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Re: 2009 NANOWRIMO -- preparations! 2
Hi Everyone! I've been a shy member of Gaia for a while now but haven't posted anything - then Sandra sent me the link to NaNo and I thought I'd give it a try. I'm... More »
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Re: Writing under the Harvest Moon #5
love the girl and the bird!!! It is strange how it kind of comes together in an odd way. my cold won't go away. I never appreciated my nose like I do now.
Re: Writing under the Harvest Moon #5
this game is truly bizzarre.. that you had a girls name and a picture of a girl, gg, (as with David getting a guy and a guy's name...)... everyone's albums are basically spectacular.
Re: Writing under the Harvest Moon #5
okay so I did all of the instructions. I got the picture the band and the title but I can't get the writing on to the picture and then how do I get it here.... More »
Re: Writing under the Harvest Moon #5
maybe will post this as an 'assignment'…. That's what I was thinking when I posted above, Sandra---it would make a cool assignment.
Re: Writing under the Harvest Moon #5
oh my gosh, Nono and Dryad, fantastic covers - just love them. You are right Dryad, there is something quite magical about this game. I agree - could be writing prompts, little snapshots of stories... More »
What is easy for you?
Posted on Oct 26th, 2009
by 
Matija
Matija
Writing. It's probably one of the things that are most natural and easy for me. As a matter of fact, I often overdo it and make long texts, and then I'm worried if they make... More »
5 Comments
views (19)
It's all going to end soon. Finis. This blog will be on vacation.
Posted on Oct 23rd, 2009
by 
Centria
Centria
Ahhh, it's been a lovely month of October. Just blog, blog, blog. You know, letting the inner voice carry on. Say what the heck it wants to say, whenever it wants to say. Blog, blog,... More »
27 Comments
views (82)
An Enlarged Heart after a punch in the stomach
Posted on Aug 11th, 2009
by 
Doug
Doug
My uncle Bill. God rest his tired soul. and I walked through the summer and two doors down an older boy was in his backyard. I don't know how it started? Perhaps my uncle Bill,... More »
2 Comments
views (90)
Open Mic
Posted on Aug 5th, 2009
by 
Rory
Rory
I find open mic performace to be quite fascinating- that is why I go twice a week in different bars, coffee houses, and resturants...I tend to seek them out and atleast go to a venue... More »
7 Comments
views (97)
What new ideas are bubbling in you these days?
Posted on Jun 9th, 2009
by 
Malia
Malia
I always have ideas. And then they never manifest. And then I forget I had them. >.> As for right now, I'm trying to right music. That's a bubbling idea, right? I have always been... More »
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What is your wish for the week ahead?
Posted on May 21st, 2009
by 
Emily
Emily
For the week ahead, I would like to do things that I keep putting off. I would like to tap into my own creative energies instead of drinking in the creative output of everyone else.... More »
1 Comment
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Discipline-the here and the now
Posted on May 21st, 2009
by 
IAAM2
IAAM2
A few years ago I had a casual conversation with a writer who was visiting the Hollyhock Retreat Center. I actually don't remember his name but he was a published author of some successful science... More »
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What secrets do you hide even from yourself?
Posted on May 20th, 2009
by 
EmilyAlice
EmilyAlice
I never tell secrets! And if I write the secrets that I keep from myself here, then I'll be telling them. That's one thing I do like about myself, people say I'm trustworthy. I always... More »
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A Note
Posted on May 20th, 2009
by 
IsisMoon1180
IsisMoon1180
All the poetry and letters I write are deeply personal. It is apart of my experiences, and based on my existence. It is not to encourage are promote anyone to follow my path. I'm currently... More »
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kiss from a rose: not your typical anniversary celebration
Posted on May 19th, 2009
by 
rudyan
rudyan
Today is the anniversary of a death that happened a long, long time ago, and that was probably the single most important event, or at least, turning point, in my life. The time and... More »
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I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better.
A. J. Liebling (1904 - 1963)
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.
'Abd al-Kader (1807 - 1883)
Source: The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader, 1995, Kitab al-Mawaqif, 220, pp. 45-47
. . . 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)
'Abd al-Kader (1807 - 1883)
Source: The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader, 1995, Kitab al-Mawaqif, 4, pp. 37-38
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)
'Abd al-Kader (1807 - 1883)
Source: The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader, 1995, Kitab al-Mawaqif, 359, p. 134
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!"
'Abd al-Kader (1807 - 1883)
Source: The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader, 1995, Kitab al-Mawaqif, 320, pp. 53-55
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.
'Abd al-Kader (1807 - 1883)
Source: The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader, 1995, Kitab al-Mawaqif, footnote 23, pp. 200-201
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)."
'Abd al-Kader (1807 - 1883)
Source: The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader, 1995, Kitab al-Mawaqif, 30, pp. 77-78
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.
'Abd al-Kader (1807 - 1883)
Source: The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader, 1995, Kitab al-Mawaqif, 7, p. 29
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.
'Abd al-Kader (1807 - 1883)
Source: The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader, 1995, Kitab al-Mawaqif, 221, pp. 51-52
His faith is no longer of any use to him. In fact his faith is only useful so long as he is veiled and has not obtained direct vision and evidence. . . . When that which was hidden becomes evident, when that of which he was merely informed is directly seen, the soul no longer derives any profit from that which it believes but only from that which it contemplates and sees. The states, the intentions, the goals which he had during the phase of faith are transformed. This transformation should be understood as purely inner. As to the exterior of this being, it is not modified even an iota. He continues to behave in a way which is acceptable to the sacred Law and commendable according to customs and natural law, engaging in the activities which conform to his situation and his rank among his fellow men.
'Abd al-Kader (1807 - 1883)
Source: The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader, 1995, Kitab al-Mawaqif, 172, p.72
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