PRIDE & LEARNING
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PRIDE & LEARNING
A story from Inayat Khan:
"One day I was walking in a city and met a dervish with a wonderful personality. He was dressed in a patched robe, but his speech, his voice, his thought, his movement, his atmosphere, were all most winning. At that time I was very young in the pursuit of philosophy. Youth is a time when pride has full play. So as we were walking along, and he called me 'Murshid' [Master], I was very glad. He addressed me as Murshid every time he spoke to me! Presently we met another person, who seemed to be without any education, without any knowledge of philosophy or religion or anything out of the way, but he called him 'Murshid' too. My pride was hurt, especially when next he came across a policeman whom he also called 'Murshid'. So then I asked my teacher what could be the meaning of all this, and he said, 'Your dervish showed you the first step towards recognizing God: to recognize all beings as your teacher. A foolish person can teach you, a wise person, a learned person, a student, a pious or wicked person, even a little child; everyone can teach you something. Therefore have this attitude towards everybody, then it may be said that you recognize God'."
Inayat Khan
PLU
"One day I was walking in a city and met a dervish with a wonderful personality. He was dressed in a patched robe, but his speech, his voice, his thought, his movement, his atmosphere, were all most winning. At that time I was very young in the pursuit of philosophy. Youth is a time when pride has full play. So as we were walking along, and he called me 'Murshid' [Master], I was very glad. He addressed me as Murshid every time he spoke to me! Presently we met another person, who seemed to be without any education, without any knowledge of philosophy or religion or anything out of the way, but he called him 'Murshid' too. My pride was hurt, especially when next he came across a policeman whom he also called 'Murshid'. So then I asked my teacher what could be the meaning of all this, and he said, 'Your dervish showed you the first step towards recognizing God: to recognize all beings as your teacher. A foolish person can teach you, a wise person, a learned person, a student, a pious or wicked person, even a little child; everyone can teach you something. Therefore have this attitude towards everybody, then it may be said that you recognize God'."
Inayat Khan
PLU
Re: PRIDE & LEARNING
Love that story. To pride and learning, I have a saying that goes: Some want to be right more than to be free.
My greatest teachers have been those that have said things to me in anger: When I had finished writing my first book a christian editor had a problem with believing that my experiences actually were experienced by me. She asked me (in an aggresive-ironic kind of way) : Where were you in your beliefs? Instead of focusing on the tone of voice...this question opened to me a whole new insight to how we create through our beliefs.
My greatest teachers have been those that have said things to me in anger: When I had finished writing my first book a christian editor had a problem with believing that my experiences actually were experienced by me. She asked me (in an aggresive-ironic kind of way) : Where were you in your beliefs? Instead of focusing on the tone of voice...this question opened to me a whole new insight to how we create through our beliefs.





