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The Knowledge of One...

Each soul's attainment is according to its evolution.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Opinion is an outcome of mind. It is an outburst of its reasoning and
judging faculty. And so, according to the evolution of a particular
mind, its opinion is. Opinions clash when two people of different
stages of evolution express themselves. Therefore the wise are more
reluctant to express their opinion, whereas for the unwise it is
easy. A simpleton is only too glad to express his opinion uninvited.

Everyone, consciously or unconsciously, is striving after spiritual
attainment. Sometimes he does not take the same way as we do,
sometimes his point of view and his method differ, and sometimes one
person attains to spiritual realization much sooner than another. It
may be reached in a day, and another person may have striven for it
all his life and yet not have attained to it. What determines it? It
is the evolution of a particular soul.

Every step one takes in evolution changes one's ideal. In your stage,
if you love a jasmine today, it is possible that in your next step in
evolution you may have grown above it and you love a rose. And it is
not necessary that you should keep to the jasmine when your evolution
brings you to the love for the rose -- thus one is kept from
progressing.

To the question, "Are you a Christian?", "Are you a Muslim?", "Are
you a Jew?", the Sufi's answer would be 'yes' rather than 'no', for
the Sufi opposes no religion but sympathizes with all. In fact Sufism
cannot be called a religion, for it does not impose either belief or
principle upon anyone, considering that each individual soul has its
own principles best suited for it, and a belief which changes with
each grade of evolution. ... A Sufi does not dispute on spiritual
subjects with everyone, for this reason: the spiritual evolution of
each one differs from that of the other, the knowledge of one cannot
be the knowledge of the other, nor is the understanding of one the
understanding of the other. ... at every step in spiritual evolution
a person's belief changes until one arrives at a final belief which
words cannot explain.

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