{"id":3503,"date":"2019-12-12T09:53:53","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T09:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=3503"},"modified":"2019-12-12T10:05:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T10:05:59","slug":"marching-past-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/marching-past-paradise\/","title":{"rendered":"Marching past paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The following piece comes from Media Lens<\/a>. It combines the magic of legends with the reality of today. Perhaps it will help you look up from the rush to decadence and notice the paradise you can enjoy. To get a glimpse of paradise visit Ballin Temple<\/a> where the air is fresh, the water clean and the people lend a hand …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is most of David Edwards’ Cogitation: Imperial Ambition \u2013 Expanding Selves, Shrinking Planet<\/a><\/em>. Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meeting With A Mystic Madman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The great emperor Bahramshah, the Sultan of Ghazna, was\nmoving with his army to conquer India; at his side, Hakim Sanai, the renowned\ncourt poet. The army was in a hurry, as armies always are \u2013 the time was right,\nbut short, for conquest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, at some strange moment, riding past a great walled garden, \nor \u2018firdaus\u2019 (the origin of the word \u2018paradise\u2019), something happened: \nthe Sultan stopped. It was impossible to do otherwise. The Indian mystic\n and master story-teller Osho takes <\/a>up the tale:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The sound of singing coming from \nthe garden caught the Sultan\u2019s attention. He was a lover of music, but \nhe had never heard something like this. He had great musicians in his \ncourt and great singers and dancers, but nothing to be compared with \nthis. The sound of singing and the music and the dance \u2013 he had only \nheard it from outside, but he had to order the army to stop.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It was so ecstatic. The very \nsound of the dance and the music and the singing was psychedelic, as if \nwine was pouring into him: the Sultan became drunk. The phenomenon \nappeared not to be of this world. Something of the beyond was certainly \nin it: something of the sky trying to reach the earth, something from \nthe unknown trying to commune with the known. He had to stop to listen \nto it.\u2019 (\u2018Unio Mystica, Volume 1<\/a>, Discourses on the Sufi Mystic, Hakim Sanai,\u2019 talks given from 01\/11\/78 to 10\/11\/78)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We can imagine the scene: the enchanted emperor, his impatient army \nstretching back as far as the eye can see. Throughout history, it has \nalways been the same story \u2013 huge effort expended on a cause that, at \nthe time, seemed so vital, so just, worth any cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

But we can also both broaden and narrow our perspective; the marching\n army of Sultan Bahramshah stands for everyone striving towards some \nfuture goal: the great, tramping crowd of commuters travelling backwards\n and forwards, day after day, for the sake of salary, promotion and \npension. The crowd of political activists marching for a better future \nwhich will finally bring an end to injustice and war. It stands for \nmodern civilisation\u2019s great \u2018conquest of nature\u2019, marching relentlessly \n\u2018forwards\u2019 to certain disaster under the banner of \u2018progress\u2019 and \n\u2018growth\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Sultan\u2019s advancing army can stand for the\nnear-universally accepted principle that \u2018then\u2019 matters more than \u2018now\u2019, that\n\u2018there\u2019 matters more than \u2018here\u2019, that the present is subordinate to some future\ngoal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The army didn\u2019t have time for a pause. The commuter is also in a \nhurry to get the damned journey over: to get home, to the pub, to the \nweekend, to the \u2018annual leave\u2019, to retirement. The revolutionary is in a\n hurry because the epic injustice of the status quo is intolerable. And \nof course, the whole of \u2018progress\u2019 is in a hurry because profits \ngenerated are insufficient \u2013 economic growth must be maintained, and \nscience will one day cure all ills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When \u2018now\u2019 is irrelevant, a mere means, obviously we\ncannot arrive at the end, \u2018then\u2019, soon enough. The cosmic absurdity of a whole\nspecies perpetually subordinating what is<\/em> for what will be<\/em> troubles\nprecisely nobody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in our story, the impossible happens \u2013 this great\narmy, this great killing machine, with all its momentum and power, stops. The\nSultan, captivated by the music of the present moment, momentarily drops all thought\nof future attainment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018There was ecstasy in it \u2013 so \nsweet and yet so painful, it was heart-rending. He wanted to move, he \nwas in a hurry; he had to reach India soon, this was the right time to \nconquer the enemy. But there was no way. There was such strong, strange,\n irresistible magnetism in the sound that in spite of himself he had to \ngo into the garden.