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 Tale of the Sands<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was convinced that its destiny was to cross this dessert, yet how was this to be achieved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n All at once, a voice came from sands: \u2018The wind crosses the desert, Allow yourself to be absorbed by the wind, and it will carry you across in its arms.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The voice of the sands said: \u2018You 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.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And because it had its doubts, the stream was able to remember the details of the experience more strongly. It reflected: \u2018Yes, now I have found my identity.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the sands whispered: \u2018We know, because we see it happen day after day and because we, the sands, extend all the way from the desert to the mountains.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/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