From Idries Shah's Reflections

Herewith an brief sample from a wondrous small book of modern Sufi stories written by the late Idries Shah, Octagon Press, London, 1978.

Lichen

A piece of lichen was growing on a rock.
     In addition to the customary lichen thoughts, it often wondered why it could not spread so as to cover a part of the rock which was still bare.
     ‘There is no lichen nutrient there,’ said the wisest part of the lichen, ‘and we must wait until it comes to us.’
     As the years passed, the expectation of the mass of the lichen became stronger and stronger. Slowly, climatic changes caused the rock to split slightly. Certain chemicals were released and started to ooze outwards, covering a part of the bare surface of the stone.
     For the devout lichens, this was the answer to their prayers, and they gratefully spread themselves over the delicious food.
     Many years passed, and the chemicals began to become exhausted. This created changes in the character of the lichens, who attributed their difference in composition and being to profound social changes.
     Theoreticians multiplied, each with his explanation. The lichen philosophers, academics and scientists divided themselves into groups. You can imagine what their various explanations were like. Each version was based upon the interpretation of observed phenomena. In fact, of course, the theories were generally attempts to concentrated and spread certain convictions.
     Then another chain of events caused someone to spill upon the rock another lichen-nutrient, and the organisms were able to start growing again.
     The stimulus itself energized the theoreticians. Their increased anxieties in the immediate past had sharpened their mental activity. It had enabled them to realize the immediate cause of their reprieve and comparative abundance.
     But so far as the lichens have not got to the point where they can fathom any perceptible intention behind the chain of ‘causes’ which brings them the means to live and to expand.
For this reason, they have given up thinking abou it. They believe, nonetheless, that they are thinking about it. But it is only because they are at the level of culture which regards the following statements as ‘thought’:
     ‘Everything is accident’
     ‘Everything is of supernatural origin’
     ‘Some things are accident, some supernatural’
     ‘I do not know what to think’
     ‘I can believe, and therefore I can believe that mere opinion is the same as knowledge’
     ‘I have inferred some things, therefore they are true’
     ‘I have observed some things, therefore I can observe others’
     ‘What cannot be observed can be inferred, what cannot be inferred can be felt, what cannot be observed, inferred or felt cannot have any relevance to anything and is therefore nonsense.’
     How fortunate that humanity is different from lichen.