(Divine Providence Series)
October 16, 2014
When a master places a spade in the hand of a servant,
The servant knows the master’s meaning without being told.
Like this spade, our hands are our Master's hints to us;
Yea, if ye consider, they are the Beloved’s directions to us.
When ye have taken to heart the Beloved’s hints,
Ye will shape your life in reliance on their direction;
Wherefore these hints disclose the Beloved’s intent,
Take the burden from you, and appoint your work.
The Beloved that bears it makes it bearable by you,
The Beloved that is able makes it within your ability.
Accept the Beloved’s command, and you will be able to execute it.
(adapted from Masnavi i Ma’navi,
translated by E.H. Whinfield, p. 29 - 30)
***
Sometimes Divine Providence is bestowed in the forms of things to be received, precious beings placed in our lives, or material things to be used. Other times this providence manifests as abilities, skills, and duties to carry out. We can make it challenging to decipher these by ignoring or confusing what is obvious. The Beloved is very simple and direct in relaying Its will for how to carry these out: When a master places a spade in the hand of a servant, / The servant knows the master’s meaning without being told.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s say that a spade is used only to plant and tend to a single flower at a time. When a master places a spade in the servant’s hand, it is clear without the need to speak any words that the master wills for the servant to plant and tend to a flower. How often do we get caught up in needing to “hear” a word from the Beloved, to be given “a clear, explicit” sign for how to proceed while ignoring what has already been placed within our hands from the Beloved? Or even trying to figure out things that (appear to) lack complete clarity? If the spade is in our hand, we do not need to be told or figure out what to do: just go plant and tend to a flower. Even if all we have is the spade, go to a place designated for flowers and just as the spade was provided, the seeds, soil, water, and other things needed will be provided too -- even if we have to wait a little bit for these things to arrive.
Yet Jalaal ud-Diin Rumi goes even a step further: Like this spade, our hands are our Master's hints to us; / Yea, if ye consider, they are the Beloved’s directions to us. Even if we don’t have a spade in our hands, we have hands that can be used in service. In considering, contemplating the Beloved’s purpose for our hands, divine direction for our lives is made evident. We usually use our hands for personal (and often selfish) pursuits, and this clouds the Beloved’s intention for our lives. And, sad to say, this personal / selfish approach is prevalent even among spiritual people who embrace spirituality for personal / selfish based reasons, even if on the surface it seems otherwise. But when we contemplate the Beloved’s intention for our hands, we start to turn and become open to the inner light (from the heart) that reveals the Beloved’s will.
What can be said for our hands applies to the other innate skills and abilities the Beloved places within us. And if you think your hands aren’t valuable, talk to someone who has lost their hands or full use of them and heed their testimony.
Although there is great value in the seemingly simple things we are given, we should be cautious to not overread the scope of the Beloved’s will. A spade is suitable for tending to a single flower at a time. Yet some of us when given a spade and will set off to plough an entire field. Or even plant an entire garden. Is a spade suitable to these tasks? To tend to a field or a garden calls for other tools better suited to this larger scope; to tend to these with the limitations of a spade would be a struggle -- one we impose upon ourselves by overreading the Beloved’s will. Even if our task will eventually expand to an entire field, realization of such can occur through an approach of tending to one flower at a time: just the present task, not what we forecast. When we remain within the scope of the Beloved’s will, all is provided. But when we expand the scope on our own accord, and usually because of personal ambition, we turn a simple task into something bigger than what is willed for us. Then, the onus of provision for the task lays on us.
Part of heart-based wealth is working with what is provided in a careful manner. The Beloved often begins with smaller provisions, to meet the capacity of what an individual can handle. Even if our task will expand to tending to an entire field, it often begins with being given a spade to tend to a single flower. How we handle and use that spade will be a factor in if the Beloved extends more provision to us: why should we be given a tractor to tend to an entire field if we haven’t been responsible in tending to a single flower with a spade?
Doubt not that the Beloved can increase Its provision to us if It so wills, including the provision to carry out larger scope works if our duty expands. Often the Beloved begins with seeds that expand little by little and are often presented as our “daily bread:” daily gifts and daily duties. We are wise to trust in this, as Jalaal ud-Diin Rumi states: “The Beloved who sends forth the rain from heaven, / Can It not also provide us our daily bread? " (Masnavi p. 29)
With the above points in mind, life becomes very simple: When ye have taken to heart the Beloved’s hints, / Ye will shape your life in reliance on their direction. So often we look to fit providence or our pursuit of it into our self-contrived direction for life. And overwhelmingly this approach is filled with unnecessary hardship and struggle. Some question why the revelation of direction for one’s life is done with hints and not explicitly. I remember the words of a teacher who said, and I’m paraphrasing: the Beloved always reveals what It reveals in clear and obvious manners, but because of the coloring of our minds we only see parts of this whole and plain revelation. Thus, to us it seems as partial hints, but when we purify the mind we will see that the Beloved always presents Its revelations perfectly in complete clarity and simplicity.
When we pay careful attention to the Beloved’s intention, we surrender our life to be shaped in the direction of relying on the Beloved. The idea of reliance on the Beloved is more inviting than the reality of living it, because to live it means to surrender core aspects of ego-based identification. That instead of living life as “I” think it should be, “I” restrain “my” inclinations to allow (what is truly) life to be lived through me. A subtle but distinct difference. And this (true) life is more wonderful than our concepts of life: seemingly simple tasks become imbrued with a lovingly depth and bliss. To the extent our reliance (through surrender) becomes complete, we realize an undisturbed peace and ease in serving the will of the Beloved, even if it is wrought with hardships and challenges.
In complete reliance, the things that formerly weighed on our minds are lifted away because the responsibility for what to do and the outcomes no longer lays with us, but with the Omnipotent Beloved. We only need to follow the will of the Beloved: attention to these hints disclose the Beloved’s intent, / Take the burden from you, and appoint your work. In fact, if we find our service of the Beloved to be a burden, it may be wise to examine if we are clearly observing the hints of the Beloved’s intent. This is not to say there won’t be challenges and hardships in serving the Beloved’s will. But if it’s a burden, something truly beyond our ability to handle, this may be a sign that we are beyond the Beloved’s will and, therefore, beyond the provision provided. With that said, there may things that seem unbearable to the mind, but in these situations it’s just the mind -- and often the mental conditioning within that doesn’t understand divine providence being challenged. If we are within the space of the Beloved’s will, anything that seems unbearable: The Beloved that bears it makes it bearable by you. With most of us, there are things in the past that we thought we couldn’t bear but having endured we can look back and see we bore it well enough. And when the mental conditioning that frames the thoughts of things being unbearable is removed, we are better able to realize and receive divine providence.
The same applies to thoughts of inability. When we remain within the space of the Beloved’s will, we find: The Beloved that is able makes it within your ability. Whether this is done by removing doubts that veil our abilities or if the Beloved expands our capabilities through our surrender and service, when we accept the Beloved’s command, [we] will be able to execute it.
