Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
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.
This week I bring to your attention a tale, which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking compilation, titled ‘Letters & Lectures of Idries Shah’.
The Source of Sustenance
Two beggars, each of whose need was very great, sat one day at the foot of a castle wall.
One of them cried out: “I beg that the King, who lives in this castle, may give me a bowl of gruel!”
The second beggar took up the cry, but he said: “I pray that the King, and the Lord who is over the King, may give me something!”
Now the King heard the supplications of the two, and he said to himself: “I, the King, shall answer the man who invokes my name alone.
Let the Lord who is called upon look after His own.”
So he called for a large bowl of gruel, dropped a gold piece into it as an afterthought, and sent it down to the first beggar.
It was a very large bowl, and in spite of his hunger the first beggar could not finish what it contained. When he had eaten all he could, he stood up and went on his way, leaving the bowl on the ground.
The second beggar, seeing that there was still some food left, took it up and started to eat. When he got to the bottom he found, of course, the gold piece.
In this way the first beggar got what was to be had from man. the second what was sent for him; and the King, who had watched what had happened from his turret, began to see the results of intentions in a new way.
Letters & Lectures of Idries Shah
I hope you enjoy reading this compilation and find it thought provoking too. 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”.
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
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