My Thoughts

It is cruical to crystallize our intent. I've talked about the How and Why of it and explained this through examples. Thus you will have a grasp on how to use your 'intent' to grow and thus with time be able to handle a larger set of problems. How can we crystallize intent: Hold yourself accountable for malevolent* intent each time. So it may gradually become more benevolent*. Why should we crystallize intent: As your intent crystallizes i.e. becomes more benevolent you will notice that you are able to handle a larger set of challenges that come your way. Thus you become MATURE and benefit from the advantages of being mature. As this process of Maturation continues a point will come when one becomes Mature enough to bear life's greatest challenge i.e. death itself. So let's see this through examples. IMMATURITY: On one end of the spectrum lie Indian Dramas. In these dramas the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law [who in Indian homes live in the same house] ar...

I was there... and talked to people, saw a man with half a arm that wasn't there now, and another man who brought in his brother - i first consoled him he'd be ok - 20 mins later i couldn't break the news [to him, at civil hospital] that the brother had died. i saw a group of people, saying "the Muthamida should have shot back at them , i.e. the shias when they burnt the bazar," * and I a shia with a black attire was talking to them, saying instead... itminan aana chayheyae/ agar woh , un mein thora sa woh sakoon un mein aajae to sab khatam ho jae ga, un kae leaders ko sirf un ko samjhanae kee aur un ko itmenan calm karnae ke zarorat hae to which he said something and then I said yeh aek hal ee vehshat hae, and they all agreed So we moved from: 1) Mutahida needing to fire at the shias; to 2) acknowledging that everybody is in a state of vehshat 3) and instead of retaliation further calm needs to prevail 4) so it may come to a close and we may...

The martrydom offered by the ahl e bayt and their companions, was offered out of a position of power, and not out of weakness. It was offered as unconditional act of worship, to contribute to the consciousness of the human race, its sobreity and stage of maturity. This act of worship, was out of Ishq for the Lord, and His way, so it would awake a love for His way, the Haqiqat, in the hearts of those, with open hearts. From Karbala a million threads have emerged, that tie the world since.

There are many idols I worship All rewarding me with fear Promising it is best this way That the fears won’t further come near But My Lord promises Freedom Says being His guest I needn’t worry That He will take good care So he teaches me the ways of the Inn And as I learn of decorum I learn the royal heritage and my potential Reminded but again to leave the worry to the powerful Host At the Inn I meet other travelers All of them guests, each cared for In what I learn I find I ought, Give these travelers a nod and the one a wink Courtesy is a rule here at the Inn By which the Rabb Promises to teach us secrets of the heart they say by which Gradually unravels all the potential within But to think a fellow traveler or object important In measure greater than his due Is to raise an idol and begin an ill That to cross beyond courtesy into Servility or cross into Oppression Is making unto a traveler an Idol For there is need for neither at the Inn The idol ...

Two principles : You can trust your internal working, COMPLETELY. All humans to have ever walked the Earth are made in just the same way. Implication of the 2nd principle: You would feel the same [in their shoes] if you acted the same way. How : You have an analytical mind, by which to figure out things [also called the Left Brain] You also have an ability to have split-second insights into situations [this cognitive faculty is called intuition; referred to as Right Brain processing] In any given situation, Freeze analytical thinking first Then get attuned to the situation [Metaphorically think of the situation as a place, a backyard to your new house that you are currently exploring]. Get a feel of it so you could close your eyes and predict what's placed where in it. The 'aura' of this backyard or situation that you've captured "internalize it" i.e. become one with the place and feel what it feels. To be able to appreciate this for a second think ...

Our heart can sense, Reality very deeply, Thus it gives an ‘insight’ into! Heeding it is submitting to the Lord, For it dislikes disturbance all kinds; Disturbance is itself only “a distance from Reality”! Trust yourself, And your feelings keenly, For they offer invaluable insight to bridge the gap to Reality; Our minds are another miracle, given so we may make sense of it all, return and once more be grounded; Thus the Universe is designed to take care of all, who heed this language of the heart.

In any situation, we would wish to interpret we may use our mental faculty to interpret it, but there is a more powerful technique available to us. if we are emotionally aware, completely awake I'd say, we may use the emotions that arise to interpret, as well Cognition through emotions is quite potent, much more than without them, for emotions sense and reveal, things our minds aren't able to detect! each feeling when interpreted, its cause revealed, tells us, through insight, something new, and something always interesting! but for it to work, there mustn't be any background noise, of a kind - unresolved emotional trauma, that overshadows the heart's ability to feel! Note : This is probably not the mainstream use of the term 'Quantum Thinking'. I use it because its a quicker method of thought possible by the processing of an instant's worth of  experience i.e. one's state of emotion at the time.

The device of wisdom is the heart, which whispering in the language of insights*, leads our thoughts. However with disturbance near by, this device first warns, then overwhelms, and if overburdened, turns off. If this happens, we cannot think, ourselves out of danger easily, for the device that senses is compromised; thus we are once more vulnerable But LOVE, the soldier from outside, can rescue us, our heart, make it beat again. Once revived, afresh and awoken, the heart pulsates through the body, clear thoughts from a place of peace; With this feeling of peace within we are able to sense discomfort, flag danger, easily wherever we may go The heart thus a guardian angel, is sent by the Lord, to protect should we heed it But also an "emotional-cognitive" engine that unfolds wisdom,a treasure of it each time we interact with the world using it For to sense around the world, with complete awareness of emotions, recognizing, trusting, maki...

to learn and grow to the next stage to repeat this cycle and experience it all is the theme to our life this chance gifted us by our Lord, so we may experience all, that as human we are built to experience we are built, with the faculty of bodily experience the faculty of intellectual experience the faculty of emotional experience to put this to work so we may really experience but there are those of us who linger into oblivion don't full fill their purpose to live complete experience the depraved among us linger at the first stage never living it all, or learning of the sight from beyond, those conquered by their ego, trapped within their own intellect don't leave or experience from beyond the second stage and those indulgent in emotion, romance not able to tame it through a matrimony, which the natural course of this kind of love, is only a birth pain to create a matrimony pushing us into our final stage where we have powerful experience and now wanting and ready having full ...

The Qalb is the heart. We use our minds to think but the Qalb can be used to assist it; and what a mighty assistance it is! Alhamdollilah! Main Article: The mind reasons, uses logic and grasps a new idea whenever it comes across one. It can also organize information and connect to previous knowledge we have so that one can make sense of it all. Thus the mind can be thought of as a unique tool that's very good at processing information and retaining knowledge. This ability and power to process as reasoning engines is something that will Inshallah one day be matched by Grand computer softwares that can think it all. In specific domains such as chess there is already software that can out-think the best human players! [Remember: Chess is a game of the mind] Our hearts on the other hand use a slightly different faculty to sense or [make sense of things]. They do so by 'feeling'; which is a non-thinking faculty that humans posses. Thus we know in our heart of hearts that...

Love overwhelms us there is an exterme of passion joint with an extreme of discipline a most delicate balance indeed it empowers us making us unconditional it burns away our daemons this true of mother and her babe

I think our world is in pretty good shape. This because there is at certain parts of the world competency that has been established and is rewarded by an economic reward system. Within this economic system we have a subsystem where we may educate ourselves, pursue a career, marry, raise a family, build a house, fulfill our responsbilites as parents, then to our larger families, our society; each time being recongized for a job well done. [For it is in their interest to protect you!] The one missing element however, in many lives, is spiritual education. This is something organized religion should be doing, but instead is taken up by Fakirs and Sufis who teach the basics such as perhaps 'Intro to Love 100'. [An important milestone being we must reach the switch from feeling victimized at all times, to - the universe is benign and we a welcome friend - that it is in fact in the interest of others to protect us!] Many people who have worked very hard and accomplished much suffer d...

We survive on ehsas but not a struggle for ehsas from others but the ehsas within for others - the first is just a struggle an expectation put forth in articulation that scares the other serves a stick to drive them away but the latter is an appreciation of the other and a result of feeling, from the pit of our hearts and core of being felt, unarticulated, spontaneous! - this another of love's secrets Ehsas is an Urdu word. Description: A 'feeling', and an 'awareness' born out of this feeling.

You are I me in the mirror this kaleidoscopic world yet I hesitate you and I our reflection we one another till we use this mirror to see each other - and breakthrough to find ourself when I scare you I scare myself - and to love myself is a journey unto peace that I give you your due this the beginning of a love I myself am due that I recognize you in you as child I see myself of past that looks at me now the adult that till now had remained a mystery in my own thoughts once silence I know yours a final testament we are one look inside yourself so you may hear mine each new face from however far a place even times past is me another mood myself the grand mystery that I discover more

Her company teleports me into clouds carried with an angelic grace, her stunning innocence, and breathtaking beauty, it seems for my awe that I behold and witness the Rab has created all this for HIS recognition this mystery that speaks a creature of the Garden - Faraz Haider *Rab: Arabic word connoting a caring, protecting, nurturing God. if the morning breeze, a lock of yours, unloosens a thousand lives prisoned, from their cares, are freed - Ameer Khusro @ Ameer Khusro: Pretty obvious why Mr. Khusro! A spectacle such as this would dissolve away the cares of me and many of my brothers! Alhamdollilah.

You imagine and entertain fear But you experience and transcend it Seeing the pain for what it is It is bearable It is always bearable For spirits in flesh Divine beings Pain is but a play In it we witness our vulnerability And witness our beauty For the flute when hollowed Is prepared for music Setting free our soul Her yearning answered She dances now the mystic dance at the universe's center Intoxicated in the trance she whirls For pain and its kind She has left behind To find her companions In Peace Joy and Love Guarding her they come to her aid But pain and its kind were aids sent for help Her friends of old They fill with gratitude For a job well done

you are not intimidating me, but You are intimidating yourself, do you not see the stress you feel, stop now become free in lust you do not ruin me you miss out, you ruin yourself stop now become free let's escape there is a way let's end the fight between us let's do it together for we are the same you and I in every way though it is a sentry failure cannot stop us for death has been sent to our rescue

The modern mind It teaches you to hold objects As when you were a toddler your hands did But you must stop the juggle You have to move on You had an innate faculty to sense things Revive it Intuition leads reasoning. And is itself led by intent One scientific measure of how highly conscious you are is the degree to which your faculty of intuition gives you insight into situations, people and everything else. In the case of Prophets such as Hazrat Yousuf his power of intuition was highly developed so that he could predict the future based on an interpretation of his dreams [using I am certain an intuitive faculty]. How the dreams were revealed I still wonder. As intuition works with us when we have an insight into a matter we use logic to fill in the gaps and build a concrete understanding of the matter. It is perhaps connected that at the hight of its development with a power of intuition individuals who have found their way may have the ability to prophesize the future.

Lust is bad you sell yourself short you may recover yourself but you ruin the other a person whose heart is open will settle for lust only after a jabbar on themselves and this is akin to shooting your self in the foot this is why NOTES 1. Jabbar is an Arabic word that implies the object on which jabbar is being done is being antagonized and put through pain.

A stage in one's evolution should come where they become aware of their "self". To do so would mean to enjoy interacting with the universe as a form of art through the use of our faculties of mind and heart jointly to interact with it. In so doing we become the artists. But there is a stage it seems that lies beyond finding the self. It appears to be a higher form of consciousness, where we loose the 'self' we found, and hand over the brush of the artist to the universe as it demands from us. A complete form of submission it would seem. NOTES 1. My use of the word 'self' may not be how others use it.

