From: bahram@somewhere.in.heaven.edu
Subject: Pieces-XXV (When a Man Meets Himself)
Organization: Mars People International.
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 14:31:24 GMT



		HIDDEN

	The worker is hidden in the workshop.

					Jalaludin Rumi
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		SOLVED PROBLEM

	   A solved problem is as useful to a man's mind as a broken sword on a
	battlefield.

					Proverb
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		LIMITS OF PERCEPTION

	   Carrying some cocks to a certain place, Nasrudin thought he would 
	let them out for a little, allowing them to walk part of the way. They
	started to wander in all directions, pecking at the earth.
	   `O fools!' shouted Nasrudin. `You know when it is going to be
	sunrise; how is it that you cannot even understand where I am going?'

					Idries Shah
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		WHEN A MAN MEETS HIMSELF

	One of man's greatest difficulties is also his most obvious drawback.
	It could be corrected if anyone troubled himself to point it out often
	and cogently enough.
	   It is the difficulty that man is describing himself when he thinks
	that he is describing others.
	   How often do you hear people say, about me:
	   `I regard this man as the Qutub (magnetic Pole) of the Age?'
	   He means, of course: `*I* regard this man...'
	   He is describing his own feelings or convictions, when what we might
	want to know is something about the person or thing being described.
	   When he says: `This teaching is sublime,' he means: `This appears to
	suit me.' But we might have wanted to know something about the teaching,
	not how he thinks it influences him.
	   Some people say: `But a thing can truly be known by its effect. Why
	not observe the effect upon a person?'
	   Most people do not understand that the effect of, say, sunlight on
	trees is something constant. In order to know the nature of the 
	teaching, we would have to know the nature of the person upon whom it
	has acted. The ordinary person cannot know this: all he can know is 
	what that person assumes to be an effect upon himself--and he has no 
	coherent picture of what `himself' is. Since the outward observer 
	knows even less than the person describing himself, we are left with
	quite useless evidence. We have no reliable witness.
	   Remember, that while this situation still obtains, there will
	generally be an equal number of people saying: `This is marvellous,'
	as are saying: `This is ridiculous'. This is ridiculous really means:
	`This appears ridiculous to me,' and `this is marvellous' means: `This
	appears marvellous to me.'
	   Do you really enjoy being like that?
	   Many people do, while energetically pretending otherwise.
	   Would you like to be able to test what really is ridiculous or 
	marvellous, or anything in between?
	   You can do it, but not when you presume that you can do it without
	any practice, without any training, in the midst of being quite
	uncertain as to what it is you are and why you like or dislike anything.
	   When you have found yourself you can have knowledge. Until then you
	can have opinions. Opinions are based on habit and what you conceive to
	be convenient to you.
	   The study of the Way requires self-encounter along the way. You have
	not met yourself yet. The only advantage of meeting others in the 
	meantime is that one of them may present you to yourself.
	   Before you do that, you will possibly imagine that you have met 
	yourself many times. But the truth is that when you do meet yourself,
	you come into a permanent endowment and bequest of knowledge that is 
	like no other experience on earth.
		
					Tariqavi	
			****************

		WHY ASK ME?

	   Nasrudin was riding along one day when his donkey took fright at
	something in its path and started to bolt.
	   As he sped past them at an unaccustomed pace some country men called
	out:
	   `Where are you going, O Nasrudin, so fast?'
	   `Don't ask me,' shouted the Mulla, `ask my donkey!'

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

		ACTION

	Learning without action is like wax without honey.

					Anwar-i-Suhaili
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		REVERSE

	If you want to know what he's like--reverse what his opponents say.

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

		NOT WORTH KEEPING

	   Seeing something glittering in the gutter, Mulla Nasrudin ran to 
	pick it up. It was a metal mirror.
	   Looking at it closely, he saw his face reflected in it.
	   `No wonder it was thrown away--nothing as ugly as this could possibly
	appeal to anyone. The fault is in me, for I picked it up without 
	reasoning that it must be something unpleasant.'
	 
