The Law Of The Garbage Truck

When life is full of shit:

How often do you let other people’s nonsense change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss or an insensitive employee, difficult neighbour, ruin your day? Well, unless you are thick skinned like the Terminator, you’re probably setback on your heels. This happens to me regularly, even though I try to practice mindfulness but just now and then some Garbage Truck comes along and knocks me down for a while. I honesty think I am a sucker for punishment when it comes to life’s little niggles and being dumped on. However, the mark of success is how quickly you can recover and refocus on what’s important in your life. A few years ago I learned this small lesson. And I learned it in a city taxi. Here’s how the story goes:

I hopped into the taxi one day and we took off for the train station. We were travelling in the right lane when all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, the car skidded, the tires squealed and at the very last moment our car stoped just one inch from the other car’s back end. It was a close call.

I couldn’t believe it.But I couldn’t believe what happened next. The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. And for emphasis, he threw in a one finger salute, as if his words were not enough.

But then here’s what really blew me away. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy as if old friends. And I mean, he was very friendly. So, I said, “Why did you just do that? This guy could have killed us!” And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, “The law of the Garbage Truck.”

He said, Many people are like garbage trucks.They run around full of garbage, full of frustrations, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they look full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up even more, they look for a place to dump it. And if you let them, they dump it on you. So when someone wants to dump on you, don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Believe me you’ll be happier.”

So I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people, at work, at home, or in the street? It was then that i said, “I don’t want their garbage and I’m not going to spread it anymore.”

I began to see Garbage Trucks all over. Like in the movie the Sixth Sense, the litte boy said, “I see dead people.” Well, now “I see Garbage Trucks.” I see the load they are carrying. I see them coming to dump it and sometimes it’s on me! Now, like my taxi driver, I don’t take is personally, I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.

From an original story by David J Poolay with thanks.

Prayer for the day:

“Dear God.

So far today, I’ve done alright.

I haven’t gossiped. I haven’t lost my temper.

I haven’t been greedy, moody, nasty or selfish.

And I’m really glad about that.

But in a few minutes, God,

I’m going to get out of bed.

And from then on I’m going

to need a whole lot more help.

Thank You.

Amen”

The Golden Buddha Story

This is an old story but enchanting enough to give it another outing on this blog.

In 1957 an entire Monastery in Thailand was being relocated by a group of monks. One day they were moving a giant clay Buddha when one of the monks noticed a large crack in the clay. On closer investigation he saw there was a golden light emanating from the crack. The monk used a hammer and a chisel to chip away at the clay exterior until he revealed that the statue was in fact made of solid gold.

Historians believe the Buddha had been covered with clay by Thai monks several hundred years earlier to protect it from an attack by the Burmese army. In the attack, all the monks had been killed and it wasn’t until 1957 that this great treasure was actually discovered.

I was able to share the story of the Golden Buddha at the end of a talk I gave recently when a woman in the audience asked “Is it just a utopian dream to think that I can find my ‘why’ at work? Where do I even start looking for my purpose?”

I explained that it’s already right there inside each of us, that it’s not necessarily found in another job, a new company or another country. It’s always been there and it’s way closer than we think.

What happens over the course of our life however is that we pile layer upon layer of clay over our own Golden Buddha. The heaviest layer of clay is of our own doing – it’s our own limited thinking and our unconscious conditioning. The other layers of clay get added on from external influences (parents, schools and teachers, bosses and co-workers, society, the media, the church, government and corporations). Eventually we are so laden with clay that we forget that the Golden Buddha is there all the time.

The secret to finding our Golden Buddha, our higher purpose, lies not in the future, but in our past. All we need to do is start chipping away at the clay and rediscovering those things we were passionate about as we grew up. We reconnect with why we first went into our profession or that job we really, really loved. We recall the times when we were in flow and time stood still. We chip away at our clay with a therapist or a trusted advisor. We get curious and we do something, anything. Action always precedes clarity. Action reveals the Golden Buddha.

At a company level, we also need to reclaim our Golden Buddha. I believe that most organisations are founded with a golden intent. They are started with a higher purpose to improve humanity and not damage the planet, however over time the clay appears in the form of poor management, flawed systems, board pressure, shareholder expectations or venture capitalist demands. The most vital role for leadership is to unearth that higher purpose again and make it both the glue and the guiding North Star of the company.

