Oh my ego who has lost inner peace...

Oh my ego who has lost inner peace and suffers! Are you the source of your own torment? Are you the source of what you see of yourself in front of your eyes and what you can see of your bones and organs in Xrays and of your brain activities in fMRIs and of your field of energy in photography and what you cannot see of yourself, like your torment? Or is your torment a most important sign on a most significant mission to remind you of your needs? Just as your hunger is a sign on a mission to remind you not to fail to eat your food and your thirst is a sign on a mission to remind you not to forget to drink your water and just as your various illnesses and pains are signs on most important missions to inform you you're not getting sufficient micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals); so too your torment is a sign on an even more important mission reminding you of your purpose in life and reminding you not to fail to meet the needs of your soul and emotions as well as your mind.

Just like satisfying your hunger by knocking on the door of the Infinitely Generous and Merciful Sustainer encompasses different activities such as farming, hunting, working in return for food, finding and carrying groceries (or gathering fruits and vegetables), making cooking utensils and building fire sources, gathering fuel (wood, gas, electricity, etc) for the fire or working in return for such fuel (for ex: paying utility bills), cooking, setting up a table, gathering around it with family or friends, in small bites carrying the food to your mouth and chewing each piece, cleaning up the table and washing dishes; so too does satisfying your non-animal needs encompasses various activities.

Just like the infinitely many bounties you're gifted are signs exposing the Divine Attributes because of their incapacity and their ignorance and their unawareness and their weakness and their being in need of being kept in existence themselves and their being in need of the Divine Laws of Nature to continue being upheld; and because despite all this they seem to be magically performing acts of intelligent, merciful generosity; and the inconsistency of these two observations; so too the signs in revelation introduce you to the Divine Attributes proclaimed and reflected, as in mirrors reflecting the Sun's light, by the entire universe from the mind-blowing amazing properties of the most minute particle of an atom mimicking the solar system, to the breathtaking beauty and elegance of a galaxy comprised of billions of gigantic stars, the distance between each uncomparably ever so greater than the size of each of the stars themselves.

The signs in both the universe, yourself (your body, mind, perceptive senses, your feelings of hunger, thirst, pain, your emotions of peace, bliss, happiness, anger, torment) and the revelation, through the enlightened ones who have attained to the light of iman-faith with conviction- (prophets, companions, saints, teachers, masters, gurus, Sufi sheikhs, etc), through the use of your own faculties (perceiving, thinking, meditating, evaluating, freely choosing, deciding, intending to put into action, subsequently acting upon your intention, perceiving the results of your actions and so the cycle continues) and by the will of the Source of all these signs and the Source of guidance, guide you in the steps needed to be taken to satisfy your non-animal needs.

Just as the pure unadulterated water from among rocks or earth ignorant of your body and its needs, is the best gift to meet the needs of your body and to satisfy your thirst; and just as vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts, meats, green leaves, starchy tubers, honey, milk, seeds from dumb animals, tasteless earth, colorless air, shapeless light, powerless branches of wood, are a table spread about the Earth of most exquisite gifts of innumerable varieties of tastes and smells and colors and designs and shapes and sizes and texture; so too remembering and thanking the Generous One, the Supreme Artist, the Source of Colors, the Shaper, the Designer, the Merciful, the Healer is a gift of revelation to meet the needs of your mind and of your emotions and of your soul.

Just as you've been gifted with parents and grandparents and teachers and doctors and the internet to teach you how to satisfy your hunger and thirst and how to avoid physical illnesses and pains, so too you've been gifted with revelation and teachers to teach and show you how to thank and how to remember the Generous Giver of Infinitely Bountiful Gifts and how to cure the pain of your existential angst, remembered by many as the terrible teenage years or as a midlife crisis.

Oh my ego, who likes to be free in her decisions and who likes to see for herself what's right and what's wrong by way of practical experimentation, why do you not hesitate in experimenting what you were warned against and you are hasty to act in what you know or feel to be wrong; but when it comes to experimenting the recipe of peace attested to by millions from all around the globe, from the most ancient to the most recent times, you are quick to oppose and you are hasty in coming up with excuses and you are thoughtlessly inclined to forgetfulness and you are lazy like you are lazy for nothing else. Oh my ego, if your logic and your emotions aren't convinced enough to move you to act, at least give an opportunity to the power of Truth to be realized by practical experimentation. Try the same basic recipe repeated for thousand of years in slightly different forms and expressions and see for yourself how it affects the torrents of your torment.

