Thinking about how we can make this corona virus work for us rather than against us.It could potentially shift our lifestyle! Whatever happened to “Small is Beautiful” by Schumacher?We don’t hear about it much as the multinationals do their best to poison our minds with their self-interested propaganda.Consider the following manouvres of “social distancing”
:have your clothes made by a tailor or seamstress instead of buying mass-produced cheapos from China(I already do that for my shirts,pants and vests!) We could employ many,many people on a small-scale in that effort
:buy your furniture from a proper cabinet-maker instead of buying that junk from Ikea
:buy your food(vegetables,milk,meat and eggs)from small-scale local farmers especially those who refuse to use pesticides and GMOs.Boycott the large agro-businesses as much as possible
: close the schools permanently and bring back the absolutely best form of education-The Master/Apprentice relationship( my best educational experiences were in psychiatry with a very small group(sometimes a group of one) and an experienced practitioner.I then went on to do the same as a teacher
;Socialize in very small groups no more than 4 or 5.the discussions tend to be much deeper than when you are in a “party” scene
:return to handicraft production whenever possible including making pottery for dishes and bowls and cups and even homes can be built that way by small groups instead of using massive construction equipment.
The possibilities are endless if you start thinking about it.
Small intentional communities would be a perfect place to apply some of these ideas.I know this will involve an incredible shift but actually it’s the only way we are going to survive!Otherwise the multi-nationals, with the complicity of our governments will, manipulatively and ignorantly, inevitably destroy life on the planet.
All posts by jebrahim2@gmail.com
Why Experience is Not Enough
Why Experience is Not Enough
I left the New Age movement over 40 years ago-for numerous reasons that I cannot expand upon fully on this occasion. But one of the reasons was a whole host of beliefs, the New Age credo if you like. In this article, I will address one of those fundamental beliefs and the reasons it is wrong. That belief is the following:” That the only thing we can really trust on the spiritual path is our own, individual experience.” That is a deeply flawed conviction and here is why.
1)We need the experience of others- specifically those of the Prophets, saints and real masters. How could we practice Islam and even Sufism without the experience of Mohammed saws? Without the Quran, which he transmitted for us, and without his hadith and dua we would be nowhere. How can one practice Christianity without the New Testament and the Old Testament and the sayings of Jesus a.s. The monks and ascetics and mystics of Christianity would have no basis for their practice without that.The same, of course, is true for Judaism and Buddhism and Vedantic Hinduism.
Do New Age people really believe that they can have the experience of the Quran being revealed to them personally or of being crucified as the Christians believe happened to Jesus?! Anyone trying to climb Mount Sinai for a second edition of the Tablets lol?I hope not or we may be more in the domain of psychosis than that of false beliefs lol. As individuals, we cannot possibly have all the experiences needed to follow a complete spiritual path. Therefore it is necessary, first of all, that we take account of the experience of other people who are higher in spiritual status than we will ever be!
2) Experience is subject to misinterpretation.
One of the most common misinterpretations is to confuse Phenomenology (personal experience) with Ontology(Actual Existence).Sorry for the Latin words but they do circumscribe the problem better than anything I could find in English or French lol.
In Sufi history we have the iconic story of Mansur al-Hallaj running around the marketplace of Baghdad shouting; ”I am the Truth”. Despite the exhortations of his master Junayd al-Baghdadi, he kept insisting until the governor of the state ordered his execution. In Sufi terms, we would say he was experiencing a ‘hal’.When we do so we are often best advised to remain silent! In the contemporary Western World we have the al-Hallaj equivalents in the neo-Advaita Vedantists preaching unicity “non-dual reality” to their followers. ”There is Only One Reality” they claim. All of this world and all of its creatures and inhabitants are illusions. Robert Adams, a student of Ramana Maharshi and one of the most articulate exponents of this theology puts it this way: ”Principle Number One: The realization that everything you see, the universe, people, worms, insects, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, your body, your mind, everything that appears is a manifestation of your mind”. I don’t believe he is making this up. It is clearly an experience. But it is fundamentally wrong! The Creation, too, is real1 It does not have the quality of independent Existence as it comes from a series of causes(asbab) of which the Original Causer is Allah (God). But it is Real nevertheless! And, intuitively, we all know that. Thinking it is not so can lead to all kinds of misjudgments and misbehaviours as we will highlight shortly.
Another common misinterpretation, especially in the Indian religions, is that if you have the experience of God (Nirvana if you wish) then you are God and then everything you do after that is perfect! We can only begin to imagine the corruption that can come from such a misinterpretation of experience. I like to tell the iconic story of a Sufi friend of mine (a true story btw!) who bought a used car from a follower of a well-known guru in upstate New York. Yes, the stories of used car salesmen are a stereotype going back to the famous cartoon of Richard Nixon with his “six-o’clock shadow beard saying:” Would you buy a used car from this man? ”Many commentators believe he lost the election because of that cartoon!