Imagine a world where every person and every company could return to their natural state, their Golden Buddha. Just imagine.

Hope this little story brightens your day!

Isabelle V. Lim

The Rise of the Predator Class

THE RISE OF THE PREDATOR CLASS A subscriber exclusive article by Foster Gamble

Two visionary thinkers I would like to highlight here today.

Foster Gamble creator of Thrive Movies One and Thrive Two, and Thrive On.

Jamie Wheal author of the global bestseller Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, Navy SEALs and Maverick Scientists are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work.

The old world order is dying

Foster Gamble writes:

Once upon a time, and the time was different in different parts of the planet, most people survived through hunting and gathering their food. They needed to stay on the move, adapt to harsh weather, follow the herds. And then at some point some innovative folks were tired of the hassle, the risk, and the homelessness.  They just wanted to stay put. A few figured out how to plant seeds, harvest and store crops for the winter, and then save the new seeds for the next growing season. Such was the beginning of civilization- of some time to think, to plan, to build and create. Settlements, villages and even small cities began to emerge. But there were others with a penchant for violence and ill-gotten gains who realized they could just band together and steal from the storehouses of the farmers. This was still dangerous but took less life-force than hunting or growing in terms of energy output. Their lives became focused on fighting, pillaging and raping. But they still had to keep moving and risk injury or death in battle, so they had to figure a way that they too could just stay put. And thus, was born the notion of royalty. The head of a successful band of marauders would declare himself King of a region and then demand a percentage of everyone’s resources in return for protection from robbers just like himself. People began seeing through the myth of royalty and collusion with the priesthood in they claimed as their “divine right to rule.” So then the oligarchs had to up their game to keep their serfs believing that they should continue giving a large percent of their hard-earned resources to a group of nonproducing elite. …so government was born. Protection money was now going to be called “taxes” – the “price of civilization” – though such coercion is hardly civilized. This began the “social contract” (though the people never signed up for such a mythical contract… except at the point of a gun. First there were the dictators, and as their absolute power became a source of resentment. Then came the presidents and premiers – democracy and republics. But this is, at best, mob rule. America was the “shining light on the hill,” and the Declaration of Independence was a dramatically ethical and liberating document – but soon people were paying far more in taxes than those for which they had fought the Revolutionary War against England’s King George I. By the time this historic declaration of equal rights (except for women, slaves and poor people!) became the US Constitution, the elite had secured control over the people once again. But even this was still a huge improvement in human relations leading to tremendous enhancement and prosperity. But what was all of this leading toward? Martin Luther King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” We’ve come a long way from the pharaohs, kings and dictators. As Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for every other one that’s been tried.”

Thrive On link. https://www.thriveon.com/thrive-i/

worldcitizen 2021

But what we haven’t tried is NO centralized authoritarian control, with no one having rights that others don’t. We have been duped into thinking that we are already there, when we are actually just approaching true sovereignty – the individual freedom that each of us naturally seeks. We have been trained to believe since beginning in our government schools that life would be dangerous and impossible chaos without government – so we don’t even consider the final step in the march toward ultimate freedom – and that is a condition of voluntary association – with rules – but no rulers.

Rules that protect each individual’s body, person and rightfully gained property – but no rulers – no one who assumes special rights – like taking someone’s money and calling it taxation; like forcing indoctrination and calling it mandatory schooling; like kidnapping youth, calling it a “draft,” and sending them like slaves into the battles for imperialist plunder. With all human association based on the Non-Aggression Principle, no one would have the authority to confiscate inventions, impose toxic pharmaceuticals, destroy ecosystems, suppress cures or forbid healthy food. Our world could be a paradise on Earth of unleashed creativity, cooperation and thriving.

THERE IS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE RABBIT HOLE!

P.S. Don’t miss THRIVE messages! Join us on our new social platforms for the latest updates, inspiring content, and compelling news.

Please visit Foster Gamble’s link provided here. https://www.thriveon.com/thrive-i/

Book Review

I would like to add here several reviews from Jamie Wheal’s new book Recapture the Rapture: Rethink God,Sex, and Death in a World that’s lost its mind. This book in particular fits in with everything expressed above by Foster Gamble.

