The Alchemy of Happiness

“In The Alchemy of Happiness Hazrat Inayat Khan approaches the question of happiness from various angles. Sometimes the context is a discussion of desire, other times an analysis of ethics. What links these investigations is that, in every case, Hazrat identifies happiness with the soul. “Happiness is your own being, your own self, that self that is the most precious thing in life.” From this perspective, happiness is something to be discovered rather than acquired. . . .

It bears emphasizing that for Hazrat Inayat Khan the soul’s self-realization is not confined to the trackless territory beyond time and space. Human life is a domain abounding in possibilities for the expression of the soul’s nature. The ability to touch the depths of life through meditative silence, however, is indispensable as a foundation for soulful action. A person undergoing the discovery of the soul’s intrinsic happiness is therefore moved to live simultaneously in inner and outer worlds. Such a person is learning how to be ‘in tune with the infinite and in rhythm with the finite.’”

“Friends, I would like to speak this evening on the subject of what is wanted in life. If this question were asked of several people, each would perhaps make out a list of not less than a thousand things that he or she wants in life. And yet, even after writing this list of a thousand things wanted in life, one rarely knows what one really wants. What one apparently wants in life is not really what one wants in life, for the nature of the outer life is illusion. As soon as one feels that one wants this or that, then the world of illusion will answer, yes, you want me in life, this particular thing is what you want. Because when one finds a lack in life, one only sees the outer lack; one does not find the lack that is within oneself. And coming to the central theme of this question, I would say that if there is anything that we can all be in accordance with—a thing that we lack in life—it is to be tuned with the infinite and to be in rhythm with the finite. In simple words: to be in rhythm with the conditions of life and to be in tune with the source of our existence.”