Who is this Nasrudin fellow anyway?

Many nations of the Middle East claim the Mullah Nasrudin as their own, however, the Mullah, like all mythological characters, belongs to all humanity. Mullah Nasrudin is a wise fool and his stories have many meanings on multiple levels of reality. These stories show among other things that things are not always as they appear and often logic fails us. When reading a Mullah story just enjoy it and allow your unconscious mind to get the deeper significance of the tale.

The Sufi master Idris Shah introduced Mullah Nasrudin to the West through his many English language books on the Mullah and Sufiism. I have read many of his books and no doubt some of these stories are influenced by those I read in the Idris Shah books.

Moreover, I managed to find three Persian books about Nasrudin. And being a native of Iran I have heard many of these stories when I was a child before I went to England first and USA later.

I have also studied Rumi in English translations as well as the original Persian. Many of the Mullah Nasrudin stories started as stories by Rumi (mainly in the Mathnavi) and other Sufi masters, and also through diffusion from other mystical systems, such as Zen, Hindu mysticism and Kabbalah.

At the same time many of these stories have made their way to the West and I remember seeing the Merchant of Venice for the first time and in the scene where the suitors have the three chests, gold, silver and bronze, to open and I noticed that it was an old Persian story (which itself probably came from India). This interchange of teaching stories between cultures and the fcat that we have symbolic language and can learn from the past is what makes human beings so wonderful.

There will be some [tag]teaching stories[tag] beyond Mullah Nasrudin stories in this blog and also some new stories of mine and others which are like Mullah Nasrudin stories will be presented as Mullah Nasrudin stories.

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