What are Dua (contemplation) and Mananam (reflection)?

Dua is Arabic for “contemplation” of the preeminence of God’s Will in every observable aspect of Creation.

Muhammad’s Dua resulted in the Transcription of the Qu’ran. Anyone who studies the Qu’ran embarks on the same journey he took, which Muhammad called “A Sound Path for Those Who Reason.”

When we follow in Muhammad’s footsteps, the mind attunes itnself to the essence of what can be seen: The design, construction, and operations of a Most Merciful God.

Allah made us to be how and who we are; we can direct ourselves through the wisdom and method of the Qu’ran to show gratitude, appreciation, and success within our circumstances in turn.

Muhammad acknowledged we are imperfect and make flawed choices. He said over and over  “and Allah is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful” to remind us how we should act towards an unforgiving world that might seem to deserve our wrath.

Allah’s Steadfastness towards His Nature allows the universe and life on earth to continue, to find its way. The closer we draw near to His Way, this Sound Way, the greater the odds we will be able to sustain our lives and those of every other person and living thing- the ones we love, the ones we don’t, the ones we know, those we never will.

Mananam, reflection, comes from Sanskrit and is a Spiritual Training Tool invented by the Authors of the Vedas in Ancient India.

Mananam refines the inner landscape. With Dua we seek balance and stability from Allah’s Presence. With Mananam we teach ourselves how to react to the range of thoughts, actions, feelings, perceptions, ideas, impulses, biases and influences in which human nature operates.

Allah is the Supreme Standard, we are its challengers. Mananam helps us to find a successful way to be us, coexist on our own terms, those of society, rule of law, and still aspire to the Divine.

All of the world’s great spiritual guides teach both Dua and Mananam. The world’s future citizens and the communities they build will be practiced and accomplished in both.

 

 

From Al Mudif “the Host” Discussions on the Qu’ran.

79:13-26  The First and Last Transgression

Indeed, it will be but one shout,

And suddenly they will be [alert] upon the earth’s surface.

Has there reached you the story of Moses? –

When his Lord called to him in the sacred valley of Tuwa,

“Go to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed.

And say to him, ‘Would you [be willing to] purify yourself

And let me guide you to your Lord so you would fear [Him]?'”

And he showed him the greatest sign,

But Pharaoh denied and disobeyed.

Then he turned his back, striving.

And he gathered [his people] and called out

And said, “I am your most exalted lord.”

So Allah seized him in exemplary punishment for the last and the first [transgression].

Indeed in that is a warning for whoever would fear [ Allah ].

Commentary:

There are many references to Moses and Pharoah in the Qu’ran. These are not implications that Muslims are just a different kind of Jew.

They do not mean “Muslims, Jews and Christians share the same heritage”, or “we all essentially believe the same things.”

I refute that the Qu’ran is a Western religious text. It is the most Non-dual scripture of all in my opinion.

Non-duality means that God and His Work, His Creation, and His Grace always exist in a state of contiguous and continuous unity. Muhammad never said anything else about Allah.

Muhammad also stated One Path to Understanding of this Truth, which is called Sadaq Allah al Azim, “The Ultimate Truth” that we can through Great Mercy become like Allah in an instant.

This firs and last step is the one Pharoah failed to take and incurred the wrath of the Hebrews. Moses asked him in a reasonable way, “Please end your reign of terror over my people and allow us to be free.”

Pharoah Ramses II stood at the crossroads of war and suffering and peace, generosity and kindness. He took the path all men of pride and ego take, and there was much loss of life.

This choice, for self-aggrandizement and profit never fails to lead to this. The other, for affection, equanimity, magnanimity, and civility never disappoints us.

 

From the Chandogya Upanishad “The Exploration of the Priesthood”

Chapter VI − Meditation on the Fivefold Saman in Animals

1 One should meditate on the fivefold Saman in animals. The syllable Him is goats, the Prastava sheep, the Udgitha cows, the Pratihara horses, the Nidhana man. 

2 Animals belong to him as objects of enjoyment and he becomes rich in animals who,knowing this, meditates on the fivefold Saman in animals.

In order for this section of the Upanishad written to create a virtual seminary, we have to define the residual Sanskrit the translator left for us to decode.

Saman is “equipoise”. It is the Foundation of Grace in a world of tumult and change. Meditation filters the mind of all the noise and nonsense you put in there and permit to continue so Saman can be achieved.

