Give up your limited self willingly to the Unlimited

Once you have given up your limited self willingly to the Unlimited, you will rejoice so much in that consciousness that you will not care to be small again.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

If you ask someone to say where he is, he will point at his arm, his hand, his body. He knows little beyond that. There are many who if asked, 'But where do you think you are in your body?' will say, 'In my brain.' They limit themselves to that small physical region which is called body, thus making themselves much smaller than they really are. The truth is that man is one individual with two aspects, just like one line with two ends. If you look at the ends, it is two. If you look at the line, it is one. One end of the line is limited, the other end of the line is unlimited. One end is man, the other end is God. Man forgets that end, and knows only the end of which he is conscious. And it is the consciousness of limitation which makes him more limited. Otherwise he would have far greater means of approaching the Unlimited which is within himself, which is only the other end of the same line, the line which he calls, or which he considers to be, himself. And when a mystic speaks of self-knowledge this does not mean knowing how old one is or how good one is or how bad, or how right or how wrong. It means knowing the other part of one's being, that deeper, subtler aspect. It is upon the knowledge of that being that the fulfillment of life depends.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/II/II_19.htm


When a man has a ragged coat he says, 'I am poor'. In reality his coat is poor, not he. What this capacity or accommodation contains is that which becomes his knowledge, his realization, and it is that which limits him. It forms that limitation which is the tragedy of every soul. Now, this capacity may be filled with self, or it may be filled with God. There is only room for one. Either we live with our limitation, or we let God reign there in His unlimited Being.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/X/X_3_4.htm