This world is NOT an illusion as the Advaita Vedanta people and the Buddhists would like us to believe.It is a concrete reality! The illusion is that obtaining things we wish for, like academic degrees and money and status and partners will bring us complete and lasting satisfaction.That is the illusion.That is our mind lying to us!The Buddhists are proud of their eight-fold path ,one of the folds being”Right Thinking”. Well,the idea that this world is simply a creation of our deluded mind is “wrong thinking”.I believe that wrong thinking contributes significantly to human suffering as it leads to misunderstanding of the meaning of the joys and sorrows of this world So we have “fake political news”(courtesy of Trump),fake medical news(courtesy of our narrow-minded medical scientific establishment) and now we have “fake spiritual news” courtesy of Mother India lol
All posts by jebrahim2@gmail.com
The Mind!
Do not analyze what I say. When you begin to analyze anything I say, your mind will contradict. The nature of the mind is to contradict. The nature of the mind is to upset you. To make you feel out of sorts. To make you believe something is wrong someplace. That is the nature of the mind. The mind always leads you astray. You cannot have faith in your mind. You cannot believe in your mind. Remember what your mind is. It’s a conglomeration of thoughts of the past and worries about the future. That’s all your mind is. But to come into truth, you have to stand naked before God. By naked I mean you have to give up everything. All your wants and desires.
I don’t mean you have to be like Ramana Maharshi. When he came to the temple in the beginning when he was a boy. He took off all his clothes and stood naked in the street and it started to rain and he shaved his head. I’m not referring to that, you do not have to do this. But what you have to do is to empty your mind. You have to empty your mind of all thoughts. It’s not that hard, really.
– Robert Adams, CW, Ts 19
Millenials,Oy Vey!
One of the major problems of the millenials is what I call “The Enthusiasm Deficit”! Whether it is because they were given too much or disappointed too often or taught too many times to be rational and systematic,the fact remains,they have a hard time getting excited- about anything.Now if Jesus is right,and I believe he is,that we have to become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven,they have a BIG problem.My daughter was telling me how enthusiastic her 3-month old baby was when he saw a big bottle of milk lol.The milennials have to recover that kind of excitement if they wish to succeed in life.May Allah grant them His Mercy in this matter.
The State of the Muslim Nation
N.B. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN THE MODERN MUSLIM WORLD IS THE REPRESSION OF THE MYSTICAL INSTINCT!! This process has been going on for over 100 years and is at the base of all the more manifest problems-like terrorism and sectarianism.Ponder this O Muslim brothers and sisters.And also non-Muslim friends because at this point in world history wherever Islam goes the rest of the world will be carried in its wake! That is my understanding.Salaams,Ibrahim
The Seven Deadly Sins
America,the Beautiful!
Why are people scandalized and outraged by the cruel treatment of immigrants and refugees at the border?! America is already treating it’s own citizens cruelly! It does that when its own poor citizens are refused medical care because they don’t have insurance.Homeless people are already being mistreated just because they are homeless.Prisoners are routinely subject to mistreatment and abuse in the name of security.And what about the homes of people being seized by the bankers and evictions by the landlords etc.,etc.How about the mistreatment of slum-dwellers by the police?So in fact,mistreatment is endemic and normalized in America.The only people who are regularly well-treated and respected are the wealthy,successful ones- no matter how they maneuvred their way to wealth and success-no matter how many people they trampled on on their way to the bank! No wonder Trump is president! And no wonder he hobnobs with Putin and MSB and Kim Jong-un.They are rich and successful,no?!
PS In America,it’s not about compassion.Did you ever hear that word in a Trump speech,lol?! Very rarely heard even amongst Democrat politicians! It’s all about winning and losing! We can hear it over and over again in the Trump talks.Refugees are losers,no?.How do you expect them to be treated?!.
Podcast – Basics of Sufism
Democratic Candidates Debates
Democratic debates: Like with our process of selection for medical school( selecting out high-performance robots with little creativity and insight) our process of choosing political leaders is seriously flawed.It is selecting out people who can survive high-stress environments(they universally look stressed out-I would like to have heart and EEG monitors on all of them lol) and who can glibly argue about all the trendy political subjects.No original insights ,no creativity,no profundity.I heard nothing about stress at the workplace.All they talk about is the unemployment rate and the GDP.I heard nothing about the causes of Alzheimer’s disease,autism,cancer,autoimmune disease -all of which are now of epidemic proportions.All we heard about is about plans for more allopathic symptomatic medicine.And I certainly heard no talk about the moral degeneration in America.They all take that for granted as normal! So briefly,ALL of the candidates are out of touch with what is really important.How can things possibly go well given that reality?!
Medical Fake News- Update
“Fake News” is not only political! Actually “Medical Fake News” is just as prevalent if not more so.So watch out for the latest “tendences”(trends) in medical fake news lol.Too recent candidates-“mitochondria ” and ” vagus nerve”. They cause all diseases in man,right?! A short while ago it was the “microbiome” and “Inflammation”.They were the cause of all medical disease including the bad temperament of your spouse and the corruption of your politicians.Just before that was “the genome project” which was going to solve the problem of human suffering?! No?! When that didn’t pan out the “fake news’ medical experts shifted to “epigenetics”. You hear a little less about that these days.Pushed out of the headlines by the “microbiome” and the “mitochondia”.So Beware!The snake oil salesman are still with us.Btw,perhaps there is more to “snake oil” than we thought.Could be the next “tendences” lol
“Inshallah” unpacked.
Asalamu aleykum,brothers and sisters.Since there is so much overuse and outright abuse of the “Inshallah” expression,let us go over its’ origins- at least the most important one.
A group of Quraysh came to the Prophet saws and asked him a set of three questions given to them by the Jews.One of the questions about who the youth were who escaped Prophet saws did not have the answer to so he told them he would answer their question the next day,hoping for a Revelation from his Lord.But Allah made him wait fifteen days and endure abuse from the Quraysh because he had not said “inshallah,I will give you the answer”,acknowledging that all knowledge comes from our Lord who endows it on us as He pleases.He was eventually vindicated by the revelation of surat al Kahf two weeks later.In that surat Inshallah and Mashallah are used for the first time.
What does this tell us about the use of the term “inshallah”? That we need ,all of us,to recognize our dependency on Allah for both our understanding and the results of our actions.This is NOT an excuse to put all our failings and our neglicence and laziness on the account of Allah Estagfirullah.So inshallah is for those issues over which we have limited control.Examples”I am working hard at school this term.Inshallah I will get an A average”or”I should apologize to my parents for my bad behavious.Inshallah they will accept my apologies”. On the other hand,”inshallah I will do the dishes tonight”or “Inshallah I will pray more regularly” is not an acceptable use of the term.These are things over which we have control.We should not “use the name of the Lord in vain” as the Old Testament teaches us.
As the Christians say”Render unto Cesar what is Cesar’s and render onto God what is God’s.”So we can say “render unto Ahmad( the generic Muslim lol) what is Ahmad’s and render unto Allah what is Allah’s” lol.Ahmad can do the dishes and respect his parents.That is the responsiblity of Ahmad not of God.I hope people can get the point! Salaams,Ibrahim