This is a true story. I read it in one of Osho’s many texts and am retelling it from memory. The protagonist is Rabia al-Adawiyya, the Sufi mystic, about whom there are many anecdotes regarding how she preached her teachings. This is one of them.
One day, Rabia was searching for something on the street under the light of a street lamp. People from the village passed by and asked what she was looking for.
Her answer was, “I am looking for my needle.”
Helpfully, they offered their assistance and joined the search. However, the needle was small, and the area was vast.
“Do you remember exactly where you dropped it?” they asked.
“I lost it inside the house,” was her reply.
“Inside the house?! Are you crazy?” they exclaimed in amazement. “Why are we searching here if you lost it inside the house?”
“It is dark inside the house, but here it is light,” she answered.
And she added: “Are you not crazier than I, searching for the truth outside instead of within yourselves? It is light outside, indeed, but the truth is found within.”
I love this story. It is a beautiful metaphor for why we cannot solve our problems—we search for the “needle” in the external world (people, life circumstances, and events) rather than within ourselves.
But what does “within ourselves” actually mean?
Inner space is just as infinite as the outer world of earth, sky, cosmos, and stars. Within it lie not only our reactions to what happens in the present—those immediately accessible to the mind’s observation—but also the records of our unconscious: Personal Unconscious (Early childhood memories and imprints), Family Soul (The systemic ties and loyalties of our lineage), Collective Unconscious (The objective psyche and universal archetypes).
The archives of our subconscious are vast—an infinite field of information where past and future, karma and dharma, are mutually conditioned and intertwined. If we begin to bring the light of consciousness into this dark place, we will eventually find the needle.
Kameliya
