The Eye of the Heart

The Eye of the Heart refers at a symbolic level to the perception of Divinity. Anyone who is on the winding road towards awakening know that this statement contains many more works than those written. If you, for whatever reason, don't understand the levels of thought in that phrase then maybe this book is exactly what you need. Schuon is a "practitioner" and a "believer" and this makes his work to be something more than a pure academic text, it comes to help in the search of the seeker. From the beginning, this eye of the heart will be explained followed by a segment dedicated to knowledge (that among other segments) composing the first part of the book dedicated to "Metaphysics and Cosmology".

Bringing Christianity together

On December 1st, Pope Francis met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Istanbul and apparently the Pope bowed down to the Patriarch in order to receive his blessing. This moment impresses me with its symbolism and humility but it might signal, above all, a turning point in the evolution of the Christian religion. The Pope himself said that the Orthodox and Catholic Churches will not submit to nor assimilate the other and will, instead, work towards the restoration of full Communion. A meeting with the Russian Church Patriarch Kirill was also mentioned however its planning has yet to begin.

Quran 001:002-007

Verses

2. [ro] Laudă lui Allah, al lumilor Stăpânitor
[en] All praise is due to God, the Lord of the Universe;
ستایش مخصوص خداوندی است که پروردگار جهانیان است.
[ru] Хвала Аллаху, Господу миров,

[ge] Lob sei Gott, dem Herrn der Welten,

3. Cel Milostiv, Îndurător,
the Beneficent, the Merciful;
(خداوندی که) بخشنده و بخشایشگر است
Милостивому, (и) Милосердному
Dem Erbarmer, dem Barmherzigen,

4. În Ziua de Apoi Stăpânul Cârmuitor,
Lord of the Day of Judgement.
(خداوندی که) مالک روز جزاست
(Единственному) Царю [Правителю] Дня Воздаяния!
Der Verfügungsgewalt besitzt über den Tag des Gerichtes!

5. Numai pe Tine Te adorăm, numai la Tine cerem ajutor,
You alone we worship, and to You alone we turn for help.
تنها تو را می‌پرستیم؛ و تنها از تو یاری می‌جوییم
Тебе мы служим  и  к Тебе обращаемся за помощью
Dir dienen wir, und Dich bitten wir um Hilfe.

6. Pe drumul drept Tu fii-ne Călăuzitor,
Guide us to the straight path:
ما را به راه راست هدایت کن
Веди (Ты) нас Прямым Путем,
Führe uns den geraden Weg,

7. [ro] Drumul celor cu care fost-ai Tu dăruitor, nu al celor pe care Tu Te-ai mâniat, nici al rătăciților.
[en] the path of those You have blessed; not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray.
راه کسانی که آنان را مشمول نعمت خود ساختی؛ نه کسانی که بر آنان غضب کرده‌ای؛ و نه گمراهان.[fa]
[ru] Путем тех, которых Ты благом одарил, (а) не (путем) тех, которые под (Твоим) гневом, и не (путем) заблудших.
[ge] Den Weg derer, die Du begnadet hast, die nicht dem Zorn verfallen und nicht irregehen.

Words

- Laudă - Praise - ستایش - Хвала - Lob
- Lumi (pl.) - Worlds (plural of "world"; in this translation "world" is translated as "universe") - جهانیان (plural of "جهان") - миров (plural of "мир") - der Welten (plural of "die Welt")
- Stăpânul ("Stăpânitor" in the verse, "stăpân" is the dictionary form and can be interchengable with "domn", depending on the context) - Lord - پروردگار - Господу (Dative form of "Господ") - dem Herrn (obviously also in the Dative case)
- Ziua de Apoi - Day of Judgement - روز جزا - Дня Воздаяния - den Tag des Gerichtes!
- drumul drept - straight path - راه راست - Прямым Путем - den geraden Weg
- mânie - wrath - غضب - гневом ("гнев", dictionary form, masculine, has no plural) - dem Zorn ("der Zorn" dictionary form)
- rătăcit - (those who have gone) astray - گمراهان - заблудших ("заблу" is the dictionary form, "to lose one's way") - irregehen ("gehen" = to go ; "Irren" = to be wrong ; "irr" = lunatic, mad). 

Meanings

For this section I based my analasys mostly on the commentaries of Ali Unal, Turkish author, member of the Gülen movement. We can look at this Sura as having two parts (could also be considered three), it seems that God, through the prophet said “The half of al-Fātihah belongs to Me, while the other half to My servant”. The first part is composed of verses 1 to 4 and consists of praise to God, while verses 6 and 7 are the worhiper's prayer for guidance. The fifth verse belong both to God and to his servant.

