The Conundrum

Everything you want
must be searched for –
except the Friend.
If you don’t find Him
you’ll never be able to start to even look.
Yes, you can be sure:
You are not Him — unless
you can remove yourself
from between yourself and Him –
in which case you are Him.

~ Hakim Sanai (1044? – 1150?), from: The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry, Trans. Peter Wilson & Nasrollah Pourjavady

Does the heart reflect the mind or the mind the heart? In the first place, it should be known that the mind is the surface of the heart, and the heart is the depth of the mind. Therefore, mind and heart are one and the same thing. If you call it a mirror then the mind is the surface of the mirror and the heart its depth. In the same mirror, all is reflected. ‘Mirror’ is a very good word, because it applies to both the mind and the heart. If the reflection comes from the surface of the heart, it touches the surface. If it comes from the depth of the heart, it reaches the depth. Just like the voice of the insincere person: it comes from the surface and it reaches the ears. The voice of the sincere person comes from the depth and goes to the depth. What comes from the depth enters the depth, and what comes from the surface, remains on the surface.

http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IV/IV_40.htm

Inayat Khan’s most famous sayings are:
“Shatter your ideals on the rock of Truth.”
“There is nothing valuable except what we value in life.”
“In a small affair or in a big affair, first consult yourself and find out if there is any conflict in your own being about anything you want to do. And when you find no conflict there, then feel sure that a path is already made for you. You have but to open your eyes and take a step forward, and the other step will be led by God.”
“The difference between the divine and the human will is like the difference between the trunk of a tree and its branches. As from the boughs other twigs and branches spring, so the will of one powerful individual has branches going through the will of other individuals. So there are the powerful beings, the masters of humanity. Their will is God’s will, their word is God’s word, and yet they are branches, because the trunk is the will of the Almighty. Whether the branch be large or small, every branch has the same origin and the same root as the stem.”
“The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature, how people agree and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion, the more one will see that it is all music.”
“Reason is the illusion of reality.”