LET ME FEEL THE WIND

It is the second century BCE, in Israel. The disciples approach their master
and say, "There is a man blowing the ram's horn in Galilee claiming to be
Messiah. Master, is it true?"
      The teacher opens the window and reaches out his hand to feel the wind.
After a moment's concentration, he says, "No, it is not true."
      Most of the students are appropriately impressed at their master's ability
to sense the spiritual reality by the wind. However, one novice, a slightly impudent
disciple, is troubled. "If you are so spiritually intuitive," he asks
the master, "then why did you need to put your hand out the window? why couldn't
you sense the air in the room to see if Redemption had arrived?"
       The master responded ever so softly, "Because in my room, the Messiah has
already come."

REF: SOUL PRINT BY MARC GAFNI

A KING AND HIS GREYHOUND

A royal hunt swept out across the plain.
The monarch called for someone in his train
To bring a greyhound, and the handler brought
A dark, sleek dog, intelligent, well-taught;
A jewelled gold collar sparkled at its throat,
Its back was covered by a satin coat-
Gold anklets clasped its paws; its leash was made
Of silk threads twisted in a glistening braid.
The king thought him a dog who'd understand,
And look the silk leash in his royal hand;
The dog ran just behind his lord, then found
A piece of bone abandoned on the ground-
He stopped to sniff, and when the king saw why,
A glance of fury flashed out from his eye.
"When you're with me," he said, "Your sovereign king,
How dare you look at any other thing?"
He snapped the leash and to his handler cried:
"Let this ill-mannered brute roam far and wide.
He's mine no more-better for him if he
Had swallowed pins than found such liberty!"
The handler stared and tried to remonstrate:
"The dog, my lord, deserves an outcast's fate;
But we should keep the satin and gold."
The king said: "No, do just as you are told;
Drive him, exactly as he is, away-
And when he comes back to himself some day,
He'll see the riches that he bear and know
That he was mine, a king's, but long ago.".....

                                                               ATTAR

MULLAH NASRUDDIN AND THE FAMOUS DONKEY STORY

Kan ya ma kan: there was and there was not a time when Joha (mullah) and his son
set out for the market with their donkey walking along behind them. They passed
several men sitting outside a shop drinking tea and heard some of their remarks.
              "Look at that man! How can he be so mean as to make his child walk all
the way to the market when he has a donkey the child could easily ride?"
Joha immediately picked up his son and put him on the donkey's back. They continued
this way for a while, until they passed several women who were also on their way to the
 market. "For shame." said one woman to another. "Look at that child, riding the donkey
while he makes his father walk. Doesn't he have any respect for his elders?"
             Right away, Joha took his son off the donkey, and got on himself. They had traveled
only slightly farther, when someone else criticized the father for being so selfish-riding on the
donkey while making his son walk. In response to this criticism, Joha picked up the child
and placed him on the saddle directly in front of him.
             Alas this maneuver also brought forth criticism. "How mean they are to overload the
donkey like that!" cried an old man to his friend.
              There is only one thing to do, thought Joha in despair. He and his son dismounted.
After great deal of effort, Joha managed to heave the donkey upon his own back. Only a
little way down the road, everyone was laughing at the stupid man carrying his donkey instead
of riding it.
     Shamefaced, Joha put down the donkey, and they continued to the market exactly as they
had started- with all three walking. Some minutes later, Joha looked at his son: "So you see,"
he said with a wise nod, "it is clearly not possible to please all people. It is better to do what
you know is right and please God."

A SINNER ENTERS HEAVEN

A sinner died, and, as his coffin passed,
A man who practised every prater and fast
Turned ostentatiously aside-how could
He pray for one of whom he knew no good?
He saw the sinner in his dreams that night,
His face transfigured with celestial light.
"How did you enter heaven's gates," he said,
"A sinner stained with filth from foot to head?"
"God saw your merciless, disdainful pride,
And pitied my poor soul," the man replied......

                                                              ATTAR

                   

A MURDERER WHO WENT TO HEAVEN

A murderer, according to the law,
was killed. That night the king who'd killed him saw
The same man in a dream; to his surprise
The villain lorded it in paradise-
The king cried: "You! In this celestial place!
Your life's work was an absolute disgrace;
How did you reach this state?" The man replied:
"A friend to God passed by me as I died;
The earth drank up my blood, but stealthily
That pilgrim on Truth's journey glanced at me,
And all the glorious extravagance
That laps me now came from his searing glance."