My story here involves, however, two relatively poor spiritual aspirants-one a Sufi and the other a follower of Shaiva Hinduism. The Hindu follower when confronted with all the defects in his used car said: ”But brother, the God in me sold the God in you this car. How could there be anything wrong with this deal?!” Really!
Now, admittedly the excuses are not always as lame as that. But how about the spiritual teacher sleeping with one of his female students saying that he is transmitting Grace to her or that it is a Tantric practice. Or that this is a means for her spiritual evolution. Yes,I have seen it all-not literally “in the flesh” so to speak lol but through credible witnesses. And then there is the always the very popular Buddhist group who being confronted with the misbehaviour of their teacher called it” Crazy Wisdom”?! Not crazy, corrupt and immoral I would say. Much of these kinds of behaviour come from misinterpretation of spiritual experience. Almost all these teachers have had some serious experience of the Divine. All of them misinterpreted it!
3) The spiritual path requires both Faith (Iman) and Trust in God (Tawakkul). Both of those are feelings -subtle ones- in the heart. But they are not experiences. You don’t have visions of Faith and Trust! You feel them. They come from good actions and Grace. They don’t come from proper meditation techniques or Yoga exercises.
4) The need for a Multi-Dimensional approach. I like to use the analogy of a competent judge -using all the information available in order to apprehend reality. I noticed in my practice, that in a counterintuitive manner, judges were more able to apprehend the comprehensive reality that was before them when patients were arguing for their insurance rights. Strangely the judges “got it” better than the specialist doctors. Why was that? Because the specialists were stuck in their so-called “scientific paradigm”. The only source of Truth for them was the peer-review journals and the scientific conferences they attended most of whose content issued from those journals. The judges however were able to listen to the witnesses, consider their “subjective” reports and even assess their honesty. They regularly understood the medical aspects better than the doctors.
One brief anecdote here that may be instructive. I had a client many years ago that was off work for a Major Depression(all too common in the modern world).The employer argued that my client was malingering and they had hired private detectives to follow him and film his daily activities(Yes, this is happening on a regular basis in our societies!).The medical specialists argued to the judge that psychiatric science proves that a person with A Major Depression cannot be so active. The judge looked at me and said “What do you say to that,Dr.Kreps?”I looked her straight in the eyes and said:”Mde. Judge. I worked for a while in a Day Hospital with Chronic Schizophrenics. Many of them were just as active if not more so than my client!” Thank you Doctor” she responded. She got it! I knew at that moment we had won the case! And we did!
Admittedly, the spiritual quest is different from psychiatry. But the principle remains the same:” We need a multi-modal approach-not just personal experience. This multi-modal approach should include the following.
: The teaching of the Prophets and masters
:The use of our reason and logic(something I usually don’t like to emphasize because our educational system is so focused on this one element) This can include the study of the history of our religion and its mystical dimensions and that of others so that we can generate the necessary conclusion
: The use of our intuition and our moral sense(conscience) and developing discernment
: the lucid thinking of others
: ‘ayat’-signs on the ground ( banal example .If every-time your teacher comes to town or you go to visit him the weather is horrible, beware(Yes, I have experienced that too .Inevitably a bad sign!)
: feelings in the heart(see my article on Istikhara for further elucidation)
: being aware of the constant receiving of spiritual transmissions– positive and negative- in our environment
I hope my point is clear by now. ”Experience” is not enough. We need to aim to be Insan al Kamil-the Complete Human Being- not just a sensation-seeking experiencer. Hope that is helpful, Joel Ibrahim Kreps
P.S. I have concluded that generally the safest and most effective way to advance spiritually is to join a well-established tradition(Obviously my preference is for Sufi tariqats) with a legitimate, non-corrupt, alive, contemporary master and follow it to the best of your abilities. The rest is in the hands of God and if you do not see results on this side you will see them in the after-life.
New-Age Preachers
New Age preachers?! They quote Jesus and the Bible;they quote the Quran and hadith;they quote the Buddha and the Vedanta.And then they say:”We have no need for religion”! “Two-timers” they call that when it comes to relationships lol.Make up your minds guys! Bernie or Biden lol
Lying,lying and more lying
Lying,lying ,lying! Why do people focus so much on Trump?! Lying is the M.O. of American society.Just watched an ad from eHarmony.The actors that they choose to represent potential candidates for dating are people that are so attractive they would never need to go on a dating website! They would be surrounded on a daily basis by numerous applicants for the post.More mischief from modern marketing-of which the Americans are the gold medal winners! If we really wanted to rein in lying,we would have to start by serious regulation of the marketing industry! Not going to happen!”it’s the economy,stupid” lol Advice from Sufi Ibrahim:Stay with the Truth except for life-threatening situations.That’s the Sufi way.
Epistemology- from the World of Politics
More Epistemology from the World of Politics: So now we have two highly intelligent men-Mike Pompeo,Secretary of State, and Bill Barr,Attorney General defending falsehood in a clever,thoughtful way! In contradistinction to their boss who defends falsehood in a foolish,braggadocious way.Actually,generally speaking, the former are much more dangerous to our ability to decipher truth than the Trumpian way which is obvious in its egotism and ignorance.Don’t kid yourself!
