Page 99 - The Book of Rumi

vanities, too. And if you can’t completely strip naked, then at least lighten your
load, remove your extra layers and adopt a balanced state of being.”
The young Sufi exclaimed his gratitude and paid his shaykh great cour-
tesy, and then he asked permission to speak. “The middle path, my great
shaykh, is relative,” he said. “The water in a shallow stream may seem hardly
an obstacle to the camel, but to the mouse it’s a vast and swollen sea. When
someone has an appetite for four loaves of bread, he must consume at least
two or three loaves. For someone who can only appease his hunger with ten
loaves, he can perhaps manage with a minimum of six. I personally can easily
eat fi fty loaves of bread, so six loaves seem like nothing to me.
“One man may tire after saying ten prayers, but I’ve the stamina to recite,
without a break, at least fi ve hundred prayers. One person might be brave and
selfless and give up his life willingly for a worthy cause, while another man will

give up his life before submitting to part with a single loaf of bread!”
The young man fell silent and lowered his head respectfully before his
shaykh. The shaykh, too, remained silent.
“Ah, and when it comes to sleep,” remembered the Sufi , “I may sleep for
hours on end, but my heart is perpetually awake. One should be wary of those
whose bodies are restless but whose hearts are chronically numb. My heart
gazes into both worlds, and I can clearly see how many people get stuck in
the mud while I glide over it with ease. I may be cohabiting with them on the
earth, but I walk in the heavens.
“I’ve surpassed plain thoughts and have gone far beyond. As I take to the
air, I leave mundane ruminations behind. It is I who choose to descend, so that
these lame devotees of yours may benefi t from my presence.”
He kissed the edge of his shaykh’s robe, stepped away without showing
his back to his master, and quietly walked out of the room.

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