terry

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Everything posted by terry

  1. taoism and sufism

    Fundamentalism is the curse of the world. Wahabbism is especially bad. But they have been martyring sufis ever since there were sufis. Jami said "You can't call yourself a sufi until a thousand true believers have condemned you as a heretic." To be a muslim one need only declare that there is no god but god and muhammed is his prophet. To be a good muslim entails a lot more than that. Sufi martyrs were deemed to have declared there was a god other than god by saying they were god, or god's partner. I think we need a way to combine buddhism and islam, essentially by finding and emphasizing the nonduality in both.
  2. taoism and sufism

    ancient tale, the arabian nights...of course I have heard of it, don't presume... just giving you air... play your trump "profound" and "obscure" are not necessarily synonymous calling things obscure does tend to obscure them but all unsupported untrue allegations do that if there is something you find obscure I would be happy to help you out Non-doing, the speechless one. You may not know this guy. It's your true self. There is no "you" who is speaking, no "you" who is doing. There is a complete idiot within your mind who enjoys the whirl of activity and doesn't care about past or future or results, its just happy do be here. Sometimes in meditation, or if you are being very still, this true self is revealed as profoundly knowledgeable and exceedingly gratified, a condition of selfhood we are normally too fucked up to relate to. Our literate individual minds can formulate questions and ideas about things that are ultimately utterly irrelevant and insignifianat to real enlightenment as experienced by the non-doing one, the truly enlightened one. One who doesn't speak and knows what cannot be formulated in words. Act-on-impulse is enlightened because he acts on impulse, and doesn't think, doesn't resort to symbolic understanding, he just knows without intermediation. This is The Prophet. Called upon to think and answer, he says, oh yes, I know and can tell! but the words are forgotten because the literate mind asking cannot hear the answer in no-language. God has his prophets "recite" in inspired language because truth cannot be simply told to thioe whose minds are obscured by "knowledge" and "facts." Emperor Ti is Reason, which formulates questions but may ask questions which have no dualistic answer. It's like knowledge is a fish asking the source of knowledge what is water and on being told it's all around you, within you and without you, and it supports all things, the fish swims away disappointed and still searching. Understanding is a matter of cause and effect, the lowest level of reason. Knowledge is a direct tasting, actual experience untainted by belief. Wisdom is knowing the difference between truth and mere convention or belief. You can define any word any way you want. Most of the time winning tricks trumps actual communication. People of good will try to find common language. Bucket o' crabs. What were those six other meanings again? Knowing so-called facts is not real knowledge. There are an infinite number of facts for every point of view, and an infinite number of points of view. So what we call "facts" are highly selected. How do we know what facts out of the infinite are relevant? Knowledge is a higher order than facts, no mater the quantity. Muhammed (pbuh) loved knowledge, and scholars. The more you know, the better you know god. "He who knows himself knows his lord." Facts are only factual within a context of relevance, an understanding. A world. An individual perceiving, a set of opinions and values. Real knowledge transcends individuality. Wisdom discriminates between real knowledge and mere facts, or desire bodies. Did I mention sharks love murky water? Knowledge can even be defined as having had sexual congress. Aloha means love, hello, goodby, and it means having sex too. There's even a "dirty hula." Some herrings are red. That's not knowledge at all, bra, that's your facts. Technology is not knowledge. Knowledge of virtue is not separate from virtue. That is sad. Perhaps you should quit worshipping false knowledge. Nansen killed the cat under identical circumstances. And his action is a koan. His action did not involve the sort of decision making you imagine solomon to have engaged in. And here's the problem: nansen didn't actually kill a cat and solomon is a complete fabrication! So much for facts, which are convenient fiction. I won't take your word for it. And godhead is wisdom. Your are pretty confused, bra. Sorry. Nah Speak for yourself...
  3. taoism and sufism

    We have the same problem in america with the supreme court, only a bare majority is needed and six of nine are catholics, who are about the same as wahhabis. We'll be burning witches soon. I personally don't think sufis can be separated from islam. I also think islam is compete in itself and that god needs no partners. One may find truth in all religions; islam does not reject what is true in other religions. Suhrawardi (the murdered sheikh) even resorted to buddhism, and sufis often integrated zoroastrianism. Ibn 'arabi claimed to have gotten his original enlightenment from jesus albeit a muslim jesus. Anyhows, syncretism can be taken too far and god requires very little in the way of drama. There are three books: the book of one's life, the book of nature and the book of scripture. If all the seas were ink and all the trees pens, the words of god would not all be written. God is everywhere, in everything that exists and all that does not exist. In the sacred and the profane, in truth and in lies. It is for us to separate the gold from the dross the truth from the lies, wherever we are. I normally read the qu'ran backwards, the shortest verses first. Or I play the audio as I work. The incredible beauty of the shorter suwar seems to build my attention for the longer ones as they come around. And repeat core ideas. If you can write verses like these, then update them.
  4. taoism and sufism