Jamie Wheal’s new book Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World that’s lost its mind –  is a “A highly personal, richly informed and culturally wide-ranging mediation on the loss of meaning in our times and on pathways to rediscovering it, from breath through psychedelics–a search fueled by Jamie Wheal’s boundless curiosity and commitment to transformation.” — Gabor Maté M.D., Author: In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction

“Can humanity survive today’s exponential world change?  Doomsayers say NO–we’re flying blind in the spiraling collapse of civilization.  But Wheal offers us a savvy, intriguing and novel roadmap to self-renewal. And it’s packed with literary, cultural, historical and biological references as well. You won’t forget this gem–it’s a fascinating read.” — Dr. Helen Fisher, Senior Research Fellow, The Kinsey Institute, Chief Scientist, Match.com, author Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love

“Recapture the Rapture offers an invaluable roadmap for transformational consciousness and culture, filled with practical tools to harness our healing, reclaim our inspiration and connect to each other for the road ahead.” — Rick Doblin, Founder and Executive Director, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

Jamie Wheal is the author of the global bestseller Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, Navy SEALs and Maverick Scientists are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work. Wheal is an expert in peak performance and leadership, specializing in neuroanthropology––the intersection of culture, biology and psychology and the founder of the Flow Genome Project, an international organization dedicated to the research and training of ultimate human performance. Wheal is a mountaineer who’s climbed the North Face of Mount Everest, trained Navy Seals, Olympians and RedBull extreme athletes and advised everyone from the U.S. Naval War College and Special Operations Command to the executives of major corporations including Google, Goldman Sachs and Cisco, among others. His work and ideas have been covered in The New York Times, Financial Times, Wired, Entrepreneur, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, INC, and TEDx. Wheal lives in Austin, TX.

Quote from the book: Recapture the Rapture:

“Back in the age of empires, pharaohs built pyramids and kings constructed castles, enshrining their divine right to rule. In the medieval era, monasteries and cathedrals loomed large across Europe, reflecting the power of the Church. With the emergence of the nation-state in the eighteenth century, capitols and courthouses took center stage in urban plans and skylines. By the twentieth century and the age of corporations, skyscrapers towered above everything—monuments to the barons and banks that built them. Today, silicon campuses designed by celebrity architects claim the spotlight. Power has now been harnessed in the physical world by those who invented our virtual ones.” 
― Jamie Wheal,

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore

Poems and pictures

middle aged man in Rajasthan

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, the mystic poet and India’s first and the only Nobel laureate in literature, had his life dedicated to social causes We are ever grateful for his gracious uplifting of the downtrodden and the oppressed women and highlighting the tragic incidents of the so-called low-caste people of India. 

‘Punishment’, one of his more powerful books with a social message for corrective measures, is a treatise on social horrors.

But, it is his Nobel-winning book, Gitanjali, that deals with divine and human love, and makes him a messenger of peace and love across the globe. 

With his “song offerings”, Tagore turned himself into an instrument in making the world realise that truth is God and God is truth.

Holi fest. Inzamam Azez Raad

Tagore stood for humanity and humility, and for him God did not dwell in temples and other places of worship; for him God was with the poor and the workers and the tillers in the field. In other words, Tagore wanted to make us realise that work is worship and, therefore, God’s presence is among the humble and those who toil for an honest and truthful living.

Depy’s photos –

Rabindranath Tagore believes that God pervades the whole of the human existence and man is nothing but an instrument in the hands of God, a servant whose duty it is to carry out the commands of his master. The human body is like a frail of a vessel which God empties again and again and then fills it ever with fresh life. Man dies and takes birth in another shape. In this way, human life is constantly renewed. this shows Tagore’s faith in the Hindu doctrine of transmigration.

He compares his body to a flute, made of reeds. God is the musician and He plays upon it everywhere, over the hill, as well as, in valleys. He always plays new and fresh melodies. Tagore believes it is under divine inspiration that he is always able to sing fresh and new songs. As God is everywhere and in every object of Nature, he gets His inspiration everywhere and sings over hills and dales.

Whenever God touches his soul with His immortal hand I.e. whenever He inspires him, he sings with immense joy, forgetting his own physical limitations. He loses his identity in his union of man and God, the eternal soul gets absorbed in Infinite.

