by T.L. James of Mars Blog and Man of Two Worlds. Part of our weekly Sufi Wisdom series.
This week's wisdom comes from Rumi (via Coleman Barks), and has to do (it would seem) with means and ends:Who makes these changes?
I shoot an arrow right.
It lands left.
I ride after a deer and find myself
chased by a hog.
I plot to get what I want
and end up in prison.
I dig pits to trap others
and fall in.
I should be suspicious
of what I want.
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Our sufi guru- JOGI SAI BABAJI-a hindu mystic who lived upto 100 years - and whose shrine is now at powai-mumbai- used to talk glowingly about HIS GURU- a muslim PIR- Hazrat SAINJI NASIR MOHAMMED SAHEB FAKIR SUFI AL QADIRI, R.A..He said that HIS GURU was a GOD INCARNATE. SAINJI NASIR FAKIR lived for 125 years and passed away at karachi on december 16,1960 . His shrine is at JALALANI SHARIF- sindh pakistan. This is to show the beauty of SUFISM. Hindus worshipping muslim pirs forgetting their traditional animosities. The muslim pirs used to give so much love to their hindu devotees that now even third generation hindu families are deeply devoted to their muslim pirs. Thousands of such devotees could help to bring the hindus and muslims together and eventually pave the way for the friendly re-unification of their warring countries india and pakistan???? A dream at present might very well come true- one never knows what kind of miracles are heading our way- regards- hiro bachani- www.ssscomputers.net OM NAMOH SHIVAI HARE RAMA HARE KRSNA LORD JESUS CHRIST HOLY MARY MOTHER OF GOD AMEN- For MP3 players- it is either APPLE IPODS or MERLIN MP3s- contact www.merlin-me.com
Great. In addition to the porn spam, we have to deal with holy roller spam. At least it's non-denominational.
Back to the subject at hand. This seems a straight-forward recasting of the law of karma, or the Rule of Three (in Wicca). Rumi seems to me to advocate suspicion of one's desires. In Buddhist thought, desire gives rise to suffering, either personal or communal. Wicca adds the insight that desire itself is only a temptation. How one acts to fulfill that temptation is repaid eventually thrice over.
T.L. : Like the Chinese say, "Be careful what you wish for!" :)
One of the things about this poem which caught my attention was the suggestion that, if you are getting the wrong results, perhaps you need to reconsider what it is you are after. That is, failure can be not only an indication of the wrong approach (the means), but may be an indicator that the goal (the end) being pursued is itself wrong.
On another level, the poem can be read as the lament of a failed seeker -- he tries simple exercises but gets the wrong results; he follows after what he believes to be noble and worthy (a real or assumed "true" teacher) but is pursued by something base instead (a false guide); he attempts to gain understanding by wrong or simply ineffective means, and ends up imprisoned by them (via empty ritual, habits, prejudices, etc.); and finally he attempts to "trap" others into believing that he is enlightened, only to find himself "trapped" by his own facade. In the end, he wonders despairingly whether there is such a thing as enlightenment at all.