Gaza Massacre and Conscience | there is no peace without justice and freedom

1.

The code name of USA's 51st state, a.k.a. Israel's operation that has killed about 400 people (wounded nearly 2000) in Gaza, Palestine since 27 December and even today continually bombing the Gaza strip is called Operation Cast Lead, in reference to a Hanukkah poem by Israeli national poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik. The outrageous murder of human conscience is utterly depressive!

2.
How on earth someone can bring Hanukkah reference (a sacred day in Jewish calendar) to murder in cold-blood hundreds of people including innocent civilians, women and children is unthinkable. Already Bethlehem is a city on siege by Israel driving out the Arab and native Christians in silent mass expulsion. Such total disregard for anything sacred (and what is more sacred than human lives?) reminds me of Khalil Gibran's Madman:

The Good God and the Evil God met on the mountain top. The Good God said, "Good day to you, brother." The Evil God made no answer. And the Good God said, "You are in a bad humour today."

"Yes," said the Evil God, "for of late I have been often mistaken for you, called by your name, and treated as if I were you, and it ill-pleases me."

And the Good God said, "But I too have been mistaken for you and called by your name."

The Evil God walked away cursing the stupidity of man.

3.
What is Gaza Strip?

I don't blame you if you ask, what Gaza Strip is because the media is so utterly censored in this country from the major injustices and crime against humanity committed around many parts of the world. Just so you know, Gaza Strip is the world's largest concentration camp created by the state of Israel (some call it the world's largest open air prison). Gaza's reality shows a little glimpse of it.

Since 27th December, 2 days after the world celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace, Israel used F-16 jet fighters and Apache helicopters, approximately 100 tonnes (110 short tons) of explosives to rain in to people of Gaza in the very holy land of Palestine. Close to 400 people have died including women and children and thousands are critically injured. They used the bunker buster bombs sold by US with the billions of dollar of tax payers money of ordinary US citizens and these are the bombs which were used on concentrated civilian areas in Gaza. Israel gets 3 billion dollar every year in aid from USA to buy weapons. During the Bush administration, from 2001 to 2005, Israel received $10.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing—the Pentagon's biggest military aid program—and $6.3 billion in U.S. arms deliveries. (credit)

Due to a nearly hermetic Israeli blockade already reduced the 365 sq km coastal territory into a real concentration camp. The cruel blockade hermetically seals the area, with its estimated 1.5 million human beings, from the rest of the world by a fence guarded by watchtowers, trigger-happy snipers, and tanks, with their big guns trained toward Gaza's population centers. There are people inside Gaza who have never been allowed to be out of the walls set by Israel more than decades. Israel also controls Gaza's coastal waters, airspace, border crossings as well as food, electricity, and fuel supplies. Nothing may get into or out of Gaza without an Israeli permission. The cruel siege, which many Palestinians and some foreign visitors are likening to the Ghetto Warsaw plight in 1943, has already caused catastrophic effects on every conceivable aspect of life in the Gaza Strip. (credit)

Whats been happening in the Gaza Strip, an occupied territory of Palestine by Israel is really depressing. AFP reported: "There was no space left in the morgue and bodies were piled up in the emergency room and in the corridors, as many of the wounded screamed in pain." Because of the U.S.-backed Israeli blockade and strangulation of the people of Gaza for the past 18 months there is little or no medicine to treat the wounded, electricity for hospitals, or food or clean water for much of the population.

So far close to 400 people are killed and thousands are injured. The medical facilities in Gaza can not cope any more. They have run out of medical supply and a recent boat carrying medical supply to Gaza was rammed by Israel.

This is NOT A WAR. A war is a reciprocal military interaction between two parties. This is an indiscriminate attack which has led to the deaths of scores of innocent civilians and particularly children. This is Massacre.

4.
Where to know about the real situation?

Blessed are the Peace Makers, for they shall be called the Children of God. - Beatitudes of Christ

Know the true reality and be a peace maker, policy influencer and policy changer towards peace. And there can be no peace without justice and freedom.

Its our human obligation, as part of this human family to know about the suffering caused by injustice, specially when its done by those who we elect to represent us. The weapons sold and gifted to Israel comes from USA and by the money paid by US citizens who has nothing to do with Israel's unjust policy to Palestinians. The least you can do is to know the real truth and do your part to raise awareness and consciousness to stop this madness. It was through mass public awareness and protest that Vietnam war had to stop. Only when majority of American people know the real situation regarding Palestine and Israel, whats happening there for real, only then can they pressurize the US govt. to change their foreign policy and be a true broker of peace and not just an exporter of cluster bombs, F16s and encourager of more and more massacre.

Suffocated in their tiny strip of land, Gazans of Palestine are not allowed to travel, trade with the outside world, or even complain about the inhumane conditions imposed on them by Israel. Their painful narrative has never found its way to Western media, which has managed, to the determent of Western long term interests, to conceal the Palestinian narrative while amplifying the Israeli’s. (credit)

There are very few media in the west that reports honestly whats really happening. It is precisely because the same interest group that sells arms and ammunitions around the world, cluster bomb and f-16 and bunker busters are the same interest group that owns the media, runs it and pays for it.

Stop watching totally dishonest media such as CNN, MSNBC or Fox. They are filled with propaganda to the max. Following are couple of sources where you can watch objective and real news online, specially when it comes to issues that contradict the interest of corrupt power structures:

(One.) Al Jazeera English Service broadcast from Doha, Qatar (Watch free live stream online)
(Two.) Democracy Now broadcast from Washington, USA

. Al Jazeera English also have their youtube channel.

5.
What can you do?

'The evil only exists because the good remain silent'

Sheila Musaji writes in her article, Inaction is a Choice: "You can contact your elected officials and tell them that you support the Palestinian right to freedom from occupation, demand and end to the blockade of humanitarian supplies to Gaza, demand International support for a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, demand an immediate end to the violence, demand that the U.S. stop funding military aid to Israel - tell them what you think by going to the Congress.org site putting in your zip code and sending a message."
>> Read details Inaction is a Choice.

And understand the history of Occupation of Palestine by the creation of Israel and its continuous violation of human rights, watch Occupation 101.

Know that there is no peace without justice. You can not treat people inhumanly and rob their human dignity and continuously violate human rights and at the same time talk about peace. Peace talk can not succeed from them who are not peaceful, who are arms dealer and don't understand what peace is.

May all wars STOP, may all injustice to all part of the world STOP. May the oppressors perish. Please keep the people of Palestine who are victim of this injustice in your prayers.


# Reference & Resources:
. Gaza Massacre Slide-show: what main stream media won't show you

. December 2008 Gaza airstrip strikes
. Mustafa Barghouti - Palestine's Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood
. Eyewitness from Gaza
. Operation Cast Lead - A familiar story in Gaza By Hugo Foster
. The Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering That Candidates and Congress Ignore by Ralph Nader
. Mohamed Khodr - The Hanukkah Massacre in Gaza: The Sacrificial Lamb to Israeli-American-Arab Interests
. Global Voice Online coverage of Gaza Strip Bombing
. Israel, Stop! Just. Stop.