The man on whom that quickening glance alights
Is raised to heaven's unsuspected heights;
Indeed, until this glance discovers you
Your life's a mystery without a clue;
You cannot carve your way to heaven's throne
You need a skillful guide; you cannot start
This ocean-voyage with blindness in your heart.
It may be you will meet the very guide
Who glanced at me; be sure he will provide-
Whatever troubles come- a place to hide.
You cannot guess what dangers you will find,
You need a staff to guide you, like the blind.
Your sight is failing and the road is long;
Trust one who knows the journey and is strong.
Whoever travels in the great lord's shade
Need never hesitate or be afraid;
Whoever undertakes this lord's commands
Find thorns will change to roses in his hands.

                                                          ATTAR

THE STORY OF A DERVISH AND A PRINCES

There was a king whose comely daughter's grace
Was such that any man who glimpsed her face
Declared himself in love. Like starless dusk
Her dark hair hung, soft-scented like fine musk;
The charm of her slow, humid eyes awoke
The depth of sleeping love, and when she spoke,
No sugar was as sweet as her lip's sweet;
No rubies with their colour could compete.
A dervish saw her, by the will of Fate.
From his arrested hand the crust he ate
Dropped unregarded, and the princess smiled.
This glance lived in his heart-the man grew wild
With ardent love, with restless misery;
For seven years he wept continually
And was content to live alone and wait,
Abject, among stray dogs, outside her gate.
At last, affronted by this fool and tired
Of his despair, her serving-men conspired
To murder him. The princes heard their plan,
Which she divulged to him. "O wretched man,"
She said, "how could you hope for love between
A dervish and the daughter of a queen?
You cannot live outside my palace door;
Be off with you and haunt these streets no more.
If you are here tomorrow you will die!"
The dervish answered her: "That day when I
First saw your beauty I despaired of life;
Why should I fear the hired assassin's knife?
A hundred thousand men adore your face;
No power on the earth could make me leave this place.
But since your servants want to murder me,
Explain the meaning of this mystery:
Why did you smile at me that day?" "Poor fool,
I smiled from pity, almost ridicule-
Your ignorance provoked that smile." She spoke,
And vanished like a wisp of strength less smoke.'

                                                                  ATTAR

A KING AND HIS SLAVE

There was a monarch once who loved a slave.
The youth's pale beauty haunted him; he gave
This favourite the rarest ornaments,
Watched over him with jealous reverence-
But when the king expressed a wish to shoot,
His loved one shook with fear from head to foot.
An apple balanced on his head would be
The target for the royal archery,
And as the mark was split he blenched with fear.
One day a foolish courtier standing near
Asked why his lovely face was drained and wan,
For was he not their monarch's chosen one?
The slave replied: "If I were hit instead
Of that round apple balanced on my head,
I would be then quite worthless to the king-
Injured or dead, lower than anything
The court can show; but when the arrow hits
The trembling target and the apple splits,
That is his skill.The king is highly skilled
If he succeed-if not, the slave is killed!"

                                                    ATTAR

THE REAL STEP

The rumor of a great lion spread throughout the world.
 A man wanted to see the lion and for a year endured
all the hardships of the journey and traveled from place
to place. When he arrived at the forest and saw the lion
 from a distance, he came to a sudden halt. He couldn't
move and couldn't go any further.
    Someone who knew the lion said to the man gently,
"You've come such a long way out of love for the lion.
Know this about him: if you go toward him bravely and
tenderly stroke him, he will not harm you in any way; if
you are afraid, he will be furious. Sometimes he even
attacks people who are scared of him, howling, 'How
dare you have such a black opinion of me!' You've
endured a year of bitter difficulty to get here to see him.
Why are you standing still now that you are so close?
Take one more step toward him!"
     No one could find in themselves the courage to
advanced even one step.Everyone said, "Every step we
 took before this was easy. Here, we cannot move."
      It takes immense faith to take one step toward the
Lion in the presence of the Lion. That step is the majestic
and noble act, one that only the Elect and Friends of God
are capable of. This is the real step on the Path; all the other
 steps are just vanishing footprints. And the faith require to take
it comes only to saints and prophets, to those who have washed
 their hands of their own life.

