The Smarting Dervish

A dervish was sitting peacefully by a river when a passerby saw the bare back of his neck and yielded to the temptation to give it a resounding whack. He was full of wonder at the sound his hand had made on the fleshy neck, but the dervish, smarting with pain, got up to hit him back.

“Wait a minute,” said the aggressor “You can hit me if you wish. But first answer this question: Was the sound of the whack produced by my hand or by the back of your neck?”

Said the dervish, “Answer that yourself. My pain won’t allow me to theorize. You can afford to do so, because you don’t feel what I feel.”

When the divine is experienced, one’s propensity to theorize is considerably reduced. 

(The Song of the Bird by Anthony de Mello)