Category Archives: Comparative Religion

Comparative Religion

In Defense of the Western Paradigm

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                                   In Defense of the Western Paradigm

 I recently attended a meditation seminar with a teacher for whom I maintain a certain respect.He has synthesized and extracted some of the most essential mystical wisdom of the teachers of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism and put it all into Western terms that people can understand and use for self-improvement and realization. I have no argument with his intentions or his capacity to help others.

However, towards the end  of the workshop, one of the more reflective people asked the leader a deep question about the meaning of life and the reason for suffering.For one of the few times in the workshop,he seemed to be at a loss of words.Not wanting to create any unnecessary conflict,( can you believe it?!)I brought up a saying of Rumi (always a good option in a New Age context!) about the contradictory nature of reality and thus the lack of need to develop a coherent model.But I did not bring up what appears to me as a clearer and clearer conclusion- that the Western model(of God and His Creation) answers many more questions than the Eastern model of karma, enlightenment and no-self.

Let me briefly explain my terms here.When I say Western model,I mean the essential concepts that Judaism,Islam and Christianity have in common.When I refer to the Eastern model I am referring primarily to Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism-two spiritual practice models and  belief systems that have become increasingly popular in the West, where the religious systems have lost many of their mystical roots.Fortunately these mystical tendencies are slowly being revived as the practices of the Orthodox Fathers of the Desert in Christianity,Sufism in Islam and the Kabbala in Judaism are attracting more and more attention. We will not address the general religion of Hinduism as it is too variegated and disparate(i.e. confusing) to even attempt a formulation.

So let us return to the point of departure- the question about the meaning of life and the reason for suffering. If we look at this question from a Buddhist perspective, the meaning of life is to attain enlightenment and so be free from our individual selves.Actually that is not a real answer as it begs the question.What is the point of existing as individual selves if we are only to return to the One Source where we came from in the first place. It appears totally pointless! In reality Buddhism is not concerned with this question. It is really only about the relief of suffering. Buddha, himself, said as much.

On the question of suffering, the answer is no better. According to the Buddha, Life is suffering (dukka). Ok, I can see that. When the Buddhists are asked what is the cause of suffering they answer that it is desire/attachment  and aversion.At that point they are in a similar position to Stephen Hawking and the quantum physicists when they address the origins of the Universe.! They theorize that the world was created from the Big Bang but when you ask who created the Big Bang, where did it come from, they have no answers. They may say this is beyond the domain of science but that still means they have no answers. So, similarly if you ask the Buddhists where does desire and aversion come from, they, too, have no answers. They could answer that it is the nature of mind but that, too, is not an answer. If we dig a little deeper, we can see that essentially Buddhism is a psychology of mysticism-often effective in attaining mystical states but incapable of giving answers to the big metaphysical questions. As to the Advaita Vedanta people, also known as non- dualists, as far as I can tell , they are not even interested in these questions. All they want to do is assert the Absolute Reality and efface the Relative one. Everything else appears irrelevant to them.

Now let us look at these questions from the Western perspective. I will primarily use Islamic sources as these are the ones I know best. However, I do not see any inherent conflicts with the theologies of the other Western traditions. Anyone who would like to contribute knowledge or ideas from the Christian or Jewish tradition is encouraged to do so. Like in science, having alternative sources of data is always welcome.

So what is the meaning of life? Islam gives us a few answers to ponder. One is that God created man to worship him and serve him.Aha! The Creation is already becoming purposeful. Man has both a service function and a devotional function at the same time.(The outward aspect of this is obedience but the inner aspect is Love!) Closely related to the notion of servanthood is the idea that man is the ‘khalif’ of Allah i.e. His  representative on Earth. So to use a business analogy, God is the Boss(not surprising) and man is the manager.Admittedly we are not doing a very good job of management but that is another matter .If we continue this way we may be getting our pink slips very soon!

Then we have the tradition (a Sufi hadith from the unseen rather than a scholarly one).”I (God) was a hidden treasure longing to be known and so I created man to know Me and he did so”.So Creation was a means of giving God company! Intriging! Mysterious actually .Why would God, who we call ‘Samad’(truly Independent and Self-sufficient) need companions?!

