To Not to Stress

Think of a pleasant warm shower that gives one relaxation. Think back to how its warmth is powered.

The water is warmed by a boiler, at the heart of which sits a tiny furnace, at the core of which is FIRE. Powerful, raw fire. This is what fire is: an energy that exudes power.

Should one decide to tear down a shower, expose the pipes, trace them to the boiler, piece it apart, reach to its core, and put their hands on the fire - THEY. WILL. BURN.

That does not imply that the fire is "harmful" or the boiler is "bad." They are what they are. The issue is that they are engaged by an external entity at the level to which the boiler ought not to have been engaged.

Our fire is meant to power us - no more, no less. How it's used in the world out there is based upon our intention, it's not the "fault" of the nature of the fire. We stand between our energy and the world, and that's where the transaction with the outer world takes place.

Don't be tempted to blame the fire within; it powers you. Don't prevent your fire from being channeled either - it creates pleasure, relaxation, and joy by transforming the energy of water into a warm shower.

You are you.

Transform a situation in which you are being pieced apart. And know that this tearing or this transformation is a process that takes only ONE: you.

This occurred to me during a meditation last night. 'The question that came into my mind was: how does stress 'peel us down to the animal level?' Why do we feel rage? Must the animal within be reigned in, or must it be liberated?"

This question arose in a conversation earlier.

The answer has helped me understand the stress situation I had been examining in my self (and my dear Karachi world) for the past couple of weeks - a situation that inevitably leads to moments where the whole world seems hostile and we react in a snap.

Bloody Hell!

All right, I am not going to mince any words. Bloody, bloody hell! I am so so angry and amused at myself at the same time.

I have *just* witnessed what I consider a minor, minor act of treason. I mean it's minor in its physical size but it means just as much as a peep through the keyhole means. It bloody well might be small, but you get the whole picture of what's going on at the other side: TREACHERY!

I hate this. I hate this. Anything but treason! Goodness mine - don't people KNOW the meaning of loyalty anymore? What the fu*k do they think they are doing - doing exactly what they know will hurt you.

And come to think of it - yes, yes! - it's ALL my fault! Why first of all on Earth can't I tell the difference between those who are loyal, and those who seek their own end anytime, all the time? I mean, how many times do I have to find that out, eh?

Second, it's very obviously The Universe giving me back a bite of what I had dished out to another: now eat you fool, you messer-of-the-world-order, eat! I mean I am not that innocent eh? When you set about to ping someone, you get a punch back! All I am seeing is a reaction to my own mal-intention, the very obvious reply to my own pretended innocence. "Oh no, really? Did I just participate in disloyalty to you? Oh, mere chance!"

All right so I have to take it on the chin! Yes. Be a woman! Face it, you fool!

Oh dear mine. What a casualty - the disloyal have to be weeded out. It still takes me nine minutes to figure out that a friend of an enemy is an enemy. That none is our soul mate but ourselves. The rest are, as Shaykh Fadhlalla so aptly put it, "checkmates."

Drat. Treachery ABSOLUTELY has to go out of my life. So does my own mal-intention.

On with it then!

Absolute Justice... and a Little Mercy - 2: Why I'd Rather Not be Treated Justly

Waiting for someone who was late, one day, I felt annoyed and thought of ways such behavior must be punished. It seemed to me, feeling languid at that moment, that punishment was the solution to such problems.

My conscience then quietly reminded me that at times, I am late also. My problem-loving mind suddenly got active at this. It tried to create a mathematical visual where everyone was going to settle scores.

BOOM! BANG! CRASH! - I saw.

Without the need of precision, I realized that it would mean I would somehow perish for all my faults, so far unaccounted or simply forgive by others. This would also be the fate of most of others, and so - I realized that establishment of absolute justice would lead to instantaneous destruction of Existence.

Between action and reaction, there is choice. Between One's first contact with the Other, there is time & space, and adjustment - there is flow of information, and creation of a connection. This little "work-in-progress" area is either directed by the principle of mercy, or the principle of "attack." Love, or hate.

I use this term "attack" to mean a wide variety of active behaviors including hostility, lack of empathy and understanding, desire to modify the Other, intolerance, feeling superiority, etc.

Say we are urban explorers who enter a tribal region. We don't like the way they treat their women. What do we do between the period of our first contact - and until the time they see the light, given that we have light at all in the first place?

Do we understand their position,observe their cultural evolution, and understand their aspirations? And help them towards the light - a process which will take time, effort, and much sacrifice from us?

Or do we impose our values on them in an instant - declaring their ways illegal and barbaric - and try to get them to change either by being obedient to us, or be captives to us?

Or do we decide to finish them there and then - as living being or as a cultural phenomena?

The first is the way of Love, and or mercy. It is dynamic. And it creates the next world.

The second is the way of Attack, Ruthlessness, Un-Compassion. It is dynamic. And it destroys the next world.

The third is the way of Absolute Justice - which is not the absolute prerogative of any human over the other. It is static. It destroys our world instantaneously as neither One nor the Other would remain.

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Absolute Justice... and a Little Mercy - 1: Conversation with a Lawyer

Absolute Justice... and a Little Mercy - 1: Conversation with a Lawyer

On a flight towards the North once, I got to sit along a woman lawyer.

They say that on this planet, seven persons look, and behave like one another. I.e. each person has six doppelgänger(s). This lady seemed as broody and thoughtful as a certain teacher of mine - with facial features, hairstyle, and age to match.

So we struck up a conversation - something I rarely attempts with strangers - with my heart feeling certain sense of familiarity, of having always known her. It was no surprise to me, then, that just my certain teacher would, she delved into a thoughtful exchange. Even her life story was told in a reflective narration. She wondered at every moment how she got to be where she got to be, and what was she doing... not in an edgy, questioning way which elicits the kind of face expression from me that alarms people... but in a way that one who listened to her only would hear in her words.

She told me she was a lawyer.

And somehow (wasn't it predictable!) we started talking about life. Her company stirred in me the kind of thoughtfulness that I always feel in the company of people who are... awake.

I shared with her what I believed was an insight:

This World is Balanced on Justice, But Operated on Mercy.

In Urdu, my words were:

Ye Duniya Insaaf Par Qayem Hai, Aur Reham Par Chalti Hai.

She turned her head away from me, and down, and reflected. I wondered what this lawyer would think. She turned her face back to me after a few moments, smiling that strange, pained smile of my teacher, and said, "True."

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