How to Change Other People

Well Prophecy, I can at least share my heart's secret with you?...

I wish to be liberated from non-listeners.

And now - hah! - now that means that if somehow, somewhere I do not listen, then I must. The Universe will then remove non-listeners from around me.

It's very curious, this spiritual method: we cannot change others. But we can do something very interesting... we can change in us what we wish to change in others. So, for instance, if we think other people are rude, we can remove the corresponding attribute from within ourselves. It can either be rudeness or excessive politeness. Removing that from within us corrects our Universe outside.

The Universe is a system of dynamic energy... its operations can also be understood by observing how chemical reactions work. (Pause: Why are they called reactions?) Notice how some elements are programmed to attract others. Or in thermal dynamics. Notice how if air turns too hot by contact with heated earth, it must rise, and cool air will rush in to take its place. There is a dynamism in relationships in the world.

We master the dynamism from our own end; from deep within ourselves, by gaining the correct perception that our Universe extends outwardly from US. Think of yourself as a shiny crystal ball with a lamp inside, radiating rays outwards in a very dark room. What you see in the room is what is coming from within you. Keep your internal fire alight, keep the surface of your crystal polished. And to change the scenery outside, modulate the display of the light within.

How to Choose Your True Path

Prophecy,

There are many realities, there is only one Truth. You are at a stage where you know there really isn't anything that's a choice: there is one path for you to walk on, and the rest are distractions, tempting as they might be. The fire and the sorrow that you feel in your heart immediately as you contemplate a "choice" - which is in truth distractive - is a blessing. This is why they say that in each instance, the Universe is a blessing, it is based on the principle of positivity.

When you feel that fire, when you feel that hollow - thank Allah! Thank yourself, too, for being alive and sensitive to your condition within (and without). Thank Allah for giving you the capacity to discern what's your destiny from amongst a myriad of intellectual choices.

The mind knows many things, the heart knows only one thing: the Truth.

You were choosing, once again, from what is freely available to you - except, of course, the most disastrous of distractions, for even looking at them can destroy what you have walked towards. You were given all that you desired, which then brought up three questions:

• What do you desire?
• Why do you desire it?
• Even if it's meant for you, why do you still approach your fate from the path of desire? Why not be liberated?

No wonder your heart was on fire again, and you could not sleep. You will not sleep until your intention has been chiseled into beauty.... I will not say perfection, because we are creations, we are in constant change, we are not permanent, we are not perfect nor meant to be.

So, choosing your true path is actually easy, given that your perception is trained to see positivity above negativity. Negativity is somehow more obvious, may be because it pulls our energies so dramatically that we cannot but know it exists. Actually, this ought to be a blessing because through this feeling of being consumed, we ought to know what not to be consumed by.... but it's not enough to feel, what is needed is to act according to what we have perceived.

The fortunate ones, however, train to perceive positivity. It is that beatific, serene, expansive path which puzzles some because it seems to be not "doing" anything. That's the beauty of it, for it does not act upon us as much as it allows us to be who we truly are. Positivity in humans exhibits in the form of those souls around whom we feel safe, joyful, creative, and "ourselves."

The heart knows this all. It is the receptor of feeling. The heart can be blinded by the mind's desire - its chemical, conditioning-driven desires - but the heart truly knows.

You will, Prophecy, always find comfort in choosing that which the heart chooses. That which the heart feels secure in. The path where there is no guilt, no rancor. Of all the mess of choices, your heart knows where love is. It is difficult, sometimes, because we are conditioned so terribly by our world, but ultimately, your peace and growth is in that choice.

