The Self Again

I am still reading about Stations or Levels or Patterns of the self.
It is becoming clearer to me now why in certain ways so called religious people put me off even though I could be called religious myself since I quite concientiously do my prayers and cover my aurat as well as discipline myself to stay within boundaries I set myself based on teachings of Prophet Muhammad.

I am sure all of us have heard stories about the Ustaz who had porn pictures in his handphone and other such tales.Actually I find this less reproachful than the religious person who when he/she opens his/her mouth , it is to slander somebody, to curse somebody , to criticize somebody , to say somebody is wrong or to praise and feel high and mighty about themselves. The reason that I say the Ustaz in question is less reproachful is because he only harms himself while the slanderer and curser send his/her negative venom far and wide.

Even so , they are better than those who rob and steal, lie and cheat, beat people up, kill people and generally do anything they feel like doing if they can get away with it without being themselves killed or otherwise hurt.

The "upright people" I mentioned above are in general in the second level of the accussing/blaming soul and the "bad" people are in the first level of the commanding soul.

I think we would like to believe if we find in ourselves characteristics of the second level that is is just a phase we are in , like when you are on a journey and it is a station you have to stop at for a while.

Mind you , it is important to be aware , even if we have moved on to a higher station that we still have the lower stations inside of us ready to pop itself out when we drop our guard.
Can you imagine not breathing? Dropping our guard is equivalent to not breathing and that means dying. Rumi the famour Sufi poet said forgetting his breath is dying. For the spiritually realised person, the breath is the key to rememberance which is , being on guard against the lower nafs that are within us and being in touch with God .

If you like to browse through books at newstands and small bookshops, chances are you would have come across a book called Tanbihul Ghafilun which means a Reminder for the Forgetful.
And if like a friend I know, you keep saying to yourself , oh dear I am soo forgetful, you might just pick it up and read and then find out it has nothing to do with helping you to be less forgetful or, if you are like my friend, absent minded.

The opposite of Rememberence is Forgetfullness yet how many of us are not merely not in a state of Rememberence but do not even know how to be in a state of Rememberence?
So now you may want to know, how do I get to a state of rememberence? Are the people I mentioned earlier never in a state of rememberence? If rememberence is about prayers , how about the Ustaz who keeps porn in his handphone and the righteous person who fasts and prays a lot more than the required . Are they in the foregetful category or do they remember?
Questions questions ....where does one find the answers?

Post script:
If you cannot wait for me to ev eventually get around to writing about rememberance you can go to Mushtaq's blog because he has written on rememberence..mind you , it is rather heavy stuff ....
Click on the word rememberence to get there.