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Children's dreams, like those of adults, hold the key to what they are experiencing at the moment.
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Showing posts with label Mysticism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mysticism. Show all posts
Dreams and beyond
| Posted On 19:26 by Life | 0 comments |
We live on dreams, but are we also their prisoners, wonders Nina Pinjola
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Going on a pilgrimage
| Posted On 17:50 by Life | 0 comments |
In mystic traditions, particularly in India, life is regarded as a journey. A pilgrimage is merely an external projection of an inward journey. Before you can determine who is a pilgrim, you need to be clear about some aspects of pilgrimage.
A place of pilgrimage is one where a manifestation of divinity appeared for a particular purpose, where a sage performed austerities or meditated for a long period, or where someone got direct experience of God. One or more specific areas within the holy place get marked as a sanctum sanctorum, due to a still palpable divine power, like a vortex of energy. I have personally experienced this vortex in many places, particularly while taking a dip in the Ganga with my Guru at the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar.
A pilgrimage is undertaken with many spiritual goals in mind. It may be an act of acknowledging to oneself one's failures and misdeeds. You may aspire for freedom from this burden of misdeeds through prayaschitta, an act of atonement and purification. It could be in the form of renouncing a habit, addiction or worldly pleasure after the pilgrimage is complete.
It is not a myth that if a pilgrim is one who fulfils all the requirements, he may be granted the rare darshan of a sage who left the body thousands of years ago, but still dwells there as a light being.
You will feel the energy to the degree your mind is attuned. If you blanket your mind with the elements of the unsettled, the non-sacred, the mundane, and carry your anger and impatience with you, the energy plays hide and seek, and you return without being recharged.
While a pilgrimage is not the highest endeavour, it is far more conducive to self-enquiry and enrichment than a holiday. Rather than attending a lecture on silence, it is better to practise silence. Go on an internal journey rather than an external one.
If done earnestly the right way, it cleanses the mind, unburdens the heart, and you become confident in your capacity to explore your inner world. You then renounce pleasures you are addicted to and come to realise that you have the spiritual strength to live without them.
Begin a pilgrimage with an inner resolve or sankalpa, abandoning comforts, renouncing pleasures, remaining silent and still, practising celibacy, practising restraint in matters of food, accepting whatever the stations in the journey have to offer, controlling speech and all the senses and withdrawing from desires and from memories thereof.
Many spiritual seekers share Kabir's view: "If taking a dip in a river would grant me liberation then the fish would have been liberated long ago." Hence the internal journey is far more important than the external one.
A holy place is called tirtha, a point of crossing over. Let a pilgrimage be a point of crossing over, a transition to a higher level of thought, action and existence. Go with the resolve: "After the pilgrimage, I shall be a higher self, purer, brighter, more stilled, more akin to my own interior divinity."
After the pilgrimage, be not what you were before. Let your life become a journey to your internal sanctum sanctorum. Until that final realisation happens, you will continue to remain a pilgrim. Thereafter, you become a guide to other pilgrims who might follow you, seeking to grasp the vessel of God's elixir of immortality, the Aquarian fullness, the essence of enlightenment.
(Talk: Swami Veda Bharati)
A place of pilgrimage is one where a manifestation of divinity appeared for a particular purpose, where a sage performed austerities or meditated for a long period, or where someone got direct experience of God. One or more specific areas within the holy place get marked as a sanctum sanctorum, due to a still palpable divine power, like a vortex of energy. I have personally experienced this vortex in many places, particularly while taking a dip in the Ganga with my Guru at the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar.
A pilgrimage is undertaken with many spiritual goals in mind. It may be an act of acknowledging to oneself one's failures and misdeeds. You may aspire for freedom from this burden of misdeeds through prayaschitta, an act of atonement and purification. It could be in the form of renouncing a habit, addiction or worldly pleasure after the pilgrimage is complete.
It is not a myth that if a pilgrim is one who fulfils all the requirements, he may be granted the rare darshan of a sage who left the body thousands of years ago, but still dwells there as a light being.
You will feel the energy to the degree your mind is attuned. If you blanket your mind with the elements of the unsettled, the non-sacred, the mundane, and carry your anger and impatience with you, the energy plays hide and seek, and you return without being recharged.
While a pilgrimage is not the highest endeavour, it is far more conducive to self-enquiry and enrichment than a holiday. Rather than attending a lecture on silence, it is better to practise silence. Go on an internal journey rather than an external one.
If done earnestly the right way, it cleanses the mind, unburdens the heart, and you become confident in your capacity to explore your inner world. You then renounce pleasures you are addicted to and come to realise that you have the spiritual strength to live without them.
