The mystical is not obvious. That must be what makes it mystical. To me, the mystical is like a poem that takes leaps, and you are surprised, and your heart leaps with the words of the poem, even when you don’t understand it. Then later you think about it, and maybe something falls into place. Your heart knew what the poem meant, and then the mind wants to understand too.

Effendi at the Sufi House is a magical storyteller.  You don’t even know he is telling a story. And when he talks, it is like he is telling you a short fairy tale, and then sometimes you find that you are in the fairy tale. It is like he tells a story in code. And you are enchanted.

Of course, when I say you as I do above, I mean me.

Just the way poetry is, Effendi is fanciful AND very down to earth. I don’t know anyone more grounded than Effendi.

Everything Effendi says seems to come in threes as in fairy tales. The three sons. The three princesses. In what I am going to tell you, there are three sentences that make up the story  that I am going to tell, and, oh, the surprise, the surprise.

Effendi does give people what they need. And yet he always says what is true.  And he does it in such a way that even when he tells someone what he did not want to hear, you are happy. But in this story I am going to tell, Effendi did say exactly what I wanted to hear.

You may remember that, a while ago, Effendi asked to see some Heavenletters translated into Turkish. Then I never heard anything more about it. Ah, Effendi also teaches patience.

The other night someone asked about holy texts and how sometimes the words are not written down accurately, perhaps misheard or misinterpreted by the scribe.

Effendi said slowly slowly with gestures of his hands and his eyes looking in certain directions:

“For instance, if Louise were to write down what I say, people would love to read it.

“If Theresa were to write down my words, no one would want to read it.”

Then there was a long pause. He moved his fingers as if they were going down a road, and finally he said:

“If Gloria were to write down my words,  she would write down exactly what I said.”