Mullah Nasrudin and the second sight
Posted Under: Mullah Nasrudin, Zen story, teaching stories
Mullah Nasrudin loved to boast about his powers. One day he was drinking tea in the caravansary and talking to his cronies. He said that he had trained under a great yogi in India and had got the second sight.
Someone asked, “What pray is second sight?”
“Simple,” replied Nasrudin, “I can see in total darkness. My eyes are like lanterns they light the way.”
Soon it was time to go home and the Mullah lit a lantern and left the caravansary to walk home. One of the villagers followed him and shouted, “Nasrudin, I thought you had second sight and you could see in total darkness.”
“The Mullah shouted back, “I can, I can.”
The village wag said, “Then why do you have the lantern?”
Nasrudin retorted, “So, others who don’t have the gift of second sight don’t bump into me.”
The other side of the coin of this story is one from Zen:
In those days the Japanese had paper lanterns lit by candles hanging from bamboo polls. A blind man was walking home and the host gave him a lantern. The blind man said, “But I don’t need a light to show me the way home.”
The host said, “The lantern is so others don’t bump into you.”
So the blind man started on his way home. Halfway, someone bumped into him. The blind man shouted, “Are you blind? Can’t you see my lantern.”
The person who had bumped into him said, “You have a lamp but the light has gone out!”
The Zen book that I got this story from explains that this is like self proclaimed “gurus” and “masters.” They are the blind who don’t realize the candle has gone out.
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