It is hard to tell sometimes if that which has crossed our path is here to help us or to complicate our already unstable situation. Here is a parable of a teacher and healer being called to find and guide a runaway slave. He sends a student to retrieve him and instructs the messenger to not say a word to the captive about his rescue. He can only assure the slave with his open heart and gentleness.
When a person is in the throws of fear for their survival, they are not inclined to be open to be helped by something or someone unfamiliar. Sometimes we are sent into people's lives and we cannot say all what we know or it will undo their initiation into the trust necessary to receive their liberation from their perceived threat. Cultivating trust and reconnecting a person to their sense of safety opens the heart and allows the flow of life to re-calibrate within them. In this story, the messenger is enslaved by silence and the slave by fear of their unknown fate.
Apologies for bungling the Persian. Thank you for listening.
Music: I was prompted to include this tune, Redemption Song by Bob Marley with this post.
...Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds...
The original post in this series of poems by Hafiz (including an addendum regarding the authenticity of these poems) can be found here. Also, my thoughts on this series a year into these poems, HERE.
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz and translated by Daniel Ladinsky can be purchased here.
My book can be purchased HERE. E-book HERE. The Season Two blogcasts with audio excerpts from my book begin HERE: in Behind The Lines. This reading of the book excerpts in a mixed media format is Season Two of this blog. These recorded excerpts are outside the chronological order in which the book was written. Podcasts with audio only beginning with episode 22 can be found HERE.