There are a couple of key words and concepts here, including: the Worlds, the Day of Judgement, the Straight Path, the blessed, those who have incurred His wrath and those who are astray. As you can see, in the Wahiduddin Khan edition I have used, the word Universe takes the place of worlds. The reason I chose this translation is because it's easier to understand by most people, although it might diminish its meanings. I say this because, as Ali points out, the worlds mentioned in the Quran are not only limited to our physical universe. Borrowing from Sufi cosmology, he cassifies the levels as: Lahut (the High Empyreon, the region of pure light and fire, the highest heaven); Jabarut (another of the immaterial worlds where the Divine Realities which exist in the Lahut are manifested in their pure immaterial form); Malakut (the world of the pure inner dimension of existence) ; Mithal ("the world of the symbols or ideal, immaterial forms of things"); Shahadah ("the corporeal world, including the visible world and the firmaments"). 

The Day of Judgement can also be found in other religions like Christianity and Zoroastrianism although with greater or lesser differences. Ali Unal writes: "He (God) has included in the 'dough' of our existence certain elements that, however seemingly negative or destructive, will, when disciplined, cause us to rise to higher ranks of perfection."

The Straight Path "is the middle way, having nothing to do with any extremes", "in educating people, it disciplines and ennobles the intellect, saving it from the extremes of demagogy, cunning and stupidity, and so leads to sound knowledge and wisdom". The true importance, difficulty and beauty of this path can not, obviously, be summed up in a simple phrase, it's the first step in our development to reach our potential and taking it requires great responsibility and patience.

Grammar

To understand the meaning of a phrase we should know the cases. Romanian, Russian and German all share a number of four cases, English has only Genitive and Nominative (of what I know) while Persian basically has none.
The Nominative marks the subject of a verb, the Accusative indicates the direct object of a verb, the Dative indicates the indirect object and Genitive is a possessive case.

Reference

Quran versions:
Romanian: - George Grigore
                      - The 5-th edition published by the Islamic and Cultural League in Romania
English:  - Yusuf Ali
          - Sahih International
          - Reformist version
          - Wahiduddin Khan
Persian:  - مکارم سیرازی
                  - مجتبوی
Russian:  - Абу Адель
German:   - Abu Rida
          - Amir Zaidan
          - Adel Theodor Khoury

Links

A great German <> English dictionary

Quran 001:001

Introduction to the series

We will begin learning the Quran in five languages, English, Romanian, German, Persian and Russian (or use the Quran to learn five languages, depends on your perspective).

Why the Quran?

Well, first of all, I am not a Muslim, in the sense that I was not born into a Muslim family and haven't testified my faith in the traditional manner (I'm not saying that I would not, I'm just saying that I have not done so). I was bapthised, this making me a Christian, however I don't actually consider myself a Christian. I believe in the one true God and no matter what I do on this Earth, I will never come close to knowing His true Glory. Another thing I wish to say is that God gave us a mind with which to do a great deal of things, among which to search for Him, to examine every piece of this Universe and know it's laws, and, to understand ourselves. A true believer is a rational believer but because we live in a world where rationality is becoming synonymus with arrogance, very few people will understand the meaning of the phrase. At the moment I am studying the Quran so this is the main reason for starting with it here, with time we will be researching other books including the Bible and various ancient philosophical texts.

 

Why the five languages?

Romanian is my first language and the one I use the most in daily activities while English I use mostly to read, write and think. I started to learn Persian (Farsi) around two years ago and at present I use it to read news from Iran along with poems and various literary and philosophical texts. German is a language I began to learn a couple of years ago but sadly had to give up due to lack of time while Russian... well, I've just began with this one. As you see, this will be a learning experience for me also, that is why I would like this series to be more interactive, let's share knowledge (use the comment box). If some of you would like to exemplify with other languages, please feel free to use the comment box.

Note: By using five languages which can be traced to a common Proto-Indo-European root while in the same time being of different branches (maybe with a small exception regarding English and German) this will offer us the opportunity of not being too unfamiliar with them (even if Persian is nothing like Russian) while in the same time offering the degree of difference needed in order not to confuse one another (which would be the case with learning Romanian, Italian and Spanish at the same time).

Note 2: Get familiar with all of the languages first. At the bottom of the article I will give you some links. The grammar will slowly be discussed here also. 

The verse

Surat Al-Fatiha 1:1
[ro] În numele lui Allah Cel Milostiv, Îndurător
[en] In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
[fa] به نام خداوند بخشنده بخشایشگر
[ge] Im Namen Gottes, des Gnädigen, des Barmherzigen.
[ru] Во имя Аллаха, Милостивого, Милосердного!

Words

- name (en) = nume (ro) = Namen (ge) = имя (ru) = نام (fa)

This is the word "name" in all five languages. What you will probably observe first is that the words "name", "nume", "namen" are relativelly similar, that is because of their Latin ancestor "nomen". "имя" on the other hand is traced directly to the Proto-Slavic "*jьmę". As for the Persian "نام", the word can be traced back to the Old Persian cuneiform "𐎴𐎠𐎶" (nam). All the five languages have a common descendent which is from Proto-Indo-European, "*h₁nḗh₃mn̥".

- God (en) = Dumnezeu (ro) = Gott (ge / "Gottes" in Genitive) = бог (ru / "бо́га" in Genitive) = خداوند (form of خدا).

- beneficient (en) = milostiv (ro) = gnädigen (from the noun "Gnade" plus the sufix "-ig" used to make adjectives out of nouns) = بخشنده (fa) = Милостивого (ru).

- merciful (en / "mercy" + "-ful" used to form adjectives out of nouns) = îndurător (ro) = Barmherzigen (ge / "Barmherzigkeit" is the noun "mercy") = بخشایشگر (fa) = Милосердного (ru)

- in (en) = în (ro) = im (ge) = Во (ru) ≠ به (fa) / I want to point out the fact that the preoposition "in" has a different meaning here, it's not like "in the house", it does not indicate a place or a time interval (ex: "in three hours"). This is the reason why in Persian we don't also say ("در" = in) but "به" (usually translated as "to" or "according to" = "به گزارش" / where "گزارش" is the noun "report, story").

Meanings of the verse

This is called the Basmala which in Arabic is "بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم". This phrase is recited before each sura (chapter) with the exception of the ninth. Some scholars believe it to be the first verse of all but the ninth sura while others consider it as coming before the first verse. 


From wikipedia:

"The three definite nouns of the Basmala—Allah, ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim—correspond to the first three of the traditional 99 names of God in Islam. Both ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim are from the same triliteral root R-Ḥ-M, "to feel sympathy, or pity". According to Lane, ar-raḥmān is more intensive (including in its objects the believer and the unbeliever) and may be rendered as "the Compassionate", while ar-raḥīm has for its peculiar object the believer (considered as expressive of a constant attribute), and may be rendered as "the Merciful".

The Basmala has a special significance for Muslims, who are to begin each task after reciting the verse."

Links

Russian grammar reference

Persian Grammar Reference
Also, there are some articles on Thoughts in Perspective

German grammar reference
Basic German Grammar

Romanian language

Basic English grammar

PS: Feeling the enormous weight of this task? That's good, this is exactly what you should be feeling, but don't be scared, it's achievable. If you only know English, try to go through the links above, slowly and give yourself a number of consecutive days to acquaint with each language at a time, if you wish, you can also concentrate only on one or two and then come back to the rest. There will be two weeks in which you should slowly familiarize yourself with basic gramar and phonetics of the languages you choose after which we will continue with the verses and talk a little about grammar using the verses as examples.

Funvax, genetic warfare

What you are about to watch is a video taken in 2005 from a Pentagon briefing for a new type of warfare. Before reading the rest of this article I strongly advice you to pay attention to the video. Funvax, the vaccine against fundamentalism or the vaccine that makes it fun to be submissive?


Now, let's start dissecting this thing. What is this VMAT2 gene? By clicking this link you will be sent to a Washington Times article from November 14, 2004 where you will find that the one who discovered this gene is Dean Hamer. The 'God gene' is the popular term for the VMAT2 gene which is "a vesicular monoamine transporter that regulates the flow of mood-altering chemicals in the brain". Another article, this time from the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (click here) dating from December 1st, 2000, is scientific in nature and some people may find it difficult. I would like to conclude the introduction with this article from 2008 by Aia Hussein which is in the middle of the previous two as far as complexity and wealth of information are concerned, great text. You can obviously find more by searching on the web, these three sources are just to give you a start (if you are not acquainted with the subject already).

It is true that our biological body is strongly linked to chemicals, to electric activity, to biological activity, all coordinated by our central nervous system following the blueprints dictated by our DNA. You must also understand that genes can change during our lifetime (just for an example click here). What people observed through their discovery of this gene in order to call it a 'God gene' is purely nonsense, in the video they show a 'religious brain' with the "bad gene" and a 'non-religious brain' implying that one is normal and one not. This being a Pentagon briefing, the emphasis is put on religious fundamentalism / fanaticism. They came up with the idea of creating a vaccine that turns off the VMAT2, this vaccine would actually be a respiratory virus, like a flu (according to the tests they did so far, remember, 2005).

"Do you suggest I take a CT scan with me when I'm evaluating people to determine whether or not to put a bullet in their head?". The general (or whatever he is) that puts the question was very conservative compared to the answer the expert (or whatever he is) gives, to create a virus to immunize people against the gene to "turn a fanatic into a normal person". What is a fanatic and what is a normal person? Can our personalities, actions and reactions be explained only through genetics? Europe had a time with immense religious fundamentalism and an ignorance so widespread that now you can't even believe it. We no longer burn witches on the cross so does that mean that Europeans went through genetic therapy sometime in the past? I doubt that, what I believe is that the retards that controlled Western society back then inevitably died or retired and made room for intelligent and rational people, even religious people, that know and feel spirituality... the Age of Enlightenment.

This video is made for the trigger happy Pentagon boys, so even if the words Islam and Muslim are not used, you know they are present. Islam had an age of great blooming and openness, we know most of the ancient European philosophers through their copies and commentaries so why is the Islamic world now in such a devastating shape? Colonialism for one, Western colonialism and greed for power, any vaccine for those? This is not about religion, it's about submission, when foreign countries come and take your resources you must welcome them with flowers and open arms, when they kill your children because you have too many, you must thank them for helping the environment, when they invade your country you must roll out the fucking red carpet for them. Imagine Nazis with such technology, any Polish and French resistance?

In conclusion I also want you to listen carefully to what the presenter says around 1:46, youtube video time (9:20:50 video time). "these individuals were read a religious text" and goes on to show that the religious text itself managed to influence the brain, this makes me think that not the gene dictates our religious behavior, but there is something else.

Please, share this article to as many people as possible, learn, think, and fight for yourselves, for your family, for your friends, for our race.
Like our Facebook page to stay informed.

The Real Sins: 2. Ignorance

My second article in the series entitled "The Real Sins" is something on ignorance. The subject itself is much more profound and complex than one may think at first but I will try to make your experience of reading this a fruitful one. We all know what ignorance is because we are human and there are things we don't know, so how can you no longer be an ignorant? In my case, I first accepted my limits and then I started to expand those limits more and more, there is no shame in acknowledging you don't know something if what you do next is research the thing you didn't know about, evidently, without making an obsession out of it. Another important element is never, and I repeat, never believe things 'just because'. You all remember of learning of a time when some ignorant people believed the world was flat because, obviously, if it was round you would just fall off by walking too far, yes, some people did not know about gravity. This type of thinking was actually not that widespread, scientists, or more exactly, learned men, of the time knew Earth was round, and so were the other planets, but the vast majority of the people did not have this knowledge. Apparently this knowledge was of no use for them.

People sacrificed themselves for breaking veils of ignorance of various types, these veils are not given to us by God or some other higher power, we ourselves impose these boundaries, mostly because of fear and ignorance. Simply research the status of 'scientists' during the Middle Ages and what the Church thought about them. If you are (even slightly) a spiritual person, read the following.

"2. Rise, wake up and look to the sky with the Eyes of your heart, and if not all of you can do this, let there be as many of you who can.
3. For the wickedness of ignorance envelopes the entire Earth and corrupts the Soul, it chains it in the Body and so its rise to the Heavens of Salvation is not permitted." - Corpus Hermeticum

This is from a chapter/book entitled "The Greatest Harm for Man is Not Knowing God" from the Corpus Hermeticum by Hermes Trismegistus (I wrote a small article some time ago about this). It's important to point out the fact that not all can escape ignorance, sad but true, there are people condemned to stagnation or even destruction. This integrates perfectly to what we observe in our reality where some people are incredibly evil and take decisions contrary to logic and goodness (or what we understand through the concept of goodness). I digressed a little by entering a subject in itself too important to be discussed here.

In the Quran and the Bible ignorance is an important issue, even if the words are not the same as in the above fragment from Corpus Hermeticum, the idea is basically the same.

"(17) Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. (18) They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. " 

- Ephesians 4:17-18 (New Testament)

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him."

- James 1:5 (New Testament)

"/(61). It is those (illustrious ones) who hasten to do all kinds of virtuous deeds, and they are in a virtuous competition with one another in doing them. [62 ...] /(63). The fact is that the hearts of those unbelievers are utterly ignorant and heedless of all this, and apart from this, they have some evil deeds that they habitually commit (which prevent them from seeing and accepting the truth), /(64). Until the time when We seize (them) with the punishment – those of them who have been lost in the pursuit of pleasures. They will then begin to groan for help. /(65). “Stop groaning for help today; you are not to receive any help from Us! /(66). “You know that My Revelations used to be recited to you, but you used to turn on your heels in aversion,[...]"

- Surah 23, The Believers: 61-66

Obviously I didn't even scratch the surface of the concept of ignorance in the Abrahamic religions, at least a couple of hundred pages should be dedicated to this alone in order to comprehend the beauty, so we have to stop here and make a short comment of the three fragments presented above. Accepting God, is in itself a decision against ignorance, but this devotion must be sincere because you must also do it with your heart, not only with your mind, you must do it because you need to, because you know that whatever will be, you want to. Pay attention to verse 66 of Surah 23 and also pay attention to the world around you, soon you will observe that people consciously move away from God and truth.

Not all of my readers are religious or spiritual, I know that, some may see a contradiction in quoting from two holy books in an article attacking ignorance but the truth is that if you put some time into studying these wonderful texts, and if you have the heart to understand them, your mind will be opened.

