From: bahram@somewhere.in.heaven.edu
Subject: Pieces-XXIV (The Bird and the Egg)
Organization: Mars People International.
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 17:19:48 GMT



		ESCAPE LADDER

	  The moment you entered this world of form, an escape ladder was 
	put out for you.

					Jalaludin Rumi
			****************

		LOAN, TONGUE, CAGE

	A loan is the scissors of friendship.
	A man's own tongue may cut his throat.
	The cage has no value without the bird.

					Saadi of Shiraz
			****************

		THE WILL OF ALLAH

	   `May the will of Allah be done,' a pious man was saying about
	something or other.
	   `It always is, in any case,' said Mulla Nasrudin.
	   `Quite simply. If it wasn't always being done, then surely at some
	time or another *my* will would be done, wouldn't it?'

					Idries Shah
			****************
										
		THE BIRD AND THE EGG

	ONCE upon a time there was a bird which did not have the power of 
	flight. Like a chicken, he walked about on the ground, although he 
	knew that some birds did fly.
	   It so happened that, through a combination of circumstances, the 
	egg of a flying bird was incubated by this flightless one.
	   In due time the chick came forth, still with the potentiality for
	flight which he had always had, even from the time when he was in the
	egg.
	   It spoke to its foster-parent, saying: `When will I fly?' And the 
	landbound bird said: `Persist in your attempts to fly, just like the
	others.'
	   For he did not know how to take the fledgeling for its lesson in 
	flying: even how to topple it from the nest so that it might learn.
	   And it is curious, in a way, that the young bird did not see this.
	His recognition of the situation was confused by the fact that he felt
	gratitude to the bird which had hatched him.
	   `Without this service', he said to himself, `surely I would still 
	be in the egg?'
	   And, again, sometimes he said to himself: `Anyone who can hatch me,
	surely he can teach me to fly. It must be just a matter of time, or of
	my own unaided efforts, or of some great wisdom: yes, that is it.
	Suddenly one day I will be carried to the next stage by him who has
	brought me thus far.'
		
	%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
	
	This tale appears in various forms in different versions of 
	Suhrawardi's twelfth-century *Awarif el-Maarif* and carries many
	messages. It is said to be capable of interpretation intuitively in
	accordance with the level of consciousness reached by the student. On
	the obvious level it has, of course, morals, some of them emphasizing
	the very bases of modern civilization. These include:
	   `To assume that one thing follows from another can be absurd and
	prevent further progress,' and `Just because someone can perform one
	function does not prove that he can fulfill another.'

 					Idries Shah (Tales Of the Dervishes)	
			****************

		GREY AND WHITE

	Nasrudin, when a child, asked his father:
	   `Why have you got grey hair?'
	   `Because, Nasrudin, children asking impossible questions make a 
	man's hair white.'
	   `I see,' said the Mulla. `That explains why your own father's hair 
	is snow-coloured.'

					Idries Shah
			****************

		VISIBILITY, INVISIBILITY AND EXPECTATION

	MANY THINGS are invisible to people because of the unexpectedness of
	where they really are. Who would expect silk to come from worms?
	   People imagine that because they have grasped this point, they can
	exercise expectation. But, expectation may conceal the visibility of
	something by obsessing the observing person.
	   Unexpectedness is a form of expectation: `I did not expect that'
	means `I was expecting something else.'
	   Expectation alone is useless. The expector must be informed.

					Bahaudin Naqshband of Bokhara
			****************

		BATS

	Bats come out when the sun has set.

					Proverb
			****************

		THE TRIP

	Nasrudin's friend Wali slipped and fell from the immense height of the
	Post Office Tower in London.
	   The following night, Nasrudin dreamt that he was visiting Heaven 
	when he ran across Wali.
	   `What was it like, Wali?'
	   `The impact was terrible, but the trip -- the trip was terrific!'
	 
					Idries Shah
			****************

		LUCK

	   Call yourself unlucky only if you take up coffin-making and people
	stop dying.

