Failure...

He who has failed himself has failed all; he who has conquered
himself has won all.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

There is no reason for anyone to feel discouraged by his weaknesses
or deficiencies, or by his actions that have dissatisfied him, or by
anything in life that has failed. He should forget the past that has
failed him, and begin to construct and mold his future as he would
wish it to be. Considering that as a branch is not separate from the
bough, and the bough is not separate from the stem, so with all our
limitations we are not separate from the will of the Unlimited One.

I remember a Persian verse made by my murshid which relates to the
self: 'When I feel that now I can make peace with my self, it finds
time to prepare another attack.' That is our condition. We think that
our little faults, since they are small, are of no consequence; or we
do not even think of them at all. But every little fault is a flag
for the little self, for its own dominion. In this way battling makes
man the sovereign of the kingdom of God. Very few can realize the
great power in battling with and conquering the self.

But what does man generally do? He says, 'My poor self, it has to
withstand the conflicts of this world; should I also battle with this
self?' So he surrenders his kingdom to his little self, depriving
himself of the divine power that is in the heart of man. There is in
man a false self and a real self. The real self contains the eternal;
the false self contains the mortal. The real self has wisdom; the
false self ignorance. The real self can rise to perfection; the false
self ends in limitation. The real self has all good, the false self
is productive of all evil. One can see both in oneself: God and the
other one. By conquering the other one, one realizes God. This other
power has been called Satan; but is it a power? In reality it is not.
It is and it is not. It is a shadow. We see shadow and yet it is
nothing. We should realize that this false self has no existence of
its own. As soon as the soul has risen above the false self, it
begins to realize its nobility.