This one has required a long gestational period! It is the summary of decades of experience and observation!

The majority of people limit their knowledge-base to what is necessary to survive- with a bit of recreation thrown in.The Hindus would call that First Chakra preoccupations lol So they learn to do their trade,to earn a living and to take care of their basic needs.N.B. I am talking here  about the “good ones” -not the criminals and psychopaths of which there are far too many nowadays.

Then there is the minority of people who undertake a spiritual path.They understand that “this can’t be all there is” and so they aim higher-to understand the invisible worlds and the After-life. Some of them are corrupt but most are well-intentioned and sincere- regardless of their actual attainment.

However(is that word still allowed lol) that too is not enough.Regardless of the spiritual path and the associated religious practice(yes,religious practice because without it the spiritual gains drain out constantly like having the archetypal hole in one’s bucket). Whether the practice is meditation-based or prayer-based or obedience and service-based or even based on the struggle with the ego (jihad-a-nafs )it is still not enough to manage life in the modern world- especially given the fact that most religions are based on teachings from long ago and have been struggling themselves to keep up with the times.

So,what are these areas of knowledge that are necessary to successfully managing one’s life in the modern world.There are ,at least four that I have identified;

1)Comparative Religion:knowing about other religions that we are not practicing. N.B. I am not advocating here the smorgasbord of religious practice that I first encountered with the Sufi Order of the West. All due respect to the dignity and nobility of Hazrat Inayat Khan and his son Pir Vilayat, practicing all the religions at the same time is like putting chop suey in your Boeuf Bourgignon or adding knishes to your lasagna.Just doesn’t work lol

So,what is the reason to learn about other religions? Well,firstly we are living in a global village. Veut, veut pas(whether we like it or not) unlike living in Medieval Christian times or in a strict Hassidic community or a Deobandi one for that matter ,we are going to encounter people from other faiths.And the vast majority of them are not going to convert! That’s just the reality and we have to live with it.So it is better to know something about the others’ point of view-what they value and what they reject.That makes for better relations.

Secondly,each religion has its areas of strength that we can learn from even if we reject their overall approach.The Christians,for example,have developed kindness and charity and piety. So even if we reject some of their theology we can acknowledge their strengths.The Hindus and Buddhists,despite, slipping into idolatry at times(whether the pantheon of Hindu gods or the statues of Buddha) and being imbalanced in the direction of transcendence as opposed to living properly in the world, have developed the most sophisticated and carefully mapped-out processes of meditations.We can learn from them. And the Jews have defended a pure monotheism and a rigorous intellectual traditional of scriptural interpretations(the Talmud). Another chance to learn! Let us approach traditions other than our own with respect and awareness rather than religious jingoism and the results can not be other than positive!

2) Psychology:The twentieth century saw a fluorishing area of investigation into the individual psyche. From Sigmund Freud to C.G. Jung through Skinner and Aaron Beck,not to mention Fritz Perls and the Gestaltists and Wilhelm Reich and the field of Bioenergetics there was an outpouring of observations on the constitution of the individual psyche.

Now, spiritual disciplines were always aware of this problematic aspect of the human constitution.The fight against the ego and its negative tendencies has always been part of the spiritual path.However,never before was the “mind” (thoughts and emotions) looked at with such precision and details. One of the areas where this becomes particularly helpful is in dream interpretation(something we will be exploring in our upcoming book on the subject.)Suffice it to say that even the great Sufi dream interpreters like Ibn Sirin had not uncovered many of the mechanisms of dream expression. To be more specific without being comprehensive,the concepts of the “unconscious”, “displacement”, “condensation” and Collective Archetypes(C.G. Jung) are just a few of the newer ideas that help us to properly understand dreams.

It must be said here that spiritual teachers,including the best of them, are generally resistant to psychological thinking and practice.I get it! It can easily slip into individualism,egotism and agnosticism.That being said, this refusal of the psychological domain can lead to catastrophic consequences including suicide ,death and physical illnesses.I will leave out the illustrative case histories for another time!Suffice it to say that we ignore this domain at our own peril!

3) Environmental and Functional Medicine:Ever since the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century but even more acutely since the 1950’s we have been exposed to ever increasing levels of toxins.From pesticides like Round-up to vaccines and their adjuvants to heavy metals and VOCs in construction materials and more and more EMFS due to cellphones and wifi and G5 we are literally bombarded with toxins.Not only are most spiritual teachers oblivious to this reality but the experts,the doctors in our medical clinics, are woefully uninformed and misinformed about this subject.Most of them are still looking for that Pasteurian, Koch postulate single variable -cause that is not present in most cases especially those of chronic illnesses. We are living amidst a literal deluge of toxins that are causing an epidemic of serious illnesses like Autism and Cancer and Auto-immune disease and Alzheimer’s.Anyone seen any of those around them lol?! But most of our medical personnel,let alone our clergy, are clueless.The doctors are still looking for excuses for this phenomenon like”cancer has always been around”True but not at that rate- or”It’s only because the population is ageing”. But there is more and more cancer in children! With autism the rate has gone up from 1/2000 when I studied psychiatry to 1/30 to 1/60 depending on which studies you read.that is 4000% increase! And what do the doctors say”It must be because we have gotten better at diagnosing it or again”the diagnostic criteria have enlarged”! No,no and no! “There are none as blind as those who will not see”!

All of this means that often,we need to manage our own medical situations.The regular doctors are resources. At times they can do extraordinary things like stenting for acute coronary artery disease but overall we need to manage our own health.I will not outrage you here with some of the horror stories of spiritual teachers giving medical advice! Suffice it to say that the smart ones refer you back to your doctor.Then you have ,often, to save yourself from their limited knowledge as well lol.

So-o-o-o learn,learn and learn and then manage your own health.It’s the only truly effective strategy!

4) Near-death and peri-death experiences:This is a brand new area! Really just began in earnest with the publication of Raymond Moody’s book “Life after Life” in 1975 and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s work on the dying and grieving processes.And why do I consider it so important?!So important in fact that I wrote a book on it called “The Big Questions-Evidence-Based Faith”(available on Amazon or at this blog.)One of my spiritual teachers once said this:”There are only three questions that should be of concern-me,God and death”! So death is one-third of the curriculum lol. All the great spiritual teachers have counselled their students to reflect on death! The Prophet saws has said“The most wise from among you is he who remembers death the most and the most prudent from among you is he who is most prepared for it”. Wise words no doubt,

So-o-o now we have this window into the death process that is both compelling ,contemporary and relatable.And those are the near-death experiences about which there is more and more material being produced every day.Why would anyone in their right minds ignore this treasure-trove of reports?!

Well,the “scientific types” are still looking for the magical neurochemical compound or neurophysiolgical process that would explain it all away!? Can you imagine?! Here we have credible,honest people in our midst bringing back credible reports that are consistent with everything our religious teachers and mystics have been saying since the beginning of times and we have these sim[ple-minded skeptics,no doubt conditioned by our Empiricist educational system,thinking: “This must be endorphins or hypoxia or chemically-induced hallucinations.In Islam we say “wa la howla wala quwatta’.(How could they be so blind and opaque?!) The latter question will be a topic for another time.Suffice it to say, for now, that this knowledge ,of the near-death and peri-death experiences, can be both reassuring(that we DO continue after death) and instructive -as to what is important in life and what isn’t .Once again we ignore it at our own risk and peril!.

So there you go! Comparative Religion,Psychology,Environmental Medicine and Near-death experiences.A glorious and sumptuous  repast! That should keep you busy for the next few decades lol