The buzz of web-traffic can be exhilarating, a universe of stimulation, stories, advice, facts and know-hows. We put our name out there, mingle with travellers, seek adventure, share our thoughts, fulfil a task, meet like minds, exchange or sell something, and hopefully find synchronicity, resonance – yet at times …
Nasrudin rode the train to work every day. One day, as usual, the train conductor came and asked him for his ticket. He begun fumbling around in his coat pockets, and his pant pockets, and then in other people’s pockets. He looked in his briefcase, in his bags, and then in other people’s bags.
Finally the train conductor said, ‘Nasrudin, I’m sure you have a ticket. Why don’t you look for it in your breast pocket? That is where most men keep it.’
‘Oh no,’ said Nadrudin, ‘I can’t look there. Why, if it wasn’t there, I would have no hope.’
* * *
‘Why, if it wasn’t there, I would have no hope.’ What spooked the legendary fool’s mind that day? What do you make of the story? What does the ticket symbolise/represent for you? A hope can be so deeply meaningful to us that we keep it hidden at times, even from ourselves. Then we look for affirmation elsewhere because we couldn’t stand having our faith dashed.
Yes, I have such days. Where is the ticket to your hopes and dreams to be found? Are you keeping it close to your heart, holding it there, to remind yourself of inspirational instances when grace happened in your life, so when grace visits again you can seize the moment?
* * *
I chose the particular version of this wisdom tale from a lovely book edited by Elisa Davy Pearmain, Doorways to the Soul. She calls the story The Lost Ticket. You find a link to Elisa’s website in my blog roll.
A classic collection of wisdom tales I treasure is in Caravan of Dreams, by Idris Shah.
Course of Mirrors 
I love it!
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☼ 🙂
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Most keep their ticket buried and protected, don’t they? Maybe reach in once in a while to feel a corner, the merest suggestion of it. The internet is a slippery thing, flashing all sorts of tickets but only for a moment, until you wonder if you saw them at all.
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Quite. It’s scary to be visible with your heart’s desire in a multitude of universes 🙂
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Like all dreams there comes a point when you have to decide to either realise it or let it go. Like discovering your unborn baby. You can prevent idiots telling you all about it from scans and tests, you can go into the birth ignorant, but after nine months it’s there, all yours. Likewise the boy in the story has to look in that last pocket eventually or get thrown off the train. HIs choice. Maybe that says more about me than the moral of the story though. I tend to imagine the what if scenarios. I also like to think that the day my dearest wishes come within my grasp I’ll reach out and grab them.
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Thanks for stopping by, Jane. Assume the dear wish is leaning over your shoulder ☼ keen to be grabbed.
In a better known story Nasrudin is searching for a key under a street lamp. A friend passes by and asks. ‘Where did you last see your key?’
‘In my house,’ Nasrudin says.
‘So why look here?’ the friend asks.
Nasrudin huffs at the silly question. ‘Cause there’s more light here.’
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Funny, didn’t realize this was yours. Just immediately attracted to it.
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So where did you trip over it?
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Ha, I like both stories. The logic of the ticket guy resonates a hell of a lot with me, alas, but I think the underlying message is that we need hope – and everyday life has a way of removing it, perhaps..?
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Hi Sandy. ‘Hope is the thing with feathers,’ … Emily Dickinson.
Found that on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope
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Another wonderful post, Ashen. Thank you for sharing your gems with us. I keep my hope in my heart and behind my eyelids, so that everytime I close my eyes and am in quiet darkness, I can see and feel my hope in my dreams and in every heartbeat.
I know a little book I carry everywhere with me, a simple book of wisdom, of truths, is Maya Angelou’s lesser known work, ‘Wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now’. Please forgive me if I have shared this before, but it’s such an important little book. THIS would be the one book I would have to take on a desert island. Eloquent, breathtaking. A clarity of thought and soul combined in a single work of simplicity and genius. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wouldnt-Take-Nothing-Journey-Now/dp/1860491405/ref=sr_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367980535&sr=1-16&keywords=maya+angelou 😀
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Thanks, Sophie. You may have mentioned this particular book before. Maya Angelou is a big-hearted woman and an inspiring writer.
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Ah Nasruddin, my hero!
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