Sadly, due to my limited knowledge of Oriental philosophy, mainly Hindu and Chinese I am forced to leave this chapter of our discussion for a later time. The following is a short discussion of ignorance as a philosophical and psychological concept.

"There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action"

- Goethe, from Proverbs in Prose, 1819

Ignorance is by definition the lack of knowledge and knowledge as we all know is ever increasing. Either we are talking about the incredible paradox of the 'richest' country on Earth having a shocking illiteracy rate (1) or about some Christians believing that Muslims are aggressive and suicidal, ignorance is maybe the most dangerous of our sins, being rooted in those people's reluctance to search for information and to form a sound (firm) knowledge base of their own.

The eugenic ideas so popular in the last years of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century are so naive that one is surprised that such stupidity can come out of people with a scientific education. Incomplete research led people to believe that two intelligent individuals will undoubtedly give birth to a child at least as intelligent (this lead to inbreeding in some wealthy families and soon to a massive degeneration of their genes). We now know that genes are much more complex and that these can actually change during our lifetime, either because of natural events  (1, 2) or more recently because or gene therapy. This ignorance led to hundreds of thousands of people being killed and sterilized in the name of a better human race (at origin, not a Nazi idea).

"The fundamental cause of trouble in the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubts."

- Bertrand Russell - Mortals and Others: 

American Essays 1931-1935, page 28

Simply put, the one who knows, knows he does not know and the one who does not know, knows he knows... maybe not that simple. Why are the intelligent full of doubts? Well, maybe because as you learn, more and more questions tend to come up, knowledge being like a tree that is perpetually branching out. In antiquity philosophers had an answer for everything, even now this attitude is mainly reserved for philosophers, the idea is that you may have an opinion, but you should always remain open to the possibility that your opinion is wrong because if you are not opened to this possibility you can call yourself stupid without too much difficulty. In science things are not that different (although stating a theory is much more difficult and less subjective), physics relies heavily on theories which have to be proved wrong or right. People can perceive Iran as a threat while in fact being just stupid. As a sidenote, I recommend reading Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche for his excellent, objective (maybe) opinions on the less impartial thoughts of philosophers, who in their search for truth don't know what truth is. I also wrote an article about truth here.

Formalized religion is the strongest where sin, slavery, tyranny and ignorance abound. Where men are free, enlightened and at work, they find all the gratification in their work that their souls demand—they cease to hunt outside themselves for something to give them rest. They are at peace with themselves, at peace with man and with God.

- Elbert Hubbard, 'Love, life and work'

What Hubbard says does not contradict what I said about religion in the first segment because one thing is to know religion with your heart and mind and another one is to know religion for the eyes of others. If you are free (and you are created to be free), enlightened (something desired also in the Bible and Quran) and at work (even Jesus and Muhammad at least started with some form of work), then you are at peace with yourself and with God, because then you do what is right to be done. These are nonetheless the opinions of one man and such a fragment can not encompass all his conception on ignorance and religion.

"There is no shame in not knowing. The problem arises when irrational thoughts and attendant behavior fill the vacuum left by ignorance."

- Neil deGrasse Tyson, 'The Sky is not the limit: 

Adventures of an urban astrophysicist'

I greatly admire Neil, the funny part is that he wants to be an example of the atheist, scientific modern man, without knowing that he is maybe closer to God than most priests. I like this quote because he makes a distinction between not knowing as being ignorant; and having irrational thoughts, something different than what ignorance is. In my opinion ignorance is also when one has irrational thoughts.

In conclusion I hope your journey of reading this article was at least as interesting as my work of writing it. If you have not read the first essay (about arrogance) in the series, pleas click here. So, we either understand through ignorance, not knowing God, not knowing 'things' or both, but in the end it's all about the same thing, people who do not open their minds and hearts to the beauty around them and to the truth (understood more as a state of mind and soul).

All the best to you and may God protect you. 

On Spirituality

In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. My Muslim readers will find this introductory statement quite familiar, to say the least. I don't label my religious beliefs, I simply am aware of the greatness of God and I try to see the truth in everything, because God is everywhere, starting from the heart and mind and going to the most distant stars and galaxies. I don't search for various "mathematical links" in the Bible, I don't search for miracles, and don't practice my spirituality because of tradition and because of social norms, I just believe.

What I search for are beauty, goodness and in my case, above all, I search for understanding. No matter how clear, obscure or arguable these concepts are, I know what they mean regarding the divine nature of things. I want to understand as much as I can, as much as I am permitted and I want to share with those who want to listen just like others shared with me.

Religion (I'm referring to monotheistic spirituality) is a blessing and a curse at the same time, on one hand it offers people the possibility of getting closer to God, on the other hand, people who can and want to get closer to God, to understand Him, do it regardless of religion. Sadly most people believe they work for God when in fact they serve ignorance. You may not even consider yourself a religious or spiritual person, yet, there comes a time when you discover that you have an innate type of spirituality/illuminated (a word that received some negative connotations) mentality, these people exist, but they are rare. Some examples are the Romanian philosopher Petre Tutea and the physicist Einstein.