I leave you with an affirmation from Don Juan, speaking to his pupil, Carlos Castaneda:

Anything is one of a million paths [un camino entre cantidades de caminos]. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. This question is one that only a very old man asks. My benefactor told me about it once when I was young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to understand it. Now I understand it. I will tell you what it is: Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere. My benefactor's question has meaning now. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you. (pg. 105-06)

'But how will I know for sure whether a path has a heart or not?' 'Anybody would know that. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path.' (pg. 166)

Selections from The Teachings of Don Juan: a Yaqui Way of Knowledge

An Exercise in the Study of The Design

Prophecy:

These days are giving you interesting chances. There is sometimes no power at night - which is such a blessing in an urban life! The chance to feel completely helpless and at the mercy of the forces that be - just like in the times when Humans were close to nature. Take this as a blessing. It is your chance to feel the heat your body passes to the Earth, the calm that the green grass provides to your feet, and the possibility to sit in the glittering serenity of the moonlight.

It is an excellent opportunity to observe the Universe, Prophecy!

Lie on the grass on a dark night.
Intend to study the design as it is.
Focus your attention on the sky above.
Watch the stillness of the constellations.
Watch the stars, the Moon, and any planet you may or may not see.
See.
Feel the Stillness of Being.
Allow the feeling to enter you.
Now, the Mind does have a job to do, so use it as a servant: it tells you, that at the very moment of your observation, deep in the stillness that appears to you, great changes are happening. Nebulae are pregnant with stars, keeping massive energy formations within. Stars are breaking; planets are spinning; bodies are colliding and fires are erupting. Black holes are gobbling up their unsuspecting neighbors with intense negative energy. Suns are shining just like that, and Life on planets is basking in the glory of a benign energy. The Universe is pulsating... Off-on. Off-on. Off-on. It's in an ecstasy, energized through duality. Duality was created only to split the existence into a yin and a yang, and to create the dance.
The Universe is rendered anew every moment! As you watch the skies, do you realize how many entities just died or were born within the moments of your observation? It is not something that reason or intelligent knowledge can comprehend. It is something that you just know by way of Love, that energy that connects us all.

Now I tell you something you may not have thought of: The Universe is looking at you, too.
It watches how you, another creation, just lies idly on the grass. It is very close to you, too. It begins where your physical nose ends. Are you comfortable realizing you are nose-to-nose with the Universe? Ha ha! I know you enjoy nervousness. But I digress. The Universe watches you in awe, too. It wonders, because your words change its design, so it hangs upon your words... wondering what move you, its partner, will make in the dance that you two are engaged in? Will you figure out what move is makes, and will you follow? It keeps its ears on your heart beats, it contemplates you. When you are being, you are being sensed too. Enjoy this!

Get up. Use this contemplation whenever your mind begins to possess you.

...

The End of Possession

Prophecy, the temptation for you to remain your Older Self is great. Beware!

We are possessed by none other than our Own Selves. How we command ourselves! We desire, we fear, we crave, we want, we don't want, we attempt to avoid. It creates relationships in which we tie one end of the rope to our being, and hand over the other end to another - by our own will.

Thus begins this bizarre dance that we don't wish to dance, but know not how to take ourselves away from. The other, possessed by their own ego, enjoys pulling the ropes in whatever manner that takes their shifting fancy. Since this requires an unusual amount of mis-applied energy, it's up to the other to fall tired and drop the ropes, jerking the self to a stop in mid-bewilderment.

Most minds see liberation in simply shifting these ropes from one holder to an-other, and still anticipate liberation. When this does not happen, the self becomes furious at an-other other... Now you see even writing about this soap opera is tiring.

Prophecy, we cut the ropes at our own end, and even beyond, we learn the art of not creating ropes at all. Going even deeper, we are in a state where there is no question of a rope, for if there is, there is always an urge and its counter-resistance.

How do we reach that state?

I give you the secret, Prophecy, it's many-layered, so watch this closely and learn:

1. First, release your Self from your Self.
2. End your relationship with yourself. If you "love" yourself, there is the potential of the opposite in duality: the possibility of "hating" yourself. So will you one day love yourself, and another day be unforgiving? No; if you wish true liberation. At least with ourselves, we have the wonderful possibility to end relationships. Relationship take two. You are One.
3. Be one with you. Release your Self from your expectations and fears. You will immediately annihilate the ropes that others control you with.
4. And do this strange thing: release the Other from your Self. End all expectation, attachment, and fear! Forgive. Forget. And thus give yourself the chance to be rendered anew.


