By Any Other Name

A student once asked Mullah Nasruddin, “How is it that you, a devout man, worship with a Christian or a Hindu or a Buddhist, and do not feel that you are compromising your own belief? Don’t you regard yourself as being wishy-washy when you can agree with a Buddhist, ‘Yes, there is no God,’ and with a Christian, ‘Yes, Jesus is the Son of God?’ It seems to me that you are compromising your own faith and that you look at all beliefs as if they were toys!””

The Mullah Nasruddin took his student to his sister’s home for a reunion. When he knocked on the door he told the student, “Pay close attention.”

One of the Mullah’s nephews answered the door. “Uncle, please come in!” He gave the Mullah a big hug and they talked a bit.

Then the Mullah’s sister came up to him, “Brother, it is so good to see you, but you should have called first,” and the conversation went on from there.

Then the Mullah’s sister came up to him, “Brother, it is so good to see you, but you should have called first,” and the conversation went on from there. Then the Mullah made his way to the kitchen where his parents were. “My son, why have you stayed away so long? Are you too busy to spend a little time with your family?”

Just then the husband of the Mullah’s sister came into the house with a friend and seeing the Mullah said, “Brother-in-law, what are you doing here? I thought that after your last visit you would not come back.” And the man who came in with the Mullah’s brother-in-law said, “Old friend, it has been a long time since we have seen each other,” and they embraced.

And so it went for some hours until the Mullah decided that it was time to go. After all of his farewells, Mullah and the student walked home together.

“Well,” the Mullah questioned, “What did you learn?”

The student replied, “You have a very large family!”

“No!” The Mullah said, “I mean about how wishy-washy I am.”

And the student, who had become absorbed in what was happening at the Mullah’s sister’s home, had forgotten all about their earlier conversation. “I am sorry Mullah, I have completely forgotten our previous conversation.”

And the Mullah said, “You asked me how I could share the beliefs of all the different followers while, at the same time, my own belief as well? Wasn’t that your question that we went to my sister’s home to answer?”

“Yes Mullah,” said the student with a smile, “But the subject of religion never came up. So, you see, you have forgotten the question as well.”

Then the Mullah looked to the sky and shook his head, “Why, Beloved, have you blessed me with such an intelligent student?” Then looking at the student the Mullah explained, “We never discussed religion because the answer was not religious. It is a matter of RELATIONSHIP.”

“Did you not observe that when we arrived my nephew called me ‘uncle,’ my uncle called me ‘nephew,’ my sister called me ‘brother,’ my mother called me ‘son’ my sister’s husband called me ‘brother-in-law,’ and the other man called me ‘old friend?’”

“Did you notice that none of my family argued with each other when each called me by a different name? No one said, ‘he is not your uncle, he is my brother-in law.’ Nor did I say, ‘don’t call me son when I am clearly an old friend.’”

“Ah…now I understand!” said the student.

The more we succumb to our own self-righteous beliefs, the more other people who do not agree with our beliefs appear to be “wrong.” When this occurs we invite conflict and seek to separate ourselves from others we do not agree with. Our tolerance drops, along with our patience, and we ignore or deny Truth because the hate of our “rightness” feels much more gratifying.

Believing ourselves to be “spiritual” is the convolution that leads to entitlements. We presume that we are “right” or “special” because we adhere to the “right” religion or philosophy that is “better” than all others. All of this is the delusion of the pedestrian mentality. We are the source of our own hell through the self-righteous spiritual mischief we enact each day of our life here on earth.

We must live in the state of “neti neti” where we do not use our minds to cherry-pick thoughts and beliefs that coincide with our genetic heritage. From here, we learn the tolerance to live with our thoughts, but not as our thoughts themselves.

Just watch your thoughts and write them down randomly as they come to you. Observe (non-critically) their tone and texture. Do this for five minutes each day and see what it reveals. This exercise will help you understand how you have defined your whole life through assumption, opinion, prejudice and genetic preference.

From here, if you are willing, you can separate from these states of mind by no longer indulging the emotionality of the body that is telling you (or more accurately, obsessing you) to believe in certain thoughts that it deems desirable or absolutely necessary.