Rise Higher

A Sufi mystic lived in a wild and dangerous dark forest in a very small hut along with his wife. It was a very thick forest with spooky noises.

One day there was torrential rain throughout the day, which continued in the night also. In the middle of the night somebody knocked at the door.

The wife was sleeping near the door. There was not much space inside, just enough for two persons to sleep.

The husband said, “The night is dark, the forest has many wild animals. Somebody might have lost his way. Open the door. He certainly needs refuge.”

“But there is no space inside our hut, only for two of us to sleep.” Retorted his wife.

Laughing over it, the mystic said, “It is not a palace of a king, however big the palace may be, it is always smaller than a poor mystic’s hut. If two can sleep, three can sit perfectly well. We will sit, talk and tell stories, and sing songs. It is a beautiful night. Even the rain is creating certain music. Open the door !”

When the wife opened the door, there entered a visitor drenched with water and said, “I am sorry to disturb you. I got lost, and there is no light except in this hut. I know it is small, but there was no other way. Outside life is full of danger as the wild animals are roaming everywhere.”

The mystic heartily said, “No problem, two can sleep, three can sit. You are welcome. We will know many things from you about the world; and we will offer you our songs, and the night will pass this way. Please close the doors and be at ease. You have graced us; you have given us a chance to welcome a guest; you have made us richer.”

All of them sat together, while the mystic sang a melodious song. Just then there was again a knock at the door.

The mystic said, “You are close to the door, please open it. Somebody needs refuge.”

But the man who was asking for refuge just a few minutes before, became angry. He said, “What do you mean ? There is no space.”

The mystic replied, “It is not a palace of a king, which is always short of space. It is a small hut of a mystic. We three can sit comfortably, but four will have to sit a little tight, more close to each other. And it is really a joy to feel each other’s warmth and love, and anyhow the cold night is almost half way through. So you open the doors ! And remember, a few minutes before you were in the same position.”

Now as there was no alternative left, the man opened the door. Another man who had lost his way in the forest said, “Excuse me, I am absolutely helpless; otherwise I would not have given you trouble. I can see that such a small space is already overcrowded.”

The mystic said, “No problem. We will sit a little close to each other. The gaps between the three can be adjusted to accommodate the four. You are welcome. Sit down and close the door.”

Now the hut was completely packed. The mystic started singing another song, while there was another knock on the door, this time it was a different one.

Everyone was shocked. They now knew very well that whoever was outside the hut would be accommodated by the mystic. “Open the door,” said the mystic, “he is one of my friends, a wild donkey.”

All the guests and the wife were irritated as they said, “This is beyond tolerance. Do you want to bring in a donkey in this place where there is no space left even for sitting comfortably?”

The mystic said, “How many times do I have to remind you that this is a poor mystic’s hut. There is always space. One has just to find it. Now we are sitting; it’s just a matter of time that the last quarter of this night will also pass. Soon there will be sunrise, open the door !”

The last man who came in was nearest to the door, reluctantly opened it, and a donkey drenched with water entered.

The mystic said, “Remember perfectly well – you were in the same state just a few minutes before.

”Selfishness blinds you of other’s needs!

Happy Easter Folks!

 

 

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Disciplehood

When the great Sufi mystic, Hasan, was dying, somebody asked “Hasan, who was your master?”

He said, “I had thousands of masters. If I just relate their names it will take months, years and it is too late. But three masters I will certainly tell you about.

One was a thief. Once I got lost in the desert, and when I reached a village it was very late, everything was closed. But at last I found one man who was trying to make a hole in t he wall of a house. I asked him where I could stay and he said ‘At this time of night it will be difficult, but you can say with me – if you can stay with a thief’

And the man was so beautiful. I stayed for one month! And each night he would say to me, ‘Now I am going to my work. You rest, you pray.’ When he came back I would ask ‘Could you get anything?’ He would say, ‘Not tonight. But tomorrow I will try again, God willing.’ He was never in a state of hopelessness, he was always happy.

When I was meditating and meditating for years on end and nothing was happening, many times the moment came when I was so desperate, so hopeless, that I thought to stop all this nonsense. And suddenly I would remember the thief who would say every night, ‘God willing, tomorrow it is going to happen.’

And my second master was a dog. I was going to the river, thirsty and a dog came. He was also thirsty. He looked into the river, he saw another dog there — his own image — and became afraid. He would bard and run away, but his thirst was so much that he would come back. Finally, despite his fear, he just jumped into the water, and the image disappeared. And I knew that a message had come to me from God: one has to jump in spite of all fears.

And the third master was a small child. I entered a town and a child was carrying a lit candle. He was going to the mosque to put the candle there.

