{"id":917,"date":"2012-04-13T11:15:44","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T10:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lornemitchell.com\/blog\/?p=917"},"modified":"2012-04-13T11:50:35","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T10:50:35","slug":"sufi-teaching-stories-the-locksmith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=917","title":{"rendered":"The Rainbow, Rug and Key"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have spent the past twelve days in the Alps on a spring retreat doing a bit of skiing.\u00a0 Yesterday we had a enormous thunderstorm and the most beautiful rainbow – like the one above.\u00a0 Somehow, it got me reflecting on a conversation I had with\u00a0 John Varney, a reader of this blog, a few months ago.\u00a0 He told me that he often intersperses his organisational change work with Sufi Teaching Stories.\u00a0 So I went on the hunt for a good one and found the one below.\u00a0 I am interested to know what readers think of using this approach to unlock new meaning to our work in the reductionist world we live in.<\/p>\n

The Story of the Locksmith by Idries Shah<\/span><\/h2>\n

Once there lived a metalworker, a locksmith, who was unjustly accused of crimes and was sentenced to a deep, dark prison. After he had been there awhile, his wife who loved him very much went to the King and beseeched him that she might at least give him a prayer rug so he could observe his five prostrations every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The King considered that a lawful request, so he let the woman bring her husband a prayer rug. The prisoner was thankful to get the rug from his wife, and every day he faithfully did his prostrations on the rug. Much later, the man escaped from prison, and when people asked him how he got out, he explained that after years of doing his prostrations and praying for deliverance from the prison, he began to see what was right in front of his nose.<\/span><\/p>\n

One day he suddenly saw that his wife had woven into the prayer rug the pattern of the lock that imprisoned him. Once he realized this and understood that all the information he needed to escape was already in his possession, he began to make friends with his guards. He also persuaded the guards that they all would have a better life if they cooperated and escaped the prison together.<\/span><\/p>\n

They agreed since, although they were guards, they realized that they were in prison, too. They also wished to escape, but they had no means to do so. So the locksmith and his guards decided on the following plan: they would bring him pieces of metal, and he would fashion useful items from them to sell in the marketplace. Together they would amass resources for their escape, and from the strongest piece of metal they could acquire, the locksmith would fashion a key.<\/span><\/p>\n

One night, when everything had been prepared, the locksmith and his guards unlocked the prison and walked out into the cool night where his beloved wife was waiting for him. He left the prayer rug behind so that any other prisoner who was clever enough to read the pattern of the rug could also make his escape. Thus, the locksmith was reunited with his loving wife, his former guards became his friends, and everyone lived in harmony.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image of Rug from: Spongobongo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have spent the past twelve days in the Alps on a spring retreat doing a bit of skiing.\u00a0 Yesterday we had a enormous thunderstorm and the most beautiful rainbow – like the one above.\u00a0 Somehow, it got me reflecting on a conversation I had with\u00a0 John Varney, a reader of this blog, a few … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Rainbow, Rug and Key”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[64,40,32,66,50,82,79,51,92],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DQGK-eN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":544,"url":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=544","url_meta":{"origin":917,"position":0},"title":"One Man Band","author":"Lorne Mitchell","date":"23\/06\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I am ever in awe of short stories that have been beautifully animated. Thanks to Pixar for this video. \u00a0I could not help but draw the analogy between the players and the current banking crisis in Europe! \u00a0Still, I wonder where the bag of gold will really come from to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Animated"","block_context":{"text":"Animated","link":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?cat=70"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1058,"url":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=1058","url_meta":{"origin":917,"position":1},"title":"The Shapes of Stories and How to Write Them","author":"Lorne Mitchell","date":"02\/08\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A good friend and regular reader, Anthony, sent me the link to a great anonymous blog a few weeks ago - Farnam Street. Yesterday, they pointed to a brilliant set of rules on how to write a short story by Kurt Vonnegut: 1. Use the time of a total stranger\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Ideas"","block_context":{"text":"Big Ideas","link":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?cat=42"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":529,"url":"http:\/\/www.lornemitchell.com\/?p=529","url_meta":{"origin":917,"position":2},"title":"Innovation at the Edge of Elecricity","author":"Lorne Mitchell","date":"30\/05\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Although this is almost exactly a year old and quite US-centric, the video below \"Innovation at the Edge of Electricity\" was made. 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