Sufi parable from Rumi Jalaliddin Rumi is one of the pillars of Sufism. Many people came to him for advice and words of wisdom. One day a neighbor’s woman came to him with a boy and said:
“I’ve already tried all the ways, but the child doesn’t listen to me.” He eats too much sugar. Please tell him that this is not good. He will listen because he respects you very much.
Rumi looked at the child, at the trust in his eyes, and said:
- Come back in three weeks.
The woman was completely bewildered. It's such a simple thing! It’s unclear... People came from distant countries, and Rumi helped them solve big problems at once... But she obediently came after three weeks. Rumi looked at the child again and said:
- Come back in three more weeks.
Here the woman could not stand it and dared to ask what was the matter. But Rumi only repeated what he had said.
When they came for the third time, Rumi said to the boy:
- Son, listen to my advice, don’t eat a lot of sugar, it’s bad for your health.
“Since you advise me, I won’t do this anymore,” the boy answered.
After this, the mother asked the child to wait for her outside. When he came out, she asked Rumi why he didn’t do it the first time, because it was so simple? Jalaliddin admitted to her that he himself loved to eat sugar, and before giving such advice, he had to get rid of this weakness himself. At first he decided that three weeks would be enough, but he was wrong...
One of the signs of a true Master is this: he will never teach something that he has not experienced himself. The master is honest, and first of all with himself. His words are fused with realization. The Master's words stem from his personal experience, his wisdom lives in himself, not in the scriptures. Here it is difficult not to recall the Chan saying: “When a good person preaches a false teaching, it becomes true. When a bad person preaches a true doctrine, it becomes false."
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru