Today's Beautiful Gem: "Said Bahaudin Naqshband" from
`The Wisdom of the Idiots' by Idries Shah

"We were standing on a small plateau in the high mountains
of Kohistan.
My teacher said: `Look at the conifers, how some are small
and some are large. Some have rooted well, some lean awry.
Others for no evident reason, have some of their branches damaged.'
I said: `What can we infer from this?'
He said: `The tall ones are full of aspiration.'
`Are they all successful ones?'
`By no means.'
`And the damaged ones?'
`They are those who sought to justify themselves.'
`Are the small ones better than the tall?'
`Something may be small because of heredity, because of lack of
opportunity, because of the absence of nutrition, because of desire.'
`And the deep-rooted ones?'
`All depends upon their nature, and upon the selectivity of their
roots in gaining the real nourishment. Some deep-rooted ones are
so because of an unnecessary greed to consume. Sometimes these are
the ones which the woodsmen fell, and use for timber...' "

Note: Because what narrow thinkers imagine to be wisdom is often
seen by the Sufis to be folly, the Sufis in contrast sometimes call
themselves `The Idiots'.

Om Santih! Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

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