![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Aug. 23rd, 2003 03:21 pmA tale related by Anthony de Mello in The Song of the Bird.
Bayazid, the Moslem saint, would sometimes deliberately act against the outward forms and rituals of Islam.
It once happened that, on his way back from Mecca, he stopped at the Persian town of Rey. The townsfolk, who revered him, rushed to make him welcome and created a great stir in the town. Bayazid, who was tired of this adulation, waited till he reached the marketplace. There he bought a loaf of bread and began to munch it in full view of his followers. It was a day of fasting in the month of Ramadan, but Bayazid judged that his journey fully justified the breaking of the religious law.
Not so his followers. They were so scandalized at his behavior that they promptly left him and went home. Bayazid contentedly remarked to a disciple, "Notice how the moment I did something contrary to their expectation, their veneration of me vanished."
Bayazid, the Moslem saint, would sometimes deliberately act against the outward forms and rituals of Islam.
It once happened that, on his way back from Mecca, he stopped at the Persian town of Rey. The townsfolk, who revered him, rushed to make him welcome and created a great stir in the town. Bayazid, who was tired of this adulation, waited till he reached the marketplace. There he bought a loaf of bread and began to munch it in full view of his followers. It was a day of fasting in the month of Ramadan, but Bayazid judged that his journey fully justified the breaking of the religious law.
Not so his followers. They were so scandalized at his behavior that they promptly left him and went home. Bayazid contentedly remarked to a disciple, "Notice how the moment I did something contrary to their expectation, their veneration of me vanished."
