"Karl Marx famously called religion 'the opiate of the masses.' Buddhism, particularly as it is popularly practiced, promises improvement through karma. Islam and Christianity promise eternal paradise to the faithful. And that is a powerful opiate, certainly, the hope of a better life to come. But there's a Sufi story that challenges the notion that people believe only because they need an opiate. Rabe'a al-Adiwiyah, a great woman saint of Sufism, was seen running through the streets of Basra carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When someone asked her what she was doing, she said, "I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for the want of heaven or fear of hell, but because He is God."
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
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That's a marvelous Sufi story! And how so true it is -- those who want to go to heaven or fear going to hell are not living in the present moment -- the only moment there is -- the only moment when one can sense the presence of God within. They are missing out on life when they're not in the present moment which is the only reality.
Here's a quote from Rumi (13th century Sufi mystic):
"Though we seem to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream, and that will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are."
Thank you so much for the story! I'm adding it to my collection of spiritual quotes/stories. :)
Blessings!
Hmmmm... about heaven and hell.
I just finished the book I was reading; it is called "What Happends When We Die: A Groundbreaking Study into the Nature of Life and Death", written by Sam Parnia, MD, PhD. At the risk of sounding morbid, I am a bit fascinated about what happens when we die. The book (and other literatures as well) says that people of ANY religions, experiencing NDE (near death experience) in which they are clinically dead for a few to several minutes before coming back to life, tell similiar stories... going through tunnel, seeing LIGHT, feeling joy and peace, out of body experiences, to name a few. This has been reported for centuries, back to Plato's time and all over the world.
It is like death finally opens our eyes and see that we have been in heaven for a long time but we only need to shed our "skins". We grew up in fear being drummed into us by Bible stories, monster stories, etc. and our society has an abnormal fear of death and we don't see it.
You could check out more information by www.horizonresearch.org and www.iands.org. We are talking about light and peace and joy and how we can utilize Light. Even people, even the most religious ones, do experience light and joy and peace... no difference here.
I apologize if I insult anyone by talking about death, but it is a natural step in our physical lives, in a way to help free us from fear and to go to the Light.
Jill, I know what I am going to talk about has nothing to do with your recent posting, but I came across this article earlier this AM and I want to share this with the viewers about something that I learned...
http://circleofa.org/qanda/FearAndHate.php
I read this article, written by Robert Perry, in the Circle of Atonement site about love and hate. Really, it should be retermed as love and FEAR. In our society, the opposite of love is usually hate, but hate comes from fear, so therefore, the opposite of love should be fear. When we "hate" someone, we are usually afraid of what we perceive someone/something, and we react.
Quoting...
"Only attack produces fear. (T-12.I.8:12)
Hate must father fear. (T-31.I.10:2)
This cause-and-effect chain will be familiar to many Course students. First, we attack, not because we have been threatened or provoked, but simply because we hope to gain from another's loss. The Course says, "No one attacks without intent to hurt" (W-pI.170.1:1). Then we feel guilty for this attack. And then we feel afraid that we will be punished. Fear, then, is the end result of hate, attack, and guilt. It is not their cause. Fear is the summary emotion of the ego because it is where all of the ego's emotions lead, not where all of them come from."
Also, this article says that people feel "stronger" from hating, which is an illusion, since love does make us stronger (our ego says that love makes us weaker, which is not true.) Again, quote: "On a practical level, what this means is that when we make a choice for hate, we are really making a choice for fear, because that is where our hate will lead us. Our hate seems to be a choice for strength, a choice that will raise us to the top of the heap, but in fact it is a choice for weakness, a choice that will leave us cowering in the shadows. It will leave us waiting in dread for our sins to come down on our heads, for all our chickens to come home to roost. It will leave us feeling weak and hunted."
Therefore, it is good to embrace love in ourselves because through becoming love/light that we are really, we are able to help and forgive people around us, and we will be able to enpower them to embrace their Light... through loving and forgiving.
Thank you Karen for sharing...
I also want to add a quote from the Course (T-1.VI.5:4-8).
"Perfect love casts out fear. If fear exists, then there is not perfect love. But: Only perfect love exists. If there is fear, it produces a state that does not exist."