Him is the earth. The Goat was said to be the sacred mount of the god of livestock, Pushan. In order to have Saman we are told to respect the sanctity of the herd and the web of life on the planet earth which feeds and sustains us whether we eat meat or not.

Prastava means “to chant”. Sheep provide clothing; chanting clothes the voice in homage to Grace. When the voice is naked of Grace, it creates curses and falsehood, suspicion and suffering.

Udgitha is “homage” or “celebration”. The Cow is the vehicle of Sri Gauri, the Mother of Creation. Cows provide milk without which much of the planet would starve. Milk is also the source of the most important thing ever, dessert, which is why we pay Homage to Cows and their creator, Sri Gauri.

Pratihara is the “doorkeeper” or “juggler”. The horse is the mount of the warrior, the Final Form. This “Last One” is the God of Time that bears us through life.

Nidhana is “the cause”. Mankind is its own cause. We are not born with any set expectations or destiny. We are our own vehicle and destination, we pave the road and travel it.

This Nidhana leads to or away from Saman and we find all kinds of good reasons for both depending on our mood or the mixture and combination of our biases.

What is a bias?

A bias is conditioner of reality. I am a musician, I play the French horn. My body and mind are conditioned to play this instrument in an awesome way. I excel at it and I love to tell and demonstrate this to anyone who is nearby.

I am not a ballerina. I tried, believe me. I jeted like a frog not a deer, and could never escape the feeling that the girls in the class were looking at me in my tights. I took a semester of ballet and never enrolled in another.

Some people are muscular, some are soft around the curves. Some people are dark skinned, some fair, some people get addicted to alcohol when they drink it, some not.

These are good examples of biases of the body. They are caused by the influences of genetics and they respond well or poorly to the environments and activities their owner subjects them to.

Biases are also natural products of personality. You can choose some, others are given to you by osmosis and upbringing, culture, and the need or desire to fit in. Like biases of the body, they become set, habitual, instinctive, reflexive and unconscious.

Racism, misogyny, homophobia, politics, religion, etc. are examples of bias and sources of bias.

We are not born hating white people or gays, to think Jesus Christ is the Son of God or Muhammad the Only Prophet of Allah. These are not facts they are ideas that appear to be facts after a bias asserts their power on our points of view.

Biases that NOT physical veil the Truth; they create suspicion, superstition, desire, attraction and aversion.

We must have them, unfortunately. It is the purpose of life to determine which biases stay, which ones go, which make us happy and successful, which impede.

If you are happy as an attractive and healthy genocidal homophobic fat head, then the Upanishads say that is fine provided you do not harm another person.

Likewise, if you are the Pope and do no good for nobody, that is not fine at all.

Meditation on the Animals helps us to see which species are running around in the mind -the cultivated and wild ones, and refine our human expression on the outside.

Some people still dress in animal costumes for reasons I won’t state in case the kiddies are reading this, and also because I have no experience doing that. No one loves an arm chair quarterback.

Pictured:

A little soda water will get that stain out.

From Al Mudif “the Host”: Commentaries on the Qu’ran

Surah 79 An Naziat “The Extraction.”

“Those Who Pull Out”, refers to “the angels who tear out the souls of the wicked”).

It is the seventy-ninth sura of the Qur’an with 46 ayat.

Its name derived from the word wan-nazi‘atwith which it opens. The root (n-z-‘) roughly means “to yank out with great force”,^[2] although it can also mean “to yearn for” or “to yearn after”.

Its subject matter testifies that Sūrat an-Nāziʻāt belongs to the earliest period at Makkah. According to Abdullah bin Abbas, this Surah was sent down before Surah An-Naba, whilst Muḥammad Khaṭīb has opined that surah 79 was revealed around five years before the Hegira, although other commentators have dated the surah’s revelation at eight years before the Hegira.

The Western Qur’an scholar Richard Bell has argued that parts of surah 79, notably the opening verses, may date from a later Meccan period, though this is not generally accepted by other scholars.

79: 1-12 A Plague of Angels.

By those [angels] who extract with violence

And [by] those who remove with ease

And [by] those who glide [as if] swimming

And those who race each other in a race

And those who arrange [each] matter,

On the Day the blast [of the Horn] will convulse [creation],

There will follow it the subsequent [one].

Hearts, that Day, will tremble,

Their eyes humbled.

