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July 30 random - conversation
In love, nothing exists between heart and heart. Speech is born out of longing,True description from the real taste.The one who tastes, knows; the one who explains, lies. How can you describe the true form of Something In whose presence you are blotted out?And in whose being you still exist?And who lives as a sign for your journey?
-rabia random says: From Shaykh Ibn 'Ata Illah, in his book, "Kitab al-Hikam" (Book of Wisdom). This is the beloved that is mostly responsible for passing on in written form the teachings of our beloved Guide, Shaykh Abu-l-Hasan ash Shadhdhuli, may Allah's blessings and peace be upon them both..Rest yourself from self-direction.For what Someone Else has carried out on your behalf you must not yourself undertake to do.Your striving for what has already been guaranteed to you and your remissness in what is demanded of you are signs of the blurring of your intellect If He opens a door for you, thereby making Himself known, pay no heed if your deeds do not measure up to this. For, in truth, He has not opened it for you but out of desire to make Himself known to you. Do you not know that He is the One who presented the knowledge of Himself to you,whereas you are the one who presented Him with deeds?What a difference between what He brings to you and what you present to Him! He who illuminated in the beginning is illumined at the end
June 05 The Education of the HeartDo people even read these days??
"And so, turn your face steadfastly toward the faith, turning away from all that is false, in accordance with the natural disposition which God has instilled in the human being: not to allow anything to corrupt what God has thus created; this is the ever true faith, although most people do not realize it. Turn toward God alone, and remain conscious of God,and be constant in prayer/connection, and do not be among those who reduce divinity to anything less than God, nor among those who have broken the wholeness of faith and have become divided into parts, each group indulging in their own opinions." (30:30-31)
*The Divine Reality holds us all in its mercy, and yet the needs of humanity at this unprecedented time are very great. Our humanness is more challenged than ever before. We are swimming in a tide of unconsciousness, consumerism, mind-numbing distraction, aimless subjectivity, neurotic individualism, and philosophical fragmentation. The artificial conditions of modern industrial and postindustrial societies are accelerating time, increasing stress, isolating individuals, reducing our human interactions, corroding our hearts, and fragmenting every aspect of our existence. We have lost the sense and purpose of life. As we have lost our wholeness, we have fashioned a world that is not a garden but a place where people are enslaved, where the beauties of nature are pillaged, and where unjust and unnecessary wars destroy what the human heart would create.
The fragmentation that we see on the level of society is, of course, only mirroring what we are inside. The compulsive ego is not a unified tyranny but a many-headed monster, a shape-shifting phantom. The fragmentation of the self is the fundamental cause of all our problems, and this fragmentation is the direct result of our loss of an objective knowledge of the self and Reality.
We are living in a time when the knowledge of all the world's spiritual traditions is available to more and more human beings. We can no longer easily maintain the kind of blind faith and insularity that suited human beings of former times.
For many people this is an experience of the relativity of all approaches to the Divine. Many people are struggling with the question: from where will we draw our certainty, our faith, our commitment to spiritual discipline? One of the most pressing questions of our time is: Do we live in a postreligious, postdenominational era? And if we do, from where will we draw our discipline and practice?
We can see two major trends operating in the world. One is toward a generic, self-service, subjective spirituality. Another is toward the rigid one-dimensional fundamentalisms.
Will the majority of humanity now settle for a generic, mass-media spirituality drawn from the ever-increasing self-help literature, most of which is preoccupied with ego themes and feeds upon itself rather than from any authentic source?
Or will spirituality be hijacked by those who would offer rigid simplifications or indoctrination into a one-dimensional reality? Such a religion cannot offer the human heart what it longs for. The human heart is an instrument of fine gradations and subtlety. It is an instrument that is commensurate with the qualities of the Divine Reality. We need a spirituality of subtle nuance, as well as objectivity. We need a religion that is as much art as it is law.
Recently I have been asking this question of many people: What would be a spirituality adequate to the times we live in? Twenty-years ago, perhaps, we may have been hearing about the need for a formless, universal, nondogmatic spirituality. Today, many people who have experimented with a formless and eclectic spirituality are asking different questions. While they still seek a spirituality beyond dogmatism, they are beginning to ask questions like:
By what criteria will we be able to make the right choices in life?
How will I establish some structure in my own life while living in a society that seems to have lost its bearings?
What will help us sort through the mass of information and opinions that we're continually bombarded by?
As Sufis (Islam w/Irfaan' emphasis) we know that the objective knowledge we require cannot be constructed by human intellect alone. Intellect can perform many useful functions; it can divide, critique, and negate, but intellect is not the source of inspired knowledge about the purpose of life. Intellectual conjecture too often leads only to a labyrinth of opinion. Sufism (True islam) is not merely the product of human conjecture. It is based upon the divine revelations, the Holy Books, which have been handed down to humanity and which offer the essential knowledge we need to develop our humanness. Admittedly most of these revelations have been distorted to various degrees. And even when we have a revelation, such as the Qur'an, whose integrity has been preserved, there is the problem of understanding what it has to say. So much cultural distortion gets in the way, and our own selves get in the way.
But the Qur'an does offer us an essential spiritual vocabulary and certain essential propositions. It provides the essential bearings and a context for human experience. It provides the anatomy of Reality.
Prophet Mohammad (p.b.u.h.) said, "Seek knowledge as far as China." The human being is asked to be an active seeker of knowledge, not the passive recipient of dogma. But the knowledge we seek must not only be a quantitative, factual knowledge, but a qualitative, spiritual knowledge as well. The human heart occupies an important place in the anatomy of Reality. "The heavens and the earth cannot contain Me; only the heart of the faithful servant can contain Me." We need an education of the heart to receive this qualitative knowledge. The heart is not merely a vague metaphor for some undefined capacity for feeling. It is the organ of perception that can know the world of spiritual qualities. It is the heart that can love, that can praise, that can forgive, that can feel the Majesty of God. Only the human heart can say yes, can affirm wholeness, and can know the Infinite. Guided by its inner discernment, the heart can apprehend what is Real.
But the human heart in most cases has suffered so much artificial conditioning that it has become a distorted and distorting instrument.
In order for the heart to be an adequate cognitive instrument, it needs reconditioning. The reconditioning of the heart is a task that must be guided by objective principles. We have the means to offer the world of true psychology of the human being, a true science of the soul, a true education of the heart. We have been provided a reliable guide to the questions of life in the form of the divine revelation and in the example of complete human beings, beginning with the Prophets and continuing through the renewers of that message, the masters of the tradition, the friends of God.
This does not mean that we have a convenient body of dogma to answer every question. It means, rather, that we have objective and reliable principles that have been handed down from a higher Source and from a lineage of complete human beings. It still remains for us to verify and apply this knowledge. Is this not the meaning of the following passage?
"Soon We will show them Our Signs in the farthest horizons and in their own souls until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is is not enough that your Sustainer witnesses all things?" (23:53)
Because we are ALIVE withing a unified, conscious Reality, possessing will, intelligence, conscious purpose, and love, everything is a sign to be read, revealing the meaning and purpose of this Reality. We are encouraged to look to the signs with our hearts. We have been given a revealed text composed of ayahs (signs), and we are promised that we will be shown over time the Truth of these signs in ourselves and in the farthest horizons.
"Here are Signs self-evident in the hearts of those endowed with knowledge: and none but the unjust reject Our Signs." (29:49)
In the spiritual psychology of Sufism, the heart (qalb) is the midpoint between the spirit-self (nafs) and Soul (ruh). The heart is suspended between these two equally powerful and attractive forces. If the heart gives itself to nafs alone, it does not receive what it needs for its own healthy life. It becomes first veiled, then hardened, and finally diseased in anxiety. If the heart opens itself to the influence of Soul, it begins to reveive the spiritualizing energies and to distribute them to every aspect of the human being and to the wider world in peace. But unfortunately the heart is virtually helpless between these two forces of nafs and ruh.
What power put our tender hearts in this seemingly merciless situation and why? Could it be that we find ourselves in this dilemma in order that we might learn to call our in our weakness, to ask for help, to make a clear call to the Infinite?
The real and essential needs of the human being have not changed very much over the centuries. Who would disagree, for instance, with al'Ghazali's assessment eight centuries ago that "human perfection resides in this, that the love of God should conquer a man's heart and possess it wholly, and even if it does not possess it wholly, it should predominate in the heart over the love of all things" (Al-Ghazali, The Alchemy of Happiness, translated by Claude Field, p.79).
What has changed is the form and pressure of those forces that could displace the love of God from the heart. And what may change further is that human beings may lose the whole notion of love of God as the criteria of human perfection and well-being.
