Originally posted on sciy.org by Ron Anastasia on Wed 07 Feb 2007 01:10 AM PST  

Teaching Stories

Teaching styles vary from person to person and from school to school, but usually, we as learners, remember and gain more from actual contact with what we are studying. If we are studying physics, we would do well to go out into the world and look around at how "physical" things are. If we are to dive into the nature of Truth and Heart, we thus also must prepare for an inward journey. However, through stories and parables and zen-like affirmations to a higher knowledge, we can search around our world for the Truth that surrounds us. It is best with a teacher who can point out the myriad truths we overlook each day, and to learn from them, but in the absence of a teacher, soaking in the hidden meanings as well as the blatant slaps on the face from reading parables and stories might also benefit us on the start of our journey.

These stories are ... taken from "The Way of The Sufi" by Indres Shah. Reading them at different times unearth different themes and messages, ... when we can see the under layers of a seemingly obvious story.

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Do More Than Laugh At Fools

Once upon a time there was a fool who was sent to buy flour and salt. He took a dish to carry his purchases.

"Make sure," said the man who sent him, "not to mix the two things - I want them separate."

The fool obeyed and searched out the appropriate shop. When the shopkeeper had filled the dish with flour and was measuring the salt, the fool said: "Do not mix it with the flour; here, I will show you where to put it."

And he inverted the dish, to provide, from its upturned bottom, a surface upon which the salt could be laid.

The flour, of course, fell onto the floor. But the salt was safe.

When the fool got back to the man who had sent him, he said: "Here is the salt."

"Very well," said the man, "but where is the flour?"

"It should be here." Said the fool, turning the dish over.

As soon as he did that, the salt fell to the ground, and the flour of course was seen to be gone.

So it is with human beings. Doing one thing which they think to be right, they may undo another which is equally right. When this happens with thoughts instead of actions, man himself is lost, no matter how, upon reflection, he regards his thinking to be logical.

You have laughed at the joke of the fool. Now, will you do more, and think about your own thoughts as if they were the salt and the flour?

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 233

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The Watermelon Hunter

Once upon a time there was a man who strayed, from his own country, into the world known as the Land of the Fools.

He soon saw a number of people flying in terror from a field where they had been trying to reap wheat. "There is a monster in that field," they told him. He looked, and saw that it was a watermelon.

He offered to kill the 'monster' for them. When he had cut the melon from its stalk, he took a slice and began to eat it. The people became even more terrified of him than they had of the watermelon. They drove him away with pitchforks, crying: "He will kill us next, unless we get rid of him."

It so happened that at another time another man also strayed in to the Land of the Fools, and the very same thing started to happen to him. But, instead of offering to help them with the 'monster,' he agreed with them that it must be dangerous, and by tiptoeing away from it with them, gained their confidence. He spent a long time with them in their houses until he could teach them, little by little, the basic facts which would enable them not only to lose their fear of watermelons, but even to cultivate them themselves.

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 227

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The Master

It is related by a Sufi master that when he was a youth, he wanted to attach himself to a teaching master. He sought a sage, and asked to become his disciple.

The teacher said: "You are not yet ready."

Since the young man was insistent, the sage said: "Very well, I will teach you something. I am going on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Come with me." The disciple was overjoyed.

"Since we are traveling companions" said the teacher, "one must lead, and the other obey. Choose your role."

"I will follow, you lead," said the disciple.

"If you know how to follow," said the master.

The journey started. While they were resting one night in the desert of the Hejaz, it started to rain. The master got up and held a covering over the disciple, protecting him.

"But this is what I should be doing for you," said the disciple.

"I command you to allow me to protect you thus," said the sage.

When it was day the young man said: "Now it is a new day. Let me be the leader, and you follow me." The master agreed.

"I shall now collect brushwood, to make a fire," said the youth.

"You may do no such thing; I shall collect it," said the sage.

"I command you sit there while I collect brushwood!" said the young man.

"You may do no such thing," said the teacher, "for it is not in accordance with the requirements of discipleship for the follower to allow himself to be served by the leader.

And so, on every occasion, the master showed the student what discipleship really meant, by demonstration. They parted at the gate of the Holy City. Seeing the sage later, the young man could not meet his eyes. "That which you have learned," said the older man, "is something of the nature of discipleship." The disciple must know how to obey, not merely that he must obey. The question of whether to become a disciple or not only comes after the person knows what discipleship really is. People spend their time wondering whether they should be disciples - or otherwise. Since their assumption (that they could be a disciple if they wished it) is incorrect, they are living in a false world, an intellectualist world. Such people have not learned the first lesson.

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 193

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Which Way Round Is Right?

A certain wise man was widely reputed to have become irrational in his presentation of facts and arguments.

It was decided to test him, so that the authorities of his country could pronounce as to whether he was a danger to public order or not.