. Palestinian Holocaust
. Gaza: world's largest prison
. Ben Cohen writes in Huffington Post: Obama's Silence on Gaza is Deafening
. Gazans: 'We are living a nightmare': Voice from Gaza

. Israel world's 4th top weapons exporter
. Israel ignores its own history in Gaza

. Picture Below: Palestinian loss of land since 1946 to 2000: Hostage and Refugee in own land

Thou shall not steal. Thou shall not covet your neighbour’s house.
- Old Testament, The 10 Commandments

How about thou shall not covet your neighbour's land? Well, 'not coveting neighbour's house' actually implies that already I guess.

"It is precisely because we are Jews that we march with the Palestinians and raise their flag! It is precisely because we are Jews that we demand that the Palestinians people be returned to their homes and properties!" - Rabbi Mordechi Weberman

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The Work of Becoming Human | Kabir Helminski

Surely We created man of the best stature. - The Quran 95:4

There is a great deal of human nature in man. - Charles Kingsley

In Sufi conference 2004, Kabir Helminski of Mevlevi sufi order started his talk titled, 'the work of becoming human' with the following opening lines:

"And our subject today ... is a subject of humanness. Its not an accidental subject. its really at the heart of this path that we call Sufism.

I remember when I first encountered this path, my first and most beloved Shaykh said, 'you know, you need some work to be a human.' in one sense its given to us, but there is also work of being human.

So those of us who are interested in Sufism, you and me, this is our business, its nothing less than the education of the whole human being. So that makes it a vast subject. It touches on every aspect of life, its nothing so small as meditation and meditation is immense. Its more than any spiritual practice, its how we live our lives, it is how we incorporate into our consciousness all the levels of being on which a human being can be conscious. In another words it expands our whole notion of life, from a limited dimension to a multi-dimensional reality.."

To listen to this talk, follow the two audio links:
[Audio] Part 1 (click to play the mp3 audio file)
[Audio] Part 2

. More talks from Sufi Conference 2004 is available via Golden Sufi, Recorded at the May Sufi Conference, Black Mountain, North Carolina

In his article. What is a Human Being?: The structure of the self within spiritual psychology Shaykh Kabir Helminski mentions few important aspect:

Psychology means “knowledge of the soul (psyche).” Our best contemporary psychologies are mostly a collection of subjective and culture-driven conjectures. There are dozens of theories of personality, theories of learning, and so on, but a true science still proves to be elusive.

The psychology of traditional spirituality provides a vocabulary with which we can know and understand ourselves and our relationship to the Divine Being, Allâh. This sacred psychology and its spiritual vocabulary offer an implicit model of humanness as well as a map of a spiritual landscape.

Education as it is currently understood, particularly in the West, ignores the human soul, or essential Self. This essential Self is not some vague entity whose existence is a matter of speculation, but our fundamental “I,” which has been covered over by social conditioning, and by the superficiality of our rational mind. In the world today we are in great need of a form of training that would contribute to the awakening of the essential Self. Such forms of training have existed in other eras and cultures and have been available to those with the yearning to awaken from the sleep of their limited conditioning and know the potential latent in the human being.

.. What is most characteristically human may not be guaranteed to us by our species or by our culture, but is given only in potential. A person must work in order to become human. What quality makes us most distinctly human? What is most human in us is something more than the role we play in society, and more than the conditioning (whether for good or bad) of our culture. What is most human in us is our heart, which is our point of contact with infinite Spirit.

The human being is the end product of a process in which this Creative Spirit has shaped and evolved a witness who could embrace the covenant it offered. If the human being is the most evolved Care-taker (Khalife) of the Creative Spirit - with the potential for conscious presence, will, love, and creativity - then our humanity is the degree to which this physical/spiritual vehicle, and particularly our nervous system, can reflect or manifest Spirit. That which is most sacred in us, that which is deeper than our individual personality, is our connection to this Spirit, Cosmic Life, Creative Power, or whatever name we may use.

[>] You may read the full article here courtesy Kabir Helminski's book, The Book of Language

. The Threshold Society and Mevlevi Sufi Order

. Rules of being Human
. Complete Human
. Guest House by Rumi

. art credit: painting of khalil gibran

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The Prayer of Thomas Merton

1.
fa 'ayna
tazhabün?

So,
Where
Are You
Going?

- The Qur'an 81:26

2.
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following Your Will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this You will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death. I will not fear,
for You are ever with me,
and You will never leave me to face my perils alone.

- Prayer of Thomas Merton, Father Louis

# Thomas Merton's connection with Sufis

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What is Sama? | Mystical Audition according to the Sufis

1.
The very revelation of the Final Testament, Quran began through a deep mystical audition of holy Prophet, peace be upon him. It was in a retreat that Angel Gabriel appeared to the Prophet and the first messages of the Quran was recited to him. The sacred sound of the rhythmic Quranic verses entered into the heart of Prophet Muhammad through deep listening states that would last for next twenty three years in his life time.

The deep listening involved during the revelation of the Quran is also clear in the verses where the Prophet is even commanded not to move his tongue in order to follow in haste what was revealed but to concentrate on the deep listening.

Move not your tongue in haste.
Ours it is to gather it and to recite it.
- The Quran 75:16,17

In another place the commandment for deep listening is generalized:

When the Qur'an is read, listen to it with deep listening, and remain silent: that you may receive grace. - The Quran 7:204

2.

The practice of deeper listening to sacred verses, sacred poetry, spiritual music / song for Divine remembrance and in Divine remembrance is a sufi practice known as Sama or Sema. The word 'Sama' comes from Arabic with a root meaning to listen (as Sh'ma in Hebrew).

The musical and ecstatic aspect of Sufism is called sama. The sufis, while being spiritually enraptured, give all the attention of their hearts to the Beloved. Often with special and rhythmical music, they engage themselves in the selfless remembrance of God. In this state, the sufi is a drunken lover who becomes unaware of everything but God. With all their faculties the sufis are attentive to the Beloved, and have totally given up and forgotten themselves. - via Nimatullahi sufi order

As the planets revolve around the sun, the seeker's consciousness revolve around the axis of All Pervading Divine Light. In a perfected Sama the sufi's consciousness is flooded with divine ecstasy and joy begins to permeate from the Grand Consciousness. The purposes of music in Sama is to help stimulate the love for the Divine so that the torrential downpour of spiritual ecstasy (wajd) may floods the consciousness of the aspirant.

3.
Then said Jesus, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
- New Testament, Mark 4:9

4.
Present Shaykh of Shadhiliyya sufi order, Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal, may Allah be pleased with him, writes about Sama which I share here:

Mystical Audition (Sama) is a genuine inspiration from the Real which unsettles and prods the hearts to Allah. It serves as rest and recuperation from the hardship of moment (to re-gather strength for new striving), and as an opportunity to pause, and as a breath for the masters of states (ahwal), and as a means to bring for the secrets before the possessors of gnostic tastes (dhawq). It is an obvious state of return to secrets.

Sama occurs in 3 modes:
1) Listening with the ear of the natural self
2) Listening with the ear of the state
3) Listening with the ear of the Real.

Both the commonality and the elect listen with the ear of the natural self, whereas only the elect are able to listen with the ear of the spiritual state. The third mode of audition (sama) can only be observed among the elite of the elite and the people of sainthood (walaya).

This third type of sama causes an inward agitation and an unsettling as if one is covered over, although these effects occur only for the one who is weakened by the strength of the inspirations which appear to them in mystical audition. In addition, this type of sama does away with the faults and imperfections of unveiling (kashf) and brings the eternal end into contact with the eternal beginning, and causes the ends to return to the beginnings.

This means the nullifications of secondary intermediaries between the listener and what is listened to, and between the servant and the Lord; therefore, by what he hears, he is absented from creation and things and intermediaries (ie. absented from witnessing them and from witnessing their evanescence).

Mode of audition is divided into 3 categories: divine audition, spiritual audition and natural audition. As for natural audition, it doesn't come with any knowledge; as for spiritual audition, it is of movement of the Divine pens on the Tablet of existence, protected from all alteration or substitution; and as for divine audition, it is of the secrets (asrar), and it is to listen from everything in everything by / through everything while at the same moment the whole existence is the words of Allah.

And know that for each there is a level to their listening, and their gnostic tastes are in accordance with their level. So, for example, when the repentant one listens, he is overcome with feeling of regret and guilt; when the longing one listens he yearns for a vision; for the believer there is an increase in certainty and realized clarity; for the lover there is an incitement to cut off all attachments and an increase in experiencing ecstasy (wajd); and by wajd in their listening (sama) we mean the unveiling of the secrets in the witnessing of the Beloved.

The true mark of those who genuinely listen in the sama and are realized in their listening is their yielding to every act that brings one near to Allah, such as listening to knowledge or dhikr. For this reason, sama plays a deep role in tasawwuf (sufi path of purification) ..

Therefore, the usage of music in a manner pleasing to Allah to attain to Him along with the traveler's (salik) assiduous obedience to the order of Allah is allowed based on the words of the Messenger (salla allahu alayhi wa-salam), "Indeed, actions are judged according to intentions ..."

- from the book, "How the Arrival is Realized, O People of Hearts and Souls and Intellects" containing the teachings of Shaykh Muhammad al-Jamal ar-Rifai ash-Shadhdhuli, may Allah be well pleased with him and give him long life. may his students and lovers be connected to his spiritual station.


# Related
. Stay close to any sound
. Listening 360

# Further
. Sama: Mystical Music
. Sufi Music
. Mevlevi Sema Ceremony
. A Psychology of Early Sufi Sama: Listening and Altered States by Journal paper by Kenneth S. Avery

. Sufi Sema Ceremony of the Whirling Dervishes, video1, video2 Pin It Now!

Na Man Behooda Girde | Qawwali from Mevlana Rumi's poetry

No! I am not roaming aimlessly
around your streets and bazaar,
rather searching for his Beloved
................... forever,
I am that kind of a lover.

drunk with the wine of longing
around the Beloved is my strolling.

God have mercy on me!
troubled, here I am roaming.

I've done wrong and sinned,
wounded now am I walking.

Though your eyes see me drunk,
glance with your heart
and you'll find me perfectly sober.

- Sadiq Alam, a new translation and poetic rendition of famous Qawwali, 'Na Man Behooda Girde' based on the translation of Farah Aziz, UK

the original Persian lyric in transliteration follows:

Na man behooda girde kocha wa bazaar megardam
Mazaj-e-ashiqee daram paye dildar megardam.

Khudaya rahm kon bar man
Pareeshan waar megardam.

Khata karam gonahgaram
Ba hale zaar megardam

Sharabe showq menosham
Ba girde yaar megardam

Sukhan mastana megoyam
Walay hooshyaar megardam.

This particular poem of Rumi is very much loved in Indian sub-continent in popular sufi Qawwali format specially credit to celebrated qawwali singers like late Nusrat Fateh Ali and others.

Qawwali use a lot of improvisation including occasional new lines and Farid Ayaz's rendition has couple of lines which I love much and their translation goes like this:

Why you call him mad?
I call him love intoxicated!

Enter this circle of lovers
and taste what madness is!

Some youtube clips of this Qawwali:
. by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, part 1, part 2, another
. by Farid Ayaz and Brothers
. Tasawwuf's video has some excellent Sufi Qawwalis

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o mor bondhu dhon roshia | bengali folk song by dohar

1.
o mor bondhu dhon roshia
dekha dao mok ekbar aashia.

appear!
o my treasured friend of joy,
show your effulgence face
to me once, o only once!

ashibar chaiya ashilen naa
moner aagun mor nibhailen naa.

you promised to come, yet you didn't,
and in your absence
my heart is on fire ever since.

boroni dhaner bhajilam khoi
shonar bondhu mor ashilen koi!

i have prepared a feast for my beloved
where is he, o where is he!

aaisho bondhu dhon jolpan khaan
shonan bondhu tor dotorar taan.

come o golden friend, break bread with me,
let my heart hear
music of your sweet-string being.

- translation from Dohar's rendition of a sweet Bengali folk song "O Mor Bondhu Dhon Roshia" (O My Treasured Friend). Dohar is a Kolkata based music band that promote and sings songs of soil of Bengal. Many of their songs adopt lyrics and tune from ancient bauls (mystics of Bengal) and often the metaphors are deeply rooted in sufi mysticism. In this song also metaphorically "Bodhu dhon roshia" is what Rumi would refer as Intimate Beloved of Heart. What sufis refer to Insal-kamil (Perfected Son of Man) is what Bauls refer as 'Moner Manush' (Man of Heart).

this translation is loosely done, some literal meaning is avoided because of no equivalent cultural or lingual context in english. for example, 'boroni dhaner bhajilam khoi' can never be translated in english and transmit the exact meaning. 'boroni (biruni) dhan' is a fine rice grains from which a special food is prepared. i kept it simply as preparation of feast - which necessarily is the sentiment here.

2.
Osho on Bauls

Modern mystic Rajneesh Osho (1931–1990) was deeply influenced by the Bauls as far as he even referred himself as Baul - so was he. His book Bauls: The Dancing Mystics and Bauls: The Seekers Of The Path is devoted to these intoxicated mystics of Bengal. In his other books The Beloved, volume 1 and 2 he introduce the wild, dancing world of the Bauls. He says, 'in the first verse of their song, “Only the connoisseur of the flavors of love can comprehend the language of a lover’s heart” is revealed the essence of their religion.' The Path of the Bauls assimilated from Vaishnavite Hinduism, Tantrik Buddhism and Sufi Mysticism - all of which were welcomed and nurtured in spiritually fertile soil of Bengal Delta.

Osho explains the Bauls' view of intimate human relationship, their concept of the body as a temple, and their secret of surrender to God, to the Beloved, to "the essential Man" who lives within us all. Osho says, “The Bauls’ path is not the path of the austere man, of the monk - no. It is the path of the dancer, the singer, the aesthetic man. His prayer is full of beauty, and God is not a concept of philosophy, but the Beloved.”

