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tawakkull · 3 years ago

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ISLAM 101: Spirituality in Islam: Part 52

Wasil (One Who Has Attained or Reached)

Literally meaning one who has reached the final point in a journey or who has met with the one or the thing that one intends to reach, wasil, in Sufi terminology, denotes one who, having been saved from all the veils of corporeality and carnality one after the other, and who has covered all the distances that originate from themselves, has reached the final point of their journey, where they feel and experience the company of God Almighty, Who is the nearest of all to everyone and every thing.

Surmounting all the veils of corporeality that surround a human being, one within the other, and reaching the horizon of experiencing God’s company is possible sometimes by God’s special help and attention, sometimes by special knowledge of God, sometimes by the serious endeavors and efforts made during a spiritual journey, sometimes by following a path in which we admit our innate impotence and poverty, as well as our enthusiasm and thankfulness, and sometimes by extraordinary Divine attraction. All of these means of reaching the final point of the spiritual journey are the manifestations of God’s grace on different wavelengths. Without His grace and special attention, a traveler can neither be saved from the veils of corporeality and carnality nor cover the distances that originate from themselves to reach the intended horizon. God is the One Who is the nearest of all to everyone and every thing, and it is He Who also brings those who strive to reach Him for His sake closer to Himself. Unless God brings us near, no one can feel the delight, which is called meeting, nor can they experience His company.

When God manifests His grace, He makes everything easy; He creates the means of doing it and bestows it instantly. Anonymous Common people can experience such a meeting or its shadow when they go to the other world with belief. However, there may be among them those who are drawn to the realms beyond through an extraordinary grace and who are favored with special compliments.

As for the elect who are God’s noble, greatly favored servants, they traverse the distances that originate in themselves while they are still in the world, feeling as if they are experiencing the truth of We are nearer to him than his jugular vein (50:16) from the horizon of the observation of the heart and spirit, each according to the degree of their conviction and knowledge of God and their place in God’s sight. They breathe God’s company in their inner world.

There are others who are more advanced than the elect. They are the heroes of special favor and attention. They observe such things from the horizon of the spiritual intellect and through the mysterious windows of “secret,” beyond all modalities of quality and quantity and beyond the limits of time and space, that they have neither been seen by other eyes nor heard by other ears nor conceived of by other minds. We can describe these as the heroes who state: “If the veils between were removed, my certainty would not increase.”

If these heroes have reached that highest rank by following a spiritual path, then they are journeying “in God.” They rotate like satellites around the lights and mysteries of the Ultimate Truth, increasing more and more in profundity with every attempt they make, and even though they have realized the meeting with the One of all eternity, their journey toward Him is never-ending. They constantly pursue observations beyond “ certainty of knowledge,” continuously seek visions that lie beyond “ certainty of observation,” and experience intoxicating pleasures through the manifestations reflected in their world of spirit that emanate from the door that has been partially opened on “ certainty of experience.”

This peak of spirituality is where every hero of truth comes to see, know, hear, and experience the mysteries that belong to the realms beyond, and clearly discovers and witnesses the original essence and nature of everything animate or inanimate and their relationship with the Creator; in addition they are aware of the fact that everything belongs to Him, subsists with Him, and is bound to return and on the way of returning to Him. Those who are able to observe existence from this peak clearly see what is light and what is of light, what is separation and what is union, what is the pang of separation and what is the delight of reunion, what is transient and who is eternal, what is bound to decay and what is permanent. They confirm the truth of their theoretical knowledge on the basis of witnessing, observation, and experience.

Since this peak is also the horizon from which the Prophets, pure, saintly scholars, and saints observe and monitor the realms beyond, it is such an awe-inspiring and delightful area of special study for the heroes of meeting with God that it is impossibly difficult for there to be another Divine favor in the world equal to it. Reaching this point is a supreme attainment and rank; the favors that emanate from there are many and multifarious, and the point itself is where the world and the Hereafter are observed together. However, the hero of meeting who is distinguished with such degree of Divine attention and favors is and should be extremely reticent about the favors with which they have been honored, and is absolutely modest. They try to conceal their relationship with God even from their own eyes. Just as Divine Grandeur and Dignity require that there to be veils before the acts of God’s Power in the corporeal world, so too, the one who has reached the final point of journeying toward God and has been established there should not reveal the gifts that emanate at the peak of meeting with God. Even while they continue their relationships with the realms beyond the peak, they should frequently look down at the first step of the stairway which they have used to rise to that level and sigh in the consideration of: “We have not been able to know You as knowing You requires, O the All-Known!”, thus admitting their inability to worship God as the duty of worshipping God requires. As a result of this realization, they say: “We have not been able to worship You as worshipping You requires, O the All-Worshipped!” Thinking: “Why am I blessed with these Divine compliments and consideration even though I have never done anything to deserve them?”, the traveler should consider that whatever favor they have been honored with is purely a Divine gift.

If one with true knowledge of God, whose eyes are fixed only on the lights and mysteries beyond the Names and Attributes, attempts to reveal the Divine mysteries that they have perceived, they will not only be stunted, but will also cause shock and astonishment in the spirits of others. For this reason, such a person keeps their love and yearning buried in their bosom as something secret that has been entrusted to them, and they never reveal, nor are they permitted to reveal, the mysteries that belong to the realms beyond to those who have not yet been able to surpass themselves.

In fact, there are many who talk about these mysteries, but I think what they relate as mysteries must be their dreams or daydreams. All of those who talk about meeting with God are not ones who have reached the final point of spiritual journeying to meet with Him, just as everyone who follows a spiritual path is not one with true knowledge of God. One who has true knowledge of God is a hero confirmed by Divine grace, and is one who clearly observes the realms of Divine Names and Attributes and reads and comments what they observe correctly and without throwing others into confusion. This hero’s perception and awareness of the meanings that radiate from the corporeal or physical realm is called “ knowledge which is true,” while their observation of the lights and mysteries that belong to the realms beyond and further than beyond is termed as “ knowledge of the truth.” The Absolute Pourer of blessings causes this hero of spiritual knowledge to be aware of the mystery of His Glory beyond description, perception, and comparison, making this person happy and rejoiced with His special attention and consideration. Even though the mind cannot comprehend the true nature and occurrence of this mysterious favor, the conscious nature or conscience feels this trust with its particular capacity in waves of awe and amazement. The tongue prefers silence and the spirit falls silent in contemplation.

“ Knowledge of God’s Acts” is a Divine gift that may be sent to every initiate; “ knowledge of Divine Attributes and Essential Qualities or Characteristics” is a heavenly offering to the elect with a special capacity. “Knowledge of the truth” is a Divine favor and award for the most elect who have attained the level of developing their angelic aspect. Let those who are incapable of understanding continue not to understand, and those who are reluctant to accept insist on non-acceptance, those who are distinguished with knowledge of God constantly observe these mysteries and lights with the eyes of their souls and live in ecstasy.

In the eyes of the soul of those with knowledge of God there exists the light of spiritual knowledge; God’s help comes to them with the attainment of the mystery of this knowledge. Muhammed Lutfi As was summarized before (in the 2nd volume of Emerald Hills of the Heart) under the title of Ma‘rifa ( Knowledge of God), the attainments on the path toward knowledge of God are a mount, while those who have attained this knowledge are the rider, and their knowledge is their capital. For this reason, those who are devoid of this knowledge cannot traverse the distance from Him nor reach the point of meeting with Him, while a hero of this knowledge and meeting never thinks of turning back or being the lover of others. Why and how can such a person think such a thing when, in the words of Yunus,[1]they have found the choicest honey or the true source of all honey and have been nearly saved from the love of even their own soul. They have attained “the manifest conquest” or even “the absolute conquest,” which means being on the horizon of the manifestation of Divine Essence. Some of those who have been honored with this attainment at times live in such absorption and intoxication, like a happy one in whom the Lights of God are reflected, that they are aware of no one other than God, including themselves.

It should also be pointed out that there are so many degrees and levels of feeling and experience in this extraordinary attainment called “meeting with God” that none of the beloved servants of God who travel along the same route or axis can completely perceive the nature of another’s meeting with Him. Just as saints can know the ranks of each other only if God allows them to, the heroes of meeting being able to perceive the nature of others’ meeting with Him is also dependent on Divine inspiration. Unless God makes it known, no one can know what or where somebody is; students or initiates cannot know the mysteries of the guide’s or master’s meeting with God, and the master or guide cannot discover how a perfect student or an initiate with knowledge of God travels toward and realizes meeting with Him. It is the Creator Who knows everything, and others can know only to the extent that God allows them to know.

For this reason, as it was also the case with some of the Companions of the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, since many perfect human beings, at least many travelers toward God who are candidates for perfection—even though they are favored with knowledge of God and meeting with God—cannot or are not allowed to know the horizon of those who have close relationships with God or the peak where they stand, they may not accept others of the same degree of nearness to God as them, even though the latter are pure, saintly scholars who are heirs to the mission of the Prophets; they may even go so far as to disparage them. This standpoint may sometimes be a risky trial for the travelers on the path toward God. Although, provided they keep silent about others and purify their hearts of bad moral qualities, they are candidates to be the doves of the heaven of sainthood, they suffer losses on the way to earning, either due to their biased love of their own ways or their hostility toward others or envy of God’s favors on others, and cause the people of heresy and unbelief to rejoice by taking up a stance against God’s close friends. Another cause of loss is that one sees oneself and their group as being great and qualified to guide others, while perceiving of others as insignificant and in need of guidance. There are as many paths toward God as the breaths of creatures and it is possible for everyone who travels toward Him sincerely to attain a certain degree of nearness to God and to realize some sort of meeting with Him. It is not vanity, self-esteem, self-assertion, or pretension, but modesty, self-denial, and mortification that are fundamentally important in traveling toward God. No one knows how many people who have been paid no importance by others have reached the Ultimate Truth, while many others who are self-esteemed and hold a position in people’s eyes have remained at the half-way point.

I think it is fitting to put an end to this parenthetical discussion with the following stanza by Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum:[2]

Haqqi, come and do not reveal your secret, If you intend to become matured on this path. Do not look down on the people who are ruined in appearance, There are ruins that hold secret treasures. It is primarily dependent on God’s grace and help – may God never leave us deprived of His grace and help – and secondarily on the endeavor (himma) of the servant that the one who wills or the willing one can desire God, and that an initiate can travel toward Him in accordance with the rules of travel, and that one who has reached the end of the path to reach Him can traverse the distances originating in themselves, and that all these Divine favors and blessings continue. Endeavor is an important provision for one who has reached the end of the path and God’s intimacy or special nearness and treatment is a special favor of Divine companionship for such a hero.

When used concerning the servants of God, the term himma ( endeavor) means trying, self-exertion, making an effort, resolution, starting an approvable task with sincere intention and feeling the excitement of responsibility with all the strength of the heart; when this term is used to refer to God, it denotes His response to all these activities (with special succor and reward).

Endeavor is an important dynamic for the traveler to the Ultimate Truth. The peaks that seem to be insurmountable are usually surmounted through endeavor, and it is also through endeavor that the steps along the stairway toward God and the pleasures and states of meeting with Him are determined. However, the travelers, the heroes of endeavor, are different from one another. A traveler who is always alert, in continuous pursuit of the realization of a goal with all their outer and inner senses, and always dreams of meeting with God with their eyes fixed on the door—such a traveler adopts a posture in the location where they are particular to themselves. While the posture of those who are trying to fulfill the Divine purpose of their creation in all their acts by carrying out what is necessary with their free will, is one of standing in perfect respect at the door of God. The worshipful attitude of another, of the hero of meeting with God, the one who has assigned all their endeavors, every day, hour, minute, and second of their life to earning God’s approval and good pleasure, and who is distant from all considerations of state and station, who always thinks of and mentions God alone, and turns to God on the way of knowing Him with perfect certainty, and who is forgetful of their own desires, seeking God alone, preferring a single instant spent in His sacred company to any other achievement – this worshipful attitude of such a hero of meeting is completely different.

In fact, being freed from all other physical and spiritual relationships, our turning to the Ultimate Truth with a feeling of great need and melting away in Him is God’s right on us and our duty toward Him. A human being has a single heart that can bear the love of a single beloved. For this reason, we should assign this Divine intellect of ours to His love alone, closing all doors on everything but Him, and fixing our eyes on Him in utter oblivion of even ourselves, with a yearning to meet the All-Loved and Besought One. A person is valuable to the extent of their endeavors. Thus, one who has reached God after a faultless journey is also a hero of endeavor.

The author of al-Lujja[3] expresses this heroism as follows:

If you want to fly upwards, unfold your wings of endeavor, For what is primarily required for flying are wings. Those who have kept their wings of endeavor stretched out have, by God’s leave, neither remained half-way nor fallen prey to wild beasts.

Some have interpreted endeavor as purifying one’s bodily life from attachment to anything worldly, one’s spiritual life from the pursuit of spiritual pleasures, and one’s heart from consideration of Paradise and its pleasures, thus being turned to the Truly Worshipped, Deservedly Besought One with all of one’s senses and faculties. I think they refer to the whole-hearted devotion which is mentioned in the verse, And keep in remembrance the Name of your Lord (and mention It in your Prayer), and devote yourself to Him whole-heartedly (73:8), which expresses a special attitude of nearness to God for those who have a special relationship with Him, and is a call to a different, special meeting with Him. Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, was the unequalled hero of such whole-hearted devotion and the foremost addressee of such a call. He covered his distance from God and was the nearest of all to Him. Despite this, Prophet Muhammad never slackened in his endeavors and used to make extraordinary efforts to be able to remain turned to Him and to meet with Him. He was in continuous pursuit of “what is more and further,” for he was the guide of all initiates, and the leader of all who reached and would reach Him. For this reason, he guided everybody to the path of becoming close to God and instructed them in the manners that were to be assumed for His company and His special nearness. This path requires endeavor, and that horizon wants freedom from any inclination to anything else but Him. How beautifully the author of al- Minhaj speaks:

You will never be able to have special nearness to Him in His private “lodge,” Until you are completely freed from inclination to any other but Him. It is a requirement of courtesy to take off one’s worn-out clothes so that one can don the garment of satin offered by the Sultan. Being a most important aspect of human nature, the heart is a house of God in the sense that it is where His special attention and favors are manifested. Unless it is purified of any trace that belongs to others than Him, the Sultan will not turn to it with favor, and without this, meeting with Him is not possible. Everyone who has arrived at the end of the path and whom the Ultimate Truth has honored by making them aware of His nearness experiences some degree of meeting, according to their capacity and the breadth and brightness of their mirror of spirit. The meeting of some is crowned with God’s special nearness and relationship and the one who has attained this degree of meeting is regarded as an “intimate one.” Literally meaning a close, bosom friend, this term in the terminology of some Sufi masters denotes one who feels togetherness with God at heart and in spirit to the extent that they only think of Him, with everybody else having completely disappeared from sight and being removed from the heart. This is companionship with God that is experienced beyond time and space and beyond all modalities of quality and quantity.

