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'A Path Through'
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Nasrudin was ferrying a pedagogue across a piece of rough water. He spoke something the scholar saw to be ungrammatical.
"Have you never studied grammar?" asked the scholar.
"No."
"Then half of your life has been wasted."
A few minutes later, Nasrudin turned to the passager, "Have you ever learned how to swim?"
"No. Why?"
"Then all your life is wasted – we are sinking!"
* * *
We are all sinking. We came into this world sinking. We will leave this world sinking. Since we are sinking, we need to learn to sink well.
A wise saying is, "Die before you die." We find, oddly, the more we let ourselves sink, the more alive we are. So, preparing for death is preparing to live, to be more alive. And, too, while our bodies age, sinking away, we can grow stronger, manifesting an unfading Life in and through a slowly-fading-away body.
* * *
The scholar's fixation on proper grammar was not very important in light of his being on a sinking ship. This sinking adjusts our values. We place less value on what is not as important, more value on what is most important. Sinking, life becomes more precious to us.
* * *
The sage Jesus put it this way ...
I assuredly tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself; if it dies, however, it yields much fruit.
*Gospel of John 12.24
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, predominantly Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
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