They are [presently] saying, “Will we indeed be returned to [our] former state [of life]?

Even if we should be decayed bones?

They say, “That, then, would be a losing return.”

Commentary:

Humanity has been at war with its Creator  over why we we must be mortal since we stood upright and took our first step .

This Chapter of the Qu’ran, An Naziat – the Yearning is aptly titled. We yearn for more of everything, but on the Day Allah Decrees, the angels come and extract us from our bodies whether our needs in life were met or not.

Then as now, we are at His Mercy.

Muhammad did not believe in angels, however. Angelic and diabolic human motivations- most certainly.

Some people are spry and nimble in carrying out their duties for the welfare of self and society, others labor intensely for no one but a fake God in hopes He will lift them up and take them to heaven to toil no more.

The things the latter sorts of people tell themselves!

“This prevents the soul from attaining heaven, that- now THAT helps it succeed.”

These fools and idiots, who Muhammad called “losers and hypocrites”, wait for some sign that they were right and everyone else was wrong. They call it Salvation, the Prophet called it the Day the Horn Sounds.

Both are verily the day we die, and whether we are saved or damned depends on whether we yearned for more or were grateful for what we were given.

It is, of course, ideal to be grateful right now.

 

From the Chandogya Upanishad “the Exploration of the Priesthood”

Chapter V − Meditation on the Fivefold Saman as the Seasons 

1 One should meditate on the fivefold Saman as the seasons. The syllable Him is the spring,

the Prastava the summer, the Udgitha the rainy season, the Pratihara the autumn, the

Nidhana the winter. 

2 The seasons belong to him and he becomes rich in seasons who, knowing this, meditates

on the fivefold Saman as the seasons.

Time is meditation. It is the seamless and endless river of Direct Experience that carries the conditions, attitudes, qualities, fantasies, facts, fictions, lies, assumptions, influences, myths, theories, desires and aversions of life to us.

Wherever the body goes, time conveys it. When the body and Purusha (the Great Soul) separate, time stops. We are never allowed to know when or how. Some of us die on New’s Day, others on New Year’s Eve.

What we do with our time, how we think during it, how we speak, act, and react determines the mixture of ideas we have about it- what transpired, what is forthcoming.

Some of this we can choose, some of it is ingrained.

I’m a musician. I play the French horn, and am quite good at it.  I do not like to play tennis, I am no good at it, I lack an interest in trying. I have known horrible horn players that really liked playing and disregarded the evil looks of the audience.

We all see accomplished athletes walk away from the field with gold medals wearing those bitchy imperious faces as if their work and accomplishments are not praiseworthy in spite of the fact their fans greatly enjoyed cheering them on to success.

The impressions we receive from others and our environments as children shape us how we endure the remainder of our lives, even as the body is nurtured or prevented from discovering its nature and fulfilling its destiny.

I was told playing the French horn made me a flawed human being by my parents. I stopped playing because of this. It took me decades to shed this idea, try playing again, and bloom into a fucking awesome prima donna on the thing.

Conversely, I was encouraged to join the military, play sports, and spend my life trying to fill my parents mold.

The conflict that resulted from all of these things – the battle between what was inherent and meant to be by the Creator, and the influences of my parents, environment, and desire to conform was devastating.

Toss in some Christianity and a Christian Country where no one is happy with anyone else because God says everyone falls short, and I turned inward – the only place I had control -and waged war against myself.

This struggle for identity, the reason we experience pain and suffering internally and externally is called cognitive dissonance. We all know we are made with excellence to live in beauty and prosperity, and to spend our time understanding the expansive implications of this, and are told we belong in and spend time in adverse conditions.

The human condition thrives in Saman (spaciousness), it dies in the wake of its biases, it has a short time to learn the difference between the two and excel at its capabilities.

Crucial to this is the release of anger, anxiety, and piety. Anger gives us the illusion of control, anxiety fear of its loss, piety is the foolishness dissociation from the other two.

Saman is perception of Real Experience in Real Time. If you are an adolescent and you look like one, you should be fully aware of that and pay homage to what that feels like to you.

Someday, if the earth survives, you will look and feel differently, and a habit for honest, unbiased observation of yourself will benefit you. Vanity is a horrible thing to waste.

***

Pictured: Seasons do and do not refer to how well your complexion matches the fabric swatches.

 

What is the Unseen Means?

