Sunday 30 October 2016

THE ONE WHO HEALS YOU


image via Iraj Jahanshahi on facebook





The one who heals you is the one who accepts you fully as you are, and shows you how to accept yourself.

The one who heals you is the one who understands you and your pain, and helps you to know yourself and your pain.

The one who heals you is compassionate; who feels your pain as her own, and helps you let go of its root.

The one who heals you is the one who helps you come back Home -- back  to wholeness, back to your self.

And in the end you find that the one who heals you is you. There never is or was any other.


image: with thanks via Iraj Jahanshahi on facebook

Sunday 16 October 2016

COURAGE is real Confidence.


Photo by Iraj Jahanshahi on Facebook



COURAGE is real Confidence.

Parents and other super-ordinates concerned for the welfare and growth of children and subordinates, often want those in their charge to be confident.

But how can one give confidence to another person?  And what are we talking about really when we speak of confidence?   

Confidence is generally understood to be a kind of self-belief, strength and faith.  For the little one to be confident, the ground-bed of the relationship between the big one and the small one must be one of affirmation -- sincere care, support, praise and appreciation of the little one.

What is truly empowering or enCOURAGING, however, is not an exclusive focus on achievement and success, but an acceptance of failure as necessary for the little one's growth.  

The big one who trusts and allows the little one to risk failure, teaches the little one courage.  And true confidence is, in fact, courage.

photo: with thanks from Iraj Jahanshahi


Friday 14 October 2016

THE DIVINE QUEST




THE DIVINE QUEST is a solitary journey of the spiritual warrior. The warrior's most effective weapons are restraint, discipline, vigilance and courage. The enemy and the battleground are internal. This enemy, who comes in many disguises and with many clever ruses, has to be faced - alone - with heroic courage. And ultimately laid to rest with an unbounded acceptance of the totality of the self. A Seeing of It All. The most epic and heroic of journeys back to core authenticity, to Home, asks for everything along the way. Everything. Everything must be given up. In complete dispossession, deprivation, detachment and submission is found the Treasure of all treasures.
May Allah grant us that Treasure. and Allah knows best. photo via https://bobchoat.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/woman-warrior2.jpg

Thursday 13 October 2016

COURTEOUS WHEN PROVOKED





To remain courteous, when you are provoked, is the only way out.


It is very difficult to remain silent and courteous when you feel you have been unfairly accused. However, this is the only thing that will take you to greater freedom. Let’s say someone accuses you of being intolerant, judgmental or disrespectful. You can either choose to defend yourself or not to defend yourself.

If you choose to “defend” yourself, it is best to give attention to what lies in your own hands. Generally, the only defense you can offer is to clarify your intentions and/ or your actions; or to explain that you didn’t mean to judge or disrespect the person. And better still, apologize for the fact that the person experienced you the way they did. But then move on. There is no more you can do without vindicating the accusation.

In other words, the moment you start to blame the other person for your behaviour – “I said this because you said this…” – you will become judgmental. They will respond with more accusations and so on. This can only add to the drama and keep you stuck in an unhealthy pattern.

The only way out is to choose not to defend yourself and remain silent in the face of the other’s accusations. Even if the other person is completely wrong in their criticism of you, by engaging in a dialogue of criticism and counter-criticism, you remain trapped.

So what if the other person does not experience you or see you the way you think you are, the way you strive to be or the way you intend? Their perception is a result of the filter of their internal dialogue and conditioning. Why do you want to make their problem, your problem?

This is not an absolute statement, only a suggestion for situations in which another person’s **opinion** is involved. In cases where you are unfairly **treated**, by a boss or teacher for instance, it may be correct to confront them.

Tuesday 11 October 2016

The Entire Ocean In A Drop





In order to experience being the entire ocean in a drop, we have to give up our identities.  Wear them loosely, like outer garments to be worn when required, but hung on the wall, when not.

We cling to identities for security, significance, belonging -- to escape our insignificance, our weakness, our loneliness, our fear. But identities end up limiting us, making us mediocre and unauthentic, and alienate us and cut us off from the vastness that is our potential.

If my "identity" does not have a practical use (like a passport that allows me to travel) or is not a transformational practice (like islam) which takes me towards understanding, compassion, peace and the fulfillment of becoming "the entire ocean in a drop."  then I have to ask myself why I am clinging to it.

Monday 3 October 2016

Our Need To Be Interesting Makes Us Uninteresting




As human beings we have a deep desire to be significant - to stand out, to be attractive, to be interesting, to be important.

The greater our own need for significance, the less attention we have for the other.  There more interesting we find ourselves, the less interesting we will find the world.  And the less interesting the world will find us.

However, when we can give up our need to be attractive or interesting and really listen and look at the other, we will find much to be delighted and enchanted with, even if it is someone or something that at first glance seemed ordinary.  In fact, you can literally begin to see, over time, how the other blossoms under the bestowal of receptive, affirmative attention. 

It is like sunshine on a rose.

And what is likely to happen?

The more enchanting we find the other, the more enchanting we generally become to the other, without even trying.

And Allah  knows best

image: with thanks via Iraj Jahanshahi
www.sufi-girl.blogspot.com