					Proverb
			****************
					
		SOME BEHAVIOUR

	   I am like a man who has lighted a fire, and all the creeping things
	have rushed to burn themselves in it.

					The Prophet Mohammed
			****************

		LOVE AND OUR KING

	I went to the Master's abode and said: `Where is the Master?'
	He said: `The Master is in love and intoxicated and a wanderer from
	   place to place.'
	I said: `I have an obligation, at least give me a clue;
	I am the Master's friend: nay, indeed, I am no enemy.'
	They replied: `The Master is fallen in love with the Gardener;
	Seek him in gardens or on the bank of a stream.'
	Frenzied lovers pursue the object of their love;
	If any one has fallen in love, go, wash thy hands from him!
	The fish that has known water comes not to land:
	How should a lover stay in the sphere of colour and perfume?
	The frozen snow that has beheld the face of yonder Sun,
	Is swallowed up by the sun, tho' it be piled in drifts.
	Especially one who is the lover of our King,
	A king peerless and faithful and sweet-tempered.
	By that infinite alchemy, which none may compute or conjecture,
	Copper, as soon as it is touched, becomes gold at the command,
	   "*Return*".
	Sleep the world away, and flee from the six dimensions;
	How long wilt thou roam in thy folly and bewilderment to and fro?
	Inevitably they will bring thee at last, with thy own consent,
	That thou mayest have honour and glory in the presence of the King.
	Had not there been an intruder in the company,
	Jesus would have revealed to thee the mysteries, point by point.
	I have closed the passage of the lips, and opened the secret way;
	I am free in one moment from the desire of speech.

					Jalaludin Rumi
			****************
			
		UNVEILING

	   By the righteousness of Him Who is the Absolute Truth, were the veil
	to be lifted, thou wouldst witness on this earthly plane all men sorely
	afflicted with the fire of the wrath of God, a fire fiercer and greater
	than the fire of hell, with the exception of those who have sought
	shelter beneath the shade of the tree of My love. For they in very truth
	are the blissful...
	   GOD beareth Me witness, I was not a man of learning, for I was
	trained as a merchant. In the year sixty [1260 A.H. (1844 A.D.)] God
	graciously infused my soul with the conclusive evidences and weighty
	knowledge which characterize Him Who is the Testimony of God---may peace
	be upon Him---until finally in that year I proclaimed God's hidden Cause
	and unveiled its well-guarded Pillar, in such wise that no one could
	refute it. `That he who should perish might perish with a clear proof
	before him and he who should live might live by clear proof.' [Qur'an].

					Bab
			****************

		LEADERS OF RELIGION

	   Say: O leaders of religion! Weigh not the Book of God with such 
	standards and sciences as are current amongst you, for the Book itself
	is the unerring Balance established amongst men. In this most perfect
	Balance whatsoever the peoples and kindreds of the earth possess must
	be weighed, while the measure of its weight should be tested according
	to its own standard, did ye but know it.
	   The eye of My loving-kindness weepeth sore over you, inasmuch as ye 
	have failed to recognize the One upon Whom ye have been calling in the
	daytime and in the night season, at even and at morn. Advance, O people,
	with snow-white faces and radiant hearts, unto the blest and crimson
	Spot, wherein the Sadratu'l-Muntaha is calling: "Verily, there is none
	other God beside Me, the Omnipotent Protector, the Self-Subsisting!"

					Baha'u'llah
			****************

	The eleventh principle of Baha'u'llah is:

		THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, BY WHICH ALONE SPIRITUAL
			    DEVELOPMENT IS ACHIEVED

	  It is only by the breath of the Holy Spirit that spiritual development
	can come about. No matter how the material world may progress, no matter
	how splendidly it may adorn itself, it can never be anything but a 
	lifeless body unless the soul is within, for it is the soul that 
	animates the body; the body alone has no real significance. Deprived of
	the blessings of the Holy Spirit the material body would be inert.	  
					`Abdu'l-Baha
			*****************
		
      			*****




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