Daily review questions

From Higher Awareness

I am tagging Hana, Aimi, Maryam , Hilmi , Aiman , Dr J to also answer these questions. Pick a day that is meaningful :-)!

Also Kevin , Pycno, Dr Roza, Kenakalayan if they happen to drop by!

1. What was your peak experience or accomplishment in the past day?
Did my relax class and used the realizations I had about letting go of grudges, an attitude of gratitude and also introduced a zikr practice that gave me a high ....
Your main challenge?
My main challenge was balancing and neutralizing bad energy that came from a reaction I had from someone whom I felt was degrading my position by the request she made.
2. What emotional reactions, stresses or tensions were triggered in the last 24 hours?
As above, I felt insulted and had to look within myself to see what was causing it. Looks like I have to take myself down a peg or two!.
3. What decisions need to be made?
Date changes if needed of training events.Which account to use to pay for further renovation works on LOHTTC.
What problems need to be solved?
How to manage my patients wholisitically with my busy practice. Need to train Maryam and Hilmi to do energy work and persuade them to learn homeopathy.
How to put up the swimsuit ads on the Wanita JIM online shop..DONE!!
4. What early warning signals are calling for your attention?
Body stiff and aching, cough still on although reducing..Need to look into my health issues and DETOX ..when will I do it...???
5. What did you learn about yourself in the past 24 hours?
I am getting more selfaware , can see some thinking and feeling modes but am not so hard on myself and can forgive myself , this I learn from looking at my reactions to my thoughts /emotions.
6. What new ideas, insights or urges came up?
The CD I ordered on Pir Zia's lectures came in the mail but it made me listen to another CD I had for some time, and what treasures I found there..oh why did I not find the time to listen before:
I learnt a very good zikr about expanding our limitations which is essential for survival for in order to survive one must expand.
Ya Shafiq, Ya Rafiq, Najjini min kullu Diiq ( save me from all limitations)
7. What strong desires did you notice?
It is a ridiculous desire ..I had a strong desire to be seen as a Being of Light...
8. How did you experience any reflection, stillness, relaxation or fun?
By being present to my emotions and my awareness, by savouring my joyful state centered in my heart, by responding with love to loving family members
9. What can you do to improve your health, energy and memory?
Take my supplements , begin my exercise program , stop taking empty calorie foods...erk!
10. Who, including yourself, needs your acceptance or forgiveness?
The lady I was saying about, maybe my children.. I need to forgive myself as well.
11. What goals or next step are unclear or need more effort?
My zikr and meditations need more effort
12. What is your ‘critical inch’ (thanks to Richard Carlson) – your most important immediate next step?
Make sure I listen to the tapes and read the energy psychology interactive CD and do the lessons to become better at my spiritual self healing and other people healing!

About grudges

About grudges


I share something I went through recently. Somebody who started to say things behind my back and do a number of things that upset me about 10 years ago ..he was still around in town but we never met..recently died quite suddenly . My first reaction was " that is good!"

A few days ago a read about how Ibn Arabi did a zikr 75,000 times to ask forgiveness for a man who had just died. The man's bad deed was cursing Ibn Arabi 10 times per day ..I don t know for what duration of time...

When I read that, I realised I also had to ask forgiveness for this person whom I feel wronged me...perhaps he felt I wronged him, who knows...but it made me feel so much better as if a load is off my back.

I am not saying we should condone any negativity or abuse directed towards us. Indeed it needs assertiveness to ask people to stop it and to take action to prevent people from doing harm and assertiveness is necessary .

It is when we have made the right actions and we now find we have to deal with the emotion causing a pain in our somatic body.

..................................................................................................................

From Pir Vilayat Khan

Now comes the crucial test: Remember Pir o Murshid said: There must be no grudge against anybody, and no complaining of anyone having done him harm, for all these things which belong to this world, if man took them along, would become a burden on the spiritual path. The journey is difficult enough, and it becomes more difficult if there is a burden to be carried. If a person is lifting a burden of displeasure, dissatisfaction, discomfort, it is difficult to bear it on that path. It is a path to freedom, and to start on this path to freedom man must free himself

When I advocate forgiveness, I sometimes have the response: "Pir, I already feel so bad because of what that person did to me and now I feel worse because I feel criticized for not being able to forgive!" I know it is difficult, but if one wishes for illumination very strongly, then one needs to meet what it takes. Pir o Murshid gives
the clue: It is the need for freedom to progress on the path that will help one overcome resentment because one's grudge weighs upon one holding one back; one's will cannot do this.

