Excellent story!
On Oct 21, 2012, at 5:09 PM, Moose wrote:
> Although it is to Buddhism that the West generally attributes the idea of
> non-attachment as a powerful spiritual value,
> my favorite stories on the subject come from the Sufis. The following is one
> of my three favorites. The other two may be
> a little more on point about possession of wealth without being in any way
> possessed by it, but this was the only one I
> could easily lay my hands on. So I will follow Bob's plumber's wise advice,
> and offer what I have:
>
> 'There was a poor fisherman who was a Sufi teacher. He went fishing every
> day, and each day he would distribute his
> catch to the poor of his village, except for a fish head or two that he used
> to make soup for himself His students
> dearly loved and admired their 'fish-head sheikh."
>
> One of the students was a merchant. Before traveling to Cordoba, the teacher
> asked him to convey his greetings to his
> own teacher, the great sage Ibn 'Arabi, and to ask the sage for some ad-vice
> to help him in his own spiritual work,
> which he felt was going very slowly.
>
> When the merchant arrived at Ibn 'Arabi's house, he found, much to his
> surprise, a veritable palace surrounded by
> elaborate gardens. He saw many servants going back and forth and was served a
> sumptuous meal on gold plates by beautiful
> young women and handsome young men. Finally he was brought to Ibn 'Arabi, who
> was wearing clothing fit for a sultan. He
> conveyed his teacher's greetings and repeated his teacher's request for
> spiritual guidance. Ibn 'Arabi said simply,
> "Tell my student that he is too worldly!" The merchant was shocked and
> offended by this advice coming from someone
> living in such worldly opulence.
>
> When he returned, his teacher immediately asked about his meeting with Ibn
> 'Arabi. The merchant repeated Ibn 'Arabi's
> words and added that this sounded totally absurd coming from such a wealthy,
> worldly man.
>
> His teacher replied, "You should know that each of us can have as much
> material wealth as his soul can handle without
> losing sight of God. What you saw in him was not merely material wealth but
> great spiritual attainment." Then the
> teacher added, with tears in his eye, "Besides, he is right. Often at night
> as I make my simple fish-head soup, I wish
> it were an entire fish!" '
>
> - Essential Sufism, Fadiman & Frager, p 181
>
> On 10/21/2012 1:20 PM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
>> Not so much subsistence as free from the attachment to materialism. There's
>> a line in Lord of the Rings that struck me the first time I read it. It's
>> Galadriel talking to Gimli the Dwarf. She says words to the effect that much
>> gold would pass through his hands, but that it would not hold dominion over
>> him.
>>
>> I don't advocate wasteful lifestyles either, such as the time share
>> billionaire in Florida who's building the largest house in America while
>> telling his employees that if President Obama is reelected, he may have to
>> downsize the company. Who needs the biggest house in America? That's all
>> ego. In our country he may have every right to spend his money that way, but
>> I believe he also has a moral responsibility not to. He may be free to build
>> his house, but if he were truly free, he wouldn't have to.
>>
>> My plumber put it another way: Want what you have.
>>
>> Fairly smart piece of advice.
--
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