                                           RUMI

WORK FOR IT BY YOURSELF

A man came to Rumi and said, "Please God that I could go
to the other world; there at least I could be at peace because
the Creator is there." "What do you know about where He is?"
answered Rumi. "Everything in all the worlds is in you; whatever
you are hungering for, work for it there by yourself, for you are the
microcosm.

                                                       RUMI

GOD DOES IT

An emperor ordered each of his slaves to pick up a golden cup;
he was about to receive someone he loved and wanted to do him
 honor. He ordered his favorite slave also to pick up a cup.However,
when the emperor appeared, his favorite, on seeing him, lost all control
of his senses and become crazed by his beauty, and the golden cup tumbled
from his hand and was broken into a thousand pieces.
    The other slaves saw this, and imitative in everything, thought to themselves,
"Because he did it, we should do the same." so they threw down their cups and
smashed them.
     The emperor was furious. "Why did you do that?!" he thundered.
   "Because your favorite did."
   "You fools," cried the emperor, "he didn't do it. I did."

                                                                               RUMI

CHILDHOOD FRIENDS

You may have heard, it's the custom for kings
to let warriors stands on the left, the side of the heart,
and courage. On the right they put the chancellor,
and various secretaries, because the practice
of bookkeeping and writing usually belongs
to the right hand. in the center,
                                            the sufis,
because in meditation they become mirrors.
The king can look at their faces
and see his original state.
Give the beautiful ones mirrors
and let them fall in love with themselves.

That way they polish their souls
and kindle remembering in others.

A close childhood friend once came to visit Joseph.
They had shared the secrets that children tell each other
when they're lying on their pillow at night
before they go to sleep.These two
were completely truthful
with each other.

The friend asked,"What was it like when you realized
your brothers were jealous and what they planned to do?"

"I felt like a lion with a chain around its neck.
Not degraded by the chain, and not complaining,
but just waiting for my power to be recognized."

"How about down in the well, and in prison?
How was it then?"
                           "Like the moon when it's getting
smaller, yet knowing the fullness to come.
Like  a seed pearl ground in the mortar for medicine,
that knows it will now be the light in a human eye.

Like a wheat grain that breaks open in the ground,
then grows, then gets harvested, then crushed in the mill
for flour, then baked, then crushed again between teeth
to become a person's deepest understanding.
Lost in love, like the songs the planters sings
the night after they sow the seed."
                                                  There is no end
to any of this.
                    Back to something else the good man
and Joseph talked about.
                                      "Ah my friend, what have you
brought me? You know a traveler should not arrive
empty-handed at the door of a friend like me.
That's going to the grinding stone without your wheat.
God will ask at the resurrection,'Did you bring Me
a present? Did you forget? Did you think
you wouldn't see me?"
                                       Joseph kept teasing,
"Let's have it. I want my gift!"

The guest began, "You can't imagine how I've looked
for something for you. Nothing seemed appropriate.
You don't take gold down into a goldmine,
or a drop of water to the Sea of Oman!
Everything I thought of was like bringing cumin seed
to Kirmanshah where cumin comes from.

You have all seeds in your barn. You even have my love
and my soul, so I can't even bring those.

I've brought you a mirror. Look at yourself,
and remember me."
                               He look the mirror out from his robe
where he was hiding it.
                                  What is the mirror of being?
Non-being. Always bring a mirror of non-existence
as a gift. Any other present is foolish.

Let the poor man look deep into generosity.
Let bread see a hungry man.
Let kindling behold a spark from the flint.

An empty mirror and your worst destructive habits,
when they are held up to each other,
that's when the real making begins.
That's what art and crafting are.

A tailor needs a torn garment to practice the expertise.
The trunks of trees must be cut and cut again
so they can be used for fine carpentry.

Your doctor must have a broken leg to doctor.
Your defects are the ways that glory gets manifested.
Whoever sees clearly what's diseased in himself
begins to gallop on the way.
There is nothing worse
than thinking you are well enough.
More than anything, self-complacency
blocks the workmanship.

Put your vileness up to a mirror and weep.
Get that self-satisfaction flowing out of you!
Satan thought, "I am better than Adam,"
and that 'better than' is still strongly in us.