This invariably leads us to another thing we are taught in the Western traditions – trust in God (Tawwakul).So that, even if we cannot figure out the meaning, we trust that there is a Higher Intelligence that knows what is going on and is administering the world in a skillful manner. ”God is Competent” a Turkish saying states. The idea of trust in God is intimately related to the previously mentioned element of the Western paradigm- that there is mystery in the nature of Existence.The Buddhists and Vedantists claim to be logical and systematic in   their processes. So they are uncomfortable with mystery.They want essentially to be in control. They claim their practice is systematic , even scientific. No place for a Creator who is beyond comprehension and certainly beyond our control But that is precisely our nature as mankind.We are not in control.We need to cede that function to a more Intelligent entity.Alhumdulillah.Are things beginning to make sense now?

Let us continue , then, with  the question of suffering.In The Islamic paradigm,suffering is often a means by which we are tested.So God guarantees us in the Quran that we will be tested.This testing itself is a means of elevation, so the suffering is meaningful, after all.The suffering may also be a form of punishment.But this punishment is a way of correcting us and getting us back on the right path.And finally suffering is a means of purification. So, now, it all starts  to make sense, no. Suffering is not simply bad karma or an unfortunate element of existence.It is all meaningful and purposeful. The meaning has to do with our relationship to God and the suffering is a means to the improvement of this relationship. Got it? I hope I am making my point clearly enough.The Eastern traditions are wonderful ways of attaining spiritual states and cleansing our minds.But they are inadequate in explaining the purposeful nature of existence.Allah Hu Akbar! ( God is Greater still).

 

Comparative Religion, Psychology

The Problem of Mind

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After long reflection and observation,I have concluded that the biggest problem in the modern world is that we are victimized by our own minds.This problem does nor correlate well with the traditional maps of vice and virtue such as the Seven Deadly Sins in Christianity.In fact most of the modern analyses are convinced that most of it is about greed.However if we stick to the Christian model for now,because it is the simplest ,we could say this obsession with rationality is about pride.But I prefer to think of it as ignorance-the cardinal “sin” in Buddhism.Oddly enough this very problem is what the modern world believes to be the solution! Thus Universities and Research and Commissions of Enquiry-most of it leading to more dead ends.Let’s conclude with the words of Jesus”Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”.Not the Phd.s and post-docs.The simple in spirit.Our Prophet Muhammad saws did not have to repeat that as most of the people around him(the Sahhabba r.a.) were already like that.If you don’t believe me go back to the sources and read the exchanges that occurred at the time..! Nothing like the debates in our universities and governing bodies.

Comparative Religion, Spiritual Practice

A Good Idea vs. a Perfect Idea

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Many years ago a dynamic Sufi activist named Nurrideen had a good idea.He wanted to build a Muslim commune in New Mexico.He managed to raise a substantial amount of money from rich Arabs in Saudi and the Gulf states who liked his idea.He worked with architectural plans from the famous Egyptian architect Hassan Fathi and built a multi-million dollar complex with local adobe materials.It was truly beautiful.I visited it early on in its inception and it was indeed impressive.
When people came to ask our sheikh of the time-Sheikh Nazim about it, he gave a somewhat cryptic answer.He said”Yes,this is a good idea,but it is not a perfect one.” I understood immediately what he meant.This was a good idea in the mind of Nurrideen but not a Divine inspiration-i.e. not really the will of God.
The project began well with Muslim converts flocking to the Centre in small numbers to live and have their children educated in a “true Muslim environment”.It wasn’t long however,before problems began to emerge.The environment was not propitious for recruiting.The locals were mostly Mexican and they had little interest in the project.The people who would naturally have been attracted to the project were from all over America but had no roots in New Mexico and no way ,often,to earn their living. The Arabic and Islamic teachers had to be imported from the East and there were often inter-cultural problems that had to be addressed.
Eventually the project failed.People started drifting away.The Saudis found out that most of the people there were Sufis and pulled their funding.Now the centre is only used for summer retreats.It was a good idea ,not a Perfect one!
How many times, in our own lives,do we have good ideas that are not Perfect ones?This is a cause of enormous sufferings.May Allah guide us to avoid these self-made plans!