God’s bounty knows no limit. His gifts are numerous and He has scattered them everywhere for ages. But the human soul is too little to enjoy in full abundance and profusion of divine bliss. again human soul is compared to a little child, whose hands are too small to hold the gifts which his parents offer to him. God has been bestowing His gifts upon His slaves for ages and still, His blessings are not exhausted. God’s gifts are endless.

Radha Krishna

This is the first poem from the collection of poems “Gitanjali” by Rabindranath Tagore.

Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure, this frail vessel thou emptiest again and again, and fillest it ever with fresh life.
This little flute of a reed thou hast carried over hills and dales, and hast breathed through it melodies eternally new.
At the immortal touch of thy hands, my little heart loses its limits in joy and gives birth to utterance ineffable.
thy infinite gifts come to me only on these very small hands of mine. Ages pass, and still thou pourest, and still, there is room to fill.

Deliverance is not for me in renunciation.

Deliverance is not for me in renunciation.
I feel the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight.
Thou ever pourest for me the fresh draught of thy wine of various colors and fragrance, filling this earthen vessel to the brim.
My world will light its hundred different lamps with thy flame
and place them before the altar of thy temple.
No, I will never shut the doors of my senses.
The delights of sight and hearing and touch will bear thy delight.
Yes, all my illusions will burn into illumination of joy,
and all my desires ripen into fruits of love.

~Tagore

Curious eyes

Just a taster for anyone unfamiliar with Rabindranath Tagore and his wonderful creative spirit and genius.

One God, Many Forms – Guru Purnima Memory

Sathya Sai Baba

“God’s limitless compassion for humanity, makes him descend to earth in human form, to show the world the path of divinity and righteousness. All the spiritual Masters, who have established dharma, (righteousness) and have shown the world the spiritual path at all times, in all parts of the world, are such incarnates. There is an intrinsic bond between ones individuality and God-consciousness, it is God-Consciousness alone that manifests itself in all forms of life. Divinity and God-consciousness are latent in every living entity.”

~Sathya Sai Baba

Tuesday, July 8th, 2014 – A Guru Purnima Experience – A devotee’s story

He has an uncanny style of teaching and many a time it comes in the most realistic way, inducing us to stir our thought process. A devotee from Australia had such a wonderful experience during a Gurupurnima Festival at Prasanthi Nilayam in the mid seventies that the devotee learned the greatest lesson that God was (Is)  One and the entire creation was blessed to be within His Aura ! My friend and I were sitting fairly centrally, about one third of the way back despite the invitation to sit near the front and towards the side: the position was fortunate as otherwise, I doubt if the following wonderful experience could have been possible. In His Divine discourse, with Dr Bhagavantham translating, Swami spoke about prophets and teachers of the great faiths, showing that the Sai faith embraced them all. Later on, Swami discoursed on the role of the Guru, but I heard little or nothing of this, because apparently inexplicable, my mind seemed to wander and I wondered casually if I could see Dr Bhagavantham’s aura. The dark background curtain absorbed the aura; so I switched attention to Swami to see if His aura could be discerned despite the curtain and concentrated hard to see at least His aura. Suddenly, unbelievably, Swami’s hair seemed to have disappeared! His hair had become a sort of clear transparent aura. Amazed, my concentrated gaze then discerned within this frame a quite different head of hair, shoulder length, black, with a slight wave, and Swami’s face became the face of Christ, a Jewish Christ, not the blonde Christ of the Medieval Italian artists. I gazed at this phenomenon with great interest and no religious emotion. As I gazed, the face became that of someone I could not place—possibly Zoroaster or Buddha or perhaps some teacher unfamiliar to me — and throughout the subsequent events these two animated faces recurred, to assure me that I was not inducing these visions.Having thus gained and held my attention, Swami then gave a great blessing and an emotional jolt, for there was my revered Ramana Maharishi, white haired and slender faced, utterly unlike the former visions. I was a devotee of the Maharishi, whose writings have given glimpses of reality, and had been feeling disloyal because of the new found devotion to Baba. Baba settled this disquiet by showing that there was no difference between Gurus. This indeed was the main purpose of this blessed experience. The following visions were brief and were mostly of the Hindu deities or personalities which had become meaningful to me. Rama, a brief but distinct and repeated glimpse of Ganesha, Shirdi Sai Baba and Lord Shiva. Recently I had seen a photograph of Sathya Sai Baba in which He had been depicted as Durga on Her lion, and I wondered if I might be able see Baba in this Goddess form ever. Instead, I had a breathtaking vision of Tripura Sundari — Lalita — Goddess of the Three Worlds, exquisitely beautiful and very alive. I was wondering why Krishna did not appear. Then there was Krishna! Periodically I yearned to see Baba Himself, with interesting consequences: I saw Him at His various ages, His face always an oval of Light; at times He dissolved into pure Light with no form at all. Now and again, in response to mental request, I saw Baba superimposed over other visions of Him talking animatedly. His face—how could I adequately describe it? —clearly visible but not of solid matter, more, like a series of points, the nucleus of matter.What was Baba’s purpose in allowing these visions? So many lessons were learnt that evening, apart from the precious knowledge that Ramana was one with Baba, that all were One and we were one with The One. Maya, illusion—the unreality of constantly mobile matter and its reality as pure Light. The Formless God who could assume any form He liked and the response of those forms to our own mental creativity. I had recently been thinking deeply about Maya, and in Ooty I had mentally, half seriously asked Baba to show me His real form. “God can be seen in concrete form—but it is still only in the devotee’s mind. Form and appearance is determined by the mind of the devotee. Minds and interpretations differ.” (Teachings of Ramana Maharishi: Osborn ) “Visions of God are as real as your own identity. Objects bear relation to the state of the seer. Visions of God have their place, below the plane of Self-realization.” (Talks with Ramana Maharishi.) Beloved Baba, to give so much to one as ‘unworthy’ and unprepared as I am! And to how many of those many thousands did He communicate, while delivering what I could only presume to have been a profound discourse? How blessed are we to be within His aura! Beloved wonderful Baba!II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II – Courtesy SSB Central Trust – Puttaparthi