On the day of the test he paraded past the courtroom mounted on a donkey, facing the donkey's rear.

When the time came for him to speak for himself, he said to the judges:

"When you saw me just now, which way was I facing?"

The judges said: "Facing the wrong way."

"You illustrate my point," he answered, "for I was facing the right way, from one point of view. It was the donkey which was facing the wrong way."

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 192

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The Vine

A certain man planted a vine, well known as being of a kind which produces eatable grapes only after thirty years.

It just so happened that as he was planting it, the Commander of the Faithful passed by, paused and said: "You are a remarkable optimist if you hope to live until that kind of vine bears fruit."

"Perhaps I shall not," said the man, "but at least my successors will live to benefit from my work, as we all profit from the work of our predecessors."

"In that case," said the ruler, "if and when any grapes are produces, bring them to me. That is, if both of us have escaped the sword of death which is hanging over us all the time."

He then went on his way.

Some years later, the vine started to bear delicious grapes. The man filled a large basket with the choicest bunches and went to the palace. The Commander of the Faithful received him and gave him a handsome present of gold.

The word went round: "An insignificant peasant has been given a huge sum in exchange for a basket of grapes."

A certain ignorant woman, hearing this, immediately filled a basket of her own grapes and presented herself to the palace guard saying: "I demand the same recompense as the man who was rewarded this morning. Here is my fruit. If the king gives money for fruit, here is fruit."

Word was taken to the Commander of the Faithful, whose answer was: "Those who act by imitation and the arrogance which underlies the lack of inquiry in to the circumstances which they try to imitate: let them be driven away."

The woman was sent away, but she was so annoyed that she did not trouble herself to ask the vine-grower what had really happened.

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 140

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The Sheep and the Purse

A man was walking along a road one day, followed by his sheep.

A thief went after him, cut the rope of the sheep, and took it away.

When he realized what had happened, the man ran all over the place looking for his animal. Presently he came to a well, where he saw a man apparently in despair.

Although the man did not know it, he was the very same thief.

He asked him what he was doing.

The thief said: "I have dropped a purse into this well. It contains five hundred silver coins. If you will jump in and get it back for me, I will give you a hundred silver pieces."

The man thought: "When one door shuts, a hundred may open. This chance is worth ten times the sheep which I have lost."

He stripped himself and plunged into the well.

And the thief carried off his clothes.

(Told by Rumi)

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 235

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The Rogue, the Sheep and the Villagers

Once there was a rogue who was caught by the people of a village. They tied him to a tree to contemplate the suffering which they were going to inflict on him; and went away, having decided to throw him into the sea that evening, after they had finished their day's work.

But a shepherd, who was not very intelligent, came along and asked the clever rogue why he was tied up like that.

"Ah," said the rogue, "some men have put me here because I will not accept their money."

"Why do they want to give it to you, and why will you not accept it?" asked the astonished shepherd.

"Because I am a contemplative, and they want to corrupt me," said the rogue; "they are godless men."

The shepherd suggested that he should take the rogue's place and advised the rogue to run away and put himself out of reach of the godless ones.

So they changed places.

The citizens returned after nightfall, put a sack over the shepherd's head, tied him up, and threw him into the sea.

The next morning they were amazed to see the rogue coming into the village with a flock of sheep.

"Where have you been, and where did you get those sheep?" they asked him.

"In the sea there are kindly spirits who reward all who jump in and 'drown' in this manner," said the rogue.

In almost less time than it takes to tell, the people rushed to the seashore and jumped in.

That was how the rogue took over the village.

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 141

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Why I Did That

One day a man came to the great teacher Bahaudin. He asked for help in his problems, and guidance on the path of the Teaching.

Bahaudin told him to abandon spiritual studies, and to leave his court at once.

A kind hearted visitor began to remonstrate with Bahaudin.

"You shall have a demonstration." said the sage. At that moment a bird flew into the room, darting hither and thither, not knowing where to go in order to escape.

The Sufi waited until the bird settled near the only open window of the chamber, and then suddenly clapped his hands.

Alarmed, the bird flew straight through the opening of the window, to freedom.

"To him that sound must have been something of a shock, even an affront, do you not agree?" said Bahaudin.

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 160

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The Thief, the Shopkeeper and the Law

A thief broke into a shop. While he was there, a sharp awl which the shopkeeper had left on a shelf entered his eye, and blinded it.

The thief went to the law, saying: "The penalty for stealing is prison, but the penalty for negligence causing injury to an eye is considerable damages."

"He came to steal from me," said the shopkeeper, in his own defence.

"That will be dealt with by another court," said the judge, "and can not concern us here."

"If you take all my possessions," said the thief, "my family will starve while I am in prison. That is clearly not fair upon them."

