|
Main Index
|
| |
| | | Book Name: Sufis - The People of the Path, Vol 2 | Previous Next | |
|
|
|
| |
him....
AFTER HE LISTENED TO HER PROTESTATIONS AND IDEAS, HE SAID, 'RETURN TO YOUR HOME, I SHALL SEND YOU MY DECISION IN A MESSAGE.'
That's the way of the Sufis. They are very, very experimental people, and very practical and down to earth. Rather than saying anything, he says, 'I will send a message. You go home.' He must have seen the reality of the woman -- that she was already too confused. Saying anything to her would be confusing her more. Right now nothing could be taught to her. Right now she did not need to learn any more, she had already learned enough. She needed unlearning. So he didn't say anything.
SOON AFTERWARDS THE WOMAN FOUND A DISCIPLE OF THE SHEIK AT THE DOOR. IN HIS HAND WAS A PACKET FROM HIS MASTER. SHE OPENED IT, AND SAW THAT IT CONTAINED A GLASS BOTTLE, HALF FULL WITH THREE LAYERS OF PACKED SAND -- BLACK, RED AND WHITE -- HELD DOWN BY A WAD OF COTTON. ON THE OUTSIDE WAS WRITTEN: 'REMOVE THE COTTON AND SHAKE THE BOTTLE TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE LIKE.'
SHE TOOK THE WADDING OUT AND SHOOK THE SAND IN THE BOTTLE. THE DIFFERENT COLOURED GRAINS OF SAND MIXED TOGETHER, AND ALL THAT SHE WAS LEFT WITH WAS A MASS OF GREYISH SAND.
Sadik is trying to show her -- 'You have become just a confusion. You have become mixed with all kinds of colours, and the result is that you are just grey. You don't have any colour.'
And these three layers of sands are very significant.
Sufis say there are three ways to God: knowledge, love, action -- just as Hindus say: DHYAN MARGA, BHAKTI MARGA, KARMA MARGA. This is because man has three faculties: the faculty of cognition, the faculty of feeling, and the faculty of action. The body is the source of action; the heart is the source of feeling, love, devotion; and the intellect is the sourCe of cognition, knowledge, knowing.
Because of these three faculties in man, there are three doors. Through these three doors man can enter into the divine. Action is black because it is the lowest. Feeling, love, is white because it is the highest. And between the two is the intellect -- red. The intellect is painted red because it is very aggressive, bloody; it has the colour of blood.
|
|
|
|
| |