Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’
The Tale of the Sands
A Stream, from its source in the faraway mountains, at last reached the sands of a desert. Just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream tried to cross this one, but it found that as fast as it ran into the sands, its waters disappeared.
It was convinced that its destiny was to cross this dessert, yet how was this to be achieved?
All at once, a voice came from sands: ‘The wind crosses the desert, Allow yourself to be absorbed by the wind, and it will carry you across in its arms.’
This was not acceptable to the stream. It feared it would lose its individuality. Once having lost it, what guarantee was there it could ever be regained?
The voice of the sands said: ‘You cannot in any case remain the same stream you are today. If you allow the wind to take you, your essential part will be carried away and will form a stream again.’
When it heard this, certain echoes began to arise in the thoughts of the stream. Dimly it remembered a state in which it, or some part of it, had been held in the arms of a wind. It raised its vapour to the welcoming arms of the breeze, which carried it gently above the dessert and dropped it as rain upon the roof of a mountain, many miles away.
And because it had its doubts, the stream was able to remember the details of the experience more strongly. It reflected: ‘Yes, now I have found my identity.’
But the sands whispered: ‘We know, because we see it happen day after day and because we, the sands, extend all the way from the desert to the mountains.’
And that is why it is said the way in which the stream of life is to continue on its journey is written in the sands.
The Idries Shah Anthology – Idries Shah
This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his (Idries Shah’s) work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.
You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:
As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra” which in turn has inspired many story telling traditions directly or indirectly.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:
Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
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