Breakfast at the Victory

February 8, 2008 in Uncategorized

I’ve heard it said there’s a window that opens from one mind to another, but if there’s no wall, there’s no need for fitting a window, or the latch. – Jalal Al-Din Rumi

I am a big, huge fan of James Carse. His book, Finite and Infinite Games, is groundwork for how I see the world and my work in it, either as a finite game in which I play to win, or as an infinite game, in which I play to learn. So in my new daily schedule that allows for reading an hour a day, no matter what, I’m diving into Carse’s Breakfast at the Victory: The Mysticism of Ordinary Experience. He begins his chapters with parables, three of which I’ll note here. Read and ponder….

"In one of the great court banquets, everyone was seated according to rank, waiting for the entry of the King. In came a plain, shabby man and took a seat above everyone else. His boldness angered the prime minister who ordered the newcomer to identify himself. Was he a minister? No. More. Was he the King? No. More. ‘Are you then God?’ asked the prime minister. ‘I am above that also,’ replied the poor man. ‘There is nothing beyond God,’ retorted the prime minister. ‘That nothing,’ came the response, ‘is me.’" – A Sufi parable

"One morning the teacher announced to his disciples that they would walk to the top of the mountain. The disciples were surprised because even those who had been with him for years thought the teacher was oblivious to the mountain whose crest looked serenely down on their town. By midday it became apparent that the teacher had lost direction. Moreover, no provision had been made for food. There was increasing grumbling but he continued walking, sometimes through underbrush and sometimes across faces of crumbling rock. When they reached the summit in the late afternoon, they found other wanderers already there who had strolled up a well-worn path. The disciples complained to the teacher. He said only, ‘Those others have climbed a different mountain.’"

"Abu Yazid made his periodic journey to purchase supplies at the bazaar in the city of Hamadhan–a distance of several hundred miles. When he returned home, he discovered a colony of ants in the cardamon seeds. He carefully packed up the seeds again and walked back across the desert to the merchant from whom he had bought them. His intent was not to exchange the seeds but to return the ants to their home." – Sufi legend

[photograph from here]

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.