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And the force behind this magnetism:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It was Lai-Khur, a great Sufi \nmystic, but known to the masses only as a drunkard and a madman. \nLai-Khur is one of the greatest names in the whole history of the world.\n Not much is known about him; such people don\u2019t leave many footprints \nbehind them. Except for this story, nothing has survived. But Lai-Khur \nhas lived in the memories of the Sufis, down the ages. He continued \nhaunting the world of the Sufis, because never again was such a man \nseen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He was so drunk that people were \nnot wrong in calling him a drunkard. He was drunk twenty-four hours, \ndrunk with the divine. He walked like a drunkard, he lived like a \ndrunkard, utterly oblivious of the world. And his utterances were just \nmad. This is the highest peak of ecstasy, when expressions of the mystic\n can only be understood by other mystics. For the ordinary masses they \nlook irrelevant, they look like gibberish\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018To the ignorant, his utterances \nwere outrageous, sacrilegious, against tradition and against all \nformalities, mannerisms and etiquette \u2013 against all that is known and \nunderstood as religion. But to those who knew, they were nothing but \npure gold\u2026\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As my readers like to remind me, Osho was and is himself deemed a \n\u2018madman\u2019, a \u2018charlatan\u2019, a \u2018fraud\u2019. Humanity\u2019s ugly little secret is \nthat we have a habit of casually condemning, reviling and of course \nkilling our greatest truth-tellers. Jesus was not alone in being \ncrucified by the Emperors of Self. Socrates was made to drink poison for\n \u2018corrupting\u2019 the minds of the young. Mansoor Al-Hillaj was tortured and\n killed as a \u2018false prophet\u2019. Buddha\u2019s teachings were violently cast out\n from India, the land of his birth. Osho, one of the greatest spiritual \nteachers ever to have lived, wound up in leg irons, in jail, likely \npoisoned. He is dismissed on the basis of a few foolish lines in \nWikipedia and a frivolous documentary made by a couple of ambitious \nopportunists who knew nothing<\/a> about him (\u2018we hadn\u2019t heard about this story\u2019). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We hate living Buddhas because they illuminate the lies and ugliness \nof our Imperial Selves. Dead Buddhas are fine \u2013 we do not fear \ncompetition from golden statues that can be moulded to suit our needs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hate political truth-tellers like Julian Assange for the same \nreason and give barely a fig that they are persecuted and tortured. Even\n 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg is reviled, declared a \nfalse prophet of corporate cynicism, a \u2018circus freak\u2019, with adult male \npolitical commentators, in particular, openly wishing <\/a>that\n she would die in a boating accident or be shot. The adult ego is made \nto feel irrelevant by a teenager with 3 million followers on Twitter, \nwhose impact utterly dwarfs our own. How ridiculous, how impossible, \nthat the public should lavish such attention on a mere child! Our \nEmpires of Self spit and seethe, and declare war on such people. They \nalways have! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the ego can<\/em> be defied; it is not all-powerful. In our \nstory, the Sultan is made to stop and listen by a madman who has \ndiscovered something else, something more. Lai-Khur was drunk with \nbliss, with a source of ecstasy that blazes within the human heart \nattuned to the present rather than the future, to the real world rather \nthan thoughts about <\/em>the real world. Like Osho himself, Lai-Khur\u2019s strategy was to hit the ego where it hurts, to shake us Little Emperors awake:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Lai-Khur called for wine and proposed a toast \u201cto the blindness of the Sultan Bahramshah.\u201d\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Imagine, again, the scene: a mocking insult cast at an emperor in the\n presence of an army with the power to raze whole cities to the ground. \nOsho comments: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Now, first the great mystic \ncalled for wine. Religious people are not supposed to drink wine. It is \none of the greatest sins for a Muslim to drink wine; it is against the \nKoran, it is against the religious idea of how a saint should be. \nLai-Khur called for wine and proposed a toast \u201cto the blindness of the \nSultan Bahramshah.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Sultan must have got mad. He \nmust have been furious \u2013 calling him blind? But he was under the great \necstatic impact of Lai-Khur. So although he was boiling within, he \ndidn\u2019t say a thing. Those beautiful sounds and the music and the dance \nwere still haunting him, they were still there in his heart. He was \ntransported to another world. But others objected, his generals and his \ncourtiers objected.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018When objections were raised, \nLai-Khur laughed madly and insisted that the Sultan deserved blindness \nfor embarking on such a foolish journey. \u201cWhat can you conquer in the \nworld? All will be left behind. The idea of conquering is stupid, \nutterly stupid. Where are you going? You are blind! Because the treasure\n is within you,\u201d he said. And you are going to India; wasting time, \nwasting other people\u2019s time. What more is needed for a man to be called \nblind?\u201d\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The impact of these humiliating barbs was transformed by the very \nfact that, in the moment, the Sultan was himself experiencing the \necstasy of the strange music harmonising with \u2018the treasure within\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Lai-Khur insisted: \u201cThe Sultan is\n blind. If he is not blind then he should go back to his home and forget\n all about this conquest. Don\u2019t make houses of playing-cards, don\u2019t make\n castles of sand. Don\u2019t go after dreams, don\u2019t be mad. Go back! look \nwithin!\u201d\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps a company scientist said something similar to Exxon\u2019s CEO in 1982, when the oil company\u2019s research predicted <\/a>exactly\n the dire rise in temperatures experienced in 2019 from the rise in \ncarbon dioxide generated by the burning of fossil fuels. Perhaps a \nscientific Lai-Khur told an Exxon Bahramshah: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The idea of conquering nature, of infinite profit, is stupid, utterly stupid. Where are you going? You are blind!\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Lai-Khur continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018\u201cIf he is not [blind], then give \nme the proof: order the army to go back. Forget all about this conquest,\n and never again go on any other conquest. This is all nonsense!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Sultan was impressed, but was not capable of going back.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Bahramshah \u2018was sad, ashamed, shy. But he said,\n\u201cExcuse me, I have to go, I cannot go back. India has to be conquered. I will\nnot be able to rest or sit silently until I have conquered India.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millions of Little Emperors respond the same way every day as they \ntoss the latest warning of impending disaster and return to the office, \nto business as usual: the next quarter\u2019s sales targets must be met. \nNobody can conceive that all the peace, love, compassion and bliss that \npolitical activists have ever dreamed of bringing to the world are \nsimply waiting to be uncovered within, as Lai-Khur had found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Toast To The Blindness Of Hakim Sanai<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then a toast was called \u2018To the blindness of Hakim\nSanai,\u2019 Bahramshah\u2019s right-hand man: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He was his adviser, his \ncounsellor, his poet. He was the wisest man in his court, and his fame \nhad penetrated into other lands too. He was already an accomplished \npoet; a great, well-known wise man.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

First, the emperor is insulted, dismissed as a blind\nfool. Now, the spiritual soul, conscience and intellectual pride of the court\nis subjected to the same abuse: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018There were even stronger \nobjections to this on the grounds of Sanai\u2019s excellent reputation, his \nwisdom, his character. He was a man of character, a very virtuous man, \nvery religious. Nobody could have found any flaw in his life. He had \nlived a very, very conscious life, at least in his own eyes. He was a \nman of conscience.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hakim Sanai can stand for all \u2013 and we are many \u2013 who take for \ngranted that we are paragons of virtue while subtly serving the ego in \nits quest for external attention. Because Little Emperors identify with \nthe people they admire, extreme rage always erupts in response to \ncriticism of the likes of Hakim Sanai: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Because maybe the Sultan was \nblind \u2013 he was greedy, he had great lust, he had great desire to possess\n things \u2013 but that could not be said about Hakim Sanai. He had lived the\n life of a poor man, even though he had been in the court. Even though \nhe was the most respected man in Bahramshah\u2019s court, he had lived like a\n poor man \u2013 simple, humble, and of great wisdom and character.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

