From my Readings – What a Monk had to say about Hell and Heaven

Once upon a time a Samurai goes to a Monk and says, “Monk, teach me about heaven & hell.” The Monk looks up at this huge Samurai and he says, “teach you all about heaven & hell? I suppose you think you are special? You’re dirty, you smell, your blade is rusty. Who would hire a Samurai like you? You’re ugly. You’re terrible. You’re stupid. I couldn’t teach you anything. Get away from me.”

doors, door, heaven and hell, monk, quote, prologue The Samurai, with his neck muscles budging, his blood vessels almost bursting in fury & rage, whips out his sword to kill the monk. Just as he is about to cut off the monk’s head with his sword, the monk looks up at him and says, “This is hell.”

And the Samurai realizes that the monk has almost sacrificed his life to give him the teaching. He is so overwhelmed by the courage and compassion of the monk in doing what he had just done that he puts his sword back in its scabbard and bows in incredible appreciation of the beauty of that courage and compassion. He says to the monk, “I can’t believe you just did that, risked your life to teach me.”

The monk replies, “And that’s heaven.”

 

On being Awakened – Words to Live by

If you want to believe that what your physical eyes can see is all that’s there, then fine, you can. Stay in that small fraction of perceptual reality if you choose. But at some point, even if that point is at the point of death, we all know better. I’ve seen cynics become mystics on their deathbeds. We are here as though in a material dream, from which the spiritual nature of our larger reality is calling us to awaken. The magician, the alchemist, the miracle-worker, is simply someone who has woken up to the material delusions of the world and decided to live another way. In a world gone mad, we can choose to be sane. In order to move ourselves, and our civilization, into the next phase of our evolutionary journey, it’s time for all of us to awaken. – Marianne Williamson from the book “A year of Miracles”

You who live by the life of this world, shame on you. Why do you live like this? If you don’t want to be dead, never be without love. Die in love if you want to be truly alive. – Shams-e Tabrizi

Swing at the Brandenburger

From a Different Perspective – An Ancient Asian Philosophy  

From a different perspective, and although this photograph was taken in Africa, Zanzibar, I want to share a philosophy from Ancient Asia that says: Life is not a circle but a spiral. Every life lesson that has ever been presented to you (which means everything you have ever been through) will come back again, in some form, until you learn it. And the stakes each time will be higher. Whatever you’ve learned will be greater fruit. Whatever didn’t work in your life before this point was a reflection of the fact that you hadn’t yet integrated the different parts in yourself. Where you didn’t yet accept yourself, you attracted a lack of acceptance in others. Where you hadn’t yet dealt with your shadows, you manifested shadowy situations. Broken parts of you encountered broken parts of others. So now you know! That was then and this is now.

 

What is your status?

It is an incredible feeling to go beyond yourself and realize that it takes more than a status to really tell if the person in front of you is a good soul or a poisoned soul. Poisoned only from the self at most times, but good always with the heart and inner intentions. It is not about religious belief, race or language that defines how good or compatible the person is, and it is not about genre, situations, or stereotype cultivation. But it is always about base intentions. The mind set in harmony with the heart. It is never about general judgment, it can never be about first impression, and it is not about generalization. People are different, and real people are hard to find. So most people are just simply imitations, and some are just trying to find their true souls, questioning; where do they fit in the most? And only few times, the pure pulls the pure, towards one person or another. Your heart speaks to you and when it does, it is truth. “Don’t let your thoughts cast a shadow over your heart” Rumi once said, because your thoughts are noise, only noise that was created by the other, and the other could have been poisoned and so now you have been poisoned too. Don’t generalize. You have never asked or truly tried to see behind that first impression you have received. That status. That same status that is only a label; a label that was possibly imprinted quickly, have you even ever looked at your status? How many people have similar statuses as you? How alike are you? How would you feel when you have been put in a closed circle and you go along those people who have that similar status? How much are they like you? How much of you are they? So don’t generalize. A status is only a label, to define you, but it can never be who you truly are. It is just armor. I don’t even know why we need that armor anymore in a world where it is so wide open to one another, and one status can never identify you as someone else who has the same status as you. Muslim, Arab, single with a Western Mind. What can this mean to you anyway? How could this mean one thing all the time? Do you know how many carry that very same status? But we don’t all like ice-cream, we don’t all enjoy dancing, we don’t all read Rumi, we don’t all speak 3 different languages, we don’t all fast Ramadan, we don’t all enjoy shisha, we don’t all agree about equal rights, and we sure don’t all love pizza!!! So why are we generalizing? Just because he is an Atheist, British, Married, Rock and Roll fan, why can he not have so much in common with me? What is a status today when the status itself does not represent itself anymore? How many Muslim act the very same way? Believe in the very same thing? Practice the very same way? How many Westernized Arabs think the same way? Enjoy the same thing? Agree on the same values? And how many rock and roll fans are Atheists? British? And how many Atheists are not open to learn about religions? Or no longer question the existence of God? Or practice values that were derived from religions? Again you might have started to generalize again, the questions here are not about the status, it is about different people with same status only because they had to be identified to the world, and what did we do? We decided to imprint that first impression, and what did that first impression do? It prevented us from really seeing the true soul of that person we have just met. So Voila, maybe it is time to stop criticizing before feeling annoyed being criticized.

