Dear Friends in the One,
INAYAT KHAN 1.0
Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (1916 -2004) said that we are participating in the creating the software of the universe. And so, it occurred to me (the young Inayat Khan, raised in the 19th Century, might have said 'the thought smote me! (past tense of smite, to strike)) that as language changes, so does our relationship with language. And, indeed, as our perception changes, our very ideal is also more refined.
So, I have come to think of My perception of Inayat Khan must also mean that my version of Inayat Khan must also be evolving; in fact this relationship between mureed and murshid is a living one! And as such, may well be called 1.0, 2.0, et cetera.
And my motion picture may as well undergo changes as well, as I change, and my appreciation changes.
There is a teaching story of the sufis. It is the story of Mushkil Gusha, a wood cutter and his ten year old daughter. It is a shaggy sufi story, long and complicated about money, success, family, forgetting and remembering. Traditionally the Sheikh tells the story to an aspirant on the path, then asks the neophyte to retell the story--by what is emphasized, left out, or mis-remembered the sheikh can prescribe practices to help the one who has come for guidance on the path. You will find it on the internet.
So, My story of Inayat Khan, My Heart's Song: The Odyssey of Musician and Mystic Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan, is my story. I hope it encourages you to encounter Inayat Khan and form your own relationship with Hazrat (The Presence) and you are free to chastise me for leaving out your favorite parts.
After all it is my story of the early life or Inayat Khan.
Full disclosure: I am a white boy from California who speaks only English and claim only to be a devotee of the Message of Inayat Khan. Not he man. A man,who after all, according to Joseph Campbell.
But the makers of legend have seldom rested content to regard the world's great heroes as mere human beings who broke past the horizons that limited their fellows and returned such boons as any man with equal faith and courage might have found.”
― Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces
Yes, but what faith and what courage!!!
http://myheartssong.org