To be a Sufi (in Islam) is to be a lover, but not just any lover. We need knowledge to discern what to love and what love asks of us, in order that we might become Love itself. Mevlana Rumi says: "There is no greater love than love with no object."
"Truly, those who are faithful and do righteous deeds, the Compassionate will endow with love." (19:96)
With this spirituality of nuance and with the objective principles of the Revelation, we will find the true Faith, or essential Surrender, in unexpected places: in great literature as well as in children's books, in nature and ecology, in the honest attempt to deal with social problems. If there is a primordial religion, it is the objective Reality within everything. It is not primarily a religion characterized by a particular dress or architecture or customary behaviour.
We can read the signs in the unfolding of human history. In this unique and unprecedented time, all of humanity is becoming conscious of important and fundamental rights and obligations:
We may be learning how to live within the laws of God's ecology.
We may be learning how to maintain open societies where human rights are guaranteed.
We may be learnign how to allow a true partnership between a man and women.
We may be learning to find our connection with the HU, the Divine Immanence within.
We are not people of the past, living solely in our recollection of a former purity. We need to have the courage to be of this moment. Prophet Mohammad (p.b.u.h.) said, "He whose one day is like the next is not of us."
Because tradition can easily crystallize into social conditioning, we might keep in mind that our tradition has been one of transcending identification with forms and concepts. La illaha il Allah (There is no god but God) is a self-transcending affirmation that does not define God but allows us to move from one level of reality to the next, always transcending our limited conceptions, our idols. The Sufi path is an organizing pattern of energy. It has never been a static tradition; it is a dynamic way, not a position; it is living, not dead. It is impartial illumination, not egoistic opinion.
We need to understand the Revelation with all of the knowledge and human experience that is now at our disposal. If the Holy Qur'an is what it claims to be, it must inspire us anew to find the most real and appropriate solutions to the challenges the human spirit faces. The reality of the message of Prophet Mohammad has been in serious trouble before, but it can be revived, God willing.
Sufism is not the state of having preexisting answers to every question; it is understanding our place in this expansive reality and thus being open to the moment, responsive to the Divine Intelligence. As Mevlana Rumi says; "The Sufi's book is not of ink and letters; it is nothing but a heart white as snow."
Rigid opinion and negative judgment darken the heart. The contracted, critical part of the mind is the distorting lens that magnifies our identifications and differences, creating a world of self-importance, disharmony, and imbalance. Opinion veils the heart. Opinion says: "I know, and you do not." It minimizes our own fallibility and searches for the errors of others. It makes ourselves into competitors with each other and finally competitors with God, the only Knower. Opinion tends toward intellectual arrogance, and occupational disease of esotericists. It leads to false claims that make orders, shaikhs, and religion more important that God. Cultic behavior can undermine any group that does not place itself under the purest auspices of Love and illumination. The illuminated heart is content and at peace with God.
An illuminated heart is rare; opinion is all too common. The illuminated heart sees the Divine Reality, the Balance in all things; it sees with the imparital light of ALLAH. Illumination says: "Let's see what God does; what God does is always beautiful."
It it essential to work for the unity of humankind, to sageguard the planet for future generations, to show a way humanity can free itself from egoism and fear. The seeking of personal salvation needs to be sacrificed in order to make the message clear.
We must remember the facts of our situation: the potential for devastation, the economic injustice, the secret powers that shape our lives. Humanity is on the brink of catastrophe, and we have been asleep. What, therefore, is the most effective means of issuing a call to awakening?
It is time to break out of our prisons of private pleasure and security, to use all our powers of presence and communication to remind all human beings of the essential reality of the heart and of the unity that can be achieved if we live from the heart. When the heart fills with the breath of fana, we can float on the stormy seas of life. We do not own ourselves anymore; we are only servants of HU. This HU is the divine immanence burning within us. In order to be a servant of this HU , we have to make fundamental changes in our lives, to live a heroic generosity, a spiritual chivalry, and to create enduring relationships for the sake of God alone.
"And verily your people are a single people and I am your Sustainer: therefore be awake to Me and no other. But people have fragmented their purpose among themselves into sects: each party rejoices in that which is with itself. "(23:52-53)
Real human solidarity may be rare, but it is natural and human to forget our self-interest in love, to cultivate enduring relationships over worldy interests and accomplishments, to build something in the spiritual dimension, something real and eternal.
This material existence is a canvas that we paint with the qualities of our own selves. What we see on this canvas is what we have created. If we do not make these changes, we will continue to see a desperate, depressed humanity and a ravaged environment. If we don't find the jewel of the Divine Reality within our hearts and begin to live from it, the bazaar of this existence may be destroyed stone by stone.
With this objective knowledge and spiritual nuance we must create a culture of love. We must invite the era of enlightenment by putting spiritual education at the center of all education. We have only one kind of work to do, and it is the divine work. This is essential sufism.
Sufism is nothing less than the path of experiencing our divine essence, our HU, the secret of our HUmanness. When we appear before our Sustainer, bringing all the accomplishments of our lives, our Sustainer will say, "Bring me the Heart. If the Heart is pleased with you, I am pleased with you. Your relationship to your inmost Heart is your relationship to Me." Sufism (true Islam) is essentially the educatuon of the heart. This education consists of both enlightenment and maturity. The enlightenment is the light of continuous dhikr in our hearts, light upon light, nur ala nur. The maturity consists of the human attributes we choose to develop that reflect the beautiful names of God. The human heart is the most precious substance in existence. We are the people of Heart, who have heard from deep within our own hearts a voice that says: Allahu Akbar ~ God is the Greatest!!!
Read~The Knowing Heart (A sufi path of transformation) by Kabir Helminski
April 15 COMING SOOOOON!!!!!!To Our Reality.....
we couldn't be more anxious to leave this concrete Jungle, for a place where YOU
can B r e a t h e......
i start out on this road, call it Love or Emptiness, i only know whats not here resentment seeds, backscratching greed, worrying about outcome, fear of people when a bird gets free it does not go back for remnants left on the bottom of the cage close by, im rain. far off, a cloud of fire. i seem restless but i am deeply at ease branches tremble. the roots are still. i am a universe in a handful of dirt, whole when totally demolished talk about choices does not apply to me while intelligence considers options i am somehere lost in the wind. update inspirationthe latest stream..... things are groovin right along @ light speed, in a non-stop continuum of multi-dimensional meta-tasking co-operative adventures...
still standing firm for simple sovereign lifestyles that give back much more than they take - creating balance in their wake... this screen in between the dedicated daily activities and their micro mirrored tele-reflection exists to provide a proof positive - completely up front and honest in relaying a true story - real people - simple folks - living on earth - right now - listening to the changes - navigating the waves - inspiring innovation - innovating inspiration - open to the challenge - ever inviting - always on... the ways to share have increased exponentially, being aware of what is shared - its origin, intent, objective, and impact - why, and how - and controlling ones own mindspace, is the key in getting to the heart of the issue, which must be continually re-stated and taken very very literally: To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or the disadvantage of anyone. it starts at home and continues at home - keeping the focus on inspired solutions great and small one and all - finding out - how much more there is to life when love is unconditional, respect is first, service is sincere, and reverence is the mode...
the focus has been on growing - plotting spring strategies with the local crew - and concentrating on how to enhance the perpetual produce department of our reality... figuring out details of working smarter not harder, in each particular project... putting our heads together to come up with better projections - ever embracing the DIY do-it-yourself work ethic as it continues to refine and evolve... the focus has been on building constructive connections and productive relationships - doing as much as possible thru trade and recycling, establishing working friendships with fellow free-zoners dedicated to inspired alternatives and down-to-earth solutions... the activity is constantly accelerating - growing strong roots in a fertile underground at amazing rates with no signs of stopping... its been 6 years since this zine was born and it truly can be said, that every ideal envisioned in this organic life mirror continues to become a reality - more abundant than ever imagined - like dipping into an ocean of awareness that is becoming clearer every day... sovereignty, integrity, respect, reverence - responsible, empowered, empowering, open minded, free thinking, holistic, focused, fine tuned - as self sufficient as possible, as co-operative as possible - compassionate, good natured, free spirited, down to earth, humble, centered, service oriented, resourceful, driven by vision, constantly reinventing, all embracing of the spontaneous, and contributing unconditionally to a greater plan, which seeks to see the best in All brought into Being and Being Itself... the purpose of being healthy and happy is to maintain clear cosmic reception, to be able to perform, produce, and enjoy the creatively inspiring in a seamless way - all systems running smoothly, psychology and physiology in balance and aligned - all organic and ethical functions are transparent, natural, intuitive - enhancing and not interrupting - giving and not taking - providing a stable foundation to work from - eliminating unnecessary time components and distractions - seeing that all energies are wisely directed and maximally utilized - as the terrestrial base that all extra-terrestrial activities spring from - in one holistic experience of Life aboard this spaceship earth we are
March 01 Ibn Arabi's "Journey to the Lord of Power: A Sufi Manual on Retreat"*Beloveds~ I have been busy with my myspace account (http://www.myspace.com/beginning2fly) esp. posting up lots of bulletins and keeping up with all of the info and sharing that way~ finding it to be very great in that respect, but know that I have lots to catch up with for this sight. For all who is reading and is active with this page, forgive my lack of keepin-it-fresh :) but inshallah I shall try to post the most informative peices. You could always join myspace and find me there....and please visit the other links...there is so much info. out there it is unbelievable, esp. my partners sights http://purevibes.blogspot.com/ and http://www.outlawjournalism.com/ (I will be updating the links part asap. as well).
This essay is really a collection of notes to myself. Please take it accordingly, and if you find anything personally useful in here, then I'm honored. Thanking pedalinfaith for the inspiration.
For me, Ibn' Arabi's insight brings things I've heard in bits and pieces over and over again in spiritual and mental health circles through the last years together into one cohesive, accessible framework. I so appreciate that. Of all of the spiritual texts I've read, his is refreshingly practical in its teachings. "Your personal nature seeks its paradise." - (Ibn 'Arabi, 1981, p. 29)********************************************* Ibn 'Arabi lays out a map of what he calls "Realms", which can also be looked at as stages of personal development. They are infinite in number and are as varied as human beings. However, they fall into some general categories, the first of which are the most relevant to us less learned folk. Keep in mind that these stages merely describe a progression and they don't happen just once or even linearly. While you are in one stage, say in a general sense, you might be in another with regard to a more specific situation. (1) We all start in a state of oneness where our will is unformed and we aren't all that interested in anything outside of the experience of one-ness we are having. Most of us have witnessed this in the way that babies and toddlers relate to their moms or, if we are lucky, have experienced it in the honeymoon stage of a romantic relationship. It is a sense of being home, feeling seen and deeply understood, where existence requires very little inner work or understanding of anything outside the union. (2) A state of the hardship of separation. We feel the burden of making our way through a world (or a relationship or any other challenging situation) that seems to be full of contradictions and conflicts. The honeymoon is over. And the sense of diremption we feel seems to imply that something went wrong. (Here enters opportunities for internalizing or externalizing blame.) In this stage, we tend to see the duality in situations; our attention is drawn to the differences between things rather than to their similarities. Many problems seem black and white, like they have only two solutions (and often neither seems tolerable). Interestingly, this stage seems to coincide with an individual's ability to think linearly, to logically link cause and effect. (3) Ibn 'Arabi calls this third stage "The Interval" as its main function is movement towards stage 4. Basically, in this stage, we get a sense that there is something more to all this living than struggle, and, in our curiosity about what that might be, we actively work towards developing the tools and psychic structure within ourselves that allows us to perceive these deeper levels and to live them. There is a lot of learning about who one uniquely is and who one is not, learning how to not be thrown off course by messages to the contrary (like we were in stage 2), learning what and what not to trust in for signposts along the way, learning to develop intuition and how to balance it against one's capacity for being strictly rational (presupposing that one has already developed a strong capacity for being discriminating when you need it), getting comfortable with the undefinability of things, and learning how to consciously work with the imaginal world (as distinguished from imaginary--I'll explain later) and letting it influence one's waking consciousness so that it serves as a revealer rather than a veiler (a source of confusion or obfuscation). (4) As is true in many things, the end is hidden in the beginning. And stage 4 is really just a return to the oneness of stage 1, except this time we are conscious of it. We know the nature of merging, its size and shape, and understand how this process works within us. We can fall into oneness, and at the same time observe ourselves falling, and yet this detachment doesn't rob us of the sense of wonder and magic of it. Because of that, knowledge (and seemingly contradictory information) doesn't disturb our bliss or sense of union. Had someone tried to impart that kind of knowledge (of the inner workings) back in stage 1 (assuming that we even had the capacity to accept and integrate that information), we would have been disillusioned and immediately been thrown in stage 2. Had our stage 1 sense of joy been disturbed with explanations of psychological needs and projection mechanisms and brain chemistry, we would have entered into a period of questioning and doubting that would have disconnected us from the necessary experience of blind trust. Now, in stage 4, we understand enough about ourselves and how we respond in given situations and have enough of the big picture of Who We Are and have made peace with the multiplicity of it all that we are no longer confused by additional, sometimes conflicting information. There is space for seemingly divergent perspectives to co-exist within us. We have now a joy/bliss/sense-of-wholeness that is once again trusting but no longer blind. There are a stage 5 and 6, but they are so far beyond my grasp that I'm not even going to try to explain them here. My best understandings of the stages of development from personal experience and other sources are that (1) progression doesn't happen like a light switch that suddenly gets turned on--you get glimpses from time to time (perhaps throughout an entire lifetime) into the experience of the next stage before you fully enter it; (2) humanity as a whole is slowly moving through this progression; whether we'll allow it to flow through to its conclusion is still to be determined. ********************************************* There are some tools that folks can use to consciously further and hasten their movement along their path. But, before any of you perfectionists, like me, get a hold of these and drive yourself crazy trying to apply them, first a word on equanimity ... It's a good feeling when things just fall into place or come naturally. Not only are we spared exhaustion and confusion, but it's affirming as well. When something "feels right", it usually means that we are engaged more with the flow of life rather than with the interruptions or strife within a situation. Most of us would like to experience that feeling as much as possible, but it's not something that we seem to have much control over. Myself included. And anytime we force a situation or relationship or attitude to be a particular way, our psyches will rebel if it isn't in accordance with the ways in which they are ready to go. Or, more accurately, our psyches will rebel (in the form of neuroses, depression, obsessive thought patterns, unshakable urges, etc.) if we are single-mindedly addressing only part of the picture. The unconscious lets us know when its being poorly attended to. (Learning to recognize its messages can be a challenge though! See stage 3.) So, although Ibn 'Arabi has laid out a framework of attitudes and practices here, it is your personal repsonsibility to use them in a way that achieves equanimity within you. Note that equanimity is different than stagnation. Stagnation brings its own kind of pain. (Hopefully, you are blessed with a low tolerance for it so that you won't have to tread water too much in your life.) So, learning when to push yourself and when to relax and make space for something else to come in is a huge part of the task. With that said, on to his suggestions ... "The seekers of the Way of Truth are individuals." - (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 26) There is so much implied in this one, little sentence. First off, to go the distance on your path, to take yourself through fulfillment of your individual nature and beyond, you'll eventually need to arrive at the point where you can stand apart from the crowd and all its messages of how things should look. But to rely on your inner guidance, you need to first get the lay of the land in there. You gotta know the ways in which you talk yourself out of things that are actually true for you and have developed the strength to tune those false prophets out. This implies that it's gonna be a lonely path. Although folks can encourage and guide you from time to time, and you can encourage and guide yourself from time to time, you gotta get used to that feeling of walking alone in the desert sometimes, not sure of where you are headed but knowing your spirit will wither and die if you don't keep walking. Eventually, this means you will feel (perhaps disconcertingly) distant from people and even need to go into retreat to solidify some things within yourself without being interrupted or distracted by the needs or influences of others. But before you go off for incubation, there are a few things that it would be better if you had developed within yourself first so that "retreat" doesn't end up in you losing your marbles. "Disicipline is incumbent upon you before the retreat. Spiritual discipline (riyada) means (1) training of character, (2) abandonment of heedlessness, and (3) endurance of indignities." - (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 26) Let's take these in reverse order ... (3) Endurance of Indignities - You gotta get past feeling like a fool. What you are doing is walking your individual path away from the crowd. If everybody were undertaking this exact same journey, it would be well traveled and well marked, and so you'd get a lot of outer positive reinforcement along the way. But the journey is yours uniquely. Nobody else has done it this way. Ever. Prepare to make a lot of mistakes and feel like an ass, more often than not. This is not a sign of weakness. Eventually, hopefully, you'll get to like being caught off guard. Not expecting yourself to have the answers before you even know what questions to ask can be liberating. (2) Abandonment of Heedlessness - This doesn't mean "don't be rash or irrational." Synonyms for heedlessness are inattentiveness and mindlessness. So, this is really about abandonment of those things which interfere with presence. Go ahead and do what you do in life, but bring your full attention to it. Every decision, every interaction, every gaze on a flower or a pile of poop, every breath right down to the inhale and exhale. When engaged in this way, the question of doing the "wrong" thing almost becomes a moot point. A lot of the "what should I do" problems go away on their own or become completely irrelevant as a result of the shift in awareness and values that occurs when you really bring your full presence and attention to what you are doing right this moment ... and this moment ... and this one. A tall order, to be sure. And you'll probably find that, as you slow down to pay attention, you can't accomplish as much as you used to (which will probably force you to re-evaluate your desires and ambitions and what's most important to you. Ah, how something so simple can be so multilayered). (1) Training of Character - This is a tricky one as one definition of character implies morality, but whose morality? So, once again, let's go back to the dictionary. Character \Char"ac*ter\, n. [L., an instrument for marking,
character, Gr. ?, fr. ? to make sharp, to cut into furrows,
to engrave: cf. F. caract[`e]re.]