Your stream water may look clean,
but there's unstirred matter on the bottom.
Your Sheikh can dig a side channel
that will drain that waste off.

Trust your wound to a teacher's surgery.
Flies collect on a wound. They cover it,
those flies of your self-protecting feelings,
your love for what you think is yours.

Let a teacher wave away the flies
and put a plaster on the wound.

Don't turn your head. Keep looking
at the bandaged place. That's where
the light enters you.
                             And don't believe for a moment
that you're healing yourself.

                                                RUMI

THE MOUSE AND THE CAMEL

A mouse caught hold of a camel's lead rope
in his two forelegs and walked off with it,
imitating the camel drivers.
                                    The camel went along,
letting the mouse feel heroic.
                                          "Enjoy yourself,"
he thought. "I have something to teach you, presently."

They came to the edge of a great river.
The mouse was dumbfounded.
                                            "What are you waiting for?"
Step forward into the river. You are my leader.
Don't stop here."
                          "I'm afraid of being drowned."

The camel walked into the water. "It's only
just above the knee."
                                  "Your knee! your knee
is a hundred times over my head!"
                                                    "Well, maybe you shouldn't
be leading a camel. Stay with those like yourself.
A mouse has nothing really to say to a camel."

"Would you help me get across?"

"Get on my hump. I am made to take hundred like you
across."

You are not a prophet, but go humble on the way of the prophets,

and you can arrive where they are. Don't try to steer the boat.
Don't open a shop by yourself. Listen. Keep silent.
You are not God's mouthpiece. Try to be an ear,
and if you do speak, ask for explanations.

The source of your arrogance and anger is your lust
and the rootedness of that is in your habits.

Someone who makes a habit of eating clay
gets mad when you try to keep him from it.
Being a leader can also be a poisonous habit,
so that when someone questions your authority,
you think, "He's trying to take over."
You may respond courteously, but inside you rage.

Always check your inner state
with the lord of your heart.
Copper doesn't know it's copper,
until it's changes to gold.

Your loving doesn't know its majesty,
until it knows its helplessness.

GUIDE AND THE FOLLOWER

Without an escort you're bewildered on a familiar road,
    don't travel alone on a way you haven't seen at all;
      don't turn your head away from the Guide

                                                                   RUMI

Your sight is failing and the road is long;
Trust one who knows the journey and is strong.
Whoever travels in a great lord's shade
Need never hesitate or be afraid;
Whoever under takes this lord's commands
Find thorns will change to roses in his hands.

                                                                     ATTAR

Since you're not spiritually perfect,
don't open a shop of your own.
     Be plain to the hand,
so you can become leavened and kneaded like dough.
      |Listen to the Divine Command, "keep silence."
                  Be mute
since you haven't become the tongue of God,
                be an ear.
           If you do speak,
  let it be to ask for explanations:
      Speak as a humble beggar
at the hand of spiritually great.

                                                RUMI


SOMETHING INVISIBLE

Once I asked my Master'
"What is the difference
  Between you and me?"

       And He replied,
       "Hafiz, only this:

If a herd of wild buffalo
 Broke into our house
 And knocked over
Our empty begging bowls,
Not a drop will spill from yours.

 But there is something Invisible
That God has placed in mine.

If that spill from my bowl,
It could drown this whole world."

                                                HAFIZ

COME ON COME IN

Serving girl:
               "It's spring, Rabia-
                why not come outside,
                and look at the beauty God has made!"

Rabia:
           "why not come inside instead,
            serving-girl, and see the One
            who made it all- Naked, without veil."

THE SMOOTH TALKER

A smooth-talking rascal stopped a good-hearted man one day
and poured out his problem.

'I'm so deeply stuck in the mire,' he said, 'that I'll never get out.
I owe ten dirams to a man so mean and troublesome that even the
smallest coin in that sum is a heavy burden on my heart. I can't get
to sleep at night for worrying about it. Every morning without fail ,
he knocks at my door, and for the rest of the day he follow me about
like a shadow, wounding with the most distressing insults. It's as if
he had no other money in the world.I'm sure that the only chapter in
the Book of Religion that he's read in the one that says: Don't spend.
I'm at my wit's end. If only some kind people would help me out with
a coin or two.'

The kind man listened to this tale with obvious sympathy and gave him two
gold coins. The fellow went on his way with a face shining like the sun.

