to give pleasure to others even by one's presence, because one is tuned." -- Inayat Khan
Hazrat Inayat Khan, founder of the Sufi Order International, came to the West as a representative of the highest musical traditions of his native India, and brought with him a message of love, harmony and beauty that was both the quintessence of Sufi teaching and a revolutionary approach to the harmonizing of Western and Eastern spirituality. He dedicated his early life to the mastery of subtle intricacies of classical Indian music, winning the high title of Tansen from the Nizam of Hyderabad, a powerful ruler and renowned patron of the musical arts.
In fulfillment of his quest for a spiritual teacher, Inayat Khan took initiation from Shaykh al-Mashaykh Sayed Muhammed Abu Hashim Madani. While he was an inititator of the four main Sufi lineages in India, Madani's primary connection was with the Chishti Order. At the end of his apprenticeship, Inayat Khan was enjoined by his teacher to travel to the West and harmonize the two cultures.
On September 13 of 1910 Inayat Khan began an odyssey which would encompass three continents, and transform the lives of thousands. He eventually settled in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris. During his sixteen years in the West, he created a school of spiritual training based upon the traditional teachings of the Chishti Sufis, and infused with a revolutionary vision of the unity of religious ideals and the awakening of humanity to the divinity within.
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