A
well-known Sufi saying urges us “to be in the world, but not of
the world”…
What does that mean?
It means that when you eventually grow up
a little and begin to question things around you – society, beliefs, opinions,
situations, etc. – you realise that it is intelligent to be a
non-conformist. We are born into society, but we must always question that
society and practically everything it stands for, and if necessary, reject the
dross. There is a quiet sensitivity that brings you to this. You see pain,
suffering, discontent, anger, violence and killing. You know you don’t want
that. If you see it “out there” in society, don’t worry, you have it too, “in
there”, in your head and heart. So you deal with what you can, in your own mind.
Blind reactionaries will get angry at society and others, and think they can
solve things “out there”, with a little more shouting, fighting and violence,
which of course fuels the bitter circle of stupidity all the more. The
intelligent non-conformist will abstain from angry thoughts and actions and
just watch, until he or she can figure out what action is really required, if
any.
We are up against a huge tsunami of human
hopelessness. Everywhere you look you can see it. A mother on the street today
asked her 3-year-old son if “he was angry”. Isn’t that cute? We indoctrinate
kids to believe anger is natural. The lion’s share of the entertainment
industry fosters all kinds of psychological aberrations, violence, slaughtering,
killing, heroes against villains, in cahoots with governments and the
military-industrial complex. TV commercials tell you what to eat, drink and buy
– from giant conglomerates that have re-processed and neatly packaged what Mother
Nature has so kindly provided for our sustenance. News channels offer one-sided
pictures of events, and sensationalism flourishes. Truth is a scarce commodity
in printed media. Politics hasn’t caught up with 21st-century mindsets or moods
either; it is outdated and dangerous. Religions linger on the sidelines waiting
to gain adepts for their particular belief-systems. There is no refuge.
Everything is contaminated with age-old fictions and modern lies.
So the intelligent non-conformist turns
inward, and finds shelter there. There is no shelter in the external world.
Only the quiet calm of sitting and watching the mind in all its mundane turmoil
tells you what you need to know. You see it flitting this way and that,
attracted by one thought, then an emotion, then a memory, then some
imagination, then more flights of fantasy, then back to another thought,
another emotion, a feeling, a sensation, and on and on it goes, re-arranging
its fantasy world a thousand times over with every new hour, every new
movement, every new situation. When you see this in your own mind, and then see
or infer it in the minds of others, you realise there is no way to conform to the
norms, except on the outside. Inside, we are too busy waiting and watching to
conform to anything. Because inside we question everything, we pinpoint and meticulously
reject every hidden assumption, every unfounded opinion, every chance thought
dragged up from memory, and we are free and peaceful. There is a space, a
slight distance, between the occurrences of the mind and the watchfulness of
our attention, our puny dose of self-awareness, our little cranial cave of dark
delight where no more silly thoughts come to bother us.
Being in the world, we look like
just about any other person. But not being of the world means that inside,
we have shed our mental shackles somewhat, and at least have attained a glimpse
of the vast possibilities that open up before us, deep down in our hearts.
Remember John 17:14, “they are not of the world, just as I am not of the
world.”
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