Turtle was pacing up and down the floor, mumbling to him self, “Who am I? Who is the real Turtle?”
Turtle proceeded to do this for hours. Finally, Turtle’s pacing brought him before the mirror which stood in the far corner of his burrow. When Turtle looked up and saw his own reflection in the mirror, he turned around frightened and ran (for a turtle that is) outside. Calling all the while, “That cannot be me! That cannot be me! Do I really look like that?”
The Lesson
- From a spiritual point of view, seeing what is in front of you, as opposed to what we believe or have been conditioned to see, is one of the signs of advanced learning. This learning is necessary to proceed.
- In this story, Turtle becomes frightened when he gets a real, honest look at him self.
- For the spiritual traveler, seeing our own weakness, strength and need for self importance- the way we actually are- can be a continually sobering experience.
- Often, our real motives for wanting spiritual learning are deeply hidden.
- As beings of flesh and emotion, we have many needs which are all part of the Plan; yet, these very real human needs, must be temporarily shed for spiritual learning to occur.
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Check-out my two books: Sufism for Western Seekers: Path of the Spiritual Traveler in Everyday Life and The Ferryman’s Dream. Both books are also in Kindle format and available on Amazon.com or local bookstore.
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