Message #24998

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The heart is not living until it has experienced pain.

     Bowl of Saki, January 30, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Those who have avoided love in life from fear of its pain have lost more than the lover, who by losing himself gains all. The loveless first lose all, until at last their self is also snatched away from their hands. The warmth of the lover's atmosphere, the piercing effect of his voice, the appeal of his words, all come from the pain of his heart. The heart is not living until it has experienced pain. Man has not lived if he has lived and worked with his body and mind without heart. The soul is all light, but all darkness is caused by the death of the heart. Pain makes it alive. The same heart that was once full of bitterness, when purified by love becomes the source of all goodness. All deeds of kindness spring from it.

A person who has never experienced pain cannot sympathize with those suffering pain. ... Sympathy is something more than love and affection, for it is the knowledge of a certain suffering which moves the living heart to sympathy.

   from  http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/XIII/XIII_21.htm


Suffering is always a blessing. If it is for higher ideas, for God, for an ideal, it takes a person at once to the highest heaven. If it is for lower ideas, for the ego, for pride, for possessions, it takes a person to the lowest depth of hell. But there, after much suffering, after a long, long time, he loses these ideas and is purified. That is why the Christian religion shows the symbol of the cross, of suffering. How high our ideal may be, how low our ideal may be, in the end each pain has its prize.

   from  http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VIII/VIII_2_7.htm


If there were no pain, one would not have the experience of joy. It is pain which helps one to experience joy. Everything is distinguished by its opposite and the one who feels pain deeply is more capable of expressing joy. If there were no pain, life would be most uninteresting; for it is by pain that penetration takes place, and the sensation after pain is a deeper joy. Without pain the great musicians, athletes, discoverers, and thinkers would not have reached the stage they have arrived at in the world. If they had always experienced joy, they would not have touched the depths of life.

   from  http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VI/VI_17.htm



   ~~~ The heart is not living until it has experienced pain.