Someone came to a Sufi and said:
- I want to become your follower.
The Sufi asked him:
- Tell me, would you become a follower of a dog?
- Of course not!
“Then you cannot follow our path, since I am a follower of a dog, and you must understand that my teacher is higher than me.”
- How did it happen that you became a dog’s follower?
“I once saw a dog show mercy to another dog who had surrendered to it in a duel.
The visitor said:
“But you have so many students, you have a training center, and people come and come again, and you are respected by everyone. And you achieved all this by looking at dogs?
- You describe what you are striving for. You need a teaching with constant rituals, followers, training centers. You don't want to be a Sufi, you want to belong to a certain system. And these are different things.
- But if it so happened that I was attracted to you by your form, your image, who is to blame for this if not you, who created such an opinion about yourself?
“What I create is one thing; what you see is different. If you are looking for ritual, community, music, service in the way that you understand these things, you should look for other teachers. Satisfying your external needs is not Sufism, even if the whole world thinks it is.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru