Walking down the street one night, someone found Nasruddin crawling on his hands and knees under a lamp post near his own front door..

Nasruddin, what's wrong? What are you doing here?

Looking for my house key. I can't get in until I find it..

Oh? Let me help you.

The friend joined Nasruddin in the search, and together they combed all the area under the lamp, but could find nothing.

That's strange, Nasruddin. It's just not here. Are you sure this is where you dropped it?

Here? No, of course not. I dropped the key over there in the shadows by the door.

But - Nasruddin, if you lost the key there, why are you looking here under the lamp?

Well, it's very simple. Over there it's so dark I can't see a thing, and here it's as bright as day!

The seeker on the inner path is not satisfied with his present condition, and wishes to arrive somewhere else, wishes to find the place of rest, the 'home.' This restlessness seems to come both from the limitations of our surroundings (such as difficult people, unforgiving circumstances and painful events) as well as from our own shortcomings, for no seeker is satisfied with his or her own behaviour. If only we could reach that goal, we tell ourselves, we would be filled with all the good qualities we feel we should have - patience, tolerance, compassion, generosity, and many more besides.

According to this way of thinking, the saints or holy people we have heard of or perhaps have even met, are so appealing in their goodness because, with a fortuitous combination of Divine Grace and the right spiritual exercises, they have received a glimpse of the Hidden Truth of the Universe, and now are beyond the limitations of human character that seem to plague the rest of the world. Following this reasoning, the quest for the seeker becomes the search for the right technology, the most correct esoteric school with the right prayers, the best (and therefore most hidden) 'magic word,' or some breath or concentration exercise mystical enough to push even an ordinary 'sinner' into heaven. One mureed expressed it well, saying, 'I have trouble doing my practices regularly. Is there a Wazifa that will help me do them?'

But this view of the spiritual path is like Nasruddin's way of looking for the key. In "The Journey to the Goal" ('The Alchemy of Happiness' The Sufi Message, vol. 1) Hazrat Inayat Khan makes it clear that the spiritual journey is much longer than we sometimes think. "When a man's attitude has become a loving attitude, a tendency to serve, to forgive, to tolerate, to have reverence for all, good and bad, young and old, then he begins his journey."

In other words, it is not that we become agreeable through becoming spiritual, but just the opposite. Inasmuch as we are able to overcome a self-centered point of view, we have the possibility of becoming aware of our spiritual nature. Our Master goes on to say, "No one without courage, strength of will and patience can follow this path. When a person has to live among people of every different kind, he must make his own character soft as a rose, make it even finer so that no one can be hurt by the thorns. Two thorns cannot harm each other. The thorns can hurt the rose, but the rose cannot tear the thorns. Think what the life of the rose between two thorns must be! The journey begins with a path of thorns, and the traveller must go barefoot. It is not easy always to be tolerant and patient, to refrain from judging others, and to love one's enemy.… The beginning of each path is always difficult and uninteresting, hard for everybody."

A path of thorns upon which we must travel barefoot? This does not sound like the blissful spiritual life we had hoped for. It would of course be much easier to restrict our search to the well lit areas, but that would not open the door to the Goal. Every seeker has some good points - but reciting our abilities ("good sense of humour, kind to animals, knows how to iron a shirt") will not advance us one centimeter on the journey. If we don't have the courage to go into the shadows and thrust our hand into the thorns and muck that have accumulated there, the door to future progress must remain closed. And why? For the reason that the door is none other than the door to the heart, and when the way is choked with thoughts of self and the thorns of bitterness and resentment, the heart is unable to fulfil the Divine purpose for which destiny has shaped it.

Therefore, one possible lesson to learn from Nasruddin could be this: cultivate the heart; learn to be kind; put others before oneself whenever possible; give all one has and accept what is given; and if we follow this to the best of our ability, then the path to the Goal shall become as short as just one single step across the threshold.