What are you still searching for?

Posted on May 12th, 2008 by kate

This  question is being answered based on the hope that ,you will help me found what I am still searching for .  Of  all the  treasures  ( Worldly and Spiritual ), that I have been... More »

What would you choose to make a film about?

Posted on May 11th, 2008 by Jaleel

Peace and blessings be upon you Something reminding people to be in tune like the Spiritual Cinema movies and prehaps how to build relationships between spouses or people in general. Until Then...ponder Abdul-Jaleel Mahrouf Knowing... More »

Just thinking,,,

Posted on May 11th, 2008 by sherab

I'm pretty sure that the saying, "If you see the Buddha on the road.. kill him," was a Koan for provoking insight, rather than a teaching on the unimportance of teachers. The koan itself contains... More »

Misinterpretation

Posted on May 11th, 2008 by tathagata

Misinterpretation Through childhood conditioning we are inadvertently taught to misinterpret the lifeforce as negative, either as danger or bad behaviour ~ "Be careful, don't go there" "Be quiet and behave yourself" Constantly we avoid not... More »

What would you choose to make a film about?

Posted on May 10th, 2008 by ~C4Chaos

A film about a post- singularity world when humankind had achieved convergence of technology and spirituality on a planetary scale. The Matrix, Blade Runner, and Star Trek all rolled into a futuristic dystopian saga. I'm... More »

Entering the Portal of Spiritual Destiny

Posted on May 9th, 2008 by DL Zeta

One of the great challenges of life on the earth plane is the existence of a seemingly fixed reality. This is an illusion perpetuated by identifying solely with the physical world, which is by definition... More »

RESTARTING

Posted on May 9th, 2008 by JOANNA

A letter from Wednesday  ( names deleted)   "We all fall back, spiritually-speaking, from time to time. It's important to acknowledge where we messed up, but it's equally important to continue onwards. Too many of... More »

Simply Put #1: Meditation Video

Posted on May 9th, 2008 by Julian

This is a 7 minute guided meditation based on Simply Put #1. In order for this to qualify as inquiry-based practice, I would encourage you to sit for at least a few more minutes, perhaps... More »

What are you still searching for?

Posted on May 9th, 2008 by Jennifer

I am still searching for my home... physically and spiritually. I have arrived, I am home, In the here, and in the now, I am solid, I am free, In the ultimate I dwell. Thich... More »

Service to Self, and Service to Others

Posted on May 9th, 2008 by wanderer7

we all have a choice to make in this life: are we here for ourselves? or can we be of service to others? of course, the decision isn't that clear cut; some things we must... More »

Let a man set his heart only on doing the will of God and he is instantly free. If we understand our first and sole duty to consist of loving God supremely and loving everyone, even our enemies, for God's dear sake, then we can enjoy spiritual tranquility under every circumstance.

A satisfying prayer life elevates and purifies every act of body and mind and integrates the entire personality into a single spiritual unit. In the long pull we pray only as well as we live.

And if you are patient - certainly that (huwa) is better (khayr) for those who are capable of being patient. (Koran 16:126) Commentary: In this verse, Allah consoles his patient servants in their trials by announcing that He Himself is the substitute and the replacement of that which they have lost and which was pleasing to their natural dispositions. In effect, being patient consists in constraining the soul to accept that which is repugnant to it. The soul experiences an aversion for everything which is not in accord with its predisposition in the present instant, even if it knows that it will be beneficial for it later on. . . . Allah has thus announced to those who patiently bear the loss of that which pleases them - health, riches, greatness, security, possessions and children - that "He" [for this is the proper sense of the pronoun huwa rendered above as "that" in conformity with the way the verse is usually understood] is better (khayr) for them than that which they have lost; for they know that "He" [who is the Name of the supreme absolutely unconditioned Essence] is their inseparable reality and their necessary refuge, and that the pleasing things that they have lost were pure illusions. . . . He who has found Allah has lost nothing, and he who has lost Allah has found nothing.

. . . Whoever adores Allah through the fears of the fires of hell or in order to gain Paradise, whoever invokes Him in order that his share in the goods of the world be enlarged, or so that people should turn their faces toward him in order that he be glorified, or to avoid the evil which an oppressor afflicts upon him; or further, if he has heard a hadith* of the Prophet according to which he who accomplishes a certain pious work, or recites a certain invocation, will receive from God some recompense - whoever does this, his adoration is tainted, and it will not be acceptable to God except by virtue of His grace and of His generosity. . . . God said, "Whoever hopes to encounter his Lord, let him do pious works and, in the adoration of his Lord, not associate any being with Him." (Koran 18:110) The things which I have mentioned are the "beings" which are associated with God. Now, God is, of all those that are associated in adoration, the One who absolutely transcends all association. That is why He prescribed to all His servants that they adore Him with a perfectly pure faith which implies the desire for no other recompense than His face. . . . *hadith: A saying of the Prophet transmitted outside the Qur'an through a chain of known intermediaries. There are two kinds of hadith: hadith qudsi (sacred sentence), a direct revelation, in which God speaks in the first person by the mouth of the Prophet, and hadith nabawi (prophetic sentence), an indirect revelation in which the Prophet speaks as himself. (Introduction to Sufism, p. 117)