If the transit from the past into the future is not triggered off by one's incentive in singling out a resolve or resolutions, one will slip back by dint of the law of entropy. Life is a battle against deterioration, neglect, letting go, defilement, decadence, decay, slovenliness, You will find that if you do not yourself take the initiative to bring about a change, either entropy, psychological sclerosis, will set in or a crisis will start brewing and force you to take a decision.

The cosmos has a perfunctory way of righting itself, often awkwardly, inadequately, incongruously, unfairly, that baffles our need to make sense of life, and shatters our concepts of a wise, merciful and just God. The storm let loose clears the present from the past with a thrash, ruthlessly, savagely, indiscriminately, often victimizing
innocent martyrs while sweeping tyrants into power. It is the same primitive force of nature bursting forth in galactic explosions, in the territorial combats of animals ensuring order by the pandemonium of war, or the racial vendettas still raging in our supposedly civilized world, and at the personal scale personal resentment. The
evolutionary thrust takes time to refine, and transmute this savage force into unconditional love. You find it amongst the few - the saints. This is spirituality.

When the cosmos shrieks in flashes of light and sound, lightning and thunder, it tells us of its wounds, for example, in the cries of agony of victims of torture in concentration camps, in the the agony of the whole cosmos the ordeal of the disaster wreaked by the abuse of the Universe's (God's) gift of free-will to those fractions of the cosmos which now become auto-destructive, threatening to not only disrupt
others but destroy the very totality which endowed it with free will.

Fortunately alternatively you have another option: validation of the gift of life, zest, verve. You may pick up on the screen of your mind a mountain scene at dawn, the sky radiant with many-splendor ed colored clouds while His Majesty, the Sun takes his place in this array of glory. Or you may pick up the atmosphere of sacredness of a religious celebration. Or, moving back into the 1st century you could still recall the ovations of the masses greeting Christ as he traveled on a donkey from the Mount of Olives to Gethsemene.

The psychological energy generated by pain and suffering wreaked upon the psyche by abuse, injustice, failure and for whatever reason, being frustrated if it finds no outlet in revenge, vendettas, will simmer furiously in resentment. But by calling forth the transpersonal dimensions of one's being, one transmutes personal rage in cosmic outrage, one awakens latent qualities lying in wait in the seed bed of one's psyche which will trigger off creative thoughts fashioned into creative forms having a healing and enlightening effect upon the social environment.

Some mountains are scars incurred by our Planet by explosions spewing asteroids across space that bombarded us aeons ago. Here is one more illustration of the way that violent turbulence can trigger off beauty and majesty. Likewise with our psychological tribulations: the breakdown may aver itself to be a breakthrough. Pir o Murshid says: a defeat can aver itself to be a victory.

Making a difference

Making a difference

"The spiritual life is a call to action. But it is a call to ... action without any selfish attachment to the results."

-- Eknath Easwaran

Many of us feel deeply that we want to make a difference -- we want our lives to mean something in the bigger scheme of life. While this is a noble motive, we might want to explore what lies at its root.

Does the drive to make a difference arise from ego’s need to feel worthy? If my ego is not convinced that I matter, I may want visible proof that I do by making some kind of impact on life.

Soul doesn’t need proof that it’s worthy. Soul thrives in being awake and connected. Perhaps if we let go of the pressure we feel from our ego’s need to be recognized, we will be more open and able to simply live soulfully. And by doing that, we WILL make a difference!

"A person’s worth is contingent upon who he is, not upon what he does, or how much he has. The worth of a person, or a thing, or an idea, is in being, not in doing, not in having."

-- Alice Mary Hilton

How can we make a difference in this world that we live in? Is it by changing it ?

No ...it is by changing ourselves....