An astonished friend said to the kind-hearted man. 'Surely you have come
across this character before? He's well known in these parts. If he died
tomorrow not a soul would mourn him. He's such a crafty and deceitful
beggar that he could saddle a tiger!'

'Enough!' the generous ma replied. 'The way I look at it is this:Either he was
telling the truth, in which case I saved his honour or he was lying, in which case
I was protected mine. Even a blameless man's honour needs protecting from
a man as devious and talkative as that.'

                                                               SA'ADI

THE DERVISH AND THE FOX

'What an astonishing sight!' cried a dervish. In a desert place he had
come across a fox that had no feet or legs.

'How can it possibly live?' he wondered, 'for it looks healthy enough.'

Then he jumped behind a rock in terror. A lion had come upon the scene.

The lion had killed a jackal. It dropped the carcase near the fox, ate its fill,
and then went off, leaving bits of the meat behind. Quickly the fox ate the lot.

'Even more astonishing!' gasped the dervish. He couldn't believe what he had seen
so next day he came out into the desert and again hid behind the rock. The same thing
happened. The lion appeared with a freshly killed jackal, ate what it wanted, leaving
portions of the meat for the fox to finish.

'It's a sign from God!' the dervish said. 'From now on I, too, will rely, like the fox,
upon the generosity of the Creator. He found himself a dark corner against a wall
and settled to wait.

'God will provide,' he said to himself.

He sat there for several days and neither friend nor stranger went near him. More days
passed. He grew thinner and thinner until his veins and skin were stretched like harp strings
on his bony frame.

At length, when he was almost too weak to move, a holy man stood before him and
enquired what was the matter.

The dervish poured out his story. 'Now tell me,' he said when he had finished, 'surely that
was a sin from God?'

'Of course it was,' replied the holy man, 'but how could you be such an idiot?
Why didn't you see that you were supposed to imitate not the fox but the lion?'

                                                            SA'ADI  

I ONCE COMPLAINED

Only once did I ever grumble at how fortune treated me.
I was so poor that I could not even afford shoes, and went
into the mosque at Kufah with a sore and complaining heart.
There I saw a man with no feet.
                                                SADI

THE SECRET

King Tashak of Persia revealed a secret to his slaves, adding: 'Don't  tell this to anyone.'

They kept the secret for a whole year. And then it slipped out,. Like a flood it spread
throughout the kingdom and everybody knew about it.

Furious, the king had the slaves bound, and sent for the executioner.

'Behead them' he ordered.

'Mercy!' cried one of the slaves. 'Don't slay us for your own crime.'

'How so?' demanded the King.

'This torrent that you are trying to stop now,'
answered the slave,'was it not once a mere trickle contained in your heart alone?'

                                                                SA'ADI

A BUZZING IN THE EAR

Have you heard that the famous Arabian chieftain' Hatim Tai, was deaf?
Quite a few people believed that!

But, one morning there was a fly buzzing as it struggled to escape from a
spider's web. The spider had been so still and silent that the fly had perhaps
thought it was a piece of sugar. Now it was about to learn otherwise.

Hatim Tai went over to the corner of the room where the buzzing was.

'You are caught by your own greediness,' he said to the fly. 'You won't find
honey, sugar and candy in every nook and cranny. But that's where you will
be certain to find traps and snares.' The buzzing stopped. The spider had its
pray.'

'But Hatim' said a follower who had watched all this 'how could you have possibly
heard that fly? I could only just hear it myself. yet everybody says you are deaf!'

'You're very clever,' said Hatim with a smile. 'Well, I see I must tell you about my
deafness. It's like this; Much of my time, for reasons of state, I had to be among
flatterers, the sort of people who hid my faults from me and filled my ears with praise.
I couldn't help but take in some of their talk. I grew proud, and pride made me
wretched man.

'Then I gradually allowed them to think I was deaf. Naturally, there was much sad
shaking of heads. But then came two great advantages.

'The first was that they stopped bothering to flatter me. They soon saw that it got them
nowhere- all they had for their effort was my blank face.

'The second was that I began to hear the truth about myself. When they thought I couldn't
hear, they were quite frank about my good and bad qualities. It was always pleasant to
hear my sins discussed publicly, but it quickly abolished my pride and helped me in avoiding
further wickedness.'
                                                           SAADI

SAYING OF MAHMUD SHABISTARI

-There is only one light, and 'you' and 'me' are
  holes in the lamp shade.

