We often confuse unity with uniformity. In reality it is the spirit of unity which creates uniformity for the sake of its beauty and protection it gives. Throughout all ages both have existed: unity as the inner nature of every soul and the only purpose of life, and uniformity to help to fulfill that purpose. Unity is the goal and uniformity the means to reach that goal, but often the means has obscured the purpose. All through the ages the different religions, which have been given to man for his spiritual development with the sole idea of unity, have gradually become a kind of community or nationality. Many people who belong to a Church accept its dogmas, claim a certain name for their religion, and consider all other children of God as separate; by doing so they lose the very seed of wisdom for whose development that religion was given. This error has existed from the beginning, so that instead of touching the true spirit, people have lost reality by seeking a false objective. Religious differences have caused endless wars and disasters for the human race. The reason of this is that the spirit of unity has not been recognized, while undue regard has been paid to uniformity. In the present age, when the spirit of religion is at its lowest ebb and only the uniformity remains, divisions of classes and discords of all kinds spring up; one party, one class against another, the spirit of rivalry, jealousy, and destruction everywhere. The effect of this has been to keep man away from the consciousness of God. Very few indeed recognize Him; all humanity is laboring under a great unrest; and yet man thinks he is progressing while all the time he only progresses towards still greater unrest. There can never be true progress when nations and kingdoms and peoples are divided; for when the races are divided then subdivisions come, and classes and parties also become divided. The same spirit of destruction is at work all the time, and even families become separated. Unity seems to be rooted out from the hearts of men.

There is a remarkable phrase in the Bible, here it says, 'Eat My flesh and drink My blood', says Christ. What does He mean by saying this? He means in the first place that what a living being loves most is his food, what he loves most he eats. It has been proved in ferocious and dreadful famines, by people eating their own children, that food is dearer than their own child. The word of Christ, therefore, 'Find out, what it is in Me that you love, which may become your nourishment, which may become your food. It is not this, My flesh and blood; this will not be sufficient to satisfy your appetite. There is another part of My being, which is in abundance and can nourish My numberless devotees. Therefore before trying to eat My flesh and blood, try to find out on what plane I really exist and what is My true being'. The lives of all the great saints show that not only their adversaries and opponents but also their near and dear friends have proved to be among their worst enemies. There is a creature which loves its mate so much that it eats it. Now as to the question: what it is that Christ speaks of as his flesh and blood. His flesh is the knowledge of God and His blood is the love of God; because it is love that has a tendency, so to speak, to excite the circulation, and it is knowledge which has the tendency to strengthen, making man firm of which flesh is the symbol. One thing without the other would be abnormal. For instance flesh without blood, or blood without flesh, both are not normal conditions. What gives normal health to the body and to the soul is flesh and blood both. In the religious custom of the sacrament of bread and wine it is this secret which is symbolically expressed.

The Unity of Religious Ideals may lead you straight on the path to your ideal, discover for you the religion, in whatever form it may appear, waken in yourself the longing for the Light and the Goal, and thus you may find the Self, like a pearl hidden in the shell of your heart. In six parts the whole field of religion is covered from the point of view of the mystic, the philosophy of religion, the concept of God and the God-ideal, the spirit of guidance and the spiritual hierarchy; then various religions and messengers are discussed, followed by a presentation of some religious symbols and their explanation. Finally, the concept of the divine message is presented, followed by an exposition of the role of universal Sufism, and what contribution it can give to the development of the individual and of humanity at large. All Religions are essentially one: since there is only one God and one truth it cannot be otherwise, This is one of the principal tenets of Sufism and is one of the most important elements of Hazrat Inayat Khanês message

Early teachings from the London period, including the only work written by Hazrat Inayat Khan himself This volume comprises six books from the London period that include A Sufi Message of Spiritual Liberty, Hazrat Inayat Khan's first book, and the only didactic work he would ever personally write. The subsequent books are lecture compilations of the London period assembled by two prominent early disciples, Sherifa Goodenough and Zohra Williams: Aqibat: Life after Death; The Phenomenon of the Soul; Love, Human and Divine; Pearls from the Ocean Unseen; Metaphysics. This volume contains early works by Hazrat Inayat Khan and feature his distinctive mystical vision of life, a numinous music that quickens attuned minds with the gentle vigor of its ethereal harmonies. --Inayat Khan, Hazrat

The Art of Personality contains Inayat Khan's teachings on the discovery and creation of personality as a development of individuality, and also on character building, which is described as the very substance of Sufism and leads to the rebirth of the soul. Also included are previously unpublished lectures on personality, art, and aesthetics. In a realized person- ality, the soul expresses its divine inheritance through its thoughts, words, and actions, and creations. "We can create new conditions, not make them worse. We are the world, we must know the value of our soul, our responsibilities. The Sufi purpose is to awaken the consciousness of these things in humanity. Our spirit can make us recognize what we are, and what the work of this life should be." - Hazrat Inayat Khan