The Story
It was evening in Basrah in the seventh century. An old woman was searching for something in the street outside her hut. Her name was Rabia and she was a great Sufi teacher though she looked ordinary. People offered to help, feeling sorry for the "poor old woman." They asked her what was she searching for?
"I've lost my needle," Rabia wailed.
So they began to help her, searching up and down the street in the dwindling light of dusk. It seemed hopeless, so somebody asked: "Rabia, it is getting dark and the street is big. Soon there will be no light and a needle is such a tiny thing. Can you tell us where, exactly, the needle fell?"
"The needle fell inside my house," she replied.
The people were astonished: "Inside your house! Are you crazy? Why are you searching on the street if the needle fell inside your house?"
"Because the light is out here. There is no light inside the house," Rabia answered.
Someone challenged her, saying: "Ok, so the light is here but how can we find the needle outside the house if it was lost inside? The best way forward is bring light inside the house so we can find the needle in the right place."
Rabia laughed, for she had deliberately lost her needle to illustrate a point.
"How intelligent you people are when it comes to small things," she smiled. "When are you going to use your intelligence for your inner life? I've watched you all searching here and there, outside, and I know directly, from my own experience, that the bliss you are seeking can be found within. Wake up and use your intelligence. Why are you searching for your soul in the outside world? Have you lost it there?"
Rabia went into her hut and left them dumbfounded.
Understanding The Story
The main theme of the story is about shifting our focus and looking inside ourselves for truth, even if it seems dark within. The intelligent person will begin his search for truth from his inner being, thinking that unless he or she knows himself or herself well, what is the point of searching all over the world for fulfilment.
As there is no point looking for a needle outside if it dropped inside the home, there is no need to be lost in the distractions and obsessions of endless desires when joy and all that we seek comes from within.
Have you ever asked yourself what you are searching for? Have you ever really taken the time to meditate on what you want? Unless you know what you are seeking, how can you find it?
Searching And Seeking
These days many people find themselves searching and seeking. You may decide to pack up a bag and go search for meaning in your life in the Far East. You may join a dating service in order to search for the perfect mate. Or you may go to spiritual workshops in order to find peace and healing. This story points out that it is our unawareness that creates the search. With no light on in her home, Rabia is searching for the needle outside, but actually the needle is in her home.
Rabia al-Adawiyyah of Basrah died in 801 AD, about 100 years after the establishment of Islam. In his book, Sufi Poems, A Medieval Anthology, Lings says that Rabia did not experience "anything of the harmonious unity which characterised the first decades of the new reigion. Her whole life was set at a time of rapidly increasing wordliness."
Turning Away From Worldly Distractions
Today we also struggle with materialism. There is a growing awareness of our need to balance activity and work with introspection and self-awareness.
As we consume more and more things, there is also a growing understanding that there is more to life than the stuff that surrounds us and that we think we need in order to live happily.
As people realise that breathing well and smiling often can be more beneficial than outside pleasures (many of which need to be bought) so more people are learning that we are our own source of well being.
My friend Jane returned to her home town on the Isle of Wight after many years in Hawaii and old friends asked her to teach them meditation. As she began to speak about looking within, they asked: "Why would we want to do that? It sounds terrible." Jane laughed: "Why would we NOT want to do that?" These friends did valuable work in the outer world as teachers and doctors but now Jane was proposing to them that they be teachers and doctors unto themselves.
Like Rabia's neighbours, I have a tendency to look for beauty and truth mainly outside, forgetting to recognise my inner consciousness. I can get caught in the longing for things to satisfy my senses, chasing money and romance for example.
Many times when desire is fulfilled, another desire is created and we go on chasing our dreams, without checking what it is the source of our desires. Do we long for a partner because we feel incomplete without one? Does finding a partner suddenly make one complete? Is it not better to feel complete within oneself first before entering an intimate relationship?
Inner Wisdom
Like an ancient drama therapist, Rabia holds up a mirror to her neighbours. She reveals the foolishness of searching in the wrong place. In doing so she suggests a new way of looking - from the inner eye (sometimes called the third eye or ajna chakra.)
Rabia's way is to pull our attention away from the movie or screen of our lives to the projector - the centre of consciousness in the middle of the head. From the world of phenomena to the unseen source which has many names including God, Spirit, Self or Beloved.
The point is to shift the direction of attention, the focus. If you seek only outside, you may remain a seeker. If you seek in what Rabia calls "the right place" and turn within, the seeker disappears. You are found.