Volume 1, Track 2
When another Zen master was asked, “If I do good all my life, what will my reward be,” his surprising answer was, “Oh, you’ll probably go to some hovel called heaven.” This sublime goal of the Bodhisattva (the Buddhist saint, so to speak) to save all others is beyond the comprehension of most. Yet the net result of intensive spiritual training is usually greatly increased compassion.
The Sufis, who began in the Mideast and later spread to India, use seemingly humorous stories in their teaching. And the central figure in such stories often is Nasreddin, usually depicted as a fool, but in truth, not a bit foolish.
One day, Nasreddin was seen sprinkling powder on the ground around his house. “What are you doing?” his friends inquired. “Oh, this powder will keep the tigers away,” was his answer. “Tigers, there are no tigers around here,” pointed out the friends. “See, it works well, doesn’t it?” crowed Nasreddin.
Another time, Nasreddin was working as a ferryman, one who rowed passengers across a wide lake. One day, a puffed up and pompous university professor hired Nasreddin’s boat to take him to the other side of the lake. From the moment the professor first heard Nasreddin speak, he began sarcastically asking him such questions as, “Didn’t you ever go to school? Your grammar is atrocious,” and, “Don’t you know how to steer a boat? Are you completely ignorant?”
Nasreddin was quiet until the boat was about halfway across the lake. Then he turned to the professor, and in a sweet tone, asked, “Do you know how to swim?” The professor shook his head, no, at which Nasreddin roared, “Well, you’d better learn in a hurry. The boat is sinking.”
This theme of the pompous scholar, full of learning and his own self-importance, occurs frequently.
One time, a well-known pedant was walking through a small village on his way to the docks of a large river where he intended to engage a small boat to ferry him across the water. As he passed a tiny hut through the open door, he heard a man chanting, “Who, who,” the sound the Sufis use in their spiritual quest. Wanting to help, he entered the door and said to the chanting man, “No, no, my man, that’s all wrong. This is how to chant that sound.” And he proceeded to give instruction to the grateful villager.
Finishing this task and feeling quite pleased with himself, he proceeded to the dock, engaged a boat and began his sail across the wide river. When he was about 50 yards out, he turned to look back at the town and was surprised to see the simple man he had just counseled come running out of his door and down to the riverfront. Then, to the scholar’s amazement, he saw the little man swiftly walk on the water until he reached the boat. Standing on the water, the man burst out, “Oh, I’m so stupid. I’ve already forgotten what you taught me. Will you please show me again?”
To listen to Justin reading Spiritual Stories of the East, click here.