Trying to transmit what or who Baul is, Osho writes: 'A Baul is a madman; that is the meaning of the word baul. It comes from a Sanskrit word, vatul, which means mad. Become mad in the name of God! Become mad in sheer joy! And then you will know what a Baul is. There is no way to define; I can only indicate. There is no way to even describe, but I am here, present- I am a Baul. You look into me, taste me a little, eat me, drink me; that may give you some definition. And if you rally want, if you rally desire the definition, then become a Baul.' - from Bauls: The Seekers of the Path

3.

If one to imagine where Jesus, son of Mary could have appeared if he were to born other than Nazareth, probably it would be as a Baul mystic in Bengal. The holy stream of Ganges would be a nice substitute for Jordan River. :) Another connection is fish. Bengal is the land of fish lovers, so was Jesus. Remember after his reappearance he was hungry and what he ate was fish. Bengal would be so perfect for him! The symbol of Jesus used by early Christ followers was twin fish and symbolically he was a Piscean himself (he is also called Christ of Piscean Age).

On a serious note, the whole path of Bauls fit perfectly for the bohemian nature of Jesus, his anti-establishment stance against organized religion, his wandering nature, his message of transcending love and harmony and damn care attitude when it comes to compliance with the hypocritical religious power structure. These all are perfect hallmarks of the Bauls. This is also precisely why they often get shunned by the orthodox camps and get into trouble.

# Related
. Lalon - Bauls Mysticism
. Blissfully Baul via India on Foot
. Pulling Strings for Joy: The "Baul" of Madhugiri
. Jai Uttal's Baul connection
. UNESCO Proclamation 2005: bAUL Music - Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
. Lalon Fakir: Bengali music personified
. Joy Bauliana
. Khachar Bhitor Ochin Pakhi Kemne Ashe Jae
. Bondu Dhon Roshia by Dohar| listen via imeem

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Thomas Merton's letter to Sufis and views on Sufism

"I'm deeply impregnated
with Sufism."
- Thomas Merton,
In 'The Springs of Contemplation'

"I am the biggest Sufi in Kentucky though I admit
there is not much competition"
- Thomas Merton, October 1966

"My prayer tends very much to what you (sufis) call fana.^"
- In letter to a Sufi master Abdul Aziz

^ Fana in sufism refers to the inner act and unitive experience of merging with the Divine oneness

1. Sufism: a very strange subject and it should be kept a strange subject

"Who wants mystical theology in a monastery?!", says he mischievously. "That’s almost as bad as bootlegging or something!" dismissing it, bug-eyed with mock wondering disgust. "The last thing in the world any modern, progressive Catholic wants to hear about is mystics... I sort of throw it at you with a Moslem disguise or something like that in which it is more acceptable."

At this point, having warmed his audience up, he launches into the topic of the day.

"Now, we’ll talk about Sufism. Sufism is a very strange subject, and it should be kept a strange subject." He has his listeners intrigued. "Don’t ever let anybody ever get up here, or anywhere else, and give you a course on Sufism," introducing the class with bonhomie to cover his genuine modesty about presenting a subject for which in fact he was, despite his humble disclaimers, perfectly well qualified. "Because anybody who is giving you a course on Sufism is giving you a false bill of goods, and anyway, what do you suppose Sufism is all about?"

- from a series of informal Sunday classes which the teacher has organized to stimulate the monks’ faith and practice: the topic is Sufism, six talks, during 1967-68, venue The Monastery of Our Lady of Gethsemani, Kentucky. The speaker is Father Louis, better known to the world by his given name: Thomas Merton (1915 – 1968). [1]

2. A Catholic Monk in Sufi Garb

Merton’s interest in Sufism was a venture he specifically sought out. Initially his correspondence with the French scholar Louis Massignon, the presenter par excellence of the martyred master Hallaj to the West, was a triggering point for his interest in Islam. Particularly its mystical dimension, Sufism, the study of which Merton pursued through the works of two other important living scholars in the field, the French Henry Corbin and the Iranian Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

His discovery of Ibn 'Arabi, who bridged the domains of mysticism and philosophy, had a special impact on him, and he took an avid interest in the Spanish Sufis. It was not lost on him that the Arabic word suf referred to the coarse wool worn by a particularly ascetic group of the Prophet’s Companions, and that this was the very material with which the austere Trappists traditionally garbed themselves. And not to mention, he was a trappist monk himself, living the life of a catholic monk in sufi garb.

3. Thomas Merton's letters to Sufis

Father Thomas Merton's most fruitful correspondence which he had on Sufism was with a Pakistani sufi master and scholar, Abdul Aziz, who first wrote to him in November 1960 when his name had been furnished by Massignon, in answer to his request for the recommendation of a contact with “some genuine Christian saint and contemplative mystics”. It was the letters and books which Merton received from this fertile source that spawned the series of Sunday lectures on Sufism.

In answer to a query by Abdul Aziz about books on St. John of the Cross, Merton mentions the works of the two contemporary priests, Fr. Bruno de Jésus-Marie and Fr. Paul Nwyia, on the saint and his possible Sufi connections.

One of the fruits of the exchange of books between Merton and Abdul Aziz was the monk’s receipt of a copy of Titus Burckhardt’s classic text on Sufism, which prompted him to comment to his correspondent that Sufism clearly involved “a deep mystical experience of the mystery of God our Creator Who watches over us at every moment with infinite love and mercy”. He mentions that Burckhardt’s book also directed his attention to the importance of tawhid as central to the Sufi perspective, prompting him to note:

"I think that the closest to Islam among the Christian mystics on this point are the Rhenish and Flemish mystics of the fourteenth century, including Meister Eckhart, who was greatly influenced by Avicenna (the Persian mystical philosopher Ibn Sina). The culmination of their mysticism is in the ‘Godhead’ beyond ‘God’ (a distinction which caused trouble to many theologians in the Middle Ages and is not accepted without qualifications) but at any rate it is an ascent to perfect and ultimate unity...

Another point from Burckhardt which impresses Merton is the matter of “the dhikr which resembles the techniques of the Greek monks, and I am familiar with its use, for it brings one close to God”. He agrees that God “alone is Real, and we have our reality only as a gift from Him at every moment. And at every moment it is our joy to be realized by Him over an abyss of nothingness”, a comment which reflects the agony of Merton’s existential state as much as anything springing from Sufi doctrine, for he goes on to say with a particularly un-Sufi-like bitterness, “but the world has turned to the abyss and away from Him Who Is. That is why we live in dreadful times”. The Sufi perspective would be that no time in the world is better or worse than any other; the ‘dreadfulness’ comes in one’s individual inattention to God at any time.

In discussing the approach of St. John of the Cross, in whom Abdul Aziz had expressed particular interest, he could be expounding Sufi doctrine in the approach he takes, stating that there are two levels of detachment: first the outward, which he says is easier, then the inward, explaining that:

Inner detachment centers around the ‘self’, especially in one’s pride, one’s desire to react and to defend or to assert ‘self’ in one’s own will. This attachment to the self is a fertile sowing ground for seeds of blindness, and from this most of our errors proceed. I think it is necessary for us to see that God Himself works to purify us of this inner ‘self’ that tends to resist Him and to assert itself against Him. Our faith must teach us to see His will and to bend to His will precisely in those points where He attacks the self, even through the actions of other people. Here the unjust and unkind actions of others, even though objectionable in themselves, can help us to strip ourselves of interior attachment.