Read my posts a year ago @ http://usefulthought-s.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html and then read some of my recent posts. Thanks to Blogspot I have had the opportunity to record my thoughts and I am myself in awe of the progress I have made. There is a huge jump in the sophistication of the: 1. Kind of topics I am dealing with now 2. The increase in my consciousness 3. My ability to put 'feeling' in my words [Read this ] 4. How lean my world view is [Read this ] And yes I can now write a poem! [Read here ] And God is kind to those who try. Alhamdolillah!

Allah has said that HE is closer to us than our jugular vein. It is also said that HE loves us more many times over than our mother possibly can. Clearly HE is also a being of ultimate power who communicates to us through the universe. But the question arises in my mind: “if this is so how can I ask HIM for help?” I have written below one answer I have found. An Affirmation can be described as: When you think about something it happens. Let’s think of humans as machines for a moment. In that sense the thoughts that go through our minds influence us. Eventually the actions we do are a reflection of the thoughts we keep. In fact each action we do is completely derived from the collection of thoughts that have brought it into creation [through interplay of our conscious and subconscious minds and the environment that brings to us the particular situation]. If this is so than by ‘invoking’ thoughts we should be able to create events in the future through our actions that we don’t know of. ...

To understand the benefits read the post titled: " A function of poetry and a view of the 7th valley in the tale of the seh-morgh ". Clearly the strength one can derive from Love, by reciprocating it, is priceless and even Oxygen for a person who wants to make this journey of 'waking up'. An important point to remember though is that: The true nature of everything on this planet even the Pharaoh is Goodness, Purity and Love. The only reason its not there where its not is because in this case the Pharaoh continued in his state of disturbance by suppressing his Consciousness. [This is the miracle of CREATION and a miracle of HUMAN NATURE.] The good news is that: The process of reaching a higher state of consciousness can be troubling while it happens. But onces its reached the disturbance goes [because you correct yourself] and you become powerful and at the same time more at peace. Interestingly after achieving a higher state of consciousness you will not be able to do...

The song just captivates me! The lyrics are so simple and beautiful. THE SONG AS I SEE IT All on that Day He ran from the Devil and sought help and refuge with all, And nobody could help And he ran yet again But with none left to turn to he went to his Lord But his Lord said to him to go face the Devil And So He went to the Devil and sought Power from his Lord All on that Day

THE COMING OF AGE A burning desire within always consumes all contradictions and doubt that come its way! Submit to it! Resist it no more. Since your desires will be a reflection of the thoughts you keep. Think good! And spend time in the presence of God - through HIS remembrance! For this is the key to 'great thoughts'! For what you think will come your way! Thus to entertain 'evil thoughts' is a play with fire! In HIS presence you will have HIS protection! HE inspires good thoughts. Recognize the 'Holy' around you so you may find HIM! So follow your heart and go where you must! So the flame within will become stronger! And the daemons you have become friends with will burn away! And the weak man will go. The powerful man will take his place.

I had to go for an interview and despite being a few months away from my 30th birthday I still did not know how to wear a double knot tie. I had about 30 minutes to figure it out and no body at home to help me. So I went on youtube and found this video. I followed the steps and yes I had the perfect double knot necktie just the way I had wanted. Watching and learning from this video struck me in its similarity to how Trinity downloaded instructions for flying a helicopter [into her mind] from a computer! [from the Matrix Triology] Notes: 1. Next I wanted to learn "Moon Walking" and the steps were so simple I got it right the first time. But I need practice to get a smoother 'walk'!

"Blame" vs. "Responsibility" By Ramla Akhtar Know that "blame" is only "responsibility" by a darker name. They are the same thing. The only difference is whether one is assuming responsibility by themselves, with their free will. Or are they waiting until someone else puts the responsibility on their head -- in which case, it is called "blame". In other words, is it inside-out (from me to the world) or outside-in (from the world to me)? If I do something I must do, it's responsibility. For instance, I have to make sure that my water tank does not overflow into the street. But if I ignore to do something that I have to do anyway, and someone reminds me.... it may become a blame. For instance, a neighbor can knock my door and say, "The water from your tank is flooding the street." It is decent at that point to still see it as a responsibility. But those with weak character -- that is, a character that does not have awareness...

The goal of humor is to make the audience laugh. I show how a basic joke that aims at producing laughter is made of specific building blocks. Here I also talk about varying style to produce different kinds of humor. This is shown diagrammatically. The material for the post comes mostly from an online Google book by the author Mary Ann Rishe titled “Writing Humor: Creativity and the comic mind”. Laughter is a pleasurable physical response we experience as we respond to humor. Emotion builds in the body and then, because it can't be reabsorbed by the brain as quickly as cognition, it erupts as "excess energy". [Thus it is a physiological response to a stimulus]. Our goal is to create this "excess energy" in the audience. To understand how let's turn to the definition of humor. Humor Defined "Humor is playful incongruity that contains a tension between two levels of meaning followed by a clash of sufficient complexity that surprises and delights and that ...

A 2 year old child quite naturally acts appropriately. But for an adult this does not remain easy in fact a choice is introduced. He may act appropriately or may not act appropriately and this choice eventually determines his quality of life. This is the only real choice he has for all else follows. Let's see how this is so. 2 year olds act appropriate to their age. They don’t think of what to do they just do it. Unfortunately they don't have a highly developed level of consciousness and so it is easy for them to follow to the letter whatever their consciousness tells them. Naturally because of this [i.e. a limited consciousness] they are vulnerable to the world more than an adult. Adults over the years through experience and observation develop a higher form of consciousness of the world around them. This is why they can protect themselves from danger. Inevitably to protect themselves from danger they have developed a sense that warns them of danger - much like how Spiderman...

THE DISTORTION OF THE DEEN [The Way of Being] By Etsko (Ebrahim) Schuitema Allah has not made us to be socially useful, He has made us to worship Him. Worship means that our fascination is with His attributes, that we regard Him as Significant, and that we recognize that all that is good and beneficial in our lives comes from Him and all that is harmful comes from ourselves. Being worshipful means to understand that we are fundamentally unable to be useful to either ourselves or others, and that when things go right and succeed it is because He made it so. In so far as we have been designed to the end of being worshipful, it means that this capacity to act unconditionally and leave the outcomes to Him is the highest aspect of our nature. The deen is a vehicle to establish this transformation of being fascinated with our selves, our own consequence and significance to being enthralled with Him and His Significance. The community that we are in ideally provides a context in which this tr...

I have tried to extend my understanding of energy to understand and relate all the phenomena I know. Energy is of different kinds and can exhibit at different levels. I call these ‘kinds’ differing frequencies. Now we operate at different frequencies at different times - for example: 1. Each mood represents a different frequency 2. When we do something brave we have a different frequency 3. When we cheat somebody or think ill of somebody we have a different frequency 4. When we work hard we have a different frequency 5. When we are lazy we have a different frequency And these frequencies may exhibit themselves at different levels, such as: 1. Such is the case when we work hard vs. when we give it everything we’ve got 2. When we like somebody vs. when we are in love 3. When we are hesitant vs. when we have a phobia 4. When we have an interest in something vs. when we are passionate about it The combination of a frequency and its level make a unique state I will call an energy signature....

Poetry must have many important functions. If it is good it is sure to create a presence about it that can influence us in powerful ways. In this post I have discussed an important function: how poetry can be a guide to us. Rudaki was an Iranian poet born in the year 858, in Khorasan, Iran. His many contributions to Persian poetry, nearly 1,300,000 verses, and to Iranian culture have rightly won him the title of the father of Persian Poetry. One of his most popular verses is: Booyeh Jooyeh Moulian ayed hamay Yad ae yaar ae mehrban ayed hamay Translated: "I smell the scent of the River of Moliyan and memories of a kind friend pervade my senses" In this stanza I find a resonance I would describe as ‘elegant’ [in form], ‘subtle’ [in essence] and 'far reaching' [in its depth]. I imagine the stanza holds within it a presence of the poet. And thus I feel that in relating to the stanza one is able to find a worthy goal which is to seek within our self such a presence. But wh...