[1913 Webster]
...
The peculiar quality, or the sum of qualities, by which a
person or a thing is distinguished from others; the stamp
impressed by nature, education, or habit; that which a
person or thing really is; nature; disposition.
So, we're back to stage 3 here: Getting to know yourself and living what that is. Character is the sum of the qualities that make you who you inherently are. Training of character means knowing yourself, your abilities, your longings, the ways you deceive yourself (so that you don't get tripped up by them), your limitations (so that you don't irresponsibly overextend yourself), and the things that you have no particular aptitude for or calling for (so that you don't waste time on them) and taking responsibility for living this awareness in your life. When we live at that level of integrity to ourselves, the issue of morals pretty much takes care of itself because there are certain things that just are beneath us as individuated human beings. The traveler needs to learn what is useful from each situation" (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 28). I know you've heard it before but life is the teacher. Walking your path to your paradise isn't about trying to be some place you aren't yet. Be right where you are, emotionally, physically, psychologically, all of it. Engage with what you are given, but engage in a way such that you can learn something new from it. Look at each moment and see if you can find a gift in it. Not so that you become an optimist or become appropriately grateful (because that is perhaps just trying to be some place you are not), but just to see what you can learn about yourself from it. No judgment. Just gather information and move on. Don't linger in situations that have already outlived their usefulness. "We do not occupy ourselves with or turn our attention to those engaged in [striving for comfort and collecting worldly rubble]" (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 28). If you are still reading along with me, chances are good that comfort and amassing collections of possessions, people, identities, accomplishments, or status aren't enough for you. You can quietly love folks that love those things, but don't get so involved enough in their lives that your energy goes into appeasing or accommodating them such that it takes away from your availability to your unique path. Sounds easy. Hard to do. Some of the people in your life won't like that very much. Get used to the idea that people liking or not liking you has nothing to do with how true you are being to yourself. "Revelation corresponds to the extent and form of knowledge. The knowledge ... you acquire at the time of struggle and training you will realize [in experiential form] later. What you contemplate ... will be the form of knowledge which you established previously. You advance nothing except your transference from knowledge to vision" (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 29-30). The mental constructs by which you conceptualize your path are very important. They define your experience. Climbing a mountain gives you a different feeling than digging tunnels. In one you strive for the light, in another you lean into the darkness. Psychologists recognize that we think first in image form before words or actions ever arise. For Sufis, images exist in a world unto themselves and have a life of their own and are reflected to down us in a denser form (such as belief systems, human dynamics, or even physical manifestations). It's inevitable, if you are going to put your heart and soul into a path, that whatever images you choose to represent it will ultimately give you a particular kind of experience and material to work with. So, pick a set of metaphors, stories, teachings, or theories that offer the gestalt that you think best describe your inner longing. Go for one that inspires your yearning, that resonates with the deepest part of you. Then, learn about it. Learn as much as you can about it so that when you get to the place of arriving home, you are doing it consciously and you have the images that can take you there. Learn to differentiate between sensory and imaginal perception (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 35). This expands on the previous item. For Sufis, the world of images, dreams, and symbols is vital. We are consciously aware of some of the images that affect our lives (say, for example, imagining what we'd like our lives to look like in the future) and unconscious of others (e.g., reacting in a particular way to a situation because it reminds us of something else). Images are easier to work with and change than things that have already taken a more concrete form in our lives. For example, we all know the difficulty of trying to repair the damage of harmful words once they have been said. Instead, by intuitively attending to the needs of the moment, we can often avoid the hard work of later having to unravel miscommunications and hurt feelings. Similarly, by recognizing personal destiny when presented to us in its embryonic, imaginal form, we can avoid walking the paths in our lives where nothing seems to work right, no matter how hard we try. Mental images, dreams, and symbols (when they come from the right place) can be great sources of knowledge and understanding. They can help us know when to cut off negative influences, prevent us from stagnating in life, or help us cooperate and relax into painful but necessary processes. They can keep us from walking down dark psychic alleys by warning which situations will just constellate trouble and distract us from our path or suck us dry. They can incite real experiences of awe, terror, and a sense of meaning, all without ever actually taking empirically observable form in the waking world. Through the imagination, we can feel simultaneously touched in our most personal, hidden places and yet lifted into the context of something so much greater than our individual selves. In this way, imagination is the organ of theophanic perception and prophetic hermeneutics. (Theophanic = the manifestation of a god.) The ability of the imagination to see and feel into this kind of imagery is the bridge that links the island of limited ego-consciousness to the larger world of which it is a part. By “this kind of imagery,” I am referring not to those images that are inseparable from the imaginer (those arising from the personal psyche), but those that are autonomous and subsist beyond any particular individual’s attention to them. Images in this “theophanic imagination” exist even after we wake from their dreamy world. But there is a real trick in learning what images arise from our personal fantasies and which arise from the theophanic imagination. It is a subtle thing and whole books have been written about this. Ibn 'Arabi gives us a brief guideline in this manual: "when you turn your attention away from [a form or some created action] and occupy yourself with dhikr, you will move from the sensory to the imaginal [theophanic] level" (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 35). Dhikr (a practice of remembrance of one's ultimate longing) is explained below, but, simply put, if you put your attention fully back on your longing/your sense of destiny/calling (and willingly let go of a particular image or action) and this image or action sticks with you, then it's time to give it a deeper look. ********************************************* "Seclusion from people will become inevitable for you." (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 30) "The object of departure from people is not leaving their physical company, but rather that neither your heart nor your ear should be a receptacle for the superfluous words they bring." (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 31) Retreat is not a physical place or shutting out of loved ones. It is a state of awareness. It occurs when you feel a natural commitment to constantly lean into your longing, to bring awareness of it into every corner of your life. It requires that you have reached the point that you have enough of a sense of who you are and a connection to your calling that you can tune out messages to the contrary. And, because of the risk of being led astray by false ideas and the grandeur of inner experiences in this solitary state, retreat isn't to be entered into lightly, without a well-developed capacity for discipline (see above) or before you know your strength in respect to the power of imagination (more on this later). Retreat is essentially a state of remembrance. And, for Ibn 'Arabi, it is remembrance of God. Up until now, I've avoided the use of the 'G' word because the information is applicable regardless of whether or not the reader has a spiritual or a monotheistic bent. But to take these tools beyond their psychological pay-offs, we need to take a look at this God concept. The 'G' word has a lot of connotations in 21st century that it did not in the 12th. For Sufis, God is simply the mysterious, imaginal (see above) entity, that is on the other end of our deepest longing. Sufis don't concern ourselves too much with nailing down a definition of God. In a way, any definition would be irrelevant because we are talking about individual inner experiences of something ineffable. All that Sufis need to know is that we have a deep longing that calls us and we can't seem to shake it, no matter what we try. And, at the point in the journey in which we feel called into retreat (constant remembrance), we have been consumed enough by that longing that we feel driven to live it fully, to not push it away or put our attention on things that distract us from it. Engaging fully with that longing is a state of remembrance of God. For those of you more versed in psychological than spiritual vocabulary, instead of the word God, consider the Jungian concept of the Self as the central, harmonizing principle of one's psyche. Most of us aren't consciously aware of this structure in our psyches, but when we have experiences of it, we know it. We feel a part of something larger than what we previously thought of as ourselves. There is a sense of possibility and meaning. "The experience of the self is almost impossible to practically distinguish from the experience of what has always been referred to as 'God'" (Raff, 2000). If it helps you to read the rest of this material without getting distracted by the 21st century baggage around the 'G' word, try substituting "That Which I Long For" or 'The One I Long For" and see what that does for you. ********************************************* Ibn 'Arabi offers a few tips on how to stay in that state of remembrance as much as possible. * Do the dhikr. (A more commonly known word for this in the West is "mantra".) The dhikr is a practice whereby one repeats a key word or phrase that directs one's attention and thoughts to "the Beloved" (another Sufi word for God). You can do this aloud or silently. For Sufis, that word is "Allah". The idea is to repeat it constantly. Of course, you can't do that and pat your head and rub your belly (and manage all the details of living) at the same time. But you may find that after a while, after it becomes enough of a habit, the dhikr does you. * Don't let unthinking urges dominate your thoughts or actions. They don't leave room for spiritually principled living. Ibn 'Arabi suggests that this intention can be symbolized in the eating of nourishing foods and avoiding of animal fat. * "Keep your constitution in balance, for if dryness is excessive, it leads to corrupt imaginings and long, delirious ravings" (Ibn 'Arabi, 1981, p. 31). We all know the state of dryness. It is a state in which nothing grows. We can be full of imperial certainty and impersonal wisdom and these may be protecting us against stagnating in the chaos of our own unconscious. But we lack a certain vitality or freshness. So, there has to be an equal throne in our inner kingdom for uncertainty and simply "being" without overanalysis. Ibn 'Arabi suggests that the intention to hold this balance in our psyches is symbolized by the avoidance of excessive hunger in our dietary practice and excessive satiation. * If any influences come in that knock you off balance (and hopefully they will), tune out the un-useful and allow the helpful. Distinguish between these two based on what they leave you with. If you find yourself distressed, disoriented, or otherwise mentally disordered by certain influences, tune them out. (The dhikr can be really helpful here in working with unhealthy, obsessive thoughts.) You are looking for those things that put you in a state of coolness and bliss. "There is nothing that pertains to a station which [God] reveals to you that does not greet you with honor, reverance, and exaltation" (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 44). This doesn't mean that getting knocked off balance won't be painful, but if you encounter an influence that demeans you or makes you feel restricted or think you are smaller than you truly are (which is something you can discern by turning to the longing in your heart), then don't let it derail you. "You belong to that which exercises its authority over you" (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 29). Spiritually and mentally speaking, you are what you eat. On a psychological level, this is just sound, statistically proven cognitive-behavioral psychology. ********************************************* Entering into a state of retreat, it is helpful to make a convenant. That is, to consciously articulate your intention and commitment to it. Here's what Ibn 'Arabi recommends. (1) Be advised that wild (and wonderful) things can happen in a state of retreat--compelling states of drunken bliss, fascinating insight, and seemingly intolerable states of contraction and isolation. Promise to look away from every idea or image that comes to you along this path and suggests that it is God, that it is the thing that will give you what most long for, and promise to work to remember that God is more than all of these. Remember your goal. Don't give up your loneliness easily. Don't settle for anything less than the whole enchilada. Go for being in a state of constant longing, not for the state of arriving at union. If you get to the place where you finally come into union with your heart's deepest desire, there will be no negotiation anyway, no thinking will be involved, for it is a state of being that comes upon you and you don't have control over flipping that final switch. After all your dedicated striving, it just happens. (2) Promise to not seek from God anything other God Itself. Don't attach your himma (the power of the heart's intention) to anything other than God. "If everything in the universe should be spread before you, receive it graciously--but do not stop there. Persist in your quest.... If you stay with what is offered, [God] will escape you" (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 31). So, this is the point where you gotta ask yourself what you really want. If you get the perfect relationship, the most amazing opportunities for job or travel, or wisdom that draws people to you in gratitude for your insights, will you still have this longing? If the answer is no, then you may not want to risk how crazy this process can make you and how much it will completely up-end your life. If the answer is that the longing will continue, then there's no place to go but to give yourself over to it completely. You may not know the answer to this question until you try some of these things out. And that's OK. For many of us, these other things act as the carrot on the stick anyway. I mean, they are what we see that makes us run towards a sense of ultimate fulfillment and bliss, not realizing that the carrot is a very, very special carrot meant to make us reach for something beyond what we ever would have accepted as possible for ourselves, and that we may or may not get the carrot, but if we pursue it with all of our heart, we'll get so much more (and maybe the carrot too, although at that point the carrot, as we once thought of it, won't seem quite so central to our being anymore). ********************************************* Ibn 'Arabi goes on to describe the flavor of how your perspective shifts as you stick with the dhikr. There are many different stages, and each bring new levels of insight. I'm underqualified to try to expound on these. And when I try to ponder them without actually having experienced them, all that I can do is create suppositions which only create ideals that I then get attached to and that'll just get painfully dispelled eventually anyway as I (if God wills it) come into direct experiences of them. Knowing the content of the later stages of the journey is helpful in so much as it satisfies our minds enough so that they agree to get out of the way and let the process of transformation happen. Some of us have minds that require more information than others to let this happen. If you are one of those, welcome to the club. There are books and people that can orient you. Once we get to the point that we are more or less OK with not knowing what in the hell we are doing and where we are really going but that we know we have to go there anyway, it's really not so important to understand the content of the stages of the journey as much as the process of it. Perhaps it can suffice here to say that, as we progress, our awareness shifts away from preoccupation with the problems and conflicts in our lives and more towards unity, towards the essential nature and dynamics of each different kind of living thing (e.g., the relationships of the body in its various forms, the mind, the world of images, the soul, absolute truth, etc.). But, although your perspective shifts on an outward level, things still look the same. The rules of the physical world still operate and you live in the physical world. What you have is a state of awareness in which you carry your new insights along with you in this dense state of incarnation and that can make life a hell of a lot easier. And yet this still isn't the whole enchilada. "Every seeker inevitably will experience the impact of the states, and blending of the worlds with one another, but the development from this stage to the stage of divine wisdom appearing within the customary outward principles is incumbent upon him. Transcendence of the customary order will become his secret, so that events beyond the ordinary will accompany him ordinarily." (Ibn 'Arabi, p. 60). Along the way, insights you get can be quite fascinating, reassuring, and clarifying. They can make you feel good. They can make people around you feel good. But these states of awareness aren't meant to be destinations, just changes in the scenery. Remember, remember, remember what it was that set you out on the journey, what you most deeply long for. Accept these insights graciously and then return to the dhikr. Remember we aren't shooting for becoming an intellectual authority on life and how to live it, but on actually living our longing and arriving at that eventual state of union in our own individual way, regardless of what anyone else may notice about us. Ibn 'Arabi stresses over and over again the importance of the dhikr. If we apply this rule of the road, no matter what states of expansion or contraction befall us, we won't stagnate if we just put our attention back on the dhikr. The name of the game is re-orienting ourselves consistently to getting the whole pie, not settling for any crumbs no matter how bitter or how sweet. Persevere, but attend to your inner balance so that perseverance doesn't turn into dryness. Stay with your truest intention. Throw yourself into your longing and again. "It is the intensity of the longing that does all the work." - Kabir And so this lord of "power" is not at all making us into obedient automatons. Power here is creative potential, the capacity for doing or being, for manifesting longing in our hearts and protecting it so that it can lead us on the path home. This path is incredibly hard and incredibly simple. Sometimes the hardest thing is to trust in just how simple it really is. November 24 May All Be Fed ~ Thoughts after RamadhanThe stomach is the home of disease. Diet is the main medicine, and abstinence the head of every remedy. So make this your custom. In the sight of your Lord, the best food is a food shared by many. ~Sayings of The Holy Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w.s.) For the power of God's angels enter into you with the living food which the Lord gives you from His royal table...Breathe long and deeply at all your meals, that the angel of air may bless your repasts. (The Essene Gospel of Peace) From the book: Diet for a New World~ by John Robbins *When the food is on the table and everyone is seated, we practice breathing: "Breathing in, I calm my body - breathing out, I smile," three times. We can recover ourselves completely after three breaths like this. Then, we look at each person as we breathe in and out in order to be in touch with ourselves and everyone at the table. We don't need two hours in order to see another person. If we are really settled within ourselves, we only need to look for one or two seconds, and that is enough to see our friend. I think that if a family has five members, only about five to ten seconds is needed to practice this "looking and seeing." After breathing, we smile. Sitting at the table with other people, we have a chance to offer an authentic smile of friendship and understanding. It is very easy, but not many people do it. We look at each person and smile at him or her. Breathing and smiling together are very important practices. If the people in a family cannot look each other in the eyes and smile at each other, the situation is a very dangerous one. After breathing and smiling, we look down at the food in a way that allows the food to become real. This food reveals our connection with the Earth. Each bite contains the life of the sun and the Earth. The extent to which our foods reveals itself depends on us. We can see and taste the whole universe in a piece of bread! Contemplating our food for a few seconds before eating and eating in mindfulness, can bring us much happiness. Having the opportunity to sit with our family and friends and enjoy wonderful food is something precious, something not everyone has. Many people in the world are hungry. When I hold a bowl of rice or a piece of bread, I know that I am fortunate, and I feel compassion for all those who have no food to eat and are without friends or family. This is a very deep practice. We do not need to go to a church or temple [or masjid] in order to practice this. We can practice it right at our dinner table. Mindful eating can cultivate seeds of compassion and understanding that will strengthen us to do something to help hungry and lonely people be nourished. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh There are many forms of hunger. There is the hunger for food, there is the hunger for love, for purpose, for truth. There is the hunger for health, for happiness. There is the hunger for companionship, for inner peace, for the sense that we belong. There is the hunger for laughter, and there is the hunger for God. The hunger that lives in the human heart is part of the kinship that threads us all together. We are interdependent beings with a profound need both to give and to receive from each other. For what one of us is lacking, another has in abundance, whether that be a bowl of rice, a skill, a wisdom, a capacity for joy, a knowledge, or a courageous heart. Our urges and our gifts, our longings and our offerings, are all needed and are all indispensable. If we are touched by the images of men, women, and children that we have seen starving for food, it is because they are a reflection of our own need. They are a reminder not only of that part of us that is hungry, but also of that part of us that needs to give in order to be whole. "The way you help to heal the world is you start with your own family." ~ Mother Teresa Beautiful God, Beautiful Earth. Show us how to help. Make us strong so that we can bring more love into the world. Make us strong so that we can bring more peace into the world. Thank you for this food. Beautiful God, Beautiful Earth. RawMahdiyah "To a man with an empty stomach, food is God" ~Mahatma Gandhi October 22 The Story of Khizr
October 15 Surat at-Tawbah, 9:112.Dhikr:
fa-in tawallaw, fa-qul hasbiya-llahu la ilaha illa huwa `alayhi tawakkaltu wa huwa rabbu-l-`arshi-l-`azim "And if they turn their backs on you, then say Allah is my sufficiency -- there is no god but he On him do I relie completely and he is the lord of the mighty throne" In the Jerrahi wird (which is what one could also call a hizb or portion of recitation), lines 2 & 3 of that aya are repeated 7 times
 October 02 INSIGHT FROM ELECTRICITY ~ MA'WARRIOR"Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. "Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints...." Ephesians 6:10-18 TONIGHT I LAY WITH RUMIWE CAN SEE THE TRUTH IN YOUR EYES
For ages you have come and gone courting this delusion. For ages you have run from the pain and forfeited the ecstasy. So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. Although you appear in earthly form Your essence is pure Consciousness. You are the fearless guardian of Divine Light. So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. When you lose all sense of self the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish. Lose yourself completely, Return to the root of the root of your own soul. You descended from Adam, by the pure Word of God, but you turned your sight to the empty show of this world. Alas, how can you be satisfied with so little? So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. Why are you so enchanted by this world when a mine of gold lies within you? Open your eyes and come --- Return to the root of the root of your own soul. You were born from the rays of God's Majesty when the stars were in their perfect place. How long will you suffer from the blows of a nonexistent hand? So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. You are a ruby encased in granite. How long will you decieve Us with this outer show? O friend, We can see the truth in your eyes! So come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. After one moment with that glorious Friend you became loving, radiant, and ecstatic. Your eyes were sweet and full of fire. Come, return to the root of the root of your own soul. Shams-e Tabriz, the King of the Tavern has handed you an eternal cup, And God in all His glory is pouring the wine. So come! Drink! Return to the root of the root of your own soul. Soul of all souls, life of all life - you are That. Seen and unseen, moving and unmoving - you are That. The road that leads to the City is endless; Go without head and feet and you'll already be there. What else could you be? - you are That.           WOOD FOR HIS FIRE If you don't have the Beloved why aren't you looking for Him? If you have the Beloved why aren't you rejoicing? If the Friend is truly your friend Why not stay with Him? If the rebec does not wail, Why not teach it how to sing? If someone bars you from the truth, Why not fight him and his brother as well? You sit quietly and say to yourself, "Something strange is going on." The only thing strange is that your best friend is a stranger. You are the Sun of the world - Why is your heart so black? Why do you fall back on your drab and stagnant ways? Don't stay melted like gold in a furnace - BEcome a piece of jewelry! The treasure of Unity is found by those who look within. Why not join your spirit to the one who sits inside your heart? Did Majnun ever love two Laylas? Why seek more than one face and one cheek? There is such a glorious moon hiding in the shadows of your being. Why not make it rise with the power of a midnight prayer? You have danced in the tavern for ages, Love's wine never slips from your hand, Yet with each new sip your soul is ravished like never before. The wine I drink is the fire of love And God Himself pours it into my mouth! What use is your life If your bones are not used as wood for His fire? I'll leave you with that. I could go on, I could fill pages with these elegant verses But this is a tale for the heart and soul, not the lips. September 28 Rise Up Against the Empire
Ramadhan Mubarak!!Some thoughts as I step into this Holy Month
*The spirit has designed this threefold vehicle (physical, mental, emotional) during the preconception days so that it would be perfect to experience the lessons on this planet. The vehicle has been severely altered by the earthly social environment due to ignorance of our true nature. Existing in what seemed to be a threatening environment, to insure the survival of our manifestations, the ego has been recreated to be concerned of one's individual being instead of realizing that one's physical existence is dependent on unified action of All for All. For there is only one being. The most grounding, spiritually devastating experience that ego toys with are those of our three lower chakras of power, sex, and food. Drainage of energy in these centers prevents the ascension of energy to the heart or love center! 911 Cover Up / videoPlease watch....dont say you were never told/ the truth is right infront of your eyes
blessings and peace*
September 15 The Other Isreal / VideoCompiled after 15 months' filming and editing, this fast-moving, professional video documentary will give you a unique education on the ... all » inner teachings of Judaism and the talmud. Through the television camera "The Other Israel" takes you where few Christian scholars have gone before. http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-6657600254881054584&hl=en-GB August 29 Boosting BasicsLearned from tww. sessionz
*786*
Clear your personal space - Imagine a grounding cord from your tailbone down to the center of the Earth. Send all energy that is not yours down the cord into the Earth. Then fill your space with your own golden energy. You can also cleanse your aura space by standing and invisioning a drain at your feet. Remove the plug (like in a shower) and visualize purple/golden light etc. (colors of the higher chakras) coming down from The Most High and swirling around you, washing you clean, and flowing down through the drain into the ground/earth. Do this as much as you want. See and feel the Loving light-energy flowing down around you cleaning you of any extra debris. Then place the plug back into the drain to close it up....and again visualize this light-energy coming down and surround you in overflowing abundance of love and purity, protecting you and strengthening your space as it fills up around your feet.