Swami

I chose this story because it rang true for me. I have also seen Swami’s aura. You can find the story on this blog. Swami’s Halo:

Swami’s Halo – 1994 – Sathya Sai Memories

Have a very happy Guru Purnima 2021 – Sai Ram

Are We Listening? Sathya Sai Baba

Swami in his 40’s

A sage once said, we are just walking each other home. Yet, walking home is no easy task, given the vagaries of the world. We need a helping hand along the way. Those helping hands often come by way of a sage or guru. Here I have put together a few nuances, tips and teachings from past masters who have lived among us in recent years. Let’s take a minute to reflect on their words once more. Bottom page. Video from Rowdies, those early devotees to have visited Sathya Sai Baba’s ashrams in South India.

Osho

“One thing: you have to walk, and create the way by your walking; you will not find a ready-made path. It is not so cheap to reach to the ultimate realization of truth. You will have to create the path by walking it yourself; the path is not ready-made, lying there and waiting for you. It is just like the sky: the birds fly, but they don’t leave any footprints. You cannot follow them; there are no footprints left behind.”  ~Osho

blessing

Words of the masters

“Just as the gross material body consists of many cells, organized into a

working whole, so our personality consists of a network of interdependent psycho-noetical images. The cells of our personality, as we might call them, are precisely, one by one, the thought-forms which we create and project as a result of our desires and weaknesses, strengths and virtues.” ~ Daskalos

 

“With every thought, each glance, idea, distraction or feeling we create thought forms. Even as we sleep, we are emitting thought forms that will affect us and those around us.” ~ Daskalos

 

Sri Yukeswar who wrote the Holy Science

 

Thay

Sai Baba with a student –
Prashanthi Nilayam

*`•.¸(¯`•.•´¯)¸.•´*

“The thought forms are emitted with an intensity corresponding to the strength of the desires which gave birth to them. When they have reached their goal and served their purpose, they return to their creator to be projected once again with ever increasing power. This procedure is repeated many times, creating within our personality, either a terrible environ­ment of darkness if the thought forms are of low degree, or a strong atmosphere of love if they are good thought-desires.” ~ Daskalos

 

 

 

 

 

http://daskalos.org/

http://researchersoftruth.net/ – 

Rowdies – video from 1990s – a wealth of experiences from their time with Sathya Sai – A video well worth watching.