The contemporary world is full of Pompeos and Barrs and many of them, unlike the former, carry the stamp of approval of “politically correct and progressive”.So beware!We really are in need of an educational system that teaches true discernment.But I don’t see any signs of that happening.Instead our educational system has become another form of indoctrination-mostly in the direction of philosophical materialism and Emipiricism and an excessive reliance on so-called “rationality”. Big,big problem! Way bigger than Trump!
Theocracy reinvented
I think theocracy has, unfairly, been given a bad name.A theocracy(the rule of God) requires a human element that legitimately represents the Divine Will on Earth.That needs to be someone with a high degree of wisdom, a superior level of morality and a deep level of inspiration and insight.Examples of a true theocracy would have been Madina during the time of the Prophet saws and arguably during the time of the Rightly -Guided Successors(the Shia would disagree) or The time of Moses leading his people out of Egypt.What we have now, in Iran for example, is a theologicracy i.e. a regime ruled by sectarian ideas about God-devoid of wisdom and devoid of humanity.That is a most dangerous mix-in fact probably worse than our secular democracies-if that is possible lol.Now demo-cracy is government by the people.When you go out shopping today-to the supermarket or Walmart or wherever,look around at the people there and tell me that’s what you really want lol
Metaphysics and Politics-A Positive Alternative!
If you watch carefully the Democratic nomination process or the Congressional hearings in the U.S, you will see that the politicians have three characteristics,generally
They are clever,articulate and willful( read the hubris of “plans”)This is NOT what we need!
We would be much better served if they were wise and insightful rather than clever; able to listen,especially with ” the ear of Truth”, rather than articulate and lastly Compassionate and receptive rather than willful.This change would represent a real revolution! Plato called this person a ” philosopher- king” but that wasn’t a philosopher like Wittgenstein nor a king like Mohammed Ben Salman lol
Salaams,Ibrahim
Metaphysics and Politics-3
( Watching Mitch McConnell summarizing his position relative to the impeachment of Trump)We should all be really concerned by the impeachment going on in the U.S! Not because it introduces a new level of corruption and indignity but rather because it highlights the corruption and indignity that is already occurring on a daily basis in the U.S-the corruption of Truth and indignities hurled at individuals in the courts of our nations as a regular ritual.It goes by various names- “adversarial” “rule of Law” and “spinning”.
This manouevre goes on as well in advertisements,in arguments about privacy,in ideological debates,in how bureaucracies prevent you from getting your rights! In fact it even happens in daily discourse with people you know well where I sense,especially amongst young people a reflex,even a need, to disagree(I am not talking only about adolescents but rather young adults and millennials)- as if they need to do this to preserve their very identity.Needless to say this is very corrosive to Truth and prevents them from listening to Reality instead of maintaining their biases!
This being said,I have never seen a better exemplar of this “spinning” than the current impeachment debacle.But make no mistake about it- this process is going on in our courts and public institutions as a matter of course. In fact it is the default process of our society!
No wonder people are confused!
The Metaphysics of Politics-2
Three clear-cut take-away messages from the American impeachment hearings 1) The adversarial process is a completely ineffective way of ascertaining Truth!(The true Islamic scholars and Sufis denounced argumentation a long time ago!) 2-No-one is objective!(I thought Freud had made that case clearly enough 100 years ago) and 3)Reason( most of the politicians speaking are relatively smart despite common beliefs to the contrary ) is a completely inadequate means for obtaining Truth or Justice,(Sorry Aristotle,Voltaire and Rousseau lol).Bottom Line- the system has failed us once again.A new paradigm is needed..
Impeachment-The Deeper Roots
Impeachment Day! Does Donald Trump deserve to be impeached?! Of course! But one could also argue,as no-one,certainly not the sheep-like journalists, is lol,that the U.S. Constitution itself should be impeached -because it is not working! The U.S. has the worst record on ALL social variables(crime,violence,efficiency of health care delivery,wealth distribution,childhood poverty etc.,etc.)of ALL developed nations.Shouldn’t that get people thinking?!
In my view,one of the major reasons for that is that the basic premises of the Constitution are false!”All men are created equal”(obviously false.Needs no explanation!).”They are endowed with inalienable rights to life(wrong! That is in the hands of God) liberty(no,there are all kinds of restrictions to liberty-especially if you believe in Divine Law) and the pursuit of happiness(a false goal as happiness,too,is outside of our control,the idea is often linked to hedonism and it is ultimately not our goal which should be acceptance and serenity about the Divine Will)-that is what brings peace of mind.So,and this may sound too strong,the American Constitution, despite the well-meaning intention of the founders to correct the excesses of monarchy,is corrupt to the core!It is a recipe for selfishness,superficiality and unreality! Put that in your pipe and smoke it,lol.