Sunset in Tripoli

Politics 

Walking downtown Beirut on a protest day is like walking a ghosttown … When do we know the difference between obeying what the media shapes for us from believes to follow & when should we look at our own way out and walk towards it? It is so hard now a days to tell what is really going on!! But it is obvious to see that the Middle East needs love & pure attention. 

“Why should I stay at the bottom of a well when a strong rope is in my hand?” Rumi 

Stay where you are and move like a sheep or a robot or do something different… One thing different can change a fraction & too many fractions can change this world to a better place.  

       

Tell your story, and I’ll tell mine. 

We create the stories we want to tell about our own lives. Who we loved, who we lived with, what we failed to achieve, our success stories, our friends, people who left foot prints, people who we choose to cut loose from our lives, people who we inspired, people who inspired us… We choose pieces from our lives to stick up upon the wall or just over the ground or maybe in our backyard or in the trash… We choose what to remember, what to be affected by, what to speak of and share and what to completely disregard as it ever happening. But what ever happened in our past is what made us who we are today… So step up & be proud. Learn that without those pieces in your life you would not be where you are today, learn that better things are coming your way, learn that those around can benefit from your experience, learn that by giving you will only be rewarded. So live life with true honest and love. Cherish the good moments & the hard. Let this world come into you like a little baby entering the arms of a loving mother. Not knowing what to expect but certain to be protected & given the best there is that she can offer to give.  

 

Listen to the music of life… 

Sometimes life gives us no option but to search for a new option, or stop searching at all… Or maybe just look deep inside again, into our lives today. We find pleasure in chasing something so hard, not knowing if it is truly what is good for us at all. What we think, changes. And what we feel, can be misunderstood. Life has the answers for us at the right time, and when life gives you no option, then there is a reason behind it. So stop trying to force things to happen & instead just listen to the music of life. Learn to be patient, & enjoy the music of life.

 Photographed in Yafa  

Do you have a Titanium in you? هل انت جبار؟ و ما معنى الجبار

The Powerful, Compeller, Titan “Al Jabar”: Which in Arabic stands for unbreakable, and to help things grow stronger and better through oppression “What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger”. Like your bones are compelled against breakage. And to overpower the poor to help him enrich. Al Jabar also stands for greatness. And Al Jabar derives from the Divine for nothing is made impossible and everything is made possible. And through being oppressed we learn, and after oppression we gain appreciation. And a titanium heart is a heart that finds happiness even in hardship. And it is a compliment for a person who is known for being Jabar, but from the Divine type of Jabar, a Jabar over himself. A Jabar for not being evil and harmful,  who is against wrongdoing, harming and selfishness. This type of Jabar is proud, proud to only want to be from the Divine type of Jabar, overpowered against all evil doings, and only doing what is Divine, good. “Self expression inspired by the name Al Jabar from the 99 names of God in Islam.”