Begin a pilgrimage with an inner resolve or sankalpa, abandoning comforts, renouncing pleasures, remaining silent and still, practising celibacy, practising restraint in matters of food, accepting whatever the stations in the journey have to offer, controlling speech and all the senses and withdrawing from desires and from memories thereof.
Many spiritual seekers share Kabir's view: "If taking a dip in a river would grant me liberation then the fish would have been liberated long ago." Hence the internal journey is far more important than the external one.
A holy place is called tirtha, a point of crossing over. Let a pilgrimage be a point of crossing over, a transition to a higher level of thought, action and existence. Go with the resolve: "After the pilgrimage, I shall be a higher self, purer, brighter, more stilled, more akin to my own interior divinity."
After the pilgrimage, be not what you were before. Let your life become a journey to your internal sanctum sanctorum. Until that final realisation happens, you will continue to remain a pilgrim. Thereafter, you become a guide to other pilgrims who might follow you, seeking to grasp the vessel of God's elixir of immortality, the Aquarian fullness, the essence of enlightenment.
(Talk: Swami Veda Bharati)
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Positive high
| Posted On 17:49 by Life | 0 comments |
In the end, it turned out to be an unforgettable, inspiring evening peppered with stories of the triumph of the human spirit. At a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), where the 75-year-old support group of current and former alcoholics came together to help new members shed their addiction, I met several members who said they had touched rock bottom.
One-time addicts spoke of deceit, divorce and destroyed relationships, lost jobs, lies - even of thieving - as a way of life in their dark years, and of waking up in unfamiliar streets with soiled pants and empty pockets. Listening to them speak of their one-day-at-a-time vow to stay off drinks, and of their unflinching loyalty to Alcoholics Anonymous - some have been clean for 18 years, and are now pitching in to help new entrants - my heart warmed at their stories of hope and humility, and of their spiritual awakening.
Keep me sober today
The AA outlines a 12-step programme to help you break free - most centring around belief in a higher power. Members remain anonymous, and AA charges no membership fee. To enroll, you just need a desire to stop drinking. The first step is in acknowledging that you are alcoholic, and admitting you need help. For an addict to do so is perhaps the toughest step. Once he attends an AA meeting, he figures he is not alone and that he can get rid of his ahamkara or ego and seek help. AA has found that while detoxification centres might help you get rid of your withdrawal symptoms, what an alcoholic needs is a support group that talks about drinking, the troubles, and how they were overcome. AA tells you that alcoholism isn't a moral defect or the result of low will power, but is a life-threatening disease.
"One important aspect of the disease is complete spiritual bankruptcy," said one member. "I had to surrender and admit that only a power greater than me could restore me to sanity. Personally, I lacked the wisdom and only after I had changed my moral perspectives did the craving for drink disappear", he adds.
"The support group is amazing. It is torture for an alcoholic to think of a life without alcohol; I consider myself blessed that someone came along and suggested I come to AA," adds another. "I can unburden myself at these meetings and get empathy for my struggle. I take hope with me", he says. It is hope that helps keep him stay sober, first one day; then another.
"I got my message from this room. I have not touched the bottle for years, and I think my calling is in the seva I do here," said another. "I have, however, one prayer that I say even now - God please keep me sober today", he adds.
Step 11 of AA sums it all up - of seeking through prayer and meditation to improve your conscious contact with God...for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out.
Psychologist Onkar Singh at the Kalghidhar Trust-run Akal De-addiction Centre at Cheema village near Sangrur, Punjab, talks of "spiritual intelligence" - psychology's name for man's quest for meaning and the soul's intelligence. The de-addiction centre conducted an experiment and presented the results as a research paper in 2006 to the Indian Psychiatry Association. The centre studied 315 addicts in one group living in the Gurudwara Janam Asthan Sant Attar Singhji Maharaj that was exposed daily to yoga, meditation and spiritual discourses. "The successful ones were those who had seen the light, reported out-of-body experiences while meditating, and who re-examined their moral values. This was a result of the atma ki roshni they had seen," says Singh. "People would at first complain about the spiritual schedule, but later found ananda in it," he adds. The other group was housed elsewhere and had a TV and other recreational devices as diversion but did not fare as well.
Take the case of 32-year-old Pankaj Sharma (name changed), a media executive who got into drugs while studying MBA because he couldn't cope with the "punishing" routine. He drifted in and out of jobs, and finally enrolled for Scientology's purification programme, their detoxification module. He is now a trainer, helping other people fight off negativities and resume control of their lives.
Drugs destroy you
"Drugs are essentially poisons that take their toll on the body by eating up its stores of vitamins and minerals", reads a Narconon booklet. "And when your body's reserve of minerals and vitamins is depleted, you feel pain, and then you crave more drugs to kill the pain," says Horst Tubbesing, Scientology mission holder in the Capital. Scientology's purification programme attempts to remove these toxins with exercise, sauna, and vitamins.
Sushma Randhawa (name changed), had been on anti-depressants for years. She found "stability, love, laughter, happiness and understanding" from the people around her after the programme. She could finally move forward on her mental and spiritual journey, free from past obstacles.
Reiki and pranic healers believe that alcohol and drug addiction shrink and block the back heart chakra. Eventually, the person is closed to all ideas of compassion, humility, goodness and spirituality. Treatment cleans and energises the heart and solar plexus chakras.
High on harmony
"You need to believe that there is a genuine spiritual high that is worth pursuing rather than the false high of drugs and alcohol," says psychiatrist Jitendra Nagpal. "You get off all addictions when you regain internal harmony and control, with the help of yoga and meditation. Substance abusers then have the ability to rein in their wayward impulses", he adds.
Doctors have begun to recommend the positive high that comes with lifestyle and perception change. "Many of us now think that spiritual awakening brings stability", says Nagpal. "Young people might turn to drugs because of neglect at home or peer pressure, but they only get a false sense of self-gratification. Instead, they should make the effort to regain control over their lives. Meditation can work wonders," says Nagpal. "Let's be realistic; medicine alone is not the answer, for the mind-body-soul approach works much better in treatment of addicts. The divinity in us responds", he adds.
One-time addicts spoke of deceit, divorce and destroyed relationships, lost jobs, lies - even of thieving - as a way of life in their dark years, and of waking up in unfamiliar streets with soiled pants and empty pockets. Listening to them speak of their one-day-at-a-time vow to stay off drinks, and of their unflinching loyalty to Alcoholics Anonymous - some have been clean for 18 years, and are now pitching in to help new entrants - my heart warmed at their stories of hope and humility, and of their spiritual awakening.
Keep me sober today
The AA outlines a 12-step programme to help you break free - most centring around belief in a higher power. Members remain anonymous, and AA charges no membership fee. To enroll, you just need a desire to stop drinking. The first step is in acknowledging that you are alcoholic, and admitting you need help. For an addict to do so is perhaps the toughest step. Once he attends an AA meeting, he figures he is not alone and that he can get rid of his ahamkara or ego and seek help. AA has found that while detoxification centres might help you get rid of your withdrawal symptoms, what an alcoholic needs is a support group that talks about drinking, the troubles, and how they were overcome. AA tells you that alcoholism isn't a moral defect or the result of low will power, but is a life-threatening disease.
"One important aspect of the disease is complete spiritual bankruptcy," said one member. "I had to surrender and admit that only a power greater than me could restore me to sanity. Personally, I lacked the wisdom and only after I had changed my moral perspectives did the craving for drink disappear", he adds.
"The support group is amazing. It is torture for an alcoholic to think of a life without alcohol; I consider myself blessed that someone came along and suggested I come to AA," adds another. "I can unburden myself at these meetings and get empathy for my struggle. I take hope with me", he says. It is hope that helps keep him stay sober, first one day; then another.
"I got my message from this room. I have not touched the bottle for years, and I think my calling is in the seva I do here," said another. "I have, however, one prayer that I say even now - God please keep me sober today", he adds.
Step 11 of AA sums it all up - of seeking through prayer and meditation to improve your conscious contact with God...for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out.
Psychologist Onkar Singh at the Kalghidhar Trust-run Akal De-addiction Centre at Cheema village near Sangrur, Punjab, talks of "spiritual intelligence" - psychology's name for man's quest for meaning and the soul's intelligence. The de-addiction centre conducted an experiment and presented the results as a research paper in 2006 to the Indian Psychiatry Association. The centre studied 315 addicts in one group living in the Gurudwara Janam Asthan Sant Attar Singhji Maharaj that was exposed daily to yoga, meditation and spiritual discourses. "The successful ones were those who had seen the light, reported out-of-body experiences while meditating, and who re-examined their moral values. This was a result of the atma ki roshni they had seen," says Singh. "People would at first complain about the spiritual schedule, but later found ananda in it," he adds. The other group was housed elsewhere and had a TV and other recreational devices as diversion but did not fare as well.
Take the case of 32-year-old Pankaj Sharma (name changed), a media executive who got into drugs while studying MBA because he couldn't cope with the "punishing" routine. He drifted in and out of jobs, and finally enrolled for Scientology's purification programme, their detoxification module. He is now a trainer, helping other people fight off negativities and resume control of their lives.