Some heroes of meeting voice this honor of special nearness by continuously mentioning God with His Acts, Names, and Attributes. This favor is called “ intimacy with mentioning of God.” There is another, deeper state which they call “ intimacy with God.” In this state one is completely freed from any concern for anything but Him, remaining continuously turned to Him with the sensations of all one’s spiritual faculties, and constantly breathing His presence without ever thinking of anything or anyone other than Him. In a blessed, figurative saying which is related as a hadith qudsi—the Prophetic saying whose meaning was inspired in the Prophet’s heart directly by God—God says: “I am together with one who mentions Me and I am an intimate friend of one who has acquired intimacy with Me.” In another narration in which Prophet David, upon him be peace, is addressed, it is said: “O David! Yearn for Me and acquire intimacy with Me. Part company with all else other than Me.” We should understand that by the phrase “parting company with” or “keeping apart from all else than God Almighty,” the travelers of the path to God should not feel any concern for anything or anyone but God on account of that thing or person itself. Nothing has an existence independent of Him and everything depends on His Names and Attributes. For this reason, those who have true knowledge of God always perceive the Names in whatever there is in the universe and feel a form of relationship with the creation on account of the Names Which are the source of their existence; thus they are gradually freed from other connections and are able to turn to the All-Sacred Being called by the Names, beginning to breathe “intimacy with mention of God” and “ intimacy with God.”

Imam al-Ghazzali[4] reminds us that intimacy with God is an exalted position which every traveler toward God cannot attain; he tells us the following:

Every hero who attempts to reach God cannot grasp intimacy with God; Even those who resort to every means they can find cannot perceive it. Those of intimacy with God are all noble, generous, purified heroes; They always work and act purely for the sake of God.[5] Those who have intimacy with God are the favorites of the realms beyond heavens and the most fortunate among those with nearness to God. They have traversed the distance that originates from their own selves, felt His nearness to everything, enjoyed special compliments as the ones who have reached Him, and have been firmly established in His intimacy.

In the state of intimacy that is beyond any measure, Divine manifestations are always felt on different wavelengths. It sometimes happens that certain manifestations of Divine Majesty touch and stroke the faculties of those who have reached Him, during which they feel enveloped with feelings of fear and awe. After a time, there is a period in which the manifestations of His Grace surround them, and at this time they find themselves with more profound sensations of intimacy. In the former state, those who have reached Him tremble and shake like trees and turn pale like the leaves turning in the fall. When faced by the showers of the latter sort of manifestation, they breathe: “I have found the honey of all honey, the source of all honey; let whatever I have be plundered.” In an atmosphere in which they continuously feel and experience new instances of attention and favors, they regard everything, including their own selves, as being among that which is other than Him, and thus try to keep distant even from themselves. Even if they live among people, they never get entangled in any veil, and hear, see, and speak about Him alone. They even avoid imagining anything that is transient or bound to decay, their eyes are closed to anything other than His Light, they regard any speeches that are not about Him as empty words, and react against any manners, speeches, or acts that do not remind of Him or cause to be aware of Him or increase the relationship with Him. Whenever they hear a speech or see an action that is not related to Him, they feel as if their heart was bleeding.

Those distinguished with true knowledge of God always preserve their respectful attitude both in the state of meeting with Him and intimacy with Him. They are always in a state of fear, due reverence, and awe. Whatever state they are in, they manifest good manners and modesty. Even though they sometimes feel a tendency toward affectation and utterances that do not comply with the essentials of the Religion in the face of the compassionate and complimentary manifestations of Divine Grace, they immediately tremble and pull themselves together due to their continuous awareness and self-possession, bowing in utter respect and assuming the manners that are required by their positions.

All that we have been trying so far to explain concerning “the one who has attained or reached” are certain features of the states of those who have reached the end of their spiritual journey and met with God. Those who do not experience or taste these cannot perceive or know them, and it is not known to what extent those who know reveal what they know. The sweetness of the honey can only be perceived when the honey is tasted, the smell of a rose is only sensed when the rose is smelt, and the spiritual states can only be known when they are experienced. A friend of the Ultimate Truth expresses his experiences to those who have not had these experiences as follows:

If you are a weeping nightingale, come to the rose-garden; Attain fresh fragrance from the fresh roses. O God! I ask you for belief which has penetrated my heart and certainty which does not mislead, so that I may know certainly that nothing but what You have preordained will not happen to me; and bestow blessing and peace on Prophet Muhammad and His family and Companions.

* Meeting with God and Wasil (the one who has attained or reached) have been described in the third volume of Emerald Hills of the Heart – Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, pp. 16–24. Here it is described together with “the one who wills” and “the initiate” on account of the final gifts that come in return for meeting with God or reaching the end of the journey, and the self-possession that is required in return for these gifts. [1] Yunus Emre (1240–1320). One of the most famous Sufi folk poets who have made a great impact on the Muslim-Turkish culture. His philosophy, metaphysics and humanism have been examined in various symposiums and conferences on a regular basis both in Turkey and abroad. [2] Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum (1703–1780) was one of the most outstanding figures in the Ottoman Turkey of the 18th century. He lived in Erzurum and Siirt in the Eastern Turkey. He was a prolific, encyclopedic Sufi guide and writer, who wrote in many subjects such as Theology, Morality, Mathematics, Astronomy, and Medicine. His Ma‘rifatname (“The Book of Knowledge”) is very famous and still being widely read. [3] The author of al-Lujja is Mawlana Nuru’d-Din ‘Abdu’r-Rahman ibn Ahmad al-Jami‘ (1414–1492). He is commonly called the last great classical poet of Persia, and was a saint. He composed numerous lyrics and idylls, as well as many works in prose. His Salaman wu Absal is an allegory of profane and sacred love. Some of his other works include Haft Awrang, Tuhfatu’l-Ahrar, Layla wu Majnun, Fatihatu’sh-Shabab, Lawa’ih, ad-Durrah. [4] Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali (1058–1111): A major theologian, jurist, and sage who was considered a reviver (of Islam’s purity and vitality) during his time. Known in Europe as Algazel, he was the architect of Islam’s later development. He wrote many books, the most famous being Ihyau ‘Ulumi’d-Din (“Reviving the Religious Sciences”). [5] Ihyau Ulumi’d-Din 4:340.

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4dorks-1windmage-1shadow · 5 years ago

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Vaati as a D&D Character, Part 6: Vaati

Inspired by a question I saw on @hauntinghyrule ‘s blog. My character analysis and thoughts on what character class the boys would be if they were D&D characters, and why. Also! @atinybitweird has been drawing the boys D&D designs, and she’s doing really great! I’ll link to her posts on the individual analysis as well as reblog them here so look out for those : D

Green / Red / Blue / Vio / Shadow / FS Zelda

As a preface, there won’t be any doubles on classes except in the case of dual-classing, and in those cases the first class I talk about my justifications for will be the primary class (i.e. the class they would have chosen at level one). My choices will be based on the character theming and personalities, even though at a base level it would be easy to say “they’re all paladins, duh” because of the implied “holy knight chosen by the gods to eradicate evil” concept. HA I TRICKED YOU We’re talking about Vaati now. I’m gonna blow your mind. Here’s a revolutionary concept I bet nobody’s thought of before (I’m being sarcastic do NOT message me): Vaati’s not a sorcerer, he’s a wizard. Or rather he was a wizard before he abandoned his studies to cheat his way to becoming a powerful Sorcerer. But Athena, he’s the Sorcerer of Winds, not the Wizard of Winds? Why is he a wizard then? BECAUSE CHILDHOOD THAT’S WHY. Vaati’s origin story is that he was the apprentice of a renowned and legendary Minish sage, Ezlo. Wizards are the only magic users who become magic users through study- both personal study and through apprenticeships and formal schooling. Until Vaati used Ezlo’s Wishing Cap to turn himself into a Sorcerer (thereby dual-classing from an intelligence based spellcaster to a charisma based spellcaster), he was probably learning to harness the arcane arts through good old fashioned book learning (and of course, Ezlo’s tutelage). He may have even chosen an Arcane Tradition to study under Ezlo before realizing that the Wishing Cap was a quicker shortcut to the power and change that he wanted to enact. You only need 2 levels in Wizard to choose an Arcane Tradition, and at that point the only abilities Vaati really has is some low-level Wizard spellcasting, Arcane Recovery, and the 2nd level Arcane Tradition ability which is pretty fitting and just shows how lazy Vaati ended up being. Every Arcane Tradition has a little section telling you what the school of magic is about, and the one that made me think “oh yeah, that’s what Vaati would be into” was the School of Transmutation description. It reads thus:

“You are a student of spells that modify energy and matter. To you, the world is not a fixed thing, but eminently mutable, and you delight in being an agent of change. You wield the raw stuff of creation and learn to alter both physical forms and mental qualities. Your magic gives you the tools to become a smith on reality’s forge.

Some transmuters are tinkerers and pranksters, turning people into toads and transforming copper into silver for fun and occasional profit. Others pursue their magical studies with deadly seriousness, seeking the power of the gods to make and destroy worlds.” - Player’s Handbook, Page 119

You’ll notice I bolded some stuff in those paragraphs- that’s because they can directly relate to events in Vaati’s timeline as a character. He has five forms which, as far as I know, makes him the villain with the most forms out of all the Zelda villains. His most plot relevant moments involve him transmuting someone into a different form including himself, the Gleerok in the Cave of Flames, the Great Mayfly Fairy (in the manga), Ezlo, and Princess Zelda. His element is Wind, which is most commonly associated with change, adaptation and flexibility, and Transmutation is about mastering magic that does these exact things. Vaati’s ultimate goal was to become a “perfect” version of himself by finding the Light Force and using it to turn himself into a god, which worked for the entire Vaati Reborn battle. If he had just applied himself to his studies under Ezlo, he wouldn’t have needed to cheat and use the Wishing Cap to make himself a powerful sorcerer. Just for fun, lets talk about what he would have gained by only being a wizard. First, he would have access to certain spells that he could cast without using spell slots, including Polymorph. School of Transmutation lets him create a Transmuter’s Stone, which he can use to grant himself darkvision, increase his speed, grant himself proficiency in Constitution saving throws, or resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning or thunder damage. This Transmuter’s Stone could later be used to emit a burst of power that would allow him to transform objects no bigger than a 5 ft cube into other objects of similar sizes, masses and value, as well as remove all curses, diseases and poisons from an afflicted person while healing them to their maximum HP; he would be able to cast Raise the Dead without using a spell slot and even if he didn’t have it written in his spell book, and even use it to reverse the effects of aging on a person to a minimum of 13 years. He could have had a fucking Philosopher’s Stone but he CHEATED!!! Wizards by far have the most diverse amount of spells that they can learn, and by only taking 2 levels in wizard he locks himself into only having access to level 1 wizard spells and cantrips. By taking Sorcerer, he still gets access to 9th level sorcerer spells, but the amount of 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th level sorcerer spells is half the amount of wizard spells of those same levels. His spells have a wider range of versatility with the Metamagic options supplied by the Sorcerer class, and although he wouldn’t get the cool perks of Transmutation Wizard, Storm Sorcery is nothing to joke about. This is where the Sorcerer of the Winds part comes in- Vaati altered reality using the Wishing Cap and imbued himself with the power of elemental air. He finally gets to use those sweet sweet Evocation, Conjuration and Necromancy spells that I theorize Ezlo wouldn’t have let him dabble into much because the Minish are a peaceful race- why would their sages need to know Meteor Swarm (Evocation) or Flaming Sphere (Conjuration) or Soul Cage (Necromancy)? And Storm Sorcery perks are pretty awesome. Vaati learns to speak, read and write the language of elementals, and whenever he casts a spell of 1st level or higher he can fly up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks. He gains resistance to lightning and thunder damage, and when casting spells of 1st level or higher that deal lightning or thunder damage he can cause anyone within 10 feet of him to take lightning/thunder damage equal to half his sorcerer level automatically. Eventually, when he’s hit with melee attacks he can deal lightning damage to the attacker equal to his sorcerer level and push them away with a burst of wind, up to 20 feet. And his two levels in wizard mean that he still gets the highest Storm Sorcery ability at 18th level: immunity to lightning and thunder damage, and a magical flying speed of 60 feet. Vaati’s transformation really just gives him all of his wishes on a platter, no pun intended- the freedom to fly and power to wield the elements and change himself on the fly- and his high Intelligence stat means he knows how to use those abilities to gain the advantage, making him a formidable opponent and party member. In conclusion, Vaati is a level 2 Transmutation Wizard, who dual-classed to Storm Sorcery Sorcerer through the power of a wish.

#IM SO PISSED #I HAD THIS POST WRITTEN OUT #AND THEN MY COMPUTER ZOOMED OUT BECAUSE MY HANDS BRUSHED AGAINST THE TOUCH PAD #AND IT DELETED MY WHOLE FUCKING POST #AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH #THIS WAS WRITTEN OUT OF RAGE #FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK #FUCK THIS SHIT #FUCK MY SHITTY COMPUTER #four swords #minish cap #vaati #character analysis #dungeons and dragons #im done writing this and less angry so i will just say #vaati changing from an intelligence spellcaster to a charisma spellcaster makes sense if you take into account four swords games #specifically the first one #where he kidnaps maidens and stuff #which means he had a stupid amount of confidence in how charming he actually was or he actually was that charming #and zelda was just having none of it #editing the tags to say #what if the wishing cap was a wizard hat #just sayin y'all

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basicsofislam · 4 years ago

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ISLAM 101: Muslim Culture and Character: Embracing The World:

ISLAM – A RELIGION OF TOLERANCE

Islam is a word derived from the root words silm and salamah. It means surrendering, guiding to peace and contentment, and establishing security and accord.

Islam is a religion of security, safety, and peace. These principles permeate the lives of Muslims. When Muslims stand to pray, they cut their connection with this world, turning to their Lord in faith and obedience, and standing at attention in His presence. Completing the prayer, as if they were returning back to life, they greet those on their right and left by wishing peace: “Remain safe and in peace.” With a wish for safety and security, peace and contentment, they return to the ordinary world once again.

Greeting and wishing safety and security for others is considered one of the most beneficial acts in Islam. When asked which act in Islam is the most beneficial, the Prophet replied, “Feeding others and greeting those you know and those you do not know.”[1]

Accusing Islam of Terrorism

How unfortunate it is that Islam, which is based on this understanding and spirit, is shown by some circles to be synonymous with terrorism. This is a great historical mistake; wrapping a system based on safety and trust in a veil of terrorism just shows that the spirit of Islam remains unknown. If one were to seek the true face of Islam in its own sources, history, and true representatives, then one would discover that it contains no harshness, cruelty, or fanaticism. It is a religion of forgiveness, pardon, and tolerance, as such saints and princes of love and tolerance as Rumi, Yunus Emre, Ahmed Yesevi,[2] Bediüzzaman,[3] and many others have so beautifully expressed. They spent their lives preaching tolerance, and each became a legend in his own time as an embodiment of love and tolerance.

Jihad can be a matter of self-defense or of removing obstacles between God and human free choice. Our history is full of examples that show how this principle has been implemented in life.

