moses and the shepherd

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Moses heard a shepherd on the road praying. 

"God, where are you? I want to help you, to fix your shoes 

and comb your hair. I want to wash your clothes 

and pick the lice off. I want to bring you milk 

and kiss your little hands and feet when it's time

for you to go to bed. I want to sweep your room

and keep it neat. God, my sheep and goats are yours. 

All I can say remembering you is aaayyyyy

and aaahhhhhhhhhhhh."

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Moses could stand it no longer. 

"Who are you talking to?"

"The one who made us and made

the earth and made the sky."

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"Don't talk about shoes 

and socks with God! And what's this with your little

hands? Such blasphemous familiarity sounds like

you're chatting with your uncles. Only something 

that grows needs milk. Only someone with feet 

needs shoes. Not God!" 

.

The shepherd repented

and tore his clothes and wandered out into 

the desert. A sudden revelation came then to Moses:

.

You have separated me from one of my own. 

Did you come as a prophet to unite or to sever?

I have given each being a separate and unique way

of seeing and knowing and saying that knowledge.

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What seems wrong to you is right for him. 

What is poison to one is honey to someone else. 

Purity and impurity, sloth and diligence in worship,

these mean nothing to me. I am apart from all that. 

.

Ways of worshiping are not to be ranked as better 

or worse. Hindus do Hindu things. The Dravidian

Muslims in India do what they do. It's all praise, 

and it's all right. I am not glorified in acts

.

of worship. It's the worshipers! I don't hear 

the words they say. I look inside at the humility.

That broken-open lowliness is the reality. Forget

phraseology! I want burning, burning. Be friends

.

with your burning. Those who pay attention to ways

of behaving and speaking are one sort. Lovers who

burn are another. Don't impose a property tax

on a burned-out village. Don't scold the lover. 

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The "wrong" way he talks is better than a hundred

"right" ways of others. 

Inside the Kaaba

it doesn't matter which way you point 

your prayer rug!

The ocean diver doesn't need snowshoes!

The love-religion has no code or doctrine. 

Only God. 

So the ruby has nothing engraved on it!

It doesn't need markings. 

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God began speaking

deeper mysteries to Moses, vision and words, 

which cannot be recorded here. Moses left himself

and came back. He went to eternity and came 

back here. Many times this happened. 

.

It's foolish of me 

to try and say this. If I did say it, 

it would uproot human intelligence. 

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Moses ran after the shepherd, following the bewildered 

footprints, 

in one place moving like a castle

across a chessboard. In another, sideways, 

like a bishop. 

Now surging like a wave cresting,

now sliding down like a fish, 

with always his feet

making geomancy symbols in the sand, 

recording his

wandering state. 

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Moses finally caught up with him. 

"I was wrong. God has revealed to me that there are

no rules for worship. Say whatever and however

your loving tells you to. 

Your sweetest blasphemy

is the truest devotion. Through you a whole world

is freed. 

Loosen your tongue and don't worry 

what comes out. It's all the light of the spirit."

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The shepherd replied, "Moses, Moses, 

I've gone beyond even that.

You applied the whip, 

and my horse shied and jumped out of itself.

The divine nature and my human nature came together. 

Bless your scolding hand.

.

I can't say what has happened.

What I'm saying now is not my real condition.

It can't be said."

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The shepherd grew quiet.

When you look in a mirror, you see yourself, 

not the state of the mirror. 

The flute player

gives breath into a flute, and who makes the music?

The flute player!

Whenever you speak praise

or thanksgiving to God, it's always like

this dear shepherd's simplicity.

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~ Rumi

translation by Coleman Barks

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