    gabriel marcel, from the mystery of being This world of ours is a broken world , which means that in striving after a certain type of unity, it has lost its real unity. These types of unity in the broken world are: (1) Increased socialization of life: we are one and all treated as agents, registered, enrolled, and we end by merging into our own identity cards. (2) Extension oj the powers of the State , which is like a searching eye on all of us. (3) This world has lost its true unity probably because privacy, brotherhood, creativeness, reflection and imagination, are all increasingly discredited in it. Therefore — it is of the very utmost urgency that we reflect, and reflect upon reflection, in order to bring to light that exigence which animates reflection, and in order to show that this exigence when at work transcends any sort of process whatever, and sweeps beyond the opposition of the empiric ego and the universal ego.
  5. taoism and sufism

    Whose Servant Am I? MULLA NASRUDIN HAD become a favorite at Court. He used his position to show up the methods of courtiers. One day the King was exceptionally hungry. Some eggplants had been so deliciously cooked that he told the palace chef to serve them every day. “Are they not the best vegetables in the world, Mulla?” he asked Nasrudin. “The very best, Majesty.” Five days later, when the eggplants had been served for the tenth meal in succession, the King roared: “Take these things away! I HATE them!” “They are the worst vegetables in the world, Majesty,” agreed Nasrudin. “But Mulla, less than a week ago you said that they were the very best.” “I did. But I am the servant of the King, not of the vegetable.” Excerpt From: Idries Shah. “The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin.
  6. What's a mystic and how to become one?

    idries shah's comment and quote of khalili from learning how to learn: It is conditioning, as much as ignorance, which perpetuates the ignorance of humanity stressed by Khalili* when he speaks of the world and humanity's place in it: Performers and spectators of the arena are we Bewildered at our work and at the world's We, little playthings in the hand of Time: Made to dance each time its tune is played! 'Khalilullah Khalili: (Persian) Quatrains,
  7. What's a mystic and how to become one?

    teachers have their moves that they can teach they repeat the moves, you repeat the moves but in reality nothing is repeated
  8. taoism and sufism

    enlighten me
  9. taoism and sufism

    understanding is far beneath knowledge, and knowing that is wisdom from thomas merton the way of chuang tzu WHEN KNOWLEDGE WENT NORTH Knowledge wandered north Looking for Tao, over the Dark Sea, And up the Invisible Mountain. There on the mountain he met Non-Doing, the Speechless One. He inquired: "Please inform me, Sir, By what system of thought And what technique of meditation I can apprehend Tao? By what renunciation Or what solitary retirement May I rest in Tao? Where must I start, What road must I follow To reach Tao?" Such were his three questions. Non-Doing, the Speechless One, Made no reply. Not only that, He did not even know How to reply! Knowledge swung south To the Bright Sea And climbed the Luminous Mountain Called "Doubt's End." Here he met Act-on-Impulse, the Inspired Prophet, And asked the same questions. "Ah," cried the Inspired One, "I have the answers, and I will reveal them!" But just as he was about to tell everything, He forgot all he had in mind. Knowledge got no reply. So Knowledge went at last To the palace of Emperor Ti, And asked his questions of Ti. Ti replied: "To exercise no-thought And follow no-way of meditation Is the first step toward understanding Tao. To dwell nowhere And rest in nothing Is the first step toward resting in Tao. To start from nowhere And follow no road Is the first step toward attaining Tao." Knowledge replied: "You know this And now I know it. But the other two, They did not know it. What about that? Who is right?" Ti replied: Only Non-Doing, the Speechless One, Was perfectly right. He did not know. Act-on-Impulse, the Inspired Prophet, Only seemed right Because he had forgotten. As for us, We come nowhere near being right, Since we have the answers. "For he who knows does not speak, He who speaks does not know" And "The Wise Man gives instruction Without the use of speech." This story got back To Act-on-Impulse Who agreed with Ti's Way of putting it. It is not reported That Non-Doing ever heard of the matter Or made any comment.
  10. What's a mystic and how to become one?

    Sufis throw away their wanting and their objects. They abandon pieces of clothing in the dance, and those articles are never returned. They are given to the singer, or divided among the dancers. They arise from a briny, annihilating ocean into pure clarity. They confront the world openly with its arrogance and its hypocrisy. They are warriors for non-existence. The planter works with the most joy whose barn is completely empty, the planter who works for that which has not appeared. ~rumi
  11. What's a mystic and how to become one?

    from william chittick, “ibn ‘arabi, heir to the prophets” (“wujud” means “being”) …love cannot be known in itself, but its attributes and names can be known and described. For Ibn ‘Arabi, one of the most important of love’s attributes has to do with the nature of its object. Whatever object it is that we love, he says, it is always nonexistent. This seems to fly in the face of common sense, since we like to think that we love a real person or a real object, not a nothingness. “Love’s object remains forever nonexistent, but most lovers are unaware of this, unless they should be recognizers of the realities” (F. II 337.17). The point Ibn ‘Arabi wants to make is not difficult to understand. When people fall in love, they experience a desire to achieve nearness or union with the person they love. As long as they have not achieved the object of their desire, the object does not in fact exist for them. People love what they do not already have. They want to achieve something that they have not already achieved, or to be near to someone from whom they are far. “The love of the lover becomes attached only to that of the person which is nonexistent at the moment. He imagines that his love is attached to the person, but this is not so. Love incites him to meet and see his beloved” (F. II 327.7). Ibn ‘Arabi continues this passage by answering an objection. You may say that you loved companionship, or kissing, or intimacy. Then, when you achieved your desire, you found that you still loved it. Therefore, you conclude, love exists along with its object. Ibn ‘Arabi replies that in fact the object still does not exist, because now love’s object is the permanence of what was achieved, not the achievement itself. Permanence is not an existing thing. “Love attaches itself only to a nonexistent thing ... When love sees the thing, it is transferred to the permanence of that state whose existence it loves in that existent entity” (F. II 337.18). …love is an inherent attribute of Wujud, and love inherently strives for what is not. It expresses what is unexpressed, makes manifest what is hidden, and creates what has not been created. Love might be described as the innate tendency of Wujud to become manifest, or of light to shine. “God is the light of the heavens and earth” (Q. 24:35).
  12. taoism and sufism

    I think that asking about the nature of light is seminal. For one thing there is the nature of light, of that mental faculty which enables us to "see" in the sense of understanding. For another there is the extended metaphor of the physical sense of an eye perceiving scattered photons being applied to the activity of consciousness, the very essence of consciousness. All self-knowlege involves metaphor, in a sense metaphor is light and the word the basic nature of reality. It is not references or quotations (as such) here that are relevant to me but the impressions of other meditators and insights they might like to share from what they have thought themselves or digested from others about spiritual mental emotional light. Light. Extended metaphors. Lucifer in paradise lost. from the marriage of heaven and hell, william blake The history of this is written in Paradise Lost, and the Governor or Reason is called Messiah. And the original Archangel or pos- sessor of the command of the heavenly host is called the Devil, or Satan, and his children are called Sin and Death. But in the book of Job, Milton's Messiah is called Satan. For this history has been adopted by both parties. It indeed appeared to Reason as if desire was cast out, but the Devil's account is, that the Messiah fell, and formed a heaven of what he stole from the abyss. This is shown in the Gospel, where he prays to the Father to send the Comforter or desire that Reason may have ideas to build on, the Jehovah of the Bible being no other than he who dwells in flaming fire. Know that after Christ's death he became Jehovah. But in Milton, the Father is Destiny, the Son a ratio of the five senses, and the Holy Ghost vacuum! Note. - The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at Liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet, and of the Devil's party without knowing it.
  13. taoism and sufism

    the most interesting text in the nt john 18:38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?
  14. taoism and sufism

    aloha nungali, does god have real knowledge, or is she faking it? terry
  15. taoism and sufism

    from “divine sayings” by ibn ‘arabi first hadith According to Ab¬ Dharr, the Prophet, may God give him blessings and peace, said, reporting the words of God, ever praised and exalted is He: “O My servants, I have forbidden injustice to Myself and I have made it forbidden amongst you. So be not unjust to one another. “O My servants, all of you go astray except the one whom I guide. Ask guidance of Me, and I shall guide you. “O My servants, all of you go hungry except the one whom I feed. Ask Me for food, and I shall feed you. “O My servants, all of you go naked except the one whom I clothe. Ask Me for clothing, and I shall clothe you. “O My servants, you transgress by day and night, but I forgive all misdeeds. Ask forgiveness of Me, and I shall forgive you. “O My servants, harming Me is beyond you, so you cannot harm Me; and benefiting Me is beyond you, so you cannot benefit Me. “O My servants, if all of you – first and last, man and jinn – were like the one among you with the most devout heart, that would add nothing to My kingdom. “O My servants, if all of you – first and last, man and jinn – were like the one among you with the most ungodly heart, that would take nothing away from My kingdom. “O My servants, if all of you – first and last, man and jinn – were to stand on the same level and address Me with your requests, and if I were to give each one what he had requested, that would not diminish what is with Me, any more than a needle diminishes the sea when it enters it. “O My servants, it is solely your deeds that I take account of, and it is by virtue of them that I will repay you. So let him who finds good, praise God, and let him who finds other than that, hold none but himself to blame.”
  16. taoism and sufism

