The Reason why this Blog is called Caravan of Dreams and some Thank You’s – quotes from the Alchemist and St. Exupery (2)

 

Here we are all of us; in a dream-caravan.
A caravan, but a dream – a dream, but a caravan
And we know which are the dreams
Therein lies the hope.
                                      Our Teacher Bahaudin, El Shah

That quote is in the first or second page of Idries Shah’s Caravan of Dream. The book has an assortment of sufi anecdotes, personal stories, sayings of famous past Sufis. A lot of stories and snecdotes and sayings have really impacted me over the years. I bought this book and didnt read it immediately,but when I did read it it was really impactful.

I was telling my friend the other day an epiphany that we are all devoid of hope and the hope we have is for each other, the people we travel through life with. To give someone hope to give someone a respite from the trails and tribulations of life means to as much as possible put ourself aside, to let go of the past and future and just be a conduit for the present. 

THE WATERWHEEL

Stay together, friends.
Don’t scatter and sleep.

Our friendship is made
of being awake.

The waterwheel accepts water
and turns and gives it away,
weeping.

That way it stays in the garden,
whereas another roundness rolls
through a dry riverbed looking
for what it thinks it wants.

Stay here, quivering with each moment
like a drop of mercury.

What keeps us from putting ourself away to receive as well to give, what keeps us from being a bridge?

We are afraids of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand.   – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I have started to feel like we don’t belong to ourselves, maybe its a sufi sentiment that we have been ransomed long before we have started to walk onto the path. But I feel once we are open and aware we are at the forefront of creation where God/The Friend manifests himself. It has been amazing to see how grace and benevolence more often then not ome through people that find a way into our lives. Sometimes our zenophabic tendencies keep us from true deliverance. Sometimes I think that the whole turning the other cheek was reallyan attempt to turn our other ear to listen to the inward communication thats goingon when we meet someone hostile to our self image.

I found many friends on this blog. its been awesome. Your comments and emails have picked me up many a times and your company has been great and has pushed my sense of completeness further on.  Sometimes I see  a familiar name it is like I am seeing an old friend. I am reminded of the follow quotes

Life may scatter and keep us apart; it may prevent us from thinking very often of one another; but we know our comrades are somewhere “out there’ -where, one can hardly say -silent forgotten, but deeply faithful.

Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions.

I write this blog to share my thoughts, emotions and some of the things I go through. I hate to come off nad sound preachy because I feel I am the biggest knuckle head out there. I sometimes curse to much, joke to much or say to little, but perfection I feel isn’t allowed on this plane of existence. My father in one of the few moments of clarity he has had told me “man is neither angel or beast, whenever we approach either extreme we will be assailed by problems.”

I want to just finish this post of with a revelent quote.

Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow; Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead; Walk beside me, and just be my friend.    – Albert Camus