A Sufi story
A certain dervish had a long, well-maintained beard of which he was very proud. He passed a great deal of time in devotional practices but some of his attention was upon the beard which he considered was the mark of his gravity.
One day Moses was on his way to God, when the dervish stopped him. He said: “Please ask God on behalf of me, why it is that although I am devoted and unceasing in my spiritual practices, I never arrive at an experience of spiritual fulfillment.”
Moses agreed to do so, and God replied to him: “It is true that this dervish is a seeker, but his thoughts are often of his beard.”
Moses returned from his meeting with God and told the dervish what God had to say. Dervish was struck by conscience. Now he spent a large part of his time plucking out his wonderful beard, hair by hair, as an act of penance and reproaching himself for having considered it as something of importance.
After some time, one day the Archangel Gabriel visited Moses. During their conversation the topic of the dervish came up. Gabriel said, “You know something. The dervish has not changed much. At one time he thought too much about the beauty of his beard. Now he is thinking about his beard just as much, even more, in fact.”
The message of the story is: Attachment comes in many forms and if one is not conscious even well-intended acts can turn into obsession. It further shows how we commonly see the world in opposites and assume superficially that if one is to be discarded, the opposite is to be blindly adopted. Instead of contemplation, we prefer to quickly decide. We leave something only to cling to another.