The Universe is destroyed and created afresh every moment. Only the Perceptive see this. When you die every moment, when you are released from the possession of your Older, Dead Self, then you are at liberty to watch the miracle.

I will next tell you an exercise...
...

Come walk with me in the Forest. There's something I have to show you

Prophecy!

This is so crazy! The co-incidence (or not) I mean! The message I am about to tell you of couldn't have come in at a better time! It explains everything!

Look, here I was wondering what a loony I have been for the past few days. Today was in a class of its own. I fell dead silent. As in, my mind just stopped dead in mid-chatter yesterday, and today I just stayed that way.

Yes, I know I should appreciate it.

Wait a mo, I do. I really do. Despite all cultural constructs that view silence suspiciously and as a lack of human activity, I actually know deep inside nothing could be more right! When the Universe conspires in my favor, I can take time to just watch it at work and just help it every now and then.

But hello, I am culturally constructed until annihilated in that respect. I know I am not completely destroyed in that regard, I must wait and watch the destruction of the old me. So I am just thinking, I feel strange. I know I am going through a lot of great changes at once. And if the Universe is within me, my physical and emotional changes must mean a gigantic change in the Universe's construct. Is it any wonder the strange behavior of me with me, and of everything with me?

Now here is a random list of things I have been feeling all together, in a run of 24 hours, like successive currents:

• Having a mother of a pain in my body, particularly the neck and shoulders, with a maddened heart beat
• The urge to cry or to be silent
• Long, frequent sleeping spells
• Several small meals a day
• The urge to compulsively write my heart out, and to do no "productive" work at all
• Being as stubborn and uncommunicative as a Sagittarius can get
• Inexplicable rudeness
• Inexplicable tenderheartedness
• The need to be constantly on my guard
• Or the need to feel guilty about lifting, putting down, lifting up again, putting down again this guard - whatever it is
• The urge to pray
• The urge to forgive
• The urge to love benevolently even when my intent is at its most vicious
• Talking to myself
• Communicating with those who matter in the non-matter dimension
• Receiving their communication likewise
• Writing a diary addressed to my alter ego, You. Publishing the damned thing on the Net
• Talking to Allah. Lapsing in talking to Allah. But always, always, always loving Hu with an intensity that is beyond me
• Being amazed
• Being stunned
• Being shocked
• Being afraid
• Biting my fingers
• Laughing out loud

Enough - that's enough. The point is to give you an idea.

So while some of these experiences are a little more permanent, some are socially a little off. I have been feeling implicitly socially guilty about the goings-on. I know my friends and family are be-deviled by my abrupt changes - they are genuinely concerned with no clue on how to approach me without me pelting their heads with fireballs.

But I have no control over this!

You see our urban lives are very structured. Our expectations are all lined up. There is no time to watch the full moon, except thanks to when the electricity falters. There is no room for being a little off without putting others off. Well - to be fair - everyone does manage to take a "little off" me. But I've been a very off-off me!

So. This week I decided the only thing I am doing wrong is to imagine that things are wrong.

"Our Way is about feats of perception, not feats of action," remember?

Remember?
Question: What's wrong?
Answer: This question!

So. I know the key for me is to let myself BE. No wonder that with my physical adjustment & training is coming a massive life adjustment outside me. Just on its own.

Anyway. Where are we? We have wandered into the forest!

We started off with me about to tell you about the random message. This link popped up on my Gmail feed was just forwarded to me by a friend: 12 Signs of Awakening.*

Just behold what light it has to shed:

"Twelve Signs of Your Awakening Divinity"

1. Body aches and pains, especially in the neck, shoulder and back
2. Feeling of deep inner sadness for no apparent reason
3. Crying for no apparent reason
4. Sudden change in job or career
5. Withdrawal from family relationships
6. Unusual sleep patterns
7. Intense dreams
8. Physical disorientation
9. Increased "self talk"
10. Feelings of loneliness, even when in the company of others
11. Loss of passion
12. A deep longing to go Home*

You know what Prophecy? Each and every bit of this is true.