					Idries Shah
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		CLAPPING

	A hand and a foot do not clap together.

					Proverb
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		WORKER

	I am a worker.

					The Prophet Mohammed
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		DIVINE SUN OF THE WORLD

	I saw my Beloved wandering about the house:
	He had taken up a rebeck and was playing a tune.
	With a touch like fire he was playing a sweet melody,
	Drunken and distraught and bewitching from the night's carouse.
	He was invoking the cup-bearer in the mode of `Iraq:
	Wine was his object, the cup-bearer was only an excuse.
	The beauteous cup-bearer, pitcher in hand,
	Stepped forth from a recess and placed it in the middle.
	He filled the first cup with that sparkling wine--
	Didst thou ever see water set on fire?
	For the sake of those in love he passed it from hand to hand,
	Then bowed and kissed the lintel.
	My Beloved received it from him, and quaffed the wine:
	Instantly o'er his face and head ran flashes of flame.
	Meanwhile he was regarding his own beauty and saying to the evil eye,
	`There has not been nor will be in this age another like Me.
	I am the Divine Sun of the world, I am the Beloved of lovers,
	Soul and spirit are continually moving before Me.'

					Jalaludin Rumi
			****************
			
		THE PRIMAL POINT

	   By My life! But for the obligation to acknowledge the Cause of Him 
	Who is the Testimony of God... I would not have announced this unto 
	thee... All the keys of heaven God hath chosen to place on My right
	hand, and all the keys of hell on My left...
	   I am the Primal Point from which have been generated all created 
	things. I am the Countenance of God Whose splendour can never be
	obscured, the Light of God Whose radiance can never fade. Whoso
	recognizeth Me, assurance and all good are in store for him, and whoso
	faileth to recognize Me, infernal fire and all evil await him...

					Bab
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		EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA

	   O Emperor of Austria! He Who is the Dayspring of God's Light dwelt in
	the prison of `Akka, at the time when thou didst set forth to visit the
	Aqsa Mosque [Jeruslam]. Thou passed Him by, and inquired not about Him,
	by Whom every house is exalted, and every lofty gate unlocked. We,
	verily, made it [Jeruslam] a place whereunto the world should turn, that
	they might remember Me, and yet thou hast rejected Him Who is the Object
	of this remembrance, when He appeared with the Kingdom of God, thy Lord
	and the Lord of the worlds. We have been with thee at all times, and
	found thee clinging unto the Branch and heedless of the Root. Thy Lord,
	verily, is a witness unto what I say. We grieved to see thee circle
	round Our Name, whilst unaware of Us, though We were before thy face.
	Open thine eyes, that thou mayest behold this glorious Vision, and
	recognize Him Whom thou invokest in the daytime and in the night season,
	and gaze on the Light that shineth above this luminous Horizon.

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

		YOUR OWN INVESTIGATION

	GOD HAS GIVEN MAN the eye of investigation by which he may see and 
	recognize truth. He has endowed man with ears that he may hear the 
	message of reality and conferred upon him the gift of reason by which
	he may discover things for himself. This is his endowment and equipment
	for the investigation of reality. Man is not intended to see through
	the eyes of another, hear through another's ears nor comprehend with 
	another's brain. Each human creature has individual endowment, power 
	and responsibility in the creative plan of God. Therefore depend upon
	your own reason and judgement and adhere to the outcome of your own
	investigation; otherwise you will be utterly submerged in the sea of 
	ignorance and deprived of all the bounties of God. Turn to God,
	supplicate humbly at His threshold, seeking assistance and confirmation,
	that God may rend asunder the veils that obscure your vision. Then will
	your eyes be filled with illumination, face to face will behold the 
	reality of God and your heart become completely purified from the dross
	of ignorance, reflecting the glories and bounties of the Kingdom.

					`Abdu'l-Baha
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