Life Is A Luxury
It started raining, and as it started raining the driver speeded up. The wipers were not working. The hippie could not see at all through the windshield so he told the driver, “The wipers are not working and you are going with such speed. I cannot see anything, and my eyes are perfect and you are an old man, how are you managing?”
The driver laughed. He said, “Don’t be worried. It doesn’t matter whether the wipers are working or not because I have left my glasses at home.”
When you don’t see, you think nothing matters. You create a fog around yourself, then you don’t see ahead. Death is there, you don’t see; insecurity is there, you don’t see; your wife is going to leave tomorrow, you don’t see; your husband is going to become a poet, you don’t see. There is a fog. You remain asleep.
Sleep is avoidance. It is a trick of the mind to avoid real problems in life. It is a drug invented by man. But it doesn’t help; the reality remains as it is, the danger remains as it is, the insecurity remains as it is. In fact, it becomes worse because you are unaware. You could have done something, but now you cannot because you cannot see and you have created a fog. The problems are multiplied by your fog and your sleep, they are not solved. Nothing is solved by your sleep. But you can have a kind of consolation that there is no problem.
You must have heard about the ostrich and his logic. This is his logic: when the ostrich sees an enemy coming he simply puts his head into the earth, into the sand. He stands there completely unafraid because he cannot see. His eyes are closed in the sand, he cannot see the enemy. And his logic is that if you cannot see, then the enemy is not.
This ostrich logic is very human. Don’t laugh at the ostrich, this is what you have done, this is what millions of people have done, this is what ninety-nine percent of humanity is doing. Don’t see the enemy; just go on believing everything is okay. At least this moment nothing is wrong, everything is okay, so why bother? Go on living in this drugged state.
But this is the sure way never to be in a mood of celebration. You will never be able to celebrate because celebration comes through transcendence, when problems are transcended. Remember, I use the word transcendence, not the word solution. No problem is ever solved, no problem can ever be solved – because to call them problems is, in fact, not right. They are not problems.
Try to understand it. Is insecurity a problem? We call it a problem, but it is just the way life is. You don’t say that the tree is green, so green is a problem. It is just the way trees are. You don’t say that the sun is hot, so this is a problem. It is not a problem. The sun is hot – it is simply how the sun is. Insecurity is a basic ingredient of life. In fact, life cannot exist without insecurity. Without insecurity life will be dead ( it is only through insecurity that it remains alive, throbbing, hopeful.
Excerpted From Sufis: The People of the Path, Vol. 1 CH: 11
