I know a Man who was driving home from a trip out of state. Along the way he stopped to help another Man and his Son who were broke down on the side of a back road far from the nearest town. What followed was for the Man a life changing experience.
I have another friend who was chatting to a man and passing time when the man mentioned he was looking for someone who could do some custom woodwork for his home. My friend wants to be able to make a living doing custom woodwork.
I know you are reading this post and wondering what is in it for you. What are you going to get out of this post? As I write, I am wondering the same thing. Where is this post going and how is going to end with something you can take away knowing you read something worth your time.
A few months ago, I read of a poem and some notes, Dark Night of the Soul, written by a Spanish Monk hundreds of years ago. If you have been following this blog for a while, you know I have written of The Dark Night of the Soul too. The title of the book caught my attention because when I wrote my post I had no idea the title was already in use for hundreds of years.
I bought the book, which contains a poem and extensive notes explaining the written by St. John of the Cross, who was a Carmelite friar and priest. St. John of the Cross is also considered a Mystic which is how I stumbled across his writings. I read the poem and it made complete sense to me explaining the journey of the ourselves when we are transition to something different than we were before.
After reading the poem and starting on the rest of the book, I put the book aside as I was really interested in Sufism. I first came across Sufism years ago. Sufism is unique, considered both religious and mystical, arcane knowledge is/was well known by the Sufi’s of old. It seemed everything I read said Sufi’s were familiar old forgotten knowledge. So much so it seemed Sufi’s from the past were quite familiar with Angels, and other concepts mainstream religion rarely mentions.
Remembering this thought sent me scurrying to the library to see what I might find on Sufism. There was not much, nothing was uncovered in my search of the catalogue system, though I know I am not good at searching out information this way. I went to the section on religion and there was a book by someone named Hazrat Inayat Khan titled, “The Inner Life”.
The Inner Life will not appeal to many people. If the idea of Sufism and or Spiritual Growth is something you are interested in, you may find the book a breath of fresh air. If not, you will find it filled with thoughts and proclamations that make little sense, and are foreign to how you think.
I finished, The Inner Life, or most of it as the book was due back at the library, and I decided it was not on the most checked out list, I could read the last pages sometime in the future. While I was at the library, I looked for more books on mysticism or Sufism, and came up empty handed.
That left the bookstores here in town. The selections vary, probably more from the way books are put on the shelves than the books themselves. Quality and knowledge seem to vary from book to book. While at one bookstore, I asked for help finding the section where books on Sufism would be if they had any.
There was a man at the section and he was holding two books, and looking for at least a third book. I said to the man, I was looking for a book on either Sufism, or mysticism. The man without a moments pause replied I may enjoy this book, as he reached down and removed a book from the shelf. He then said he finds the writings in this book beautiful and the words reach into both his mind and his soul. I thought that was a lot of information about how he felt about a book jammed into the ‘New Age” section which generally has a lot in common with fantasy.
As I looked down to see the book he was offering as good reading I was quite surprised. In his hand was a copy of the book, “Dark Night of the Soul, by St. John of the Cross. Somehow I was not surprised, yet at the same time I was very surprised. The man continued that he found the writing to be among the best of any books on mysticism. Written in simple words, he said the book has had a profound impact on him, and his life.
Synchronicity according to my e-dictionary is: The simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. If ever you were or are on a search for anything in in life, it is vital to pay attention to synchronicity as it happens. There is a Buddhist proverb (I think), “When the student is ready, the Master appears”.
For many of us, I believe synchronicity leads is to our destiny of we are aware enough to know it is happening and go with it. My friend stopping on the road, my other friend in a casual chat, and myself searching for books, each found something important and potentially life changing because of chance, or perhaps due to the action of synchronicity. Is it synchronicity that led you to this post, or is it this post which will change something in your day to take you to where you want to go and learn what you want to learn?
