Last week, when I walked into my local bookstore, they had a display paying homage to this being the Islamic Holy month of Ramadan. Seeing this, I thought it would be prudent to honor it by reading up on Islamic Mysticism, as seen by the Sufis. So I picked up The Way of the Sufi (Penguin Arkana).
Although the book was a valuable read, and at times very inthrawling, it was also quite difficult to proccess. Part of Sufism states that the right spiritual path is dependent on time and location. Thus, teachings that apply to one locality at one time, do not apply in another time or place. Therefore I was reading something that was telling me again and again that it was not applicable to me.
Although it was frustrating, I found the Sufis did (do) exhibit quite a bit of true wisdom. Their general philosophy of education as described above is actually quite intriguing in and of itself. It reminds me that applying ancient texts like the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, Homer’s works, the Koran etc. Are never going to be as applicable as they were to the contemporaries of those works. I would argue, as I believe the Sufi’s certainly would that such ancient texts are not devoid of meaning outside their original contexts, just that they should be taken with a grain of salt.
The Sufis also make extensive use of parable and poetry, often meant to misdirect the reader/student to learn something he doesn’t necessarily expect or even desire, while at the same time something that student needs to learn. This principle is well illustrated in a story I’ll attempt to paraphrase:
The Happiest Man in the World
A young man went to a Sufi teacher and asked him, “What do I need to do to attain true happiness? ”. The master responded that the questioner should seek out the happiest man in the world and ask for his shirt. Thus he would attain true happiness.
Eager to find the answer, the young man packed his bags and went on a journey to find the happiest man in the world. As he arrived in a new town, he asked the townsfolk who was the happiest person they knew. Each time he would meet someone, they always said “I know of a man who is much happier than I. He lives in such and such a place; seek him out”. For 40 years the man searched the world from town to town, from country, seeking ever happier and happier men.
Finally, the man’s tiring travels led him to a very old man, living alone atop a high mountain. Exhausted he asked the old man: “Are you the happiest man in the world?” The old man, smiled and replied that he could not think of anyone who was happier than he. Relived that he had reached the end of Journey and was near attainment of what he had sought all these many years he asked the old one, “Please, I was instructed to ask for your shirt so that I may be as happy as you are”, the man requested, “May I please have your shirt?”
At the question, the old man laughed a large and hearty laugh saying, “I’m sorry son, but I do not have a shirt. Can you not see that my chest is bare?”
Puzzled, the younger man studied elder. Not only was he not wearing a shirt but looking under the old one’s long beard and wrinkled, leather-like skin was the face of the the Sufi teacher who first sent him on the quest. “Why!, Why”, the man cried, “why did you send me on this quest, when I had known you all those years ago?”
The old man smiled a wide grin and said, “Because that is what you needed at the time. Now you are ready to learn”.