I learned this term when I studied the Kitab al Jilwa of the Yazidi Khan, a nearly extinct religion that fused Sufism with Hinduism. I will refer to it often.

Yazidism refers to something called Isha in Arabic which means “uncountable”.

The text of the Kitab al Jilwa does not explain it but you are lucky to have me because I understand it and am willing to tell you.

Isha is the Rule of Law that compels, propels and manages the life bearing activity of the universe.

The Yazidi believe all of this was meant for the sole purpose of life. Everything. The stars, planets, the elements, space, time, light, gravity…the penis and the vagina, serve no other purpose to than give birth to life and to give it an opportunity to fulfill its destiny.

This chance, this gift, is priceless in spite of the fact it is elusive, transparent, cannot be quantified but can be Fully Known.

The Laws of Creation and the Understanding of the Freedom to Know they give us are This Isha. We are alive because we are, and we have no idea why so we have to find out. The future is also the Unseen Means. Assuming you have one…but we do right?

What we know and can count on is called Atman in Sanskrit- “The Brilliance of Now”.

What is Unseen is what is uncertain, unpredictable, fully possible. Mostly. Till we take it for granted and sacrifice it and Experience the Work of Our Own Hands.

Muhammad said that moment where we say “I fucked up” is the Day of Regret, which of course is preceded by the “Day of Denial”.

Denial veils what is Unseen gives us false security and permission we can act like dumbasses.

It’s okay to be a dumbass until someone gets hurt. When entire societies stupefy such as our entire planet has and starts a 25 year long stopwatch ticking…suddenly what has previously been Unseen becomes Certain. The end of humanity and all life on earth.

This is no longer a myth and we made it happen and we are pretending things are fine.

The error is built in to how we think and act, and we have a short period of time to figure out a solution to it so the greater problem the end of all life in God’s Creation is at least prolonged, hopefully preserved.

We will start with optimism by saying the solutions to climate change and human nature exist, and if we do mor than have faith in these, but employ them, we can See and still have the chance to fantasize about what is Unseen without being scared to death.

We can do this. We must.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-09-13/scientists-say-25-years-left-fight-climate-change

 

About Me.

It’s actually all about you!

This platform is X rated right? Good. I will tell you everything you need to know. Probably a few things you will regret learning about but I promise all of them will be true.

There is no point in having a reputation if it’s all lies, and let’s face it, we are always there while it is being earned.

If you end up like me and are little weird, not exactly “right” most of the time, you can at least be honest about it and be eminently trustworthy and believable even if people say you are a pervert. Which some of my life has been true, not nearly enough of it.

I have DONE IT ALL, and almost everyone. There are a few that have gotten away and I fantasize about remedying that. I have learned not to chase that instinct.

I don’t feel slighted, in fact, I feel been privileged that while I have done lots, I have not SEEN it all, which is a blessing.

I don’t have the constitution to see people who live without food, shelter, working toilets, heat, healthcare, or whose lives were bombed out and never quite came back together again.

I never compare my life to theirs, I definitely don’t say Grace because I’m not them, I don’t pretend they should say it because they are.

I have a complicated story and a great sense of humor about it so I can be free, freer to motivate people to do the same about theirs.

If you are reading this, you have a toilet and toilet paper in case I make you laugh that hard and that means you are living with adequate facilities.

The Four Noble Truths of the Vajrayana (the Lightning Vehicle of Buddhism), where I am called the Vajra Swan- one of my names- state:

All beings suffer.

Desire is the root cause of suffering

Suffering can be relieved by the root cause of happiness

The Root Cause of Happiness is Great Compassion.

This Great Compassion starts with our own darn selves. Not the kind where you look in the mirror and say “I love my eyes, I love my nose, I love my self”. It is when you are able to enjoy how ridiculous and insidious you have been in life, what an asshole and a cunt, and how you tortured yourself over it and perhaps helped others do it with you, but you are still here.

I’ve been a dick and an asshole and douchebag and try to be cunty when I can, and I’m still around and I love it.

I say therefore, the Root Cause of Happiness is Great Compassion- the foundation of this is a sense of humor.

I am me, I like being me because I realized no matter how bad that got, it wasn’t bad enough. I appreciate that! I want to revel in what is left of my life and that means laughing at how stupid I have been. Not all of the time, but just enough of it.

Read “The Unseen Means” next.

 

 

 

“Save one man, you save them all.” Muhammad.