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| Nasrudin (Photo by Nevit Dilmen) |
As the story goes, Paul McCartney was walking his dog one fine morning on a hill overlooking London.
McCartney and his friend Alistair Taylor happened to be discussing "the beauty they observed… and the existence of God." A stranger ("dressed respectably in a belted raincoat") suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere. He verbally
reiterated Paul's sentiment of how beautiful the view was - and then seemed to quickly vanish.
This event was said to have prompted the song "Fool on the Hill." Paul himself allegedly stated, "…I think I was writing about someone like Maharishi [Mahesh Yogi – the Transcendental Meditation guru whom the Beatles visited with in 1968]."
The "wise fool" paradigm has shown up in many a religious teaching over the years. Nasrudin from
the Sufi
tradition is one such example. Here is a Nasrudin anecdote:
Nasrudin and his buddies were discussing death one day.
They asked one another:
"What would you like to hear people say about you at your funeral?"
One buddy said, "I would like to hear them say that I was a great singer." Another said, "I would like to hear
them say that I was a great scholar."
Nasrudin thought for a moment, then replied: "I
would like to hear them say…
LOOK!! HE'S MOVING!!!"
Resources
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=134
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Sufism/Nasrudin
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