How easily we are persuaded to trust those who claim to advance themselves for a Great Cause. Compassion may <\/em>be\n the motive, but an Imperial Self that knows more, cares more, that is \nin a position to help, gorges on moral righteousness, spiritual \nsuperiority, lapping up the applause, pursuing a hunger for attention \nbeneath a banner of virtue:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Lai-Khur countered that the toast\n was even more apt, since Sanai seemed unaware of the purpose for which \nhe had been created; and when he was shortly brought before his maker \nand asked what he had to show for himself he would only be able to \nproduce some stupid eulogies to foolish kings, mere mortals like \nhimself.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Insult upon insult. Lai-Khur clearly had the insight\nto know that, for all their pride, the Hakim Sanais of our world know perfectly\nwell that they are intellectual prostitutes selling their talents to foolish\noverlords. After all, what kind of poet writes in praise of kings for money?\nLai-Khur kept the mirror in front of Hakim Sanai\u2019s face:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Lai-Khur said that it was even \nmore apt because much more is to be expected from Hakim Sanai than from \nSultan Bahramshah. He has a greater potential and he is wasting it, \nwasting it in making eulogies for foolish kings. He will not be able to \nface his God; he will be in difficulty, he will not be able to answer \nfor himself. All that he will be able to produce will be this poetry, \nwritten in praise of foolish kings like this blind man, Bahramshah.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He is more blind, utterly blind.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The impact was extraordinary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018And listening to these words and \nlooking into the eyes of that madman, Lai-Khur, something incredible \nhappened to Hakim Sanai: a satori, a sudden enlightening experience. \nSomething died in him immediately, instantly. And something was born, \nsomething utterly new. In a single moment, the transformation had \nhappened. He was no longer the same man. This madman had really \npenetrated his soul. This madman had succeeded in awakening him.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In an instant, Hakim Sanai\u2019s ego, his Little Emperor, was exposed as \nutterly worthless, empty \u2013 the illusion collapsed. The truth of \nLai-Khur\u2019s ecstasy \u2013 of his music, being and words \u2013 overwhelmed the \nludicrous conceit that happiness can be found in the applause and \nattention of other Little Emperors, even great Sultans, all equally \ncompetitive, miserable and bewildered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hakim Sanai decided in that moment to leave Bahramshah\u2019s army to go \non a spiritual pilgrimage. The Sultan, mortified, did everything to \nprevent him, offering his only sister in marriage and half his kingdom. \nHakim Sanai just laughed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I am no longer a blind person. Thank you, but I am finished. This madman has finished me in a single stroke, in a single blow.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hakim Sanai returned from his pilgrimage\nand presented Lai-Khur with the book he had written, the classic mystical text,\nThe Hadiqa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea that a hidden treasure, a source of genuine happiness, is \navailable at the heart of man, has been almost completely rejected by a \n\u2018mainstream\u2019 culture that, of course, is created and controlled by \nLittle Emperors hopelessly addicted to external attention. The idea that\n the attention we really need is our own \u2013 directed inside at our thoughts and feelings<\/em>\n \u2013 makes no sense at all. We call this \u2018meditation\u2019 or \u2018mindfulness\u2019 and\n dismiss it as something that ranks alongside Pilates and aerobics as \none more lifestyle choice. And yet the remarkable fact remains that, \nthroughout history, all around the world, everyone who has seriously \ndirected attention inside in this way \u2013 acting, as Buddha said, as lamps\n unto themselves \u2013 has found the same truth, the same answer, that \ncannot be found anywhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Edwards is co-editor of Media Lens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following piece comes from Media Lens. It combines the magic of legends with the reality of today. Perhaps it will help you look up from the rush to decadence and notice the paradise you can enjoy. To get a glimpse of paradise visit Ballin Temple where the air is fresh, the water clean and …
Continue reading Marching past paradise<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,12,25,32,4],"tags":[258,257,259],"class_list":["post-3503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-perspective","category-geopolitics","category-education","category-mediaandgatherings","category-philosophy","tag-garden","tag-paradise","tag-political-ambition"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hwcd-Uv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3503"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3511,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3503\/revisions\/3511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}