I and Thou

A lover knocked at the door of his beloved. A voice cried, "Who is there?" The person outside said, "It is I." He heard in reply, "This house has no place for two, 'I' and 'Thou'."

The closed door remained closed. The lover retreated into a forest. There he made penance, observed fasts, and offered prayers. After many years, he returned and again knocked on the closed door. Again the voice asked, "Who is there?"

This time the doors were thrown open, for his reply was, "It is thou."

This reply, "It is thou", is the essence of all religion. On the endlessly flowing river of life, "I" is the only bubble. "I" alienates the individual from existence. The bubble of "I" thinks itself distinct from the river, whereas in reality the bubble has no separate existence. It has no separate center, no separate life. It is the ocean. The ocean is its life. Its very existence is in and through the ocean. Even the idea of its being separate from the ocean is ignorance. Look into the bubble, and you find the ocean. Look into t he 'I', and you find brahman.

Where 'I' does not exist, 'Thou' too is absent. There is only 'being'. Only existence, pure is-ness is there. To awaken into this pure existence is nirvana.

A difficult journey

Sa'adi has written:

A Sufi dervish had also joined us - he hadn't a single coin with him, nor anything else for that matter. We were all on camels, but he traveled on foot.

Nevertheless, his joy knew no limits and he went on saying: "I am not a load on any camel - nor is any camel a load on me. I am neither anyone's master, nor anyone's slave. I have no worries of the past, no worries of the future. The present is enough for me. My life is just moment to moment. Fully I breathe - fully I live life."

But the most worried among us, a businessman, advised him to return. He explained the difficulties ahead. He related his experiences of journeys in the past.

And when the dervish didn't listen to him he said, "by your own choice you are going into the mouth of death with little food and the exhaustion of traveling on foot, you are certainly going to die."

But the fakir just went on Laughing - he kept on singing his song and moving ahead. Every day the journey became more difficult. All our faces were filled with lines of worry and despair. The businessman had gone almost completely insane.

But the fakir went on laughing and singing: "Fully I breathe - fully I live life."

And then each and every step of the journey became impossible. The words of that experienced traveler began to seem right to us all. The journey became a total nightmare. But the fakir went on singing his songs. The radiance of his face increased with each difficulty. In his eyes, flowers of an unearthly joy seemed to blossom. And one day the businessman died from these extreme hardships.

And the dervish standing near the dead body of the businessman said: "Beloved! I have not died from the hardships of foot travel - and you have died riding comfortably on a camel? Fools burn lamps during the day, and at night they wonder why they have no light!"

We were on a long journey. The route was rarely traveled and filled with innumerable troubles.

Learn something from everyone

I remember a story. It happened in Mecca. A barber was giving someone a haircut. Just then the Sufi fakir, Junnaid, came in and said, "Can you cut my hair in the name of Allah?"

Just hearing Allah's name, the barber said to his regular customer, "Friend, please just wait a little, I cannot cut your hair right now. I have to attend to that fakir for allah. Allah's work comes first."

After this he cut Junnaid's hair with great love and devotion, then respectfully bade him farewell.

A few days later when someone had given Junnaid money, he went to give some to the barber. But the barber wouldn't take any money, saying, "Have you no shame? You had said to cut your hair in the name of Allah, not for money!"

And his whole life Junnaid used to say to his disciples, "It was from a barber that I learned unselfish love and devotion."

If one's eyes are open, then this whole life is a school. And one who is hungry to learn, learns from every person and from every situation. And remember, one who does not learn in this way, learns nothing in life. Emerson has said, "Each person I meet is better than me at one thing or another. I can learn something from him."

Even in the lowest, vast messages are hidden. One who knows how to uncover them, becomes wise. Move with awareness in life and every experience brings intelligence. One who remains unconscious, returns even the light that comes to his door.

The monkey way of thinking

In the BOOK OF AMU DARIA there is an old Sufi tale:

Once upon a time there was a monkey who was very fond of cherries. One day he saw a delicious looking cherry and came down from his tree to get it, but the fruit turned out to be in a clear glass bottle, so he had to put his hand into the bottle to get it out. As soon as he had done so he closed his hand over the cherry but then he found that he could not withdraw his fist holding the cherry
because it was larger than the internal dimensions of the bottle's neck.

Now all this was deliberate because the cherry in the bottle was a trap laid by a monkey hunter who knew how monkeys think. The hunter, hearing the monkey's whimperings, came along and the monkey tried to run away, but because his hand was, as he thought, stuck in the bottle. He could not move fast enough to escape. But as he thought he still had hold of the cherry he consoled himself.

The hunter picked him up and tapped the monkey sharply on the elbow making him suddenly relax his hold on the fruit. The monkey was now free - but he was captured. The hunter had used the cherry and the bottle and he still had them.

This monkey-way of thinking is the mind-way also!

And in the end when death, the hunter, comes everyone is found caught in his own bottle. Remember, before the hunter comes make sure your hand is out of the bottle!

Do not cling to anything, to any idea, because clinging is the bondage. Even if one is clinging to the idea of liberation - moksha or nirvana, one will be in bondage. With clinging meditation is impossible because clinging is mind - the bondage, and no-clinging is meditation -the freedom.