Drugs destroy you
"Drugs are essentially poisons that take their toll on the body by eating up its stores of vitamins and minerals", reads a Narconon booklet. "And when your body's reserve of minerals and vitamins is depleted, you feel pain, and then you crave more drugs to kill the pain," says Horst Tubbesing, Scientology mission holder in the Capital. Scientology's purification programme attempts to remove these toxins with exercise, sauna, and vitamins.
Sushma Randhawa (name changed), had been on anti-depressants for years. She found "stability, love, laughter, happiness and understanding" from the people around her after the programme. She could finally move forward on her mental and spiritual journey, free from past obstacles.
Reiki and pranic healers believe that alcohol and drug addiction shrink and block the back heart chakra. Eventually, the person is closed to all ideas of compassion, humility, goodness and spirituality. Treatment cleans and energises the heart and solar plexus chakras.
High on harmony
"You need to believe that there is a genuine spiritual high that is worth pursuing rather than the false high of drugs and alcohol," says psychiatrist Jitendra Nagpal. "You get off all addictions when you regain internal harmony and control, with the help of yoga and meditation. Substance abusers then have the ability to rein in their wayward impulses", he adds.
Doctors have begun to recommend the positive high that comes with lifestyle and perception change. "Many of us now think that spiritual awakening brings stability", says Nagpal. "Young people might turn to drugs because of neglect at home or peer pressure, but they only get a false sense of self-gratification. Instead, they should make the effort to regain control over their lives. Meditation can work wonders," says Nagpal. "Let's be realistic; medicine alone is not the answer, for the mind-body-soul approach works much better in treatment of addicts. The divinity in us responds", he adds.
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Mystic women
| Posted On 07:00 by Life | 0 comments |
One of my favourite chapters in the Quran is Surah Al Azhab which clarifies that our ranking with God is based on piety, not gender. Allah addresses men and women in the same breath: "O believing men and women, obedient, truthful, patient, humble, charitable and fasting men and women...."
According to Islam, the creation of Eve was not an afterthought; it was part of the primordial design of Creation. In the Quran, God says: "And everything we have created in pairs" (51:49). The Quran does not blame Eve for tempting Adam to eat the forbidden fruit; it holds Satan responsible for leading them both into sin.
Leadership roles
In the early days of Islam, Muslim women enjoyed leadership and community-building roles. Though cultural influences later corrupted the understanding of their rights, women continued to excel in religious science and there were several scholars of note. A quarter of the Hadith or the Prophet's sayings that form the corpus of Muslim faith, were gleaned from women. Interestingly, while Islamic history acknowledges instances of men fabricating Hadith, no woman was ever accused of this. Their intellectual integrity in conveying religious truth has never been in doubt. Women jurists passed fatwas or religious injunctions and these were respected even if they were in contravention of male opinion.
As spiritual masters and exemplars of Islamic piety, Muslim women often made their mark. There were any number of women scholars, poets, mystics, ascetics and founders of Sufi sects. They were leaders in their own right, often surpassing men in their understanding of the Quran and Islamic doctrine. Sulami, a 10th century Iranian scholar, compiled a rare study of 80 women Sufis.
Divine love
Many theologians refer to the Prophet's daughter Fatima, as the head of the Sufi order. A striking aspect of women Sufis is their intimate relationship with God and complete surrender to Him. Sufis credit Rabia Basri, eighth century mystic, with initiating the philosophy of Divine Love. She said that God be loved for His sake alone and not for reward of heaven or fear of hell.
Other women mystics include Umm Haram whose tomb is in Cyprus, Rabia bint Ismail and Muadha al Adaiyya of Syria, Nafisa of Mecca, Zainab and Ishi Nili of Persia and Fatima of Nishapur who lived in Mecca.
Ibn al Arabi, one of the greatest Sufi masters of all time, wrote that two women mystics, Shams of Marchena and Fatima of Cordova, had a great influence on him. About Fatima, he wrote: "I was her disciple...for several years.... She once told me 'I take joy in Him Who has turned to me and made me one of His Friends, using me for His own purposes'."
Bayazid Bistami, ninth century mystic, described Fatima of Nishapur as his teacher and would refer to her as an evolved soul. Dhun Nun, the Egyptian Sufi master, also acknowledged her scholarship and piety. When someone asked Dhun Nun who was the highest among Sufis, he replied: "A lady in Mecca, called Fatima Nishapuri, whose discourses bring out the essence of the Quran."
Fatima is said to have counselled him: "In all your actions, watch that you act with sincerity and in opposition to your lower self. Whoever doesn't have God in his consciousness is erring and in delusion, whatever language he speaks, whatever company he keeps. Whoever holds God's company, never speaks except with sincerity and assiduously adheres to a humble reserve and earnest devotion in his conduct."