Hate, anger, jealousy, greed, evil, etc... all come from FEAR. These really come from a sense of lack of something - a lack of love, a lack of joy, a lack of understanding, a lack of sharing, a lack of good, etc... which produces an illusion. Our only REALITY is the LOVE that we truly are. Love is our natural inheritance! God created us as LOVE. That is who we ARE! When we perceive a lack of something, we are not acknowledging the truth of what we are. Therefore, we produce FEAR and make an illusion.
Here's another quote I want to share again. I was reading the Course this morning and boom - a perfect quote to share! (T-7.III.3.2-4)
"You who are not at war must look for brothers (and sisters) and recognize all whom you see as brothers (and sisters), because only equals are at peace. Because God's equal Sons (children) have everything, they cannot compete. Yet if they perceive any of their brothers (and sisters) as anything other than their perfect equals, the idea of competition has entered their minds."
This is where FEAR comes in!
Oi, achei teu blog pelo google tá bem interessante gostei desse post. Quando der dá uma passada pelo meu blog, é sobre camisetas personalizadas, mostra passo a passo como criar uma camiseta personalizada bem maneira. Até mais.
Hmm, all is quiet here. Maybe I can finally catch up with you two! Smile.
Karen, thanks for the website information. Every article that I've read (so far) about NDE has been positive -- and many of them who experienced it did not want to return to earth. Also, having had the NDE, they're not afraid to die now. I wonder about the book you've read -- does it say anything about anyone whose NDE was ever negative?
And about love and fear... Love actually has no opposite, but in our illusionary world of duality, we see fear as love's opposite. Love is the only reality and the only power. There is no duality, and that's why ACIM says that there is nothing to fear. By the way, the lesson from the workbook that's being reviewed this week is this: "God is but(only)Love, and therefore so am I."
Last of all, may we all remember this: If we should find ourselves fallen because we chose to see fear, let us not criticize or condemn ourselves for our failure. Instead, remember again who we really are and choose Love again. Every moment we choose.
Hope you're staying cool. It's hot here in Wisconsin right now!
Hey, my kids are away at the day camp this week (a hearing day camp, with interpreters), so I am emjoying just being alone :o)
I just finished watching the movie "What the Bleep do We Know?"... 3rd time. I understand it better now... and as the interviewees knew along... we create our own realities, that emotions were just holographic chemicals, etc. Quantum stuff. Makes ACIM more sense-making (as in "makes sense".) And water crystals... what power our thoughts (egos) have on ourselves and on other people. So we are creators...we create emotions, realities, etc.
Hilda, as for NDE, no I did not really come across any "negative" experiences but I am sure there were some that were not published. My father's ex-girlfriend, who was a nurse for cancer ward, told me anytime when men, more men than women, were dying of cancer, they would call for their mothers and claimed to see their moms before they passed away. From reading NDE, it seems to me an universal occurance for life, another stepping stone for us.
Hey, I am reading Deepak's newest book "Buddha" (I can't even underline Buddha; the blogger does not appear to have the "rich" formal in which I could change colors of fonts, change the size of fonts, etc. So I apologize for the grammatical errors which I am forced to make here :o) ) I am halfway and it is good... a lot of speculation, yup, considering very little is known about Siddhartha's childhood.
Because Hinduism is heavily rooted in polytheism, the book talks a lot about Maya (Hinduism's Satan.) So far it is interesting... I remember reading Herman Hesse's "Siddhartha" in AP English at my local high school, in early 1980's in which my AP English teacher first introduced us the class to the Eastern religions (I like the part about starting at the river, as it goes on flowing, all people become one in the river, life flows on, something like that, as I recall from my memory...) Herman Hesse is an excellent author... I have read several of his books (Demain... not sure of its spelling; Steppenwolf; to name a few...)
I like one quotation in Deepak's "Buddha"... that states that ruling the world was a child's play; to rule the soul was like to rule creation. Hmmmm....
No offense taken when one talks about death, the day will come when we shall not be afraid to talk about death, it is equally the same parellel when we all talk openly about how the babies comes into the world, why not talk about how we leave this world with the same passion of the cycle of life.
Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Andrea Russell, Jill and I were ordained together, studying ACIM whenever we can when we get together. Hilda, big "HUGS" to you! Karen, I look forward to continue getting to know you.
Give me some time to catch up with you all. In gratitude, always Andrea
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