بی‌خبر کان عکس آن مرغ هواست

بی‌خبر که اصل آن سایه کجاست

“[The fool has no awareness of what he chases.]

No awareness that he is chasing a shadow on the

earth, whereas the bird (the source) is flying in the sky.

~Rumi

Source: Mathnawi I, 419

Reflection on the Quote:

A message from Dr. Fariba Enteshari, Founder & Executive Director

Once my Mathnawi teacher told me to be aware of how a foolish companion could cause me to fall and not succeed in the most crucial moments of life. He urged that it would be the best to stay away from such a person.

I remember his words vividly: “Sometimes life is like walking on a tightrope and there are fools who will distract you and cause you to fall and leave you hanging to perish?”

I call such people in our lives negative teachers since they leave us hanging in awkward situations. We either perish or learn to overcome them.

In the third book of Mathnawi, Rumi tells us the story of Jesus running away from a fool as fast he could to a refuge at the top of the mountain, a place so high and close to GOD that the fool could not reach him.

Why? Because there was nothing Jesus could do to convince the fool that the bubble s/he was living in was not the universe GOD created!

A man who recognized Jesus tried to catch up with him because he could not understand what could cause Jesus to run so fast?

The man asked Jesus, “Are you not the son of GOD?”

Jesus replied, “I am.”

“Didn’t you give life to clay bird, heal, and raise people from death?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why are you running, then? Just cure the cause you are running from.”

“I can perform miracles on those who mistakenly believe in something because of a lack of knowledge and can teach them to transform. But those who live in their own bubble and are proud of their own arrogance and made-up world never cease to question everything else. They see themselves as masters of the universe and which makes them fools. There is no cure for them. I tell the stones and rocks the Holy Name and they blossom into plants full of vitality but when I mention the Name of the Holy to these fools there is no effect there is no transformation. My words evaporate…”

As educators and researchers, we investigate how we know what we know. It is time to take a serious look at all the misinformation funneled into the world we live in. Our epistemological views are shifting at a fast pace in a crucial time of pandemic and the misinformation we are surrounded with may leave many of us hanging on a tightrope that we have to walk. There must be a way to include those who live in their bubble? Is there?

The story of Jesus running form the fool is in Book III of Mathnawi, verses 2570 to 2598.

-Dr. Fariba Enteshari

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