The search has no end: the knowledge of God has no end. He can not be known. He can only be known by that which proceeds from Him, as effects of His names, not His ipseity*. This is why the following order was given even to the Prophet, although he possessed the knowledge of the First and the Last: "Say, 'Lord, increase me in knowledge!'" (Koran 20:114). And he does not stop saying this, in every state, every station, every degree; in this world, in the intermediate world and in the beyond. *ipseity: The quality of God as a wholly independent being who is complete in Himself. The term gives emphasis to the paradox that God, without any need to do so, creates and draws creatures to Him through love and knowledge. (Definition courtesy G. Thursby)

When the sight will be dazed,when the moon will be eclipsed, when the sun and moon will be in conjunction, on that day man will say: "Where to flee?' But there is no refuge. (Koran 75:7-11) Commentary: "When the sight will be dazed"; when it will be stunned and perplexed. This relates to the moment when the theophanies begin, for the being has no previous knowledge of what he is now contemplating, no familiarity with what he is seeing. The "moon" symbolizes the servant in his contingency, and the "eclipse" his disappearance: that is to say, the evidence that his being is borrowed and does not belong to him himself for he "is" only in a metaphorical way. . . . The sun symbolizes the Lord - may He be exalted! - just as the moon symbolizes the servant. Their "conjunction" symbolizes the degree of the "union of the union" (jam' al-jam'), which is the ultimate degree, the greatest deliverance and the supreme felicity; and consists in seeing at the same time the creation subsisting by God, and God manifesting Himself by His creation. . . . The gnostic then asks "Where to flee?" because of the violence of the perplexity provoked in him by the multiplicity of the theophanies: their diversity, their fleeting character, the rapidity with which they disappear, the abundance of the divine descents (tanazzulat) which stun the intellect and plunge it in stupor. . . . "But there is no refuge" - there is no shelter, no way out. The gnostic who would leave this state to find repose is warned that the repose and the Gnosis are only found precisely where he is. The perplexity increases as the divine descents increase, but it is these divine descents which are the source of spiritual knowledge. This is why the foremost of the gnostics, our Prophet - on Him be Grace and Peace! - said "Oh Allah, augment my perplexity with regard to Thee!"

Paraphrased: Among the degrees of the universal Manifestation, each sentient creature typically experiences an illusory sense of autonomy. At the same time, with or without the creature's awareness, the creature subsists eternally as an "immutable prototype" in the divine Knowledge.

Then God - may He be exalted! - said to me, "What are you?" I replied, "I am two things, according to two different relations. With respect to You, I am the Eternal, forever and ever. I am the necessary Being who epiphanizes himself. My necessity proceeds from the necessity of Your essence and my eternity from the eternity of Your knowledge and Your attributes. "With respect to me, I am pure non-being who has never breathed the perfume of existence, the adventitious being who remains nonexistent in his adventitiousness. I only possess being so long as I am present with You and for You. Left to myself and absent from You I am one who is not, even while he is (fa-ana mafqud mawjud)."

God has stolen my [illusory] "I" from me and has brought me near to my [real] "I" . . . The colors have returned to the pure primordial white. The voyage has reached its end and everything other than Him has ceased to exist. All attribution, every aspect and all relation being abolished, the original state is reestablished.

There are two kinds of death, the death which is inevitable and common to all beings, and the death which is voluntary and particular to certain ones of them only. It is the second death which is prescribed for us in the words of the Messenger of Allah: "Die before you die." The resurrection is accomplished for him who dies this voluntary death. His affairs return to God and they are but one. He has returned to God and he sees Him through Him. As the Prophet said - on him be Grace and Peace! - according to a tradition reported by Tabarani, "You will not see your Lord before being dead" and that is because, in the contemplation of this dead-resurrected one, all creatures are annihilated, and for him only one thing exists, one Reality only. Whatever will be the lot of the believers in their posthumous states is prefigured in one degree or another in this life for the initiates. The "return" of things - considered in relation to [the diversity of] their forms - to Allah and the end of their becoming, expresses only a change of cognitive status and not at all a modification of the reality. For him who dies and achieves the resurrection, the multiple is one, by reason of its essential unity; and the One is multiple, by reason of the multiplicity in Him of relations and aspects.

DIVINATIONS

Sharing the art of Divination, Spiritual Guidance, and Intuitive abilities through various tools available.  The pod features *Free* General Guidance recorded (audio) readings.   Recorded by yours truly, MsCapriKell , the pod creator. The pod also... More »

Radical Clarity... Shi[f]t Happens

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Spiritual Parenting

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technosphere

A place to discuss the effects of technology, and the unprecedented communication it gives us, on our lives and the lives of those around us. How has technology changed your life? How has it allowed... More »

Spiritual Equilibrium

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ChiBounding

[FOR LIST OF CHIBOUNDING VIDEOS , GO HERE: http://pods.zaadz.com/digital_darshan/discussions/view/29162 ] Rebounding -- bouncing up and down on a so-called "mini-trampoline" – is my hobby, my passion, and even my integral practice. Rebounding works on many... More »

Spiritual Transformations

The purpose of the Spiritual Transformation pod is to provide a place for individuals to share their experiences, trip reports, inquiries, and ideas about the wide variety of means to access altered realities both for... More »

Integral Life Practice

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Discovering Music

This pod is for discovering music (inspirational, spiritual, relaxing, pumped up motivational, etc.) as well as encouraging the study of music (whether it’s simply listening or actually taking lessons, etc). Music is a great self-development... More »

Indian Hues

The Podcast will bring forth the vast diversity of India's Cultural, Social, Historical, Ecological and Spiritual Heritage of India. The exploration will entail experiencing the ancient and the modern of a country in which several... More »