Of course there are and should be occasions where war is unavoidable. However, the Qur’anic verses on jihad that were revealed for particular conditions have been generalized by some short-sighted individuals. Whereas in actual fact war is a matter of secondary importance, it has been given priority as an essential issue by these people. Such people do not understand the true meaning and spirit of Islam. Their failure to establish a proper balance between what is primary and what is secondary leads others to conclude that Islam advocates malice and hatred in the soul, whereas true Muslims are full of love and affection for all creation. Regarding this, how apt is the following couplet:

Muhammad was born out of love,

What can be born out of love without Muhammad?

Love Is the Essence of Creation

The Pride of Humanity was a man of love and affection. One of his names was Habibullah (the Beloved of God). In addition to meaning one who loves, habib means one who is loved, one who loves God, and one who is loved by God. Sufi masters like Imam Rabbani,[4] Mawlana Khalid,[5] and Shah Waliyyullah[6] state that love is the ultimate station of the spiritual journey.

God created the universe as a manifestation of His love for His creatures, in particular humanity, and Islam became the fabric woven out of this love. In the words of Bediüzzaman, love is the essence of creation. Just as a mother’s love and compassion compels her to allow a surgeon to operate on her sick child to save his or her life, jihad allows war, if needed, to preserve such fundamental human rights as the right to life and religious freedom. Jihad does not exclusively mean war.

Once a friend said to me: “Without exception and regardless of differences in faith, you meet with everyone, and this breaks the tension of Muslims toward probable opponents. But it is an Islamic principle to love those things or people who must be loved on the way of God and dislike those things or people who must be disliked on the way of God.” Actually this principle is often misunderstood, for in Islam all of creation is to be loved according to the rule of loving on God’s way.

“Disliking on the way of God” applies only to feelings, thoughts, and attributes. Thus, we should dislike such things as immorality, unbelief, and polytheism, not the people who engage in such activities. God created humanity as noble beings, and everyone, to a certain degree, has a share in this nobility. His Messenger once stood up out of respect for humanity as the funeral procession of a Jew passed by. When reminded that the deceased was a Jew, the Prophet replied: “But he is a human,” thereby showing the value Islam gives to human.

This action demonstrates how highly our Prophet respected every person. Given this, the involvement of some self-proclaimed Muslim individuals or institutions in terrorist activities can in no way be approved of by Islam. The reasons for this terrorism should be sought for in the actions themselves, in false interpretations of the faith, and in other factors and motives. Islam does not support terror, so how could a Muslim who truly understands Islam be a terrorist?

If we can spread the Islamic understanding of such heroes of love as Niyazi-i Misri,[7] Yunus Emre, and Rumi globally, if we can extend their messages of love, dialogue, and tolerance to those who thirst for this message, then everyone will run toward the embrace of love, peace, and tolerance that we represent.

The definition of tolerance in Islam is such that the Prophet even prohibited verbal abuse of unbelievers. For example, Abu Jahl died before embracing Islam, despite all the Prophet’s efforts. His unbelief and enmity toward the Prophet was such that he deserved the title Abu Jahl: Father of ignorance and impudence. His untiring opposition to Islam was a thorn in the side of the Muslims.

Despite such hostility, when in an assembly of Companions where Abu Jahl’s son Ikrimah was present, the Prophet one day admonished a Companion who had been heard insulting Abu Jahl: “Do not hurt others by criticizing their fathers.”[8] Another time, he said: “Cursing your mother and father is a great sin.” The Companions asked: “O Messenger of God, would anyone curse their parents?” The Prince of Prophets replied: “When someone curses another’s father and the other curses his father in return, or when someone curses another’s mother and the other does the same in return, they will have cursed their parents.”[9]

While the Prophet of Mercy was inordinately sensitive when it came to respecting others, some Muslims today justify unpleasant behavior on the basis of religion. This shows that they do not understand Islam, a religion in which there is no place for malice and hatred.

The Qur’an strongly urges forgiveness and tolerance. In one verse, it says of pious people:

They swallow their anger and forgive people. God loves those who do good. (Al-Imran 3:134)

In other words, Muslims should not retaliate when verbally abused or attacked. If possible, as Yunus says, they should act as if they had no hand or tongue with which to respond and no heart with which to resent. They must swallow their anger and close their eyes to the faults of others. The words selected in the verse are very meaningful. Kazm, translated as swallowing, literally means swallowing something like a thorn, an object that actually cannot be swallowed; thus it denotes swallowing one’s wrath, no matter how difficult. Another verse, while mentioning the characteristics of believers, says:

When they meet hollow words or unseemly behavior, they pass them by with dignity. (Al-Furqan 25:72)

When we look at the exalted life of God’s Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, we see that he always practiced the precepts presented in the Qur’an. For example, a Companion once repented of a sin and admitted: “I am guilty of fornication. Whatever my punishment is, give it and cleanse me.” The Prince of Prophets said: “Go back and repent, for God forgives all sins.”[10] This event was repeated three times. Another time, a Companion complained to the Prophet that someone had stolen his belongings. But as the punishment was about to be carried out the Companion said: “I have changed my mind and do not want to pursue my case. I forgive this individual.” The Prophet asked: “Why did you bring this matter to court? Why didn’t you forgive him from the outset?”[11]

When such examples are studied from their original sources, it is clear that the method of those who act with enmity and hatred, who view everyone else with anger, and who blacken others as infidels is non-Islamic, for Islam is a religion of love and tolerance. A Muslim is a person of love and affection who avoids every kind of terrorist activity and who has no malice or hatred for anyone or anything.

[1] Abu Dawud, Adab, 142.

[2] Ahmed Yesevi (d. 1166): Sufi poet and early Turkish spiritual leader who had a powerful influence on the development of mystical orders throughout the Turkish-speaking world.

[3] Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960): An Islamic scholar of the highest standing with deep spirituality, a wide knowledge of modern science and the contemporary world. He believed that humanity could be saved from its crises and could achieve true progress and happiness only by knowing its true nature, and by recognizing and submitting to God. His Risale-i Nur (The Epistles of Light) deals with the Islamic essentials of faith, thought, worship, and morality and Qur’anic descriptions of Divine activity in the universe. Containing rational and logical proofs and explanations of all Qur’anic truths, it is his reply to those who deny them in the name of science. In his work, he reveals their many discrepancies and illogical statements.

[4] Imam Rabbani (Shaykh Ahmad al-Sirhindi) (1564?-1624): Indian Sufi and theologian who reasserted and revived the principles of Islamic faith and Sufi tradition in India against the syncretistic religious tendencies prevalent under the Mogul emperor Akbar. He was given the posthumous title: Mujaddid-i Alf-i Thani (Renovator of the Second [Islamic] Millennium).

[5] Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi (1778-1827): Naqshbandi master considered the mujaddid (reviver) of the thirteenth Islamic century. The Khalidi order, a new Naqshbandi branch, arose under his leadership and had acquired a large following by the end of the nineteenth century.

[6] Shah Waliyyullah Muhaddith of Delhi (1702-1762): A great scholar of the twelfth Islamic century. Some writers call him Khatam al-Muhadditheen (the last of the hadith scholars).

[7] Niyazi-i Misri (1618-1694). A Sufi poet and member of the Khalwati order.

[8] Hakim, al-Mustadrak, 3:241; Muttaqi al-Hindi, Kanz al-’Ummal, 13:540.

[9] Muslim, Iman, 145; Tirmidhi, Birr, 4.

[10] Muslim, Hudud, 17, 23; Bukhari, Hudud, 28.

[11] Abu Dawud, Hudud, 14(4394); Nasai, Sarik, 4 (8, 68); Muwatta, Hudud, 28, (2, 834).

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wisdomrays · 6 years ago

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KEY CONCEPTS OF SPIRITUALITY IN ISLAM : Wasil (One Who Has Attained or Reached)

When God manifests His grace, He makes everything easy; He creates the means of doing it and bestows it instantly. Anonymous

Common people can experience such a meeting or its shadow when they go to the other world with belief. However, there may be among them those who are drawn to the realms beyond through an extraordinary grace and who are favored with special compliments.

In the eyes of the soul of those with knowledge of God there exists the light of spiritual knowledge; God’s help comes to them with the attainment of the mystery of this knowledge. Muhammed Lutfi

As was summarized before (in the 2nd volume of Emerald Hills of the Heart) under the title of Ma‘rifa ( Knowledge of God), the attainments on the path toward knowledge of God are a mount, while those who have attained this knowledge are the rider, and their knowledge is their capital. For this reason, those who are devoid of this knowledge cannot traverse the distance from Him nor reach the point of meeting with Him, while a hero of this knowledge and meeting never thinks of turning back or being the lover of others. Why and how can such a person think such a thing when, in the words of Yunus,they have found the choicest honey or the true source of all honey and have been nearly saved from the love of even their own soul. They have attained “the manifest conquest” or even “the absolute conquest,” which means being on the horizon of the manifestation of Divine Essence. Some of those who have been honored with this attainment at times live in such absorption and intoxication, like a happy one in whom the Lights of God are reflected, that they are aware of no one other than God, including themselves.

I think it is fitting to put an end to this parenthetical discussion with the following stanza by Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum:

Haqqi, come and do not reveal your secret, If you intend to become matured on this path. Do not look down on the people who are ruined in appearance, There are ruins that hold secret treasures.

It is primarily dependent on God’s grace and help – may God never leave us deprived of His grace and help – and secondarily on the endeavor (himma) of the servant that the one who wills or the willing one can desire God, and that an initiate can travel toward Him in accordance with the rules of travel, and that one who has reached the end of the path to reach Him can traverse the distances originating in themselves, and that all these Divine favors and blessings continue. Endeavor is an important provision for one who has reached the end of the path and God’s intimacy or special nearness and treatment is a special favor of Divine companionship for such a hero.

The author of al-Lujja expresses this heroism as follows:

If you want to fly upwards, unfold your wings of endeavor, For what is primarily required for flying are wings.

Those who have kept their wings of endeavor stretched out have, by God’s leave, neither remained half-way nor fallen prey to wild beasts.

You will never be able to have special nearness to Him in His private “lodge,” Until you are completely freed from inclination to any other but Him.

It is a requirement of courtesy to take off one’s worn-out clothes so that one can don the garment of satin offered by the Sultan. Being a most important aspect of human nature, the heart is a house of God in the sense that it is where His special attention and favors are manifested. Unless it is purified of any trace that belongs to others than Him, the Sultan will not turn to it with favor, and without this, meeting with Him is not possible. Everyone who has arrived at the end of the path and whom the Ultimate Truth has honored by making them aware of His nearness experiences some degree of meeting, according to their capacity and the breadth and brightness of their mirror of spirit. The meeting of some is crowned with God’s special nearness and relationship and the one who has attained this degree of meeting is regarded as an “intimate one.” Literally meaning a close, bosom friend, this term in the terminology of some Sufi masters denotes one who feels togetherness with God at heart and in spirit to the extent that they only think of Him, with everybody else having completely disappeared from sight and being removed from the heart. This is companionship with God that is experienced beyond time and space and beyond all modalities of quality and quantity.

Imam al-Ghazzali reminds us that intimacy with God is an exalted position which every traveler toward God cannot attain; he tells us the following:

Those who have intimacy with God are the favorites of the realms beyond heavens and the most fortunate among those with nearness to God. They have traversed the distance that originates from their own selves, felt His nearness to everything, enjoyed special compliments as the ones who have reached Him, and have been firmly established in His intimacy.

If you are a weeping nightingale, come to the rose-garden; Attain fresh fragrance from the fresh roses.

O God! I ask you for belief which has penetrated my heart and certainty which does not mislead, so that I may know certainly that nothing but what You have preordained will not happen to me; and bestow blessing and peace on Prophet Muhammad and His family and Companions.

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hauntedtacotreetrash · 4 years ago

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(via Benefits of Bible Study)

October 1, 1892 — Benefits of Bible Study “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” In the Word of God is contained everything essential to the perfecting of the man of God. It is like a treasure-house, full of valuable and precious stores; but we do not appreciate its riches, nor realize the necessity of equipping ourselves with the treasures of truth. We do not realize the great necessity of searching the Scriptures for ourselves. Many neglect their study in order to pursue some worldly interest, or to indulge in some passing pleasure. A trifling affair is made an excuse for ignorance of the Scriptures. “Given by inspiration of God,” “able to make us wise unto salvation,” rendering the man of God “perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works,” the Book of books has the highest claims to our reverent attention. Superficial study cannot meet the claims it has upon us, nor furnish us with the benefit that is promised. We should seek to learn the full meaning of the words of truth, and to drink deep the spirit of the holy oracles. To read daily a certain number of chapters, or to commit to memory a stipulated amount of Scripture, without careful thought as to the meaning of the text, will profit little. To study one passage until its significance is clear to the mind, and its relation to the plan of salvation is evident, is of more value than the perusal of many chapters with no definite purpose in view and no positive instruction gained. We cannot obtain wisdom from the Word of God without giving earnest and prayerful attention to its study. It is true that some portions of Scripture are indeed too plain to be misunderstood; but there are many others whose meaning cannot be seen at a glance, for the truth does not lie upon the surface. In order to understand the meaning of such passages, scripture must be compared with scripture, there must be careful research and prayerful reflection. Such study will be richly repaid. As the miner discovers precious veins of metal concealed beneath the surface of the earth, so will he who perseveringly searches the Word of God as for hid treasure, find truths of the greatest value, which are concealed from the careless seeker. But if you do not make the sacred teachings of God’s Word the rule and guide of your life, the truth will be nothing to you. Truth is efficient only as it is carried out in practical life. If the Word of God condemns some habit you have indulged, a feeling you have cherished, a spirit you have manifested, turn not from the sacred monitor; but turn away from the evil of your doings, and let Jesus cleanse and sanctify your heart. Confess your faults, and forsake them wholly and determinedly, believing the promises of God, and showing your faith by your works. If the truths of the Bible are woven into practical life, they will bring the mind up from its earthliness and debasement. Those who are conversant with the Scriptures will be men and women who exert an elevating influence. In searching for Heaven-revealed truths, the Spirit of God is brought into close connection with the heart. An understanding of the revealed will of God enlarges the mind, expands, elevates, and endows it with new vigor, by bringing its faculties into contact with stupendous truth. No study is better to give energy to the mind, to strengthen the intellect, than the study of the Word of God. No other book is so potent in elevating the thoughts, in giving vigor to the faculties, as is the Bible, which contains the most ennobling truths. If God’s Word were studied as it should be, we should see greater breadth of mind, stability of purpose, and nobility of character. But Bible study is made a secondary consideration, and a great loss is sustained thereby. The understanding takes the level of the things with which it becomes familiar. If all would make the Bible their study, we should see a people who were better developed, who were capable of thinking more deeply, who would manifest greater intelligence than those who have earnestly studied the sciences and histories of the world, apart from the Bible. The Bible gives the true seeker for truth an advanced mental discipline, and he comes from contemplation of divine things with his faculties enriched; self is humbled, while God and his revealed truth are exalted. It is because men are unacquainted with the precious Bible histories, that there is so much lifting up of man, and so little honor given to God. The Bible contains that which will make the Christian strong in spirit and intellect. The psalmist says, “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” The Bible is a wonderful book, It is a history that opens up to us the past centuries. Without the Bible we should have been left to conjectures and fables in regard to the occurrences of past ages. It is a prophecy that unveils the future. It is the Word of God, unfolding to us the plan of salvation, pointing out the way by which we may escape eternal death and gain eternal life. It gives not only the history of this world, but a description of the world to come. It contains instruction concerning the wonders of the universe; it reveals to our understanding the character of the Author of the heavens and the earth. In it is the revelation of God to man. The searching of all books of philosophy and science cannot do for the mind and morals what Bible study can do, if it is made practical. He who studies the Bible holds converse with patriarchs and prophets. He comes in contact with truth clothed in elevated language, which exerts a fascinating power over the mind, and lifts the thoughts from the things of earth to the glory of the future, immortal life. What wisdom of man can compare with the revelation of the grandeur of God? Finite man, who knows not God, seeks to lessen the value of the Scriptures, claiming that his supposed knowledge of science will not harmonize with the Word of God; but the divine Word is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path

Go to www.klossycloss.com for more

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tawakkull · 4 years ago

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Spirituality in islam: Wasil (One Who Has Attained or Reached)

When God manifests His grace, He makes everything easy;

He creates the means of doing it and bestows it instantly.

Anonymous

In the eyes of the soul of those with knowledge of God there exists the light of spiritual knowledge;

God’s help comes to them with the attainment of the mystery of this knowledge.

Muhammed Lutfi

I think it is fitting to put an end to this parenthetical discussion with the following stanza by Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum:

Haqqi, come and do not reveal your secret,

If you intend to become matured on this path.

Do not look down on the people who are ruined in appearance,

There are ruins that hold secret treasures.

The author of al-Lujja expresses this heroism as follows:

If you want to fly upwards, unfold your wings of endeavor,

For what is primarily required for flying are wings.

Those who have kept their wings of endeavor stretched out have, by God’s leave, neither remained half-way nor fallen prey to wild beasts.

You will never be able to have special nearness to Him in His private “lodge,”

Until you are completely freed from inclination to any other but Him.

Imam al-Ghazzali reminds us that intimacy with God is an exalted position which every traveler toward God cannot attain; he tells us the following:

Every hero who attempts to reach God cannot grasp intimacy with God;

Even those who resort to every means they can find cannot perceive it.

Those of intimacy with God are all noble, generous, purified heroes;

They always work and act purely for the sake of God.

If you are a weeping nightingale, come to the rose-garden;

Attain fresh fragrance from the fresh roses.

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indomitablekushite · 8 years ago

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The patriotic, intelligent, enlightened, sophisticated, reliable, upwardly-mobile, proudly African, particularly the young and young at heart, is a Ma’at. It is probably too late to reform our over 40, 50 or so years old already too deeply captured by our oppressors’ lies and brainwashing and serving as the master’s megaphones, preachers, promoters and agents in our midst.

No true African is a Christian or Muslim. It is a contradiction in terms to link a legitimate African born, with Christianity or Islam. The idea is simply absurd, an abnormality, to say the least. These religions were the tools used to suppress and enslave our ancestors, and exploit and condemn us to our current state of wretchedness as a people, through ruthless brainwashing. A real African would have to be insane to identify with the religions the slavers used to obliterate his/her name, language, self-esteem, family, industries, history and intellectual, spiritual and material contributions to modern civilization. They are insane, because they rejoice the most over Yahweh’s ten plague attacks on our ancestors in Egypt. They compose songs, dance and make-merry over the idea, until they run out of strength and sleep off only to wake up the following morning and begin the shindig all over again over our adversities.

Of course, many would argue that there are some genuine Africans who are Christians or Muslims. Such arguments are usually based on the empty surface value of skin colour. The truth is that not every one that is Black or African on the outside is African inside. That is why after fifty years of flag independence, they are still hanging on to some mundane, outmoded, barbaric, narrow-minded, false, senseless, racist, alien spiritual pre-occupations, imposed by our selfish, de-humanizing slave masters. Typical African Christians and Muslims, call African cultures, traditions, values, and works of arts: primitive, savage and pagan. They smugly try to speak and carry themselves like the slave masters; insanely bleach to sore point to try to pass for White; arrogantly claim to be Christians and Muslims first, and due to their helpless, unappreciated freak of nature, Africans second. They are our Pastors and Imams, political leaders, school teachers, business tycoons and merchants, importing European excrements into our climes as fertilizers, because they believe, European excrement is superior to ours. They are usually the first to claim to be the authentic Africans only to be kneeling or hitting their heads on the floor the next minute, before images of their White and Arab gods, (Jesus, Muhammad, Yahweh-Allah), who they call their messiahs, husbands, fathers, saviours.

After the middle of the 17th century, the demand for Atlantic slave trade became insatiable and peaked in the 18th century. Each year, seven times as many slaves were leaving Western African coasts. For 500 years, from (1441-1870-1960 CE), with the Bible in one hand and the gun in the other, they unleashed a devastating, unprecedented, unrelenting, and un-godly, tyranny of hate, torture, enslavement, and colonization, on Africans. Africa was doubly disadvantaged; it was excluded from the economic flow engendered by the supposed ‘discoveries,’ and was bled dry by the exportation of humans in their dynamic ages, destined to replace the American Indians decimated by their European incursions. Progress on the continent came to a stop.

Many of the slave ships had Christian names, such as the ships of the slaver, Sir John Hawkins, licensed by Queen Elizabeth, named Jesus, Angel and Grace of God. Quite often, the captains of the slave ships were Christian clerics or priests. John Newton was one such captain of a slave-trading vessel. He read the Bible daily on board the ship while hundreds of human souls were in his ship’s hold. Pursued his studies for his ministry and held prayer services on deck twice daily. He wrote a hymn: “How Sweet the name of Jesus sounds.” Here is a White writer’s description of what happened on those ships: “Below the deck…sometimes more than five feet high and sometimes less; and this height is divided towards the middle, for the slaves lie in two rows, one above the other, on each side of the ship, close to each other like books upon a shelf…so close that the shelf would not easily contain any more. The poor creatures, thus cramped, are likewise in irons for the most part, which makes it difficult for them to turn or move or attempt to rise or lie down without hurting themselves or each other. Every morning, more instances than one are found of the living and the dead fastened together.”

To break and humble Africans, some of the most brutal and inhuman treatment in the history of mankind were practiced against them by Whites, on board those slave ships. Some captains, at the start of a journey would chop a number of slaves to bits, and force the others to watch and to eat the flesh. Torture and dismemberment were used to deter rebellion. White laws sanctioned the punishment meted out to Blacks by categorizing Africans as chattels, which like horses and cattle, could be bought, sold, mortgaged, borrowed, rented, bartered, etc. Christianity made slavery divine, arguing that the Africans were the children of Ham, who bore the curse of darkness from God. Missionaries often forced slaves to promise not to seek freedom, as a condition for being baptized. Women were routinely severely raped, and men were regularly castrated, their sex organs severed.

C.L.R. James in, (The Black Jacobins), tells us about some of the things that happened to our kith and kin on the sugar plantations in the Americas. “The whip was not always an ordinary cane or woven cord…sometimes it was replaced by a thick thong of cow hide, or by the lianes, a local growth of reeds, supple and pliant like whale bone…The slaves received the whip with more certainty and regularity than they received their food. It was the incentive to work and the guardian for discipline. But there was no ingenuity that fear of a depraved imagination could devise which was not employed to break their spirits and satisfy the lusts and resentment of their owners and guardians. Irons on the hands and feet, blocks of weed that the slaves had to drag behind them wherever they went, the tin-plate mask designed to prevent the slaves eating sugar cane, the iron collar. Whipping was interrupted in order to pass a piece of hot wood on the buttocks of the victims; salt, pepper, citron, cinders, aloes, and hot ashes were poured on the bleeding wounds. Mutilations were common, limbs, ears, and sometimes the private parts, to deprive them of the pleasure which they could indulge in without expense. Their masters poured burning wax on their arms and hands and shoulders, emptied the boiling sugar over their heads, burned them alive, roasted them on slow fires, filled them with gun power and blew them up with a match (this was called 'to burn a little powder in the ass of a nigger'); buried them up to their necks and smeared their heads with sugar that the flies might devour them, fastened them near to nests of ants or wasps; made then eat their excrement, drink their urine and lick the saliva of other slaves.”

Sir Han Sloane, an obvious sadist, who visited the British Islands in 1688, didn’t think the punishment he described (and quoted here), were harsh enough: “The slaves are punished…by nailing them down on the ground, and with crooked sticks on every limb, and their applying the fire by degrees from feet and hands, burning them gradually up to the head, whereby their pains are extravagant…by gelding (cutting off the balls) or chopping off half of the foot with an axe. Their punishment are suffered till they are raw; some (masters) put on their (slaves’) skins, pepper and salt to make them smart, at other times their masters will drop melted wax on their slaves’ skins and use several very exquisite torments…” In 1759 CE, F. Voltaire, who had all his life asserted that Africans were naturally inferior to Whites, published ‘Candide,’ a sting on religionists’ slavery of Africans. In 1772 CE, Rev. T. Thompson of the USA wrote that “the trade in Negro slaves on the African coast is in accordance with human principles and the laws of revealed religions.” In 1852 CE, Rev. Josiah, published a Bible defence of Black slavery in America, and in 1863 CE, ‘The London Times, with blazing headline, thundered that the Bible justifies Africans being sold and bought. It advised African slaves to ignore their freedom. Legal abolition of slavery was promptly replaced with colonization from 1880 for the next 80 years. The Berlin Conference to consolidate colonialism took place from Nov. 1884 to Feb. 1885. Charles Carrol published his “Biblical and scientific proof that the Negro is not a member of the human race, in 1900 CE.” Christianity and Islam create dichotomy between ‘Gods’ and humans to foster the master or select elite syndrome, to numb followers, to raise a loyal tribe of mindless servants, useful as idiots.

Islam de-humanizes Africans. Arabs are the most implacable and rabid Black haters on earth. Arabs call Africans abd (abeed), meaning, their ordained slaves. Islam, is their camouflage instrument of coercion, a comprehensive, abeed numbing, brainwashing, entrapping, mass breeding, lethally intoxicating concoction.

The Qur'an distinguishes between races by discriminating against Africans. There is a strong legacy of racism against Africans from early Arab-Islam because the language, traditions, and customs of the Arabs, support the down grading of the African race. Arabs’ attitude to Blacks derives from Genesis’ racist fiction about Noah’s sons. Arabs claim that “the accursed Ham was the progenitor of the Black race; that Japheth begat the full-faced, small eyes Europeans, and that Shem fathered the handsome of face with beautiful hair Arabs.” Arabs conveniently forget that they were produced by the mixture between their most advanced and superior race, the Kushites (Blacks), and the low-class, primitive White tribes that invaded Arabia land of the Blacks from 1550 BCE.

After conquering Egypt, Arabs began demanding Nubian slaves. From as early as 6 CE, they had developed slavery supply networks out of Africa, from the Sahara to the Red Sea, to Ethiopia, Somalia, and East Africa, to feed demands for slaves all over the Islamic world and the Indian Ocean region. The African male slaves were castrated and used as domestic servants, or to work the Sahara salt deposits, or on farms all over the Islamic world. The African female servants were continuously raped before being sold to households to be used as sex labour. This Arab trade in African slaves went on uninterrupted from the 6th century CE, to the 19th century CE, softening Africa militarily, culturally, economically, socially and politically, for the joint European and Arab onslaught on African people and economy, from the 15th century CE. Arabs, not only pioneered African slavery, they were also the principal raiders and middle men for the Atlantic slave trade that decimated populations in West African. Arabs in 1400 years enslaved and killed twenty times more Africans than the Whites did in 400 years. In the late 18th century CE, with most of the slave trade along the West African coast dominated by Christians, the bulk of the Arab slave trade shifted to Zanzibar, conquered then by Omani Arabs.

Dr. Azumah in his book, The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa, provides several examples of Islam’s hatred of Blacks. There is the hadith example in which an Ethiopian woman laments her racial inferiority to Muhammad, who consoles her by saying, "In Paradise, the whiteness of the Ethiopian will be seen over the stretch of a thousand years." Another hadith quotes Muhammad thus: "Do not bring black into your pedigree." In fact, the Arabic word for slave, “Abd,” became equated with Blacks with the advent of Islam. Osama Bin Laden, in a discussion with the Sudanese-American novelist, Kola Boof, in Morocco in 1996 said: “When next you meet an Arab, you should ask what the Arabic word is for slave; you’ll discover that the words are the same “abeed.” Which is why, when an Arab looks at a black African, what he sees is a slave.”

Muhammad owned and sold Black slaves. He ordered and built the pulpit of his mosque with African slave labour. The Qur'an encourages sex with female slaves in several places. Classical Islamic law allows a light-skinned Muslim man to marry a Black woman, but a Black Muslim man is restricted from marrying a light-skinned woman. As their literature puts it: "Only a whore, prefers blacks, the good woman will welcome death rather than being touched by a black man.” So interwoven is slavery with Islam that Islam’s holiest city, Mecca (site of the Hajj pilgrimage), was a slave trading capital. Quoting Azumah again, up until the 20th century, Mecca served as the gateway to the Muslim world for slaves brought out of Africa. "It became a custom for pilgrims to take slaves for sale in Mecca or buy one or two while on Hajj, as souvenirs to be kept, sold, or given as gifts, back home.” The African male slaves were castrated and the African female slaves were continuously raped. Off-spring of the illicit encounters were largely destroyed as unworthy to live. Between 650 CE and 1905 CE, over 20, 000,000 African slaves had been delivered through the Tans-Sahara route alone to the Islamic world. Dr. John Alembellah Azumah in, ‘The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa,’ estimates that over 80 million more died en-route.

A text from Dr. Azumah’s book provides this quote from a Zanzibar observer about the travails of African slaves’ en-route to slave markets around the Arabic world. “As they filed past, we noticed many chained together by the neck... The women, who were as numerous as the men, carried babies on their backs in addition to a tusk of ivory or other burden on their heads... It is difficult to adequately describe the filthy state of their bodies; in many instances not only scarred by [the whip], but feet and shoulders were a mass of open sores... half-starved ill-treated creatures who, weary and friendless, must have longed for death.” A Muslim herdsman, in Dr. Azumah’s book described the fate of those who became too ill or too weak to continue the journey as follows: “We speared them at once! For, if we did not, others would pretend they are ill, in order to avoid carrying their loads. No! We never leave them alive on the road; they all know this custom.” When asked who carries the ivory when a mother gets too tired to carry both her baby and the ivory, the herdsman replied, "She does! We cannot leave valuable ivory on the road. We spear the child and make her burden lighter.”

Arab and Persian literature depicts Blacks as "stupid, untruthful, vicious, sexually unbridled, ugly and distorted, excessively merry and easily affected by music and drink.” Nasir al-Din Tusi, a Muslim scholar said of Blacks: "The ape is more capable of being trained than the Negro.” Ibn Khaldun, an early Muslim thinker and scholar, writes that Blacks are "only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings." To Ibn Khaldum, “Blacks are characterized by levity and excitability and great emotionalism,” and added that “they are every where described as stupid.” Ibn Sina (Avicenna 980–1037), Arab’s most famous and influential philosopher/scientist in Islam, described Blacks as “people who are by their very nature slaves.” He wrote: “All African women are prostitutes, and the whole race of African men, are abeed (slave) stock.” He equated Black people with “rats plaguing the earth.” Al-Dimashqi, an Arab pseudo scientist wrote, “the Equator is inhabited by communities of blacks who may be numbered among the savage beasts. Their complexion and hair are burnt and they are physically and morally abnormal. Their brains almost boil from the sun’s heat…..” Ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadhani painted this no less horrid picture of Black people, “…..the zanj (the blacks) are overdone until they are burned, so that the child comes out between black, murky, malodorous, stinking, and crinkly-haired, with uneven limbs, deficient minds, and depraved passions…..”

NAIWU OSAHON

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spacesforcommoning · 5 years ago

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W. 17th June Community Art: The Politics of Trespassing by Paul Bruyne & Pascal Gielen (2011)

“One of the unintended consequences of modern capitalism is that it has strengthened the value of place, aroused a longing for community.” Richard Sennett, The Corrosion of Character 1998

P. 3

In 2009, the Italian philosopher Antonio Negri, published the book commonwealth which is co-authorised with the literary scientist Michael Hardt. The cook concludes a trilogy, begun with Empire and Multitude, of radical political philosophy that attempts to reinvigorate communism. Ideology aside, both supporters and detractors of Negri and Hardt acknowledge the importance of their critical analysis of global capitalism and neoliberalism. Whether or not eh solutions and strategies make sense remains open for debate. What is important here, however is the way in which Negri and Hardt breathed life into forgotten, supplanted and sometimes denounced concepts to offer different ways of looking at the world. Obsolete notions such as ‘multitude’, ‘general intellect’, ‘bio-power’ and also ‘love is re-actualised and refined for up-to-date societal analysis. When, in the 16th and 17th century, first in England and then all over Europe, the meadows, where animals grazed, and the forests, where everyone could gather wood, were privatized, the conflict about common ground was born. From the Christian side came the argument that God had given the earth and its beauty to all of humankind and that it should, therefore, be used in common.

Since the 1980s, the battle over the common has remerged, in a new guise and without transcendental allure, in a bid to oppose the advancing neo-liberalisation of government, which seeks to contract out national resources – such as water, soil and oil – to private enterprise. Some say that the state has conducted a full-scale clearance sale over the past 30 years, thus forfeiting its political grip on society. In cyber culture, a similar debate over ‘information commons’, ‘creative’ and ‘cultural commons’ has been going on for almost a decade. With these examples in mind, Hardt and Negri argue that the common is not limited to natural resources, but that man continually contributes to the production of language, knowledge, codes, information, emotion, affect, etc., which exist solely by virtue of social interactions and are easily shared. Forms of expression, creativity and art would lose their potency and dynamics if they could no longer draw on that common. Therefore, Hardt and Negri fervently resist the privatization of cultural products such as information, ideas and species of animals and plants. For them, open access to the natural and cultural common, the life source of community, is a prerequisite for a free and egalitarian society. By contrast, our times increasingly seem to deny that open access to the common. P. 9Between a conformist and a revolutionary attitude towards the public space, a ‘third way’ is introduced. From the contribution of Hein Schoer, about art in societies that have preserved a part of their pre-modern roots, it becomes clear that community art could only arise once the idea of community had largely been lost in modernity. From this moment on, art becomes not only an agent for social interaction and cultural stabilization, but also a factor within disorientation. Only then could it be charged with the artistic (and ethical) duty for charge, renewal and being different. As the ‘natural’ tie to community was lost, it had to be reconstructed. […] In considering that freedom takes shape within strict conditions and that democracy is not a natural state but merely an ideology that is maintained by force, Staal discusses the idea of ‘democratism’ as a prelude to pointing towards an ever-changing possible reality.P. 36Since its [community art] social gold aim (too) high, are ethically (too) pure, not artistic in nature and, on top of that, the actual effects of projects are extremely hard to measure, community art is heavily criticized from several sides. In particular, this criticism comes from those political and social forces which urge that it is not the dity of the state to support cultural projects (neoliberals), from political forces which think the community arts are, by definition, in league with the prevailing hegemony (ultra-left), from forces which feel that, under the guise of politically correct values, and unjust policy of positive discrimination is pursued with regard to socially damaging forces (‘Islam’, ‘loitering teens’, ‘criminals’) (ultra-right) or from the artist sector which urges that the autonomy of the arts is under pressure by art that is used in an instrumental way, since it is serving goals other than aesthetic ones (‘this isn’t art, this is social work’). Seen from a social and political point of view, community art is an expression of social democracy and related political movements, a typical welfare state product. P. 39 CA = Community Art Low Virtuosity (CA) High Virtuosity Instrumental (CA) Autonomous Individual (CA) Collective Monocultural (CA) Multicultural General Audience (CA) Limited audience Entertainment (CA) Art Conformism (CA) Subversiveness P. 51 Things in themselves rarely, if ever, have any one, single, fixed and unchanging meaning. Even something as obvious as a stone can be a stone, a boundary marker or a piece of sculpture, depending on what it means – that is, within a certain context of use […] It is by our use of things, and what we say, think and feel about them – how we represent them – that we give them a meaning. ‘‘What does community art mean?’ – that is the question. Like the stone in Stuart Hall’s quotation above, the term ‘community art’ had no meaning in itself, but we give it meaning. Just as a Sunday painter and the curator of a prestigious artistic happening define the concept of ‘art’ in different ways or the CEO of a multinational and single mother with four children relate to the concept of poverty entirely differently, so too the meaning of community art is created from various context.[…]A rigorous focus on language and on the language patterns that are used to speak and write about community art is, therefore, necessary. But – and here we return to Stuart Hall – no less important is that such an approach of discourse also focuses attention on the context of this language, in particular the social context. Discourse analysis is, after all, more than language analysis without obligation; it is critical of the social structure in the sense that it links language study to a broader picture – who says what and from which position? What purpose do the arguments serve? Which argumentation survives over time and which doesn’t and why? Terry Threadgold summarizes this critical discourse view as follows: ‘We should not “burrow” into discourse looking for meanings. We should look for the external conditions of its existence, appearance and regularity. We should explore the conditions of its possibility. Just how it is possible to think that, to say that – these are the questions we should be asking. In light of the above, discourse analysis into community art has the ambition of questioning the obvious meanings around community art, based on the idea that discourse is always connected to power, and therefore the obvious meanings should be viewed with suspicion. ‘Deconstruction, if such a thing exists, should open-up’ Derrida wrote. This means that the analysis of discourse should bring new or subordinate meanings to the forefront in an attempt to withdraw he construction of meaning from dominant power structures. Or as Shapiro formulates, ‘Deconstruction has the power to show how every social order rests on a forgetting of the exclusion practices through which one set of meanings has been institutionalized and various other possibilities have been marginalized.

P. 165

One of the most noticeable things about the oeuvre of Antonio Negri is that he often publishes works that echo multiple voices. Books are co-written, essays are produces in the form of letters. Texts assume the shape of dialogues as if they actually occurred as normal conversations. The conversation is, therefore, the perfect site as which the common takes shape. A conversation teaches us much about the common, not least through the fact that its formation presupposes a multitude of perspectives, differences, people, products and thoughts. The conversation teaches us that the common is formed in lively interaction and is constantly reconstructed. The common is a subject close to Negri’s heart; this is immediately evident in the titles of his recent works. By contrast, he never mentions community. He prefers the adjective that moves, shapes itself into something different and, most importantly, encompasses many undertones. ‘Common’ is an ontological and logical category that presupposes an internally contrasting multitude of singularities and brings them together.

P. 167

Antonio Negri

“I connect art to a view elementary experience. When I enter the exhibition of the Biennale, I want to find a description of reality. I want to understand something of the reality in which I am usually submerged, in my life and in other ways. An exhibition is a place where you are being submerged in a new element. That is the way it always is for me. Should this sense of submersion be lacking, no one would go to an exhibition anymore. An exhibition is like water you dive into. It is not merely about a genuine insertion, an entering, a connection. It is about physical connect, hence the image of entering the water and submerging oneself. The concept of ‘submersion’ is very important as experience. The ‘idea public space’ – which of course never existed – is a space for exchanging news, for forming opinions, for seeing and being seen, for eating a playing, dating and courting, for showing the clash between poor and rich, legal and illegal, for walking the dog and cursing (or occasionally worshipping) the weather gods; in short for living together. This idealized public space is often thwarted by increasing (car) traffic which leads to increasing congestion, and increase in light and sound pollution, and an exponentially increasing commercialization that curtails the public nature of the space. A rather remarkable semi-public space was created with the introduction of the shopping mall. Every effort was made to give the impression that it was an ideal public space (safe, clean, full of reciprocity and interaction, child-friendly, open, offering unhampered mobility, pleasant smells and sounds), while (legally speaking) it is a purely private space dedicated to maximizing profit. Community art has been deployed by various governments to fight these threats to the quality of living together in public space, not because they think believe the arts can solve the problems but they think they can strengthen community spirit, thereby creating a basis from which they are able to devise political solutions.”

P. 168

The graveyard feeling is caused by an unsuccessful submersion. Like when you go fishing under water; there, too, you dive into a new element, the water. If you leave the water without having caught a fish you feel a chill, you get cold, whereas after a successful catch you are content and get the impression that the water warms your spirit.

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wisdomrays · 6 years ago

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KEY CONCEPTS OF SPIRITUALITY IN ISLAM : Ma'rifa (Knowledge of God)

Ma'rifa is a special knowledge that is acquired through reflection, sincere endeavor, using one's conscience and inquiring into one's inner world. It is different from (scientific) knowledge ('ilm). (Scientific) knowledge is acquisition reached through study, investigation, analysis, and synthesis, while ma'rifais the substance of knowledge attained through reflection, intuition, and inner perception. The opposite of (scientific) knowledge is ignorance, while the opposite of ma'rifa is denial.

Knowledge means comprehending or encompassing something thoroughly, while ma'rifa means familiarity with or recognition of something-that something may be the Divine Being- in some of its aspects. For this reason, the One of Unity is called the All-Knowing ('Alim), but He has never been called the One having familiarity with something ('Arif). In addition, the exacting scholars of truth view ma'rifa, which also means information, talent, and skill, as the culture acquired by conscience or one's conscious nature. It has other meanings such as the ability to feel something with the spiritual faculty that humanity has been endowed with, the image of something known in the mind, and the knowledge kept in the memory which gains strength through repetition. From another perspective, it is consciousness, perception, and sufficient information which helps distinguish one thing from another. Ma'rifacan be summed up as having concise knowledge about something or someone through their acts or works and attributes-knowledge which can be developed and detailed.

In order that one can be among those who have knowledge of God and who are regarded by God as being one of such people, one should know God and the ways that lead to Him, recognizing the obstacles on the way, and knowing how to overcome these obstacles. One should also have enough will-power to apply what one knows. One who has true knowledge of God is a perfect human being who knows the Unique One, Who is the Eternally-Besought-of-All, with His Acts, Names and Attributes, and is a person in whose everyday life this knowledge shows itself. He or she is also one who always keeps the heart purified and pursues sincerity and purity of intention, who can remain free of negative moral qualities as far as possible, overcoming whatever dark emerges from the spirit and threatens to darken one's horizon, and thereby demonstrating loyalty to the All-Protector. Such a one can bear everything that befalls on God's way to obtain His approval, and invites others to the way of the Prophets, which shows itself through God's confirmation in every step, and whose lights he or she always feels with pleasure.

There is another approach to the meaning of ma'rifa, namely the ability to perceive something as exactly what it is in itself, in its quiddity, distinct from any and all things not directly connected with it. According to this approach, knowledge of God is knowing the Divine Being with His Essential and Positive Attributes beyond all conceptions of modality. This is different from comprehending, perceiving and establishing other things, and is based on perception and the feeling of conscience. This feeling and perception should not be confused with modern intuitionism. The Divine Being is beyond all concepts and cannot be comprehended, perceived or scientifically known, although a certain knowledge or familiarity can be acquired of Him through His acts, Names and Attributes.

The acknowledgment that The inability to perceive Him is the true perception, excellently expresses the inability of anything limited to perceive Him and the imperceptibility of the One Who is Infinite. The same meaning is exquisitely expressed in the saying, We are unable to know You, O Known One, as knowing You truly requires.

It is only God Whose existence is absolute, and the greatest truth is acknowledging His Existence and Oneness. The first step in acquiring knowledge of Him is the attainment of belief, being a Muslim, and excellence-worshipping Him as if seeing Him. In realizing such a blessed aim, one should continue one's traveling to the True Source of all gifts and blessings without turning to anything else as a source. One should be able to feel a new joy of reunion in every gift and blessing with which one is favored, and as the final point, gain familiarity with the mysteries of His Names and Attributes, and, if possible, of His Being.

This consideration is expressed as follows in Lutfiya Wahbi:

Try your hardest and be one who has ma'rifa of Him, One favored with knowledge of Him! For the All-Loving One declared, "so that I may be known;" Knowing God is the ultimate cause for the creation of the two worlds; And knowing God is the adornment of humanity. Those devoid of knowledge of Him are low in rank. Knowing Him is a spiritual kingdom, And Knowing Him is a Divine gift and blessing. .................................................................. When you, O moving spirit, receive this gift and blessing; The two worlds will be yours.

The following words, which are narrated in books concerning Sufism as a hadith qudsi-a saying, the meaning of which is from God and the wording of which was inspired in the Messenger-are the gist or kernel of all explanations concerning knowledge of God:

O humankind! One who knows his self also knows Me; one who knows Me seeks Me, and one who seeks Me certainly finds Me. One who finds Me attains all his aspirations and expectations, and prefers none over Me. O humankind! Be humble that you can have knowledge of Me; accustom yourself to hunger so that you can see Me; be sincere in your devotion to Me so that you can reach Me. O humankind! I am the Lord; one who knows his self also knows Me; one who renounces his self finds Me. In order to know Me, renounce your own self. A heart which has not flourished and been perfected is blind.

Knowledge of God sometimes becomes a source of wonder and astonishment for an initiate, as has been said, "One who knows the Truth becomes dumbfounded and tonguetied." But it sometimes becomes a means of expression for the traveler to the Truth, as has been said, "One who knows the Truth finds his voice." The voice finds its overflowing expression in one's excitement and speech and echoes in one's ears. Although opposites, both the saying of Muhammad Parisa, "There is none who knows the Divine Being other than Himself," and the saying, "I know none else save God," are true.

There is none other than Him who has a true, substantial existence, and there are no true acts other than those performed by Him. Other beings have a relative existence when compared with Him, and other acts are also relative. Whatever takes place in the cycle of causality is of a relative nature. For this reason, knowledge of God is when an initiate melts away in the light of the Truth and gains a second, true existence. This may be viewed as self-annihilation in God and subsistence with Him. I think the author of al-Minhaj stresses this fact in these verses:

If you can see with the lights of certainty, Then do not see one who knows and the One Known differently. Fuduli expresses this depth of knowledge of God as follows: One who knows God is not one who knows the wisdom of the world with what is in it, One who knows God is he who does not know what the world is with what is in it.

Sufis have made other descriptions concerning knowledge of God. According to these descriptions, knowledge of God is knowing the truth of the Divine Names and Attributes, grasping the phenomenon of the manifestations in existence and the discovery of the existential mystery, deeply perceiving the truth of existence with its originality and shadows, and understanding and representing in life the truth of religion according to the Will of the Desired One, Who is the final goal of those who set out to reach Him. Each of these descriptions requires a voluminous work to explain and is therefore beyond the scope of this study. We will only cite here some verses from Diyaiya ("The Book of Light") which point to some dimensions of the subject matter:

The third chapter is about knowledge of God, O valiant young one; To describe it the wheel of speech is unable to work. ........................................................................................... There is no scribe nor a pen to write about it; One cannot get his tongue around it to express it. .......................................................................................... The mirror of reason is veiled from understanding it; The ability of perception has nothing to say in it; Only the bird of imagination can fly toward it; There is no example that we can coin to explain it. ......................................................................................... Here the gift comes only from God; This is a light-diffusing, sacred rank. ........................................................................................ The whole of creation is immersed in this realm, Which is more spacious than all the worlds. ........................................................................................ There is no true existent save He Who is the One, Perceiving this is the real vision; Do not interpret this vision in another way, or else, It will mean unbelief and heresy, O one with body of light. It is not the eyes in the head which have this vision; The All-Loving One is all-free from vision by these eyes. The innermost faculty-secret-discerns this truth, When you find this faculty in you, you can understand it. Human scientific knowledge and perception have nothing to say; The merit is in wonder and helplessness in this field. Perception of one's helplessness is perception of the Truth; Listen to what Abu Bakr, the truthful one, says concerning it.

The rank of knowledge of God (ma'rifa) is a rank of wonder, utter astonishment, and awe. It is possible to see this in almost all the reflections of the scholars of Sufism on knowledge of God. Some of them see it in direct proportion to the excess of the feeling of awe and have concluded that the deeper one is in knowledge of God, the deeper one's feeling of awe is. Others regard knowledge of God as being the base of serenity and peacefulness and emphasize that inner peace and self-possession increase in proportion to the depth of knowledge of God. Still others consider knowledge of God as the heart's attainment of friendship with God and the initiate's following a way to nearness to God. The approach of Shibli opens new windows on the knowledge of God. According to him, it means that an initiate has an essential relation with none save God, making no complaints when burning with His love, is a sincere, obedient and faithful servant of God who avoids any claims of superiority, and one who worries about his or her end. A person with true knowledge of God and who has a strong connection with the sources of this knowledge, one who has taken refuge in the guidance of the spirit and meaning of the Prophethood, and who has built sound relations with the truths that lie beyond human horizons, cannot feel any essential interest in transitory things nor does lower him or herself to feel attachment to other than the Lord. The Qur'an alludes to this highest point in (35:28), Only the knowledgeable among His servants have true reverence for God, reminding the traveler of the relation between knowledge and awe or reverence of God. The greatest of those who have knowledge of God, upon him be peace and blessings, said concerning the same point: I am greater than you in knowledge of God, and more intense in fearing Him.

In the books on Sufism, in which the intellect guided by Revelation is operative, and which contain numerous gems of wisdom concerning the "garment of piety" of those who have true knowledge of God, with Whom their hearts are deeply connected, we can find many gems concerning knowledge of God. The following are only a few of them:

In the view of one favored with knowledge of God, the world with its material aspect becomes so small that it seems no greater than a cup.

The souls that have gained profundity in knowledge of God expand to the extent that it is as if they have no limits.

Those who taste the pleasure of knowledge of God, which is regarded as the sweetest of all honey, pursue no other wealth than nearness to the Truth.

The richness of the honeycomb of knowledge of God in the heart is one of the most essential sources of love and zeal. An initiate burns with the zeal of reunion in proportion to how much this source overflows its banks, which he or she sees as the price of the favors received.

The following points which differentiate those who have a sound knowledge of God from others are important. The former have no selfish expectations from whatever good they do, never think of competition for either material or spiritual ranks nor feel jealous of anybody. They do not see themselves as being greater than anyone else, nor do they moan because of missed opportunities, anymore than they feel arrogant because of their accomplishments. Even if they were granted the kingdom of the Prophet Solomon, they would only seek God's company, regarding it as futile to turn to other things. They feel no relation with beings other than the Almighty with respect to their worldly existence and corporeal self, and know that one moment of God's friendship is worth the entire world. They consider being with God among people as a victory that has been granted to their will-power, and see the Divine Will reflected in the face of their determination, recognizing the help of the Lord in the result of their endeavor, alongside many other instances of wisdom and God's extraordinary gifts. They observe the manifestations of the Divine Oneness in the multiplicity of the creation, and thereby they grasp how a drop is transformed into an ocean, and a particle into the sun. They witness in their conscience how nothingness or non-existence is a fertile land, to be planted with existence and live drowned in ecstasies and intoxication.

Self-possession, steadfastness, seriousness, profundity, and resolution are the clearest and most important signs of perfect knowledge of God. Those who have this degree of knowledge live under the shower of the manifestations of God's friendship and company. No sign of any flaws can be seen in their inner or outer world, nor is any laxity witnessed in their behaviors. They never show impertinence or conceit, even when favored with the most abundant gifts. On the contrary, they always act in a self-possessed manner, trying to lead a self-disciplined, spiritual life.

Obviously, everyone cannot have the same degree of knowledge of God. Some travel on the horizon of perceiving the Attributes essential to the Divine Being and the favors that accompany His acts. They observe and avail themselves of His proofs that are found within themselves and in the outer world, with the result that their love of truth and their relation with the Greatest of Truths are witnessed in their manners. They travel between the Divine acts, Names and Attributes and are thrilled with the different melodies of belief, knowledge of God, love, attraction and the feeling of being attracted by God to Himself. They feel in their conscience the reflections of the Divine acts or operations in the universe and pursue more and more the pleasure entailed in observing ever new colors and aspects. This is a way bequeathed by the Prophets and it is a way that can be followed by everyone. One who travels along this way of objective truth travels toward the Truth under the arches of His compliments.

On this path there are others who feel all the dimensions in existence ending in one dimension, who feel that everything is annihilated in God. It is as if they have reached a point where the lights and manifestations of the Divine Being and Attributes come together and annihilate their very being in the Divine Being, attaining a new existence with the Self-Subsistence of Him Who is the All-Knowing and the Ever-Existent.

While those belonging to the former group travel in the realm of the Divine Attributes and Qualities, others have already directed themselves to the Source of these Attributes and Qualities. Therefore, their observations and sensations are not aimed at either the Attributes exclusively in such a way as to veil the Being in their minds or spirits, nor at the Being exclusively in such a way as to suggest the denial of the Attributes. For this reason, such an approach has been regarded as the way of the perfected and most advanced, and the main path that is followed by those who travel to the greatest nearness to God.

The Book, the Sunna, reason, and the Divine system in creation and human primordial nature bear witness to the truth of this way along which God's works of art show themselves brightly. Initiates who have firmly established their feet on this path witness at every step that God witnesses His Existence and Oneness, and they cannot help but utter, God bears witness that surely there is no deity but He (3:18). They hear in their conscience the confirmations of angels and those possessed of knowledge as a reflection of God's witnessing, and continue to utter: and the angels and those possessed of knowledge (also bear witness to the same truth) (3: 18). Then, they see that all means and causes that are not essential to His Being having vanished, and they are able to be at perfect rest and to find perfect peace.

There are others who have such abundant knowledge of God that proofs of God are no longer needed in their world; all the things that witness Him are humbled in the face of their being in the Presence of the True Witness; all the means tremble with the shame of making distant whatever is near, and all the heralds are silent and busy with correcting the words that they have uttered. At this point, where everything is seen by the conscious nature as witnessing Him beyond all concepts of modality, the eyes are dazzled by the brightest manifestations of the Face, and all other identities save His are lost. Those who have reached this point see that the True Source of existence and knowledge surrounds everything from all sides, tasting the pleasure of perceiving every being's perception of Him according to their level, and feeling that everything is annihilated in Him. They sense the way in which the manifestations of the Divine Names are combined with those of the Being, Attributes and Acts. The conscience is saved from any feeling of dependence on causality and reaches the horizon of Surely we belong to God (as His creatures and servants), and surely to Him we are bound to return (2:156). But this never means, as some have assumed, "absolute annihilation" or "union with God."

Our Lord! Grant us from Your Presence a special mercy and arrange for us in our affairs what is right and for our good! And may Your peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad, by whom the mysteries came to light and the lights shone brightly upon his pure Companions.

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topicprinter · 6 years ago

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Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcQjBghtxMUI've done summaries of other books like:blinkthe E-Myth revisitedfeel the fear and do it anywaymindsetthe art of warthe lean startupthe hard thing about hard thingscrush it!delivering happinessthe personal mbathe $100 startupzero to onegritthe compound effectthe princethe slight edgemeditationswho moved my cheese?the one thingthe 6 pillars of self esttem7 habits of highly effective peoplesecrets of the millionaire mindthinking fast and slowthe power of positive thinkingthink and grow richhow to win friends and influence peoplerich dad poor dadthe subtle art of not giving a fuckmodels by mark mansonthe power of now12 rules for life by jordan petersonthe 10x rulethe inside out revolutionman's search for meaninghow to stop worrying and start livingmillionaire fastlane.and some others...If you're interested and want to subscribe here's a link:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfbLDMh6uGOZePAfqqjVZ-g?sub_confirmation=1If you'd prefer to read the script instead of watching the video, here it:The Alchemist by Paulo CoelhoThe Alchemist, Paulo Coelho’s bestselling book has sold over 65 million copies and translated into more than 56 languages.The Premise Of The BookThe underlying principle in Paulo Coelho’s book, The Alchemist, is a dedicated desire to work towards your aims.”The book tells the story of Santiago, a young shepherd boy who sets out on a personal quest to Egypt to find his “personal legend.” As he ventures out on his quest for personal greatness, the journey fast becomes an adventure full of challenges and obstacles the shepherd boy must face and triumph over if he is to attain his personal legend/greatness.“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”Paulo CoelhoThe Protagonist in the Alchemist is very relatable.If you’re interested in this book you can get 2 audiobooks for free with a trial of audible using the link in the description of this video. Subscribe and turn on the notification bell so you don’t miss any future summaries.Here are the main lessons learned from reading and implementing the principles taught in the Alchemist:Lesson 1: Pursue The Desires Of Your Heart And Soul“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”Paulo CoelhoMost of us spend our lives waiting for the right time to act. Well, the right time to act is right now. If you fail to take consistent action towards your purpose, your utmost aim, you will never achieve your desire because there is no right time; life will always get in the way. Pursuing your heart’s desire with some urgency is the most significant lesson taught in Paulo Coelho’s book The Alchemist.“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”Paulo CoelhoAccording to The Alchemist, when you are not pursuing your desires, following your dreams, or doing what you were put on this earth to do, the chances of fulfilling your personal legend are slim to none.In each of us lies a seed of passion: the passion to experience certain things, to do certain things, and to live life a certain way. If you are not following your heart, if you are not listening to it and answering to its call, you are keeping yourself from living the best life possible.Lesson 2: Accept Failure As Part Of The Process/JourneyFear of failure is very relatable, something we have all experienced at one point or the other. Our personal legend, what we want to do or achieve with our lives, manifests in the form of a grand goal or vision. When you allow the fear of failure to take root in your spirit, it keeps you from pursuing and achieving your personal legend.Do not let fear of failure keep you from pursuing and achieving your dreams and aims. As Coelho notes:“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”Paulo CoelhoConstantly remind yourself of where you are right now, where you want to go, and why it is important that you get there. When you do this, when you are consistently working to better your life and yourself, the universe will conspire to help you actualize and achieve your dreams:“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.”Paulo CoelhoAlways remind yourself that everything worth having has a price. Are you willing to pay that price? Only those who are willing to pay the price, to risk it all, to act in the face of fear of failure, achieve their aims and dreams.Always listen to your heart, to the dream it holds dear and near, and then actively dedicate your daily life to pursuing your dream. The universe will reward you immensely.“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times”Paulo CoelhoLesson 3: Take Consistent Action; It Is Secret To All LearningTony Robbins is fond of saying, “knowledge is not power. It is potential power. Execution will trump knowledge any day.”If you are not taking action towards fulfilling your personal legend, you will never fulfill it no matter how much you learn or know. Action is the secret sauce to all forms of success.“There is only one way to learn. It’s through action.”Paulo CoelhoThe importance of taking consistent action towards the fulfillment of your dreams is one of the most important lessons gleaned from reading and implementing the principles taught in The Alchemist.True to this, you can study as much as you want, and seek advice from the best the world has ever known, but if you are not taking action, if you are aiming but not pulling the trigger, yours will be a case of unexploited potential, which you do not want. You do not want to go to the grave with your potential still unfulfilled; the regret is just too painful.ConclusionDiscover your purpose and actively pursue it every day. That is the only way to achieve personal greatness.

