The Cause of All Suffering-
Individual and Collective.
Context: Looking at the horrible suffering in the world around us.
Byron Katie is a non-sectarian New Age spiritual teacher similar in her evolution to the better-known Eckhart Tolle of “The Power of Now” fame. I attended a couple of her workshops in America in the past. She made the following statement in front of a mid-sized auditorium.It was like a thunderbolt for me when I first heard it.! “All your problems come from the same place: You believe in the contents of your own mind”. Wow! Ajib. The Truth of it resonated deep within.
When I then looked at the international situation, I realized that this truth applied to collectivities as well as individuals. Let us see how that plays out.
But before we do, let me situate this statement in a theological Comparative Religion framework. The traditions that understand this statement best would be the Hindi-Buddhist tradition- not my chosen path however. These traditions understood and still understand that the mind (“manas” in Sanskrit ) is not our friend but our enemy! The reason that the Western traditions are not aware of this is that they have all been corrupted to a certain extent by Greek Philosophy which worships the mind, rationality and logic. Christianity grew up in the midst of this Greek culture(Greek was the intellectual language at the time of Jesus).In much the same area the Jews as well were absorbing the Greek mind-set. We can see this in the elaborate mind-productions of the Talmudists ( third to sixth century C.E) Btw there is no common measure between the statements of the great Jewish Prophets like Jacob and Moses and David and these Talmudic cerebralized scholars-except perhaps their belief in One God Lol!
And finally, the Muslims began translating the Greek texts into Arabic beginning during the Abbasid period and it reached its apogee during the time of Andalusia. For Muslim readers if you don’t believe me, read the hadith and the statements of the Sahhabis and contrast them with any of your preferred scholars and you will see the contrast. And btw ,it was not arbitrary that Allah chose Mohammed, saws, an unlettered man,for his final Prophetic Mission! I have seen the same phenomenon manifest amongst the shuyukh I have studied with and followed. There is an inverse relationship between their level of scholarship and their spiritual hal. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, O admirers of Harvard and Oxford and Al Azhar lol.
Before continuing, it must be stated that these “mind-productions” of the collectivities are also underpinned by very strong emotions. That is why it is often so difficult to untangle them from reality.
Now let us see how this plays out on the international front. Three situations of utmost misery will be highlighted although there are many more-beyond counting!
The Middle East-Specifically Gaza :
Israeli Jewish Thought: “This land was promised to us by God in the Bible. The greatest error of Israel is to push its military to harsh and unusual punishment out of what can only be termed vengeance.
Arab Muslim Thought:” This land is ours. We have settled here for hundreds of years.There is no place for Jews here. The Jews are colonialists from Eastern Europe. Thus: ”From the River to the sea” The greatest error of the Palestinians and the Arabs was to not allow for the legitimate presence of Jews on their territory.
Reality: The Children of Israel and the Arabs have been fighting about this land over and over again since Abraham had two sons-Ismail-the father of the Arabs and Issac-the father of the Jews. That’s about 4000 years! The Jews had been mostly absent for a long time because of political and religious oppression. Now they were called back by Divine destiny (Muslims should not be denying the hand of God in all of this as the concept of ‘qada’ is basic to our religious beliefs!) But the Arabs and Islam have their rights as well. Did Allah not tell us in the Quran that he made many nations-so that they would know each other?! Bottom Line: the Arabs and the Jews need to make a just arrangement. Everyone outside of the Muslim and Jewish tribal world knows that! But these outsiders are not subject to the same collective, tribal ideologies and sentiments as the latter two.
- B) The Russia Ukraine Conflict
Russian Thought: Ukraine is not a real nation. They should be part of the Russian Empire as they were in the past
Ukrainian Thought: We are a sovereign country We want to be part of the Western world
Reality: Russia and Ukraine have a lot in common. They are both adherents to the orthodox Church. They both have a long history of corruption and anti-Semitism. Even their languages sound similar. A suitable arrangement needs to be made that allows for their similarities and differences.
N.B. As a Canadian I think we have a workable model to present to the World-the arrangement between the English and the French Canadians who also have a lot in common and notable differences.( For the naysayers, we will leave aside for now our treatment of the indigenous people which Canada is trying to come to terms with just as America is trying to come to terms with its history of slavery)
The Mass Deportations of Illegal Immigrants in America:
Government Thought: We have far too many illegal immigrants in our country. Many, if not most of them, have criminal records. We need to get them out as soon as possible. We were elected to do that
Immigrant Defenders’ Thought
Many of us have been here for a long time. We have worked hard and raised our children here to build a new life. This mass deportation is cruel and unjust.
Reality:
For whatever reasons, America has allowed in more immigrants than they can manage. ( In Canada which has been more honest about this issue, if not more generous, we have no such problem. So America brought this upon themselves) Whatever the reasons, they are unlikely to be of the benevolent nature. Many were allowed in to furnish cheap labour or for a political calculus by the Democratic party who saw future left-wing voters. In any case, they are here. Now that the borders are more or less sealed, America needs to do whatever it can needs to do about deeportations in a manner that is judicious, law-abiding and humanitarian. Treating all immigrants prima facie as if they were criminals does a disservice both to the immigrants and to the traditions of the founding of America itself.
As you can see from these few examples, ideology, principles, beliefs with all the emotions that underpin them leads to more and more suffering.
The only solution possible is to observe Reality clearly. Once properly perceived, that Reality will lead to proper decision-making. May Allah help us all !