THE IMPORTANCE OF GOURD CRAFTING
AND AND EXPERIENCE OF ONENESS
November 17, 2014
Here is a Sufi story, though it is not found in a book anywhere (yet). It is a story of how Love can time travel through words and songs and actions, between the Lover and the Beloved.
In 1998, there was an Awakening of Oneness ... it came during a brief 10 minute Mediation ... one sat on the couch on their lunch break ... put the head down in exhaustion and heard an internal question arise.
“What do you want?”
The answer and the experience (for lack of a better word) were simultaneous, the answer:
“Happiness.”
Everything that had ever been known about this world was gone. There was nothing but Pristine Perfect Aliveness. There was no body ... there was only indescribable LOVE ... love beyond any description one could have of what love means. It was being everything all at once ... there is no way to understand that with the mind ... everything is so endless ... infinite ... and yet known. Everything is Known.
Then “thump” back into this world ... but the world was Lighter ... literally Lighter ... one could see through things ... could see through trees, through cars, everything sparkled ... everything was lit with Love. It seemed strange to get in a car to drive back to work ... it didn’t quite make sense and yet it happened.
Returned to the office and a co-worker came up and the Love for him was so Huge ... not an individual Love ... it was beyond any concept of unconditional Love ... it was not “I love you” it was PURE LOVE.
A thought then appeared ... “you can’t love like this, what will people think.” And it was like a door shutting, not all the way closed ... but very close.
Months of depression set in as if one had been cast into hell and then suddenly a Light appeared ... it was a man from Egypt ... he offered an invite to join a group of people at his home to watch “Joseph Campbell” videos. Although the videos were good, they did not quench the thirst that was hungered for from this “Oneness” that had obliterated the individual and then sort of spit it back out again. However, conversations ensued with this gentleman, sharing what could be share about the “experience of Oneness” with him and he said he had something he would like to share and gave a gift of a cassette tape by a man named Coleman Barks who interprets the poems of Rumi.
The first time it was Heard, it was as if time stopped and one knew they were now touched by another that Knew. That another had tasted what has no taste ... what leaves one empty and full simultaneously. At the time, the joy of discovering Rumi was absolutely tremendous and yet at the same time the sadness that 800 years separate us was equally matched. The lasting gift, however, is that he Knew, whether there was ever anyone that this could be shared with was no longer as important because someone knew, Rumi knew.
There is something magical, when you begin to notice the synchronicities in life ... everything shows up at the perfect time, life loves to surprise you, life’s synchronicities come to show you that what you believe to be real, is not so solidly so ... they come to help loosen the grip of the mind. It’s like little Miracles begin to appear all around you.
A Rumi related example Such ... everything one could get these hands on after discovering Rumi ... one did. One of those things was a book called “The Illuminated Rumi.” By the time this book had been purchased, years had passed; and a Spiritual Teacher had shown up who is in the lineage of Ramana Maharishi. The book had been sitting against a wall in the bedroom for quite some time ... yet on this occasion something caught the eye ... a face on the book grabbed the attention ... it was Ramana on the cover of Rumi’s (Coleman Bark’s) book!
One is wise not to dismiss these little Miracles because the more attention that is paid to them ... the bigger they get ... you begin to see Miracles everywhere!(That’s a link some seen this year.)
No one says it quite like Rumi and no one translates him quite like Coleman Barks. Here is one translation of his timeless words ... that put ease to the mind that becomes fearful of what it doesn’t understand. Too often the Masters are made to look so perfect that there is no way to relate to them and that is why when one has a Mystical/Spiritual experience there often is no where in religion to turn ... however Rumi has a knack for opening your eyes to truths like no other ...
“The Importance of Gourd Crafting”
~Rumi
There was a maidservant
who had cleverly trained a donkey
to perform the services of a man.
From a gourd,
she had carved a flanged device
to fit on the donkey’s penis,
to keep him from going too far into her.
She had fashioned it just to the point
of her pleasure, and she greatly enjoyed
the arrangement, as often as she could!
She thrived, but the donkey was getting
a little thin and tired looking.
The mistress began to investigate.
One day she peeked through a crack in the door
and saw the animal’s marvelous member
and the delight of the girl
stretched under the donkey.
She said nothing. Later, she knocked on the door
and called the maid out on an errand,
a long and complicated errand.
I won’t go into details.
The servant knew what was happening, though.
“Ah, my mistress,” she thought to herself,
“you should not send away the expert.
When you begin to work without full knowledge,
you risk your life. Your shame keeps you
from asking me about the gourd, but you must
have that to join with this donkey.
There’s a trick you don’t know!”
But the woman was too fascinated with her idea
to consider any danger. She led the donkey in
and closed the door, thinking, “With no one around
I can shout in my pleasure.”
She was dizzy
with anticipation, her vagina glowing
and singing like a nightingale.
She arranged the chair under the donkey,
as she had seen the girl do. She raised her legs
and pulled him into her.
Her fire kindled more,
and the donkey politely pushed as she urged him to,
pushed through and into her intestines,
and, without a word, she died.
The chair fell one way,
and she the other.
The room was smeared with blood.
Reader,
have you ever seen anyone martyred
for a donkey? Remember what the Qur’an
says about the torment of disgracing yourself.
Don’t sacrifice your life to your animal-soul!
If you die of what that leads you to do,
you are just like this woman on the floor.
She is an image of immoderation.
Remember her,
and keep your balance.
The maidservant returns and says, “Yes, you saw
my pleasure, but you didn’t see the gourd
that put a limit on it. You opened
your shop before a master
taught you the craft.”
(tr. Coleman Barks)
~Rumi
There was a maidservant
who had cleverly trained a donkey
to perform the services of a man.
From a gourd,
she had carved a flanged device
to fit on the donkey’s penis,
to keep him from going too far into her.
She had fashioned it just to the point
of her pleasure, and she greatly enjoyed
the arrangement, as often as she could!
She thrived, but the donkey was getting
a little thin and tired looking.
The mistress began to investigate.
One day she peeked through a crack in the door
and saw the animal’s marvelous member
and the delight of the girl
stretched under the donkey.
She said nothing. Later, she knocked on the door
and called the maid out on an errand,
a long and complicated errand.
I won’t go into details.
The servant knew what was happening, though.
“Ah, my mistress,” she thought to herself,
“you should not send away the expert.
When you begin to work without full knowledge,
you risk your life. Your shame keeps you
from asking me about the gourd, but you must
have that to join with this donkey.
There’s a trick you don’t know!”
But the woman was too fascinated with her idea
to consider any danger. She led the donkey in
and closed the door, thinking, “With no one around
I can shout in my pleasure.”
She was dizzy
with anticipation, her vagina glowing
and singing like a nightingale.
She arranged the chair under the donkey,
as she had seen the girl do. She raised her legs
and pulled him into her.
Her fire kindled more,
and the donkey politely pushed as she urged him to,
pushed through and into her intestines,
and, without a word, she died.
The chair fell one way,
and she the other.
The room was smeared with blood.
Reader,
have you ever seen anyone martyred
for a donkey? Remember what the Qur’an
says about the torment of disgracing yourself.
Don’t sacrifice your life to your animal-soul!
If you die of what that leads you to do,
you are just like this woman on the floor.
She is an image of immoderation.
Remember her,
and keep your balance.
The maidservant returns and says, “Yes, you saw
my pleasure, but you didn’t see the gourd
that put a limit on it. You opened
your shop before a master
taught you the craft.”
(tr. Coleman Barks)