People often think that if they are protected from bad events they are protected by God and they are righteous. Prophets, saints, all had times of hardship and faced temptation, how can one be so arrogant as to consider himself more righteous than them? The more you know evil, the more you understand the right path, this of course if you want to see the right path. God gives hardship to those who have the power to overcome it and turn their heads towards Him.

My belief in God is not blind because in order to believe, one must understand and He gives us the power to understand if we truly have this intention.
Muhammad (pbuh) said: "He who seeks a path to gain knowledge therein, God will make easy for him a path to Paradise."
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." - Matthew 7:7
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God,who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." - James 1:5

Lesley Hazleton, on reading the Quran

I really enjoy browsing through the long and attractive list of TED speakers and once in a while I find one that I feel I must share with as many people as I can. This is the case with Lesley Hazleton, a British-American writer that focuses especially on the history, religion and politics of the Middle East. Some of her books are "After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split" and "Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother". What's interesting about her is the openness she transmits when talking about subjects largely perceived as "taboo" at the moment. Enjoy this very enlightening video about the Quran and the process of studying it from a non-Muslim perspective. As Lesley points out, there are even some Muslims that do not actually understand the text, referring here to fundamentalists.

(01) Kelly - Early Christian Doctrines

This is the first in what will be a long series of discussions, each starting every time from a different book that we all agree to read, study and comment. "The Early Christian Doctrines" by John Norman Davidson Kelly is an excellent source of knowledge about the beginnings of the largest religion on the planet and a philosophical system that forever changed humanity.

---

You can download the book in pdf format here.
The discussion is here.

What is Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism is an old religion, dating from around 1000 BC to 2000 BC, there is no exact date so approximations vary widely depending on what the writer wants to transmit. The name comes from the prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra). He was a priest of the existing religion of his time but he showed an original mind and he proved to be a bold reformer. That is why he began to preach a religion that survived till this day despite some hard moments in the lives of its believers.

One of the characteristics that made this religion differ from others of its time is monotheism. This one great and supreme God, named Ahura Mazda is a very important element in the development of the human civilization and I will try to explain in this article why I believe this.

Let's start with the basics, we have a number of source texts, first the Avesta, with the Old Avesta, containing the five Gathas and the Yasna Haptanghaiti and the Young Avesta comprising Yasna, Videvdad and Visperad. Second we have the Pahlavi texts, considered of secondary importance, not canonical. The Denkard and the Bundahishn (Creation) stand out to be veritable encyclopedias of the religion.

For the Avesta texts, the Avestan language was used and an interesting but out-of-date theory is given about the existence of this language. Noah had three sons, Shem who made the semitic civilization, Ham created the Hamitic and Japhet started the Japhetic (Indo-European). The Avestan language is part of the Japhetic tree so to speak, the Indo-Europeans, the Aryans. The reason why people felt this theory was appropriate is, in our case, among other things, the existence of a "destruction" story reminding people of the Great Flood described in the Bible.

22. And Ahura Mazda spake unto Yima, saying: 'O fair Yima, son of Vivanghat! Upon the material world the evil winters are about to fall, that shall bring the fierce, deadly frost; upon the material world the evil winters are about to fall, that shall make snow-flakes fall thick, even an aredvi deep on the highest tops of mountains.
23. 'And the beasts that live in the wilderness, and those that live on the tops of the mountains, and those that live in the bosom of the dale shall take shelter in underground abodes.
24. 'Before that winter, the country would bear plenty of grass for cattle, before the waters had flooded it. Now after the melting of the snow, O Yima, a place wherein the footprint of a sheep may be seen will be a wonder in the world.
25. 'Therefore make thee a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every side of the square, and thither bring the seeds of sheep and oxen, of men, of dogs, of birds, and of red blazing fires. Therefore make thee a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every side of the square, to be an abode for man; a Vara, long as a riding-ground on every side of the square, for oxen and sheep.
26. 'There thou shalt make waters flow in a bed a hathra long; there thou shalt settle birds, on the green that never fades, with food that never fails. There thou shalt establish dwelling-places, consisting of a house with a balcony, a courtyard, and as gallery.
27. 'Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of men and women, of the greatest, best, and finest on this earth; thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of cattle, of the greatest, best, and finest on this earth.
28. 'Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of tree, of the highest of size and sweetest of odour on this earth; thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of fruit, the best of savour and sweetest of odour. All those seeds shalt thou bring, two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there, so long as those men shall stay in the Vara.
29. 'There shall be no humpbacked, none bulged forward there; no impotent, no lunatic; no malicious, no liar; no one spiteful, none jealous; no one with decayed tooth, no leprous to be pent up, nor any of the brands wherewith Angra Mainyu stamps the bodies of mortals.
(Vendidad, Fargard 2 ; Source: Avesta.org)

Zoroastrianism introduced a dualism that can be seen in almost all the other religions, from the present or the past. There is an opposition between order and chaos, good and bad, truth and falsehood. Two forces battle one against the other, trying to take humanity on either side. All that is good belongs to Ahura Mazda, and all that is bad to Angra Manyu (or Ahriman in the Pahlavi texts). Unlike the Christian concept of God, Ahura Mazda does not have any power against evil except actual combat in which humans play an important role.