Only then will we make a difference in the world

Change from blame to responsiblity
From hate to love
From invalidation to respect
From being ungrateful to being grateful
From looking at the weaknesses to focusing on strengths

post script:

I had a number of feedbacks on this posting. One of which was a spousal abuse victim. It was only when she stopped blaming that she was able to move on in her life and she felt as if a huge burden had been lifted from her. It is when you stop blaming that you stop being a victim and are empowered. Only empowered people can make a difference.

The Traveller - Book Review

I have not read this book but it comes highly recommended. Harlequin is apparently an English corruption of an Arab word read about it here:

'This strange figure is known to have operated in Spain and elsewhere in Europe. The name given the silent teacher who performed strange movements, incidentally, was aghlaq (plural aghlaqin, pronounced with a guttural "r" and European "q" as arlakeen, arlequin). This is an Arabic play upon the words for "great door" and "confused speech". There can be little doubt that his appearance to the uninitiated is perpetuated in the Harlequin.'

Reprinted by kind permission from The Sufis by Idries Shah

(Octagon Press Ltd., London)

There are several reviews here

In John Twelve Hawks' The Traveler, there are six different realms of existence, and most humans live in just one of them. Those who can travel between realms are called "Travelers" and they include some of the most influential people in history. Travelers are protected by a secret group called Harlequins. Maya, a 26-year old woman raised as a Harlequin by her father, has eschewed that choice and tried to live a normal life in London. She is convinced, though, that she must go to California to protect the Corrigan brothers. They're sons of a Traveler, and their abilities are just beginning to surface. The world is controlled by the Tabula, who keep records on every citizen in an attempt to control every aspect of public life. They are the enemies of the Travelers, and the Corrigan brothers are a threat to their power. Maya's task is made difficult by the fact that the brothers are not together, and different groups want to use them for their own purposes. A battle for the world begins to unfold. The Traveler has received positive reviews with the New York Times saying, "The Traveler is written with unlikely buoyancy. The ponderousness that afflicts so many big visionary books does not take hold here. The novel's style is page-turningly swift, and its theories are delivered without pseudoscientific harrumphing."

A note to WOW gamers

Massively Addictive

As millions continue to spend large quantities of time in virtual worlds, what effect is this having on the real one?

The eight million players of massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft don't really change the game's world. Even if you spend all night slaying an epic dragon, it'll still be alive again in time for the next team of intrepid adventurers. But in some cases, the compelling, addictive gameplay characteristic of many massively multiplayer games can have devastating impacts on the real worlds of their players.

After World of Warcraft's first expansion pack The Burning Crusade released last month, adding a new continent to the world and a sizable stack of new adventures for players to tackle, we were inundated with tales of Warcraft woe -- stories of broken marriages, ignored friends, lost jobs, and wrecked lives. If you want to play the game at the top level, a serious commitment of time is required, and that's leading some players to neglect real-world responsibilities.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Orzack sees similarities between game addiction and more traditional behavior disorders

Massively multiplayer addiction is a real phenomenon, and it's one that's being taken increasingly seriously by medical professionals. Facilities are being set up to combat it all over the world: Washington, Bejing, and most famously at the Smith & Jones addiction consultancy in the Netherlands. Smith & Jones compares the symptoms of MMO withdrawal to those characteristic of chemical dependence, and offers a detox program followed up with a series of real-life activities intended to replace the excitement of playing MMOs with equally engaging experiences that don't require 60-hour-a-week commitments.

Closer to home, more traditional avenues of support are available to those who feel their MMO habits are getting the better of them. Maressa Hecht Orzack, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and Director of the Computer Addiction Study Center at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA, hears from six or seven people a day seeking treatment for gaming addictions. "Look at the fact that World of Warcraft now has eight million people playing it. Even if there are just five or 10 percent who can't stop, that's a large percentage, and I hear from a lot of them."

Dr. Orzack sees similarities between MMO addiction and more traditional behavior disorders such as compulsive gambling. "The same reward center in the brain is tapped -- the dopamine system. Gambling has all the components that go with these games," she explains, citing Solitaire as a simpler example of a game that can also lead to compulsive behavior.

The Inner Journey

Masjid Jami in Delhi built by Shah Jehan and still used as a mosque.It had rained a bit and when I removed my shoes and stepped on the wet stones, the cold penetrated my feet.

