By the Book

There was once a man who was chosen by God. Chosen to receive a message, and given the mission to transmit this message. The first word that Allah revealed to the holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his progeny) was IQRA. A word that carries multiple meanings. However, the 2 commonly cited meanings are to "read" or to "recite". God states further that He has taught man, using words/books, taught man what he knew not...

So, books, language and speech come from God.

These words that you are reading, originate from God. Now, a discerning person will of course state that everything does come from God, everything has it's origins in God. I wonder though... if these words come from God, if everything comes from God, and everything will return to God and in fact, nothing is ever separate from God...

Then did I play any part in writing this?

Of course I did, that's the true paradox here and it is a paradox that has been created by us. If I did not play a role in writing this page, then I am exempt from blame for any errors made on it. That is a tempting thought isn't it? Whatever you do, you are truly blameless. You cannot be held accountable for doing anything

That's also incredibly dangerous, but isn't it true?

No, it isn't. It cannot be.

I was playing a video game, where everything is made as realistically as possible, an entire world, created so that one can live within it. The only thing was that characters are driven to make unethical choices in order to progress quickly. If you live within your current ethical guidelines, you'll be stuck and won't truly get to enjoy the many pleasures of the world... and your reward? Absolutely none.

If our world played the same way, I may agree that we truly are not accountable.

However, it doesn't. Those who cheat do wind up ahead many times, those who make unethical choices do gain more toys it seems at times. However, the opposite is also true. Living a good, ethical life carries so many rewards. Living a life filled with goodness, doing good for others, living for others and serving others brings so much joy and happiness.

If there was truly no accountability for our actions, there would also be no rewards for them. Being good to others would not bring joy. Service for the weak would not elevate some deep, innate part of the self. Waking up at 3 in the morning to meditate would not benefit the self and would only steal precious hours of sleep.

We are given rewards while we live on this world, so that we become aware of some of the proofs of God's existence. It can be argued that these bits of joy, happiness are actually from our evolutionary history where altruism and working for the good of the community was encouraged to further survival... and this is likely true, but doesn't it seem like an awfully convenient situation?

I don't really believe in coincidences, I choose instead to believe in a benevolent, invisible, all-powerful force that guides and nurtures everything that is good within me and within others.

After all is said and done, I think I'll go by the book on this one.

The pursuit of happiness

I read a spiritual story with it's roots in the sufi tradition recently. It really made me think.

In this story a man finds a garden with Hazrat Khidr, a mystical figure in the Qu'ran. Hazrat Khidr shows him two groups of people, one that's unhappy, the other is happy. The unhappy group say the typical thing - we followed falsehoods in our lives and that's why we are unhappy... but the eye-opening part was what the happy people said.

The happy group in this story said that they were happy because they pursued happiness in their lives, and that's what they received... They were good to others because it made them happy, they were kind because it made them happy, they didn't cheat, didn't deceive... and so they were happy... however...

They said that they didn't have "the truth"... they had happiness, but that was all. If one pursues happiness, that is what one finds, but it is ALL that one finds. Rather, one who searches for the truth can be anything they want to be.

In this way, happiness is also a part of the illusion, just as sadness, anger, pain are all a part of the illusion of this world.

The story is accurate in a lot of ways, and I never really thought about the trap that happiness can be. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience... that's what I believe life is, the physical experience of a spiritual entity. Over the course of this physical experience we change, we experience emotions, feelings, thoughts, interactions and other phenomena, of which happiness is just one.

Many of us make happiness our goal in life, and there is nothing wrong with that... but it does limit your potential. Rather if we make acquisition of the truth of the universe, of the self, of God our true goal in life, our potential becomes limitless. Emotions will mean nothing as we will be happy and sad at the same time, and not at all.

The main character in the above story, upon hearing of the plight of the happy and unhappy groups, decided that he wanted to seek out the truth... and when Hazrat Khidr heard this he left the protagonist, because he had found the truth... or at least had begun the journey.

I pray that someday I will be able to look past the veils of illusion that hide the truth. Happiness, sadness, despair, peace. All of these are important to human life, but hide the truth.

The one question I would have would be this. Is the best path to the truth to travel through the emotional montage that hides it, or is the best way to skirt around?
Is it best to insulate oneself from all emotions and live life seeking, or is it best to experience love, happiness, sadness, despair to the fullest that they can be experienced, and through this experience find the truth within?

Both will work, but which one is the best?

Searching for the True Self

What are you searching for?

Everyone looks for something in their lives. Whether we go on a perpetual quest for love (the REAL kind, you know in the movies?!), for money, for spiritual satisfaction. Whether we are looking to find ourselves, a purpose, a job, a meal, a life. Everyone's always looking, searching and occasionally, if we're lucky - finding. What do we look for, and why?

A Persian Poet named Hafiz speaks of search in his poetry. Throughout his life he was searching for his beloved - God. In his poetry, Hafiz refers to the world and things in the world as reflections of God, kind of like how the moon reflects the light of the Sun. The Moon is incredibly beautiful, but the reason we see beauty in the moon is because of the Sun. In this way, things in the world are a reflection of the divine.

Looking at it from this perspective, we are searching in the material world, but we search for reflections of the spiritual. When we look at beauty in another human being, we are seeing a reflection of the beauty that is God. When we feel love for another, we are feeling a shadow of the love that is God. When we search for happiness, we often find only a reflection of true happiness. That's a bit sad to think of. The reason we will only find reflections and shadows is because our mind and sense of consciousness work together to enable us to interact with the world. This means that the mind uses consciousness as a medium with which to interact - it acts as the intermediary between the exoteric and the esoteric. So the flaw is in the medium... the mind is an esoteric entity, but the conscious mind is one that is forever trapped in the exoteric. Finding the truth is a true challenge, but hey, as I've said for many years, "How can you ever find yourself if you don't get lost?"

Best of luck in the search