The recipe is expressed "mubeenan" clearly in a fashion easy to understand by all but carrying layers upon layers of meanings if you are willing to dive in, out of the Mercy of the One Who reveals us the recipe of light and makes it manifest on Earth. (Qur'an: Ya ayyuha alnnasu qad jaakum burhanun min rabbikum waanzalna ilaykum nooran mubeenan (4:174) (Asad) O MANKIND! A manifestation of the truth has now come unto you from your Sustainer, and We have sent down unto you a clear light.) To feel gratitude you must first think, reason, observe and travel. (see for some relevant ayats (ie. signs or verses) listed at this link: http://pan-cck.blogspot.com/2013/09/how-to-do-q-with-revelation.html) You must come to realize and not only realize but live with the consciousness of the unity, holistic connection and harmony within the universe which exists as a web of energy consisting of vibrations and motions of particles within the atoms and of planets and celestial bodies within the void of the universe. What you call matter is as minute so as to fit the entire amount of matter the Earth consists of (after subtracting all the emptiness between particles within atoms and between atoms within molecules, etc) in a thimble the size of the tip of a finger. What you perceive with your senses and brain as substance, flesh and bones is essentially the energy of the vibration of the particles, the angels, i.e. the executors, agents or instruments of the manifestation of the Source of this energy, those carrying the Divine Names to make them immanent in the form of the universe. You must live with an every moment consciousness of breathing in what other animals and plants and humans around you are breathing out in a flowing web of energy and that every breath is a gift from the Orderer of this energy and matter.

Oh my ego! Do you not see that your thoughts and your emotions and your actions have consequences? Have you not experienced that with the expectation of the unwanted coming up in the future or the whimsical fear of annihilation, even the most desirable circumstances fail to please you or give you any pleasure? Have you not experienced that with the expectation of the beautiful or the imagination of the desirable you can find peace and satisfaction in even the most wretched situations? Do you not see that your thoughts and perspective and interpretations guide your emotions? Do you not see that your emotions and your intentions and your decisions guide your actions? Do you not observe that your thoughts and your emotions and your actions have consequences? Do you not see the cat running away from you when you are angry? Do you not see the humming bird drinking sweet juice in the hands of those who compassionately and patiently persevere in approaching them? Do you not reason that your emotions and your actions are part of the flow over time of the web of energy and consequently are made to affect all that is around you and all that will be brought to existence and to your awareness? Do you not understand that the Continuous Source of Energy, the Source of your criterion of justice, the Source of your compassion, out of mercy, is guiding you to the right and wrong by creating appropriately positive and negative (that which we are made to dislike) consequences to your choices of thoughts and actions? Do you suppose that the Infinite Source of this infinite energy will suddenly cease to emit its Divine powers? Do you suppose that the Divine Teacher is guiding you through ease and turbulence to teach you to an end of annihilation or is it to prepare you for your existence yet to come, upon the birth called death?

Why then, oh my inconsiderate, self-centered ego, do you not take it upon yourself the jihad, the striving of being ever watchful of your thoughts and your emotions and your actions to be in harmony with that which you are a part of and to be in congruence with the will of the Source to whom you belong? Why then oh my ego, do you not take it upon yourself the jihad of quitting your bad habits and establishing better ones in their stead? Why then oh my ego, do you not take it upon yourself the jihad of quitting the attitude of complaining and sulking and replacing it with that of continuous gratitude with every breath taken, every beauty seen, every faculty in your body, mind and soul working, every morsel of food you put in your mouth, every drop of water that cools the throats of the ones you love? Why then oh my ego, do you not take it upon yourself the jihad of stopping carrying all the burdens of your needs and your fears, but instead starting to trust in the true Provider and Sustainer in whose hands is all that we know exists and that we are not aware of.

Why then, oh my forgetful ego who would rather suffer from forgetfulness than take action to remind herself, do you not take it upon yourself the jihad of remembering the Truth? Why then do you not take the prescriptions teaching you and advising you how to remember the Truth and how to come to a higher understanding of It and how to live with It? Why are you apathetic to spending even as small as one or two hours of your day meditating upon the existence and its purpose and Source, in repeating the Divine Attributes of Beauty, Mercy and Perfection you so yearn for, asking all kinds of your needs from their True Source, the Unique One capable of meeting your desires, reflecting upon your weakness and poverty before your Owner, in gratefulness for the vicegerency you've been granted over the rest of the universe and studying the signs pointing to the Divine and the signs teaching of the Divine, and gathering with friends and loved ones to share this bliss of learning and using your mind and washing your heart and feeding your soul, just like sharing food and other things you love, in order that you may prepare for a life of eternity, where the karma, the outcome of all that you have gathered in this life will be realized and completed, oh my ego, when you are not shy from spending almost all your waking hours in running after your this-worldly affairs and finite pleasures that are bound to the grave, that are bound for transience, just like your very own body?

ayat (signs, verses) from the Qur'an:

Ar-Rum (The Romans) ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِي النَّاسِ لِيُذِيقَهُم بَعْضَ الَّذِي عَمِلُوا لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ (30:41)  30:41 (Asad) [Since they have become oblivious of God,] corruption has appeared on land and in the sea as an outcome of what men’s hands have wrought: and so [38] He will let them taste [the evil of] some of their doings, so that they might return [to the right path]. [39] -  Al-Hajj (The Pilgrimage) ذَلِكَ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ يَدَاكَ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَيْسَ بِظَلَّامٍ لِّلْعَبِيدِ (22:10) 22:10 (Asad) [and he shall be told:] “This is an outcome of what thine own hands have wrought - for, never does God do the least wrong to His creatures!”

