It was meant as a joke, but it may be very real - Why religion is STILL the static between You and God

A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.

He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."

He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held in the archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.



The young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing.

"We missed the R! We missed the R! We missed the R!"

His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.

The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, father?"

With A choking voice, the old abbot replies,


"The word was...
CELEBRATE!!!"

Sufism

A friend of mine asked me, what does Hinduism mean to you, do you believe God is one, do Hindus have different versions of God? I gave her an answer, but this 'war' of spiritual vs religious was actually playing out in my head. Any lay person can be religious. It's easy. TOO easy. It's a herd mentality. It's repetitive. It's outdated. It's non-relevant. It's become tiresome. It's become the act of doing without knowing.

Being spiritual, on the other hand, is TOTALLY undefined. It's personal. It's special. It's the road less travelled, because you're the only one really on it.

For some reason, I decided to find out about the most questioned religion at this point, to find out whether it is TRULY God who has directed all the evil that has happened, or whether Man has taken what he wanted from the scriptures, written by a messenger from God(Human) and caused all this mayhem because he ego deemed it right. According to "GOD" of course.....

Then I remembered something.... in the midst of all the furor of Islam and the questionable practices by the crazy fundamentalists within their people, there had to be a shining light..... the mystical Sufism....

Sufism – What is it?

Sufism (Sufism) may be best described as a mystical practice that emphasizes certain unique rituals for guiding spiritual seekers into a direct encounter with God. Muhammad is considered their chief prophet and many consider Sufism to be a mystical brand of Islam.

Sufism is a difficult term to actually define because its meaning is supposed to have derived from various words, with differing connotations:

• Bishr ibn al–Harith has said that, “the sufi is he whose heart is sincere towards God.” Thus, one of the words from which Sufism is supposed to have derived is safa meaning pure -- this due to the purity of the sufis’ heart.
  
  
• Others have derived sufi from the word saff; this refers to the sufis’ “first rank” before God. Sufis believe that they are in a prominent position in relation to God. The term suffab -- meaning, “People of the Bench” -- and the word suf which refers to the Sufis habit of wearing wool are two more popular supposed derivations of the word sufi.

These two latter definitions gained acceptability because they quite accurately described the observed behavior of the sufi. Sufis, being people who are neither possessed or possess were as the People of the Bench (people who lived in the time of God’s Prophet) -- people who had fled the world, wanderers, without this world’s goods, not clothed in soft raiment but dressed in coarse wool.

Sufis teach that Sufism may be practiced with any religion -- it is the “heart” of religion. No one faith or belief is questioned; each can follow his own church, religion, or creed.

Sufism – What do Sufis believe about God?

Sufism holds a doctrine of God which is extremely lofty. Here is an excerpt taken from one of their descriptions of God:

“. . . ‘before’ does not outstrip him; ‘of’ does not vie with him for precedence; ‘from’ does not accord with him; ‘to’ does not join with him. . .”

When attempting to decide whether or not God is still in the act of creating, some Sufis are at odds; some say yes, he continues to create since Creator, Maker, and Former (one who formed) are his eternal attributes. Others say he did not become creator, maker, and former by performing these tasks; otherwise he would have been eternally deficient, only becoming complete through the act of creation.

Sufis believe that God is responsible for everything they do, every act that they, as his servants perform. If not, then they would be equal to God, doing whatever they wanted. Thus God is responsible for every thought and deed. God can do with his servants whatever he wills, whether it is to the servant’s advantage or not.

One of the important rituals in Sufism is the zikr. During a zikr, one remembers God through meditation, chant, and movement -- certain attributes of God are repeated until the seekers become “saturated” with God. This ritual supposedly, shatters and transforms them. As they spin and whirl around for hours, they reach a state of ecstasy and purity where the heart is only conscious of God. The seeker surrenders his or herself to total abandonment -- a total emptying of self.

More to come.....

The truth about being alone....

We can be alone in a room, yet not FEEL alone.

When I am engrossed in a good book I do not feel alone. When I am exercising or writing I do not feel alone. When I'm watching TV, I do not feel alone.

The human species is designed as a social species —we interact with each other in nearly every aspect of living. So, the desire to socialize comes up even if our personal activities are fulfilling to us. Loneliness is felt when we have become dependent on someone or something outside of our own being to 'provide' personal happiness.

Being alone, and also feeling lonely, comes when we have not yet discovered that our personal fulfillment comes right out of our depths, right from our depth of consciousness, from communion with our Source.

Contact with our Source is socializing with the Presence that is always with us as a listening ear, that warms and energizes us with feelings of harmony, spurring us on to be positive and productive in the world.

"In contact with our Source we are never alone
The unseen presence our infinite and daily companion..."

To develop consciousness of the Unseen Companion, listen to the soft wind within, developed in meditation and carried out into daily living. When we learn how to socialize with our Source, we will find that we always have a companion with us, that we are really never 'alone'.

"Being alone without being lonely happens
when we discover the Divine Presence within
And our fulfillment lies in taking the gifts of this Divinity,
warmth and energy, peace and contentment
into our social interactions"

As we improve the quality of our character, we become more aware of our state of happiness—the state of happiness hidden from us till we consistently act for the best of each situation.

We may think that happiness is an acquisition, and therefore buy more and more things. Soon we observe that depending on the momentary high experienced in an acquisition is truly temporary, and that in order to stay happy all time, we would have to acquire a never-ending stream of objects. We also might think that another person gives us happiness by paying attention to us. Again, this would mean a person would have to be focusing on us all the time, in order for us to feel happiness all the time. (The infamous 'neediness' shown in many a couple, who depend on each other for happiness,existence,identity,meaning....)

Neither by trying to acquire a stream of possessions, or by constantly expecting or trying to coerce a person to focus all their attention on us, do we experience a baseline of happiness.

We all want happiness—so where is happiness?

Happiness is the outcome of harmony. And, harmony is the outcome of living moment to moment in alignment with the highest good of the moment. When we live peacefully and usefully, we are living harmoniously—we feel happy.

So, happiness is with us all the time as a state of our own being—brought to the forefront in our lives when we are living harmoniously in the world. In this realization we can see that each of us has happiness ever available, from within ourselves, experienced when our attitudes, decisions and actions are in harmony with peacefulness and goodness. Once we are able to live with ourselves, independent of anyone else's influence or presence, and are able to comprehend the true magnitude of our Presence; once we make peace with the One within, we are truly able to live in happiness.

Simply put, Harmony = Happiness; Happiness = Being able to be alone with YOU!

"Happiness brought to the forefront of our lives
when we improve the quality of our character
through acting harmlessly in the world
by acting with care in the world"