There was once a man named Mojud. He lived in a town where he had
obtained a post as a small official, and it seemed likely that he would
end his days as inspector of weights and measures.
One day when
he was walking through the gardens of an ancient building near his
home, Khidr, the mysterious guide of the Sufis, appeared to him,
dressed in shimmering green. Khidr said, "Man of bright prospects!
Leave your work and meet me at the riverside in three days' time." Then
he disappeared. Mojud went to his superior in trepidation and said that
he had to leave. Everyone in the town soon heard of this and they said,
"Poor Mojud! He has gone mad." But, as there were many candidates for
his job, they soon forgot him.
On the appointed day, Mojud met
Khidr, who said to him, "Tear your clothes and throw yourself into the
stream. Perhaps someone will save you." Mojud did so, even though he
wondered if he were mad. Since he could swim, he did not drown, but
drifted a long way before a fisherman hauled him into his boat, saying,
"Foolish man! The current is strong. What are you trying to do?" Mojud
said, "I don't really know."
A man once hurt his leg. He had to walk with a crutch.
This crutch was very useful to him, both for walking, and many other things.
He taught all his family to use crutches, and they became part of normal life. It was part of everyone's ambition to have a crutch. Some were made of ivory, others adorned with gold. Schools were opened to train people in their use, university chairs endowed to deal with the higher aspects of this science.
A few, a very few people, started to walk without crutches. This was considered scandalous, absurd. Besides, there were so many uses for crutches.
Some replied, and were punished. They tried to show that a crutch would be used sometimes, when needed; or that many of the other uses to which a crutch was put could be supplied in other ways.
Few listened.
In order to overcome the prejudices, some of the people who could walk without support began to behave in a totally different way from established society.
Still they remained few.
When it was found that, having used crutches for so many generations, few people could in fact walk without crutches, the majority `proved' that they were necessary. `Here,' they said, `here is a man -- try to make him walk without a crutch. See? -- He cannot!'
`But we are walking without crutches,' the ordinary walkers reminded them.
`This is not true; merely a fancy of your own,' said the cripples, because by that time they were becoming blind as well -- blind because they would not see.
This talk is from the event
"Mysticism & Global Transformation" with Adyashanti. November 19 and 20,
2005, held at Marin Jewish Community Center, San Rafael, California. Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee is a Sufi mystic and lineage successor in the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya Sufi Order. He lectures extensively worldwide and also an author of many books on Sufism, Mysticism, Dreamwork, and Jungian Spirituality.
Within the
heart is the spark of oneness, our deep connection to the divine and to all of
life.
How can we awaken this connection that belongs to our soul and the
soul of the world?
How can our primal knowing of oneness come alive
within ourself and within the world?
Mysticism awakens us to our real
power and potential, so that we can contribute fully at this time of global
transition. It connects us with what is real: the Oneness of Life.
The Mevlevi Order or the Mevleviye are a Sufi order founded by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi in 1273 in Konya (in present-day Turkey). They are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of Allah). Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi Path.
The ceremony has seven parts symbolizing the whirling dervish's love of God, humankind and all creation:
