{"id":463,"date":"2022-06-04T10:15:47","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T10:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qsconsultants.in\/blog\/?p=463"},"modified":"2022-06-04T10:15:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T10:15:48","slug":"the-gates-of-paradise-tales-of-dervishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qsconsultants.in\/blog\/the-gates-of-paradise-tales-of-dervishes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gates of Paradise – Tales of Dervishes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today \u2018let us remember this about \u2018Attention\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week I bring to your attention a tale titled \u2018The Gates of Paradise\u2019 from the book titled \u2018Tales of Dervishes\u2019 compiled by Idries Shah.  Tales of Dervishes<\/em><\/strong> is the result of a thousand years of development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tales are held to convey powers of increasing perception unknown to the ordinary man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gates of Paradise<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was once a good man. He had spent his whole life in cultivating the qualities enjoined upon those who would reach Paradise. He gave freely to the poor, he loved his fellow creatures and he served them. Remembering the need to have patience, he endured great and unexpected hardships, often for the sake of others. He made journeys in search of knowledge. His humility and exemplary behaviour were such that his repute as a wise man and good citizen resounded from the East to the West and from the North to the South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these qualities he did indeed exercise \u2013 whenever he remembered to do so. But he had one short-coming, and that was heedlessness. This tendency was not strong in him, and he considered that, balanced against the other things which he did practice, it could only be regarded as a small fault. There were some poor people whom he did not help, because from time to time he was insensitive to their needs. Love and service, too, were sometimes forgotten when what he thought to be personal needs, or at least desires, welled up in him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was fond of sleep; and sometimes when he was asleep, opportunities to seek knowledge, or to understand it, or to practice real humility, or to add to the sum total of good behaviour – such opportunities passed by, and they did not return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Just as the good qualities left their impress upon his essential self, so did the characteristic of heedlessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then he died. Finding himself beyond this life, and making his way towards the doors of the Walled Garden, the man paused, to examine his conscience. And he felt that his opportunity of entering the High Portals was enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gates, he saw, were shut; and then a voice addressed him, saying: \u2018Be watchful; for the gates will open only once in every hundred years.’ He settled down to wait, excited at the prospect. But, deprived of chances to exercise virtues towards mankind, he found that his capacity of attention was not enough for him. After watching for what seemed like an age, his head nodded in sleep. For an instant his eyelids closed. And in that infinitesimal moment the gates yawned open. Before his eyes were fully open again, they closed: with a roar loud enough to wake the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Tales of Dervishes’ by Idries Shah<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tales of the Dervishes by Idries Shah<\/a><\/blockquote>