My Spiritual Peanut(contribution from Munirah)

The name Paradise Island should be a warning -that it is not. Looking from the ferry there are defensive looking battlements around multi-million dollar properties and posing right behind them a grotesque giant Sauron meets Barbie pink Mega Resort called Atlantis.
More ironic Paradise at the quay, the public toilet has no paper and no running water for the handbasin. Subway and Scotiabank welcome us beyond tarmac and concrete curbs, there are no sidewalks…why walk when you can ride in a cadillac?
The Sivanada Ashram is nestled on a stunning beach mostly possessed by The Reef condo and resort complex. Cute pastel and white cabins and colorful murals of Krishna among the palms. Lots and lots of tents and an eclectic mix of woofer types, anorexic yogis and hefty Boomer devotees. A warm and effortlessly efficient welcome at reception and we are signed up for Hanuman chanting in the Garden Pavilion. There is a labyrinth of buildings but fresh, un-Indian bathrooms.
I am reassured by the ease and calm in what is actually a more crowded campground than any trailer park. In the Garden Pavilion I settle shoeless into a plastic chair with a cushion from the meditation mats alongside, which fill most of the open sided wooden structure. Onstage three women are seated with microphones and a tabla and harmonium. Behind them are huge posters of orange clad gurus and another picture of Krishna. A large and relaxed older man and an older than me matriarch who seemed to know everyone, help me find the right page in the devotional handbook. We will be doing page 37 and there are transliterated chants with English translation underneath.
Center stage a young slender Indian girl with an ivy league style begins with her impressive spiritual resume and assures us that this wonderful chant was introduced to her by Krishna Das, presumably in an intense spiritual setting. She will call a line then we will repeat it, like in Kindergarten and then we will all sing it together. A wave of suppressed excitement seems to be pass through the audience. I study the detailed picture of Hanuman on the page of my handbook. he seems to be wearing Birkenstock sandals and an elaborate skirt, he has the muscular body of a professional athlete but the head of a sloe-eyed chimp as well as a crown with feathers. It is all a bit confusing.
I start to feel a little uncomfortable. I feel a sneeze building and then my nose starts to run like a tap…uh oh.
“Oh Hanuman, born from the amorous passion of Siva, in a forest glade with a deva….”
My eyes are watering tears of irritation….
“we are your slaves as you are the slave of the great god Rama”
I cannot speak and I do not want to say these words-
slayer of the demon Ravenna in the kingdom of Lanka…Oh Monkey God”
i do not like monkeys, I have been attacked by them on several occasions.
At this point my throat closes up and I feel like someone has thrown a drawstring sack over my head and it is choking me.
I try to cough in my sleeve but the cough just keeps going and I look around for help. My eyes lock into the cold stare from across the room of the ashram cat, he probably thinks I am prey and I am.I have to get out of here, now. Closest exit is ahead close to the stage but I cannot go to it, instead, wheezing and blinded I stumble to the back to empty space, to the steps, to quickly getting the heck out of monkey mind control and
sub rational absorption. I collapse on the last step but looking up i see a palm frond and a blue sky. Alhumdullilah.

I have never had an allergic reaction like that before. As I write this hours later, my body has stilled and calmed from the aftershocks, and my nose and eyes are dry.
Who would have guessed a little Hanuman chanting was my spiritual peanut?

“It may look like you have a lot of options,but actually there is only one right move!”Bobby Fischer…I was moved to tears when I heard that.What a deep teaching about life and the Will of God!

The Dunniya(material world)is corrupt at its core.Like the proverbial shiny Apple with a worm at its centre ,every promising situation in this world ends up in disappointment.The fancy,new job has a nasty supervisor above you who takes pleasure in making your life miserable,your new relationship which filled you with love and hope now turns out to be with a partner who is obsessional or psychopathic or Aspergers and even your wonderful vacation includes lots of stress ,separation anxiety and some intense bouts of turista.This is not strange or unusual.God created it this way so we do not find paradise here on Earth but instead have to turn to Him.S Continue reading Dunniya Corrupt at the Core →

The American Constitution was set up as a system of “checks and balances”.It has now become a system of “”checkmates and paralysis”.As in the case of most intractable problems,the solution is the same-a ‘paradigm shift’.How can you do that without serious pain and disruption? The best way is not revolution.Look at Russia and China for examples of that.The best way and the way of our Prophet saws is by begininmg the change inwardly.Get your ideas and your feelings straight and then begin sharing them.That is my path.Could it also be yours?

The Sufis have always been aware of the importance of the paradox of Oneness and Separation.Unfortunately many of the “spiritual illuminati” are not.And that is a dangerous position.So I am reassured when I come across sources that re-affirm my position on this,against all the New Agers and Adavaitists and Buddhists who,often with good intentions, are misleading people.So here are a few quotes from a series of tapes entitled”The Poor Man’s Book of Assistance” a commentary by  Sheikh Hamza Yusuf on the work of a great Sufi scholar Ahmad Zarruq.

1)”Cling to the haqiqat(absolute truth) but in accordance with the necessities of Tawhid(Oneness)”Ahmad Zarruq.The oneness here is referring to our Creator who has established the rules of existence for His creatures.So we could paraphrase this statement as “hold on to your enlightenment but fear your Lord at the same time.” Very important advice for New Agers.

2) “Protect me from the dangers of Tawhid” Abdul-Salaam Ibn Mashish,another great Sufi mystic.What he is saying here is that enlightenment can lead you astray ,as anyone with even a cursory knowledge of gurus in America, both from the East and from the West, should be well aware of .Ibn Mashish knew that hal(spiritual states ) can easily mislead people.

3) “We have to believe that Allah is Allah and the servant is the servant”Hamza Yusuf .i.e. Don’t lose sight of your relative,small self by being engrossed in the Absolute.The small self has it’s own rights and obligations which must be respected.

Salaams,ibrahim

In a recent discussion with an old friend from the eighties, he reminded me of another deeply insightful theory of our sheikh at the time,Sheikh Nazim.It went like this: ” There are two kinds of peoples-‘sheep people’ and ‘goat people”.At the time, he was referring to nations and he considered Turks(his own nation) and Arabs as sheep people who follow the group.Americans and British ,I believe, were the goat people.Everyone has his own way in those groups. Now, this model can be extended to any kind of group.

Almost all the Sufi tariqats are organized around the ‘sheep’ principle-with the possible exception of Pir Vilayat’s Sufi Order of the West.For example,my last tariqat Shadhiliya/Qassimiyat kept repeating the term”Itibaa” which means to follow -over and over again.This was considered the sine qua non of tariqat membership and the height of virtue.So what do you do with people like me-a quintessential goat!? We like to think things through,to observe and come to our own conclusions.That doesn’t mean that we don’t often agree with our spiritual teachers.In fact we learn intensely from them and respect them.But at times ,we see things differently.Even,as outrageous as that may seem to Sufi practitioners,sometimes we are right and the teacher is wrong.What do we do then?Often,we are forced to leave.

So now ,we have a tariqat made for goat people!We call it”Sufi Pilgrims’ Progress” although we may have to rename it “Sufi Pilgrims Process” as we cannot always guarantee progress, especially if the goat quality becomes so predominant that it paralyzes the murid and the group-one of the pitfalls on the way.

So ahlan all you goats.We can generally deal with you.You will protest,criticize , correct us and all the rest.We will accept you and love you nevertheless.But beware! If you get too ornery and too obstructive we may have to ask you to reconsider your membership.We will then have to refer you to another tariqat of pure rebels.Or we will suggest you join some political group or therapy group where you can work off some of your aggression before rejoining us(Remember the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual model.Sometimes we have to give priority to other dimensions besides the spiritual).Salaams,Ibrahim and looking forward to the journey!

This is a recent quote from Ram Dass’s Words of Wisdom”If there is anyone toward whom you feel animosity, or anger, bring them to mind and see that your anger is with the form of the incarnation, not with the soul. As if you have x-ray vision look past the incarnation and see the soul that lies within that being, a soul just like your soul. Touch their soul with your mind, with love and peace. ”

Interesting teaching no doubt but I would like to point out one aspect that most people won’t notice.There IS a conspiracy out there, in the ranks of spiritual seekers.It is led by the Buddhists and recently joined by the advocates of Advaita Vedanta( a bit like the theological equivalent of al-Qaida joined by Isis lol) which says the following”There is no soul- no individual self in reality”. Now Ram Das, himself is a bhakti Yogi primarily. So he believes in the relationship of lover to beloved as we do in Sufism. Also in classical Hindu theology there is the ‘atman'(the individual self) as opposed to Brahman,the Divine being.So they are on our side on this one.But the Buddhists say ‘No. It is an illusion created by a misinterpretation of our thought processes.Our own mind creates the illusion of an individual identity by the false logic that if there is thought, there must be a thinker.

“Why is this important?” you may ask.The Indian religions have by now penetrated our psyche and our society in a deep way-for better and for worse.All around us we here people talking about ‘karma’ and ‘reincarnation’ and gurus.I believe that even the process of cremation, which has become so popular, is an Indian import.Some of this is good.It has brought some genuine spirituality to the West which it sorely needed  after the effects of the Enlightenment.And what a misnomer that is! Should have been called the Endarkenment! So now we have Yoga(from Hinduism) and Mindfulness(from Buddhism) everywhere in North America and Europe.

But with this spirituality has come contamination and misguidance.At first,on my journey,I gave no importance to theology.”Bah,mental elaborations,” I thought.The only thing important seemed to be experience-preferably of a mystical nature.Since then and after studying Aqida in Islam, my position has changed.I now believe that it is important to get our ideas in order,even if we don’t follow them slavishly or worse still develop fanaticism around them.Just as in medicine and in science we develop theories and conclusions which guide us in our practice so in religion it is important to get the model as close to reality as possible.And the reality is that we each experience our individual selves and that even if at times we are in the reality of the Absolute,the individual never ceases to exist.Allah Hu Akbar(even greater than karma lol). Salaams,ibrahim

A very interesting person,Stephen Levine.Watch some of his youtube videos.He has obviously learnt a lot from his Buddhist practices.I can’t help asking myself,however, the question:”Would it not be a lot healthier if he were dying and thinking of God and his meeting with his Lord?”. That’s why I gave up Buddhism?(Autobiographical account of my first Buddhist retreat to come)

Salaams.Honestly,I thought this was going to be a lot easier! Fourty years of research and exploration and interested parties are as rare as tigers and lions in Canada.I guess that makes our small group a zoo,lol! Nevertheless,I will keep fine-tuning,explaining and advertising  the message until Allah shows me otherwise.So here’s the spiel…

1)Why ChiGong? In 1973, when I first visited China(as a Marxist!)there were many things that impressed me.I had one of my earlist ‘hals’ next to the Yellow River ,a supposed holy site of the Chinese.I saw that Marxism was a myth and most of the Chinese people didn’t really believe in it.And I saw the streets of Peking full of people doing a flowing form of exercise in the early morning.There were obvious octogenarians and possibly even older people who still looked like they were in good health and spirits and I was intrigued.

Later,I tried to do a course in Tai Chi but gave up because I found it stressful to try to relax while having to remember over one hundred positions.Then I ran into the book and tapes of Kenneth Cohen which repiqued my interest.

But perhaps the most convincing element was watching the unfolding practice of Sheikh Nuh an American Sufi living in Amman Jordan.This was no New-Age thrill-seeker.He is a very conservative Muslim practicing his religion and his meditation(dhikr) in a very disciplined and perseverant way.But he had a chronic respiratory problem for which he found no solution.One day picking up an old book a student had given him he tried out some Chigong exercises and began improving.By the time I arrived on the scene,he appeared to have the respiratory condition under control.He told us not to pay any attention to the belief systems attached to that practice ( very protective of his Islamic theology,no doubt) but admitted it had helped him significantly.

So,in looking for a form of exercise which was both practicable into later life,healthy and possibly healing I could find nothing more attractive than Qigong.Earlier in my exploration of other forms of physical exercise that had spiritual components to them ,I had practiced Korean Karate(Taekwondo),jujitsu,Aikido and various forms of Yoga.Although Yoga has become the most popular of all,it never felt right to me.There is an element of what I can only call”weirdness’ to it which I feel in a lot of the practices that come from the Indian subcontinent.Then my teacher Bawa Muhaiddeen a Sri Lankan Sufi warned us against it,saying he had seen many people in India and Sri Lanka injured through the practice of Yoga(overstretched ligaments,overburdened neck vertebrae,etc.).Imagine-the neck vertebrae are designed to carry the weight of the skull(?5 pounds) being used to carry the entire weight of the body.Never made sense to me.

So I decided to settle on Chigong and for the meantime specifically on the teachings of Roger Jahnke and Kenneth Cohen,two Westerners who seem to have mastered this Chinese art.

So far what I can say is that it is a wonderful way to start the day(like those Chinese octagenarians in Peking) and there is a subtle ,calming energy that can only be for the good,as far as I can see.