I am so sticking with my decision to chuck all medicine in the bin. I want to sit with myself and stand by myself through the process of change, social obligations and explanations of my absence be darned! (And if at all, why feel so deeply obligated? Why not have a sense of humor and put those who care for you, at ease?)

I also have to resolve that it is indeed not a sign of greater character to run about seeking explanations for one's own state. The Universe answers, yes, but why must I question its every move? Am I explaining all things to myself, or am I feeling obligated to those around me, who actually might not be holding me as "accountable" as I believe they do?

There has to be a trust between me and my life. One cannot go with a process if they keep questioning it, and trying to make sense of it. So while I thank God for all explanations, I know it shows a weakness I must rid myself of if I am to keep steadily progressing on The Way.

- Wayfarer
Showing you the way
Through the Forest

* Just for the record, my understanding of past lifetimes etc is rather simple: it's all about the DNA, living again and again trough various bodies. That explains the past; the future has a way of being determined by our NOW.
P.S. On this note, I shall write about my uncle's research on the cellular structural world within our bodies one day!

Liberation

Do you remember my experience in the ritual of Sa'ee, Prophecy?

Well, right through my painful Sa'ee (ritual walk between two hills during the Muslim Pilgrimage), I was able to lessen my physical pain by guiding other pilgrims through their rituals. It instantly reduced my pain. This kind of incident has happened to me repeatedly.

And today was uncanny because there's this certain question of love that I worry about - and oft in the midst of it, I find someone who I can help... Is this not a pattern that alludes to something larger? I am just recalling how I used to love helping people out - not through a sense of guilty duty, but just for the love of it! I enjoyed my life, and I wanted to share happiness!

Right now the way I approach the issue - helping out of compulsion - drains me of energy.

Today, after seeing off a patient I met in a hospital who me and pal AR stopped by to ask after, I took a lesson in caring for myself from AR. She says, I give too much to dead weight loss.

Whatever drama has stirred up in my life in the past 2-3 weeks just shows me that the path for me is laid forward through a love and appreciation of myself... to be that joyful being whose very presence gives hope and joy to others... just like I used to, when I was younger and in far more trouble.

As said Buddha:

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

I used to have a carefree radiance about me that always made people's day - I was the "Head Girl" of the school, and found it so effortless to make people see the brightness and joy of life. It was so clear to me that "problems" are gaps of opportunities. I could see - as I still do, far more clearly - people's potential. And I saw the best in them, which is why I never had trouble even with rogues. They felt like they were seen, they were humans and secure from blame around me. I had no labels to put on people, I just embraced them.

I now know for a hardly useful fact that what I see, many don't - and that's OK. I see people's future, which is an extension of their potential as of in the present moment. It's like looking at a torch the light of which is spreading far and wide, and the torch, unable to look at itself, is unaware that the radiance is coming through it... lighting up the world around it.

Now I have been speaking of the torch so much lately - but why haven't I realized I am a torch too? And I need a gentle cleansing of my lens every now and then?

That I have a right to live and feel joy just as much as any other person - for none of us is superior than other; so there is no reason why I should race the victim-minded to the finish line to utter misery.

I can no longer go on with an attempt to be a saint. Let's make a pact, let's pretend I am a saint, a living saint. Done? Happy?

Wait a minute! Have I been living a lie?

I say, I care for no heaven, and I fear for no hell.
Then why attempt to be a saint?
Do I not think that when I have never entertained the thoughts of heaven and hell standing between me and Hu, and my deepest wish is ever to be in Hu's presence, just to see...
then Hu also does think neither of my rights nor my wrongs?
When I wish to see Hu beyond, does Hu not see me beyond all veils, as I am, right now?
That I am sought truly as I am - unaware even of inadequacy?
Have I been doing the very thing I consider low: to try and earn points of favor with Being.
Being is Being, and I Am Who I Am.

.... Ah, that had never occurred to me this clearly!

Please, liberate your Self from the need to look good in the eyes of Being.

Live and love!

