I love that Sufi wisdom so easily blends daily practice with ideas of The Infinite. It's in wonderful counterpoint to so much of Western dogmatic theology!

I play across this boundary quite a bit, these days. I find many of my blog entries end up with me discovering a larger truth or pattern from a relatively insignificant trigger.

That thedre's no particular difference between worshipping the One and daily life?

Along with what Charles Martin writes above:

The message is, The shepherd did what he had to do. There should not be any shame or fear in believing what your heart wants you to believe: Two bits from Tiffany, my girl friend.

Here's the full story from Idries Shah:

"This explanation of a notable passage in Rumi's Mathnavi was given by Khwaja Fida'i of Kars, in his Meditations on the couplets of Our Master Jalaludin Rumi

It draws attention to the different levels of human understanding, emphasizing that a man can be reached only through the ranges of association which he can conceive.

A part of the duty of every Sufi teacher, however, is to prepare his students for perceptions of the higher 'parallelism.' It is therefore considered to be most incorrect to emphasize the material advantages of sufism alone in entirely conventional terms. sufism, therefore, is not presented by teachers as a therapy or a cure for the worldly ills of man."

Khwaja Fida'i's meditation notes:

"No man can understand more than his mind is capable of understandin; and for this reason it has been truly said [from Mohammed]: 'Speak to every man according to his understanding.' As each man can perceive, so will he benefit. If a man or woman is capable of only low perceptions, he will seek and gain satisfaction through them....

...the shepherd had not the intelligence or experience to realize Moses was talking about an incorporeal deity...."

As for G-d in the story, there's a sentence that follows the statement above. The full statement is:

"Thus hast thou driven away a worshipper from the nearest to Me that he could approach. There is a gradation in all men: each will perceive what he can perceive and at the stage at which he can perceive it."

As noted above, Sufi stories have many levels of meaning. Just because a meaning is not in the "official" text, therefore, does not necessarily make it wrong. Of course, to avoid going astray, the Sufis rely oon the tutelage and insight of a Shaykh from a recognized "chain of transmission" who can play that teachers' role properly and help students climb their own "ladders of perception" without slipping.

linked to my sufi wisdom post.

thanks for the sharing.