Focus on your heart - Get familiar with the chakra system if you aren't already. Your heart, or 4th, chakra is located on your breastbone a little above nipple level in the center of your chest. This is where you will send energy from!!! Focus on someone you love - Get a feeling of divine love going in your heart perhaps by focusing on God, The Spiritual Guiders, a loved one, whether it's a family member, child, friend or pet. Send the energy - Once you feel that feeling of love in your heart area, visualize it as an energy stream and imagine it flowing from your heart chakra to your intended target. Heart chakra energy is green, orgone energy is blue. Either color is appropriate. Be neutral - Send unconditional love energy. This means you are not vengeful, angry, intending hurt, intending pain, etc. Righteous anger is acceptable because it's of a higher spiritual order. You are allowed to defend yourself. Hint: If you are having trouble visualizing the energy flowing out of your heart chakra, imagine there is a fire hydrant there and one of the caps has been opened. The water in a hydrant sprays out without effort since it is under pressure. Imagine the energy in your heart spraying out in that manner, with no effort. Sending Your Energy can be pretty draining physically. When I boost, I think “up”, directing my attention and thoughts upwards. While I am there, I gather the energy from Allah The Omnipresent "Universe", directing it to my heart and from there (with passion) further to where I intend to send it. Usually I breath deeply, thinking “love” when I send the energy. On the outer breath I feel my heart tingling and this is a confirmation that my boosting works or/and that I am doing it properly. Boosting You and Your Boostings! August 28 Health is Justicesolution and simplicity are many times synonymous - on this important issue
our eyesight is stroboscopic at 60 cycles per second - because of the lags in apprehension few are aware of the between-takes intervals - most do not sensingly realize that the nothingness is concentrically permeating the concentrically waved recurrent somethingnesses the world we see and feel is the visible world - governed by yin-yang antagonism and complimentarity - which is born of the invisible world...... in other words - the visible, material world is a denser part - and the invisible, spiritual world a more dispersed part - of the infinite universe...... the governing law of this all-encompassing world is the order of the universe - another name is justice...... realizing justice is the most important condition for being healthy and happy - when justice is forgotten, morals, law enforcement, medicine, etc., develop...... many philosophers have echoed this sentiment - indeed - if men follow the order of the universe there is no need to impose such boundaries in the form of rules because situations requiring them do not arise
knowledge = good August 25 REMEMBER THIS!lOUIS pASTEUR AND cLAUDE bERNARD, tWO oF tHE gIANTS oF nINETEENTH-cENTURY bIOLOGY, aRGUED aLL tHEIR lIVES wHETHER tHE mOST iMPORTANT fACTOR iN dISEASE wAS THE "SOIL" ---- ie. tHE hUMAN bODY ---- OR tHE gERM. oN hIS dEATHBED, pASTEUR aDMITTED tHAT bERNARD hAD bEEN rIGHT, dECLARING, "iT IS tHE sOIL." August 21 to welcome the king of kings786
Kingship before Kinship is the perfect projection for personal potency. Each Sovereign Being is effective in the Upper, Middle and Lower Kingdoms in the new world. Each new beginning, begins with a "Big Bang" or explosion. "The Central Sun" or Light Source is the Fixed Universal Reference Point around which all dimensions, mythical and physical, orbit. This "Fountain of Life" scatters droplets of liquid light to nourish all sentient life forms. It is to this Source to which all life essence returns. This Life-Source is also called "The Tree of Life." It is guarded by all higher life forces in the Universe, in a hierarchal order of responsibility and relationship. Life is a game of virtual reality and EVERYONE is a player in the game with THE MASTER GAMEPLAYER. In every gambit we win or loose the game of higher consciousness. There are nine strings of parallel dimensions, like the nine ascending stations of an Aztec pyramid. The living beating human heart is the only thing with which we have to play life's game. There are no other stakes; there is no other game. All other "loves" must go. For it is written "Thou shalt have no other Love before Me..." and rightly so. Some people are light years ahead of others in terms of consciousness, depending on their orbital position around the All-Seeing Eye of the "Central Sun." Particles of psychic energy are in constant motion which leaves room for multi dimensional activity in the same visible space. In contrast to "God The Beautiful Lover" there is the opposite pole of cosmic consciousness, "The Beast". Metaphorically speaking, human skeletons are what forms the "coral reef" which rises out of "the sea of humanity" to become the firmament of the "Upper World", home of a more evolved earth specie, so to speak. The human child is born helpless. Its silent plea is "Please punch in the right directional codes Mama-Dada." Correct code-punching in infancy is what enables each grown person to make his/her own unique "worm hole" by which to make the passage from the outer to the inner worlds. It is like a single "Cosmic Egg" hatching millions of little worms. During the hatching process we learn to interact with other time continuums. Truth is the fulcrum of the Cosmic Changeover. Each ascending level of consciousness has a "Bar-Code Guardian of Honesty" at the gate. Access to interdimensional travel is based on receiving a stamp of approval from the "Guardian Gods of Truth." "Boarding Passes" into the Upper Kingdom are not gained by intellectual effort or by following the natural instincts of the "Wolf pack hierarchy" but by the intelligence of the heart. This is how the New Earth Era Pyramid is built from the top down by orbiting rings of energy. This is the reverse polarity to the material world where pyramids are built from the bottom up. We were required to play both ends againsts the middle. Mass communication systems speed up biotronic evolution. It enables the sluggish simian thought process to handle an ever increasing flood of transitional data, replulsive and attractive, to pass at ever increasing speeds through the global brain. This is the "Red Queen Hypothesis" first explained by Lewis Carrol in "Alice in Wonderland" as "Faster, faster little feet..." A whole series of "Time bombs" which compose a tachyon flash of light, causes mind implosion as we stop entertaining the temporal lie and welcome infinite truth. The initial shock makes one recoil in horror, immediately prior to the implosion. The Embryonic Man is raised in a Luciferin World. This world is foreshadowed by the promise that a saviour from the sky, whose kingdom is not of this world, comes on the final day to raise man up, out of the House of Bondage to his own world, "The Kingdom of Heaven". In the meantime man is torn between ego chemistry and a Superego coding of work ethics, staying on the construction track, and keeping the spirit healthy by avoiding such traps as the "lusts of the flesh." Greed, licentiousness, covetousness, killing, stealing, giving false witness, and failing to support the mutual benefit system of loving our neighbours as ourselves, are deadly follies. Across the ages, the temptations of the flesh were primarily the privilege of the ruling classes. The common man was taught to avoid questioning, seeing, hearing, or speaking of the strange phenomena of the power that seems to accompany those who subscribe to the darker forces of life, commonly known as "EVIL." In this way the "spiritual hymen" of the critical mass remained unbroken in the "Virginal" mind. "Snow White" is portrayed as downright naive until a kiss from the Prince of Light, (or is it the Prince of Darkness) dislodges the piece of "poisoned apple", the undigested core of the "Golden Apple of The Gods" and wakes her up with a kiss. The "Wedding Feast" is the "strong meat of God." We first recoil in horror as we get to use the Iris of the All-Seeing Eye. Men go about their business and their vanities seemingly unaware that the "Titanic" has already hit the iceberg and is sinking fast. The foreshadowing of this event was when the unsinkable ship, the Archetypal Titanic, indicated that people would be dancing, and feasting on ships' deck, quite unaware of imminent danger ahead beneath the sea-surface. The much toted illusion that forbidden fruit is sweeter, vanishes, in seeing, speaking of, hearing, and tasting the bitter-bitter FRUIT OF EVIL. This stems from the rebellion, not on Earth, but in Heaven. This is The Fathers way of helping His adolescent human children grow up. "Give a child a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a child to fish and you feed him for always" is the slogan. In this way a Whole Earth Army of Light emerges at POLESHIFT OMEGA. Each balanced Yin-Yang Unit is a mental extension of the SINGULAR ONE. For each is a completed thought in One Divine Mind. Its where the black and white angels' wingtips meet over the top of the Ark of The Covenant. Man feeds his "gods" by his worship-power. Once we stop feeding them, the "Monster Gods" stop growing. These are the "Beasts at the foot of the Throne" now tearing the fabric of the old world. "Shattered, as I was shattered of My Father." Then it is finished. Divine Love, the opposite pole of the destroyer, makes us whole again as the particle meets its antiparticle in mutual annihilation to end the timewarp. POWER=WORSHIP is a Physics Equation, not a philosophical nicety. Which is why the Original Creator made the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me." KILL ALL OTHER GODS in a grand explosion of spiritual energy. We begin by asking, "Where are our real centres of worship? What is the true focus of our energetic devotion? Who are our "other Gods" and what kind of world do they teach us to believe in?" The $Money$ God is never satisfied with its tribute. The Porno God can never get enough of mans attention. High technology is aimed at producing fission rather than fusion, especially in the very latest video killing-games. No wonder humanity is in such a mess. Whoever you are, whatever your skills, age or occupation, you will find that you have been designed for a unique and special role in the final battle. The New Jerusalem is a masterpiece of engineering. It sits on a Sea of Ice. Heat has become Light at E=mc4. It represents the completion of the Cosmic Lovers' story told in matter. It was told very well in certain animated cartoons. FATE IS KIND. She brings to those who Love, the sweet fulfilment of their secret longings. This is true. If you wish upon a star your dreams will come true. The MOTHERSHIP CREW is now in a position to handle emigrants from "The Cave" and move them up into their rightful place in the Kingdom of Heaven. Each Knight and Lady can locate his/her cosmic position by drawing a six pointed star composed of two equilateral triangles; such as the Star of David or the Star of Bethlehem. Mark the points of the descending triangle with the male attributes of Deity = POWER MAJESTY WISDOM. Mark the three points of the ascending triangle with the feminine attributes of Deity = LOVE JUSTICE MERCY. Centre your mindspace in this mandala of this central Cosmic Eye, and revolve this eye around the starry heavens in every direction. This is what we call the IRIS CONNECTION with Almighty God. Now pass through the centre of this iris, or "Needles Eye" into the Throne Room of the KING OF KINGS. Place your shewbread on the altar, to receive your Crown of Life...... 4everAmeen! -m. August 15 What do I mean by love...It's always a challenging isssue for me when I am asked to define love. It's like asking me to describe something as spectacular as God, or the universe, or life-force energy. How does one go about breaking such an abstract concept into scientific (based on senses) explanation and words? Most of my innate understanding and "so-called" experiential observations with love comes from such insight as the ways of the prophets (p.b.u.t), through many mentors and teachers (the first of which I was 'IN love' with), the studies of Carl Jung and such, the great poet Rumi (my lover), and recently Kabir Helminski's book The Knowing Heart.
