Live In the Present Moment: A Sufi Way to Productive Living
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
1 September
2022
“Live in this moment for, future is uncertain
The moment gone by, will never return
What's going to happen is beyond your ken
Enjoy life as you never know, when's your turn "
Omar Khayyam, translated into English by the author
“Our existence hinges on this very moment
Enjoy it or else, you'll repent”
Jami (Molla Cami in Turkey), Translated From Dari
by the Author
Representative Image
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A man went
to a mystic and asked him to suggest a simple solution to his constant fears
and apprehensions. The mystic asked the man, what troubled him? The man said
that he was always scared that he would lose his job, his wife would leave him
and his children wouldn't look after him when he would grow old. The sage was
amused to hear the imaginary fears of the man and told him that all his fears
and apprehensions were imaginary and concocted. Not a single fear came true as
yet, still he was tense. ‘Don’t cook up baseless fears and spoil your today for
an unseen tomorrow,' the mystic advised the man. We're all like this man:
Scared of a tomorrow that we've not yet seen. Most of our fears are on our mind
and we swell them up by continuously brooding over them. We indeed spoil the
joys of today by thinking too much on tomorrow's imaginary worries.
Psychologists
are of the view that very few worries and problems in life are actual worries
and problems. Many times, the problems we expect to befall, never take place.
Always thinking of future worries produces negativity. It's extreme pessimism
and when the mind gets used to such unfounded worries that have not yet happened,
we invite them to strike us! Worries, happiness, sorrows and all emotions are
on our mind. We make them happen because of the way we think.
If we start
thinking that our offspring will not look after us, our attitude towards them
will be rather casual and negative and this will influence our kids' attitude
towards us in the long run. Eventually, they too won't look after their parents
because their parents didn't treat them well!
Our baseless worries and assumptions made us behave with our children
the way we thought as to how they would behave in future. So, stop worrying
about the fears that've no base and don't make them happen by thinking too
deeply about them. Rumi's master Fariduddin Attar pithily said, ' Fear of
tomorrow brings sorrow/ don’t kill your today with this arrow. '
Yet another
educative, but blood-curdling Sufi story comes to my mind. Mansur-Al-Hallaj was
condemned to death by unpeeling the skin. The judge told him, " Mansur,
your skin would be peeled off tomorrow for your audacious proclamation of
An-al-Haq (I'm the Truth, equivalent of Aham Brahmasmi of the Eastern
Consciousness). So, brace yourself. “Mansur was tried for the alleged
blasphemy. He calmly replied, “Why to wait unnecessarily till tomorrow?
Excoriate me right now so that I can be one with my Maker without delay."
Al-Hallaj was hacked to pieces at that very moment. This macabre parable is
used by all Sufis who don't want to wait to meet the almighty. In today's
parlance of behavioural psychology, this is known as ' that precise
psychological moment.' Every moment is a meeting moment for them (Sufis).
Tomorrow doesn't exist for a Sufi. It (tomorrow) indeed doesn't exist for an
evolved soul. So, why should an evolved and emancipated individual worry?
We all
should have the attitude of this Urdu poet: Ab Aage Jo Bhi Ho Anjaam Dekha
Jayega/ Khuda Taraash Liya Aur Bandagi Kar Lee (Let anything happen in
future/ I've sculpted god and worshipped it).
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A
regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/present-moment-sufi-way-productive-living/d/127852
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