2) Why Loch Kelly?Loch Kelly is another matter.What attracted me most to his teaching is that he is putting words to and claiming to have a method to reach there-words that speak to my own deepest mystical experiences, which I cannot really talk about in this context.Suffice it to say that when he refers to Awake Awareness and Spacious Awareness and Open-hearted Awareness I know exactly what he is talking about.Although I understand what he is trying to do in spreading the message,I reject the tactic of secularizing mystical states.I prefer to call them by their real names-Divine Consciousness and Divine Compassion.To do that one needs to recognize the religious origin of these states,something that is no problem for me although it may well be for Loch’s audience.When I first experienced these states,I thought long and hard about what they could mean and I came to the hard and fast conclusion that this was Divine Presence,nothing less.Once you accept the religious paradigm there is no longer any problem there.

The other point of contention I have with Loch is his insistence that the small self doesn’t exist.This comes from the Buddhist model and flies in the face of everything that is obvious to us as individuals.Yes,we exist.Yes,we continue after death and even tbough The Absolute exists we continue to be and the relationship between us and Him is one of Adoration and Love.

I do believe that using the techniques of Loch can facilitate our arrival at the ultimate Sufi states of ‘fana’ and ‘baqa’ but this is an hypothesis for now.

Why the Dhikr of the Name and the Names:

This practice, which is the major part of our formula, is actually a combination of the simplest,most powerful,most direct forms of Dhikr(remembrance of God) that I have come across in my 40 years of Sufism.There are elements within from the Chisthi,Naqshbandi,Shadhili/Darqawi and Shadhili/Qassimi tariqats,each with its own particular flavour but all directed at the same goal-realizing union with the Absolute.So in the words of the great Sufi(not only a poet but a great mystic)Jellalludin Rumi”Come.come wherever you are……this is not a path of despair”No,it is a path of hope.But, as in everything else, all power is with our Lord and Allah determines the results not us.We must however do our due diligence.That is our obligation as humans.Ahlan wa Sahlan.  Ibrahim

Several people have brought up to me the issue of expressing the negative,believing it to be against the sunnat of the Prophet saws.They bring up the example of Anas ra, the servant of the Prophet who said that in 10 years of service ,he had never been reproached for doing something wrong and never been scolded,directly, for not doing something he was supposed to.Like all other scriptural references this has to be put into perspective.- the perspective of the individual and the perspective of the times.We are talking about a time in which there was considerable respect for authorities and elders especially the much admired and beloved Prophet saws.And one can assume that Anas was generally a “good kid” as we would say,imbued with many spiritual qualities.

Try raising your children that way ! The American mother of the “afflenza child” who ran over four people and then ran to Mexico was always positive about what her son did and never reproaching him.Now he is in prison for a long time and four people are dead.It is inaccurate to see our Prophet saws as a “turn the other cheek” kind of leader.He had to deal with many situations of evil and ignoring it was not always an option.People were punished and even executed under his leadership.It was socially and politically necessary to do so despite his loving,compassionate heart.That is the nature of dunniya(the lower world).It is full of evil and we ignore that at our own risk and peril.

Is there any scriptural support for what I am saying here?Let us look at a couple of citations.Firstly from the Quran-referring to the mission of the Prophet saws“He commands them what is right and forbids them what is wrong, he makes lawful the things that are wholesome and makes unlawful the things that are bad and lifts from them their burdens and the yokes that were upon them.” (7:157)

Then from the hadith:

On the authority of Abu Sa’eed al-Khudree (ra) who said:

I heard the Messenger of Allah (saw) say, “Whoso- ever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.

What can we conclude here?That it is not only permissible,it is actually obligatory to denounce evil- and I would add falsehood which is one of the major forms of evil.

Beyond these scriptural references there is our noble shahhada.What does it contain:”Laillaha Ilallah(There is no God but God(Himself).So we begin by denouncing falsehood and continue affirming truth.That is my modus operandi for now.Until someone can convince me otherwise I find this the most practical and balanced way of dealing with Reality.

Does that mean that we should go aroung”talking s–t about people” as the young people say.By no means.We have to be respectful and kind wherever possible.But we cannot see the world with rose-coloured lenses and go around only uttering politically correct speech either.We are not meant to be Islamic “goodie-goodies”.That would just end up turning against us as the artificiality would be apparent to all. Hope that “opens the conversation”as the Americans like to say. Salaams,Ibrahim