-The world exists only as an appearance.
  From beginning to end it is a playful game.

-See unity, utter unity, know unity,
  In this is to be summarized the trunk and
   the branches of the tree of faith.

- Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
   Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
   When you depart out He will enter it.
    If you , void of yourself, will
    He display His beauties.

- The eye is not strong enough
        to look at the brilliant sun;
   But you can watch its light
        reflected in water.
    Pure Being is to bright to behold.
        yet it can be seen
       reflected in the mirror of the world.
    For non-Being.
       is set opposite of Being,
       and catches its image in every moment.

-Every particle of the world is a mirror,
  In each atom lies the blazing light
      of a thousand suns.
Cleave the heart of a rain drop,
   a hundred pure oceans will flow forth.
 Look closely at a grain of sand,
   the seed of a thousand beings can be seen...
 within the pulp of a millet seed
    an entire Universe can be found.
In the wing of a fly,
    an ocean of wonders;
 In the pupil of the eye, an endless heaven.
 Though the inner chamber of the heart is small,
     the lord of both worlds
 gladly make His home there.

THOUGHTS OF SCIENTISTS

The difference between me at five and me now is that at five I didn't have much invested emotionally in the Universe being a certain way. Being "wrong" never was a concern. It was all learning. Now I keep reminding myself : In science there is no such thing as a failed experiment. Learning that I was testing simply does not work is actually a success.

                                             WILL

I have found that I find a particular excitement in suddenly realizing I don't know the answer to something. It's like coming to the edge of a cliff in my mind.

In this space of "nothing" or not knowing, I get this intense feeling of anticipation. The reason I get excited is because I've come to the edge of what I know, and I realize that shortly an understanding will arrive in my head that will be staggering and will not have existed in me the moment before.

 It will be this huge ah-ha. I learned recently that an ah-ha stimulates the pleasure center of the brain---Evidently I'm addicted to this feeling.

                                                             MARK

You can never come to a conclusion about life. Life is an internal thing just as we are an internal thing.

We have to start searching for more meaning of what we are. Well the meaning of what we are has yet to be discovered by us.

                                   RAMTHA

In the mystic sense of the creation around us, in the expression of art, in a yearning toward God, the soul grows upward and find the fulfillment of some thing in planted in its nature....The pursuit of science (also) springs from a striving which the mind is implied to follow, a questioning that will not suppressed. Whether in the intellectual pursuit of science or in the mystical pursuit of the spirit, the light beckons ahead, and the purpose surging in our nature responds.

SIR ARTHUR EDDINGTON ASTROPHYSICIST, IN NATURE OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD.

The riff between science and spirit affects us today because the scientists who are involve in this sort of debate know very little about the teaching of spirit. They simply take the characters that they find retailed from every pulpit throughout the land and take this as a scientific spirit when in fact it's only a version of the science of the spirit. And, unfortunately, the churchman don't know their science either, so the two sides are actually firing at cross targets. these are simply two complimentary ways of looking at reality.

                  MICEAL LEDWITH 

ALI IN BATTLE

Learn from Ali how to fight
without your ego participating.

God's |Lion did nothing
that didn't originate
from his deep center.

Once in battle he got the best of a certain knight
and quickly drew his sward. The man,
helpless on the ground, spat
in Ali's face. Ali dropped his sword,
relaxed, and helped the man to his feet.

"Why have you spared me?
How has lightning contracted back
into its cloud? Speak, my prince,
so that my soul can begin to stir
in me like an embryo."

Ali was quiet and then finally answered,
"I am God's Lion, not the lion of passion.
The sun is my lord. I have no longing
except for the One.
When a wind of personal reaction comes,
I do not go along with it.

There are many winds full of anger,
and lust and greed. They move the rubbish
around, but the solid mountain of our true nature
stay where it's always been.

There is nothing now
except the divine qualities.
Come through the opening into me.

Your impudence was better than any reverence,
because in this moment I am you and you are me.

