Nay_ho_tze's Medicine Musings

St Francis of Assisi isn't who he is
because he's Christian but because he has a side to him little known or understood by western religious ...

while it’s true, Francis is considered the ‘universal saint,’ most beloved globally for his connection to animals and his gentle heart with his fellow man …
did you know that this man appears in Persian writings, and is scrutinized from their point of view?

In The Sufis, Idres Shah (1924-1996), Sufi author/teacher draws some amazing parallels between Francis and the Sufis which are backed up by history and records of Francis’ travels…

Traditional biographers openly confess to not understanding his travel intentions -
for instance his 'wandering' all of Spain,
when in fact the places he visited happened to be Sufi …
further Shah provides compelling circumstantial evidence of Sufi practices and stories showing up in Franciscan tradition –
take the saint’s poetry for instance whose themes and imagery seem to suggest the work of his Sufi contemporary, Rumi …
all of which, for a reincarnationist, begs the question: is it possible that Francis was ‘remembering’ and travelled to look for his past life Sufi roots?  reincarnationists say, 'yes' 

I can see why Francis was drawn to Sufism; it's beauty in Spirit opened my own heart many years ago when life felled another book off another bookstore shelf  -
at the time  i was looking for Ram Dass’s Be Here Now and  even when told by a clerk that the book was sold out, i had to check for myself -
and there on the floor by a ‘sold out’ sign was the quintessential Sufi writing, Toward the One, written by  Pir Villayat Khan … and even though i’d never seen this book before, because of how it was found, i knew it was 'essential reading' - it was my ticket to Sufism, the exploration of which helped me to understand Francis more completely, especially those of his stories, graciously forgiven, like running naked through the town square, gross disrespect of his father, etc.

the Lakota would refer to that side of Francis as heyoke, or the holy jestor, who is only allowed to get away with his actions because by his ‘insanity’ he teaches a higher learning to the people ... only a master can be both fool and wise man at the same time 

Ultimately amidst all his foolishness  Francis demands that we treat each and every person we meet with the same forgiveness and honour that we pay to Francis ... to Francis there can be no other way.