"Then I shall order the shopkeeper's eye to be put out in retaliation," said the judge.

"But if you do that," said the shopkeeper, "I shall lose more than the thief did, and it would not be equitable. I am a jeweler, and the loss of one eye would ruin my capacity for work."

"Very well," said the judge, "since the law is impartial, and none must suffer more than he should, and since the whole community shares in the gains and losses of some of its members, bring a man who only needs one eye - an archer for instance - and put out his other eye."

And this was done.

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 144

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Liability

One night a thief, trying to climb through the window of a house which he intended to rob, fell because the window frame broke, hit the ground and broke his leg.

He went to court to sue the owner of the house.

The owner said: "Sue the carpenter who put that window in."

The carpenter said: "The builder did not make the window aperture properly."

When the builder was called, he said: "My fault was caused by a beautiful woman who was passing while I was working at the window."

The woman was found, and she said: "I was wearing a beautiful gown at the time. Normally, nobody looks at me. It is the fault of the gown, which was cunningly dyed in variegated stripes."

"Now we have the culprit," said the judge; "call the man who did the dyeing, and he shall be held responsible for the harm done to the leg of the thief."

When they found the dyer, he turned out to be the husband of the woman. It so happened that this was - the thief himself.

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 168

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The Flower and the Stone

When the great teacher and martyr Mansur El-Hallaj was exposed to the crowd, convicted of apostasy and heresy, he showed no evidence of pain when his hands were publicaly chopped off.

When the crowd threw stones which inflicted great wounds, he made no sign.

One of his friends, a Sufi teacher, approached and struck him with - a flower.

Mansur screamed as if in torture.

He did this in order to show that he could not be hurt by anything done by those who thought that they were doing right. But the merest touch from someone who knew, like him, that he was unjustly accused and condemned was more hurtful to him than any torture.

Mansur and his Sufi companions, helpless though they were in the face of such tyranny, are remembered for that lesson, while their torturers are almost forgotten.

As he was dying, Mansur said: "The people of the world try to do good. I recommend you to seek something of which the smallest part is worth more than all goodness: the knowledge of what is true - true science.

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 190

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The Beloved

One went to the door of the Beloved and knocked.

A voice asked: "Who is there?"

He answered: "It is I."

The voice said: "There is no room here for me and thee."

The door was shut.

After a year of solitude and deprivation this man returned to the door of the Beloved. He knocked.

A voice from within asked: "Who is there?"

The man said: "It is Thou."

The door was opened for him.

Told by Rumi

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 208

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The Girl Who Came Back From the Dead

In ancient times there was a beautiful girl, the daughter of a good man, a woman among women, rare in her loveliness and in the delicacy of her nature.

When she was of marriageable age, three young men, each apparently of the highest capacities and of great promise, sought her hand.

Having decided that they were of equal merit, the father left the final choice to her. But months passed and the girl did not seem to be making up her mind.

And then one day, she fell suddenly ill. Within a few hours she was dead.

The three young men, united in grief, took her body to a cemetery and buried it in the deepest of silent agony.

The first youth made the graveyard his home, spending his nights there in sorrow and meditation, unable to understand the workings of the fate which had taken her away.

The second youth took to the roads and wandered through-out the world in search of knowledge, as a fakir.

The third young man spent his time in consoling the bereaved father.

Now the youth who had become a fakir, in his journeyings came across a certain place where a man of repute in uncanny arts resided. Continuing his search for knowledge, he presented himself at the door, and was admitted to the table of the master of the house.

When the host invited him to eat, he was about to start the meal when a small child started to cry. It was the grandson of the wise man.

The sage picked up the boy and threw him into a fire.

The fakir jumped up and started to leave the house, crying out: "Infamous demons! I have had my share of the sorrows of the world already, but this crime surpasses those in all recorded history!"

"Think nothing of it," said the master of the house, "for simple things appear otherwise when there is an absence of knowledge."

So saying, he recited a formula and waved a strange emblem, and the boy walked out of the fire, unharmed.

The fakir memorized the words and the design, and the next morning was on his way back to the cemetery where his beloved was buried.

In less time than it takes to tell, the maiden stood before him, fully restored to life.

She went back to her father, while the youths disputed as to which of them had earned her hand.

The first said: "I have been living in the graveyard, keeping, through my vigils contact with her, guarding her spirit's needs for earthly support."

The second said: "You both ignore the fact that it was I who actually traveled the world in search of knowledge, and who ultimately brought her back to life."

The third said: "I have grieved for her, and like a husband and son in law I have lived here, consoling the father, and helping with his upkeep."

They appealed to the girl herself. She said: "He who found the formula to restore me was a humanitarian; he who looked after my father acted as a son to him; he who lay beside my grave - he acted like a lover. I will marry him."

The Way of the Sufi,
Pg. 150

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