An-Naml (The Ants) فَتِلْكَ بُيُوتُهُمْ خَاوِيَةً بِمَا ظَلَمُوا إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَةً لِّقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ (27:52) 27:52 (Asad) and [now] those dwellings of theirs are empty, [ruined] as an outcome of their evil deeds. In this, behold, there is a message indeed for peo­ple of [innate] knowledge –

Al-Qasas (The Narration) وَلَوْلَا أَن تُصِيبَهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ فَيَقُولُوا رَبَّنَا لَوْلَا أَرْسَلْتَ إِلَيْنَا رَسُولًا فَنَتَّبِعَ آيَاتِكَ وَنَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ (28:47) 28:47 (Asad) and [We have sent thee] lest they say [on Judg­ment Day], when disaster befalls them as an outcome of what their own hands have wrought, “O our Sus­tainer, if only Thou had sent an apostle unto us, we would have followed Thy messages, and would have been among those who believe!” -

Ar-Rum (The Romans) وَإِذَا أَذَقْنَا النَّاسَ رَحْمَةً فَرِحُوا بِهَا وَإِن تُصِبْهُمْ سَيِّئَةٌ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ إِذَا هُمْ يَقْنَطُونَ 30:36 (Asad) And [thus it is:] when we let men taste [Our] grace, they rejoice in it; but if evil befalls them as an outcome of what their own hands have wrought [33] lo! they lose all hope! -

Ya-Sin (Ya-Sin) اصْلَوْهَا الْيَوْمَ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَكْفُرُونَ (36:64) 36:64 (Asad) endure it today as an outcome of your persistent denial of the truth!” -

Fussilat (Explained in Detail) وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ فَاسْتَحَبُّوا الْعَمَى عَلَى الْهُدَى فَأَخَذَتْهُمْ صَاعِقَةُ الْعَذَابِ الْهُونِ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ (41:17)  41:17 (Asad) And as for [the tribe of] Thamud, We offered them guidance, but they chose blindness in pre­ference to guidance: and so the thunderbolt of shame­ful suffering fell upon them as an outcome of all [the evil] that they had wrought; -

Ash-Shura (The Consultation) وَمَا أَصَابَكُم مِّن مُّصِيبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِيكُمْ وَيَعْفُو عَن كَثِيرٍ (42:30) 42:30 (Asad) Now whatever calamity may befall you [on Judgment Day] will be an outcome of what your own hands have wrought, although He pardons much; [34] -

Al-Jathiya (The Kneeling) هَذَا هُدًى وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِآيَاتِ رَبِّهِمْ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مَّن رِّجْزٍ أَلِيمٌ (45:11) 45:11 (Asad) [To pay heed to God’s signs and messages:] this is [the meaning of] guidance; on the other hand, [8] for those who are bent on denying the truth of their Sustainer’s messages there is grievous suffering in store as an outcome of [their] vileness. [9] -

At-Tur (The Mount) كُلُوا وَاشْرَبُوا هَنِيئًا بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ (52:19) 52:19 (Asad) [And they will be told:] “Eat and drink with good cheer as an outcome of what you were wont to do, -

At-Taghabun (Loss and Gain) أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ نَبَأُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِن قَبْلُ فَذَاقُوا وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ (64:5) 64:5 (Asad) HAVE THE STORIES of those who, in earlier times, refused to acknowledge the truth never yet come within your ken? [They denied it -] and so they had to taste the evil outcome of their own doings, [4] with [more] grievous suffering awaiting them [in the life to come]: -

At-Talaq (The Divorce) فَذَاقَتْ وَبَالَ أَمْرِهَا وَكَانَ عَاقِبَةُ أَمْرِهَا خُسْرًا 65:9 (Asad) and thus they had to taste the evil outcome of their own doing: [17] for, [in this world,] the end of their doings was ruin,

Oh my selfish and irrational ego who likes to drive me to trouble and pain when I do not use you appropriately, it is through you that the Source of Knowledge and Intelligence shows me how to attain an inner peace greater than that of animals and angels and nature. It is through using you properly, as taught by the enlightened ones, and by riding you like the horse of Burak that I journey ever closer to my Infinite Source. Oh my spoiled ego who likes to act like a child complaining instead of being grateful to her parents! I am thankful for the gift of you and I love you for being the means of opening me the path to my blissful connection of love towards the universe I am a part of and towards the Source of the universe that I belong to and the Source of the mercy and love that I am given samples of.

In Lak'ech (I am you) (I am another yourself)
Love your neighbor as yourself.

Ong namo, guru dev namo (I call upon the reflection of the Divine in the universe, I call upon the manifestation of the Source of Truth and Wisdom within me)

La ilaha illa Allah (there is no deity (Source of power, mercy, etc) but TheOneGod)

Shalom/Salaam (peace)
May you be surrounded by the Eternal Source of love and peace!


Qur'an translation by Leopold Weiss Muhammad Asad from http://www.islamicity.com/QuranSearch/