By June 1964 Merton is telling Abdul Aziz that he is to "provide notes on Islamic mysticism from time to time for the magazine of our Order. This is a new step, and a promising one". In another letter he reaffirms the harmony of perspective he feels between Christianity and Islam, asking when Ramadan is to be that year (1965) and saying:

I would like to join spiritually with the Moslem world in this act of love, faith and obedience toward Him Whose greatness and mercy surround us at all times, and Whose wisdom guides and protects us even though, in the godlessness of the world of men, we are constantly on the edge of disaster. We must humble ourselves truly and seek to see our state, and strive to pray with greater purity and simplicity of heart.

4. Disclosing the Inner-ness of Thomas Merton's Prayer

Br. Patrick Hart of the Abbey of Gethsemani commented in an interview over Thomas Merton's correspondence with Sufi master Abdul Aziz, "That’s a wonderful correspondence. I recommend it to everybody to read because it’s the only time when he talked about how he himself prayed."

This is what Merton wrote in a final note in the correspondence with Abdul Aziz:

Strictly speaking I have a very simple way of prayer. It is centered entirely on attention to the presence of God and to His will and His love. That is to say that it is centered on faiths by which alone we can know the presence of God. One might say this gives my meditation the character described by the Prophet as “being before God as if you saw Him.” Yet it does not mean imagining anything or conceiving a precise image of God, for to my mind this would be a kind of idolatry. On the contrary, it is a matter of adoring Him as invisible and infinitely beyond our comprehension, and realizing Him as all. My prayer tends very much toward what you call fana [‘annihilation’]. There is in my heart this great thirst to recognize totally the nothingness of all that is not God. My prayer is then a kind of praise rising up and out of the center of Nothing and Silence. If I am still present ‘myself’ this I recognize as an obstacle about which I can do nothing unless He Himself removes the obstacle. If He wills, He can then make the Nothingness into a total clarity. If He does not will, then the Nothingness seems to itself to be an object and remains an obstacle. Such is my ordinary way of prayer, or meditation. It is not ‘thinking about’ anything, but a direct seeking of the Face of the Invisible, which cannot be found unless we become lost in Him who is Invisible.

The significance of this passage is, first, that it is written as a confidence, involving the expression of something which he would normally find too private, even too inexpressible, to expose to anyone; and second, that Merton has been inspired to find terms to express the inexpressible through the vocabulary of the Sufis which has come through the works which Abdul Aziz has led him to. He does not have a ‘dhikr’ (a sacred formula), which he acknowledges to be the key to Sufi contemplation, but he is struggling to embrace the process of Divine communication in a conceptual way, beyond the rituals, the litanies and the offices of the Church and the monastic rule offered to the devotee in his own tradition.

Other than the correspondence with Pakistani sufi Abdul Aziz and the abundant reading material that sprang from it, there was another sufi master who shaped Merton's view on sufism and it was Algerian Sufi shaikh, Sidi Abdesalam.

Merton’s biographer, Michael Mott, describes the impact of Sidi Abdesalam: Now a man (Sidi Abdesalam) he (Thomas Merton) recognized as a true mystic, a man who represented the most authentic tradition in Islamic spirituality, left him with the message that he was very close to a mystical union and that the slightest thing could bring that union about.

In carrying on the teaching of his visit, the shaikh wrote Merton a letter the following February, asking if he “had set aside the distractions of words, his own words and those of others, in order to realize the mystical union” he had foreseen. At this time, in the winter of 1967, Merton was in the throes of debating within himself whether or not to travel. As Mott puts it:

“What is best is what is not said,” Merton translated from Sidi Abdesalam’s letter. He was in search of the “not said”. Solitude had borne many fruits when Merton had trusted it [in his solitary hermitage].

This is the context in which Merton was giving his lectures over the years 1967-68, basically from the time of his encounter with the Sufi shaikh to that of his departure on his journey.

In attempting to give the ‘strange’ Sufism greater immediacy to his fellow monks, Merton, the teacher, explores the idea of a connection between Sufism and the Christianity of his monastic listeners, suggesting a link with Syriac Christianity, which must have come up in his voluminous reading, through which he had, no doubt, come across the fact that the Prophet Muhammad had received his first religious instruction from a Nestorian monk in the course of his commercial journeys into Syria long before his revelation. He then turns to the great late medieval mystics of the Netherlands and the Rhineland, notably Ruysbroeck and Meister Eckhart, who he says “are like the Sufis,” continuing on to state approvingly: “That’s why they are good,” and, furthermore, “That’s also why they get into trouble.”

He states that “this is a thing that the Sufis realised. You cannot go on indefinitely affirming and denying,... for sooner or later you are going to have to account for the things that you’ve denied... Because eventually the balance gets overbalanced and, all of a sudden, everything flops over and you suddenly find that the people who hold all the affirmations are supremely impious people. What happens is that there comes a time in this process where the most orthodox, the most fervent and the most holy people are real sons of guns.” At this point his exasperation with the sanctimonious and doctrinaire types becomes so strong that a wrath of the sort that fired Jesus to drive the money-changers out of the temple stirs him to begin spelling out that ‘naughty word’: “bastard”, to brand the hidebound, denying dogmatists who plague every faith.

To bring the point home to his listeners, he touches on the archetypal case from the Gospels: that of the Pharisees. “The supreme example of this process is where you have the officially holy people who’ve got everything taped so perfectly that when God appears, they kill him.” If he had used the term, ‘perfect human’ (insa’n-i kamil), he would have been virtually expounding Sufi doctrine.

What he does proceed to do is to come to grips with another doctrine vital not only to the Sufis but to Islam in general: that of the simultaneous transcendence (tanzih) and immanence (tashbih) of God with respect to the realm of existence. While similar issues have been raised in the context of Christian theology, Merton chooses to employ the Islamic concepts and terms, with which he is not merely familiar but over which he has clearly pondered considerably. This discussion leads Merton on to the topic of the ‘mystical knowledge of God’, the subject of his next talk, but which he introduces now, giving a foretaste of what is to come. He begins with the paradox of God’s simultaneous transcendence and immanence, saying that the former represents the “absolute otherness of God”, which is “not able to be expressed in any way, not able to be understood, not able to be manifested,” while the latter indicates that God “is able to be understood”, that, indeed, “He is manifested in concrete things, and He’s in everything.” The speaker tells us that the Sufis “run these two things together, and actually the point is that there is no knowledge of God without these.”