The full article will be available in
Awil-um Magazine 4/2010 (October - December)

The Dark Side of Religion

In the present article we will talk about religion as it influenced the development of humanity, especially looking at the harm it did in the past. There is a reason only one side of the story will be told, theory is not like practice.

Let us start by looking at the 20th century, like all things, we will find good and bad. This period in our history is perfect if one tries to research the true nature of man, we have it all, mass killings, disasters, ignorance, but we also have developments in science and a better understanding of the world we live in. Atomic energy was used to destroy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but it was also used to power the engines of long term development. We could say that our species barely passed the test. Science boomed, look at the space industry, genetics, computers, even engineering, all of this will help humanity in one way or the other.

Our brain capacity did not change much in the past two thousand years, so why didn't this revolution happen earlier. The reason is religion, not only Christianity, all belief systems imposed restrictions in research and the spreading of knowledge. The question is where would we be now if at least for five hundred years, humans would have been able to study this world, in the real sense. People will argue that by embracing science we started to loose control and will give examples of wars, this is false, science didn't do this, just like religion didn't kill in the Middle Ages, we did. Even now many die for their spiritual beliefs.

The real religion in my humble opinion is knowledge, the search for it, but not in a philosophical way as you would probably think. We have the brains to do more than foolish rituals so why do we persist in thinking that a God will listen to us if we act like this? We should try to understand how the world works because the vast majority of religious texts tell us that man was created to look after this world and you can't do this if you don't know where and why you are. We don't need churches, we need schools, research institutes, these are the real places where we will find God.

This was a short article but I hope at least some of you found it useful. I see our species as being designed to learn and understand. Imagine your life if this scientific revolution would have started in the 16th century or would have continued past the destruction of the Roman Empire, remember the great centers of learning in the ancient world, the great libraries that were destroyed.

Why are we here? [a religious perspective]

The subjects and themes that fall in the religious sphere are vast and diverse. This article does not even come close to scratching the wealth of knowledge and thought that lies in the sacred texts of world belief systems, instead it tries to concentrate on the main monotheistic religions that originated in the Middle East region, more exactly Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All this religions have many basic principles in common but our interest now is the creation of Man.

In Zoroastrianism the main religious writings are the Old Avesta and the Young Avesta. The Young Avesta contains among others the Videvdad in which a creation story is described. Belonging to the Middle Persian period, or Pahlavi, we have the Bundahishn (Creation), this is not considered as being part of the main canon, although it is believed that it has roots in Avesta texts that did not survive. Coming back to the Videvdad we must know that this "nosk" contains 22 chapters or "Fargards" that focus mainly on moral laws, the creation story is only present in the first chapter, while in the second we find the legend of Yima; a destructive winter, on the lines of a deluge story is also described. Ahura Mazda created sixteen lands, one by one, with the people's happiness in consideration. Then came Angra Mainyu, the destructive spirit which introduced plague and sin as counter-creations. In this case man is just a player who must take sides before the final battle. How was the human race created is not revealed to us (or maybe that part was lost), and the question why found an answer but not an explanation.

”I have made every land dear to its dwellers, even though it had no charms whatever in it, had I not made every land dear to its dwellers, even though it had no charms whatever in it, then the whole living world would have invaded the Airyana Vaêgô” - 1:2

In Judaism and Christianity (Genesis 1:1 - 2:25) there is a more detailed creation story which tells us that man was created on the sixth day in the image of God, from the dust of the ground:

"the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (2:7)

He prepares a garden of Eden for him to live in without knowing mortality and suffering. The only thing Adam and Eve were not permitted to do was to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Lucifer told them that if they will eat from that tree they will become like God.

"(...) when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (3:5) 

This was a test, putting the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life in the middle ("In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" 2:9) indicate to us that these two were not hidden and God wanted to see if Adam and Eve will follow His wish/command. This thing can be clearly seen, but the reason I brought it up was that God is "behind" or conscious of Lucifer's actions, which is not the case of the Zoroastrian belief.

The Islamic faith is an Abrahamic religion just like Judaism and Christianity and many things are common.