    op cit Among the Koranic divine names is “Light” (al-nûr), for God is “the light of the heavens and the earth” (24:35). Naming God “Light” is tantamount to naming him Being, for, as Qûnawî explains, “True Light brings about perception but is not perceived”, just as True Being brings about manifestation and finding but is neither manifest nor found. Qûnawî continues by saying that True Light is “identical with the Essence of the Real in respect of Its disengagement from relations and attributions” (Qûnawî, al-Fukûk, 225). In other words, True Light is Nondelimited Being (al-wujûd al-mutlaq), and it discloses itself as delimited being (al-wujûd al-muqayyad). It is precisely this Light that brings about finding, awareness, and perception. Just as there is no true being but God, so also there is no true finder but God and nothing truly found but God. As Ibn ‘Arabî explains: Were it not for light, nothing whatsoever would be perceived [idrâk], neither the known, nor the sensed, nor the imagined. The names of light are diverse in keeping with the names of the faculties…. Smell, taste, imagination, memory, reason, reflection, conceptualization, and everything through which perception takes place are light. As for the objects of perception… they first possess manifestation to the perceiver, then they are perceived; and manifestation is light…. Hence every known thing has a relation with the Real, for the Real is Light. It follows that nothing is known but God. (Ibn ‘Arabî, al-Futûhât, 1911 edition, 3:276–77)
  17. taoism and sufism

    from the tao the ching: One The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and Earth. The named is the mother of the ten thousand things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery. from the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy article on ibn ‘arabi: The Koran often speaks of God’s “names” (asmâ’), and it mentions a good number of them—not “ninety-nine”, as is traditionally said, but anywhere between seventy and twice as many, depending on the criteria used in counting. The names, which are often called “attributes” (sifât), provide the points of reference for Islamic theology. Ibn ‘Arabî distinguishes between “the names of the names” (asmâ’ al-asmâ’), which are the names voiced in human language, and the names in themselves, which are realities in divinis. Theologians wrote many books listing the names and explaining their significance for God, the cosmos, and the human soul. Ibn ‘Arabî devoted a book-length chapter of the Openings specifically to them, and he composed an independent treatise summarizing their role in human becoming (Ibn ‘Arabî, Kitâb kashf al-ma‘nâ). Names are basic to the quest for deiformity because the Real in itself, in its very Essence (dhât), is known only to itself. “Others” (ghayr), which are the signs/verses written out in the Three Books, know the Essence only inasmuch as it reveals itself to them. In other words, although everything is a “face” (wajh) of God—“Wherever you turn, there is God’s face” (Koran 2:115)—to make distinctions among the omnipresent faces we need to know their names and recognize their haqqs. The word used to designate the Essence, al-dhât, is a pronoun meaning “possessor of”. Originally it was an abbreviation for dhât al-asmâ’, “the possessor of the names”; hence the synonymous term, al-musammâ, “the Named”.
  18. will a hungry shark fall for this!

    Pelicans are a trash bird in mexico. We no have in hawaii, nor gulls. Glad. Frigate birds, tropic birds.
  19. will a hungry shark fall for this!

    Saw them on tv. I almost died at waimea bay also, it was closed out but we went in anyway. I was with a guy who assured me he was a super lifeguard and it was ok. But he was too scared to go in after me and if the wave didn't puke me out I'd be dead. Been lots of close calls over the years but that was closest.
  20. will a hungry shark fall for this!

    Maybe I haven't met enough sharks to feel friendly vibes from them. I like to think that all creatures feel related.
  21. will a hungry shark fall for this!

    I used to live in waianae, back in the late sixties, surfed makaha. Seemed like there was plenty of water but even then locals were possessive about "their" waves.
  22. will a hungry shark fall for this!

    If "friendly" means non-threatening then yes there are friendly sharks, just want to sleep under an overhang, pull a fin and they move a couple of feet and go back to sleep. Like a sleepy oversize rat. I've felt more threatened by territorial big fish. Once had a barricuda (?) make a lot of fast passes and nose butts trying to get me to go away.
  23. will a hungry shark fall for this!

    Manta rays are a big tourist draw off the big island. Regular as the sunrise. Impressively large, like a jet engine.
  24. will a hungry shark fall for this!

    Yeah, the crabs, shrimp and lobsters, like day glo claymation.
  25. will a hungry shark fall for this!

    I've seen hawaiian monk seals three or four times over the decades. There's only about 1100 of those. In hawaii we have what are called aumakua, usually translated as "household gods" but actually it involves the belief that spirit animals embody our ancestors through whom they may speak to us and advise us. As a silversmith I like to make aumakua like owls, surgeon fish, sharks, manta rays, turtles etc there are over twenty. I like to think that my particular spirit animal is the monk seal, as they are fat and often display a big erect penis. I'm not fat and don't have a giant erect penis but it fits my self image.