The Memory of Eden and Beyond

Dear Prophecy,

I am usually so harsh on you. My expectation is ever a little ahead of you - wanting to "bring out the best," so to speak.

Eh, that is my flaw. I can not bring out any better than who you are at any given moment. I apologize for my handling of the affair - or for handling the affair at all. My job is simply to watch you, and marvel... sometimes that gives me the illusion that I govern the entire affair.

So. I am no authority in myself, and no certificates issued by me mean anything eventually. But since my only job is to watch and to name things, I allow myself to say this:

You are brave, you are very brave. Your actions may be flawed, but your intention is not malignant.

I don't think, in the recent course of events, you behaved in error. It's the human mind that has a way of interpreting and analyzing the entire Existence to its maddening death, and skewing the analysis. You are agonized by this, because you are not identifying with your mind any longer, but neither are you yet fully conscious. This is necessary - why we don't delight in the matter could be an outcome of our nurturing... so we leave it here.

In matters that have been concerning you lately, you could not have behaved in error. There is no error in the scheme of being! A mistake is what reveals the deep truth of a situation. It is a mis-take on a situation. If your mis-take revealed to you the room for growth in your spirit, it also revealed the same in the Other. So for the moment, things aren't desirable. Let that be.

But believe in the slow work of God. Do not let yourself, for a moment, entertain the belief that you have been wronged, and that you wronged your self. In fact, you did the very right thing... at that moment.

They say, "The one who knew their Self, knew God."
I feel, "The one who doubted their Self, doubted God."

If, in a previous moment, you doubted yourself, then that moment is not your present moment. This very second is all what your life is. The persistence of memory cannot limit us from seeing the vastness of our own being - the enormity of the potential that we are.

We are not small and insignificant, when we look from within. We are the Universe, the galaxies, and the stars. We are dust and we are gold. We are beings of doubt and eventually of faith. Later we realize, that the dust is gold, and doubt is faith.

Remember Shaykh Fadhlalla said something on the lines of: "Doubt is very beneficial. It leads you to find answers."

So you have faith, right now, my friend. What you are afraid of is nothing but not having faith. You are a being whose existence depends on faith. Because you are conscious, you are alive, and you have glimpsed at your own Code. The gifts aren't easy to handle, eh? :)

This is what I have written to your teacher on your behalf:

"I've also realized that the Universe is not against me by doing a complete turn of events within 3 weeks - rather, I was fortunate to have glimpsed that it is favoring me, a few days before this challenge was to begin. There has to be a reason why we start with the Garden of Eden at all: to have its memory guide us on The Path to the Unseen."

... As I write these words, Prophecy, I feel a great wave of calm and relief inside. It is never the matter at hand that matters, but how we perceive it, and what we do with it. You have the heart of a Lover, but the soul of a Warrior.

Warriors do not pity their own mis-takes. They fight.

Get up, again, and fight for what is yours in this world to take! Have no shame, have no fear, have no pity, have no grudge! To love is to love unconditionally, and without attachment. This means that love does not prevent us from being who we are, and certainly not from knowing who we are! Love reveals to us the essence of our being, which we manifest through our good fight.

You look happy? I know you are.

So you walk the Path of the Unseen.
And you remember that you have seen the Garden of Eden.
And that you are a Warrior enough to leave behind the memory of even Eden, and travel to that where it all began.

.

I Will Tell the Universe's Story. Again.

Dear Prophecy,

The story must be told. I have decided to write my memoirs and the story of my learning. What form they take - I know not. Only I know, it's a story of faith, and of love. It is a story that the Universe has played out and witnessed for four billion years. It is always the same story, and always unique to the one who tells it again.

So Prophecy, I pick the story up once again from its universal thread and spin the yarn. I will both tell it and listen to it. For that, my dear, is the purpose of this story.

- Oh my dear God! I just had a realization - for a certain billionth time!

I just got it! I just said it!

"The purpose of The Story was that it will be played out again and again and again. It will be told again and again and again. It will be heard again and again and again. It is always the same story - yet always unique to the one who experiences it. In the end, the one who tells and the one who hears are One."