"Indeed, your Lord is Allah , who created the heavens and earth in six days and then established Himself above the Throne. (...)" (7:54 Sahih International version)

As we see, the concept of six days of creation is also present in Islam, but there is a major difference in this sentence, there is no seventh day of rest. The creation of man is described in the following verse:

"And We did certainly create man out of clay from an altered black mud." (15:26)

And Eve came to existence as follows:

"It is He who created you from one soul and created from it its mate that he might dwell in security with her. And when he covers her, she carries a light burden and continues therein. And when it becomes heavy, they both invoke Allah , their Lord, "If You should give us a good [child], we will surely be among the grateful." (7:189)

Religion tried to answer most of the questions man had using his limited knowledge of the world. It tell us that we have an important part to play, in Zoroastrianism, man needs to chose on what side he will fight at the final battle between good and evil. The Judeo-Christian and Islamic belief systems also tell us about a day when our species will mature, so to speak. In short we are born to take care of the world and sometime in the future some of us will be strong enough to be accepted back by God. Some may argue that the phrase "accepted back by God" is inappropriat, the reason it was used is because our time on this level of existence is intended for us to chose between two opposing forces in what could be described as a microbial part of time in our wider spiritual existence. 

Thoughts on religion and man

I like to think that people who take religion serious tend to reject the rituals that for so long shadowed the inner teachings of the different faiths. I am not saying that all rituals are worthless, i am addressing the issue of people not reaching the core of their religion. For example, Romanian Orthodox Christians tend to pile up dozens of rituals that come from pagan traditions and have nothing to do with the message of Christ. This situation is not restricted to Romanians, it applies to all humans of all faiths.

The problem of grasping the idea of a supreme entity and of a system of the universe that is far beyond our every day life is that many uneducated people try to make foolish and repetitive actions in the hope of attracting the grace of God. Few really want to evolve and i think this is why humanity is in a downward spiral.

I am a religious person in the modern sense of the word, I try to learn from all of the sacred texts, because in essence, all of them teach us the same things. Goodness, the search for knowledge and truth, the love of humankind and of the Universe and to respect the basic principles of life. These are the things that mater, the things we must keep with us all the time.

Our present world is dominated by science, the pursue of knowledge, we must not forget that our mind must go hand in hand with our spirit. The way we perceive religion needs to change to accommodate our present level of development. We no longer believe in supernatural forces, instead we try to understand every aspect of this world. Taking life into our own hands is a must if we want to survive as a species, now we have the possibility to extinct ourselves to say so, no supernatural being will save us from our own stupidity.

In other words, the real religion of this millennium will be the search for God based on the understanding of God and incorporating Him in our conscience. Also, we must redefine what we are, based on what we did and what we want to do as a species. Human history is stained with blood as our aggressive nature many times is pushed in front and with our minds blinded with hate we kill and destroy until nothing is left. This is not the way and it seams that all the prophets, saints, and thinkers who addressed issues that make our species disgusting never achieved their mission. But i have hope that things will change.

Qur'an

I would like to start the "Religion" category with a short introduction about the Qur'an.  As you may know, this is the central religious text of Islam, the final revelation of God and divine guidance for mankind. The key phrase is "sent down by God", for God speaks directly in the Qur'an.

Historians agree that the first revelation dates back to 610 CE, when Muhammad was engaged in a spiritual retreat in a cave outside Mecca and the Archangel Gabriel approached him. So the first words of the Qur'an were heard:

"Read: In the name of your Lord Who created,

Created man from clots.

Read: And your Lord is The Most Honorable,

Who taught by the pen..

He thought man what he did not know."

(96: 1-5 / Dr. Ghali translation)

Qur'anic revelations are believed to have come to the Prophet over a period of twenty-three years. The scriptures are divided into 114 suras and each verse is known in Arabic as "aya". The material is not in a chronological or thematic order but as it is to be read by the believers (and also by how big the Suras are, the second being the longest).

The key to Islamic art could lie in the Qur'an. Hossein Nasr thinks that the verses influenced artistic thought, some of them being poetic while others direct in this way, leading to the floral and geometric motifs.

Before Abu Bakr, the first caliph, decided to write down and organize the scriptures, these were preserved by oral tradition. Also, a great part of the Qur'an was written down during the lifetime of Muhammad, but the content was not united in a single corpus. Abu Bakr managed to preserve the teachings which after the battle of Yamama were in danger of being lost.

The Qur'an contains three types of messages for humans. The first is the doctrinal message which includes moral and judiciary recommendations which is at the base of the Holy Muslim Law, the Shari'ah. It also contains metaphysical elements, a cosmology about the structure of the universe, and subjects like eschatology and the Afterlife.

In the second place, at least on the surface, the Qur'an is a vast history book, a commentary about the terrestrial existence of man. And last, it can be described as possessing "divine magic" (do not take it literally). The words from God have a special power just like the cross for the Christians.

We can see an emphasis on praying for protection against evil and the Qur'an helps man overcome difficulty with patience.