A man goes to challenge a Sufi sage's wisdom... The Sufi says...
So, you've come to try to show you are wiser than I?
Yes.
Then, I'll share with you a dream and ask you about it.
Okay.
I had a dream of you and me. My hand was in the toilet; your hand was in a bowl of sparkling water. Now, tell me the meaning of the dream.
Obviously, this means you're following the way of corruption, and I'm following the way of righteousness.
Well, that's only part of the dream, sir. See, your hand was holding my hand, and my hand was holding your hand.
Where could be the point of separation between what appears to be your righteousness or unrighteousness and what appears another's righteousness or unrighteousness? Can you find the space between the other and yourself? One acclaimed saint or sinner, deluded or enlightened, heavenly or hellish?
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A man approached the Sage, griping about how another of the Sage's followers was not living up to the Sage's teachings. The Sage said, "That's okay. I can't either."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
* * *
We begin aiming to be righteous - good, virtuous, holy ... In time, that felt-need drops. We are no longer looking in the mirror and evaluating ourselves. We do not aim to be unrighteous - bad, unvirtuous, unholy ... We aim for neither. We do not aim.
True righteousness, if we wished to use the term, would be without a thought of being righteous, anyway. There is no self separate from others to be righteous, so how can one think themself as a separate being righteous?
The thought of righteousness is not righteousness. The thought "righteous" is a dangerous thought. Just look around and see the harm enacted in our world by persons and groups who see themselves as the righteous and others as the unrighteous.
Possibly, each of us can recall unnecessarily harming someone by clinging to our sense of being right, so righteous. That sense arises with the idea of being right. The sense cannot survive without the idea. The idea is a thought. The thought is not there when you sleep. Yet, you can cling to it the moment you awaken from sleep. Seeing this can encourage welcoming the thought to disappear.
You cannot make the thought disappear, to try to do so emboldens it. You can welcome and nurture the space within yourself, however, in which it can undergo transformation. In drawing near to the Light, things not true to the Light cannot find a grounding to survive. This can, however, take time with even one thought of "I'm right, you're wrong" or "We're right, they're wrong." Then, compassion for others and self arises.
* * *
So, good if you let go of the idea of being righteous. If someone sees you that way, that is their thought... let it pass through. Move on.
However, keep the idea of being righteous until it drops away. When you no longer need it, you will no longer need it. Then, let it go, do not try to revive it. When you let go of righteousness, unrighteousness will disappear, too. Someone could ask, "Are you righteous or unrighteous?" "Neither." Or you might say, "I am." This "I am" means you are not this or that; you are as God is.
*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.
