Failure and Success...

At the cost of one failure, the wise learn the lesson for the whole of life.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

It happens very often that we find that a person who has been successful in life
goes on being successful, and that one who has once failed goes on failing.
Looked at from a psychological point of view, the reason is that the first
person was impressed by his success and so he continued to be successful, and
the other, who was impressed with his failure, continued to have failures
because that impression suggested failure to him. But it is not because of the
displeasure of God that unfortunate souls continue to be unfortunate in
everything they do. It is that the suggestion of misfortune, of misery, keeps
them miserable throughout their lives.

Reasoning is a faculty which the mystic uses and which he may develop like any
man of common sense, any practical man. The difference is only that the mystic
does not stop at the first reason, but wishes to see the reason behind all
reasons. Thus, in everything, whether right or wrong, the mystic seeks for the
reason. The immediate answer, however, will be a reason that does not satisfy
him, for he sees that behind that reason there is yet another reason. ... The
nature of life is such that it easily excites the mind and makes man unhappy in
an instant. It makes man so confused that he does not know where to take the
next step. In contrast with this, the mystic stands still and inquires of life
its secret; and from every experience, from every failure or success, the mystic
learns a lesson. Thus, both failure and success are profitable to him.

The ideal of a mystic is never to think of disagreeable things. What one does
not want to happen one should not think about. A mystic erases from his mind all
the disagreeable things of the past. He collects and keeps his happy
experiences, and out of them, he makes a paradise. Are there not many unhappy
people who keep part of the past before them, causing them pain in their heart?
Past is past; it is gone. There is eternity before us.