#/r/entrepreneur #reddit

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viss-uh · 6 years ago

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== Be the loyal captain

Gender: Female Blood color: #793e77 Land dweller Trolltag: perspicaciousVisionary

Typing quirk: N/A How's your vocabulary? Are there any phrases you like to use?: My vocabulary is just fine. There's not anything special in the way I talk, I'm a pirate, not a scholar. But I'm capable of intellectual conversation, but half the time it seems I'm dumbing it down for the likes that I interact with outside of my crew. As far as phrases go? I have a sailors mouth; twat, shite, and bugger are words I use frequently. Age: 906 solar sweeps/ 1963 years Wriggling day: 14th bilunar perigree of the 4th dim season Sign: My sign means warrior. I suppose it fits. Physical description: 5'7", 139 lbs. Well built, strong, toned but with still a little softness to her curves. Triangular face with deep-set, piercing upturned almond eyes. Thin lips with a fuller bottom lip than the top. Lustrous, wavy hair that stops just above the shoulders, a little past if it were straight. Powers: Dream manipulation- A user can create, shape, enter and manipulate the dreams of oneself and others, including modifying, suppressing, fabricating, influencing, manifesting, sensing, and observing dreams as well as nightmares, daydreams, etc., possibly including past ones. They can produce and modify dreams, bestow nightmares or lucid dreaming, entrap people in REM, and promote spiritual/emotional healing within dreams. In some cases, user's power extends to the real world, such as wounds inflicted on a sleeping victim, healed damage (mental or physical) affecting the physical form, and otherwise blurring the line between waking and dream. They may be able to pull someone from the waking world into the dream world or brings people/things from the dream world into the waking world. Right handed or left handed: Left handed Strife: A steel double-headed battle ax. The ax heads are identical, with bat-wing shaped edges. The mahogany (hard and strong dark wood) handle is 2 feet long and is bound in tattered lilac silk. It is very heavy, perfectly balanced. What is something you like to keep in an accessible place in your sylladex?: Quill and leather bound journal Lusus: Caracal Do you get along with your lusus? Are they difficult to feed?: She was a wonderful lusus and we got along very well. She tended to hunt for herself though, but I'd still go out with her and help. It was a team effort. I miss her a great deal Hive: From the outside, the hive looks old, but quaint with character. Built with white stones and red pine decorations. Small, octagon windows brighten up the rooms and have been added to the hive in a symmetric way. The hive is equipped with a large country home-style kitchen, a guest bathroom, and master bathroom. It also has a cozy living room, two bedrooms, a modest dining area and a study. The building is shaped like a short U. The second floor is the same size as the first, which has been built exactly on top of the floor below it. The roof is high, triangular, but one side is longer than the other and is covered with brown roof tiles. The hive itself is surrounded by a modest garden, covered mostly in grass, a few flower patches, and a small pond. Three random interests: cartography, oil painting, relic collecting How do you handle stress?: I'm a level-headed woman, and honestly, think my clearest in situations of stress. Simply because I have to in order to find a solution to whatever problem I'm having. What do you know about your ancestor? Do you believe in that story?: I've never bothered to look into it, partly because I'm not that interested and also because I'm a little worried I might not like what I find. Are you a leader or a follower?: Considering I'm a captain, I'd have to say, leader. Are you more introverted or extroverted?: More often than not I tend to be introverted, preferring solitude to company, unless it's Akofen. Do you tend to argue or avoid conflict?: I don't seek it out but I certainly don't allow any troll to walk over me. Conflict is necessary and unavoidable in my chosen field. Are you a listener or a talker?: A listener. I myself don't have a whole lot of desire to talk to folks I'm not close with, and the people I call true companions are very few. But I've got no issue lending an ear. How long is your attention span?: It's plenty long. I make maps for god's sake. That requires a ridiculous amount of concentration and patience. Do you laugh a lot? What's funny to you?: Ako makes me laugh with his dry humor, but outside of the privacy of my hive or his, I'm not the most visibly joyous of people. I smile, and I'll chuckle lightly but I'm more reserved with my feelings. Are you more athletic, artistic or intellectual?: I'd like to think I'm a little bit of each, but artistic is probably the most of the three. What would you do if someone attacked you for no reason?: I'd defend myself. What else is someone supposed to do in a situation like that? Just die without a fight? I think not, not for this woman. Any fears?: I fear failure. Rejection. Loss. What would happen if your greatest fear manifested itself?: One of them has before. I was thrown off my own ship when I was the captain of my first crew. They turned against me and sent me off with nothing but a rowboat, an oar and a beaten and bruised body out into the middle of the ocean. I was close to death when my now dear departed friend Jarles found me and took me onto his ship. But a fear I hope never comes true is watching my moirail be killed right in front of me. I would lose a part of myself without Ako. I'd be left as a shell. Do you make decisions based on emotions or logic?: A bit of both. If you make all decisions based completely on one or the other then you're going to make many mistakes. What is your earliest memory?: I remember being curled up against my lusus's body, I was 4 sweeps, and we were listening to the rain. I was drifting off. Her fur soft against my small hands, the warmth of her body lulling me to sleep. It's a vivid memory, and one I'm very fond of. What do you consider the most important event in your life so far?: Being found by Jarles and his crew. It was an unfortunate set of circumstances that led me to them but if it weren't for those circumstances I wouldn't have grown in the ways that I have. Who has had the most influence on you?: Kindra, the matesprit I left behind to pursue my fantasy of adventure and power. She always tried to see the good in everyone, I tried to do the same to some degree, but I never could as well as her, at least not then.

What is your greatest regret?: Leaving Kindra and never bothering to go back because I was ashamed. Have you killed somebody? How do you feel about it? Have you killed more than one person? Then whose death impacted you the most?: Yes, multiple, unsurprising to everyone I'm sure. I feel that it is part of piracy and that if those I've killed didn't bother to go toe to toe with me and my lot then I wouldn't have had to end their lives. I'm not going to sit back and watch my crew fight without me alongside. And the fights are almost always to the death. The only death that I've caused that has ever made me feel remorse was a young teal blood. They weren't fighting willingly, or even knowingly, but under the control of their captain, a cerulean. Has someone close to you died? How? If they were killed do you want revenge?: Yes, Jacobi Jarles, the man who saved me from starving out at sea. He was harpooned through the chest by the leader of a group of sick, scar-faced fucks. But revenge has already been taken. It makes no difference though. It won't bring him back. Have you ever almost died? Or been seriously injured?: I think I've already addressed this but yes, I nearly starved to death out at sea, with infected wounds to boot. If you could change one thing from your past what would it be?: I would have never taken that traitorous scum breather onto my ship, into my first crew. He turned them against me, and there were too many for me to fight off, but it didn't stop me from trying. It ended up earning me the pretty scar I have across my face. Have you betrayed someone? Do you regret it?: I betrayed Kindra. I know she wouldn't say so or think the same but I did and I regret it every day. In general, how do you treat others (politely, rudely, by keeping them at a distance, etc.)? Does this change if you know them well?: It all depends on how they treat me. I give respect when I get respect. And I wouldn't bother to get to know someone if I didn't intend on treating them with kindness or reverence. But more often than not I keep acquaintances at a distance, yes. What do you look for in a potential matesprit?: A genuine soul. Someone who bothers to show mercy despite the strength and ability to kill easily. Someone with plenty of patience, considering I'm not the easiest woman to get to know. And if they can make me laugh or smile that'd be lovely too. Any current relationships?: Matesprit: Moirail: Akofen Enidae Kismesis: Austispice: What are some past relationships that didn't quite work out?: I fell in red love with a stubborn man once, he had a good heart, but neither of us were prepared for something like what we were feeling. Not much ever came from it, which is likely for the best. And then Kindra. I feel we would have worked if I hadn't of chosen a life of piracy over her. Hindsight is 20/20. If you have a moirail do you usually find yourself calming down your partner or is it the other way around?: We both bring each other peace. If ever I'm having a shite day I'll crawl into his coon with him, and he holds me. So I suppose he does more of the emotional caring since that man doesn't let much of anything affect him. Is there anyone you platonically despise?: Yes, but they're dead. How do you feel about where you stand on the spectrum?: I'm lucky to be in a position of privilege, but I'm not hemo-ist in the slightest. I might as well be color blind. What are your opinions on the hemospectrum as a class system in general?: It's a way for the trolls higher on the spectrum to use and control those at the bottom. It's not something I see changing anytime soon though, but I think anyone that treats each other regardless of the hemospectrum makes a difference, even if only a small one. Do you like to read? If so, what genre?: I…enjoy romance novels… What would you die for?: My crew. What is your most treasured possession? Why?: A small, stout looking stuffed kitty that Kindra made from a burlap sack, I treasure it for obvious reasons-- because it's from her. It’s the only thing I have from that time in my life actually. Favorite food?: Potato, carrot and beef stew What is your greatest strength?: My perseverance Greatest weakness?: My stubbornness, ironically.

#Elliza page #long post #fantrolls

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mindscapeartist · 7 years ago

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Inception, 11

“I do not believe the Jedi can give me what I seek,” the young woman concluded.

Verrin agreed, "No... they cannot. Or more accurately, they will not."

He sipped coffee before going on. "The Jedi focus on suppressing emotion, and 'doing good' - whatever shape that good comes in. They also contradict themselves, quite a bit. They strive for freedoms, but suppress freedom of thought and emotion in themselves. They struggle to be good, but they fight and kill as much as anyone in the galaxy... in the name of stamping out 'evil'. And they fight for an ideal known as peace, even if it's a lie. Finally, they almost never take on full-grown adult Force users, because they believe they can only control their people by obtaining them when they are young - and forcing them into some kind of mold based on outdated principles. It's sad, really. And yet, if you believe all the propaganda around them, they are our galaxy's saviors."

Verrin's tone remained fairly neutral throughout the description, likely another sign that peace was a lie.

"I won't say the Sith are perfect, because they aren't. They also aren't exactly prospering right now - I don't know if you follow galactic news at all, but they were allied with the Empire, which was defeated at Dromund Kaas this past year. Many of them perished in the Jedi's righteousness, and the Republics rebellion. Some of the fundamental philosophies of the Sith are singled out, taken out of context, and then emphasized to extreme. Should you pursue this path, you'll read quite a bit about it - Sith whose hubris got the better of them. But a point to be made is that the reason for that hubris is power. The Sith pursue power, for one reason or another. And when one obtains enough of it, one can often feel like a god among sentients. One can feel untouchable... unstoppable... omniscient... omnipotent. But I assure you, and you would do well to remember this, that no matter how powerful one becomes, there is always more power to obtain, and someone looking up towards you... wanting to take your power for themselves.

Power can come from many places - political power, wealth, influence, charisma. It can be raw strength, endurance, a connection to the Force, or an inexplicable combination of genetics that grant near-superhuman abilities. Evolutionally speaking, early mankind could look upon you, right this minute, and see you as a god - walking upright, speaking in words they don't understand, and performing feats they can't imagine - song, dance, even basic math. That is how many of the current race look upon Force users - they see them as further along in evolution than they are. It sparks fear and awe... admiration... sometimes hatred."

He took a moment to drain a significant portion of his coffee. Then he apologized, "I've been told I talk too much, but try to bear with me for a few moments. I'm trying to summarize several years of information into a single cup of coffee."

"One thing we should get straight right off the bat, involves the Force. The Force is everywhere, in all things. Scientifically speaking, it flows between the atoms in all matter, and thus is present in everyone to some degree. But only a few are able to tap into it - to manipulate the Force directly. You will also hear of the Light Side and Dark Side of the Force. The Jedi came up with those terms to describe how the Force is manipulated. If it's used for 'good' - protection, healing tissue, easing the mind, then it's 'Light'. If it's destructive, aggressive, or otherwise harmful, they called it 'Dark'. While it would be a lie to say those differences do not exist, it would also be folly to call them 'good' or 'evil'. The galaxy at large saw the Empire as 'evil', for instance. The Empire sought to bring law and order where there was chaos. But part of having those things meant that some freedoms were sacrificed - chaos was not allowed to reign. Is that evil? I don't think so, but apparently many people did. My point, I suppose, is that you will hear 'good' and 'evil' bandied about when the Force is described. It is neither. It merely is."

He broke long enough to drain his cup.

"As I mentioned, the Sith philosophy is based around power. A long, long time ago, before there was a recognized group known as the Sith, there was the Jedi. A number of them disagreed with the main group's philosophy on power, and how to use it, and the principles of what is 'good' or 'evil'. They splintered off and created their own group, and their own code. They also interbred with a species known as 'the Sith' - they are called 'purebloods' today. Come to think of it, I only know one such pureblood at the moment, but I'm sure others exist. That race of Sith had a genetic marker that made them particularly sensitive to the Force, and the belief was that by breeding with them, those ex-Jedi could create a more powerful group of Force Sensitives. They took on the name of the race - the Sith - and wrote their own doctrine and code. In the language of the Sith it is called, 'Qotsisajak', and was written by Sorzus Syn:

Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.

You will do very well to learn those words, Miss Tsintah, and to contemplate on their meaning to you. If you intend to study the ways of the Sith, that code will guide you throughout. Everything you seek can be funneled back into that basic mantra. The way of the galaxy - nay, the universe - is in that Code.

For example - you have heard that knowledge is power. If that is true, then through knowledge, you will acquire victory. If that's also true, then strength is found in learning - not just reading, but learning. What is learning? To some, it is done though reading, or watching holovids. For others, it is learning a martial art, or a fencing technique. For others still, it is learning more proficiency in firing a weapon, or controlling the Force. You see - nearly everything in life can be brought back to the Code. It is a compilation of fundamental truths."

Maggie came by and collected her master's cup, but also offered to refill Kai's water, or treat her to some other beverage. Her master could talk quite a while, if allowed to, and Kai might get thirsty again.

Meanwhile, Verrin leaned forward in his seat, and gave Kai an intense look of concern. "I won't try to deny you your goal - your revenge. Many people go to the Sith to do just what you're after - acquire enough power to exact their revenge upon those who wronged them. But I want to put a thought in the back of your mind - something to give perspective.

When you've acquired the power you need, and you've flown off to get your revenge... when you've slain all those who wronged you... what will you do then? What are your goals beyond their deaths?"

#kaitstintah #starwarsfates #starwars #roleplay #sithtinitate

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tortuga-aak · 7 years ago

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What it feels like to be enlightened

Flickr Creative Commons/Hartwig HKD

Mysticism has been on my mind again lately, in part because of the success of Why Buddhism Is True by my friend Robert Wright. During a mystical experience, you feel as though you are encountering absolute reality, whatever the hell that is. Wright explores the possibility that meditation can induce powerful mystical states, including the supreme state known as enlightenment.

I ventured into this territory in my 2003 book Rational Mysticism. I interviewed people with both scholarly and personal knowledge of mystical experiences. One was the Buddhist teacher Stephen Batchelor, a profile of whom I just posted. Another was a professor of philosophy who prefers to remain anonymous. I’ll call him Mike. I didn’t tell Mike’s story in Rational Mysticism, but I’m going to tell it now, because it sheds light on enlightenment.

Before I met Mike, I read an article in which he claimed to have achieved a mystical state devoid of object, subject, or emotion. It occurred in 1972, while he was on a meditation retreat. “I had been meditating alone in my room all morning,” Mike recalls,

when someone knocked on my door. I heard the knock perfectly clearly, and upon hearing it I knew that, although there was no “waking up” before hearing the knock, for some indeterminate length of time prior to the knocking I had not been aware of anything in particular. I had been awake but with no content for my consciousness. Had no one knocked I doubt that I would ever have become aware that I had not been thinking or perceiving.

Mike decided that he had experienced what the Hindu sage Shankara called “unconsciousness.” Mike’s description of his experience, which he called a "pure consciousness event,” baffled me. Can this be the goal of spiritual seeking? To experience not bliss or profound insights but literally nothing? And if you really experience nothing, how can you remember the experience? How do you emerge from this state of oblivion back into ordinary consciousness? How does an experience of nothing promote a sense of spirituality?

Mike, it turned out, lived in a town on the Hudson River not far from my own. Like me, he was married and had kids. I called and told him I was writing a book about mysticism, and he agreed to meet me to talk about his experiences. On a warm spring day in 1999 we met for lunch at a restaurant near his home. Mike had a ruddy complexion, thinning hair, and a scruffy, reddish-brown beard. Eyeing me suspiciously he said, “A friend of mine warned me that I shouldn’t talk to people like you.” His friend’s advice is sound, I replied, journalists are not to be trusted. Mike laughed and seemed to relax (which of course was my insidious intent).

