Monday, January 30, 2006

I have left it, it doesn’t leave me


A poor tutor, in a cold winter, wearing a one-fold robe, with his students was walking by a stream. The students saw that the water brought a fur, and told the teacher while he needed it, he could dive and take it. The tutor, who was really in need of such a warm cloak, dived to pick the fur. But it was not a fur; it was a bear, whose head was under the water, and was driven away by the flood. The bear grasped the poor tutor and the water carried both of them. The students shouted: Sir! Bring it, if you can, otherwise leave it and save yourself. The tutor answered helplessly: I have already left the fur, but the fur doesn’t leave me...!
Thank God that we have not the authority to go where we think is good for us, and it is another power that takes us, where we should be taken.
From Feeh -maa –feeh by Rumi; selected and translated by Asef Fekrat

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