The Physical Body...

Until man loses himself in the vision of God, he cannot be said to live really.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Man wrongly identifies himself with the physical body, calling it 'myself.' And
when the physical body is in pain he says, 'I am ill,' because he identifies
himself with something which belongs to him but which is not himself. The first
thing to learn in the spiritual path is to recognize the physical body not as
one's self, but as an instrument, a vehicle, through which to experience life.

Every soul seeks after beauty; and every virtue, righteousness, good action, is
nothing but a glimpse of beauty. Once having this moral, the Sufi does not need
to follow a particular belief or faith, to restrict himself to a particular
path. He can follow the Hindu way, the Muslim way, the way of any Church or
faith, provided he treads this royal road: that the whole universe is but an
immanence of beauty. ... Therein lies the whole of religion. The mystic's prayer
is to that beauty, and his work is to forget the self, to lose himself like a
bubble in the water [like a drop in the ocean].

As life unfolds itself to man the first lesson it teaches is humility; the first
thing that comes to man's vision is his own limitedness. The vaster God appears
to him, the smaller he finds himself. This goes on and on until the moment comes
when he loses himself in the vision of God. In terms of the Sufis this is called
fana, and it is this process that was taught by Christ under the name of
self-denial. Often man interprets this teaching wrongly and considers
renunciation as self-denial. He thinks that the teaching is to renounce all that
is in the world. But although that is a way and an important step which leads to
true self-denial, the self-denial meant is the losing oneself in God.

There is a [Hadith] which says: 'Mutu kubla anta mutu', which means, Die before
death. A poet says, 'Only he attains to the peace of the Lord who loses
himself.' God said to Moses, 'No man shall see me and live.' To see God we must
be non-existent.