Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.

Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.

This week I bring to your attention a story titled ‘The Sentry and the Vault’ from the book titled ‘Evenings with Idries Shah’ which is a compilation of Sufi discussions.

In this little book, Idries Shah explains the nature of the teaching-story and how the reader might approach this amazing material.

THE SENTRY AND THE VAULT

A powerful king was entering his palace amid a concourse of soldiers, his personal guard, whose accoutrements gleamed with silver, gold and precious gems.

As he was passing a sentry, who believed that such manifestations of wealth and power were vain and foolish, was overcome by these reflections and shouted: “If you have wealth, you can do anything! Wealth is all you need! There is nothing but appearance and show, and those things are bought with treasure!”

The soldier was seized and taken to where the King sat on his throne.

“Are you convinced that all that anyone needs is to be surrounded by wealth, and that wealth is power?” asked the King.

“Yes, I am!” said the sentry, who had given up all hope for his life.

“In that case”, said the King, “I am prepared to try an experiment. You shall have all the wealth you can imagine.”

He ordered that the soldier be placed in a vault and that he be surrounded with bricks of gold and silver and have sacks of jewels piled around him. Then the vault was to be bricked up.

The soldier was surprised, but he was somewhat grateful for having some sort of communication with the real world outside. After a day or two, when he was getting very hungry, he began to shout down the hole in the wall, and his voice happened to come to the ears of a goldsmith who was passing.

The goldsmith went to the hole and heard the soldier’s story. He went home, brought back a forked stick, and withdrew some of the jewels which the soldier offered him. In this way he supplied the prisoner with food and water day after day, getting paid in jewels.

After some weeks the soldier found that time was hanging very heavily on his hands, and he asked the goldsmith for some metal-working tools. With these he made a flute for himself out of the gold in the vault, and practised melodies which he played, to provide some recreation.

As he played, however, the prisoner began to think, “I have gold and silver, and jewels, I have food and water and amusement, but I have no freedom”.

His tunes became more and more plaintive, and he became more and more wrapped up in

them, as his thoughts sought to understand his condition and to probe as to whether he

could ever escape

One day the dervish came past the hole in the wall of the vault to see what was happening.

The soldier said: “I have everything except freedom. Can you not help me to escape?