In the final talk, the second part of the discussion of ‘The Desire for God’, Merton states that the “Sufis are centered entirely around this love, this desire, this thirst, for God, which is a passion, you see. It is a supreme passion, and the Sufis emphasize the aspect of passion ... not passion in a purely erotic sense, but it is a passion of love arising out of a supreme intuition.” When it comes to question time, he replies to someone’s query with words he says he is quoting from the Sufis: “Those who once knew God in Him as their supreme love, when He manifests Himself to them in this life, they suddenly become beside themselves and intoxicated with ecstatic love, for they know the scent of the wine. They have drunk it before.” [3]

5. Sufi prayer from the Heart and Contemplative Prayer

Br. Patrick Hart, Speaking on the Legacy of Thomas Merton in April 2005 commented:

He (Fr. Thomas Merton) really observed things ... I recall that when he was getting ready to go to the Far East he said, "I’m hoping to bring back some of their wisdom, some of their techniques and their ways of praying and entering into the Silence." It wasn’t that he wanted to change any doctrines. He wanted to learn more about their methods so that he could deepen his own monastic experience. He didn’t deny that there were differences in doctrine; he wasn’t trying to wash that away.

But he felt that people like the Sufi mystics can teach you how to pray from the heart, to enter into the heart and not worry about the creeds and doctrines that divide us. On the experiential level, the level of how we experience God, Merton felt we have much in common.

6. Inspiration for Dialogue

Merton who was a preeminent pioneer of inter-religious dialogue and spiritual friendship, saw the Sufi concept of fana as being a catalyst for Muslim unity with Christianity despite the obvious doctrinal differences. He wrote to his letter to sufi Abdul Aziz:

Personally, in matters where dogmatic beliefs differ, I think that controversy is of little value because it takes us away from the spiritual realities into the realm of words and ideas ... in words there are apt to be infinite complexities and subtleties which are beyond resolution.... But much more important is the sharing of the experience of divine light ... It is here that the area of fruitful dialogue exists between Christianity and Islam.

In another letter he said:
"I am tremendously impressed with the solidity and intellectual sureness of Sufism. I am stirred to the depths of my heart by the intensity of Moslem piety toward His names, and the reverence with which He is invoked as the 'Compassionate and the Merciful.' May He be praised and adored everywhere forever." [4]

7. Merton and Sufism | The Untold Story: A Complete Compendium

The book published by Fons Vitae contains Thomas Merton's encounter with Sufi mysticism, views, his own sufi poems, edited transcriptions of his lectures on Sufism given to the Trappist novices at the Abbey of Gethsemani, and a selections of works from which he drew particular inspiration including the work of Al-Tirmidhi (d.932), which uses fascinating metaphors elucidate the difference between the Breast, Heart, Inner Heart, and the Intellect. Also included is Merton's famous correspondence with Abdul Aziz and Marco Pallis and a photo essay depicting similarities among Sufi and Christian practices.

~
May God be well pleased with Father Louis, Thomas Merton; bless his saintly soul in abundance and accept him among the sanctified lovers in the court of the Most High.
~

# Reference and Further Resources:
1.2.3. Quoted from 'The Strange Subject' - Thomas Merton's Views on Sufism by Terry Graham via Nimatullahi journal, Sufi, issue 30
4. Spirituality and Practice review

. Merton and Sufism, an untold Story
. Thomas Merton's lecture on Sufism, audio tapes via FonsVitae
. Lectures of Thomas Merton

. Merton Institute for Contemplative Living
. Thomas Merton Center and Int'l Society
. The Abbey of Gethsemani
. Thomas Merton's Correspondence with Aziz, Abdul
. Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years of Thomas Merton
. Thomas Merton and Islam

. Thomas Merton's Hermitage / A Short Video
. Audio lecture of Thomas Merton on St. Bernard of Clairveaux
. Christian and Buddhist Mysticism: Thomas Merton and Chatrul Rinpoche
. Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton - Clip1, Clip2, Clip3

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The Hundred Letters of Sharafuddin Maneri, the Sufi Saint of Bengal

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

Brother Shamsuddin,
God's blessing be upon you! There is no other duty more binding on you than the quest of the Real One. If you go to the bazaar, seek Him! If you enter your house, seek Him! If you go to the tavern, seek Him!

I was in a tavern, and so too was my Friend: He came to me in private prayer, bearing a goblet of wine!

If the angel of death, Azrael, come to you, becareful not to desist from seeking Him! Say to Azrael: "You do your work and I'll do mine."

One day I will have to go and leave this burden behind:
Except for Your name, nothing will be found in my record.
If my head is not in Your hands, O Ravisher of my heart,
At least the dust from under Your foot will form a crown
upon my head.

- from Letter # 50: In Quest of God, The Hundred Letters

1.
Imagine the power of few correspondences in form of letters during the medieval period between two persons, which were so rich in their content that the letters were copied by seekers of truth, was kept as prized possession by kings and rulers and were made compulsory text in religious schools (madrasas), where the letters were not only read but fractionally memorized as part of the religious, spiritual education.

These letters after compiled became known as The Hundred Letters and were written by a celebrated saint of Bengal, Sharafuddin Maneri (1263 - 1381). The Hundred Letters was prized among all the sufi circles of medieval India. Known by the title "The spiritual Teacher of the Realm", Sharafuddin Maneri, may God be pleased with him, is venerated as one of the most famous Islamic saints (awliya Allah) and sufi master.

2. Context of the Letters

The then governor of Chausa, Bihar (northeast India), Qazi Shamsuddin frequently petitioned the spiritual master Sharafuddin Maneri to send him written instructions for his spiritual advancement; as the governor job and his many responsibilities prevented him from attending the audiences to the saint. Sharafuddin compiled with Qazi's request, writing him a number of letters on various spiritual topics throughout a year around 1346, 1347. They were later copied by Zain Badr Arabi. Soon The Hundred Letters gained fame beyond as well as within the sufi circles of Bihar.

The English translation done by Paul Jackson of the Hundred Letters are a wonderful read. Praise be to God, I recently obtained a copy and I cannot recommend a book higher than this one. The quality of the letters in terms of their subject matter and the art of transmitting spiritual advice/ insight are quite extra-ordinary. Dr. Bruce Lawrence in his Foreword says of the letters, "they are unrivaled ... and cannot be surpassed .. as an invitation to experience the Sufi Way as a Sufi Master experienced and described it, to join him in the endless struggle which has been ordained for man alone in the whole created order, to seek perfection while clinging to the pain of love."

This book is by no means just abstraction and talking about ideas but infused with valuable guidelines, insights, well laid out examples that unveils many mysteries with simple parables and recommendations for every seekers of Truth in Sufi path, the path of purification and love.

3.

I quote portions from few letters and this is an injustice because each letters can only be tasted in its fullness as well as in their flow; one letter sometime carries over the previous ones, yet each has its greatness by its own. These quotes are just a random taste of this great treasure house which this book is.

From Letter # 1: Belief in the Unity of God

.. in the fourth stage (of the belief in the Unity of God), such a surfeit of the dazzling divine light becomes manifest to the pilgrim that every single existing particle that lies within his vision becomes concealed in the very luster of that light just as particles in the air are lost to sight on account of the brightness of the light emanating from the sun. This occurs not because the particles have ceased to exist but rather because the intensity of the sunlight makes it impossible that anything other than this concealment should exist. In the same say, it is not true that a person becomes God - for God is infinitely greater than any man - nor has the person really cease to exist, for ceasing to exist is one thing, and becoming lost to view quite another!

Before your Unique Being, their is neither old nor new:
Everything is nothing, nothing at all! Yet He is what He is.
How then can we remain separate from You!

