The Complete Human 3

The nafs amara is our survival self. If you look in terms of the energy center then it is the first and second center. It is about feeling comfortable, it is about eating drinking resting, sex and all that we need to do to get the things that lead to the comfort.

Abraham Maslow wrote in his Theory of The Hierarchy of needs that some needs preceded others.
And the survival needs preceeds all other needs. When people are at the survival stage, it is rare that they can go any further than fulfilling their basic needs and it would be difficult for spirit to grow. Which is why the Prophet asked us to pray that we would not be afflcited with a poverty that leads us astray..or keeps us at base camp...

Of course the Ustaz when he talks about the nafs amara will tell us that this is the nafs that is evil and makes us do the bad things. Actually it is related to the reactive self or what Himayat calls it the historical self. In wanting to survive , we learn to react in a "fright fight flight"kind of way. This is not bad in it's self. Neither is the selfish thinking that comes with it bad except that it makes us do things that are not aligned with the Real. It is really a sad state of affairs that most people actually never move beyond these basic needs to reach the higher levels of actually realizing their potential which is what being a Complete Human is all about. A Complete Human in my understanding is a human being who has realised all his/her potential and indeed they are different in diferent individuals. We were all given different essential qualities but they are all there within everybody and all of us have the potential to become the Complete Human.

I have found that labelling parts of us as bad does not really help us to grow but owning all of our selves and understanding their reasons for being go a long way is helping us to get out of the survival mode and start growing.

So one way out of the nafs amara mode is to go against our inclination for comfort, for more sleep for more food , for more comfort . This seems to be so difficult for many of us. Yet most of us actually do get out of this mode but only enough to fulfill the need for comfort food clothing etc.
When our thinking exterpolates this need into tastier food, more comfort, more luxury , we actually work very hard but then we work hard in order to feel good . What Pir Zia said is that we sacrifice Joy for pleasure for there is no real Joy except what comes from our journey towards completion and actualizing.