“Sell your Cleverness and Purchase Bewilderment”
Hafiz
At first glance, that looks like a silly statement. Certainly in the societies that you and I live in, cleverness is not only desirable, it is considered necessary. You risk your image, your status, your confidence and your sense of wellbeing if you cannot demonstrate a degree of cleverness. Why on earth would you want to trade it, as Hafiz, the Sufi mystic, advises, for bewilderment – the antithesis of cleverness?
Bewilderment is the state or quality of confusion, of mental disarray. It is a state we are conditioned to avoid because we believe that it assures our downfall, our failure to keep up with the demands of the world we live in. So why do you suppose Hafiz tells us to ‘sell our cleverness and purchase bewilderment’?
Almost every client I have had has expressed the fear of ‘not knowing’ or of ‘not understanding’ or of not being able to control certain events in their life - in other words, their fear and intolerance of bewilderment. Much of this bewilderment relates to relationships and life choices. And yet, these are experiences of ‘not knowing’, ‘not understanding’ and ‘not being able to control’ are common experiences. Who among us has not experienced them? Don’t you think, therefore, that it is time to reconsider the way we view and respond to these experiences? Don’t you think it is time we stopped fearing them, stopped treating them as dangerous and undesirable states and stopped trying to avoid them at all cost? Could we take a different view and have a different response?
Perhaps we might tackle those questions by asking this one:
What does bewilderment have to offer me?
I think that one of the most valuable things about bewilderment is that it shakes our world and the assumptions and beliefs that hold it together. It therefore offers us one of the most powerful catalysts for change.
If we were so certain, so sure, so confident about something, we would not be bewildered. But the experience of bewilderment alerts us to the fact that things in our world i.e. our beliefs are not quite as reliable as we would like them to be. It is time to examine them, question them, hold them in the steady light of love which is also the penetrating light of truth. No longer can our cleverness support the shaky foundations of our world as it is designed to do!
Yes, cleverness is a beguiling creature, purporting to know when it doesn’t really. Cleverness is the cultured ego posing as the bearer of truth, but rather than bear truth, it conceals it, covering it up with fine words, impressive come-backs and superior arguments. But it is only when we dispense with cleverness, when we trade her off for bewilderment, that we finally give ourselves permission to enter into the unknown where truth awaits us.
It is only when we sincerely and ego-less-ly say, “I don’t know” that we can finally unlock ourselves from our limited and limiting world of beliefs and step into the limitless and freeing world of truth.
“Belief is no substitute for truth. When you have truth, you have no need for beliefs”
In the light of this truth, I am in the market for bewilderment! What about you?
Love Always, Lucy
How shall I serve you, my Love?
For Online and Offline Mentoring/Meditation/Workshops/Retreats Contact lucy@lucylopez.net
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Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
I totally agree. After all, the fulfilment that is provided by that awestruck sense of mystery cannot be surpassed – it is so deep and personal. It nourishes the spirit in a profoundly individual way as opposed to simply confirming and conforming to an education system that has never really been holistic or nurturing.
It reminds me of the song Another Brick in the Wall.
But such is the way of the world.
Subscribed beliefs in education are unfortunately self perpetuating, resulting in a population of spritual orphans, imprinting on each other the status quo – with a value sytstem built to match.
Gradually we are perhaps emerging from our Victorian consumerist consciousness with regards to education, but like all evolution, it is slow – slow but sure.
Where are our heroes?
The heroes are the true educators – parents – who guide that most precious resource – human life – into flexible, wholesome beings – capable of inspired thought – honest appraisal – equipped for all of life’s challenges – with a fundamental attitude that at all times remembers the miraculous, the mystery – in every place and every thing.
I’ve always tend to think of doubt as more of a virtue than a sin or impediment to enlightenment. Or, as Shakespeare put it: “the fool doth think that he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”