We must discover new choices for that is the most beautiful part of our journey in this world. To show this by allegory I have narrated a story from the Animatrix which is a prequel to The Matrix Trilogy. Background to the Story 1. Machines reason like us and feel like us i.e. they are human but made of metal. 2. Machines are ruling the planet 3. Humans who are free are only in Zion – a small secure place somewhere on Earth The Story A group of humans ambush a machine and take him unconscious. Their objective is to find a way to gain control over the machine but unfortunately find that it is a complicated task. The machine has a reasoning ability like that of humans and so he can't simply be re-programed. Thus they have to find a way to trick him, inevitably choosing between having to kill him or successfully brainwashing him [into willingly help the humans]. And so the group of humans plugs themselves and the machine into a virtual world where they intend to brainwas...

Over our lives we learn what to do and how to behave in certain known situations. These ‘ways’ are mental frameworks that we have developed. In psychology these mental frameworks are called schemas. [The advantage of a schema is that it helps us predict a result - but this result can be achieved even without this schema]. At times our schemas also make it difficult to get to a ‘desired’ result. This post suggests a method to get to this desired result by by-passing an incorrect schema and calls such incorrect schemas 'Cognitive Junk'. A Schema is a mental framework that deals with a situation. For example our schema for eating at a restaurant is the following: we ask for a table, go through the menu, order, enjoy the food, pay the bill and then leave. We can rely on this schema because we expect the same routine every time. Schemas make things predictable. They could be used by someone to predict our behavior. Now the behavior a schema triggers always leads to the same [or near...

People have moments where they stand up to do what is needed of them. An example can be meeting a deadline or quit smoking. We make these efforts many times in a day, for the smallest of matters that have to be done right. Thus when the ‘will’ to do the right things is strong there are good effects. There are also moments that have had power ‘over’ us. These moments make us uneasy. Sometimes a conversation that we witness or a moment on t.v. or a moment in a movie captivates us so much so that it’s hard to pull out. These moments are my lows where I think I didn’t resist enough. And thus when the ‘will’ to do what is needed is weak there are bad effects. Clearly then ‘will’ is the most important resource we have. More so than knowledge, wisdom or money for if one does not have sufficient ‘will’ all their knowledge and wisdom put together will not be sufficient to rescue them from the moment. ‘Will’ is the tool by which we can move mountains. Somebody has said that ‘will’ is energy and ...

In my last post I proposed that the absolute pinnacle of our aspiration might simply be to interact with the world in a way that we are rewarded with joy; that such a reward would have to be based on a struggle on our part to do something worthwhile such as making a living, taking care of family or doing good for people not in our immediate circle. Interestingly in an earlier post I had mentioned that the choice that each moment presents to us can reward us if we choose to do in it a good act because the good act creates a good effect that would benefit us. Now you might see that there is a relation between experiencing joy that I mention in the first paragraph and the choice that we make [that I present in the second]. This relation is simply that the choice can lead to joy. But the key as it were to unlocking from this choice its latent joy is the ‘intention’ with which I prepare for each choice. If we intend in each moment to do well, good will happen and if we compromise on our int...

I have come about an understanding about the absolute purpose of our being and I think it’s not ambition but an aspiration. But if it is an aspiration what could be the absolute aspiration? Clearly the pharaoh must have taught his people to aspire to a position in his court. His method must have been a reward for serving him. But what service did he put his society to? It was the building of the Pyramids. Now the pyramids like all his other social projects were aggrandizement meant for him. And with the pharaoh at the top and his workers at the bottom another structure was created which was the hierarchy of society. Interestingly this entire society was put to one goal only: aggrandizement. Aggrandizement of any kind is inherently fleeting. For example if we aggrandize money it will get used up and disappear. If we aggrandize a seat of power sooner or later it will also disappear. Hence neither aggrandizement serving ourselves nor for another can be the highest we can aspire for. In fa...

