Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, \u2018Teaching Stories\u2019. This week I bring to your attention yet another teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, \u2018The Idries Shah Anthology.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Happiest Man in the World<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A Man who was living in comfortable enough circumstances went one day to see a certain sage, reputed to have all knowledge. He said to him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Great Sage, I have no material problems, and yet I am always unsettled. For years I have tried to be happy, to find an answer to my inner thoughts, to come to terms with the world. Please advise me as to how I can be cured of this malaise.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sage answered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018My friend, what is hidden to some is apparent to others. Again what is apparent to some is hidden to others. I have the answer to your ailment, though it is no ordinary medication. You must set out on your travels, seeking the happiest man in the world. As soon as you find him, you must ask him for his shirt, and put it on.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n The seeker thereupon restlessly started looking for happy men. One after another he found them and questioned them. Again and again they said: \u2018Yes I am happy, but there is one happier than me.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n After travelling through one country after another for many, many days, he found the wood in which everyone said lived the happiest man in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He heard the sound of laughter coming from among the trees, and quickened his step until he came upon a man sitting in a glade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Are you the happiest man in the world, as people say?\u2019 he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Certainly I am,\u2019 said the other man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018My name is so-and-so, my condition is such-and-such, and my remedy, ordered by the greatest sage, is to wear your shirt. Please give it to me; I will give you anything I have in exchange.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n The happiest man looked at him closely, and he laughed. He laughed and he laughed and he laughed. When he had quietened down a little, the restless man, rather annoyed at this reaction, said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Are you unhinged, that you laugh at such a serious request?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Perhaps,\u2019 said the happiest man, \u2018but if you had only taken the trouble to look, you would have seen that I do not possess a shirt.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018What, then, am I to do now?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018You will be cured. Striving for something unattainable provides the exercise to achieve that which is needed: as when a man gathers all his strength to jump across a stream as if it were far wider than it is. He gets across the stream.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n The happiest man then took off the turban whose end had concealed his face. The restless man saw that he was none other than the great sage who had originally advised him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018But did you not tell me all this years ago, when I came to see you?\u2019 the restless man asked in puzzlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Because you were not ready then to understand. You needed certain experiences, and they had to be given to you in a manner which would ensure that you went through them.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Idries Shah Anthology – Idries Shah<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his (Idries Shah\u2019s) 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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: <\/p>\n\n\n\n