I give you this opened heart as God gives gifts:
the poison of your spit has become
the honey of friendship."
                                           RUMI

THE MISER WHO BECOME A MOUSE

A miser died, leaving a cache of gold;
And in a dream what should the son behold
But his dead father, shaped now like a mouse
That dashed distractedly about the house,
His mouse-eyes filled with tears. The sleeping son
Spoke in his dream:"Why, father, must you run
About our home like this?" The poor mouse said:
"Who guards my store of gold now I am dead?
Has any thief found out its hiding-place?"
The son asked next about his mouse-like face
And heard his father say: "Learn from my state;
Whoever worship gold, this is his fate-
To haunt the hidden cache for evermore,
An anxious mouse that darts across the floor";

                                                                 ATTAR





A GRAVEDIGGER

A man who lived by digging graves survived
To ripe old age. A neighbour said: "You've thrived
For years, digging away in one routine-
Tell us the strangest thing you've ever seen."
He said:"All things considered, what's most strange
Is that for seventy years without a change
That dog, my Self, has seen me digging graves,
Yet neither dies, nor alters, nor behaves;"

                                                             ATTAR

TEACHING

Then said a teacher, speak to us of Teaching
And he said:
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already
lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple,
among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom,
but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind......
And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge,
so much each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God
and in his understanding of the earth.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

CHILDREN

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot
Visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

CAN YOU SWIM

In the old times there were only rowboats to cross the straits of Bosporus in Turkey, not the large boats of today. If you wanted to go from one side to the other, you hired a boat with five or ten other people and paid the boatman to take you across.
One day, a professor of geography stepped into one of these boats to cross the straits. Just as the boat set out, the wind started to kick up, and the boat began to sway from side to side.
As they made their way across the straits, the professor asked the boatman, "Do you know geography?"
The boatman replied that he did not. The professor said, "You've wasted one third of your life. A third of your life is gone."
A few moments later, the professor asked, "Do you know math?" and the boatman replied that he did not. Again the professor said, "A third of your life is gone; you've wasted all of this time."
Then he asked him, "Do you know history? No? A third of your life is gone; you have wasted so much time." and continued berating the boatman like this.
Mean while, the wind had become quite ferocious and the boat to rock back and forth wildly.
The boatman asked the professor "Do you know how to swim?"
The professor replied that he did not. The boatman said to him, "Then all of your life is gone."

REFERENCE: WHAT ABOUT MY WOOD BY ES- SEYYID ES-SHAYKH

WOULD YOU LIKE THAT WELL DONE

Khidr was teaching Moses (peace be upon them both) as they traveled together. One day, when they both became very hungry they each prayed for food. Allah answered Moses prayer and he started a fire so he could cook the food he had received. he noticed that Khidr was eating something. You need to work on your belief ,'' Khidr told Moses why don't you pray for a nicely cooked meal, as I do?


Khidr: The immoral prophet , also known as the Green Man


Reference: What about my wood by Es-Sayyid Es-Sheikh Taner Anasari

THE CHESS PLAYER

There was once a king who used to play chess with his court jester.
The jester was a Good player, and he won the game. This so annoyed
the king he punished him.
Then the monarch insisted on playing another time. The jester was
reluctant, but he had to continue.
When he was again on the point of winning, and the time had come
to call 'checkmate' the jester jumped up and ran into a corner. there he
covered himself with rugs, to avoid being beaten by the king.
The king asked him what he was doing. 'checkmate!' called out the jester;
'I am hiding here because nobody can dare to checkmate you unless he is
hidden, covered up-----'

RUMI

REFERENCE: THE COMMANDING SELF BY IDRIES SHAH

EYE BROWS

A man look at his wife's face and said: 'When did one of your eyebrows become thinner than the other?'
she answered: ' It was first noticed when you started to look my exterior, and become less appreciative of the inner Me.'

REFERENCE: THE COMMANDING SELF BY IDRIES SHAH

THE PIECE OF OAK

A father handed his son a piece of smooth oak, and said to him, "This is your board. For every mistake you make, I will hammer in a nail"
By the time the boy was thirteen, the board was covered corner to corner with nails, some rusted, some shining new. The father took the board to his son and said, "For every good thing you do to fix all of these wrongs, I will take one nail out."
And it was not too long before the father took the last nail out the proudly showed his son the
clean piece of oak. Yet when son saw the board, his eyes brimmed with tears. He turned to his father and said, "But father, what about the holes?...


REFERENCE: SOUL PRINTS BY MARC GAFNI