Theos-Talk Archives (March 2003 Message tt00042)

Hi all of you,

Here is part 2 of 4. (about 2 pages).
The article by Idries Shah "The Wisdom of Sufic Humor", taken from "Human Nature" April (1978)


Another tale shows how beliefs and ideas rooted in the mind often 
function only for certain purposes -- and do not help the person who suffers 
from them. This miniature parable is also linked with the effects of vanity.

One woman says to another, "Poor Maisie really has suffered for what she 
believes in."
"And what DOES she believe in?" asks the other.
"She believes that you can wear a size six shoe on a size nine foot."

For the purposes of Sufism, several elements in the human mind must be 
aligned before the interference that prevents higher understanding can be 
stilled. People are always supposing that they can realize their full 
potential if they can only discover the way, the key, the method, and apply 
it. But applying the method may involve taking care of all the things within 
them that are not helping them, such as the habit of applying fashionable 
though ineffective techniques to a problem. A key works only in a lock.

A friend of mine once went to see the chief of state of a certain 
country. When they were walking on the grounds of the presidential place, a 
large and fierce-looking dog tore the loincloth off a Hindu guru who was also 
present and, barking loudly, cornered him by a wall. Now this guru had the 
reputation of being able to tame tigers with a glance, but he obviously had 
no such way with dogs, and he called out to my friend to do something.

The visitor said, "A barking dog does not bite."
"I know that and you know that," the guru shouted back, "but does the 
dog know that?"

This replay of an old joke presents the structure of a mental state; 
unless the three elements in a mind are aligned (the guru, the visitor, and 
the dog, as they are called in this picture of it), the situation is, to put 
it mildly, unpromising.

This "dog" in the mind is what stands in the way of developing the tiny 
potential that people are always trying to realize.
THE PAINSTAKING APPROACH OF THE SUFI MAY SEEM TEDIOUS, BUT ENLIGHTENMENT THAT 
IS TOO EASY IS SUSPECT.
Until that potential is strong enough to be realized, it remains latent and 
so inconsequential that if people were to have their potential removed, the 
operation would be minor. To increase it would produce not a flourishing 
plant, but a giant, unviable weed.

In the Sufi system, as in any field of learning, when a person has 
insufficient information or does not know what questions or actions will 
yield productive answers or reactions, the situation must be corrected as 
soon as possible. One quite useful joke incarnates the circumstances that 
occur when this has been done.

A recruit was asked by a training instructor, "Give me an example of how 
to fool the enemy."
The recruit answered, "When you are out of ammunition, don't let the 
enemy know -- keep on firing!"

One of the most important aspects of the initial stages of Sufism is 
that the learner often has to experience higher perceptions so that he can 
recognize their individual flavor. Once he can do that, he can stabilize his 
state when these perceptions occur and can avoid imagining that useless, 
subjective experiences are spiritual ones. He or she can now seek the flavor 
again and stabilize it. This is the doctrine called "He who tastes, knows," 
but the value of the taste depends in part on the irreplaceable presence and 
activity of the spiritual equivalent of taste buds.

>From the Sufis' perspective, derivative or inauthentic spiritual systems 
are disoriented and they usually have unrecognized problems. Their adherents 
do not know the parameters or the places to test and perceive because they 
cannot tell a spiritual from an emotional experience. Neither do they 
usually realize in what order various experiences have to be stimulated, or 
even that there is such an order.

The tale about two less-than-brilliant countrymen who hired a boat and 
went fishing illustrates this situation. The men caught some fine fish. 
When they were going home, one said to the other, "How are we going to make 
our way back to that wonderful fishing place again?"
The second said, "I thought of that -- I marked the boat with chalk!"
"You fool!" said the first. "That's no good. Supposing next time they 
give us a different boat?"

When they hear it spelled out, of course, many people regard the Sufis' 
seemingly painstaking approach as tedious. But anything that needs careful 
attention seems tedious if you look at it impatiently. People who offer 
enlightenment by easier methods have neither the responsibility nor the 
problems of people who have made enlightenment a science. Remember that if a 
bald man gets a free comb with a bottle of hair restorer, it does not 
necessarily follow that he will ever be able to use the comb for its intended 
purpose.

The subjective self, which is made up of part ordinary human training, 
part instinct, and part obsession or conditioning may answer well enough for 
many purposes, but it must be possible to set aside that self in order to get 
to the real thing. Sufi teaching often has to resort to indirect methods in 
order to eliminate the destructive effect of those activities that give great 
pleasure to the individual but actually inhibit his potential -- as well as 
annoy everyone else around.

Such a situation is described in a contemporary joke:
There was once a small boy who banged a drum all day and loved every 
moment of it. He would not be quiet, no matter what anyone else said or did. 
Various people who called themselves Sufis, and other well-wishers, were 
called in by neighbors and asked to do something about the child.

The first so-called Sufi told the boy that he would, if he continued to 
make so much noise, perforate his eardrums; this reasoning was too advanced 
for the child, who was neither a scientist nor a scholar. The second told 
him that drum beating was a sacred activity and should be carried out only on 
special occasions. The third offered the neighbors plugs for their ears; the 
fourth gave the boy a book; the fifth gave the neighbors books that described 
a method of controlling anger through biofeedback; the sixth gave the boy 
meditation exercises to make him placid and explained that all reality was 
imagination. Like all placebos, each of these remedies worked for a short 
while, but none worked for very long.

Eventually, a real Sufi came along. He looked at the situation, handed 
the boy a hammer and chisel, and said, "I wonder what is INSIDE the drum?"


Part 3 of 4 follows shortly

from
M. Sufilight with peace...and love...







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