Perhaps one of the best videos from the first Westerners to visit Sathya Sai Baba, with vivid details of their experiences. Their special good chances would not be experienced again by a second wave of Europeans/Americans that came afterwards.

 

Life is a game, play it – Sathya Sai Memories

 

 

Sathya Sai Baba in the early days. Under the old Banyan Tree in Whitefield

 

 

“Life is a challenge, meet it!

Life is a dream, realise it!

Life is a game, play it! Life is love, enjoy it!”

– Sri Sathya Sai Baba

 

 

A long-time-ago story about Sai Baba. I think the year was 1996. I arrived in Bangalore late one evening, and got a taxi to Whitefield. It had been a hell of a journey from London. The hot sun, after the cold and wet English weather, cheered me up but I was still not in a good mood. Actually, I wanted to go home! With some reluctance, I went to darshan the very next morning and found a row to sit in and reflect on why I was there. I sat there quietly pondering on why I would choose to put myself through endless lineups and cramped floor seats for endless weeks at a time. Was I stupid? What was making me torture myself like this? Sighed and sat with head down thinking: ‘this is not me, is it? It’s my heart. My heart wants to be here but my head is screaming ‘no, no, no!’  I dreaded more back row seats and those hot sweaty bodies and the sour bad breath that comes after long sits in the heat.

 

 

Then I spotted the seva dal with the bag full of seating numbers. I knew from countless visits before, this game of chance probably would not favour me! Too right! Our line was in the double digit category. I surrendered. When we eventually stood to be seated in the Sai Ramesh hall, I found a place as far away as possible from the central aisle. It was over by the chair ladies, in the last but one block. I could not be seen and I, myself, could not see anything but backs of heads !

Swami arrived that morning as usual. He did not enter the hall by the VIP entrance at the front but, unusually, by the second entrance in the middle of the ladies blocks. Instead of turning toward the VIPs and front as usual, he decided to go the other way, walking down the small narrow aisle, where sick and disabled ladies sat. He strolled all the way down to our block and stopped right in front of me !!!  

I sat there with mouth open, in-deed shock!  Of course, he never looked at me, but took letters from those nearby. He, later, strolled to the very back, walked along to the central aisle and up toward the front. “You can’t hide from Swami” – that’s the lesson here!

 

Shams of Tabriz – Persian Sufi, roaming dervish and Scholar

Rumi

Rumi: “… And Your Soul Trembled”

by  Anne bayliss | Nov 9, 2019

^{_{Readers familiar with the Coleman Barks versions of Rumi’s work think of Rumi as a man who deftly celebrated love’s ecstasies… and he did. To imagine, however, that Rumi wrote verse only to praise wine or kisses, is to forget that he evoked those human delights as metaphors for something transcendental. Rumi was a devout Muslim cleric, and he wrote in celebration of unity with God. Yet even in his day, his personal life caused misunderstanding and scandal.}}

– Anne Bayliss

What do we know about Shams? He is mentioned only briefly and, often, only as the teacher of Rumi. But Shams, was more than just a wandering dervish or “poor man of God.”  A Shafi’i Sunni Muslim, he had traveled restlessly after leaving his hometown of Tabriz, visiting Baghdad, Damascus, Aleppo, and other places, working as a tutor, weaver, or day-laborer, and seeking out interesting lectures on Islamic theology as well as philosophy. 

Yet, according to Franklin Lewis, author of ‘Rumi, Past and Present, East and West’, Shams was also an accomplished Islamic scholar, and had devised a method for learning the Koran in three months. He was thus both a faqir, a Sufi practicing spiritual poverty, and a faqih, or scholar of Islamic law. Lewis suggested that Shams had “probably spent much of his life…sitting in on the lectures of famous teachers, most of whom he found disappointing in one respect or another.”

In the company of Rumi, Shams wrote, “‘I come for friendship, relief.’” According to some writers, “Shams searched long and hard and found none but Rumi who could tolerate his un-hypocritical and unconventional pursuit of truth.” Shams called Rumi “Mowlana (Master),” and says he would be “‘a fitting shaykh, if he would agree.’” 

Lewis, Franklin: Rumi Past and Present, East and West.

from Oneworld (2000) pp. 143-147
[3] Lewis pp. 154-164