‘Just joking,’ I asked the boy, ‘Have you lit the candle yourself?’ He said, ‘Yes sir.’ And I asked, ‘There was a moment when the candle was unlit, then there was a moment when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which the light came?’

And the boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, ‘Now you have seen the light going. Where has it gone? You will tell me!’

My ego was shattered, my whole knowledge was shattered. And that moment I felt my own stupidity. Since then I dropped all my knowledgeability.

It is true that I had no master. That does not mean that I was not a disciple — I accepted the whole existence as my master. My Disciplehood was a greater involvement than yours is. I trusted the clouds, the trees. I trusted existence as such. I had no master because I had millions of masters I learned from every possible source. To be a disciple is a must on the path. What does it mean to be a disciple? It means to be able to learn. To be available to learn to be vulnerable to existence. With a master you start learning to learn.

The master is a swimming pool where you can learn how to swim. Once you have learned, all the oceans are yours.”

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Strength to Change

Nasrudin was now an old man looking back on his life. He sat with his friends in the tea shop telling his story. “When I was young I was fiery – I wanted to awaken everyone. I prayed to God to give me the strength to change the world.

 
In mid-life I awoke one day and realized my life was half over and I had changed no one. So I prayed to God to give me the strength to change those close around me who so much-needed it.

 
Alas, now I am old and my prayer is simpler. “God,” I ask, “please give me the strength to at least change myself.”

 

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Silence Your Mind

There once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost his watch in the barn. It was no ordinary watch because it had sentimental value for him. After searching high and low among the hay for a long while; he gave up and enlisted the help of a group of children playing outside the barn. He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded.

Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch.
Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance. The farmer looked at him and thought, “Why not? After all, this kid looks sincere enough. So the farmer sent the little boy back in the barn.

After a while the little boy came out with the watch in his hand! The farmer was both happy and surprised and so he asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed.

The boy replied, “I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction.

What lesson could this story hold ? Give it a shot…. No winning prize though! 🙂

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Where Are The Pockets?

Mulla Nasrudin had become old and was afraid that he can die any moment. Nasruddin started making arrangement for his funeral, So he ordered a beautiful coffin made of ebony wood with satin pillows inside. He also had a beautiful silk caftan made for his dead body to be dressed in.

The day the tailor delivered the caftan, Mulla Nasruddin tried it on to see how it would look, but suddenly he exclaimed, “What is this! Where are the pockets?”

 

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Real or Illusion

“I don’t have time.” I told my daughter Leena. She wanted me to sit and watch her color.
“Do you ?” said my mom. I turned towards her. It was an unusual question. She has seen me running all day, day after day, trying to juggle mundane routines.
“What are you saying, mom?” I asked.
She said, “Haven’t we all heard this? I don’t have time. But what do you truly mean? Do you really not have time or you have more things to do in limited time hence priorities?”
She made me stop and think. Yes, she is right. I have exactly same numbers of hours as anyone else has. I left home deep into my thoughts. How can it be? There is time, we all have time but we don’t have time?
The day went like a crazy race and before no time, it was night and I was pulling out of the office while stars were shining bright with a lovely moon, piece of cake as Leena would call it.
While driving, thoughts again started on the morning conversation. I thought to myself, “When can we do anything – In present moment. I answered myself.
Nothing can be done in past or future.
“But these is always nothing else but present moment” a naughty thought peeped into my sequence of thoughts. It stunned me blank. I was blank for few movements. This is true, I told myself. Than what is past & future?
Knock, Knock…. Someone was knocking on my glass. I was holding up the traffic. Signal had turned green and I was dumbfounded in the redness of this newfound understanding.
I reached home and after a nice meal, came and sat with my mom. I felt there was a reason why she said what she said in the morning.
I asked “Is there time, Mom?” I felt funny, asking this question, like a child. She smiled and showed me a card which said, “Time is an illusion – Albert Einstein”.

“Right here, right now, is what is.” She said. We both sat in silence listening to the tick tock of the clock and muddling with what is real and what is not….

 

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The Blind Ones and the Matter of the Elephant

Beyond Ghor there was a city. All its inhabitants were blind. A king with his entourage arrived near by; he brought his army and camped in the desert. He had a mighty elephant, which he used in attack and to increase the people’s awe.

From among this blind community messengers ran like fools to find it.

As they did not even know the form or shape of the elephant they groped sightlessly, gathering information by touching some part of it.  Each thought that he knew something, because he could feel a part.

When they returned to their fellow-citizens eager groups clustered around them.  Each in the community was anxious to learn the truth from those who has themselves experienced the beast.  They asked about its form, the shape of the great beast, and listened each to all that they were told.