I am doing my reading which I promised my spiritual teacher I was going to do.
Am sharing with you this part of the lesson:

The inner life is a journey, and before starting to take it there is a certain preparation necessary. If one is not prepared, there is always the risk of having to return before one has arrived at one's destination. When a person goes on a journey, and when he has to accomplish something, he must know what is necessary on the path and what he must take with him, in order that his journey may become easy and that he may accomplish what he has started to accomplish. One must have everything prepared, so that after reaching a certain distance one may not have to turn back.

The first thing that is necessary is to see that there is no debt to be paid. Every soul has a certain debt to pay in life; it may to be to his mother or father, his brother or sister, to his husband or wife or friend, or to his children, his race, or to humanity; and if he has not paid what is due, then there are cords with which he is inwardly tied, and they pull him back. Life in the world is fair trade, if one could only understand it, if one knew how many souls there are in this world with whom one is connected or related in some way, or whom we meet freshly every day. To everyone there is something due; and if one has not paid one's obligations, the result is that afterwards one has to pay with interest.

There is the inner justice which is working beyond the worldly justice, and when man does not observe that inner law of justice, it is because at that time he is intoxicated, his eyes are closed, and he does not really know the law of life. But that intoxication will not last; there will come a day when the eyes of every soul will be opened; and it is a pity if the eyes open when it is too late. To some consideration is due, to some respect, to some service, to some tolerance, to some forgiveness, to some help. In some way or other, in every relationship, in every connection there is something to pay; and one must know before starting the journey that one has paid it, and be sure that one has paid it in full, so there is nothing more to be paid. Besides this it is necessary that man, before starting his journey, realizes that he has fulfilled his duties, his duty to those around him and duty to God. But the one who considers his duty to those around him sacredly does his duty to God .

Hazrat Inayat Khan

Delhi in pictures

In the shade of Hazrat Nizamudin

I am back from Delhi
The first two days I spent in the Chilla of Hazrat Nizamudin Auliya listening to my teacher.It is located just after the Humayun tomb and gardens a heritage monument of the Moghul kings.
It was shady and cool there , bright with no direct sun, surrounded by the sound of birds and tombs of Hazrat Nizamuddin's followers. The meditation room in the front was locked so we could only peek in.In front of this room was a small alcove that people used for Muslim prayers .

The back of this meditation rooms was in ruins , it used to house Hazrat Nizamudin's sleeping quarters as well as the stores perhaps that housed the food donations that were received daily. It was Hazrat Nizamudin's own rules that no food or donation should be kept overnight, all should be distributed the same day that it came. Hazrat Nizamudin left instructions not to repair the place which is probably why it has become ruins over the more than 500 years that have passed.


Sharing with you something my Sufi teacher taught in the 2 day meeting we had with him at the Chilla of Hazrat Nizamudin Auliya .
This is about Rabb.
Rabb means Lord, Where we get our tarbiyyah which means education, lovingly raising as we raise children or raising and growing plants , teaching, protecting,
Also the Cheriser of humanity

When Allah asked, Alastu bi Rabbikum ( Am I not your Rabb?)
The soul answered Balaaaaaa ( Yes)
The answer carried the soul trhough the planes of becoming ..and the soul is placed in a human form....in the womb of our human mother....
Hence we need to 'remember' ( zikr) our origins in the Angelic planes and the key to this rememberence is Prayer ( Doa and Salat)

The Message:
There is only ONE message, and there is One guidance which has a role in every single place of Human evolution.It is said in the Quran there are 124,000 prophets and prophetesses send to mankind, some made known and some unknown and all of them brought just One message that was suited to the perspective of the nation and time it was sent.It is that people over time made it seem that each message was exclusive and it lost its universal nature and became restrictive.

These are some points we may want to dwell upon:

"There is an unfolding pf the horizon of meaning in the world
The Divine Wish evolves and developes in our own process of unfolding
The Amanah for us :A responsibility to participate consciously and sincerely to open to the future which we cannot know yet.
Our body is the flow of humanity through time
Our bodies are the single cells of one planetary being . The soul has a longer memory before the creation of the body and before the creation of the earth."