الجبار: اللغة تقول : الجبر ضد الكسر ، واصلاح الشىء بنوع من القهر ، يقال جبر العظم من الكسر ، وجبرت الفقير أى أغنيته ، كما أن الجبار فى اللغة هو العالى العظيم
والجبار فى حق الله تعالى هو الذى تنفذ مشيئته على سبيل الإجبار فى كل أحد ، ولا تنفذ قيه مشيئة أحد ، ويظهر أحكامه قهرا ، ولا يخرج أحد عن قبضة تقديره ، وليس ذلك إلا لله ، وجاء فى حديث الإمام على ( جبار القلوب على فطرتها شقيها وسعيدها ) أى أنه أجبر القلوب شقيها وسعيدها على ما فطرها عليه من معرفته ، وقد تطلق كلمة الجبار على العبد مدحا له وذلك هو العبد المحبوب لله ، الذى يكون جبارا على نفسه ..جبارا على الشيطان .. محترسا من العصيان
والجبار هو المتكبر ، والتكبر فى حق الله وصف محمود ، وفى حق العباد وصف مذموم
Iqreth, اقرث

A little bit more on the meaning of Beloved… و ما معنى العزيز ؟

al-Aziz in Arabic stands for the Beloved, which also comes from and means strength, intensity, success, greatness, and to refrain. And it also comes from reinforcement which means to strengthen. And the Beloved comes from the Divine and so it is one of the names of God in Islam. And it is very rare to find, and the need for it only exceeds, and it is not so easy to reach to and feel connected to; and those three combined is what “Beloved” means. To take for example the Sun, there is nothing to be compared to the sun, the benefits of the sun is remarkable, and the need for the sun is severe, but it can not described as the Beloved, for it is not so hard to find. “From the 99 names of God in Islam”

العزيز: العز فى اللغة هو القوة والشدة والغلبة والرفعة و الأمتناع ، والتعزيز هو التقوية ، والعزيز اسم من أسماء الله الحسنى هو الخطير ،( الذى يقل وجود مثله . وتشتد الحاجة اليه . ويصعب الوصول اليه ) وإذا لم تجتمع هذه المعانى الثلاث لم يطلق عليه اسم العزيز ، كالشمس : لا نظير لها .. والنفع منها عظيم والحاجة شديدة اليها ولكن لا توصف بالعزة لأنه لا يصعب الوصول الي مشاهدتها . وفى قوله تعالى ( ولله العزة ولرسوله وللمؤمنين ولكن المنافقين لا يعلمون ) فالعزة هنا لله تحقيقا ، ولرسوله فضلا ، وللمؤمنين ببركة إيمانهم برسول الله عليه الصلاة والسلام

lovelocks at the castel saint angelo bridge river love forever

A little bit more on what it means to be Governed… معنى المهيمن من اسماء الله

To be Governed: And it stands for doing what needs to be done, and taking good care of it. And the Governor watches over you, and takes care of you. To Govern is derived from the Divine who is always watching over and taking care of everything. Excessive care and protection. witness to the world in all that is happening, intimately and in secrecy. The Governor comes from the Divine for listening to all thankfulness and to all complaints. Keeps you motivated even when you are hurt and in trouble. Who is over looking all your doings, actions and decisions, witnessing your thoughts, and knows of your secrets, so you are never alone. Even the greatness and the extraordinary are seen and known, and all actions are being supervised and taken care of. Always there, by keeping it protected and governed. -“From the 99 names of God in Islam”, and if you feel governed then it is a feeling derived from the Divine.
المهيمن: الهيمنة هى القيام على الشىء والرعاية له ، والمهيمن هو الرقيب أو الشاهد ، والرقيب اسم من أسماء الله تبارك وتعالى معناه الرقيب الحافظ لكل شىء ، المبالغ فى الرقابة والحفظ ، أو المشاهد العالم بجميع الأشياء ، بالسر والنجوى ، السامع للشكر والشكوى ، الدافع للضر والبلوى ، وهو الشاهد المطلع على افعال مخلوقاته ، الذى يشهد الخواطر ، ويعلم السرائر ، ويبصر الظواهر ، وهو المشرف على أعمال العباد ، القائم على الوجود بالحفظ والأستيلاء
مسد الاقصى المقدس - Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem