Although it is to Buddhism that the West generally attributes the idea of
non-attachment as a powerful spiritual value,
my favorite stories on the subject come from the Sufis. The following is one of
my three favorites. The other two may be
a little more on point about possession of wealth without being in any way
possessed by it, but this was the only one I
could easily lay my hands on. So I will follow Bob's plumber's wise advice, and
offer what I have:
'There was a poor fisherman who was a Sufi teacher. He went fishing every day,
and each day he would distribute his
catch to the poor of his village, except for a fish head or two that he used to
make soup for himself His students
dearly loved and admired their 'fish-head sheikh."
One of the students was a merchant. Before traveling to Cordoba, the teacher
asked him to convey his greetings to his
own teacher, the great sage Ibn 'Arabi, and to ask the sage for some ad-vice to
help him in his own spiritual work,
which he felt was going very slowly.
When the merchant arrived at Ibn 'Arabi's house, he found, much to his
surprise, a veritable palace surrounded by
elaborate gardens. He saw many servants going back and forth and was served a
sumptuous meal on gold plates by beautiful
young women and handsome young men. Finally he was brought to Ibn 'Arabi, who
was wearing clothing fit for a sultan. He
conveyed his teacher's greetings and repeated his teacher's request for
spiritual guidance. Ibn 'Arabi said simply,
"Tell my student that he is too worldly!" The merchant was shocked and offended
by this advice coming from someone
living in such worldly opulence.
When he returned, his teacher immediately asked about his meeting with Ibn
'Arabi. The merchant repeated Ibn 'Arabi's
words and added that this sounded totally absurd coming from such a wealthy,
worldly man.
His teacher replied, "You should know that each of us can have as much material
wealth as his soul can handle without
losing sight of God. What you saw in him was not merely material wealth but
great spiritual attainment." Then the
teacher added, with tears in his eye, "Besides, he is right. Often at night as
I make my simple fish-head soup, I wish
it were an entire fish!" '
- Essential Sufism, Fadiman & Frager, p 181
On 10/21/2012 1:20 PM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
> Not so much subsistence as free from the attachment to materialism. There's a
> line in Lord of the Rings that struck me the first time I read it. It's
> Galadriel talking to Gimli the Dwarf. She says words to the effect that much
> gold would pass through his hands, but that it would not hold dominion over
> him.
>
> I don't advocate wasteful lifestyles either, such as the time share
> billionaire in Florida who's building the largest house in America while
> telling his employees that if President Obama is reelected, he may have to
> downsize the company. Who needs the biggest house in America? That's all ego.
> In our country he may have every right to spend his money that way, but I
> believe he also has a moral responsibility not to. He may be free to build
> his house, but if he were truly free, he wouldn't have to.
>
> My plumber put it another way: Want what you have.
>
> Fairly smart piece of advice.
>
>
> On Oct 21, 2012, at 9:32 AM, Jan Steinman wrote:
>
>> I don't think they mean the same thing. You can feel unattached to the food
>> you eat, but none of us are independent of food.
>>
>> Did you mean "don't care" or did you mean "don't need?"
>>
>> Bill Gates may claim to be "unattached" to his material goods. A tribe of
>> indigenous natives may well be independent of them.
>>
>> My interpretation was that you were advocating a subsistence life-style!
>>
>>> On Oct 20, 2012, at 1:32 AM, Jan Steinman wrote:
>>>
>>>> But this one goes in my quotes database, Bob: "freedom is a state of being
>>>> independent of material goods."
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
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