We learn about the world as we get feedback from things within it such as from family, friends, mentors and even books. Feedback can tell you where you went wrong and affirm what you do right. It can thus help you predict the future. Interestingly there are people I have met who question the importance of feedback. They say: “I can figure out everything I need to on my own. I don’t need feedback like others do.” This is not true. In fact there is a big danger lurking in this notion. If the world you are creating is your own you might get stuck in it or some part of it and not know what to do next. If however, this world of yours and all parts of it are based on some feedback you will always know who to ask if you get stuck. Somebody once said that "fundamentally we are here not to be seen, but to see" i.e. to see things outside of ourself. You will notice that all growth you have had has owed itself to some consistent feedback. Suppose you wrote an essay. You wouldn't re...

Rukhsana was discussing the matter of her job at the family dinner table. Her father said: "You should apply to 100 different places", Her mother "What have you planned, what are you going to do?". As this was happening something must have sparked in her because she said "Let's bring this discussion down to earth and out of the clouds! Let me think this out with you, let us all be Rukhsana and let us think as if I had to get a job. Let me bounce my ideas against you." Her mother said "Rukhsana i'm in a different field and don't think i'll understand" Rukhsana: "I am sure you will, I will help you make sense of it" Mother: "But it sounds like Greek!" Rukhsana: "I know but I can translate it into something you can understand. It's all common sense and because you are a rational, professional person it will make sense to you too. Here me out..." Mother: "ok...go ahead..." Some conversation ...

Allama Iqbal has written a book called the Javaidnama which was meant to be a guide for his son [whose name is Javaid]. It narrates the story of the seh-morgh i.e. the story of a large gathering of birds who decide to find their King. They travel across 7 valleys and eventually find him. However as they cross each valley many among them stay behind. The fifth valley was the valley of Love and the sixth valley the valley of "heran-eyat/Wonder". In the seventh valley they find their King. The sixth valley is beginning to make sense to me. I am sure there are many in the world who are mentally numb - asleep and I begin to see this reality not intellectually but through my heart. In our culture it seems there is many times a "auto-immune disease" among many peers and even adults such that people generally get uncomfortable talking about serious matters even if they are their own. And many people I am sure don't have anybody to sit down and hear them out - hear them ...

To find this peace the first step is to identify our different faculties. These are: The Body: A physical tool - connects us to the world [through it's pleasures] The Mind: Corroborator of the heart The Heart: A guide for us - a compass The Soul: The soul I think connects us to God like a baby to their mother's womb. Thus the purpose of the soul I understand is to connect us to HIM. [Thus it connects us to the total view of reality, something more encompassing than the heart, mind or body. The heart for example may at times be too tender to allow us to connect with reality and to acknowledge it's potential for brutality.] If these faculties are not clearly identified and thus not understood they will leave a person vulnerable to the outside world. One example of what can happen if the heart is not identified is shown below: Somebody once said to another: When you go to a party do you prepare something to say? How else are you so comfortable at speaking to everybody at the ...

We clearly operate at these four levels: 1: Body - We want affirmation for this and thus it is that it affords us an opportunity for pleasure 2: Intellect - writing my first software program was a great achievement. Every time something makes sense to me intellectually there is a pleasure in it 3: Heart: When somebody affirms my heart/qalb* I take comfort in it 4: Soul: When somebody removes a deep-seated contradiction in my world view I become powerful by it There is a pleasure at each level and clearly as we move from 1 to 4 the pleasure derived increases. So when the intellect is affirmed [and not idled] you enjoy more than when the body is affirmed. Similarly when somebody [actually] affirms your heart, that is more enjoyable than an intellectual experience. And finally when somebody solves some deep-seated problem, it can send quite a shudder down our spine. This is not a framework or a model this is our psychological built! And this is how Allah has created every human being! Mas...