Dear Viet Nam,

It's been many years since we've spoken. I hope you can forgive me. I was wrong. I owe the Buddhist master in the flames a debt. Perhaps, somewhen I can humbly offer my apologies in person. I will not say that my naive ignorance mitigates my error but I can say that I believe I've grown since then. That I was deceived is an explanation, not a justification.

To Screaming Man

I met a man that screamed at things

That none the rest of us could see

So little could I give to him

For all I had was sympathy

I tried to tell him all is well

He barely could respond to me

But for a moment thru his eyes -

A  glimpse to his infinity

A window to another world

This frightening reality

In revelation then I knew

That All depends on point of view

 

And all the terrors that he gave voice

Had come to him by his own choice.

Iniyat Kahn

Foundational principlesEdit

Ten principles, known as the Ten Sufi Thoughts, enunciate the universal spiritual values that are foundational to Inayat Khan's mystical philosophy.

1. There is One God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none exists save God.
2. There is One Master, the Guiding Spirit of all Souls, Who constantly leads followers towards the light.
3. There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader.
4. There is One Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfills the life's purpose of every soul.
5. There is One Law, the law of reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
6. There is One Brotherhood and Sisterhood, the human brotherhood and sisterhood, which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Parenthood of God.
7. There is One Moral, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
8. There is One Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshippers through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
9. There is One Truth, the true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of all wisdom.
10. There is One Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality, and in which resides all perfection.^[13]