When "I" and the "You" have passed away, God alone will remain!

When you look into a mirror you do not see the mirror for the simple reason that your attention has become riveted on your own handsome reflection. You would not, however, go on to say that the mirror has ceased to exist, or that it has become beautiful, or that beauty has become a mirror. In a similar fashion, one can contemplate at God's almighty power in the whole gamut of creation, without any distinction. Sufis describe this state that of being entirely lost to oneself in contemplating of the Unique Being!

A person who attains such a blessed state says:
"His very brilliance blinds me to whatever descends!"

From Letter # 47: The Signs of Love

.. the friendship of the Lord Most High for a servant is something hidden. When a servant wants to know whether he is one of God's friends or not, let him seek the confirmation of some signs of this love.

.. It is a risky business to claim that one loves God! The reason for this has been well put by Khwaja Fuzail: "If someone asks, 'Do you love God?' remain silent. For if you reply in negative, that would be infidelity; while if you reply that you do, you would be lacking a quality of lovers, and your love would be in danger!" Understand that anyone who claims that he loves does the easiest thing in the world, but actual loving, ah! that is extremely difficult!

From Letter # 80: The Heart

The treasury of the King is found in the heart. Look carefully to see what you have in this treasury! If it is filled with gold and gems, then it is indeed a treasury! If it is full of straw and refuse, then it is a mere rubbish dump. One treasure is said to be in heaven, and consists of the blessings of paradise. .. The keeper of treasure of paradise is an angel called "Rizwan", but the keeper of the treasury of love is the Lord Himself.

Your worth can be estimated by what you seek. If you seek a dog, your worth is that of a dog. Whoever worship God because he desires heaven is a slave of his own desire. Whoever worships Him out of fear of hell is a slave of hell, for anyone who is afraid of something is a slave of that thing. ...

Your true reality is that which is within your breast. A man is where his heart is!

[>] Read a Complete Letter (Letter # 97: Death) of Sharafuddin Maneri. (via Muslim-Canada.org)

[>] Partially the book can be accessed and read via Google Book.

picture: tomb of sufi saint Sharafuddin Maneri, located in Bihar, India

4. About Sharafuddin Maneri

Sharafuddin Maneri was born in August of 1263, at Maner, Bihar - a state adjacent to Bengal in northeast India circa. His father, a famous Sufi saint in his times, was named Yahya. Henec the full name of the saint is Sharafuddin Ahmad ibn Yahya Maneri. Because of his great spiritual status he became known as Makhudm al-Mulk or "The Spiritual Master of the Realm", and people still in Bihar simply refer to him as Makhdum Sahib. He lived a considerable portion of his life in Sonargaon, near modern day Dhaka in Bangladesh. His major spiritual guide was Najibuddin Firdausi (of the Firdausi Sufi order). The saint spent last forty years of his life in Bihar where he passed away in January 2nd of 1381 and his death anniversary is still celebrated every year.

Many sufi orders came to Bihar, such as Chishti, the Shattari, the Qadiri and the Naqshbandi. But Makhdum al-Mulk, Sharafuddin Maneri eclipsed the leaders of all these orders. He still enjoys immense popularity among Hindus as well as Muslims, a tribute that has been denied to other medieval Sufi mastes and that explains the popularity of the order he introduced to Bihar, the Ferdausiya. - from the Preface of The Hundred Letters.

Invoking by the blessings of al-Fatiha, may God sanctify the perfumed soul of Makhdum al-Mulk Shaykh Sharafuddin Maneri, God be pleased with him and connect us to his spiritual station.


# Further
. The Hundred Letters via Google Books
. A Short review of The Hundred Letters by Jim Ehrenhaft via RSiSS
. In Quest of God, Maneri's Second Collection of 150 letters
. Sufi Saints of Bihar Sharif
. Letter of Dervish to God Pin It Now!

selfless love in the animal kingdom

1. Heart Warming Reunion and Affection

In 1969 John Rendall and Ace Berg saw a lion cub for sale in Harrods. Cramped and lonely in a small cage, they decided to bring it home. They raised this lion cub who they named Christian, and sadly he got too big for them to take care of so they decided to release him to live as a wild lion.

Well, in this footage, a year has passed and it looks like Christian's adapted to living with a pride of lions when his old friends come back to visit him. Watch closely and you can see the look of pure disbelief that dawns on his muzzle- it's awesome. Next thing you know, we have a heart warming reunion.

. Watch the amazing video of heart warming affection
. Lengthy version / . from the View
. Interview of John Rendall and Ace Berg in 2008, 2nd part
. Christian the Lion is among top most viewed videos of 2008 via Time

2.

One of the most amazing display of animal affection ever captured on video. This is footage of Ana Julia Torres affectionately kissed and hugged by Jupiter, a large African lion who's gratefulness is poured out beautifully. Ana fed and nursed Jupiter back to health years ago after it was found abused in a traveling circus. Torres said ‘This hug is the most sincere one that I have received in my life’.

. Watch here / . Ana Julia Torres in interview

3.

Often times its the animals, be it man's faithful companions, the dogs or house cats or even animal in the wild can remind us the flow of love that is inherent in every sentient beings. The human race, the most conscious being on this planet earth and the most evolved has this pure and selfless love as his or her birth-right as well. Yet the cloud of attached selfishness so much cover that selfless loving compassionate nature of our original humanness. Its greatly humbling to see the beasts reminding us of true nature of being.

4.
And in the creation of yourselves and all the animals that are scattered throughout creation, there are Signs for people of certainty.
- The Quran 45:4

In the heart of all sentient beings Buddha nature (of loving compassion) naturally manifest.
- Buddhist Zen tradition

The greatest achievement is selflessness. The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
- Attisha, the great buddhist saint of Bengal

You, no less than all beings have Buddha Nature within.
- Dhammavadaka

And there is no animal that walks upon the earth nor a bird that flies with its two wings but (forms part of) communities like yourselves; We have neglected nothing in the Book (of Our decrees). Then unto their Lord they will be gathered.
- The Quran 6:38

There is no moving creature on earth but its sustenance depends on Allah: He knoweth the time and place of its definite abode and its temporary deposit: All is in a manifest Record.
- The Quran 11:6

And how many a living creature that does not carry its sustenance: Allah sustains it and yourselves; and He is the Hearing, the Knowing.
- The Quran 29:60

# Related:
. Dr. Jane Goodall's Message & Contribution
. George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust
. About George Adamson

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let all selfish lovers die today

let all selfish lovers die today.

amidst this dense world
of hungry ghosts,
these passing clouds
and stranger crowds -
who needs them, anyway?

let all selfish lovers die today.

selfish lovers aren't really lovers,
in reality
they're pretenders,
(may God save you from).

when did a lover
reached the lofty station of love
without sacrificing
the selfish self?

Waal AAasri. Inna al-insana lafee khusrin. ^
I swear by the Time's token,
What a state of loss Man is in!

ask help o lost one, ask help.
this day take refuge
in True Lover: Al-Wadud *
The goal of Love, Lover
and Beloved.