Grilling me about my attitudes toward mysticism, he compulsively completed my sentences for me. I said that when I first heard about enlightenment, my impression was that it changes your entire personality, transforming you into... “A saint,” Mike said. Yes, I continued. But now I suspected that you can have very deep mystical awareness and still be... “An asshole,” Mike said. “So that's what you want to think about?” he continued, scrutinizing me. “You want to think about whether enlightenment is really all that cool?”

Mike’s edginess lingered as he began telling me about himself. Especially when instructing me on fine points of Hinduism or other mystical doctrines, he spoke with an ironic inflection, mocking his own pretensions. His fascination with enlightenment dated back to the late 1960’s, when he was an undergraduate studying philosophy and became deeply depressed. He tried psychotherapy and Zen, but nothing worked until he started practicing Transcendental Meditation in 1969. Introduced to the west by the Indian sage Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Transcendental Meditation involves sitting with eyes closed while repeating a phrase, or mantra.

“It was magic, hugely effective,” Mike said of TM. Over the next decade, he became involved in the TM organization. “I hung out with Maharishi a fair amount.” He distanced himself from the TM movement after it began offering seminars on occult practices, notably levitation. “I did that technique,” Mike said. “It was an interesting experience, but it sure as hell wasn't levitating.” The Maharishi also proposed that the brain waves emitted by large groups of meditators could reduce crime rates and even warfare. “I thought it was silly,” Mike said, “and I didn't want to be identified with it.”

Mike pursued a doctorate in philosophy in the early 1980’s so that he could defend intellectually what he knew to be true experientially: Through meditation we can gain access to realms of reality that transcend time and space, culture, and individual identity. Yes, as William James documented, mystical visions vary, but mystics from many different traditions, including Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Judaism, have described experiences that are devoid of content. These are what Mike calls pure consciousness events.

“If you say all crows are black, all it takes is one white crow and you've blown the thesis,” Mike said. “We got a whole range of these white crows.” Mike noted that if he and I described the restaurant in which we were eating, our descriptions would almost certainly diverge, even though we were seeing the same restaurant. Shankara, Meister Eckhart, and the Zen master Dogen described their pure consciousness events in different ways, but they were experiencing the same deep reality.

Our conversation then took an unexpected turn. I said I was mystified by the notion that enlightenment is nothing more than a “pure consciousness event.”

“That's not enlightenment!” Mike interrupted. He stared at me, and when he continued he spoke in clipped, precise tones, as if trying to physically embed his words in my brain. The pure consciousness event is just a stepping-stone, at best, to true enlightenment. Pure consciousness events and other mystical states are “fascinating, interesting, very cool things. But they are shifts in perception, not shifts in the structure of perception. And that's, I think, when things get very interesting, when structural shifts take place.”

Mike held up his water glass. Normally, he said, when you look at an object like this glass, you sense a distinction between the object and yourself. He set the glass down, grabbed my pen from my hand, and scribbled on his napkin. He sketched the glass, complete with ice cubes and lemon, and an eyeball staring at the glass. During a “pure consciousness event,” the object vanishes and only consciousness remains, Mike said, drawing an X through the glass.

There is a higher state of awareness, however, in which consciousness becomes its own subject and object. “It becomes aware of itself. And there is a kind of, not solipsism exactly, but a reflexivity to consciousness.” Bending over his napkin again, Mike drew an arrow that emerged from the eyeball and curled back toward it. “It's like there is a self-awareness in a new sort of way.”

Our Caesar salads arrived. As the waiter grated parmesan cheese over our bowls, Mike told me about the final state of enlightenment, which he called the “unitive mystical state.” In this state, your awareness enfolds not just your individual consciousness but all of inner and outer reality. “What you are, and what the world is, is now somehow a unit, unified.” Mike drew a circle around the eyeball and the glass.

Are there any levels beyond this one? I asked, pointing to the circle. “I don’t know,” Mike answered, looking genuinely perplexed. “I haven't read about it, if there is. Some people want to say that there are, beyond here, experiences. But I'm not convinced of that.”

So are you enlightened? I asked. “As I understand it, yes,” Mike replied without hesitating. He had been expecting the question. He scrutinized me, looking for a reaction. “See, that's tricky. I just gave you a pretty tricky answer. Because I define this stuff pretty narrowly.” He might not be enlightened according to others’ definitions, but according to his definition he reached enlightenment in 1995.

Mike hastened to disabuse me of various myths about enlightenment. When he started meditating in the late 1960’s, he believed that enlightenment “was all going to be fun and games.” He emitted a mock-ecstatic cry and waved his hands in the air. “Just heaven,” he added, snapping his fingers, “like that.” But enlightenment does not make you permanently happy, let alone ecstatic. Instead, it is a state that incorporates all human emotions and qualities: love and hate, desire and fear, wisdom and ignorance. “The ability to hold opposites, emotional opposites, at the same time is really what we're after.”

Enlightenment is profoundly satisfying and transformative, but the mind remains in many respects unchanged. “You're still neurotic, and you still hate your mother, or you want to get laid, or whatever the thing is. It's the same stuff; it doesn't shift that. But there is a sort of deep”--he raised his hands, as if gripping an invisible basketball, and uttered a growly, guttural grunt—“that didn't used to be there.”

Far from fostering humility and ego-death, Mike added, mystical experiences can lead to narcissism. Enlightenment is “the biggest power trip you can imagine” and an “aphrodisiac.” When you have a profound mystical revelation, “you think you're God! And that is going to have a hell of an effect on people… All the little young ladies run around and say, ‘He's enlightened! He's God!’”

Have you struggled with that problem yourself? I asked. “Sure!” Mike responded. When he first began having mystical experiences in 1971, he was on top of the world. “And after a while they sort of fall away, and you realize you're the same jerk you were all along. You just have different insights.” Mike resumed psychotherapy in 1983 to deal with some of his personal problems. “It was the best thing I ever did. Been in it ever since.” (What would it be like, I wondered, to be the therapist for someone who believes he is enlightened?)

Contrary to what some gurus claim, enlightenment does not give you answers to scientific riddles such as the origin of the universe, or of conscious life, Mike said. When I asked if he intuits a divine intelligence underlying reality, he shook his head. “No, no.” Then he reconsidered. He sees ultimate reality as timeless, featureless, Godless, and yet he occasionally feels that he and all of us are part of a larger plan. “I have a sense that things are moving in a certain direction, well beyond anybody's real control.” Maybe, he said, just as electrons can be described as waves and particles, so ultimate reality might be timeless and aimless—and also have some directionality and purpose.

Evidently dissatisfied with his defense of enlightenment—or sensing that I was dissatisfied with it--Mike tried again. He has an increased ability to concentrate since he became enlightened, he assured me, and a greater intuitive sense about people. “I can say this without hesitation: I would rather have these experiences than not,” he said. “It's not nothing.”

A few days later, I went running in the woods behind my house. After I arrived huffing and puffing at the top of a hill, I flopped down on a patch of moss to catch my breath. Looking up through entangled branches at the sky, I ruminated over my lunch with Mike. What impressed me most about him was that he somehow managed to be likably unpretentious, even humble, while claiming to be enlightened. He’s no saint or sage, just a normal guy, a suburban dad, who happens to have achieved the supreme state of being.

But if enlightenment transforms us so little, why work so hard to attain it? I also brooded over the suggestion of Mike and other mystics that when you see things clearly, you discover a void at the heart of reality. You get to the pot at the end of the spiritual rainbow, and you don’t find God, or a theory of everything, or ecstasy. You find nothing, or “not nothing,” as Mike put it. What’s so wonderful and consoling about that? Does seeing life as an illusion make accepting death easier? I must be missing something.

I was still flat on my back when a shadow intruded on my field of vision. A vulture, wingtips splayed, glided noiselessly toward me. As it passed over me, just above the treetops, it cocked its wizened head and eyed me. “Go away!” I shouted. “I’m not dead yet!”

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nyugsl · 8 years ago

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What Is Reality? Moving Forward in a Globalized World: Selaedin Maksut

Selaedin is a current senior at NYU pursuing a double major in Religious Studies, and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies. Along with being the co-president for MuCh (Muslim-Christian Dialogue at NYU), he is also the Director of Membership for TMN (The Muslim Network of NJ). He also an actively participates in the Islamic Center at NYU activities. As an open minded and driven student, Selaedin very much enjoys interfaith dialogue and exploring the history and theology of the many faiths and traditions of the world.

What is taste, love, childhood, family, law, nation, religion—can we define these words? Are they universal concepts?

A single mother from the suburbs of New Jersey might have a different idea of what “family" means than that of a grandfather from a Sudanese city. Likewise, a Tibetan school teacher and an Arab theologian from the 12th century would have different conceptions of law, religion, and even taste in food. Our ideas of life and the material world are subject to our social interactions. Everything is a social construct. What does this mean?

Let’s take money for example. The dollar bill as we know it is essentially worthless. We attribute worth to it by claiming it is backed by gold. But what about the gold? Is gold inherently valuable? Does gold possess some quality that transcends time and space and gives it worth? No. Gold is just as worthless and meaningless as the money we use. Same goes for our ideas of family, law, taste, and even the color red. Confused yet? Maybe even upset with what you’re hearing? Good. You should be. These ideas will challenge any authoritarian view of the world. But how? And why? Let’s find out.

As a product of our environment, our thoughts and beliefs differ throughout time and space, as a society and our environment change throughout time and space. Everything from the color red, to ideas of secularism and religion, are constructed by us, humans, to help us understand the world and our experiences. The word “red” carries no intrinsic meaning that calls for it to be attributed to a specific color. Likewise, “taste” is constructed by humans to express what we like, but no taste is universal. Nothing is inherently “tasty.” Not even pizza. Nor will everyone like habaneros in their chicken wraps. (Believe me on this one). We come up with concepts of “taste,” “red,” and “family” and attribute value and meaning to them that would otherwise not exist. We shape notions of “love,” “secularism,” and even “right” and “wrong” so that we can function in society. But the issue is each society has a different notion of everything.

Language is the vessel we use to construct meaning and to transfer our thoughts and ideas to other people. But language too is problematic, because it too is a social construct. The moment we want to describe something we go into rules of description. The language we use is a way to box categories for us to have conversations and share ideas. Life is like a word game. We create our own ways of talking that carry alternative ways of acting.

Why does this matter? Because to understand why people have different notions of “family,” “law,” and “taste” we must first realize that we have become victims of a category system, language, which tries to categorize everything. While fashioning a language is not bad, on the contrary, its natural and very useful, but we must be conscious of the categories and meanings we construct because there is always a way of life implied by it. And not everyone ascribes to the same way of life or world-view.

Most importantly, we must realize that any declaration that you hold to be true begins to hold power over you and you become a victim of the truths you hold. What does this mean? You unconsciously subject yourself to the notions you create. What I mentioned above can be understood as a paradigm. As I explained, everything is a product of our social constructions. This creates a paradigm in which we think through, like a lens, and language is the way we express our thoughts. But this paradigm becomes limiting and holds power over us because now we cannot think outside of it without breaking our own rules and concepts. We cannot begin to make sense of other notions of “family,” “law,” “love,” and “right” and “wrong” that are outside of, and therefore differ from, our notions of these concepts. Because we have attributed gold as “inherently” valuable we cannot understand why other people throughout time and space did not see it as such. Likewise, we have a hard time understanding other beliefs of empire and governance when we have been conditioned to think in a “nation-state” paradigm.

Now that we know everything grows out into being from some kind of community/society (i.e. paradigm), how do we break out? If we are a victim to our own paradigm and can we break out? Yes. But only until you realize you are in a specific paradigm, to begin with. Until you realize your world revolves around and is dictated by the paradigm you come from, you will not be able to conceive of other paradigms and world-views. But now that we know everyone thinks through a paradigm and that paradigm gives meaning to everything, what happens when we abandon all paradigms? If you abandon all the perspectives, what then can you say about anything? Nothing. We are left with nothing. There is nothing outside of paradigms. In a vacuum, nothing has meaning. This is the point. There is nothing that has an intrinsic value or meaning that transcends all paradigms. Now, this was alluded to earlier, but I imagine it’s a lot more depressing to hear it spelled out. But don’t worry, it gets better.

So, everything that is real for us comes out of communal relationships—we socially construct everything for what it is. Everything is a whim of history. People create a shared reality that is objectively factual and subjectively meaningful. The social world is not given, revealed, or fully determined, it is made up by people. The meaning of any and everything is generated through the discourse of each paradigm (and is what constructs everyone’s personal “reality”). There is no value-neutral description of the world. Hence, nothing exists independent of any paradigm. Whatever we do is coming from the enclave from where we exist- there is no independent person or observes that makes a discovery. “Love” only exists because we allow it to by defining it through our experiences.

So what are the implications of this?

There becomes a meaningful order of life. People have lived their lives with the idea that there are objective knowledge and notions of what is true, right, wrong, moral and ethical. And that’s fine because the question we are asking is not what is real? But, how do things become real to us? And if the answer is social construction then that means no paradigm is better than any another. So it’s not about who is superior or “right” but it’s about how to live together with all these views out there claiming to have the truth. Truth can still exist but no paradigm can claim to have a monopoly on truth. Natural realities are independent of humans and our activities. Personal realities are dependent and rely on humans and are subjective because they only exist in the minds of the people who believe them.

These ideas are threatening to any ideas deemed “authoritative.” The entire message here is that no idea, concept, notion, from any paradigm or world-view, is superior, and that all perspectives are on an equal playing field. This challenges the dominate discourse and challenges the dominate paradigms that seek to wipeout other beliefs, traditions, and world-views.

These ideas don’t mean to question “ultimate reality” but your own personal “reality.” It is not trying to say what is true, nor is it trying to eliminate, science, religion, tradition or any sort or paradigm. It is a way of bringing others into the conversation. It asks for multiplicity. Instead of shutting out all other paradigms we should engage them, be willing to entertain them and bring them into conversation with one another. It is a way of talking, writing, and a resource to be used to better understand and appreciate our surroundings, relationships, and various world-views.

We all study from within a paradigm. So to make sure we are having productive conversations and are asking the right questions we must become aware of our assumptions that are rooted in our paradigm. Realizing the assumptions of your paradigm allows you to break loose from its shackles on your mind. Now that we know every paradigm is limited and that there is no authoritative paradigm, we can cross through paradigms and cultures to better understand other “realities.” So in a world with multiple realities how can we take on alternative realities? We need new forms of coordination!

How? What can we create out of this? New organization methods, new ways of talking through various realities and then understand other people’s realities and bring in new forms of dialogue into life. This is an attempt to honor all traditions and gives everyone a voice. In this new approach, there is no room for bigotry, racism, prejudice, and hatred. Only understanding.

So for those asking about God, let me say this… our beliefs about God are clearly social constructions, but our faith is that the reality of God lies beyond those constructions.

This is a call for humility. By humbling ourselves in front of the traditions of the world we would be slow to judge, and quicker to listen. Is that not God’s rallying call?

Any grievances? Take it up with Thomas Luckmann, Peter L. Berger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Thomas Kuhn, and of course our beloved Michel Foucault.

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