All around me I see stress! They stress us with norms and standards and protocols and procedures.Then they wonder why there is so much anxiety and depression and mental illness. If they had intentionally designed a social system to maximize stress,they could not have done a better job!The worst is that they always have rational justifications for these stressors -all in the name of some kind of efficiency or quality control or productivity or another.God help us all
Category Archives: Modern Living
Truth and Eloquence
(In response to an image on Facebook saying“Chaos is Emptiness”)That is eloquence(balaga).It sounds good but is not fundamentally true.One of the secrets to success is distinguishing between what sounds true and what is.Clearly chaos is NOT emptiness.It may well be fertile and productive but it is not empty.So this fallacy comes from the belief that all things good are the same and all things bad are the same(black and white thinking).So Socrates himself could say that “Beauty is Truth”.Sounds good but again untrue.Beauty is Beauty and Truth is Truth.We know that from Islam since Allah has 99 names not one.Truth(Haqq) is one and Beauty(jamil) is another.They are two entities not one.My apologies if this is too direct but I abhor eloquence being taken for Truth.It is a profoundly serious matter for me.
That’s Why I prefer Sufism!
(In response to a miraculous healing story connected with Kirpal Singh) Impressive stories and I have no reason to challenge their veracity.However,after having treated and known personally several people who follow this way coming from Bawa Sawan Singh and usually known as Radhaswami or Santmat ,I can tell you that there is an important flaw in this spiritual teaching-something not uncommon in many of the Indian subcontinent transmissions .It is unbalanced in the direction of otherworldliness and the rejection of the needs of our embodied souls in this world.The disciples are taught to follow essentially a vegan diet which does not suit many people and even the naturopaths let alone regular doctors consider unhealthy.Secondly they are strongly encouraged to be celibate.They will vehemently deny this but if you read the writings of Kirpal Singh and other teachers in this lineage it is very clear.They are taught that sexual activity destroys the ‘ojas’ and thus one’s spiritual energy.The vast majority of us are not like Baba Sawan Singh or Kirpal Singh for that matter but have basic bodily needs.Denying these needs leads to couple break-ups(even if the individual is able to maintain his asceticism,often the partner becomes resentful) and sexual activity unbecoming to anyone on the spiritual path let alone satsangis.This is a parallel phenomenon to the Catholic priests who became pedophiles because their ‘normal’ sexual needs were repressed.The amount of suffering thus created is considerable.
Life-according to Ahmad Ibn Hanbal
If [Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal] is a saint … he is one who finds his own sainthood exasperating. Unlike the ethereal creatures of hagiography, Ibn Ḥanbal is not only a man of God but also a husband, a father, and a landlord—possibly the only saintly landlord in world literature. Instead of wrestling with demons, he struggles with the problems of daily life…. and, no matter how harsh the choices he eventually makes, he remains convinced that his efforts are never good enough. On one occasion, asked how he was, he launched into a tirade: “How can a man be,” he answered, “with his Lord imposing obligations, his Prophet demanding that he follow the sunnah, his two angels waiting for good deeds, his nafs clamoring for what it wants, the Devil goading him to lust, the Angel of Death seeking his life, and his family asking for money?”
Priorities-1
It’s hard to help people who have spent their whole life on the wrong path.That path is the path of ‘shirk'(idolatry- where something other than God is the priority).It can be wealth and financial security,the arts,science,chasing the opposite sex or even caring about the family which is good in itself but bad if it becomes a higher priority than our relationship with our Creator.I pray that peoples eyes and hearts open more to what the Real priorities are.
My Personal Process
Contemplation in progress:One of the few people who understood what I was up to was my conservative,female French psychoanalyst.In the midst of an intense analysis she out of nowhere interjected the following: “Oh,I see what you’re up to.You are trying to develop ” le Grand Synthèse! ” How did she know?! Much better than my Jewish psychiatrist,who confounded by the material I was coming up with and it not corresponding to what he knew of neurosis,could only hypothesize that I was a “personality disorder”! There are people out there who would no doubt agree with him lol but what can I do?I will take solace in the fact that two of my greatest heroes,Mohammed saws and Jesus a.s. were respectively considered crazy and socially disruptive by their contemporaries! Pretty good company,I would say!
Eloquence
Eloquence (balagha in Arabic) has to do with the beauty of language-its sounds and its flow. It is not the same as Truth. Truth can be beautiful or ugly or neither.It just states what is. There is often confusion between the two. Something can sound beautiful and be wrong or it can sound ugly and be True. Staying lucid is what is most important.
Toxicity
What is wrong with this society-that it keeps putting out more and more toxic devices and materials-like the new smart-meters?! Sickening -literally and metaphorically.The answer is that the outer toxicity is a reflection of an inner one.The inner toxicity is a combination of greed(disguised as a search for efficiency),insensitivity(to everything outside of “scientific” findings published in peer-reviewed journals) and deafness( to the pleas of victims of all sorts). What a toxic brew!
Are politicians psychotic?!
Who’s crazy?! All around me,I see an epidemic of cancer,Alzheimer’s and Autism! But the journalists are more concerned about a glacier breaking off Antartica.Let me give you an analogy.You’re 30 years old and can’t afford to pay your rent or buy your groceries.But you’re worrying about your retirement savings plan!Believe it or not but I’ve actually seen that- in therapy!
The American Constitution
(Response to a comment glorifying the American constitution on July 4th,American Independence Day)
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Let’s look again at these principles in the light of what we’ve learnt from Islam:
1)Men are not created equal.Men, and women for that matter, are created in ranks-in a hierarchy.Some are naturally stronger,some are naturally more intelligent .And it even goes further.Some are born with good character and others are not.I learnt that from Sheikh Nazim’s ongoing talk about genetics in human life(“the blueprint” he called it) -and that was well before the genome project got started!
2)Life ,itself, is in His hands not ours.He can take it in a moment as He likes.
3) And liberty is conditioned by His rules and orders not by our whims and pleasures.
4) And happiness is the exception.Difficulties and testing is the rule.The Sheikh said 40 units of pain to one unit of pleasure.The paradox here is that real happiness(inner peace and satisfaction) requires often giving up on worldly happiness.Most people,perhaps especially Americans,do not see that.Watch the TV ads if you don’t believe me lol
So basically,this document(The American Constitution) is flawed from the git-go.And if you break it down it is flawed in a VERY fundamental way.It gives far too much importance to human choice and not nearly enough to Divine decree.So maybe it is not so surprising after all that America finds itself in such a lamentable position.But don’t feel bad as an American.The Sheikh had even less liking for the French Revolution and its themes of Fraternité,Égalité and Liberté lol.He saw that period as the beginning of the end!