A few months ago I purchased a collection of books called Mystical Classics of the World. I am now reading the fourth in the series, The Essential Rumi (there are six books altogether: Tao Te Ching, The Bhagavad-Gita, Bardo Thodol or The Tibetian Book of the Dead, The Essential Rumi, The Essential Kabbalah, and The Way of a Pilgrim).
A man in prison is sent a prayer rug by his friend. What
he had wanted, of course, was a file or a crowbar or a key!
But he began using the rug, doing five-times prayer before
dawn, at noon, mid-afternoon, after sunset, and before sleep.
Bowing, sitting up, bowing again, he notices an odd pattern
in the weave of the rug, just at the qibla , the point, where
his head touches. He studies and meditates on the pattern,
gradually discovering that it is a diagram of the lock that
confines him in his cell and how it works. He's able to
escape. Anything you do every day can open into the deepest
spiritual place, which is freedom.
I am reading through this work slowly, not always sure that I understand what it is I am reading.
I hope that my eagerness to learn will help me to overcome my limited education.
The above passage resonated with me, as I sometimes feel that I am a prisoner in this life.
Take care