One man said, “It is a large, rough thing, wide and broad, like a huge rug.”

Another disagreed, “I have the real facts about it.  It is like a bending and hollow tube, powerful, awful and destructive.  I felt it.”

And another yet disagreed, “It is mighty and firm, a set of huge spear-like tree branches.”

And still another, “No, you all have it wrong; it is massive and powerful, like moving tree trunks.”

And finally another, “You all have it wrong for it is shaggy and hairy, like an unraveling rope.”

(Are they truthful? )

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Sufi Stories

 

Everyone loves stories and you will find plenty of them available: Stories that are Buddhist, Christian, Zen, Hasidic, Russian, Chinese, Hindu, Sufi; stories ancient and contemporary. And they all have a special quality: if read in a certain kind of way, they will produce some internal change, growth. Many of these stories trace their origin to folklore and certainly with hidden messages. We are thankful to all those teachers who contributed to embedding these valuable messages in these easy stories.

 HOW TO READ THEM

There are three ways:

1. Read a story once. Then move on to another. This manner of reading will give you entertainment.

2. Read a story twice. Reflect on it. Apply it to your life. That will give you a taste of theology. This sort of thing can be fruitfully done in a group where the members share their reflections on the story. You then have a theological circle.

3. Read the story again, after you have reflected on it. Create a silence within you and let the story reveal to you its inner depth and meaning: something beyond words and reflections. This will give you a feel for the mystical. Or carry the story around all day and allow its fragrance, its melody to haunt you. Let it speak to your heart, not to your brain. This too could make something of a mystic out of you. It is with this mystical end in view that most of these stories were originally told.

 GLOSSARY

Theology: The art of telling stories about the Divine and is also the art of listening to them.

mysticism: The art of tasting and feeling in your heart the inner meaning of such stories to the point that they transform you.

Nasruddin, Nasrudin, or Nasruddin is claimed as well by Afghans, Iranians, Uzbeks, and Arabs, as well as the Turkic Xinjiang area of western China. Since the Seljuk empire of 1000-1400 stretched from Turkey to the Punjab in India, as did the Achmaenid empire a thousand years earlier, carrying enlightening stories along with war, from east to west and back again, such a personage as Nasruddin can well be shared by all, whether as Nasreddin Hodja, Khoja or Mulla Nasruddin. We begin with first story.

A neighbor who Nasruddin didn’t like very much, came over to his compound one day. The neighbor asked Nasruddin if he could borrow his donkey. Nasruddin not wanting to lend his donkey to the neighbor he didn’t like, told him, “I would love to loan you my donkey but only yesterday my brother came from the next town to use it to carry his wheat to the mill to be grounded. The donkey sadly is not here.”

The neighbor was disappointed. But he thanked Nasruddin and began to walk away. Just as he got a few steps away, Mulla Nasruddin’s donkey, which was in the back of his compound all the time, let out a big bray. The neighbor turned to Nasruddin and said, “Mullah Sahib, I thought you told me that your donkey was not here. Mullah Nasruddin turned to the neighbor and said, “My friend, who are you going to believe? Me or the donkey?

(What message do you think this story has?)

 

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Choice, Destiny & Fate

This moment, here I am, at this time-space juncture specific. Here where I am, is because of the choices I made in past. In other words, my present moment is the result of my past deeds. This is so simple. No rocket science at all.

Here where I am right this moment, I have some choices. These choices are inherent choices to the time-space juncture where I stand as of now. In other words, there are limited choices in this moment. It is like a cross-road. Every moment is like a cross-road. Out of limited choices that I have in this moment, each one will have its own scene to follow. In other words, you make your future. Yes, we make our choices which in turn become our experience of the future.

Lets us take an example of a maze.

This man in this picture is standing at a point. He has come here by following a specific path & here he is at this moment. This experience of present moment is due to the choice he made in the past and eventually reached him here. He likes it or not, it is his choices that have brought him this result. In other words, we can say we get what we deserve based on our deeds.

He has limited choices. It does not matter what choices they are. Any one he will be choosing and that choice is limited within the possibilities. Once he is choosing one, he is writing his future. In other words we can say he is the creator of his future.

This man goes on within the maze, keep making choices, without coming to the exit from the maze.

Then there is someone, who is at the higher level and can see the pattern of the maze. He can see which choices will lead this man to the exit. It is natural that because he can see, he would like to tell the way out of compassion. But will the lost man pay attention? Will he believe in this man and his advice? Will he follow the advice? Will he follow the advice long enough without doubting and not drop in between?

This is the scene, which is common.

What is my choice?

 

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