So much of what occupies our (the people of the worlds) attention is a fiction, and through these fictions we live a life of delusion, of seperation, of selfishness, of loneliness. Behind our sadness and anxiety is a simple lack of love, which translates into a lack of meaning and purpose of Being in this universe. Unless we look with the eyes of love, we cannot see things as they are. We have searched for love in all the wrong places: in building ourselves up, in making ourselves more special, more perfect, more powerful. Love's substitutes are driving the world. Perhaps we strive after anything but love, because love is so close that we overlook it. One of the most painful experiences for any person is recognizing that most humans take themselves as the exclusive goal and center of their thoughts, feelings, and activities. For most people, even "love" is primarily a form of desire, preference, or obsession; love, in other words, has been confused with self gratification. It doesn't matter what we have accomplished, what recognition we have recieved, what we own; there is nothing as pleasant as loving - not necessarily being loved, just loving. The more we love - the more people, the manifestations of life we love - the "richer" we are. Nothing is more beautiful or more sacred than the impulse of love we feel for a friend, a child, a parent, a partner. Nothing would be sweeter than to be able to love everywhere and always. Rumi has said: "Whatever I have said about love, when love comes, I am ashamed to speak." Yet, at the same time I think, if Love is the essential power within and behind this universe and our inner life, no subject had greater precedence. Love is such an extraordinary and complex power, and the human being has such great capacity for love, that to dismiss it however as an unknowable mystery, is like standing in awe before a fire and saying we dont know what this is, how it started, or what to do with it. Love is both mystery and knowledge. Furthermore, I find it is a mystery that has spoken to us about itself in the form of those revelations that have profoundly altered the course and quality of human history. The lives an teachings of Buddha, David, Jesus, Mohammed (p.b.u.t. and many more....) have influenced and transformed so many billions of people in the world because they are essentially teaching of love. To me this whole universe is an expression of Love. Since we live in an ocean of Love, because it is so near to us, we sometimes need to be shocked or hurt, or experience some loss in order to be aware of the nearness and importance of love. I am reminded of a story about a little fish that was told that without water it could not live, and it became very afraid. It swam to its mother and, trembling, told her about the need for water. The mother said, "Water, my darling, is what we're swimming in." I believe that every being and thing is set in motion by Love. The planets revolve around the sun, and the sun radiates its energy to the planets. Every species has its own form of love, or desire that motivates it. Every human being has its own unique form of love through which it approaches life. I guess everything is seeking union with the object of its desire and all of these desires are the derivatives of one Love. For example yesterday morning I wanted some tea and fresh bread. Later I had a hunger for some salad. In the evening I had stir-fried vegetables over wild-rice. The motivation behind all of these was hunger of the body. In the same way, Love is the motivation behind every yearning. The experience and awareness of love is the most fulfilling and important experience we can all have, the highest of all values. In conclusion, I figure that we can't compare love to anything. It has its own meaning and its own criteria. Kabir Helminski wrote: "Love is seeking us. Love brough us here, whether we know it or not. Love nudges us to make plans, to seek relationships, to create the possibility of a meeting of hearts. It put the pen to the paper; it puts a word on the tongue. Love is not the goal of anything; it is the cause of everything." SubMission.
Emptiness
& yet
Everything.
Everything.
2 much love. -m. August 14 A wORLD wITHOUT Zionism = PEACE The loud little handful will shout for war. The pulpit will warily and cautiously protest at first The great mass of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes, and will try to make out why there should be a war, and they will say earnestly and indignantly: It is unjust and dishonorable and there is no need for war. Then the few will shout even louder Before long you will see a curious thing: anti-war speakers will be stoned from the platform, and free speech will be strangled by hordes of furious men who still agree with the speakers but dare not admit it...Next, statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception. Mark Twain Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder! Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings! Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction! Helen Keller LOVE is the LAWalways ends up right where it began - creation is a movement - creativity is that which moves it......... history repeats itself - while creativity continues its course of constant reinvention - affirmation - xploration - moving while standing still - standing fast - standing up in the sun as a strait spined smiling clear signal - a healthy cell in heavy circulation - like the best music u ever heard like the best moment u can conceive / achieve / believe is before u 2 breathe in and be........ when it all comes right down 2 it - every1s going 2 have 2 just relax, make balance, chill out, reflect, get healthy, be honest, communicate, clear their mind, clear their channels, respect each other, L.O.V.E. unconditionally and really come 2 grips with what that means in practice not theory... its always too late for never....... no xcuses no delay..... do it 2day... drop vanity gain sanity......... b vain go insane... as the story goes - its a free-will cheap thrill quarantined space - until 1 comes 2 know that we're all saved by grace - the grace of god ............. the source of all sustenance - that springs from within........ the higher - the heaven - the one love - the spin.....
I'm .......bAcK!!!My dear friends...I'm back from my road trip from Western USA. and hope that everyone has had a wonderful summer thus far.
 nothing and nobody can take away the wonderful gifts and blessings of this world that Allah has given us...the life. the nature. the truth to the abundance of love and light. i have seen many people and many places....and have dove deep into the world of tent living and the testing patience of my families differences ( yes yes)...but it is true... we are all one. many leaves on a tree. there is no "country"... no boundry line. one state to the next and on and on....we learn. we grow. we strive to understand. who and what we are. souls. i contemplated pressure, atmosphere, the solid states, crumbling physics, diversions, recursions of atmosphere studied the timepeace and the uproar of tidal immortality breaking into mortal assurances acquiesce the nothing to finality become it forge a new way of breathing watched all the mountains of my planet disintegrate , giving way to elemental stairways leading upward , dust , rock ancient future sediment . that came from the beginning of this eternal science making a path thru the physicality into plateaus of perfect division and reorganization i was gathering there on the edge of the vision before it emerged, on the sandy and mild green plain becoming a cliff , looking out into mountainous heights , ranges of uprise inside the unfolding world of all birds soared as messengers to the ionization and altitude , from this gravity upward . . . here on this edge , with my family united , in gentle , humble true beginnings , i began to listen to the moment start , to repeat forever again and again... A Native-American Eagle Poem I Bring Back From This Journey To Share~ To pray you open Your whole self. To sky, to earth, to Sun, to moon To one whole voice That is you. And know there is More That you can't see, Can't hear, Can't know except In moments. Steadily growing, & In languages That aren't always Sound but other Circles of motion Like eagle that Morning Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky In wind, swept our Hearts clean With sacred wings. We see you, see Ourselves & know That we must Take the utmost Care & Kindness in all things. Breath in, knowing We are made of All this, and breathe, Knowing We are truly Blessed because We Were born, & die Soon within a True circle of Motion, Like eagle rounding Out the morning Inside us. We pray that it Will be done In beauty. In beauty.  July 28 THE SYMPTOMS OF INNER PEACESome signs and symptoms of inner peace: A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences. An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment. A loss of interest in judging other people. A loss of interest in judging self. A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others. A loss of interest in conflict. A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.) Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation. Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature. Frequent attacks of smiling. An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen. An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it. ThoughtsWhileOutIntheMiddleofWesternUSA July 06 such a pleasant surprise to meet again with you....Dear: #1 ZEE, Dania aka Shababy, Amanda V, MINA, Beautiful Ottawa Group........
Every person that passes through our lives makes a contribution to our life stories. There are those who play large roles and make deep impressions, but sometimes a brief special appearance before life takes them in another direction creates a meaningful connection. It is a rare gift when they suddenly reappear in our lives after a long absence. Though the world may seem full of more people than we could ever know, we are often drawn to people with similar energy, which brings us together time and time again. On first meeting, the characters in our life stories may seem familiar. We may know each other from past lives or perhaps we merely recognize the energy of a kindred spirit. But when fate brings old friends back into our lives, there is always a reason. They may act as messengers, reminding us of a part of ourselves we have forgotten to nurture. They might appear to give us a chance to react in a new way to an old situation. They may even bring up unresolved issues so that we may complete them, giving us the chance to move forward on our life path. Whether old friends, previous romances, or once and future partners, their reappearance is more than mere chance. They may never know what they bring into our lives, but the renewed contact is a gift. If this hasn't happened to you, maybe you are meant to initiate contact by seeking out old friends. If old friends come to mind or into your dreams, use their appearance as an excuse to get in touch. If an old song or movie reminds you of them, reach out to share the gift of renewed contact. Wherever you fall in the circle of connection and reconnection, be sure to look beyond the surprise of the moment to enjoy the deeper gift that this revelation brings. June 08 Dont Follow the Herd, Just because the Traffic is Flowing
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities.
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