(Context-NYTimes sending me repetitive ,monotonous begging emails to get me to subscibe)What have we come to?! A prestigious,high-quality newspaper feels it necessary (probably driven by graduates in MBA marketing programs!) to bombard me with ads to buy a subscription.Have they no shame?! Obviously not.In any case shame is a rare commodity in this society(except of course in cases of sexual assault and abuse- but that seems to be the exception).I can deal with the annoyance factor involved .However there is a much more insidious,perverse effect of this marketing practice.People have lost their capacity to hear! Serious, indeed! People are so tired of this marketing harassment that they metaphorically keep their fingers in their ears-in all situations.It has become a reflex..I still remember standing outside of a mosque giving out flyers about a conference by a visiting Islamic teacher.No charge,no obligations and a subject that would have interested most of the people leaving the prayer site.The vast majority refused to even look at the flyer.They were in an advanced state of marketing burn-out.How many other truths do they and others refuse to hear?Their self-induced deafness prevents them from integrating all kinds of new information.
This phenomenon is by no means limited to attenders at the Jumaa prayer.I see it all the time in doctors.They have been indoctrinated by the scientific equivalent of marketers- peer-reviewed journals,obsessive scientific methodology which often enough obscures the truth instead of revealing it,research studies designed to generate preset results.And they have lost the capacity to think for themselves and the capacity to listen to their patients.Instead what pops into their mind is the latest published article,the most recent algorithm.And the patient in front of them goes unheard.If I were designing a medical school curriculum the first course I would make obligatory would be on analyzing research publications.If you go back to the database in the publication,you can often generate other conclusions never mentioned by the authors.At times you may even generate conclusions opposite to the authors.A relatively recent article in Lancet on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome treated by CBT was another reminder.One of my patients who suffers from this ailment showed me the article enthusiastically.I thought”This is not consistent with what I am observing clinically.”and told my patient I would explore the article.I figured I would have to go in to the depths of the article to find the flaw.It was actually much easier than that.When I looked at the scale of measurement the difference between the control group and treated group turned out to be 10% of the total scale and that was on one symptom only.(There are 8 other symptoms in Chronic Fatigue none of which were tested).I called back my patient to tell him that when I had such changes(10%) on an anti-depressant regime I considered them insignificant.But statistically the result looked significant and this was hailed as a breakthrough!We have lost the depth in favor of the surface.
Teaching from the Sufis:”Everything to you is from you and everything from you returns to you.This is the sunnat (habit) of Allah”When events occur,such as those in France recently,the instinctive response(I could say the response of the reptilian brain)is to look for the perpetrators and to blame them for the entire affair.This is probably necessary but it is not sufficient.A deeper response ,for both individuals and societies, is to look within and think”How have we contributed to this?”,If we understand really that the inner is determining the outer not the converse which is philosophical materialism -a philosophy that has seriously contaminated our thinking on all levels,we will begin to realize that we both as individuals and societies are responsible for our own troubles.So if we are Americans and don’t do anything to correct the incredible inequality of wealth in our country or we are Frenchmen and don’t really care about the disenfranchised in our country but prefer to judge them as lazy or primitive,there will be consequences.That doesn’t justify the terrorists behaviour but it is a deeper way of understanding it then just calling them psychopaths because we enjoy insulting the enemy.Calling them psychopaths is mostly a misuse of our psychiatric nomenclature.Psychopaths don’t risk their lives for a cause .Psychopaths have no loyalty to others or to groups.They are purely self-centered.These people are fanatics not psychopaths.Look it up if you don’t believe me. Salaams,Ibrahim
(In response to someone calling me a Trump fan-notice that I am trying to steer clear of politics in this blog.This post is more about epistemology-i.e. the means of acquiring knowledge- than about politics.I hope the readers can see that).
Trump is not my friend.As I have tried to explain to people before I do not live in a black and white world where people are all bad or all good.I believe that is a childish,immature way of perceiving Reality even if it is a popular one.Trump has some very important points to make-like getting rid of political correctness and lobby groups both of which are destroying America .On the other hand he is a greedy,materialistic and closed-minded person.That is the nature of Reality-ambivalence and ambiguity.Jellaluddin Rumi was perhaps the first teacher to illuminate me on that point.He said that anyone who doesn’t see the contradictory and paradoxical nature of reality can not be truly enlightened.Unfortunately we have all been taught by our Aristotelian school system that coherency is the measure of Truth.Nothing could be further from Reality.
Here is the link for our Qigong practice.For those who want to do this they can refer also to the book by Roger Jahnke called “The Healing Promise of Qi”
Spent one evening with Loch Kelly and one with Kabat-Zinn. I still believe Loch has a superior method and I am intending to spend a day in retreat with him this Saturday.His method is simple,effective and user -friendly.
However Kabat-Zinn exceeded expectations.He carries a very clear”hal” and I felt it all the way home on the taxi-ride back ,despite the more worldly discussion going on in the car.It was what I call the pristine state.However his idea that the world is changing radically because of the spread of mindfulness in the West is part of the New-Age megalomanic discourse that proves the ungroundedness of these people -projecting their hopeful fantasies upon the sinister reality of materialism and deadly conflict all around us.And I thought they are trying to practice acceptance!?
Aphorism:Every outer problem has a parallel and corresponding inner problem..Often the outer problem cannot be solved until the inner one is recognized and dealt with.
You are not in control,no matter how valiant and diligent your efforts.The Real Controller can do a lot more to solve your problems then you can.But in order for that to happen, you have to give Him his due.Salaams
Understood and applied, any one of the posts on this site could change your life-forever!