Scholarship and piety
Women mystics either rejoiced or wept in devotion. Sha'wana, a Persian seeker would weep. She would say: "The eyes, prevented from beholding the Beloved, and yet desirous of looking at Him, cannot be fit for that vision without weeping." People would flock to hear her songs and discourses.
Many would seek out Sayyida Nafisa, a ninth century Egyptian known for her scholarship and piety, for her blessings. Several religious scholars, including Imam Shafai, founder of one of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence, attended Nafisa's discourses and discussed matters of religious law with her. Before he died in 820 AD, he expressed his wish that Nafisa conduct his funeral prayer. But constant fasting had rendered Nafisa too weak to travel so Imam Shafai's body was taken to her in deference to his wish.
Despite the outward male and female form, there is no place for 'i' within Sufism; all that exists is 'Thou', the One Divine Reality.
According to Islam, the creation of Eve was not an afterthought; it was part of the primordial design of Creation. In the Quran, God says: "And everything we have created in pairs" (51:49). The Quran does not blame Eve for tempting Adam to eat the forbidden fruit; it holds Satan responsible for leading them both into sin.
Leadership roles
In the early days of Islam, Muslim women enjoyed leadership and community-building roles. Though cultural influences later corrupted the understanding of their rights, women continued to excel in religious science and there were several scholars of note. A quarter of the Hadith or the Prophet's sayings that form the corpus of Muslim faith, were gleaned from women. Interestingly, while Islamic history acknowledges instances of men fabricating Hadith, no woman was ever accused of this. Their intellectual integrity in conveying religious truth has never been in doubt. Women jurists passed fatwas or religious injunctions and these were respected even if they were in contravention of male opinion.
As spiritual masters and exemplars of Islamic piety, Muslim women often made their mark. There were any number of women scholars, poets, mystics, ascetics and founders of Sufi sects. They were leaders in their own right, often surpassing men in their understanding of the Quran and Islamic doctrine. Sulami, a 10th century Iranian scholar, compiled a rare study of 80 women Sufis.
Divine love
Many theologians refer to the Prophet's daughter Fatima, as the head of the Sufi order. A striking aspect of women Sufis is their intimate relationship with God and complete surrender to Him. Sufis credit Rabia Basri, eighth century mystic, with initiating the philosophy of Divine Love. She said that God be loved for His sake alone and not for reward of heaven or fear of hell.
Other women mystics include Umm Haram whose tomb is in Cyprus, Rabia bint Ismail and Muadha al Adaiyya of Syria, Nafisa of Mecca, Zainab and Ishi Nili of Persia and Fatima of Nishapur who lived in Mecca.
Ibn al Arabi, one of the greatest Sufi masters of all time, wrote that two women mystics, Shams of Marchena and Fatima of Cordova, had a great influence on him. About Fatima, he wrote: "I was her disciple...for several years.... She once told me 'I take joy in Him Who has turned to me and made me one of His Friends, using me for His own purposes'."
Bayazid Bistami, ninth century mystic, described Fatima of Nishapur as his teacher and would refer to her as an evolved soul. Dhun Nun, the Egyptian Sufi master, also acknowledged her scholarship and piety. When someone asked Dhun Nun who was the highest among Sufis, he replied: "A lady in Mecca, called Fatima Nishapuri, whose discourses bring out the essence of the Quran."
Fatima is said to have counselled him: "In all your actions, watch that you act with sincerity and in opposition to your lower self. Whoever doesn't have God in his consciousness is erring and in delusion, whatever language he speaks, whatever company he keeps. Whoever holds God's company, never speaks except with sincerity and assiduously adheres to a humble reserve and earnest devotion in his conduct."
Scholarship and piety
Women mystics either rejoiced or wept in devotion. Sha'wana, a Persian seeker would weep. She would say: "The eyes, prevented from beholding the Beloved, and yet desirous of looking at Him, cannot be fit for that vision without weeping." People would flock to hear her songs and discourses.
Many would seek out Sayyida Nafisa, a ninth century Egyptian known for her scholarship and piety, for her blessings. Several religious scholars, including Imam Shafai, founder of one of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence, attended Nafisa's discourses and discussed matters of religious law with her. Before he died in 820 AD, he expressed his wish that Nafisa conduct his funeral prayer. But constant fasting had rendered Nafisa too weak to travel so Imam Shafai's body was taken to her in deference to his wish.
Despite the outward male and female form, there is no place for 'i' within Sufism; all that exists is 'Thou', the One Divine Reality.
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