You just heard the secret, Prophecy. Again.

.

Absolute Justice: After thoughts

1. When One comes across the Other - each must remember that if the world is just, then One to Other is Other, and Other to Other is One.

I.e. I am "me" to me, but "you" to someone else. Both have a right to choose a strategy and to assume that their way is better.

Then, of course, is absolute truth - i.e. which way is really better? Given that One and the Other are both smaller than the larger truth, each can see it. The one more familiar with the truth is tasked with the responsibility of enlightening their self, and then the other. Having reached the point of decision, the one who knows the truth also has the responsibility to protect the truth.

In that entire process lies the area of Mercy.

2. Absolute Justice would destroy the world. Which is why, our legal systems are always bound by the doctrine of the necessity of continuation of existence. There is no absolute, neutral, odorless, colorless, and tasteless justice out there - as some try to seek it. It does not exist in human design. Seeking it is self-destructive.

+++

You will be lost if you haven't read:

Absolute Justice... and a Little Mercy - 3: Justice Destroys

Absolute Justice... and a Little Mercy - 3: Justice Destroys

And at that day, waiting for my colleague, I saw in my mind's eye how the next worlds are being created on the simple principle of Love & Mercy.

We are going from one moment to another on the basis of trust, hope, faith, love, giving, and forgiving others. We would stop driving to our offices - I realized - if the human mind did not understand the principle of having hope - in reaching the office at all. We would stop running the business of life as the store would not let customers touch merchandise - because buyers hadn't paid! Isn't it unjust, I thought, that people buy first, pay later? And there are at least seconds between these part of the transaction?

Why would farmers plant seeds? Why would parents raise children? Why would we employ workforce? Why would we give our hands in marriage? Why do teachers teach? Why do people start journeys? Why would we start a conversation?

Why would we start all transactions essentially by giving or offering ourselves or our possessions - and standing the chance of being cheated or taken away from? Why, when such consequences do happen - we forgive and move on?

That day, I understood the very meaning of the metaphysical phrase "establishment of the Day of Justice" and why, should that day exist, every thing and being would essentially have to be destroyed. I understood the Arabic roots of the word "Qiyamah" - known as "Qiyamat" in Urdu. Essentially, "qiyamah" is "qiyam" - a static state, establishment, equilibrium, full stop.

For as long as Love & Mercy lives, there can or must never be absolute justice, nor absolute destruction.

+++

Complete conversation:

Absolute Justice... and a Little Mercy - 1: Conversation with a Lawyer
Absolute Justice... and a Little Mercy - 2: Why I'd Rather Not be Treated Justly

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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You may also want to read:

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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The Design of the Universe - 2

Prophecy,

I was going to speak of the design of the Universe but someone came by. I was interrupted, and had more moments to reflect, and now I think it is not something to be written about here in concrete detail, as I originally planned.

I begin with this:

"Your remedy is within you, but you do not sense it. Your sickness is from you, but you do not perceive it. You presume you are a small entity, but within you is enfolded the entire Universe. You are indeed the Evident Book, by whose alphabet the Hidden becomes Manifest. Therefore you have no need to look beyond yourself. What you seek is within you, if only you reflect."

- Imam Ali Ibne Abu Talib, May Allah be pleased with him

And to conclude what I said of the stars - there is no wonder that stars' paths concur with us. At the same time, I always believed in humans creating their own destiny or influencing it greatly - enough to over-ride the stars.

In the light of all this (apparently contradictory) knowledge, Prophecy, I have reached the simple conclusion about our existence:

We have been looking at it outside-in. It's not the stars that affect human destiny. It is the humans who move the stars - and that is how whoever realized that they could create or destroy something, and took action to do so, indeed did. Single men and women have moved the world - leading it to lofty achievements or dreadful despair. Single-minded single souls. It was possible because of the secret of the Universe.

You see, Prophecy? The humans create the stars and black-holes and the matter and elements of the Universe. It's inside-out.

This is why, in response to the wish of a person, the Universe re-arranges itself and re-aligns its resources. This much, many creative persons and spiritual-minded people now agree upon. The popular theorem of the Law of Attraction alludes to this "secret." But why does the Law of Attraction work that way? They couldn't say.

Whoever believed in either genesis or the Big Bang or any similar mythology of the beginning sees that it all began from a singularity, and expanded. How, then, do we still picture the oddity of something coming from up above? As if the Universe existed as large as it is, and we are in it somehow.

Have we not seen the plant growing? What comes first? The tip of the leaf, or the seed - then the stem, then the unrolled leaf rolling out and the flowers blossoming from a bud? To imagine a single pollen to be contained in the periphery of leaves is not the truth of existence. It is the perception of existence to one who has not seen a plant grow.

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I leave you to reflect upon these images:

The Design of the Universe - 1

Note: This knowledge is blogged for my own remembrance. It is not for the Beginners, but for those on the middle of the way.


Prophecy,

I am going to share with you the pithy result of my years of pondering the question: What is the Universe? Or the Multiverse, as it surely is, but for the sake of simplicity....

Why do stars seem to affect the lives of humans? How do all things co-relate and why? How come so many elements of being are in a dance with humans - above all, I have wondered about Fate.

Once again, I turn to stars which have fascinated the humankind for so long. For the simple reason, perhaps, of them being "above us" - though how have we come to determine that the South Pole is at the "bottom" of the world, and the North Pole is the "top" of the world is a matter of pure arbitration. It should logically be that the stars seen from the Southern End of the Earth must be "below" the people on North if North indeed is the right side up.

So, Prophecy, the human race must learn to embrace duality - the yin and the yang - and understand that the stars are around us. Neither above, nor below.

Perception, however, in relation to the human body of which the head is the de facto right side up, determines that the stars are above our head, and therefore above us. The stars have guided the humans on our travels and navigations. They have, as astrologers have determined over the ages, also shown curious concurrence with the patterns of human life.

Now if concurrence occurs at all, it means two things to our perceptions: the stars affect us; or there exist cycles (of economic activity, of stars' and comets' orbits, of climate change, of life change) that have co-relations with one another. I.e. If I come home only on Sundays - and my neighbor's wife fights with her husband having been impressed by my car, and demanding her husband to furnish one likewise - there will be a pattern of co-relation 1/ by my affect upon her moods; 2/ by the simple fact that I and the neighbors come across each other every Sunday only.

If the neighbors undertake an unrelated activity such as going on a picnic on Sundays, we will still find that every Sunday, I come home, and neighbors go away.


Now what's the co-relation of the Universe to us?

How come there are so many similarities between the Universe's macrocosm and our microcosm and what does it signify? It signifies more than the assumption that we all burst open as part of a giant blob, and have similar patterns/codes inside our organisms (which, if someone agrees to it, is still an astounding belief).

What has concerned me, dear Prophecy, is the expansion of the Universe. The Universe is expanding - at an accelerating speed. Something is going on. We are boggled by the size of the Universe and the point of ever figuring it all out. And why?

Meanwhile the human society has declared several times that it has neared the end of its evolution. How did they reach this conclusion is beyond me. As long as people are hungry, and some of us can still obtain gourmet food - how on Earth could we even reach the mathematical conclusion that it's either a state of equilibrium or perfection or destruction? The human society will never end as long as there is room for either possibility or further hopelessness.

But the human society is in admitted deep trouble - so will we ever embark upon journeys to explore the depths of the Universe?

What shall we do with our fascination with this giant project then? Will we perish before ever setting foot forth? And how far shall we go anyway?

... But I hadn't give up on the Universe, Prophecy. I have alway had a feeling that there is a point here to be seen, and something to be understood, and something I can find out in my own lifetime, without the need to leave it to the eternity of later generations.

So Prophecy, last week some time, I found out what the Universe is.

Where is it "coming from," why and how is it expanding, and why the microcosms within the Universe draw such a true parallel to human micro/macrocosms. And why do stars seem to affect human lives.