Motivation on the Spiritual Path

Now coming to the most important truth about spiritual attainment: those who are thoughtful and wise, those who go into the spiritual path, do not take this path in order to perform wonders or to know curious things, to perform miracles or other wonderful things. That is not their motive; their motive is to rise above the false ego and to discover the real. That is the principal motive of spiritual attainment; for no one will consider it wise to be under a false impression, to be under the impression that “I exist”, when one has nothing to depend upon in one’s existence. Therefore striving in the spiritual path is breaking away from the false conception that we have made of ourselves, coming out of it, it is realizing our true being and becoming conscious of it. No sooner do we become conscious of our true being and break the fetters of the false ego, than we enter into a sphere where our soul begins to realize a much greater expansion of its own being. It finds great inspiration and power, and the knowledge, happiness and peace which are latent in the spirit. Sufi Message Volume VIII by Hazrat Inayat Khan