{"id":493,"date":"2022-08-08T03:48:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T03:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qsconsultants.in\/blog\/?p=493"},"modified":"2022-08-08T03:48:23","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T03:48:23","slug":"the-kashkul-begging-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qsconsultants.in\/blog\/the-kashkul-begging-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kashkul (Begging Bowl)"},"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 story titled \u2018The Kashkul<\/em>\u2019 from the book titled \u2018Wisdom of the Idiots\u2019 here the stories contain several levels of meaning and work like psychological mirrors in which the reader may see himself and reality reflected, and come to better understand both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movements of the characters in these stories portray psychological processes, and the story becomes a working blueprint of those processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Persian word dervish <\/strong>is generally considered to be derived from the verb der-vekhtan <\/strong>to wait at a door. The reference is to waiting before the door of enlightenment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kashkul<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is related that a dervish once stopped a king in the street. The king said: How dare you, a man of no account, interrupt the progress of your sovereign?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dervish answered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Can you be a sovereign if you cannot even fill my kashkul, the begging-bowl?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He held out his bowl, and the king ordered it to be filled with gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, no sooner was the bowl seen to be full of coins than they disappeared, and the bowl seemed to be empty again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sack after sack of gold was brought, and still the amazing bowl devoured coins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Stop!’ shouted the king, for this trickster is emptying my treasury!’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018To you I am emptying your treasury, said the dervish, but to others I am merely illustrating a truth. And the truth?’ asked the king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The truth is that the bowl is the desires of man, and the gold what man is given. There is no end to man’s capacity to devour without being in any way changed. See, the bowl has eaten nearly all your wealth, but it is still a carved sea-coconut, and has not partaken of the nature of gold in any respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018If you care’, continued the dervish, to step into this bowl, it will devour you, too. How can a king, then, hold himself of being of any account?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story from \u2018Wisdom of The Idiots’ by Idries Shah<\/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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Wisdom of the Idiots by Idries Shah<\/a><\/blockquote>