- Sadiq Salim
Charlottesville, VA
Dec 8, 2008

^ Sacred verses from the Holy Quran, 103:1-2

* Al-Wadud is one of the 99 revealed Archetypal Divine Name in Islamic Wisdom tradition. Most arabic words have 3 letters root and the root of Wadud is W-D-D which has the following classical Arabic connotations:
- to love
- to be affectionate
- to long for, to desire, to wish for.

Al-Wadud means: The One who is the Source of all love and loving-kindness. The One Love. The One Who is Most Affectionate. The Beloved. The One Who is deserving of all love and affection. The One Who is the Goal of the Highest Love.

Wa Huwa al-Ghafooru al-Wadud.

And Divine is The Oft-Forgiving, The Loving.
- The Quran 86:15

+ related:
. Who do we really love?
. Sufi Love
. Sufi Path of Love
. We are in your quest

art: Sadiq Salim, digital media

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Story of Yom Kippur | Jewish Holy Day of Forgiveness

On the day of Yom Kippur, Rabbi Elimelekh of Lisensk took his disciples to a bricklayer’s workshop. “Notice how this man behaves,” he said. “Because he manages to communicate well with the Lord.”

Without noticing that he was being observed, the bricklayer ended his work and went to the window. He took two pieces of paper from his pocket and raised them to the sky, saying:

“Lord, on one paper I have written the list of my sins. I have erred and there is no reason for me to hide that I offended You several times. But on the other paper is the list of Your sins towards me. You have demanded of me more than what is necessary, brought me difficult moments, and made me suffer.

If we compare the two lists, You are in debt towards me. But since today is the Day of Pardon, You pardon me, I pardon You, and we shall continue on our path together for another year.”

.. via Warrior of Light blog of author Paulo Coelho

:))

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astrology, horoscope | from spiritual vantage point

1.
It is The Divine that have set out the zodiacal signs (house of the stars) in the heavens, and beautified it for beholders.
-The Quran, Al Hijr, 16

Have they not then observed the heavens above them,
how We have constructed it and beautified it?
- The Quran, Qaf, 6

As above, so below.
- Hermes Trismegistus, The Emerald Tablet

2.

Like many people I had a deep interest in astrology, I still have it but in a much lesser degree. My curious interest was and is mostly in the aspect of astrology that defines different human characteristics, not the astrology of future prediction.

On this note Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes in his Knowledge and the Sacred, "Human types can also be divided astrologically, here astrology being understood in its cosmological and symbolic, rather than its predictive sense. Astrological classifications, which are in fact related to traditional medical and physical typologies, concern the cosmic correspondences of the various aspects of the human soul and unveil the refraction of the archetypes of man in the cosmic mirror in such a way as to bring out the diversity of this refraction with reference to the qualities associated with the zodiacal signs and the planets. Traditional astrology, in a sense, concerns man on angelic level of his being but also unveils, if understood in its symbolic significance, a typology of man which reveals yet another facet of the differentiation of the human species."

Eager to study human psyche / psychology from occult side, I found astrology very fascinating and used to compare people's characteristics with their astrological sign etc. It was fun, mostly do it yourself project. In the same path of interest I came to learn little bits of Numerology, Palmistry (Chiromancy) and Face reading (Physiognomy).

In the Islamic wisdom tradition, astrology that is used for future prediction is strongly discouraged (to the extent of forbidden) because of disbelief on Divine Will involved in it and its materialistic misuse (partly because of ill motivation of dishonest astrologer who take advantage of people of weak mentality). Immoral practice of astrology is considered as sorcery or black magic. Also those who go to know about their future to an astrologer become fatalistic or passive by their mode of thinking and reliability of another person's knowledge rather than being pro-active. Its also a sign of weak faith in God's grace and Divine Will. Because of all these wisdom Islamic path strongly discourage future prediction astrology or divination.

3.
Just recently I came across a wonderful wisdom shared by late sufi master Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, may God bless his soul, where he explained why horoscope knowledge is not applicable for spiritually evolved souls or to put in another way, to those people who recognize the spiritual reality and not stuck with only material / physical reality of things. This is a subject I had some observations and questions for sometime. I have seen that people who are spiritually evolved or more spiritually conscious, the basic defining characteristics of horoscope are much less likely to apply whereas for others (less spiritually inclined people) the aspects match remarkably well.

In the book of
Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
by the title,
The Divine Luminous Wisdom That Dispels the Darkness
I finally found my answer.
Let me share here with you:
Bismillah.

His holiness Bawa Muhaiyaddeen was answering to a question regarding some astrologer's prediction of certain events. This wisdom was shared in a satsang in the month of November of 1970. Bawa replied, "Brother! There is a thing called horoscope. But it does not suit Wisdom (Arivu). Horoscopes will agree only with Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Ether. But horoscopes will not suit the faculties of Perception or Feeling, Awareness or Cognition, Practical Understanding or Knowledge, Wisdom and Divine Luminous Wisdom.

The horoscope is for the body, not for the Grace of God. Everything comes within the control of Divine Grace. The twelve signs of the zodiac fall under the four categories of Earth, Fire, Water and Air. With the aid of these you can predict the state of the physical body. But you can't predict the action of the Soul (Atma).

Only a gnostic (gnani) is qualified to speak about the soul. The horoscope can predict the state of the physical body of only Ignorant Souls (Agnanis). But these predictions will not hold good for people with Wisdom or Knowledge (Gnanis). It is where Earth, Fire, Water and Air disappear that the light of Wisdom appears. As long as one is controlled by the four elements of Earth, Fire, Water and Air, then egoism, sex, jealousy, illusion and the hypnotic torpor caused by Illusion will exist. There effects are indicated in the horoscope. But horoscopes will not suit a person in a state of Divine Wisdom (Gnana, Gnosis). As far as Wisdom and Truth are concerned, horoscopes are useless.

Child! Horoscopes are interpreted for the use of the five senses and the mind. Horoscopes do not agree and are opposite to the Truth of Wisdom. Horoscopes will not apply to person who are not liable to take future births. If one comes to know the Radiance of the Soul (atma joythi), he will have transcended the physical and sense-world, lost body-consciousness and be able to reverse the world of Truth, the eighteen thousand worlds, and the wold of Grace and Divine Wisdom.

The horoscope only covers the physical world of illusion (maya). If you submit yourself to a belief in horoscope, you will be traversing only the physical world and the sense world. You cannot go beyond. Believing horoscopes will not allow you to traverse the world of Truth and Divine Grace and Divine Wisdom."

4.

Sufi master Abu Said Ibn Abil Khayr, blessed be his soul, was speaking before an assembly and he said, "Today I am going to speak to you about astrology."

All the people listened to the Sheikh with keen interest, wondering what he would say.

The Sheikh said, "Oh people, this year whatever God Wills shall happen, just as last year everything that happened was what God, He is exalted, Willed."

5.

Say: None in the heavens and the earth knoweth (perfectly) the unseen (al ghayb) save God; and they know not when they will be raised. - The Quran, An-Naml, 65

# Further:
. A fascinating Dialogue with Richard Tarnas where he talks about Depth Archetypal Astrology, his monumental work on Cosmos and Psyche via Living Dialogues | Cosmos and Psyche

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