A plethora of superheroes was not able to return this sharp-clawed ineffable kittly to his owner, even Superman was defeated... Lucky that sagacious Elsa was there! She had an epiphany, that mission did not require muscles and a cape, but a pair of kitchen gloves.

 

This happens when you have not enough time during the week and need to combine 4 themes in 1 pic. Now I think I'm on schedule.

 

For Blythe a Day themes Sagacious (Havinng keen mental discernment), Epiphany (Life changing realization), Ineffable (difficult to accurately describe) and Plethora (an abundance of something)

 

Blythe a Day. March 2025 Day 10, 13, 14 and 15.

Continued from:

www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/52651478772/in/datepos...

 

The First Jolt

 

أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ الضُّرُّ وَأَنتَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ

 

Prayed the Prophet Ayub (as),

"Indeed, adversity has touched me, and you are the Most Merciful of the merciful”.

Surah Al Anbiya, Verse 83

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Anni massani ad durru: Indeed adversity has touched me, O Lord, far away have gone those close to me and my relatives and all the ones who were affectionate with me…

 

Wa anta: and You are The One remaining who is still for me Merciful and Affectionate for indeed You are…

 

Arham ar Rahimeen: the Most Merciful of the merciful so come to me suddenly with Your Lutf, Kindness because I have no strength and no patience after this and surely his suffering had reached its heights.

 

When I came back to Lahore, I had a recurring interaction with a new friend in my life who I was finding was inconsistent by nature. It was making me react in extremes. I was either over-indulgent or wishing to exit in a way that would only appear as abandonment. At first I thought I didn’t care but all too quickly acknowledged that I did. That’s because it created confusion for me and if you have two and a half relationships in total in life, you need clarity. At all times!

 

The Quran had ordered moderation in interactions. Pretty much quite literally in the tafseer of a single word: Qayyiman.

 

قَیِّمࣰا لِّیُنذِرَ بَأۡسࣰا شَدِیدࣰا مِّن لَّدُنۡهُ وَیُبَشِّرَ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِینَ ٱلَّذِینَ یَعۡمَلُونَ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ أَنَّ لَهُمۡ أَجۡرًا حَسَنࣰا

 

Straight, to warn of a punishment severe, from near Him

and give glad tidings to the believers,

those who do righteous deeds, that for them is a reward good.

Surah Al Kahf, Verse 2

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

And overall:

 

Qayyiman: (The Book) is straight, unfaltering and moderate between the ways of over-indulgence and abandonment, both of which are reprehensible in terms of reason and religion. And Allah has made it descend upon His Servant and Beloved (salutations and greetings upon the one who is unparalleled before his Lord)…

 

I wanted to follow the Command but I didn’t how to do it without putting myself in harm’s way.

 

Just then Qari Sahib had a death in the family. My cousin called me to take our weekly class. I had totally given up speaking publicly about anything related to the faith. I think it was because it would be under some guise of sharing knowledge but really I was just breaking rules. If one doesn’t manifest the knowledge in deed, talking about it, even in theory, is strictly forbidden.

 

Still, I asked Qari Sahib what he thought and we agreed that I would just read a page of Al Fath Ar Rabbani. Literally just read it!

 

I was midway in the book. I couldn’t figure out how to pick one sermon of my blessed Master, the King of all Spiritual Masters. I decided to go to page one. It had been almost two years that I had started the book and this is what I read:

 

Al Fath Ar Rabbani:

 

“Ae’taraz, finding fault with, objecting to, raising doubt about Al Haqq Azzo Jal on the descent of fate decreed is the death of religion.”

 

The next few lines repeated the word that put fear in my heart, an emotion uncommon in my spiritual journey:

“It is the death of Tauheed, His One-ness.

It is the death of Tawakkul, relying upon Him and Ikhlas, sincerity.

 

The heart with imaan, faith, doesn’t know the words ‘Why’ and ‘How.’ It does not know the words ‘But instead.’

Its only response is ‘Yes.’

 

It is the habit of the nafs to be contrary, confrontational and quarreling. The nafs (Ammara) is only sharr, wrongdoing.

So one should wish for its correction and its striving until it finds refuge from its evil. For it is sharr fi sharr, evil upon evil, in totality. Hence, if it labours in great effort and becomes calm, it grows into and comes to be in totality, khair fi khair, goodness in goodness, assuming the form of the gathering of obedience and in the leaving all sin, so then is said to it…”

 

I had only just begun the read when I stopped.

 

Four deaths in one go! Of everything that I was striving for and clearly falsely declaring. All attributed to one reason; ae’taraz!

 

First I looked up the word even though I knew its meaning.

 

Ae’taraz: an objection, a criticism, an offering of a protest, the raising of doubt, a complaint, disapproval, disagreement.

 

The kicker, which I realized immediately because of the severity of the consequence; the losing of deen (religion), Tauheed (Allah’s One-ness), tawwakul (reliance), and ikhlas (sincerity) was because I was finding fault, having the ae’taraz, with not even what had been decreed for me.

 

I was depriving myself of everything that mattered in my life because of useless disappointment with what was the fate of others!

 

13 years on a spiritual path and I was throwing it all away again and again because of why someone else did something. All of whom either pretended unawareness of their actions or prided themselves on the indifference they felt about the impact of their actions on another. Who didn’t care about anyone at all.

 

That is how I realized the truth of the reality behind the push and pull. That it was in fact the manifestation of that ae’taraz.

 

“Why wasn’t this happening and why did that happen? Why couldn’t it have gone like that and why didn’t I say this, do that? Why didn’t they say this, do that?” It was endless. It was always pointless. One even recognized that. Never in a million years though could I have imagined that it was spiritual suicide.

 

Thus the word imkaan, possibility, made its grand entrance. Ae’taraz was the poison and fire of possibilities. It was a disease of the heart.

  

The Diseases of the Heart

 

رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً ۚ

إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْوَهَّابُ

 

They say,˺ “Our Lord! Do not let our hearts deviate after you have guided us.

Grant us Your mercy.

You are indeed the Giver of all bounties.

Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 8

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Rabbana: O You who is our Lord, The One who brought about our upbringing by Your Lutf, Mercies, upon the foundation of Your One-ness…

 

La tuzigh: do not deviate and do not make inclined…

 

Qulubuna: our hearts away from Your Path…

 

Ba’ada id hadaytana: after You guided us towards Your Way by revealing Your Books and sending Your Messengers.

 

Wahaba lana: And grant us and bestow upon us…

 

Mil ladunka rahma-tan: from Yourself, Mercy and the Knowledge of Divine Certainty, the Witnessing of Divine Certainty and the Truth of Divine Certainty.

 

Innaka anta al Wahaab: Verily, You are Al Wahaab, The Bestower, without any exchange and without any motive.

 

I searched the word “disease” first in my tafaseer. It had appeared twice.

 

The first was in the breaking of the pact between Man and God. Between the nafs and the ruh and the qalb - the egoistic self, the soul and the heart within the heart. The Surah was At Tauba, The Repentance. It had always played a transformational role in my life.

 

It was its first verse:

 

‏بَرَآءَةٌۭ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِۦٓ إِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ عَهَدتُّم مِّنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ

 

The disavowal from obligations by Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him and his family) from the covenant with the idolators.

Surah Tauba, Verse 1

 

Commentary by Hazrat Najmuddin Kubra (ra):

 

“The symbolic meaning of the verse is this: The mushrikeen, the idolator, is the wayward and polytheist nafs, the base self, who made desires its lord and master and began to worship the idols of the world.”

 

When a person is in their early years, the ruh and qalb, the soul and the heart within the heart which is the Station of Recognition of Allah, made a pact with the ego.

 

The terms of it being that the ruh and the qalb will not fight and kill the nafs until the person reaches maturity. Similarly, the nafs also makes a pact not to instigate problems with the ruh and the qalb, which carry the burden of Allah’s Trust and become watchful of Islamic Jurisprudence, the Shari’a, so that the bodily skeleton reaches complete maturity and the physical strength is attained at its peak,

 

In this time, the aql, the intellect, the power to reason and reflect, becomes strong which can then accept the invitation of Truth and have the ability to answer it. It is this aql that allows the recognition of the Prophets and their miracles. And it is through this aql that the proof of the Presence of Allah is established and it understands the compulsion of His Worship in order to express gratitude towards Him for His Blessings.

Indeed, Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) withdraw from the pact after maturity is gained.

 

Because Man broke the pact which was between the nafs and the ruh and the qalb. Before maturity was gained, the nafs was only focused on eating, drinking and clothing itself so that the body can develop and all its needs are met. To this extent, there was no problem for the ruh and the qalb from the nafs.

 

But once maturity was gained, lust and desires became added to these needs.

 

When the lust appeared along with the need for food and drink, its destruction created physical desires for a mate. When that lust was aroused and started tempting the body, the qalb and the ruh began to become weak. This was the fatal disease for which the Prophets were sent so as to dispel it.

 

انما بعثت لرفع العادات و ترک الشھوات

 

Just like Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon him and his family by The One who named him with Himself),

“I have been sent to end the ways of ignorance and to prevail over the desires of lust.”

 

I noticed how at least two ahadith had appeared in this piece starting with the same words: innama bu’istu – I was sent - first to manifest the excellence and perfection of akhlaq, manners, behaviour, morality, character, as taught by Al Khaliq, Al Bar’i, Al Mussawir, The Only One who creates, gives form and shape.

 

And second to end ignorance and prevail over the desires of the forbidden. Of the mushrik, wayward and polytheist nafs which made desires its lord and master and which it wants to worship as idols of the world.

 

As I read those words again and again, I was reminded of how it directly referenced a verse in the Quran:

 

أَفَرَءَیۡتَ مَنِ ٱتَّخَذَ إِلَـٰهَهُۥ هَوَىٰهُ وَأَضَلَّهُ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ عِلۡمࣲ وَخَتَمَ عَلَىٰ سَمۡعِهِۦ وَقَلۡبِهِۦ

وَجَعَلَ عَلَىٰ بَصَرِهِۦ

غِشَـٰوَةࣰ فَمَن یَهۡدِیهِ مِنۢ بَعۡدِ ٱللَّهِۚ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ

 

Have you seen (he) who takes (as) his god his desire and Allah lets him go astray knowingly, and He sets a seal upon his hearing and his heart and puts over his vision a veil?

Then who will guide him from after Allah?

Then will not you receive admonition?

 

Surah Al Jathiya, Verse 23

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Afara’eyta: Have you seen, O One who takes warning by seeing everything, at…

 

Man ittakhada: the one who takes i.e. the Al Jahid, the one not expressing and feeling gratitude, Al Jahil, the ignorant one, Al Mu’anid, stubbornly pursuing one’s own wishes, who makes…

 

Ilaaha-hu hawa-hu: his desire as his god i.e. what he desires and how he obeyed what he hopes for and becomes a servant to what he loves and what pleases him and he did not want to entrust his matters to his Lord and Master.

 

Wa: And this is only because that…

 

Addallahu Allahu: Allah lets him go astray, Al Aleem, The All Knowing, Al Hakeem, The Only Wise One, by the manifestation of His Name, Al Muzzil, The Only One who humiliates the one who deserves to be humiliated, Al Mudill, The Only One who misleads the one who deserves to be mislead, even though, He, Subhanahu, makes him exist…

 

Ala: upon the appearance of the person…

 

Ilm-in: who has knowledge and sets his origin upon the nature of the ones who have Ma’rifa, Recognition of the Divine, and Tauheed, One-ness…

 

Wa khatama ala sami’hi: and sets a seal upon his hearing so that he cannot hear the Words of Al Haqq from the people of Allah…

 

Wa khatama: and He also sealed…

 

Qalbi-hi: his heart so he cannot ponder over the Signs of Allah and the proofs of His Tauheed, One-ness…

 

Wa ja’ala ala basrihi ghishawa: And He puts a veil upon his eyes, thick, and a curtain, heavy so he cannot gain admonition from His Wondrous Creations of Subhanahu and the fantastic inventions along with that He, Subhanahu, created them even though He created him so that he could see them.

 

Fa may yahdihi: Now who will guide him and instruct him i.e. deliver him from being astray…

 

Min ba’di: after the misguidance…

 

Allah: from Allah to him and his humiliation.

 

Afala tadakkaroon: Will you then not receive warning and wisdom and discernment from the changing of his states, O Uqala, O you who use their ability to consider, Al Majboleen, set up in their origin upon the nature of receiving warning and advice from the height of their temptations and waywardness (the ones whose hearing and sight and hearts have been sealed) by the demands of the Perfection of His Authority and the absence of their being awakened and clearheadedness in the One-ness of His Essence and the Perfection of His Names and Attributes and steadfastness in His Plans and His Control.

 

The entire verse would instill fear in any heart. Was there even one amongst the ordinary that wasn’t worshipping those idols of desires?

 

The second time “disease” appeared in the context of the heart, it was revealed that the Quran was the healing for it.

 

What was the disease? Possibilities!

 

وَنُنَزِّلُ مِنَ ٱلۡقُرۡءَانِ مَا هُوَ شِفَاۤءࣱ وَرَحۡمَةࣱ لِّلۡمُؤۡمِنِینَ وَلَا یَزِیدُ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِینَ إِلَّا خَسَارࣰا

 

And We reveal from the Quran that it is a healing and a mercy for the believers, but it increases the wrongdoers in nothing except loss.

Surah Al Isra’, Verse 82

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

And when you, O Beloved (salutations and greetings upon you and your blessed family by Your Lord who created you for Appearance of His Essence), have become steadfast and have complete command on the Maqam e Mahmood, the Station of Praise and the glorious station of intercession - and when you are triumphant with the Hauz ul Maurood, the spring to which all will come…

 

Wa nunazzilu: and We descend upon you, exalting your honour and aiding your matters (of spreading the Messenge)…

Min al Quran: through the Quran (which you convey), clear, clarifying your elevated ranks from Tauheed, Allah’s One-ness…

 

Ma huwa shifa’un: which is a healing for

1.the disease of the hearts poisoned with possibilities in the narrowness of existence (worldly)

 

2.and (it is a healing) for those who are faced with the limitations of colours (Judaism, Christianity, etc) for the ones granted the ability of the honour of your following…

 

Wa rahmatun: and (it is) a mercy descending…

 

Lil Momi’neen: for the believers who bear witness to your religion and your Book so that they seek instruction and unveil what is in it of symbols and signs according to their capability and capacity, so that they can reflect or be alerted by what is in it of secrets that relate to the walking upon the Path of Tauheed, One-ness.

 

Temptation and seductions of the nafs made the qalb and ruh weak. Those temptations arose from the base self caving to and obsessing over imkaan, possibilities. The nafs thought it could rule both of them. No wonder when they called, it turned away in stubborn arrogance, persistent, insistent upon having its own way. It felt it was in no need of them. In any situation and any circumstance, easy or difficult.

  

The Nature of Blessings and Trials

 

Said Nabi Kareem (endless salutations and greetings of Allah upon him and his family who mirror him in perfection):

“Fixed will be the scales on the Day of Judgement for the people of Sala’t, those who established their prayers and Sadaqa, those who gave charity beyond what is obligated and Hajj, the ones who performed the pilgrimage and they will be given their reward for it.

But there will be no scales for the Ahl al Bala, the people who faced afflictions.

Instead poured upon them will be rewards.

Until they will intensely desire, the Ahl al Afiyat, the people who lived life without suffering in this world, wishing that their bodies had been cut with scissors in the world, after they see what the people who faced afflictions will be taking as their rewards.”

 

I had been translating a series of verses about blessings and trials with Qari Sahib to understand them. They appeared again and again in various forms in the Quran. I wanted to know what reaction was expected to them. What both were in their nature. What was the reaction of the nafs to them?

 

One of the verses that became unforgettable was about the fact that blessings were in fact also a trial. I couldn’t get over it. How could the good stuff that brought happiness also be an ibtila – something that causes distress?

 

فَإِذَا مَسَّ ٱلۡإِنسَـٰنَ ضُرࣱّ دَعَانَا ثُمَّ إِذَا خَوَّلۡنَـٰهُ نِعۡمَةࣰ مِّنَّا قَالَ إِنَّمَاۤ أُوتِیتُهُۥ عَلَىٰ عِلۡمِۭۚ

بَلۡ هِیَ فِتۡنَةࣱ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكۡثَرَهُمۡ لَا یَعۡلَمُونَ

 

So when touches man adversity, he calls upon Us, then when We bestow on him a favor from Us, he says, “I have been given it, this boon, because of my own knowledge.”

Nay, it is a trial, but most of them do not know.

Surah Zumar, Verse 49

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Then pointed Subhanahu towards the instability of Man and the absence of steadfastness upon the intention (being) sincere towards his Lord so He said:

 

Fa ida massa al insaana durrun: so when touches Man harm from Us, painful, unpleasant, then focusing and expressing attachment towards Us…

 

Da’aana: he invokes Us and wants Us to remove from him the harm, upon the way of pleading and suggesting…

 

Summa: then after We lifted from Him his harm…

 

Ida khawwalnahu: when We bestowed him i.e. We granted him and alleviated it…

 

Ni’ma-tan: with a blessing bountiful…

 

Minna: from Us in honour, to test how he is grateful upon the pushing back of the harm and the receiving of the blessing after the removal of the harm…

 

Qala: he said in that moment, upon the way of kufran, ingratitude…

 

Innama uteetahu: I have only been given it (the blessing) from the blessings…

 

Ala ilm-in: due to certain knowledge which I have so I am able to earn the blessing (from other blessings) and collect it and gain from it and take it.

 

Or the other meaning: Whatever I was given and whatever I was bestowed, it is because of my knowledge which I gathered and sought. The knowledge has not come from where I might think it has come (i.e. Allah).

 

This is what he says from what takes him to his delusions upon ingratitude and transgression, although it is proved that his blessings are not in itself blessings…

 

Bal hiya fitna: instead this is a suffering, a trial from Us for him, a test to find out, is he grateful or ungrateful?

 

Wa lakinna aksarahum la ya’maloon: But most of them do not know and do not understand the nature of the trial from Us and it is Our test so that is why they drown in the sea of ungratefulness and transgression.

 

The punishment of that ingratitude was that the blessing became seized.

 

Al Fath Ar Rabbani

 

إذا كتمتم نعم الله عز وجل و لم تشكروه عليها سلبها منكم

عن النبي صلى الله تعالى عليه وسلم أنه قال :

إذا أنعم الله عز وجل على عبده نعمة أحب أن يرى عليه

 

If you hide the blessings from Allah Azzo Jal and did not express gratitude for it, He will seize it from you.

 

As the Prophet of Allah (salutations and greetings upon him and his family reverberate in the Universe in permanence) said certainly: “When Allah Azzo Jal bestows a blessing upon a servant, He loves that He sees its effect of it upon the person.

 

The seizing did not mean it was literally taken away. That too happened sometimes. What was certain was that the joy, which should have been its natural consequence, one became robbed of it. The rich became misers. That was what was in public display the most. Then eventually the riches also began to decline. Not enough to matter to the 30 next generations but by then the miserliness had also entered the nature of the offspring waiting to be compounded. The curse was inherited.

 

Even worse, another verse revealed why in Lahore every single person of any means, even if it wasn’t much, would incessantly talk about money. If the recipient of the blessing was not acknowledging of The Bestower of it, then the earning of that livelihood would become miserable. All they would do is talk about one thing; that miserable livelihood!

 

وَمَنۡ أَعۡرَضَ عَن ذِكۡرِی فَإِنَّ لَهُۥ مَعِیشَةࣰ ضَنكࣰا وَنَحۡشُرُهُۥ یَوۡمَ ٱلۡقِیَـٰمَةِ أَعۡمَىٰ

 

And whoever turns away from My remembrance, then indeed, for him (is) a life miserable and We will gather him (on the) Day (of) the Resurrection blind."

Surah Taha, Verse 124

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa man a’rada an dikri: And the one who turns away from My Remembrance i.e. My Book which continues to be recited by the tongues of Our Messengers, the Guides (who prevent) from being astray…

 

Fa inna lahu: so indeed it is ordained for him and it is true (for him) as long as he in the abode of this world…

 

Ma’eesha-tan danka: a livelihood miserable, narrow, making his qalb, heart, tight to the extent that there will no longer be in it anything, except the pondering of the matter of livelihood.

 

Wa: And when he dies…

 

Nahshuru yauma al Qiyama: and We shall raise him on the Day of Judgement, the Great Day…

 

A’maa: blind as well i.e. his turning away from Allah Al Haqq in the world will be in the form of being blind in the Hereafter.

I had seen how when life was spinning out of control, especially when disease descended, people whose necks didn’t bend because of their assuredness that they were right in thinking what they thought, were crouching in prostrations, begging for relief.

 

When the affliction was lifted because of their utterances of words from the Quran and sudden bouts of charity, they acted like they had saved themselves. Hearts were hard again, stubborn, arrogant, proud. Everything was forgotten as if it never was.

 

وَإِذَا مَسَّ ٱلۡإِنسَـٰنَ ٱلضُّرُّ دَعَانَا لِجَنۢبِهِۦۤ أَوۡ قَاعِدًا أَوۡ قَاۤىِٕمࣰا فَلَمَّا كَشَفۡنَا عَنۡهُ ضُرَّهُۥ مَرَّ كَأَن لَّمۡ یَدۡعُنَاۤ إِلَىٰ ضُرࣲّ مَّسَّهُۥۚ كَذَٰلِكَ زُیِّنَ لِلۡمُسۡرِفِینَ مَا كَانُوا۟ یَعۡمَلُونَ

 

And when touches the man the affliction he calls Us, (lying) on his side or sitting or standing.

But when We remove from him his affliction, he passes on as if he (had) not called Us for (the) affliction (that) touched him.

Thus (it) is made fair seeming to the transgressors what they used (to) do.

Surah Yunus, Verse 12

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa: And from the intensity of their wandering in blindness and oppression…

 

Ida massa: when touches him and comes his way…

 

Al insaana ad-durru: harm towards the human being i.e. what harms him from painful disease and matters creating heartbreak and shock…

 

Da’ana: he invokes Us complaining to Us, suffering about his complaint before Us, pleading…

 

Lijanbihi: on his side, if he does not have the energy to do anything else…

 

Au qaidan au qayiman: or sitting or standing, beseeching, crying, asking for relief…

 

Falamma kashafna anhu durra-hu: so when We removed from him his affliction and made his wish come true, he began to abstain from Us and from Our Commands and he never inclined towards Us at all and he walked from the intensity of his blindness and his ghaflat, forgetfulness..

 

Marra ka-allam ya’d-u’na ila: passing like he never prayed before Us for relief…

 

Durrim massa-hu kadalika: from harm that touched him. This is how i.e. like you heard…

 

Zuyyina: it is beautified i.e. it is made beloved to them and pleasing…

 

Lil Musrifeena: for the transgressors, Al Munhamakeena, the ones drowning in temptation and refusal to be guided…

 

Ma kanu ya’maloon: (it is beautified for them) what they did in wrong deeds in opposition to the Command of Allah and arguing with His Rasool (salutations and greetings upon him and his family) and the Mo’mineen, the believers who obedient to his blessed person and insistence upon that which comes from them from arrogance and stubborn-ness.

 

But afflictions return again and again. That is the nature of life itself. It was all a test:

 

Az Zumar, Verse 49:

 

Minna: from Us in honour, to test how he is grateful upon the pushing back of the harm and the receiving of the blessing after the removal of the harm…

…

Wa lakinna aksarahum la ya’maloon: But most of them do not know and do not understand the nature of the trial from Us and it is Our test so that is why they drown in the sea of ungratefulness and transgression.

 

There was one category of people that I had always seen pass those tests with flying colours. The poor! It was they who had taught me that every gesture, be it of worship or charity had to be accepted. On every pilgrimage, while doing any act of benefit to another, I heard only from them the words; “May Allah accept your visit, your deed, your intention.” You!

 

I took those words for granted my whole life. I assumed everything good I did, all my acts were accepted. It didn’t occur to me that their acceptance was entirely out of my control. In the world, it was always the poor who always taught me the secrets of humility because they practiced it without striving. Their nafs was in alignment with their qalb and batin. As always their prayer for me was better than any other prayer of the ordinary. It could make me of the Maqboleen, the exalted category of “the accepted!”

 

And it was the poor who were the ones with little to nothing when it came to amwaal, possessions. They were the only ones who placed their trust in Allah Al Muttawakkal, The Only One to entrust matters, all of them, all of the time. They didn’t waiver between states. Grateful one moment, ungrateful the other. Reliant one moment, independent the next.

 

Remembering Him one second, forgetting He existed the next.

 

One person who played that out in front of me in particular was Shaan.

  

Shaan

 

إِنَّهُۥ لَيْسَ لَهُۥ سُلْطَـٰنٌ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ

 

Indeed, there is for him (Iblis) no authority over those who have believed and rely upon their Lord.

Surah An-Nahl, Verse 99

 

Tafseer e Jilani:

 

Inna hu laysa hu sultan an: Indeed he, Iblis, has no ability to capture and overcome…

 

A’la lladina a’mino: the ones who believe in the One-ness of Allah and have certainty in the truthfulness of Allah’s Books and His Messengers and the Day promised and that which will be given in reward that Day.

 

Wa; And along with this

 

Al’a Rabbi-him: they rely on their Lord and no one else from the sources and means of day to day life and…

 

Yatawakkaluna: they surrender and they entrust all their matters to Him for sure.

 

Shan was the woman I had found in the park in the spring of 2021. The one who identified as male and who I thought was one until the one of the guards told me he was not. In a span reaching two years, I had moved him around 6 residences, including my own. None of them had worked in terms of settling him down.

 

The one that had been the most calming for him was Pathani’s. She was someone from my village who had worked for me for two decades plus and then retired. But she couldn’t keep him forever. He required supervision. Not 24/7 but enough that it would impede her lifestyle.

 

Pathani was the one who had been at my place visiting when Shaan was kicked out of home number 5. Which, incidentally, was also home number 1 and 3. It had been a God-send. I had gotten a call from the person whose house it was and she told me Shaan had to leave within the hour. That I was taken aback was putting it mildly.

 

“I can’t move him in an hour,” I said in shock. “Give me a few days and I will do it.”

 

I didn’t ask any questions as to why or what brought on the sudden decision. I did know that about two weeks earlier, Shaan had kicked a door down. When I had asked him the reason he said that one of the carpenters on the premises had called him Janoo. A term of endearment certainly inappropriate. It had triggered him and he had demolished the door.

 

I had reprimanded him saying that was still no justification to damage the property of someone who had extended the courtesy of allowing him to live there. I think the Autism prevented pretty much all my words from sinking in. I had called the owner then, while he sat in front of me, so he could apologize but she hadn’t picked up. Now she was calling to say he was out.

 

A few minutes later she called back. Her tone had become aggressive.

 

“I cannot wait a few days. I need him out now. It’s your problem, figure it out.”

 

I tried to plead my case gently. That within the hour was not a realistic possibility but when she didn’t listen I lost my temper and ended the conversation with one line.

 

“I will have him out by tomorrow morning. Do not call me back again to say it has to be today.”

 

Pathani came to my room a few minutes later and saw me in a state of distress. She looked at me with concern. She was the only one in the world who took on my problems as hers in the moment they appeared. There’s something to be said about the staff from the village. Their loyalty is deeper than I have experienced in any worldly relationship otherwise; blood, romance, friendship, you name it.

 

When people would say to me why I helped her build a house not once, but twice because she remarried and left the first house to her daughter, I would reply, “If I could I would make her 8 houses.” She was the only one who, when she worked in my house and my brother and I were in our 20s with parties happening every other weekend because we lived alone, I would not let her come up while my friends smoked and drank and danced.

 

I didn’t want her to see them like that, much less me. It was nice, that feeling of haya, modesty, that appeared in the absence of parents who had been the others who invoked it. For my generation at least. The famed X-ers!

 

I told her what had happened. Just then an idea came to my head.

 

“Pathani,” I said hopefully, “Can’t you take Shaan with you to Radhan?”

 

She didn’t answer me for a moment clearly surprised by my request.

 

When she didn’t respond, I moved on to asking why. “Is it because of the boy-girl thing? You’re worried what people will say?”

 

She made me laugh with her answer which is best translated without cursing as, “I could give two hoots about what people think.”

 

“Then…” I said, letting my words linger. “Can’t you take him while I figure out what to do? Just for a couple of weeks?”

 

She told me she would discuss it with her husband and went downstairs. A few minutes later, she agreed. It was supposed to have been three weeks tops. It ended up being three months as I got the run around from others who were offering me rooms for Shaan and then not coming through.

 

I started wondering if it could be a permanent thing. Shaan loved the village. He loved staying with her at her house. And why not? She was gentle, kind, generous and sensitive. But no one keeps anyone forever. People are unable to do it for their own children.

 

Shaan had no one. Except God! That was my sole consolation throughout the months he was in my charge. If there was a matter in which I had relinquished complete control to my Lord, it was this.

 

While living in her house Shaan listened to her and did as he was told. For the most part. Once or twice he apparently flipped his charpoy over. When Pathani would help him remake the bed and ask him why, he would say it was an accident. The only thing that was an issue was when he wanted to stand at the gate. He loved people watching. He would have loved New York!

 

He used to do it at my house twice a day, morning and afternoon. He would walk to the end of the street which was busier. Then he would move his hands around in the air in waves like he was talking to the breeze. All the different kinds as mentioned in the Quran that seemed to come his way. He was the reason I looked up this verse:

 

وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِیۤ أَرۡسَلَ ٱلرِّیَـٰحَ بُشۡرَۢا بَیۡنَ یَدَیۡ رَحۡمَتِهِۦۚ

وَأَنزَلۡنَا مِنَ ٱلسَّمَاۤءِ مَاۤءࣰ طَهُورࣰا

 

And He is the One Who sends the winds (as) glad tidings (from) between the Hands of His Mercy and We send down from the sky water pure.

Surah Al Furqan, Verse 48

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa huwa alladi ar reeyaha bushran: And He is The One who sends the breezes as good news, giving glad tidings…

 

Bayna yadae Rahmatihi: before (the rains that come from) His Mercy, He gives the happy news by His descending…

 

Wa: and after Our Glad Tidings to you in the shape of breezes bringing good news…

 

Anzalna: We sent down from the Station of Our Generosity…

Mina: from…

 

As Sama’i ma’an tahooran: the skies, rain pure, utmost in purity, highest, extreme in its purpose (of purification).

 

In November Shaan finally and reluctantly returned with her to Lahore to move in the last place I would rent, furnish and set up for him. Pathani and I had gone to drop him off there and show him where everything was. I had made sure the kitchen was stocked so that he didn’t have to step out of the house at least till the next afternoon in order to buy anything. I had it organized like I would have for myself.

 

When we were leaving he suddenly said, “Won’t one person spend the night here with me?”

 

I looked at him in surprise. He was so independent, the ask floored me.

 

Seeing my surprise he explained, “Because it’s the first night.”

 

“But there’s only a single bed Shaan,” I said pointing at it. The apartment was like a studio but the kitchen was separate through a door. It was a small place, brand new. “Where would the other person sleep?”

 

I looked over at Pathani and could see the angst in her face. She understood everyone’s pain in the moment they felt it. Shaan slowly nodded then looked at me.

 

“So I might call you all night then. Will you pick up?”

 

“Of course,” I replied truthfully. “I will keep my phone on and right next to me. You can call me all night, whenever you like.”

 

Normally I would turn my phone to Silent around 9ish at home but those first few days I didn’t do that. When 12 days later the landlord called me to say Shaan would have to leave the house, it was Pathani I discussed the next options with. The expulsion was for the usual reasons but they seemed to be getting worse; rude behaviour, threatening manner. He was glaring at neighbors, even pulling out a knife and scaring them.

 

The first option that appeared was a privately run shelter for homeless women and children. The second was a center for the abandoned run by the local government. I was being told that the conditions in the latter were abominable. 200 plus people to dorm-like rooms that were likely filthy. If someone was not compliant with the orders of the staff, they could be beaten. At worst, they would be drugged and left in a state of heavy sedation. Nobody cared if they lived or died.

 

That was where Pathani drew the line.

 

“You can’t send her there,” she said with this equally intense mix of what sounded like a plea and an order. “You can’t send her somewhere people will beat her. You know she doesn’t do things like other people. They will hit her for sure. She won’t listen to them.” She didn’t even get to the other thing about the drugs and sedation. “Better than that, you should set her free.”

 

Azaad kar dein – were the words.

 

“But its cold Pathani,” I replied. “And even if I drop Shaan off on this corner or that neighborhood like he says, the situation in the city is not what it was when I found him. Someone will snatch his phone and anything of value within the hour and then what?”

 

“Still,” she would say insistent, “you can’t send her to the government facility.”

 

In truth, that was just a back-up if Shaan couldn’t settle in the private shelter but the possibility was looming before all of us.

The day before he was supposed to go there he started acting aggressively again. That was the signal, just in time that he would not be able to live there either. For the first time in two years I scrambled to find the contacts of different therapists and psychiatrists. I described the situation and whatever I could summarize about his behaviour.

 

I spoke to three renowned doctors, one of whom was my therapist. All of them said the same thing. He needed medicine and he needed to be in an institution for patients with mental health issues because the ones he was exhibiting were serious.

 

At first my heart sank at the idea of institutionalizing Shaan because such centers didn’t have the best record in terms of patient treatment. But I learnt that one such institute had recently come under the control of private donors and was excellent. When I called them I was told that the requisite for admission was an ID card and a relative. I offered both. They seemed hesitant to accept that in lieu of documentation from the patient but they made an exception. If it was ever warranted Shaan was certainly first in line in terms of deserving it.

 

I was told to send him and they would decide then what they would do. Take him or not!

 

That last night Pathani called him to see how he was feeling. I had been playing bad cop since the landlord called to say he was chucking him out. Pulling a knife on someone was a arrest-able offence. The routine had become necessary to make Shaan understand that he had to control himself. Also he needed to be told what was coming. It had killed me to be curt in my tone with him but there was no option.

 

I had even yelled at him once. That was not pretense. I had actually lost it. That was when the last landlord had called me to say he pulled a knife on the woman who lived above him. Truth be told, she had enraged him first by barging into his house, claiming that he had deliberately locked the gate while her son was out.

 

“Get it together Shaan,” I had screamed when he kept going on and on about he would take care of her. “She’s crazy I know but calm down. She made a mistake. Let it go.”

 

He had only replied in his usual child-like manner. “I’m boycotting you for two weeks also.”

 

I had just sighed.

 

After a sleepless night I went to his place the next morning to apologize. I had a spare set of keys so when he didn’t answer the phone, I decided to take my chances and drop by. The gate was open so I pushed it to enter. He must have heard me because just then I heard his front door open. As I popped my head through the gate, he popped his out the door. We both beamed at each other.

 

“Kya haal hai Shaan?” I had said. How are you?

 

“Fine Ma’am,” he had replied warmly. “Come!” He had always loved visitors.

 

I walked towards him holding my hand out as a gesture of contrition. “I came to say sorry to you. I never spoke to you like that before and I’m really sorry I did yesterday.”

 

He tried to cut me off. “No, no,” he said. “Please. I’m sorry Ma’am. I don’t know what happened to me.”

 

Shaan had checked boxes of all kinds of mental illnesses and psychosis. He was autistic. He saw people who weren’t there. He gave gibberish answers to every question that was serious. He clearly had intense trauma from assault, whether it was sexual or violent, I don’t know. His anger was out of his control entirely. He certainly couldn’t hold a job.

 

Yet he never harmed me. Ever. Emotionally or otherwise.

 

Precisely for that reason I had never been able to see the acuteness of his mental health problems and likely become an enabler. He had always been polite to me and even though he might have been manipulative at times, seeing that I would do anything for him, he didn’t really try to take advantage of me. He was never cruel. He was never greedy. He had zero attachment to money.

 

Meanwhile all the other people in my life in all kinds of roles, even though they likely had mental health issues as well and possibly faced extraordinary trauma, none of them had been homeless for a single day, much less three years. I’ve barely seen women as homeless people in the West much less Pakistan. Almost every other person I knew had taken my role in their lives, even when it was the most sincere, for granted and most of them had returned the feeling with viciousness in one form or another. Indifference being the worst!

 

It used to make me feel bad. I used to feel surprised by its recurrence knowing there was a lesson somewhere that was eluding me. I was about to learn that lesson which was going to the most essential in my spiritual journey. A journey that had in fact become stunted and I didn’t even know it. Writing pages upon pages and translating verse after verse. I wasn’t even aware that all that gathering of knowledge had yielded nothing.

 

“I will go to the hospital tomorrow,” Shaan said to Pathani when she called to ask him how he was feeling. “If they don’t take me, then I will go the neighborhood where I grew up and try to find a place there. Whatever is in my taqdeer,” he had said the word to her, Fate decreed! “I don’t know what is written but whatever it is, I will accept it.”

 

In that state of undeniable anxiousness of the entirely unknown, he was in a state of absolute surrender. There was not even a hint of any ae’taraz.

 

Shaan was the Mo’min I wanted to be!

 

قُل لَّن یُصِیبَنَاۤ إِلَّا مَا كَتَبَ ٱللَّهُ لَنَا هُوَ مَوۡلَىٰنَاۚ وَعَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَلۡیَتَوَكَّلِ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنُونَ

 

Say, "Never will befall us except what has decreed Allah for us, He (is) our Protector."

And on Allah the believers put (their) trust.

 

Surah At Taubah, Verse 51

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Qul: Say, O Akmal ar Rusul, O Messenger who perfects the Messenger-hood (Allah sends greetings and salutations upon you and your exalted family), (say) to those who find their pleasure in, God forbid, mocking you, who are hypocrites, (say to them) according to your unveiling and your witnessing…

 

Layyuseebana: no adversity will ever come to us from traumas…

 

Illa ma kataballah: except that which Allah has written, Al Muqaddir, The One who has the power to destine death and sustenance and all other deeds and states and all the continuous occurring in the Realm of the Unseen as well as the Realm of the Witnessing, i.e. the world…

 

Lana: for us and Allah chose for us from His Ever Present Knowledge because…

 

Huwa: He Himself is…

 

Maulana: alone our Protector and Controller of all our matters that He does to us, according to what He has confirmed in His Ever present Knowledge, without exchange and without amendment.

 

Wa: And there is no option for us except Raza, being pleased with that which happened to us and that which is happening and will happen from what He has fated for us so that’s…

 

Alallahi: in Allah Subhanahu and no one else except Him in all causes and means because everything is returning towards Him, just as their origin initially itself is also from Him…

 

Falyatawakkalil Mo’minoon: so the believers should place their trust in Allah’s One-ness and the extension of the Secrets of His One-ness upon the sheets of all His Creation.

 

Shaan played it out perfectly: “There is no option for the believer except to be pleased with that which happened, is happening, will happen.”

 

I had never seen Shaan pray. I had never seen him do any tasbeeh. But his consciousness of Subhanahu was acute because he was in a state of eternal gratitude. I saw that gratitude in reference to my own person to such an extent, I could only imagine what it was for The Divine. It was why he was never forgotten by Him.

 

‏فَٱذْكُرُونِىٓ أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَٱشْكُرُوا۟ لِى وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ ‎

 

So remember Me, I will remember you

and be grateful to Me and do not be ungrateful to Me.

Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 152

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

And when We have bestowed upon you the greatest blessings, (كَمَاۤ أَرۡسَلۡنَا فِیكُمۡ رَسُولࣰا مِّنكُمۡ یَتۡلُوا۟ عَلَیۡكُمۡ ءَایَـٰتِنَا وَیُزَكِّیكُمۡ وَیُعَلِّمُكُمُ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلۡحِكۡمَةَ وَیُعَلِّمُكُم مَّا لَمۡ تَكُونُوا۟ تَعۡلَمُونَ , as We sent among you a Messenger from you (who) recites to you Our verses and purifies you and teaches you the Book and the wisdom and teaches you what not you were knowing - Al Baqarah, Verse 151, through the person of Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family)) and perfected them for you…

 

Fadkuruni: so Remember Me, O Mo’mineen, Believers, with an

everlasting inclination and a truthful turning towards Me…

 

Adkurkum: I will remember you by giving you a life full of mercy and the breezes of spirituality (nourshing the soul)…

 

Washkuru li: and be grateful to Me referring all your blessings towards Me…

 

Wa la takfiroon: and don’t be ungrateful to Me by referring these blessings to (other) causes and means.

 

My friend Saneeah, who was my go-to person for advice when it came to him, had remarked once. “I am amazed that every single time you call me with some incident of how things have completely blown up with Shaan, within hours another avenue appears for him.”

 

The next day he went to the facility. They admitted him. Pathani and I finally slept. Allah Subhanahu was kind to him just like He had always been especially kind to me. Despite that I had been the worst of transgressors, the Musrifeen, for I was certainly of those who, for the life of me, with all that intense reflection, did not know when someone in the world was good for me and when they were not.

 

وَهُوَ كُرۡهࣱ لَّكُمۡۖ

وَعَسَىٰۤ أَن تَكۡرَهُوا۟ شَیۡءࣰا وَهُوَ خَیۡرࣱ لَّكُمۡۖ

وَعَسَىٰۤ أَن تُحِبُّوا۟ شَیۡءࣰا وَهُوَ شَرࣱّ لَّكُمۡۗ

وَٱللَّهُ یَعۡلَمُ وَأَنتُمۡ لَا تَعۡلَمُونَ

 

But perhaps that you dislike a thing and it is good for you

and perhaps that you love a thing and it is bad for you.

And Allah knows while you (do) not know.

Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 216

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa huwa kurhun: And it is hateful to you, disliked, abrasive…

 

Lakum: for you as long as this is in your selfishness and your identity and as long as you are in it with the increase and compulsions of possibilities…

 

Wa asa an takrahu shayan: perhaps that you dislike a thing in this world…

 

Wa huwa khairullakum: and it is good for you in the Hereafter…

 

Wa asa an tuhibbu shayan: and perhaps that you like something in this world…

 

Wa huwa sharralakum: and it is bad for you in the Hereafter.

 

Wallahu: And Allah is Al Hadi, The Only Guide, for you towards the same way…

 

Ya’lamu: He knows your goodness and your badness in it and the association of others with Him and He takes care of you from it…

 

Wa antum: and you all by your personality…

 

La talamoon: do not know a thing from goodness and badness but instead for you is obedience and following according to what is commanded and what is forbidden and all knowledge is with Allah Al Aziz, The Dominant, Al Aleem, The All Knowing.

 

Again imkaan: “The increase and compulsion of possibilities…”

 

Continued on: www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/52652408863/in/datepos...

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/road-to-the-heavenly-king...

Introduction

Gospel Movie Trailer | God Is My Rock and Salvation | "Perilous Is the Road to the Heavenly Kingdom"

 

Christian Zhong Xin is a preacher in a house church in mainland China. He leads his brothers and sisters to investigate the true way and determines that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. However, some are perplexed by the CCP government's and religious circle's mad resistance to and condemnation ofThe Church of Almighty God. By reading the words of Almighty God, and by listening to the fellowship of witnesses from The Church of Almighty God, they understand the root cause of mankind's defiance of God, they see clearly why the road to the kingdom of heaven is full of hardships, and they come to have discernment about the truth-hating, God-opposing essence of the CCP's satanic regime and the leaders of the religious world. At last, people such as Zhong Xin have resolutely accepted Almighty God's kingdom gospel.

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not worth your time unless youView On Black

 

This is what I do with my free time. I read, edit pictures. Listen to itunes. and daydream. About the perfect memories in my head, that are permanent photographs embalmed in my vision.

 

Sometimes I feel like people see me as whats on the outside. When I really am, who I am through what I am on the inside. And for the most part, what I see is what I am. But what I see, goes deep.

 

There are a lot of hidden meaningful aspects to this photograph.

 

1.To the left you see a picture fram, of my cousins and I with my uncle Ben. Who passed a little over a year ago. I’ve been thinking a lot about him. He’s in my heart. I miss him. More than I think I can even understand.

 

2. There’s obviously a lot to do with photography in this picture. The two cameras in the picture, my website it on the computer screen and I’m actually reading a photography book.

 

3. The picture on the monitor is one I edited inspired by a certain someone.

 

4. The lighthouse. When I think of my heart, for some reason I think of a lighthouse. I’m not exactly sure why. I just love them. I love the idea that when your lost at sea, and need direction there’s this light. And I think that this light, is a little thing I like to call discernment I’m ever so blessed with.

 

5. The birds. Well birds represent my escape. Pointblank.

 

Anyways.

 

This is me lately. Thought you might enjoy something a little new.

 

xoxo

 

Lease

 

Words For The Wind

 

"Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind?"

Job 6:26

 

In grief and pain and despair, people often say things they otherwise would not say. They paint reality with darker strokes than they will paint it tomorrow when the sun comes up. They sing in minor keys and talk as though that is the only music. They see clouds only and speak as if there were no sky. They say, “Where is God?” Or: “There is no use to go on.” Or: “Nothing makes any sense.” Or: “There’s no hope for me.” Or: “If God were good, this couldn’t have happened.” What shall we do with these words? Job says that we do not need to reprove them. These words are wind, or literally “for the wind.” They will be quickly blown away. There will come a turn in circumstances, and the despairing person will waken from the dark night and regret hasty words. Therefore, the point is, let us not spend our time and energy reproving such words. They will be blown away of themselves on the wind. One need not clip the leaves in autumn. It is a wasted effort. They will soon blow off of themselves. O how quickly we are given to defending God, or sometimes the truth, from words that are only for the wind. If we had discernment, we could tell the difference between the words with roots and the words blowing in the wind. There are words with roots in deep error and deep evil. But not all grey words get their color from a black heart. Some are colored mainly by the pain, the despair. What you hear is not the deepest thing within. There is something real within where they come from. But it is temporary — like a passing infection — real, painful, but not the true person. Let us learn to discern whether the words spoken against us or against God or against the truth are merely for the wind — spoken not from the soul, but from the sore. If they are for the wind, let us wait in silence and not reprove. Restoring the soul, not reproving the sore, is the aim of our love.

_____

John Piper, excerpted from “When Words Are Wind”

How many Christians are doers of the faith or living a Godly life as required by God ?

How many fall into apostasy or fallen from faith , they fail to even realized it .

 

I had a chat with someone who goes regularly or piously to an Anglican church

every Sunday. Then our conversation went into issues of legalize abortion,

gay marriage, which then about the infallibility of the Bible as the word

of God. What shocked me most ,to discover was this person's mindset

is aligned with those who have doubts about the Bible, those who believe

the Bible isn't true quite contrary to his routine being a regular /active

church goer. He believes the Bible is

flawed as it is written by men. He doesn't believe of Adam and Eve of

Genesis backed on his string belief of science has proved it wrong through

Evolution . Even theory of evolution still has loopholes. They still haven't

found yet what they call the missing link which weakens its theoretical

grounds . I cant believe a confessing Christian who goes to church every Sunday would

believe all those without searching for the truth. What's the point of believing God when

you can't even believe in his WORD. If his church shared the

anointed truth of the word of God, and has the Holy Spirit guiding him

to all the truth , there's no way this person would ever accept and

internalize all those deceptions feed on him.

  

It made me wonder then why this person kept going to a church every

Sunday, so active in the church and continued his Christianity, when he

has doubts even to his faith . If I were on that platform of uncertainty,

I must already have left and into different faith . If his God can not be

trusted in his word, if his God can not be reliable, then he must be standing

on weaker grounds of faith. If we believe the word of God is flawed , then

its logical to understand in the end it diminishes our own belief and faith

of power of the Word of God and the faith of God. But how can you say you

have strong faith, but you still have doubts about the purity of God's words.

  

God has proven His word in the Bible to be true through many

fulfilled prophecies , that a number of them now are happening

before our very

eyes , finding them in the pages of today's news papers. Other

religions don't have prophecies

which had been fulfilled to the dot. Israel being made as a nation in

1948 through Balfour Declaration , alone will attest 100% reliability

of the Bible , the Word of God spoken thousands of years before it

happened . So true of today to its nature,

Israel as a " burdensome stone" as being spoken by the Word of God.

 

Through our conversation, I felt sorry for this man, as he

sounds truly deceived , he didn't even realize it.

I even wonder how many billions of confessing Christians fall into the same trap.

When going to church is simply like going to a social club .....

  

This isn't criticism or judgement of the person's character and leave him lost, but as discernment. As a believer we should all seek the gifts of the spirit and one of them is discernment. We should know the spirits by testing them. From this man's confessions I know he isn't born-again with the spirit of God. He is attending church as by tradition or by expectation that he should do so. I was burdened of this person and he is

in my intercessions of deliverance , breaking the spiritual chains of bondage and blindness that he will find true salvation in Christ, and would truly know Christ .

 

We aren't fighting against flesh and blood but by principalities , powers of darkness in heavenly places ...(Ephesians 6:12 ).

 

For Christians pray for your love ones , friends and people....

 

James 1 :22 states :

"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. "

  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

SIGNS OF THE TIMES :

 

*Breaking News Syria Targets Israel By Steven De Noon

 

*Japan Drones "NSA"? / Venezuela

Believes Obama Plots Bringing Down Government ! By Paul Begley (YT)

 

*BREAKING: USA Will Strike Expanded Target List Syria!!

 

*The Feast of Trumpets & The RAPTURE!! - A Perspective from 2013

 

The Prosperity Gospel Ruined My Life

 

*John MacArthur on the charismatic movement

 

*Why Does God Allow Evil - John MacArthur

 

*Are Catholics Saved? By John MacArthur

  

*Is Speaking in Tongues Demonic? By John MacArthur

 

*John MacArthur - The Pre-Tribulation Rapture Of The Church

 

*How to Recognize a Real Church, Part 1

 

*UFO's And The End Times by Stan Deyo

  

Egyptian Media Claims Obama Is A Member Of The Muslim Brotherhood. Surprised?! NO!

 

September 5 2013 The Final Hour Last Days End Times Middle East Ground Zero 9-5-13

 

Putin Prepares To Arm Texas Separatists As Iran Orders 50,000 Troops To Syria

  

Snowden Revelations Strike Fear Into Putin

  

Report: US Training Syrian Rebels From the WND .

 

What's Coming In the Middleast and the Psalm 83 War

 

Biblical doom of Damascus 'right before our eyes'

 

Why I abominate the prosperity gospelBy John Piper

  

Ezekiel Prophecy : Iran v Israel, Fallen Angels & Nazi Ocultism

 

  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Location : Balanan Lake, Siaton , Negros Oriental

Philippines

 

Swimming in Balanan Lake isn't allowed. They have swimming pools

specially made for visitors who like to dip in water, but not into the lake.

There are boats for rental people can paddle around the lake

Father Poemen said that Father Ammonas said, “A person can spend his whole time carrying an axe without succeeding in cutting down the tree. Another person, who has experience in chopping down trees, brings the tree down with a few blows. He said that the axe is discernment.”

-POEMEN (CALLED THE SHEPHERD)

“Remember meditation is an active, deep remembrance, and that is discernment. Wherever you go, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, remember to utilize discernment so that you can hear and sense and feel the vibration of love rather than the vibration of illusion.”

  

‘There are many paths to God‘ has become a politically, correct catchphrase, used by the liberal establishment to imply that all religions and beliefs are equally worthy.

 

Of course, you don’t need a degree in common sense to work out that this is illogical nonsense.

Everybody is aware that even the major religions disagree on many important issues. Therefore, simple logic dictates that they cannot all be right. Where they all disagree on a particular belief (if any are right) it can only be ONE that is right.

It is obvious then that all those religions that are wrong in any belief cannot be equal in merit, or equal as a path to God, as the one that is wholly right. So to insist they are all equally worthy is to be unjustly biased against the one that is true.

Error should never be given equality with truth.

Therefore it is inexcusable that our society should not to make every effort to discern, and then to officially recognise the truth in this matter.

For anyone to contend that ERROR should ever be entitled to equal endorsement and support by the state as TRUTH is unjust, prejudiced, morally reprehensible and downright stupid.

 

Western civilisation was founded and built on the commendable notion that truth really matters and should be encouraged and supported.

For centuries, it was accepted and agreed by the most learned persons and rulers, that the beliefs of Christianity best represent spiritual truth. Whilst also providing superlative spiritual and social benefits for citizens and society. And therefore it was agreed that Christianity should be entitled to official recognition and special support by society and the state. The traditions, heritage, laws and culture of Christendom were founded on this generally, accepted precept.

It is not hard to understand why?

Christianity really is special.

Jesus Christ taught love, peace and forgiveness.

Jesus is the role model for Christians. Although they are not always completely successful, the teaching and example of Jesus Christ are what every genuine Christian aspires to. Those things are eminently conducive to the moral, spiritual and material good of society. They are the fundamentals of Christianity and a Christian society. We hear a lot today about religious fundamentalism being something bad, but in the case of Christianity the opposite has to be true. The more fundamental a Christian seeks to be, the more like (the Christian role model) Jesus they hope to become.

In a nutshell Jesus taught - love God above all and love your neighbour as yourself. and seek to advance the welfare of all, materially and spiritually - be humble, not proud or envious, be prepared to serve others, not lord it over them - love and forgive even your enemies and do not seek revenge or bear grudges.

 

Saint Augustine.

“Let those who say that the teachings of Christ are harmful to the State find armies with soldiers who live up to the standards of the teachings of Jesus. Let them provide governors, husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, kings, judges, taxpayers and tax collectors who can compare to those who take Christian teachings to heart. Then let them dare to say that such teaching is contrary to the welfare of the State! Indeed, under no circumstances can they fail to realize that this teaching is the greatest safeguard of the State when faithfully observed.” (“Epis. 138 ad Marcellinum,” in Opera Omnia, vol. 2, in J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, col. 532.)

 

A major problem today is that the term 'religion' is cynically used by secularists rather than 'religions'. The effect is to lump all religions together and stereotype them as though they are a single entity. Which means if one religion is perceived in some way as not conducive to the public good, people are led to believe that all religions are a problem - that 'religion' is a problem per se. This sort of stereotyping would be unlikely to be tolerated in any other field. But it suits the aims of militant atheists and the liberal, secular, politically correct agenda.

 

There is no question that the twentieth century was the bloodiest century in the history of the world. It was in this century that the major nations of Christendom began to abandon Christian beliefs, principles and heritage. And, in the misguided name of progress, began to embrace a variety of pagan, atheistic, materialist, Darwinian, Marxist and socialist ideologies. As a result we were subjected to 2 world wars, numerous other wars, including the Spanish civil war, and an horrendous, mass murder as a result of the German nation adopting the national, socialist policies of a crazed, Darwinian inspired, anti-Christian, pagan occultist named Hitler. An even greater, mass slaughter was carried out by atheistic, socialist revolutionaries in pursuit of their proposed ‘paradise on earth‘. The historical record of the twentieth century is absolutely horrendous, the atheistic, Marxist, socialist regimes of; Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were together responsible for the brutal slaughter of an estimated thirty six million people. In addition, we have seen millions of war deaths, countless murders carried out by other, atheistic, socialist regimes and various other tyrannies, and millions of unborn babies callously slaughtered in state approved and funded, abortion mills.

 

We hear a lot today about equality, which sounds admirable. And true equality certainly is admirable and a God-given right. However, false equality is not admirable, it can be discriminatory against truth, goodness and, if enforced by the state, can result in an evil tyranny. Error should never be equated with truth and evil should never be equated with good.

So what is true equality?

Every human person is of equal value and should be equally respected and cared for, regardless of gender, colour, race, disability, wealth, influence, intelligence or power. That is true equality.

What is false equality?

False equality is the idea that everything any human person does or believes, is equally valid. The idea that all lifestyles, beliefs, traditions or cultures (that are not against whatever the state decides should be legal) are equally valid and worthy of equal respect.

 

In post Christian, secular society, while it is demanded by supporters of the liberal establishment that all religions, beliefs and lifestyles should be treated by the state as equally worthy, with no preference or special status given to any. In practice, we can see this is completely ignored in one respect, because there is an exception, inasmuch as it is now the beliefs of 'atheism' that actually receive special recognition and status in most, Western nations. This is evident in the state approved and funded, promotion and teaching of the (unscientific) naturalistic beliefs of Darwinian evolution and spontaneous generation of life, as though they are ‘scientific truths’ (they are treated as sacrosanct - with no alternative, scientific views or contrary evidence, permitted in any state funded or approved, educational curriculum).

The modern, secular state's 'enforced' equality demands that all beliefs etc. are treated as equally worthy, regardless of truth or merit. But, in practice, the liberal mind-set is that all beliefs/religions are inferior to the atheist/secularist ideology, which is perceived as the pinnacle of rationality and arbiter of 'scientific truth' which benevolently deigns to grant (a false) equality to every inferior, belief system. And religions should all be grateful that the secular state grants them equality with each other.

All religions and religious beliefs are thus lumped together as

being equal (the crazy with the not so crazy - the logical with the illogical - the true with the patently false) with no intelligent, or logical discernment permitted.

 

And so we are led to believe by a secular state (which doesn't recognise God) that there are:

‘Many paths to God’ -That all religions and beliefs are equally valid.

But are they?

 

Anyone who agrees with this automatically rejects the claims of Jesus Christ, who stated; “I am the way, the truth and the life” and “no one can come to the Father except through Me.”

Uniquely, Jesus backed up his claim by suffering an agonising death on the cross as a sacrifice for the salvation of all humanity. The words of Jesus means you cannot be a Christian if you claim or believe there are many paths to God, or that there is any path to God other than through Jesus Christ.

The fact is that Jesus (although completely innocent of all sin himself) suffered for the sins of all humankind, He was crucified for the redemption of His enemies as well as His friends. We are all sinners and have all offended the infinite goodness of God, no one (not even a saint) deserves heaven entirely on their own merit. Everyone is defiled by sin, and nothing defiled can enter heaven. An offence against the infinite goodness of an infinitely loving, but also an infinitely, just God can only be redeemed by an infinitely, good sacrifice. So only a divine sacrifice can pay the price justice demands for our sins.

 

Only the sacrifice of the true, spiritual messiah, Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, incarnated as man, is sufficient to save us all from the consequences of sin, open the gates of heaven and restore eternal life to the whole human race.

 

Only those whose garments have been ‘washed white by the blood of the lamb’ are fit to enter heaven.

The debt for our sin has been paid by Jesus and His saving sacrifice is offered as an unsurpassed, loving and free gift to us all. We simply have to gratefully acknowledge and accept that gift in a spirit of humility and repentance.

 

Jesus requested that a remembrance of his sacrifice should be celebrated (the Eucharist). This unites us with Him and His sacrifice, and is the only sacrificial ceremony for sin which is truly acceptable to God. All other sacrifices devised and offered by humans are as ‘dirty rags’ before the divine majesty of the almighty creator.

 

Only the sacrifice of the true messiah, God made man

(as prophesied by Isaiah in the old testament), is acceptable to God.

 

By his supreme sacrifice Jesus paid the price for every sin ever committed, and thereby opened the gates of heaven to the whole human race.

Without His sacrifice, no one of any religion could ever enter heaven.

It matters not whether you are the most devout Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist or person of any other faith, ultimately you will rely, not on any rituals and customs of these various religions, but on the sacrifice of Jesus to enter heaven.

All who enter heaven and eternal life do so only with a passport provided by Jesus, without His sacrifice you would never get there.

This is the truth whether you like it or not.

 

Of course, we all have free choice. Quite rightly, we are all entitled to follow any religion we wish. But once we know that it is only the sacrifice of Jesus that can make us fit to enter heaven and entitled to eternal life, we will surely wish to follow Him. It would be foolishness indeed for us to choose to follow any other religion which refuses to acknowledge this, and pretends that we can redeem ourselves just by following its manmade doctrines and rituals.

 

Does atheist/secularist ideology, deserve to be regarded by the state and society as the pinnacle of rationality and arbiter of 'scientific truth'?

 

Atheism revealed as false ... Why God MUST exist.

 

There are only 2 basic options for the origin of the universe .... an uncaused, supernatural first cause of the universe OR an uncaused, natural first cause of the universe. If you categorically reject the former (as atheists do), you have no option but to accept the latter by default. It is an intellectually dishonest cop-out to say atheism is merely a lack of belief. A genuine lack of belief would be classed as agnosticism, which is a neutral position. It is a 'don't know' or 'fence sitting' position. A 'don't know' position is not one which would specifically single out to reject, attack and ridicule just one side of the argument, i.e. the concept of a supernatural, first cause, as atheism does.

Atheists cannot simply deny, attack and vociferously ridicule the concept of - a supernatural, first cause, without being expected to justify the only alternative - a natural, first cause. That cannot be regarded as intellectually credible or rational.

We see that atheists dogmatically reject supernaturalism and are zealously on the side of naturalism (a naturalistic origin and explanation for everything). That is not a neutral, 'don't know' or objective position. It is not merely a lack of belief. It is a positive and subjective belief in naturalism. And hence a belief in a natural cause of the universe, and everything that exists or has ever existed.

 

So how do we know that atheism false and that God MUST exist?

 

Firstly ...

We know that the universe has not always existed, we know it had a beginning and it is 'running down' from an original peak of energy potential at its beginning. The Second Law of Thermodynamics (law of entropy) confirms that. So we know the universe had an origin.

 

Secondly .....

What about matter itself?

Can matter have always existed? The simple answer is no.

Matter/energy and all natural entities and events are contingent, they rely on causes for everything. Because they are contingent they cannot be eternally self-existent or necessary entities. They do not contain within themselves the reason or cause of their own existence. As contingent entities, they are entirely reliant on that which causes and maintains them. They cannot exist or operate in any way without causes, Thus they must have had an original cause at some stage, even if the chain of causes and effects is very long, it had to have a beginning at some point.

A basic principle of the scientific method is that we can expect to find an adequate cause for every natural occurrence. All scientific research is based on that premise.

To propose a non-contingent, natural occurrence or entity as the originator of the universe (as atheists are forced to do), is unscientific fantasy.

 

Thirdly ....

A supernatural first cause (God) is not a contingent entity. It is not natural, and is not bound by natural laws which govern matter and all natural events. In fact, as the first cause of matter/energy, it is also the author of the laws that govern matter/energy. It cannot be subject to laws it has created.

As the very first cause, it also cannot have had any preceding cause, so we know it cannot be a contingent entity.

Why? Because ...first means first, not second or third. If something is first, nothing preceded it. It must have always existed and must have had within itself the means of its own existence. It could not have relied on anything else for its existence. So the supernatural, first cause (a creator God) has to be eternally, self-existent and necessary.

It also has to have the powers and ability to create everything else that exists in the universe. As the original cause, it has to be an adequate cause of everything ...of all causes and effects that follow it, forever. That means - it has to have the powers, properties and qualities sufficient to create: time, matter/energy, natural laws, information, life, intelligence, consciousness and every characteristic that humans have. Because we, as a mere effect of the first cause, cannot be greater than that which ultimately caused us.

 

So God is the non-contingent, self-existent, necessary, supernatural, first cause of everything in the universe.

That is the logical conclusion of the understanding and application of natural laws.

 

ATHEIST BELIEF IN A NATURAL FIRST CAUSE VIOLATES NATURAL LAW.

THUS ATHEISM IS ILLOGICAL, AND ANTI-SCIENCE.

 

Essential characteristics of the first cause.

 

Consider this short chain of causes and effects:

A causes B, - B causes C, - C causes D, - D causes E.

'A, B, C & D' are all causes and may all look similar, but they are not, there is an enormous and crucial difference between them.

Causes B, C & D are fundamentally different from cause A.

Why?

Because A is the very first cause and thus had no previous cause. It exists without a cause. It doesn’t rely on anything else for its existence, it is completely independent of causes - while B, C & D would not exist without A. They are entirely dependent on A.

Causes; B, C & D are also effects, whereas A is not an effect, only a cause.

So we can say that the first cause ‘A’ is both self-existent and necessary. It is necessary because the rest of the chain of causes and effects could not exist without it. We also have to say that the subsequent causes and effects B, C, D and E are all contingent. That is; they are not self-existent they all depend entirely on other causes to exist.

We can also say that A is eternally self-existent, i.e. it has always existed, it had no beginning. Why? Because if A came into being at some point, there must have been something other than itself that brought it into being … which would mean A was not the first cause (A could not create A) … the something that brought A into being would be the first cause. In which case, A would be contingent and no different from B, C, D & E.

We can also say that A is adequate to produce all the properties of B, C, D & E.

Why?

Well in the case of E we can see that it relies entirely on D for its existence, E can in no way be superior to D because D had to contain within it everything necessary to produce E. The same applies to D it cannot be superior to C, but furthermore neither E or D can be superior to C, because both rely on C for their existence, and C had to contain everything necessary to produce D & E.

Likewise with B, which is responsible for the existence of C, D & E.

As they all depend on A for their existence and all their properties, abilities and potentials, none can be superior to A whether singly or combined. A had to contain everything necessary to produce B, C, D & E including all their properties, abilities and potentials.

Thus we deduce that; nothing in the universe can be superior in any way to the very first cause of the universe, because the whole universe, and all material things that exist, depend entirely on the abilities and properties of the first cause to produce them.

 

So to sum up … a first cause must be uncaused, must have always existed and cannot be in any way inferior to all subsequent causes and effects. In other words, the first cause of the universe must be eternally, self-existent and omnipotent (greater than everything that exists). No natural entity can have those attributes, that is why a Supernatural, Creator God MUST exist.

 

What about polytheism, can there be more than one God or Creator.

It is patently obvious there can only be one supernatural first cause.

The first cause is infinite - and logically, there cannot be more than one infinite entity.

If there were two infinite entities, for example, A and B. The qualities and perfections that are the property of B would be a limitation on the qualities and perfections of A. and vice versa, so neither would be infinite.

If A & B had identical qualities and perfections they would not be two different entities, they would be identical and therefore the same entity, i.e. a single, infinite, first cause. So there can be only one infinite being or entity, only one supernatural, first cause and creator of the universe.

So when atheists keep repeating the claim - that there is no reason to believe the monotheistic, Christian God is any different from the multiple, gods of pagan religions, it simply displays their ignorance and lack of reasoning.

 

Does the first cause have to be a supernatural one, or is it (as atheists claim) just a desperate attempt by ignorant people to fill a gap in scientific knowledge, by saying - God did it?

 

What does 'supernatural' mean? It means something which cannot be explained by science, natural laws or by natural processes.

 

The origin of the universe cannot be explained by genuine science, natural laws or by natural processes. And that is an undeniable FACT.

Why?

Because EVERY possible explanation by natural processes violates both the fundamental principle of the scientific method - the Law of Cause and Effect - and other natural laws.

Hence, the first cause, by virtue of the fact that it cannot be explained by science or natural processes, automatically qualifies as a supernatural entity.

To insist that the first cause must be a natural entity or event is to invoke a magical explanation, not a scientific one. The only choice, therefore is between a supernatural first cause or a magical first cause? A natural event that is purported to defy natural laws and scientific principles can only be described as MAGIC. And that is exactly what atheists propose. They cynically dress up their belief - that nature can evade natural laws - as science, but science certainly cannot envisage a causeless, natural event or entity, science cannot look for non-causes.

 

No one has ever proposed a natural explanation for the origin of the universe that does not violate the law of cause and effect and other natural laws. But, whenever they are challenged about this fact, they always make the excuse that the laws of nature/physics somehow DID NOT APPLY to their proposed, natural origin scenario.

The most, well known case of this excuse is the alleged 'Singularity' which, it was claimed, preceded the Big Bang. Remember it was claimed to be a "one-off event where the laws of physics did not apply." A natural event that defied natural laws! - That used to be called 'magic', before atheist 'scientists' hi-jacked science with their religion of naturalism - the All Powerful, autonomous, Mother Nature.

 

Excuses aren't science. A natural event that violates natural laws is by definition, not possible. There are no ifs, buts or perhaps, natural things are bound by natural laws, without question. Natural laws describe the inherent properties of natural entities. And the whole essence of science is the fact that every natural entity/event is contingent - has to have an ADEQUATE CAUSE.

The idea of 'laws not applying' to a natural event, is not science. It is just fantasy.

 

If the origin of the universe is inexplicable to science, within the accepted framework of normal, natural processes and natural laws, then it is a supernatural event.

You cannot claim something as a natural event that violates natural laws. For that reason it is inexplicable to science.

In fact. to claim that something natural can defy natural laws is anti-science.

Those who believe such nonsense are enemies of science.

 

ALL NATURAL explanations for the origin of the universe violate the Law of Cause and Effect and other natural laws.

Conclusion: the atheist belief in a natural explanation for the origin of the universe (that Mother Nature did it) is impossible - according to science.

 

Atheist myths debunked - abiogenesis - the inherent predisposition of matter to create life.

www.flickr.com/photos/truth-in-science/22250603246

 

The world's fist ever photograph.

The new astonishing phenomenon detected on the Shroud of Turin

youtu.be/B6iQGomNqTw

 

EUbabel. The shocking occult symbolism of the European Union.

peuplesobservateursblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/23/togo-all...

 

Taken on 11th October, 2014.

 

Hemis Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, Ladakh, India. Situated 45 km from Leh, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century and was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honoring Padmasambhava is held here in early June.

   

Terma and tertöns : The essence of Tebetan Buddhism.

 

Padmasambhava (lit. "Lotus-Born"), also known as Guru Rinpoche, is a literary character of terma (Terma or "hidden treasure"- are key Tibetan Buddhist teaching, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts, in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a tradition of continuous revelation in Tibetan Buddhism. Termas are a part of Tantric Literature. Tradition holds that terma may be a physical object such as a text or ritual implement that is buried in the ground (or earth), hidden in a rock or crystal, secreted in a herb, or a tree, hidden in a lake (or water), or hidden in the sky (space). Though a literal understanding of terma is "hidden treasure", and sometimes objects are hidden away, the teachings associated should be understood as being “concealed within the mind of the guru”, that is, the true place of concealment is in the tertön's mindstream. If the concealed or encoded teaching or object is a text, it is often written in dakini script: a non-human type of code or writing).

     

Terma is an emanation of Amitabha (Amitābha or Amideva, is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. Amitābha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia, while in Vajrayana Amitābha is known for his longevity attribute, magnetising red fire element, the aggregate of discernment, pure perception and the deep awareness of emptiness of phenomena. According to these scriptures, Amitābha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakāra. "Amitābha" is translatable as "Infinite Light," hence Amitābha is also called "The Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light" ).

 

Terma that is said to appear to tertons (A tertön is a discoverer of ancient texts or terma in Tibetan Buddhism) in visionary encounters and a focus of Tibetan Buddhist practice (Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, Mongolia, Tuva, Bhutan, Kalmykia and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, and India (particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Dharamsala, Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. It is also practiced in Northeast China. Religious texts and commentaries are contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon such that Tibetan is a spiritual language of these areas. The Tibetan diaspora has spread Tibetan Buddhism to many Western countries, where the tradition has gained popularity. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million).

   

History

 

Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century. Naropa, the pupil of the yogi Tilopa, and teacher of the translator Marpa is connected with this monastery. A translation was made by A. Grünwedel (Nӑro und Tilo,: Festschrift Ernst Kuhn, München 1916) of Naropa's biography that was found in Hemis monastery.

 

In this manuscript Naropa (or Naro) meets the "dark blue" (Skr.: nila: dark blue or black) Tilopa (or Tillo), a tantric master, who gives Naropa 12 "great" and 12 "small" tasks to do in order to enlighten him to the inherent emptiness/illusoriness of all things. Naropa is depicted as the "abbott of Nalanda" (F. Wilhelm, Prüfung und Initiation im Buche Pausya und in der Biographie des Naropa, Wiesbaden 1965, p. 70), the university-monastery in today's Bihar, India, that flourished until the sacking by Turkish and Afghan Muslim forces. This sacking must have been the driving force behind Naropa's peregrination in the direction of Hemis. After Naropa and Tilopa met in Hemis they travelled back in the direction of a certain monastery in the now no longer existing kingdom of Maghada, called Otantra which has been identified as today's Otantapuri. Naropa is consered the founding father of the Kagyu-lineage of the Himalayan esoteric Buddhism. Hence Hemis is the main seat of the Kagyu lineage of Buddhism.

 

In 1894 Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch claimed Hemis as the origin of an otherwise unknown gospel, the Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men, in which Jesus is said to have traveled to India during his "lost years." According to Notovitch, the work had been preserved in the Hemis library, and was shown to him by the monks there while he was recuperating from a broken leg. But once his story had been re-examined by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence. Bart D. Ehrman states that "Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax". However, the Indian Pandit Swami Abhedananda also claims to have read the same manuscript, and published his account of viewing it after his visit to Hemis in 1921. Abhedananda claims on the book jacket that it was translated for him with the help of a "local Lama interpreter." In the same vein, Notovich did not initially translate the manuscript, but reported his Sherpa guide did so as Notovitch could not read the original text. Notovich's version of the manuscript was translated from Tibetan to Russian to French to English. According to Swami Abhedananda's account, his Lama's translation was equivalent to the one published by Notovich. The Gutenberg Project has published the entire manuscript as a free ebook.

   

Hemis Festival

 

The Hemis Festival is dedicated to Lord Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche) venerated as the Dance Performance at Hemis Monastery representative reincarnate of Buddha. He is believed to have been born on the 10th day of the fifth month of the Monkey year as predicted by the Buddha Shakyamuni. It is also believed that his life mission was, and remains, to improve the spiritual condition of all living beings. And so on this day, which comes once in a cycle of 12 years, Hemis observes a major extravaganza in his memory. The observance of these sacred rituals is believed to give spiritual strength and good health. The Hemis festival takes place in the rectangular courtyard in front of the main door of the monastery. The space is wide and open save two raised square platforms, three feet high with a sacred pole in the center. A raised dias with a richly cushioned seat with a finely painted small Tibetan table is placed with the ceremonial items - cups full of holy water, uncooked rice, tormas made of dough and butter and incense sticks. A number of musicians play the traditional music with four pairs of cymbals, large-pan drums, small trumpets and large size wind instruments. Next to them, a small space is assigned for the lamas to sit.

 

The ceremonies begin with an early morning ritual atop the Gompa where, to the beat of drums and the resounding clash of cymbals and the spiritual wail of pipes, the portrait of "Dadmokarpo" or "Rygyalsras Rimpoche" is then ceremoniously put on display for all to admire and worship.

 

The most esoteric of festivities are the mystic mask dances. The Mask Dances of Ladakh are referred collectively as chams Performance. Chams performance is essentially a part of Tantric tradition, performed only in those gompas which follow the Tantric Vajrayana teachings and the monks perform tantric worship.

 

Source: Wikipedia and others.

  

On 11th October , 2014, around 2.30 pm we reached our hotel at Leh. After a hurried lunch we proceeded to famous Hemis Monastery. In the late afternoon we reached at Hemis. It was behind a small hill, difficult to figure out such a huge structure from a distant point. We climbed few staircases, crossed a door and finally reached the main courtyard. What a wonderful ambiance it had been, so peaceful and serene. It was getting dark soon, and couldn’t see much of it. The next day we came again and had a vivid look. I was amazed by its richness and traditions of tantric practice of Tibetan Buddhism in such a remote place of the world.

  

Hemis Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, Ladakh, India. Situated 45 km from Leh, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century and was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honoring Padmasambhava is held here in early June.

  

Terma and tertöns : The essence of Tebetan Buddhism.

Padmasambhava (lit. "Lotus-Born"), also known as Guru Rinpoche, is a literary character of terma (Terma or "hidden treasure"- are key Tibetan Buddhist teaching, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts, in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a tradition of continuous revelation in Tibetan Buddhism. Termas are a part of Tantric Literature. Tradition holds that terma may be a physical object such as a text or ritual implement that is buried in the ground (or earth), hidden in a rock or crystal, secreted in a herb, or a tree, hidden in a lake (or water), or hidden in the sky (space). Though a literal understanding of terma is "hidden treasure", and sometimes objects are hidden away, the teachings associated should be understood as being “concealed within the mind of the guru”, that is, the true place of concealment is in the tertön's mindstream. If the concealed or encoded teaching or object is a text, it is often written in dakini script: a non-human type of code or writing).

  

Terma is an emanation of Amitabha (Amitābha or Amideva, is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. Amitābha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia, while in Vajrayana Amitābha is known for his longevity attribute, magnetising red fire element, the aggregate of discernment, pure perception and the deep awareness of emptiness of phenomena. According to these scriptures, Amitābha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakāra. "Amitābha" is translatable as "Infinite Light," hence Amitābha is also called "The Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light" ).

Terma that is said to appear to tertons (A tertön is a discoverer of ancient texts or terma in Tibetan Buddhism) in visionary encounters and a focus of Tibetan Buddhist practice (Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, Mongolia, Tuva, Bhutan, Kalmykia and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, and India (particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Dharamsala, Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. It is also practiced in Northeast China. Religious texts and commentaries are contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon such that Tibetan is a spiritual language of these areas. The Tibetan diaspora has spread Tibetan Buddhism to many Western countries, where the tradition has gained popularity. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million).

Interested Viewers can see the following documentary on Padmasambhava:

Padmasambhava

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQBbfLtxj8A&spfreload=10

  

History

Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century. Naropa, the pupil of the yogi Tilopa, and teacher of the translator Marpa is connected with this monastery. A translation was made by A. Grünwedel (Nӑro und Tilo,: Festschrift Ernst Kuhn, München 1916) of Naropa's biography that was found in Hemis monastery.

In this manuscript Naropa (or Naro) meets the "dark blue" (Skr.: nila: dark blue or black) Tilopa (or Tillo), a tantric master, who gives Naropa 12 "great" and 12 "small" tasks to do in order to enlighten him to the inherent emptiness/illusoriness of all things. Naropa is depicted as the "abbott of Nalanda" (F. Wilhelm, Prüfung und Initiation im Buche Pausya und in der Biographie des Naropa, Wiesbaden 1965, p. 70), the university-monastery in today's Bihar, India, that flourished until the sacking by Turkish and Afghan Muslim forces. This sacking must have been the driving force behind Naropa's peregrination in the direction of Hemis. After Naropa and Tilopa met in Hemis they travelled back in the direction of a certain monastery in the now no longer existing kingdom of Maghada, called Otantra which has been identified as today's Otantapuri. Naropa is consered the founding father of the Kagyu-lineage of the Himalayan esoteric Buddhism. Hence Hemis is the main seat of the Kagyu lineage of Buddhism.

In 1894 Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch claimed Hemis as the origin of an otherwise unknown gospel, the Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men, in which Jesus is said to have traveled to India during his "lost years." According to Notovitch, the work had been preserved in the Hemis library, and was shown to him by the monks there while he was recuperating from a broken leg. But once his story had been re-examined by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence. Bart D. Ehrman states that "Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax". However, the Indian Pandit Swami Abhedananda also claims to have read the same manuscript, and published his account of viewing it after his visit to Hemis in 1921. Abhedananda claims on the book jacket that it was translated for him with the help of a "local Lama interpreter." In the same vein, Notovich did not initially translate the manuscript, but reported his Sherpa guide did so as Notovitch could not read the original text. Notovich's version of the manuscript was translated from Tibetan to Russian to French to English. According to Swami Abhedananda's account, his Lama's translation was equivalent to the one published by Notovich. The Gutenberg Project has published the entire manuscript as a free ebook.

  

Hemis Festival

The Hemis Festival is dedicated to Lord Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche) venerated as the Dance Performance at Hemis Monastery representative reincarnate of Buddha. He is believed to have been born on the 10th day of the fifth month of the Monkey year as predicted by the Buddha Shakyamuni. It is also believed that his life mission was, and remains, to improve the spiritual condition of all living beings. And so on this day, which comes once in a cycle of 12 years, Hemis observes a major extravaganza in his memory. The observance of these sacred rituals is believed to give spiritual strength and good health. The Hemis festival takes place in the rectangular courtyard in front of the main door of the monastery. The space is wide and open save two raised square platforms, three feet high with a sacred pole in the center. A raised dias with a richly cushioned seat with a finely painted small Tibetan table is placed with the ceremonial items - cups full of holy water, uncooked rice, tormas made of dough and butter and incense sticks. A number of musicians play the traditional music with four pairs of cymbals, large-pan drums, small trumpets and large size wind instruments. Next to them, a small space is assigned for the lamas to sit.

The ceremonies begin with an early morning ritual atop the Gompa where, to the beat of drums and the resounding clash of cymbals and the spiritual wail of pipes, the portrait of "Dadmokarpo" or "Rygyalsras Rimpoche" is then ceremoniously put on display for all to admire and worship.

The most esoteric of festivities are the mystic mask dances. The Mask Dances of Ladakh are referred collectively as chams Performance. Chams performance is essentially a part of Tantric tradition, performed only in those gompas which follow the Tantric Vajrayana teachings and the monks perform tantric worship.

Source: Wikipedia and others.

 

#2953 - 2016 Day 31: Today as part of our house clearance we sorted through nearly a hundred photo albums. I hear and think much about the value of images in the digital age. What will happen to all the pixels stored as bytes on our computers? A good friend said to me recently to make books, otherwise "the kids will just trash the hard drive".

 

Well we found ourselves trashing albums. If they had been organised and selective then they would have had value. However when the images were mainly stored with neither captions nor discernment, the majority had no meaning for us as third-party viewers.

 

So we kept about 10%, all of which we will make into proper family records over time. And it has really sharpened my own focus to be discerning with my own image storage and cataloguing. Photobooks are the way forwards ...

Held at CrossFit Discernment Gym (CFD), Dalton, Georgia. 6/20/2018. Lauren came in 1st in the women's division.

 

20180620-70D- IMG_4583a Georgia Police and Fire Games

exploring Mark Valentine's planes of blurred compositions . .

 

__________________________________________________

Outlining a Theory of General Creativity . .

. . on a 'Pataphysical projectory

 

Entropy ≥ Memory ● Creativity ²

__________________________________________________

 

Study of the day:

 

Les lignes de fuite ne définissent pas un avenir mais un devenir. Il n’y a pas de programme, pas de plan de carrière possible lorsque nous sommes sur une ligne de fuite. On devient soi-même imperceptible et clandestin dans un voyage immobile (...) où le plus grand secret est de n'avoir plus rien à cacher.

 

The vanishing lines don't define a future but a "becoming". There is no program, no possible plan when we are on a vanishing line. We are becoming imperceptible and clandestine on a motionless travel (...) where the biggest secret is to have nothing to hide.

 

( Deleuze & Guattari - Mille Plateaux )

 

__________________________________________________

rectO-persO | E ≥ m.C² | co~errAnce | TiLt

Surveillance society: freedom going down the toilet.

 

Let’s use aerosolized nano-particulate matter (Where have I heard this before?) to make controllable nano-swarms of nanobots. Once these bio-penetrable microbots enter the body they will be taken into the vascular system where they can create clots (Where have I heard this before?). These nano-parasites will also cross the blood-brain barrier. And just think: these nanites are pretty much impossible to detect.

 

If you are interested in learning about these kinds of technologies, then watch this lecture by Dr. James Giordano:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxQXMPJcDUs

 

We will also use inhalables, ingestibles, and injectables (I wonder what could be done with this?) to get these nano-smartbots into your bodies. We will use advanced neuropsychopharmacologics along with nano-particles that are designed to pass into the brain. We will use these nanoid robotics with their various sensors and transmitters to remotely monitor the brain in real-time. We will use these neuro-sensory augmentation nano-devices (programmed closed-loop brain devices) for cognitive augmentation. We will employ nanoparticles, nanowires, carbon nanotubes, and interfaces to augment brain functions and brain circuitry. We will use a multimodal artificial sensory-memory system comprised of sensors that will generate biomimetic visual, auditory, tactile inputs, and flexible carbon nanotube synaptic transistors that will possess synapse-like signals for the processing and modifying of behaviours. We will hack the nervous system, brain and mechanical-electrical communication systems. We will use computational brain-machine interfaces—neuro-net systems/hybrid cyborg systems/biological drone systems—for human-computer interaction. With artificial intelligence, cognitive modelling and neural networks, we will merge DNA systems with quantum computing.

 

Take the 666 biochip tattoo with its sensitive, soft, and flexible application. Take the Beast cellchip for its fast and biocompatible operation. This 3D printed cybernetic tattoo brain-computer interface only requires a minimally invasive procedure. An automated machine will quickly stitch it into your hand or forehead, thus grafting it into your skin. This procedure will only take a few minutes. This parasitic micro/nanotechnology will run off the energy of its biological host, using enzyme-based biofuel cells to power it. With this Beast-technology we will modify humanity, connecting it to a collective transhuman hivemind system (666). When you hear the command you must collectively bow down and worship the Beast. Then you, along with all transhumanity, will be one with the Beast.

 

Don’t lose your love for the truth or you will forsake what’s right. Don’t lose your ability to think independently or you will forsake discernment. If you do, you will fall into the trap of a totalitarian system. Then you will be ruled by a tyrant who will impose strict uniformity. In such a system there will be no free-flow of ideas. Instead, you’ll have to follow the collective: be woke and conform! Indeed, a New World Order authoritarian system is in the making. This system will control you via a techno-commerce data system, which will be linked to you in real time. Its motto will be: go woke or go broke! Like the pagan ritual of Burning Man (Wicker Man), we will burn down man; then out of the ashes he will rise up like a transhuman phoenix—born again in the new age—a new global citizen. Burning Man…Building Back Better…666…merging Man and Machine…Transhumanism. Join the Aquarian Decade…the Great Reset…Agenda 2030…the age of new birth! Follow the rising of the false sun: the false christ, the Beast. Walk in the false light. Follow Lucifer the false light-bringer and his false christ.

 

John 3:19-21 “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

 

Traditional art derives from a creativity which combines heavenly inspiration with ethnic genius, and which does so in the manner of a science endowed with rules and not by way of individual improvisation; ars sine scientia nihil.

 

Within the framework of a traditional civilization, there is as already mentioned a distinction to be made between sacred art and profane art. The purpose of the first is to communicate, on the one hand, spiritual truths and, on the other hand, a celestial presence; sacerdotal art has in principle a truly sacramental function. The function of profane art is obviously more modest: it consists in providing what theologians call “sensible consolations,” with a view to an equilibrium conducive to the spiritual life, rather in the manner of the flowers and birds in a garden. The purpose of art of every kind—and this includes craftsmanship—is to create a climate and forge a mentality; it thus rejoins, directly or indirectly, the function of interiorizing contemplation, the Hindu darshan: contemplation of a holy man, of a sacred place, of a venerable object, of a Divine image.

 

Sacred art is vertical and ascending, whereas profane art is horizontal and equilibrating.

 

In the beginning, nothing was profane; each tool was a symbol, and even decoration was symbolistic and sacral.

 

With the passage of time, however, the imagination increasingly spread itself on the earthly plane, and man felt the need for an art that was for him and not for Heaven alone; the earth too, which in the beginning was experienced as a prolongation or an image of Heaven, progressively became earth pure and simple, that is to say that the human being increasingly felt himself to possess the right to be merely human.

 

If religion tolerates this art, it is because it nevertheless has its legitimate function in the economy of spiritual means, within the horizontal or earthly dimension, and with the vertical or heavenly dimension in view.

 

However, it must be reiterated here that the distinction between a sacred and a profane art is inadequate and too precipitate when one wishes to take account of all artistic possibilities; and it is therefore necessary to have recourse to a supplementary distinction, namely that between a liturgical and an extra-liturgical art: in the first, although in principle it coincides with sacred art, there may be modalities that are more or less profane, just as inversely, extra-liturgical art may comprise some sacred manifestations.

 

Sacred art is far from always being perfect, although it is necessarily so in its principles and in the best of its productions; nevertheless in the great majority of imperfect works, the principles compensate for the accidental weaknesses, rather as gold, from a certain point of view, can compensate for the but slight artistic value of a given object.

 

Two pitfalls lie in wait for sacred art and for traditional art in general: a virtuosity tending towards the outward and the superficial, and a conventionalism without intelligence and without soul; but this, it must be stressed, rarely deprives sacred art of its overall efficacy, and in particular of its capacity to create a stabilizing and interiorizing atmosphere.

 

As for imperfection, one of its causes can be the inexperience, if not the incompetence of the artist; the most primitive works are rarely the most perfect, for in the history of art there are periods of apprenticeship just as later there are periods of decadence, the latter often being due to virtuosity.

 

Another cause of imperfection is unintelligence, either individual or collective: the image may be lacking in quality because the artist (the word here having an approximate meaning) is lacking in intelligence or spirituality, but it may likewise bear the imprint of a certain collective unintelligence that comes from the sentimental conventionalization of the common religion; in

this case, the collective psychism clothes the spiritual element with a kind of “pious stupidity”, for if there is a naiveté that is charming, there is also a naiveté that is moralistic and irritating.

 

This must be said lest anyone should think that artistic expressions of the sacred dispense us from discernment and oblige us to be prejudiced, and so that no one should forget that in the traditional domain in general, there is on all planes a constant struggle between a solidifying tendency and a tendency towards transparency which draws the psychic back to the spiritual. All of this may be summed up by saying that sacred art is sacred in itself, but that it is not necessarily so in all its expressions.

 

----

 

Frithjof Schuon

 

----

 

Quoted in: Art from the Sacred to the Profane, East and West

 

Hemis Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, Ladakh, India. Situated 45 km from Leh, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century and was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honoring Padmasambhava is held here in early June.

  

Terma and tertöns : The essence of Tebetan Buddhism.

Padmasambhava (lit. "Lotus-Born"), also known as Guru Rinpoche, is a literary character of terma (Terma or "hidden treasure"- are key Tibetan Buddhist teaching, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts, in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a tradition of continuous revelation in Tibetan Buddhism. Termas are a part of Tantric Literature. Tradition holds that terma may be a physical object such as a text or ritual implement that is buried in the ground (or earth), hidden in a rock or crystal, secreted in a herb, or a tree, hidden in a lake (or water), or hidden in the sky (space). Though a literal understanding of terma is "hidden treasure", and sometimes objects are hidden away, the teachings associated should be understood as being “concealed within the mind of the guru”, that is, the true place of concealment is in the tertön's mindstream. If the concealed or encoded teaching or object is a text, it is often written in dakini script: a non-human type of code or writing).

  

Terma is an emanation of Amitabha (Amitābha or Amideva, is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. Amitābha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia, while in Vajrayana Amitābha is known for his longevity attribute, magnetising red fire element, the aggregate of discernment, pure perception and the deep awareness of emptiness of phenomena. According to these scriptures, Amitābha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakāra. "Amitābha" is translatable as "Infinite Light," hence Amitābha is also called "The Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light" ).

Terma that is said to appear to tertons (A tertön is a discoverer of ancient texts or terma in Tibetan Buddhism) in visionary encounters and a focus of Tibetan Buddhist practice (Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, Mongolia, Tuva, Bhutan, Kalmykia and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, and India (particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Dharamsala, Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. It is also practiced in Northeast China. Religious texts and commentaries are contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon such that Tibetan is a spiritual language of these areas. The Tibetan diaspora has spread Tibetan Buddhism to many Western countries, where the tradition has gained popularity. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million).

Interested Viewers can see the following documentary on Padmasambhava:

Padmasambhava

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQBbfLtxj8A&spfreload=10

  

History

Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century. Naropa, the pupil of the yogi Tilopa, and teacher of the translator Marpa is connected with this monastery. A translation was made by A. Grünwedel (Nӑro und Tilo,: Festschrift Ernst Kuhn, München 1916) of Naropa's biography that was found in Hemis monastery.

In this manuscript Naropa (or Naro) meets the "dark blue" (Skr.: nila: dark blue or black) Tilopa (or Tillo), a tantric master, who gives Naropa 12 "great" and 12 "small" tasks to do in order to enlighten him to the inherent emptiness/illusoriness of all things. Naropa is depicted as the "abbott of Nalanda" (F. Wilhelm, Prüfung und Initiation im Buche Pausya und in der Biographie des Naropa, Wiesbaden 1965, p. 70), the university-monastery in today's Bihar, India, that flourished until the sacking by Turkish and Afghan Muslim forces. This sacking must have been the driving force behind Naropa's peregrination in the direction of Hemis. After Naropa and Tilopa met in Hemis they travelled back in the direction of a certain monastery in the now no longer existing kingdom of Maghada, called Otantra which has been identified as today's Otantapuri. Naropa is consered the founding father of the Kagyu-lineage of the Himalayan esoteric Buddhism. Hence Hemis is the main seat of the Kagyu lineage of Buddhism.

In 1894 Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch claimed Hemis as the origin of an otherwise unknown gospel, the Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men, in which Jesus is said to have traveled to India during his "lost years." According to Notovitch, the work had been preserved in the Hemis library, and was shown to him by the monks there while he was recuperating from a broken leg. But once his story had been re-examined by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence. Bart D. Ehrman states that "Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax". However, the Indian Pandit Swami Abhedananda also claims to have read the same manuscript, and published his account of viewing it after his visit to Hemis in 1921. Abhedananda claims on the book jacket that it was translated for him with the help of a "local Lama interpreter." In the same vein, Notovich did not initially translate the manuscript, but reported his Sherpa guide did so as Notovitch could not read the original text. Notovich's version of the manuscript was translated from Tibetan to Russian to French to English. According to Swami Abhedananda's account, his Lama's translation was equivalent to the one published by Notovich. The Gutenberg Project has published the entire manuscript as a free ebook.

  

Hemis Festival

The Hemis Festival is dedicated to Lord Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche) venerated as the Dance Performance at Hemis Monastery representative reincarnate of Buddha. He is believed to have been born on the 10th day of the fifth month of the Monkey year as predicted by the Buddha Shakyamuni. It is also believed that his life mission was, and remains, to improve the spiritual condition of all living beings. And so on this day, which comes once in a cycle of 12 years, Hemis observes a major extravaganza in his memory. The observance of these sacred rituals is believed to give spiritual strength and good health. The Hemis festival takes place in the rectangular courtyard in front of the main door of the monastery. The space is wide and open save two raised square platforms, three feet high with a sacred pole in the center. A raised dias with a richly cushioned seat with a finely painted small Tibetan table is placed with the ceremonial items - cups full of holy water, uncooked rice, tormas made of dough and butter and incense sticks. A number of musicians play the traditional music with four pairs of cymbals, large-pan drums, small trumpets and large size wind instruments. Next to them, a small space is assigned for the lamas to sit.

The ceremonies begin with an early morning ritual atop the Gompa where, to the beat of drums and the resounding clash of cymbals and the spiritual wail of pipes, the portrait of "Dadmokarpo" or "Rygyalsras Rimpoche" is then ceremoniously put on display for all to admire and worship.

The most esoteric of festivities are the mystic mask dances. The Mask Dances of Ladakh are referred collectively as chams Performance. Chams performance is essentially a part of Tantric tradition, performed only in those gompas which follow the Tantric Vajrayana teachings and the monks perform tantric worship.

Source: Wikipedia and others.

 

Dominicans and Franciscans spotted in conversation at the national discernment weekend, Invocation 2012 which was held in Oscott College (Birmingham) from 6-8 July.

4th entry... Quite personal... a prayer for discernment and a restatement of my mission. Yeah, that's my mission "to inspire faith, learning and creativity in others" and it will be wherever, whenever I will be led. What's yours?

Hemis Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, Ladakh, India. Situated 45 km from Leh, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century and was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honoring Padmasambhava is held here in early June.

 

Terma and tertöns : The essence of Tebetan Buddhism.

Padmasambhava (lit. "Lotus-Born"), also known as Guru Rinpoche, is a literary character of terma (Terma or "hidden treasure"- are key Tibetan Buddhist teaching, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts, in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a tradition of continuous revelation in Tibetan Buddhism. Termas are a part of Tantric Literature. Tradition holds that terma may be a physical object such as a text or ritual implement that is buried in the ground (or earth), hidden in a rock or crystal, secreted in a herb, or a tree, hidden in a lake (or water), or hidden in the sky (space). Though a literal understanding of terma is "hidden treasure", and sometimes objects are hidden away, the teachings associated should be understood as being “concealed within the mind of the guru”, that is, the true place of concealment is in the tertön's mindstream. If the concealed or encoded teaching or object is a text, it is often written in dakini script: a non-human type of code or writing).

  

Terma is an emanation of Amitabha (Amitābha or Amideva, is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. Amitābha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia, while in Vajrayana Amitābha is known for his longevity attribute, magnetising red fire element, the aggregate of discernment, pure perception and the deep awareness of emptiness of phenomena. According to these scriptures, Amitābha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakāra. "Amitābha" is translatable as "Infinite Light," hence Amitābha is also called "The Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light" ).

Terma that is said to appear to tertons (A tertön is a discoverer of ancient texts or terma in Tibetan Buddhism) in visionary encounters and a focus of Tibetan Buddhist practice (Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, Mongolia, Tuva, Bhutan, Kalmykia and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, and India (particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Dharamsala, Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. It is also practiced in Northeast China. Religious texts and commentaries are contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon such that Tibetan is a spiritual language of these areas. The Tibetan diaspora has spread Tibetan Buddhism to many Western countries, where the tradition has gained popularity. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million).

 

History

Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century. Naropa, the pupil of the yogi Tilopa, and teacher of the translator Marpa is connected with this monastery. A translation was made by A. Grünwedel (Nӑro und Tilo,: Festschrift Ernst Kuhn, München 1916) of Naropa's biography that was found in Hemis monastery.

In this manuscript Naropa (or Naro) meets the "dark blue" (Skr.: nila: dark blue or black) Tilopa (or Tillo), a tantric master, who gives Naropa 12 "great" and 12 "small" tasks to do in order to enlighten him to the inherent emptiness/illusoriness of all things. Naropa is depicted as the "abbott of Nalanda" (F. Wilhelm, Prüfung und Initiation im Buche Pausya und in der Biographie des Naropa, Wiesbaden 1965, p. 70), the university-monastery in today's Bihar, India, that flourished until the sacking by Turkish and Afghan Muslim forces. This sacking must have been the driving force behind Naropa's peregrination in the direction of Hemis. After Naropa and Tilopa met in Hemis they travelled back in the direction of a certain monastery in the now no longer existing kingdom of Maghada, called Otantra which has been identified as today's Otantapuri. Naropa is consered the founding father of the Kagyu-lineage of the Himalayan esoteric Buddhism. Hence Hemis is the main seat of the Kagyu lineage of Buddhism.

In 1894 Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch claimed Hemis as the origin of an otherwise unknown gospel, the Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men, in which Jesus is said to have traveled to India during his "lost years." According to Notovitch, the work had been preserved in the Hemis library, and was shown to him by the monks there while he was recuperating from a broken leg. But once his story had been re-examined by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence. Bart D. Ehrman states that "Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax". However, the Indian Pandit Swami Abhedananda also claims to have read the same manuscript, and published his account of viewing it after his visit to Hemis in 1921. Abhedananda claims on the book jacket that it was translated for him with the help of a "local Lama interpreter." In the same vein, Notovich did not initially translate the manuscript, but reported his Sherpa guide did so as Notovitch could not read the original text. Notovich's version of the manuscript was translated from Tibetan to Russian to French to English. According to Swami Abhedananda's account, his Lama's translation was equivalent to the one published by Notovich. The Gutenberg Project has published the entire manuscript as a free ebook.

 

Hemis Festival

The Hemis Festival is dedicated to Lord Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche) venerated as the Dance Performance at Hemis Monastery representative reincarnate of Buddha. He is believed to have been born on the 10th day of the fifth month of the Monkey year as predicted by the Buddha Shakyamuni. It is also believed that his life mission was, and remains, to improve the spiritual condition of all living beings. And so on this day, which comes once in a cycle of 12 years, Hemis observes a major extravaganza in his memory. The observance of these sacred rituals is believed to give spiritual strength and good health. The Hemis festival takes place in the rectangular courtyard in front of the main door of the monastery. The space is wide and open save two raised square platforms, three feet high with a sacred pole in the center. A raised dias with a richly cushioned seat with a finely painted small Tibetan table is placed with the ceremonial items - cups full of holy water, uncooked rice, tormas made of dough and butter and incense sticks. A number of musicians play the traditional music with four pairs of cymbals, large-pan drums, small trumpets and large size wind instruments. Next to them, a small space is assigned for the lamas to sit.

The ceremonies begin with an early morning ritual atop the Gompa where, to the beat of drums and the resounding clash of cymbals and the spiritual wail of pipes, the portrait of "Dadmokarpo" or "Rygyalsras Rimpoche" is then ceremoniously put on display for all to admire and worship.

 

The most esoteric of festivities are the mystic mask dances. The Mask Dances of Ladakh are referred collectively as chams Performance. Chams performance is essentially a part of Tantric tradition, performed only in those gompas which follow the Tantric Vajrayana teachings and the monks perform tantric worship.

Source: Wikipedia and others.

 

京島の住宅街で

Faith on Campus

Newman Centers provide students a faith home away from home

 

By Andrew Junker and Ambria Hammel| Sept. 3, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

 

Even though classes at Northern Arizona University wouldn’t start until the following morning, the Flagstaff campus was filled with excited freshmen and fretful-looking parents Aug. 23.

 

On the mall outside the student union, organizations and groups vied for the new students’ interest and time.

 

And the requests won’t stop just because school has started, warned Fr. Matt Lowry during his homily at Holy Trinity Catholic Newman Center’s annual “Mass on the Grass.”

 

In fact, he said, much of college life is determining the most important question facing everyone: Whom will you serve?

 

For Fr. Lowry, part of that question was answered for him when he was assigned to be chaplain of NAU’s Newman Center this past July. He was also named associate vocations director for the Diocese of Phoenix.

 

For the foreseeable future, at least, he’ll be serving the students at the state university, which is exciting, but also a little daunting.

 

“College students force you to be intellectually honest,” the priest said. “They’re seeking the truth, which means, as a minister, I have to be very prepared.”

 

Newman Centers have to be a source of spiritual growth and a strong community for Catholic students at a state school who are often far from family members and their local parish, Fr. Lowry said.

 

“Since we don’t have a Catholic university in the diocese, the Newman Center becomes the place where students have Catholic formation,” he said. “It’s a critical time in a person’s life. They leave home and parish and they need support for their faith.”

 

During an Aug. 23 welcoming Mass at the All Saints Catholic Newman Center at Arizona State University in Tempe, Dominican Father James Thompson encouraged the students to use the center — and, more broadly, their time in college — to grow their faith.

 

“I dare you to question your faith,” he said. “I’ll go even further. I demand that you question it so that you achieve an adult faith. That’s what you’re here for at the Newman Center. Own your faith and question it with integrity.”

 

Fr. Thompson said that through honest questioning, students would arrive at the truth, regardless of their chosen major. In a homily that echoed the thought of the great Dominican Thomas Aquinas, he said students studying the sciences, the arts and philosophy could be led to the ultimate Truth.

 

ASU’s Newman Center offers a myriad of opportunities for students to “own” their faith, and the list of ways they can get involved grows every year.

 

“The more students are involved in a community, the more retention levels go up,” said Lourdes Alonso, director of campus ministry and a past president of ASU’s Council of Religious Advisors.

 

She said consistent comments praise the Dominicans’ “welcoming influence and successful ability to reach students and young professionals who have left the Church or who have drifted from regular Mass attendance.”

 

Alonso encourages Newman Center volunteers to always make a connection with the students who might be inquiring about something simple like Mass times.

 

“Engage them in a conversation by asking their name, where they’re from or what they’re studying,” Alonso said.

 

It can all go a long way to making the students feel comfortable at the Newman Center, and that will get them coming back for more.

 

“Last year I went to a College Night and got plugged right into it,” said Thomas Kupitz, a sophomore at ASU. “It’s a good atmosphere of peers.”

 

He noted that opportunities available at the Newman Center cater to the whole individual by offering service projects and socializing, small faith sharing and retreats.

 

“The environment has pushed us to go and do stuff,” Kupitz said. “There are activities to keep you engaged.”

 

Sense of community

Up in Flagstaff, second-year student Catherine Eyer told a similar story. She began going to Sunday Mass at the Newman Center and then attended XLT, which combines adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with praise and worship music, some Scripture and preaching.

 

It was her experience at XLT that drew Eyer into the Newman Center. This year, she was manning the signup table before the Mass on the Grass outside the center’s chapel.

 

“I just like to be involved in things,” she said. “Most of the people I’ve met here are phenomenal. There’s a definite community. It’s like a close-knit family.”

 

Fr. Lowry hopes the Catholic community at NAU will grow even closer. He plans to do his part by “being visible” on campus and at the center. He’ll be celebrating Mass and hearing confessions daily, and he’s already spruced up the center’s front yard with some sand for volleyball games.

 

Fr. Lowry didn’t hide the fact that he’ll also be spending his days fostering vocations at NAU and supporting students in discernment.

 

“College is the time when we discern all our vocations,” he said. “The bishop was purposeful in giving me my two titles: chaplain of the Newman Center and associate vocations director.”

 

But for many of the new freshmen and returning students who attended Mass at either Newman Center, perhaps the most apparent thing was that even away from home, they still have a family in their brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

“It’s just so amazing to have a Catholic community on campus,” Eyer said.

 

More: www.catholicsun.org

 

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Los que poseen el espíritu de discernimiento saben cuanta diferencia puede mediar entre dos palabras parecidas, según los lugares y las circunstancias que las acompañen.

BLAISE PASCAL

 

Those who possess the spirit of discernment know how much difference can mediate between two similar words, according to the places and circumstances that go with it.

 

ORAN. IT IS HERE THAT RAI IS BORN...The raï was born in Oran with the likes of Cheb Khaled, Cheb Mami... This incredible concentration of Oranese folklore, flamenco, jazz, of the Egyptian genre is a true explosion amplified today of the auto-tune, tilting these robotic complaints in spirals of rhythm boxes, of wah-wah pedal. Le Raï is also a very rich local scene (including Amine Matelot, hiding here her sweetness behind her terrible glasses...). These songs speak of the city with a recurrent geography (the road of the high school, the car park, the beach...). It is also a way to enter into the heart of the city, its feeling and its "discernment" (Rai). Oran is a singing, polyphonic city, bordering on the hips of her songs.

Raï (IPA: [rɑi]; Arabic: راي‎‎), sometimes written rai, is a form of Algerian folk music that which dates back to the 1920s. Singers of Raï are called cheb (Arabic: شاب) (or shabab, i.e. young) as opposed to sheikh (Arabic: شيخ) (shaykh, i.e. old), the name given to Chaabi singers. The tradition arose in cities like Oran, Relizane, Mostaganem, Chlef, Aïn Témouchent and Sidi-Bel-Abbès, primarily among the poor. Traditionally sung by men, by the end of the 20th century, female singers had become common. The lyrics of Raï have concerned social issues such as disease and the policing of European colonies that affected native populations

Raï is a type of Algerian popular music that arose in the 1920s[citation needed] in the port city of Oran and that self-consciously ran counter to accepted artistic and social mores. It appealed to young people who sought to modernize the traditional Islamic values and attitudes. Regional, secular, and religious drum patterns, melodies, and instruments were blended with Western electric instrumentation. Raï emerged as a major world-music genre in the late 1980s.

In the years just following World War I, the Algerian city of Oran—known as “little Paris”—was a melting pot of various cultures, full of nightclubs and cabarets; it was the place to go for a bawdy good time. Out of this milieu arose a group of male and female Muslim singers called chioukhs and cheikhates, who rejected the refined, classical poetry of traditional Algerian music. Instead, to the accompaniment of pottery drums and end-blown flutes, they sang about the adversity of urban life in a raw, gritty, sometimes vulgar, and inevitably controversial language that appealed especially to the socially and economically disadvantaged. The cheikhates further departed from tradition in that they performed not only for women but also and especially for men.

The music performed was called raï. It drew its name from the Algerian Arabic word raï (“opinion” or “advice”), which was typically inserted—and repeated—by singers to fill time as they formulated a new phrase of improvised lyrics. By the early 1940s Cheikha Rimitti el Reliziana had emerged locally as a musical and linguistic luminary in the raï tradition, and she continued to be among the music’s most prominent performers into the 21st century.

In the early 20th century, Oran was divided into Jewish, French, Spanish, and Arab quarters. By independence in 1962, the Jewish quarter (known as the Derb), was home to musicians like Reinette L'Oranaise, Saoud l'Oranais and Larbi Bensari. Sidi el Houari was home to Spanish fishermen and many refugees from Spain who arrived after 1939. These two quarters had active music scenes,[4] and the French inhabitants of the city went to the Jewish and Spanish areas to examine the music. The Arabs of Oran were known for al-andalous, a classical style of music imported from Southern Spain after 1492. Hawzi classical music was popular during this time, and female singers of the genre included Cheikha Tetma, Fadila D'zirya and Myriam Fekkai. Another common musical genre was bedoui (or gharbi), which originated from Bedouin chants. Bedoui consisted of Melhun poetry being sung with accompaniment from guellal drums and gaspa Flutes. Bedoui was sung by male singers, known as cheikhs, who were dressed in long, white jellabas and turbans. Lyrics came from the poetry of people such as Mestfa ben Brahim and Zenagui Bouhafs. Performers of bedoui included Cheikh Hamada, Cheikh Mohammed Senoussi, Cheikh Madani, Cheikh Hachemi Bensmir and Cheikh Khaldi. Senoussi was the first to have had recorded the music in 1906.

French colonization of Algeria changed the organization of society, producing a class of poor, uneducated urban men and women. Bedoui singers mostly collaborated with the French colonizers, though one exception from such collaboration was Cheikh Hamada.[5] The problems of survival in a life of poverty were the domain of street musicians who sang bar-songs called zendanis. A common characteristic of these songs included exclamations of the word "raï!" and variations thereof. The word "rai" implies that an opinion is being expressed.

In the 1920s, the women of Oran were held to strict code of conduct. Many of those that failed became social outcasts and singers and dancers. They sang medh songs in praïse of the prophet Mohammed and performed for female audiences at ceremonies such as weddings and circumcision feasts. These performers included Les Trois Filles de Baghdad, Soubira bent Menad and Kheira Essebsadija. Another group of female social outcasts were called cheikhas, who were known for their alluring dress, hedonistic lyrics, and their display of a form of music that was influenced from meddhahates and zendani singers. These cheikhas, who sang for both men and women, included people such as Cheikha Remitti el Reliziana, Cheikha Grélo, Cheikha Djenia el Mostganmia, Cheikha Bachitta de Mascara, and Cheikha a; Ouachma el Tmouchentia. The 1930s saw the rise of revolutionary organizations, including organizations motivated by Marxism, which mostly despised these early roots raï singers. At the same time, Arab classical music was gaining popularity across North Africa, especially the music of Umm Kulthum.

When first developed, raï was a hybrid blend of rural and cabaret musical genres, invented by and targeted toward distillery workers, peasants who had lost their land to European settlers, and other types of lower class citizens. The geographical location of Oran allowed for the spread of many cultural influences, allowing raï musicians to absorb an assortment of musical styles such as flamenco from Spain, gnawa music, and French cabaret, allowing them to combine with the rhythms typical of Arab nomads. In the early 1930s, social issues afflicting the Arab population in the colony, such as the disease of typhus, harassment and imprisonment by the colonial police, and poverty were prominent themes of raï lyrics. However, other main lyrical themes concerned the likes of wine, love, and the meaning and experiences of leading a marginal life. From its origins, women played a significant role in the music and performance of raï. In contrast to other Algerian music, raï incorporated dancing in addition to music, particularly in a mixed-gender environment.

In the 1930s, Raï, al-andalousm, and the Egyptian classical style influenced the formation of wahrani, a musical style popularized by Blaoui Houari. Musicians like Mohammed Belarbi and Djelloul Bendaoud added these influences to other Oranian styles, as well as Western piano and accordion, resulting in a style called bedoui citadinisé. Revolt began in the mid-1950s, and musicians which included Houari and Ahmed Saber supported the Front de Libération National. After independence in 1962, however, the Marxist government of the Houari Boumédienne regime, along with President Ahmed Ben Bella, did not tolerate criticism from musicians such as Saber, and suppression of Raï and Oranian culture ensued. The amount of public performances by female raï singers decreased[clarification needed], which led to men playing an increased role in this genre of music. Meanwhile, traditional raï instruments such as the gasba (reed flute), and the derbouka (Maghrebi drums) were replaced with the violin and accordion.

In the 1960s, Bellamou Messaoud and Belkacem Bouteldja began their career, and they changed the raï sound, eventually gaining mainstream acceptance in Algeria by 1964. In the 1970s, recording technology began growing more advanced, and more imported genres had Algerian interest as well, especially Jamaican reggae with performers like Bob Marley. Over the following decades, raï increasingly assimilated the sounds of the diverse musical styles that surfaced in Algeria. During the 1970s, raï artists brought in influences from other countries such as Egypt, Europe, and the Americas. Trumpets, the electric guitar, synthesizers, and drum machines were specific instruments that were put into raï music. This marked the beginning of pop raï, which was performed by a later generation which adopted the title of Cheb (male) or Chaba (female), meaning “young,” to distinguish themselves from the older musicians who continued to perform in the original style. Among the most prominent performers of the new raï were Chaba Fadela, Cheb Hamid, and Cheb Mami. However, by the time the first international raï festival was held in Algeria in 1985, Cheb Khaled had become virtually synonymous with the genre. More festivals followed in Algeria and abroad, and raï became a popular and prominent new genre in the emergent world-music market. cheb (young man) and cheba (young woman).[8] International success of the genre had begun as early as 1976 with the rise to prominence of producer Rachid Baba Ahmed.

 

During the 1970s, raï artists brought in influences from other countries such as Egypt, Europe, and the Americas. Trumpets, the electric guitar, synthesizers, and drum machines were specific instruments that were put into raï music. This marked the beginning of pop raï, which was performed by a later generation of chabs (young men) and chabates (young women).[8] International success of the genre had begun as early as 1976 with the rise to prominence of producer Rachid Baba Ahmed.

The added expense of producing LP's as well as the technical aspects imposed on the medium by the music led to the genre being released almost exclusively onto cassette by the early 1980s, with a great deal of music having no LP counterpart at all and a very limited exposure on CD.

While this form of raï increased cassette sales, its association with mixed dancing, an obscene act according to orthodox Islamic views, led to government-backed suppression. However, this suppression was overturned due to raï's growing popularity in France, where it was strongly demanded by the Maghrebi Arab community. This popularity in France was increased as a result of the upsurge of Franco-Arab struggles against racism. This led to a following of a white audience that was sympathetic to the antiracist struggle.[6]

After the election of president Chadli Bendjedid in 1979, Raï music had a chance to rebuild because of his lessened moral and economic restraints. Shortly afterwards, Raï started to form into pop-raï, with the use of instruments such as electrical synthesizers, guitars, and drum machines.

In the 1980s, raï began its period of peak popularity. Previously, the Algerian government had opposed raï because of its sexually and culturally risqué topics, such as alcohol and consumerism, two subjects that were taboo to the traditional Islamic culture.

 

The government eventually attempted to ban raï, banning the importation of blank cassettes and confiscating the passports of raï musicians. This was done to prevent raï from not only spreading throughout the country, but to prevent it from spreading internationally and from coming in or out of Algeria. Though this limited the professional sales of raï, the music increased in popularity through the illicit sale and exchange of tapes. In 1985, Algerian Colonel Snoussi joined with French minister of culture Jack Lang to convince the Algerian state to accept raï. He succeeded in getting the government to return passports to raï musicians and to allow raï to be recorded and performed in Algeria, with government sponsorship, claiming it as a part of Algerian cultural heritage. This not only allowed the Algerian government to financially gain from producing and releasing raï, but it allowed them to monitor the music and prevent the publication of "unclean" music and dance and still use it to benefit the Algerian State's image in the national world. In 1986, the first state-sanctioned raï festival was held in Algeria, and a festival was also held in Bobigny, France.

In 1988, Algerian students and youth flooded the streets to protest state-sponsored violence, the high cost of staple foods, and to support the Peoples' Algerian Army. President Chadli Bendjedid, who held power from 1979 to 1992, and his FLN cronies blamed raï for the massive uprising that left 500 civilians dead in October 1988. Most raï singers denied the allegation, including Cheb Sahraoui, who said there was no connection between raï and the October rebellion. Yet raï's reputation as protest music stuck because the demonstrators adopted Khaled's song "El Harba Wayn" ("To Flee, But Where?") to aid their protesting:

Where has youth gone?

Where are the brave ones?

The rich gorge themselves

The poor work themselves to death

The Islamic charlatans show their true face...

You can always cry or complain

Or escape... but where?

 

In the 1990s, restrictions[specify] were placed on raï, and those who did not submit to censorship faced consequences such as exile. One exiled raï singer, Cheb Hasni, accepted an offer to return to Algeria and perform at a stadium in 1994. Hasni's fame and controversial songs led to him receiving death threats from Islamic fundamentalist extremists. On September 29, 1994, he was the first raï musician to be murdered, outside his parents' home in the Gambetta district of Oran, reportedly because he let girls kiss him on the cheek during a televised concert. His death came amid other violent actions against North African performers. A few days before his death, the Kabyle singer Lounès Matoub was abducted by the GIA. The following year, on February 15, 1995, Raï producer Rachid Baba-Ahmed was assassinated in Oran.

 

The escalating tension of the Islamist anti-raï campaign caused raï musicians such as Chab Mami and Chaba Fadela to relocate from Algeria to France. Moving to France was a way to sustain the music's existence. France was where Algerians had moved during the post-colonial era in order to find work, and where musicians had a greater opportunity to oppose the government without censorship.

Though raï found mainstream acceptance in Algeria, Islamic fundamentalists still protested the genre, saying that it was still too liberal and too contrasting to traditional Islamic values. The fundamentalists claimed that the musical genre still promoted sexuality, alcohol and Western consumer culture, but critics of the fundamentalist viewpoint stated that fundamentalists and raï musicians were ultimately seeking converts from the same population, the youth, who often had to choose where they belonged between the two cultures. Despite the governmental support, a split remained between those citizens belonging to strict Islam and those patronizing the raï scene.

 

International success

Cheb Khaled was the first musician with international success, including his 1988 album Kutché, though his popularity did not extend to places such as the United States and Latin America. Other prominent performers of the 1980s included Houari Benchenet, Raïna Raï, Mohamed Sahraoui, Cheb Mami, and Cheb Hamid.

International success grew in the 1990s, with Cheb Khaled's 1992 album Khaled. With Khaled no longer in Algeria, musicians such as Cheb Tahar, Cheb Nasro, and Cheb Hasni began singing lover's raï, a sentimental, pop-ballad form of raï music. Later in the decade, funk, hip hop, and other influences were added to raï, especially by performers like Faudel and Rachid Taha, the latter of whom took raï music and fused it with rock. Taha does not call his creation raï music, but rather describes it as a combination of folk raï and punk. Another mix of cultures in Arabic music of the late 1990s came through Franco-Arabic music released by musicians such as Aldo.

 

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a rise in female raï performers. According to authors Gross, McMurray, and Swedenburg in their article "Arab Noise and Ramadan Nights: Raï, Rap, and Franco-Maghrebi Identity," raï musician Chaba Zahouania was forbidden by her family to perform or even appear in public. According to Gross et al., the raï record companies have pushed female artists to become more noticed.

Throughout the course of raï music's development and commercialization in Algeria, there have been many attempts to stifle the genre. From lyrical content to the album cover images, raï has been a controversial music. Religious identity and transnationalism function to define the complexities of Maghrebi identity. This complex identity is expressed through raï music and is often contested and censored in many cultural contexts.

In 1962, as Algeria claimed its national independence, expression of popular culture was stifled by the conservative nature of the people. During this time of drastic restriction of female expression, many men started to become raï singers. By 1979, when president Chadli Bendjedid endorsed more liberal moral and economic standards, raï music became further associated with Algerian youth. The music remained stigmatized amongst the Salafi Islamists and the Algerian government. Termed the "raï generation", the youth found raï as a way to express sexual and cultural freedoms.[22] An example of this free expression is through the lyrics of Cheb Hasni in his song "El Berraka". Hasni sang: "I had her ... because when you're drunk that's the sort of idea that runs through your head!" Hasni challenged the fundamentalists of the country and the condemnation of non-religious art forms.

 

Raï started to circulate on a larger scale, via tape sales, TV exposure, and radio play. However, the government attempted to "clean up" raï to adhere to conservative values. Audio engineers manipulated the recordings of raï artists in order to submit to such standards. This tactic allowed for the economy to profit from the music by gaining conservative audiences. The conservativeness not only affected the way listeners received raï music, but also the way the artists, especially female artists, presented their own music. For instance, many[weasel words] female raï artists do not appear on their album covers. Such patriarchal standards pressure women to societal privacy.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%AF

 

An aura develops around the spectator's despised sihouette. the immobility or mobility of the spectators act on the shape of the surrounding aura, its shades and behaviour. Color fluxes can accelerate, propagate, slow down, and transform to gradually invade the picture. To many spectators, interactions such as energy exchanges produce a work in the darkness of an empty body of meaning.The aura (also referred to as the auric field, radiance, or the eighth chakra) is an electromagnetic field surrounding the human form. People with enhanced psychic ability are able to see the movement and varied colors of the aura. Kirlian photography is a technique that captures the light from the auras of humans and plant life. The aura is also commonly referred to as the eighth chakra. Auras are like magnets picking up vibrational energies that are floating around everywhere we go. It is important to cleanse your aura frequently to free it of foreign vibrations and negative energies. Auras (colors and light) envelope our physical bodies are enveloped by our auras (colors and light). Some people are able to see auras plain as the nose on your face. On occasion some people will get a glimpse of an aura around someone. These glimpses serve as a reminder that we are first and foremost spiritual beings. Our physical bodies are secondary to who we are.

To live on this planet not only is it fashionable to have a human cloak, being connected to a body is a necessity to having a human experience. That's the whole point of being here, to experience challenges and joys of being human in order to evolve spiritually. It can be even more surprising to see (or sense) energetic lights (orbs, beams, light flashes, or human shapes) without them being associated with a living person, animal, or plant. When this occurs you are likely encountering an angel, spirit guide, or ascended master. Angel intuitive, Eileen Anglin, says that she associates specific light colors with the archangels and in some instances Ascended Masters... blue for Archangel Michael and yellow for Archangel Gabriel. Here is a complete list of Eileen's color associations (note that these colors are personal for her and could, therefore, be different for others).The evolution of mankind is progressing more rapidly than any other time in recorded history. With a growing unrest, we look not to the future but to the teachings of the past to bring greater meaning to our human existence. When we dive deeply, we find the forgotten knowledge of the Mystery Schools: legends of people levitating, yogis living hundreds of years and even walking through walls. For each tradition, the teachings of the light body were those skills reserved for the highest initiates, forming the foundations of these god-like feats.Mystical traditions knew that everything is energy: billions of molecules each acting as their own cosmos. As nothing in this world is just physical, it’s this culmination of constantly moving energy creating matter. Knowing how to use form optimally was the work of the sages, and is now becoming the practices of the awakened collective.

The human energy field is made up of several layers. The terms etheric body, mental body, astral body and emotional body are all aspects of the light body. Beyond these densities are further ways to activate the higher functions of the light body.

 

In electrical impulses, energetic bodies beyond the physical can be detected. Aura photos, also known as Kirlian photography, can capture images of these bodies. Shamans and gifted healers regularly work within these fields.

 

MERKABA

 

This is an Egyptian term translated as: Mer (light) Ka (soul) Ba (body).

 

It’s known as the chariot of the soul and must be activated to achieve ascension.

 

Drunvalo Melchizedek has taught this knowledge extensively. Specific breathwork combined with visualization can activate the light body as sacred geometry around the physical body. Even with books and guided online meditations, attending a workshop is necessary to achieve these very precise steps accurately.

 

RAINBOW BODY

 

Once the light body is activated, more sincere practices in absolute love are necessary to elevate the light body to the rainbow body state.

 

The rainbow body is the result of maintaining a constant frequency of unconditional love.

 

Having healed every wound, purified every thought and released every judgment, the rainbow body will ignite. It’s an absolute unwavering of this vibration which allows us to achieve ascension.

 

Both Jesus and Buddha ascended in this form. In their perfection of the human, they became “gods” and showed others the way to accomplish this frequency. The teachings of both masters are instructions illuminating the path for others to follow.

 

ASCENSION AND THE LIGHT BODY

 

Once the MerKaBa is activated and our highest fields of the light body are achieved, we illuminate the rainbow body through our consistently loving thoughts and sustained ecstatic frequency. With this luminous vibration intact, we’re able to dissolve back into Source, creating any form we wish, thereby achieving immortality as it was promised.

 

Ascension is our graduation to full cosmic consciousness, the rainbow body is the highest graduation of the light body, and the MerKaBa must first be activated to hold these higher frequencies if we wish to ascend.

 

EXPERIENCING THE LIGHT BODY

 

“If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

 

Roald Dahl

 

Have you ever been around someone who exuded sacred? Amma comes to my mind. As soon as you’re in their presence you feel peaceful, inspired and more fulfilled. Way beyond charisma, this is a direct experience of a highly activated light body.

 

Being near them is discernible in your own body. I recall being at a couple of events with teachers of such caliber and feeling light-headed, unable to focus on anything. The magnitude of their field influenced my vision, my mind and my spirit.

 

In the presence of such beings, we’re being activated ourselves, brought into greater spiritual alignment and being shown we too are capable of such mastery.

 

To activate a light body is not the work of gurus and masters, it’s a way of being intended for every living being who wishes to pursue it.

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LIGHT BODY

 

Beyond the supreme mastery of the physical form, the light body teachings are crucially important at this time for humanity. It’s in this concept we’re reminded we’re more than physical, more than what we think and what we do. We’re extraordinary manifestations of a universe so much bigger than our limited scope can comprehend.

 

BLESSING OF ITS SUPPRESSION

 

We can conceive how essential this knowledge is to the advancement of humanity and we can also assume why it’s been so hidden from us: to keep us from achieving ascension.

 

Backing off the powers-that-were blame game, I believe the fact that it’s been kept from us is a great boon. For in its suppression, it retained power. In its preservation, it gave humanity a chance to catch up.

 

Mass consciousness is clicking in dramatically now, grasping onto ancient teachings and seeking out transparency in all affairs. What once seemed complex is now being illustrated in memes and hashtags. A peek through any social media feed will illuminate a new trend toward reclaiming ancient wisdom. Humanity has evolved and it’s now that we’re able to achieve these teachings with finesse and mastery.

 

NECESSITY OF DISCERNMENT

 

The teachings of the Mystery Schools were shared with only a select few. Initiations would bring spiritual seekers through these gateways after many years of ritual to prepare the body, mind and spirit. While the light body teachings would have been present in every tradition, it may take many lifetimes to master. Now however, even a YouTube search will yield hundreds of techniques.

 

With such vast resources available, misinformation is rampant. The specifics of the techniques have likewise been muddied. I always seek a direct experience with my guides or turn to trusted teachers. Use your own intuition and discernment when seeking out such guidance. I find the integrity of teachers can vary greatly. I’m supremely vigilant in who I follow, and prefer the clear guidance of my own spirit allies and team of Ascended Masters to ensure the teachers' vibration matches mine.

 

HOW TO ACTIVATE THE LIGHT BODY

 

Your light body is a vehicle to assist you in experiencing your God state and it’s the most worthy gift you can give yourself. Don't beat yourself up: do your best, stay in your truth and heal missteps as they occur. Intention matched with frequency will be the surest path to ascension. Below, I share a few steps for activation:

 

RAISE YOUR VIBRATION

 

Vibration and purity of intention must be in place before undergoing the activations. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

 

PINEAL GLAND DECALCIFICATION

 

Decalcification of the pineal gland is mandatory for us to achieve higher states of awareness. Fluoride intentionally shuts down the pineal gland, supporting the suppression of its importance. Be conscious in your work to facilitate this healing.

 

FOOD

 

The food we eat carries cellular vibrations and memories. Do you know how was your meal gathered, treated and prepared? While a straight vegetarian diet may be the most optimal, small changes like non-GMO, organic and sustainably raised animal products will go a long way.

 

Additionally, bless your food. Ask that the vibration match you and serve you exactly where you are now.

 

MEDITATION/ PRAYER

 

Every breath is a prayer. Use your thoughts to connect to the universe and give gratitude for everything. Meditation will also bring us into the stillness within, where we can connect with the wisdom of our own hearts.

 

MUSIC & SOUND FREQUENCIES

 

Sound is the language of the cosmos. The right music, binaural beats, classical music or even heavy metal at the right moment can break up stagnant energy and alleviate any low-vibrational thoughts.

 

Tom Kenyon is rightfully heralded as a master of sound; listening to his auditory activations will be a fast track to your growth.

 

LAUGHTER

 

Korean shamans use laughter as their primary healing tool. Anytime we find ourselves in a lower state, depressed, irritated or angry, know your go-to to bring you into giggles. A YouTube video or funny joke will bring you back to higher frequencies.

 

NATURE

 

Time outdoors is the most fundamental ally to change your frequency. Commune with nature to remember the rhythm and timing of the the universe which is vastly different than our human drive for instant gratification.

 

THE SUN

 

The sun has been a boon of humanity in every world culture. Get yourself some Vitamin D to lift any funk and stimulate the pineal gland.

 

BE CLEAR

 

Dishonesty and addiction are detractors from this work. To be pure light in an active light body means holding purity in our thoughts, will and intention.

 

Be impeccable with your word and heal what clouds your mind, allowing more light to penetrate.

 

LIGHT BODY ACTIVATION MEDIATION

 

To prepare, find a comfortable seat without interruption. Breathing normally, direct your mind to "see" the visuals. No need for stress or strain, just give your imagination permission to create this for you.

 

Visualize yourself sitting inside a pyramid with the base resting on your hips and the tip pointing up toward the cosmos. Fill this pyramid with the color of lightning.

See the downward-pointing pyramid with the base at your heart and the tip resting in the earth. Fill this pyramid with the color of lightning and breathe normally for a few breaths.

When you can feel these two around you, exhale powerfully from your navel, sending out a sphere of golden light to encircle the octahedron.

Breathe deeply and allow yourself to experience this field around you.

When you can feel all three elements without strain, give them a spin clockwise: the pyramids first, then the sphere surrounding it. You may notice activation of a higher frequency, or a slight shift in physical sensations.

You’ve now activated the living light body and will notice a discernible difference in your body and mind.

 

The fuel of your light body is love.

 

Breathe with it, send it to others and direct that love into the internal spaces that need healing and affirmation. Send it to your emotions, your pain, your physical ailments and organs. This is the breath of life. It loves you and gives you the power to heal yourself.

 

Stay in this state for as long as you feel comfortable. Allow the MerKaBa to fade when you’re ready to return. This light body is available to support you anytime.

 

ECSTASY AS OUR BIRTHRIGHT

 

The truest vibration of the universe is ecstasy. Though it’s through pain that we experience separation from God, it’s in the triumphant return to him where we grow the most.

 

We’ve not only been taught that feeling good is bad, we’ve been taught to actively block joy. Through the media we watch, the food we eat, the medication we’re thrust, feeling depressed is force-fed to us, and not subliminally. Watch any big pharma commercial to hear blatantly stated, “You don't feel good and something is wrong with you.”

 

Maintaining the frequency necessary to achieve ascension is challenging. The light body can stay activated for long periods, getting us closer to ultimate enlightenment, but this final achievement of the rainbow body is intentionally difficult. The good news: there are documented cases in the ancient texts of at least 160,000 souls achieving this feat. If they were able to do it in their day, we are so much closer with the current incarnations of evolved souls on this planet.

 

www.gaia.com/article/what-is-a-light-body

The Quran (English pronunciation: /kɔrˈɑːn/ kor-AHN , Arabic: القرآن‎ al-qur'ān, IPA: [qurˈʔaːn], literally meaning "the recitation", also romanised Qur'an or Koran) is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God (Arabic: الله‎, Allah). Its scriptural status among a world-spanning religious community, and its major place within world literature generally, has led to a great deal of secondary literature on the Quran. Quranic chapters are called suras and verses are called ayahs.

 

Muslims believe that the Quran was verbally revealed by God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel (Jibril), gradually over a period of approximately 23 years, beginning on 22 December 609 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death. Muslims regard the Quran as the most important miracle of Muhammad, a proof of his prophethood, and the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with the messages revealed to Adam and ended with Muhammad. They consider the Quran to be the only revealed book that has been protected by God from distortion or corruption.

 

According to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammad's death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and memorized parts of it. These codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthman's codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran we have today. However, the existence of variant readings, with mostly minor and some significant variations, and the early unvocalized Arabic script mean the relationship between Uthman's codex to both the text of today's Quran and to the revelations of Muhammad's time is still unclear.

 

The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Jewish and Christian scriptures. It summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance. It sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law. During prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic.

 

Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz. Some Muslims read Quranic ayahs (verses) with elocution, which is often called tajwīd. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers. In order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir.

 

ETYMOLOGY & MEANING

The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself, assuming various meanings. It is a verbal noun (maṣdar) of the Arabic verb qaraʼa (قرأ), meaning "he read" or "he recited". The Syriac equivalent is (ܩܪܝܢܐ) qeryānā, which refers to "scripture reading" or "lesson". While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, the majority of Muslim authorities hold the origin of the word is qaraʼa itself. Regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammad's lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the "act of reciting", as reflected in an early Quranic passage: "It is for Us to collect it and to recite it (qurʼānahu)."

 

In other verses, the word refers to "an individual passage recited [by Muhammad]". Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example: "So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it and keep silent." The word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel.

 

The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran. Each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb (book); āyah (sign); and sūrah (scripture). The latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with a definite article (al-), the word is referred to as the "revelation" (waḥy), that which has been "sent down" (tanzīl) at intervals. Other related words are: dhikr (remembrance), used to refer to the Quran in the sense of a reminder and warning, and ḥikmah (wisdom), sometimes referring to the revelation or part of it.

 

The Quran describes itself as "the discernment or the criterion between truth and falsehood" (al-furqān), "the mother book" (umm al-kitāb), "the guide" (huda), "the wisdom" (hikmah), "the remembrance" (dhikr) and "the revelation" (tanzīl; something sent down, signifying the descent of an object from a higher place to lower place). Another term is al-kitāb (the book), though it is also used in the Arabic language for other scriptures, such as the Torah and the Gospels. The adjective of "Quran" has multiple transliterations including "quranic," "koranic" and "qur'anic," or capitalised as "Qur'anic," "Koranic" and "Quranic." The term muṣḥaf ('written work') is often used to refer to particular Quranic manuscripts but is also used in the Quran to identify earlier revealed books. Other transliterations of "Quran" include "al-Coran", "Coran", "Kuran" and "al-Qurʼan".

 

HISTORY

PROPHETIC ERA

Islamic tradition relates that Muhammad received his first revelation in the Cave of Hira during one of his isolated retreats to the mountains. Thereafter, he received revelations over a period of 23 years. According to hadith and Muslim history, after Muhammad emigrated to Medina and formed an independent Muslim community, he ordered many of his companions to recite the Quran and to learn and teach the laws, which were revealed daily. It is related that some of the Quraish who were taken prisoners at the battle of Badr regained their freedom after they had taught some of the Muslims the simple writing of the time. Thus a group of Muslims gradually became literate. As it was initially spoken, the Quran was recorded on tablets, bones, and the wide, flat ends of date palm fronds. Most suras were in use amongst early Muslims since they are mentioned in numerous sayings by both Sunni and Shia sources, relating Muhammad's use of the Quran as a call to Islam, the making of prayer and the manner of recitation. However, the Quran did not exist in book form at the time of Muhammad's death in 632 CE. There is agreement among scholars that Muhammad himself did not write down the revelation.

 

Sahih al-Bukhari narrates Muhammad describing the revelations as, "Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell" and Aisha reported, "I saw the Prophet being inspired Divinely on a very cold day and noticed the sweat dropping from his forehead (as the Inspiration was over)." Muhammad's first revelation, according to the Quran, was accompanied with a vision. The agent of revelation is mentioned as the "one mighty in power", the one who "grew clear to view when he was on the uppermost horizon. Then he drew nigh and came down till he was (distant) two bows' length or even nearer." The Islamic studies scholar Welch states in the Encyclopaedia of Islam that he believes the graphic descriptions of Muhammad's condition at these moments may be regarded as genuine, because he was severely disturbed after these revelations. According to Welch, these seizures would have been seen by those around him as convincing evidence for the superhuman origin of Muhammad's inspirations. However, Muhammad's critics accused him of being a possessed man, a soothsayer or a magician since his experiences were similar to those claimed by such figures well known in ancient Arabia. Welch additionally states that it remains uncertain whether these experiences occurred before or after Muhammad's initial claim of prophethood. The Quran describes Muhammad as "ummi", which is traditionally interpreted as "illiterate," but the meaning is rather more complex. The medieval commentators such as Al-Tabari maintained that the term induced two meanings: first, the inability to read or write in general; second, the inexperience or ignorance of the previous books or scriptures (but they gave priority to the first meaning). Besides, Muhammad's illiteracy was taken as a sign of the genuineness of his prophethood. For example, according to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, if Muhammad had mastered writing and reading he possibly would have been suspected of having studied the books of the ancestors. Some scholars such as Watt prefer the second meaning.

 

COMPILATION

Based on earlier transmitted reports, in the year 632 CE, after Muhammad died and a number of his companions who knew the Quran by heart were killed in a battle by Musaylimah, the first caliph Abu Bakr (d. 634CE) decided to collect the book in one volume so that it could be preserved. Zayd ibn Thabit (d. 655CE) was the person to collect the Quran since "he used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle". Thus, a group of scribes, most importantly Zayd, collected the verses and produced a hand-written manuscript of the complete book. The manuscript according to Zayd remained with Abu Bakr until he died. Zayd's reaction to the task and the difficulties in collecting the Quranic material from parchments, palm-leaf stalks, thin stones and from men who knew it by heart is recorded in earlier narratives. After Abu Bakr, Hafsa bint Umar, Muhammad's widow, was entrusted with the manuscript. In about 650 CE, the third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan (d. 656CE) began noticing slight differences in pronunciation of the Quran as Islam expanded beyond the Arabian peninsula into Persia, the Levant, and North Africa. In order to preserve the sanctity of the text, he ordered a committee headed by Zayd to use Abu Bakr's copy and prepare a standard copy of the Quran. Thus, within 20 years of Muhammad's death, the Quran was committed to written form. That text became the model from which copies were made and promulgated throughout the urban centers of the Muslim world, and other versions are believed to have been destroyed. The present form of the Quran text is accepted by Muslim scholars to be the original version compiled by Abu Bakr.

 

According to Shia and some Sunni scholars, Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661CE) compiled a complete version of the Quran shortly after Muhammad's death. The order of this text differed from that gathered later during Uthman's era in that this version had been collected in chronological order. Despite this, he made no objection against the standardized Quran and accepted the Quran in circulation. Other personal copies of the Quran might have existed including Ibn Mas'ud's and Ubayy ibn Kab's codex, none of which exist today.

 

The Quran most likely existed in scattered written form during Muhammad's lifetime. Several sources indicate that during Muhammad's lifetime a large number of his companions had memorized the revelations. Early commentaries and Islamic historical sources support the above-mentioned understanding of the Quran's early development. The Quran in its present form is generally considered by academic scholars to record the words spoken by Muhammad because the search for variants has not yielded any differences of great significance. Although most variant readings of the text of the Quran have ceased to be transmitted, some still are. There has been no critical text produced on which a scholarly reconstruction of the Quranic text could be based. Historically, controversy over the Quran's content has rarely become an issue, although debates continue on the subject.

 

In 1972, in a mosque in the city of Sana'a, Yemen, manuscripts were discovered that were later proved to be the most ancient Quranic text known to exist. The Sana'a manuscripts contain palimpsests, a manuscript page from which the text has been washed off to make the parchment reusable again - a practice which was common in ancient times due to scarcity of writing material. However, the faint washed-off underlying text (scriptio inferior) is still barely visible and believed to be "pre-Uthmanic" Quranic content, while the text written on top (scriptio superior) is believed to belong to Uthmanic time. Studies using radiocarbon dating indicate that the parchments are dated to the period before 671 AD with a 99 percent probability.

 

SIGNIFICANCE IN ISLAM

WORSHIP

Muslims believe the Quran to be the book of divine guidance revealed from God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel over a period of 23 years and view the Quran as God's final revelation to humanity. They also believe that the Quran has solutions to all the problems of humanity irrespective of how complex they may be and in what age they occur.

 

Revelation in Islamic and Quranic concept means the act of God addressing an individual, conveying a message for a greater number of recipients. The process by which the divine message comes to the heart of a messenger of God is tanzil (to send down) or nuzūl (to come down). As the Quran says, "With the truth we (God) have sent it down and with the truth it has come down."

 

The Quran frequently asserts in its text that it is divinely ordained. Some verses in the Quran seem to imply that even those who do not speak Arabic would understand the Quran if it were recited to them. The Quran refers to a written pre-text, "the preserved tablet", that records God's speech even before it was sent down.

 

The issue of whether the Quran is eternal or created became a theological debate (Quran's createdness) in the ninth century. Mu'tazilas, an Islamic school of theology based on reason and rational thought, held that the Quran was created while the most widespread varieties of Muslim theologians considered the Quran to be co-eternal with God and therefore uncreated. Sufi philosophers view the question as artificial or wrongly framed.

 

Muslims believe that the present wording of the Quran corresponds to that revealed to Muhammad, and according to their interpretation of Quran 15:9, it is protected from corruption ("Indeed, it is We who sent down the Quran and indeed, We will be its guardian."). Muslims consider the Quran to be a guide, a sign of the prophethood of Muhammad and the truth of the religion. They argue it is not possible for a human to produce a book like the Quran, as the Quran itself maintains.

 

Muslims commemorate annually the beginning of Quran's revelation on the Night of Destiny (Laylat al-Qadr), during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the month during which they fast from sunrise until sunset.

 

The first sura of the Quran is repeated in daily prayers and in other occasions. This sura, which consists of seven verses, is the most often recited sura of the Quran:

 

"All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Universe, the Beneficent, the Merciful and Master of the Day of Judgment, You alone We do worship and from You alone we do seek assistance, guide us to the right path, the path of those to whom You have granted blessings, those who are neither subject to Your anger nor have gone astray."

 

Respect for the written text of the Quran is an important element of religious faith by many Muslims, and the Quran is treated with reverence. Based on tradition and a literal interpretation of Quran 56:79 ("none shall touch but those who are clean"), some Muslims believe that they must perform a ritual cleansing with water before touching a copy of the Quran, although this view is not universal. Worn-out copies of the Quran are wrapped in a cloth and stored indefinitely in a safe place, buried in a mosque or a Muslim cemetery, or burned and the ashes buried or scattered over water.

 

In Islam, most intellectual disciplines, including Islamic theology, philosophy, mysticism and Jurisprudence, have been concerned with the Quran or have their foundation in its teachings. Muslims believe that the preaching or reading of the Quran is rewarded with divine rewards variously called ajr, thawab or hasanat.

 

IN ISLAMIC ART

The Quran also inspired Islamic arts and specifically the so-called Quranic arts of calligraphy and illumination.[1] The Quran is never decorated with figurative images, but many Qurans have been highly decorated with decorative patterns in the margins of the page, or between the lines or at the start of suras. Islamic verses appear in many other media, on buildings and on objects of all sizes, such as mosque lamps, metal work, pottery and single pages of calligraphy for muraqqas or albums.

 

INIMITABILITY

Inimitability of the Quran (or "I'jaz") is the belief that no human speech can match the Quran in its content and form. The Quran is considered an inimitable miracle by Muslims, effective until the Day of Resurrection - and, thereby, the central proof granted to Muhammad in authentication of his prophetic status. The concept of inimitability originates in the Quran where in five different verses opponents are challenged to produce something like the Quran: "If men and sprites banded together to produce the like of this Quran they would never produce its like not though they backed one another."[61] So the suggestion is that if there are doubts concerning the divine authorship of the Quran, come forward and create something like it. From the ninth century, numerous works appeared which studied the Quran and examined its style and content. Medieval Muslim scholars including al-Jurjani (d. 1078CE) and al-Baqillani (d. 1013CE) have written treatises on the subject, discussed its various aspects, and used linguistic approaches to study the Quran. Others argue that the Quran contains noble ideas, has inner meanings, maintained its freshness through the ages and has caused great transformations in individual level and in the history. Some scholars state that the Quran contains scientific information that agrees with modern science. The doctrine of miraculousness of the Quran is further emphasized by Muhammad's illiteracy since the unlettered prophet could not have been suspected of composing the Quran.

 

TEXT & ARRANGEMENT

The Quran consists of 114 chapters of varying lengths, each known as a sura. Suras are classified as Meccan or Medinan, depending on whether the verses were revealed before or after the migration of Muhammad to the city of Medina. However, a sura classified as Medinan may contain Meccan verses in it and vice versa. Sura titles are derived from a name or quality discussed in the text, or from the first letters or words of the surah. Suras are arranged roughly in order of decreasing size. The sura arrangement is thus not connected to the sequence of revelation. Each sura except the ninth starts with the Bismillah (بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم) an Arabic phrase meaning 'In the name of God.' There are, however, still 114 occurrences of the Bismillah in the Quran, due to its presence in Quran 27:30 as the opening of Solomon's letter to the Queen of Sheba.

 

Each sura consists of several verses, known as ayat, which originally means a 'sign' or 'evidence' sent by God. The number of verses differs from sura to sura. An individual verse may be just a few letters or several lines. The total number of verses in the Quran is 6236, however, the number varies if the bismillahs are counted separately.

 

In addition to and independent of the division into suras, there are various ways of dividing the Quran into parts of approximately equal length for convenience in reading. The 30 juz' (plural ajzāʼ) can be used to read through the entire Quran in a month. Some of these parts are known by names - which are the first few words by which the juzʼ starts. A juz' is sometimes further divided into two ḥizb (plural aḥzāb), and each hizb subdivided into four rubʻ al-ahzab. The Quran is also divided into seven approximately equal parts, manzil (plural manāzil), for it to be recited in a week.

 

Muqatta'at, or the Quranic initials, are 14 different letter combinations of 14 Arabic letters that appear in the beginning of 29 suras of the Quran. The meanings of these initials remain unclear.

 

According to one estimate the Quran consists of 77,430 words, 18,994 unique words, 12,183 stems, 3,382 lemmas and 1,685 roots.

 

CONTENTS

The Quranic content is concerned with the basic beliefs of Islam which include the existence of God and the resurrection. Narratives of the early prophets, ethical and legal subjects, historical events of Muhammad's time, charity and prayer also appear in the Quran. The Quranic verses contain general exhortations regarding right and wrong and the historical events are related to outline general moral lessons. Verses pertaining to natural phenomena have been interpreted by Muslims as an indication of the authenticity of the Quranic message.

 

MONOTHEISM

The central theme of the Quran is monotheism. God is depicted as living, eternal, omniscient and omnipotent (see, e.g., Quran 2:20, 2:29, 2:255). God's omnipotence appears above all in his power to create. He is the creator of everything, of the heavens and the earth and what is between them (see, e.g., Quran 13:16, 50:38, etc.). All human beings are equal in their utter dependence upon God, and their well-being depends upon their acknowledging that fact and living accordingly.

 

The Quran uses cosmological and contingency arguments in various verses without referring to the terms to prove the existence of God. Therefore, the universe is originated and needs an originator, and whatever exists must have a sufficient cause for its existence. Besides, the design of the universe, is frequently referred to as a point of contemplation: "It is He who has created seven heavens in harmony. You cannot see any fault in God's creation; then look again: Can you see any flaw?"

 

ESCHATOLOGY

The doctrine of the last day and eschatology (the final fate of the universe) may be reckoned as the second great doctrine of the Quran. It is estimated that around a full one-third of the Quran is eschatological, dealing with the afterlife in the next world and with the day of judgment at the end of time. There is a reference of the afterlife on most pages of the Quran and the belief in the afterlife is often referred to in conjunction with belief in God as in the common expression: "Believe in God and the last day". A number of suras such as 44, 56, 75, 78, 81 and 101 are directly related to the afterlife and its preparations. Some of the suras indicate the closeness of the event and warn people to be prepared for the imminent day. For instance, the first verses of Sura 22, which deal with the mighty earthquake and the situations of people on that day, represent this style of divine address: "O People! Be respectful to your Lord. The earthquake of the Hour is a mighty thing."

 

The Quran is often vivid in its depiction of what will happen at the end time. Watt describes the Quranic view of End Time:

 

"The climax of history, when the present world comes to an end, is referred to in various ways. It is 'the Day of Judgment,' 'the Last Day,' 'the Day of Resurrection,' or simply 'the Hour.' Less frequently it is 'the Day of Distinction' (when the good are separated from the evil), 'the Day of the Gathering' (of men to the presence of God) or 'the Day of the Meeting' (of men with God). The Hour comes suddenly. It is heralded by a shout, by a thunderclap, or by the blast of a trumpet. A cosmic upheaval then takes place. The mountains dissolve into dust, the seas boil up, the sun is darkened, the stars fall and the sky is rolled up. God appears as Judge, but his presence is hinted at rather than described. [...] The central interest, of course, is in the gathering of all mankind before the Judge. Human beings of all ages, restored to life, join the throng. To the scoffing objection of the unbelievers that former generations had been dead a long time and were now dust and mouldering bones, the reply is that God is nevertheless able to restore them to life."

 

The Quran does not assert a natural immortality of the human soul, since man's existence is dependent on the will of God: when he wills, he causes man to die; and when he wills, he raises him to life again in a bodily resurrection.[68]

 

PROPHETS

According to the Quran, God communicated with man and made his will known through signs and revelations. Prophets, or 'Messengers of God', received revelations and delivered them to humanity. The message has been identical and for all humankind. "Nothing is said to you that was not said to the messengers before you, that your lord has at his Command forgiveness as well as a most Grievous Penalty." The revelation does not come directly from God to the prophets. Angels acting as God's messengers deliver the divine revelation to them. This comes out in Quran 42:51, in which it is stated: "It is not for any mortal that God should speak to them, except by revelation, or from behind a veil, or by sending a messenger to reveal by his permission whatsoever He will."

 

ETHICO-RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS

Belief is the center of the sphere of positive moral properties in the Quran. A number of scholars have tried to determine the semantic contents of the words meaning 'belief' and 'believer' in the Quran [70] The Ethico-legal concepts and exhortations dealing with righteous conduct are linked to a profound awareness of God, thereby emphasizing the importance of faith, accountability and the belief in each human's ultimate encounter with God. People are invited to perform acts of charity, especially for the needy. Believers who "spend of their wealth by night and by day, in secret and in public" are promised that they "shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve" It also affirms family life by legislating on matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance. A number of practices such as usury and gambling are prohibited. The Quran is one of the fundamental sources of the Islamic law, or sharia. Some formal religious practices receive significant attention in the Quran including the formal prayers and fasting in the month of Ramadan. As for the manner in which the prayer is to be conducted, the Quran refers to prostration. The term used for charity, Zakat, actually means purification. Charity, according to the Quran, is a means of self-purification.

 

LITERARY STYLE

The Quran's message is conveyed with various literary structures and devices. In the original Arabic, the suras and verses employ phonetic and thematic structures that assist the audience's efforts to recall the message of the text. Muslims[who?] assert (according to the Quran itself) that the Quranic content and style is inimitable.

 

The language of the Quran has been described as "rhymed prose" as it partakes of both poetry and prose, however, this description runs the risk of compromising the rhythmic quality of Quranic language, which is certainly more poetic in some parts and more prose-like in others. Rhyme, while found throughout the Quran, is conspicuous in many of the earlier Meccan suras, in which relatively short verses throw the rhyming words into prominence. The effectiveness of such a form is evident for instance in Sura 81, and there can be no doubt that these passages impressed the conscience of the hearers. Frequently a change of rhyme from one set of verses to another signals a change in the subject of discussion. Later sections also preserve this form but the style is more expository.

 

The Quranic text seems to have no beginning, middle, or end, its nonlinear structure being akin to a web or net. The textual arrangement is sometimes considered to have lack of continuity, absence of any chronological or thematic order and presence of repetition. Michael Sells, citing the work of the critic Norman O. Brown, acknowledges Brown's observation that the seeming disorganization of Quranic literary expression – its scattered or fragmented mode of composition in Sells's phrase – is in fact a literary device capable of delivering profound effects as if the intensity of the prophetic message were shattering the vehicle of human language in which it was being communicated. Sells also addresses the much-discussed repetitiveness of the Quran, seeing this, too, as a literary device.

 

A text is self-referential when it speaks about itself and makes reference to itself. According to Stefan Wild the Quran demonstrates this meta-textuality by explaining, classifying, interpreting and justifying the words to be transmitted. Self-referentiality is evident in those passages when the Quran refers to itself as revelation (tanzil), remembrance (dhikr), news (naba'), criterion (furqan) in a self-designating manner (explicitly asserting its Divinity, "And this is a blessed Remembrance that We have sent down; so are you now denying it?"), or in the frequent appearance of the 'Say' tags, when Muhammad is commanded to speak (e.g. "Say: 'God's guidance is the true guidance' ", "Say: 'Would you then dispute with us concerning God?' "). According to Wild the Quran is highly self-referential. The feature is more evident in early Meccan suras.

 

INTERPRETATION

The Quran has sparked a huge body of commentary and explication (tafsīr), aimed at explaining the "meanings of the Quranic verses, clarifying their import and finding out their significance".

 

Tafsir is one of the earliest academic activities of Muslims. According to the Quran, Muhammad was the first person who described the meanings of verses for early Muslims. Other early exegetes included a few Companions of Muhammad, like ʻAli ibn Abi Talib, ʻAbdullah ibn Abbas, ʻAbdullah ibn Umar and Ubayy ibn Kaʻb. Exegesis in those days was confined to the explanation of literary aspects of the verse, the background of its revelation and, occasionally, interpretation of one verse with the help of the other. If the verse was about a historical event, then sometimes a few traditions (hadith) of Muhammad were narrated to make its meaning clear.

 

Because the Quran is spoken in classical Arabic, many of the later converts to Islam (mostly non-Arabs) did not always understand the Quranic Arabic, they did not catch allusions that were clear to early Muslims fluent in Arabic and they were concerned with reconciling apparent conflict of themes in the Quran. Commentators erudite in Arabic explained the allusions, and perhaps most importantly, explained which Quranic verses had been revealed early in Muhammad's prophetic career, as being appropriate to the very earliest Muslim community, and which had been revealed later, canceling out or "abrogating" (nāsikh) the earlier text (mansūkh). Other scholars, however, maintain that no abrogation has taken place in the Quran. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has published a 10-volume Urdu commentary on the Quran, with the name Tafseer e Kabir.

 

ESOTERIC INTERPRETATION

Esoteric or Sufi interpretation attempts to unveil the inner meanings of the Quran. Sufism moves beyond the apparent (zahir) point of the verses and instead relates Quranic verses to the inner or esoteric (batin) and metaphysical dimensions of consciousness and existence. According to Sands, esoteric interpretations are more suggestive than declarative, they are 'allusions' (isharat) rather than explanations (tafsir). They indicate possibilities as much as they demonstrate the insights of each writer.

 

Sufi interpretation, according to Annabel Keeler, also exemplifies the use of the theme of love, as for instance can seen in Qushayri's interpretation of the Quran. Quran 7:143 says:

 

"when Moses came at the time we appointed, and his Lord spoke to him, he said, 'My Lord, show yourself to me! Let me see you!' He said, 'you shall not see me but look at that mountain, if it remains standing firm you will see me.' When his Lord revealed Himself to the mountain, He made it crumble. Moses fell down unconscious. When he recovered, he said, 'Glory be to you! I repent to you! I am the first to believe!'"

 

Moses, in 7:143, comes the way of those who are in love, he asks for a vision but his desire is denied, he is made to suffer by being commanded to look at other than the Beloved while the mountain is able to see God. The mountain crumbles and Moses faints at the sight of God's manifestation upon the mountain. In Qushayri's words, Moses came like thousands of men who traveled great distances, and there was nothing left to Moses of Moses. In that state of annihilation from himself, Moses was granted the unveiling of the realities. From the Sufi point of view, God is the always the beloved and the wayfarer's longing and suffering lead to realization of the truths.[90]

 

Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaei says that according to the popular explanation among the later exegetes, ta'wil indicates the particular meaning a verse is directed towards. The meaning of revelation (tanzil), as opposed to ta'wil, is clear in its accordance to the obvious meaning of the words as they were revealed. But this explanation has become so widespread that, at present, it has become the primary meaning of ta'wil, which originally meant "to return" or "the returning place". In Tabatabaei's view, what has been rightly called ta'wil, or hermeneutic interpretation of the Quran, is not concerned simply with the denotation of words. Rather, it is concerned with certain truths and realities that transcend the comprehension of the common run of men; yet it is from these truths and realities that the principles of doctrine and the practical injunctions of the Quran issue forth. Interpretation is not the meaning of the verse - rather it transpires through that meaning, in a special sort of transpiration. There is a spiritual reality - which is the main objective of ordaining a law, or the basic aim in describing a divine attribute - and then there is an actual significance that a Quranic story refers to.

 

According to Shia beliefs, those who are firmly rooted in knowledge like Muhammad and the imams know the secrets of the Quran. According to Tabatabaei, the statement "none knows its interpretation except God" remains valid, without any opposing or qualifying clause. Therefore, so far as this verse is concerned, the knowledge of the Quran's interpretation is reserved for God. But Tabatabaei uses other verses and concludes that those who are purified by God know the interpretation of the Quran to a certain extent.

 

According to Tabatabaei, there are acceptable and unacceptable esoteric interpretations. Acceptable ta'wil refers to the meaning of a verse beyond its literal meaning; rather the implicit meaning, which ultimately is known only to God and can't be comprehended directly through human thought alone. The verses in question here refer to the human qualities of coming, going, sitting, satisfaction, anger and sorrow, which are apparently attributed to God. Unacceptable ta'wil is where one "transfers" the apparent meaning of a verse to a different meaning by means of a proof; this method is not without obvious inconsistencies. Although this unacceptable ta'wil has gained considerable acceptance, it is incorrect and cannot be applied to the Quranic verses. The correct interpretation is that reality a verse refers to. It is found in all verses, the decisive and the ambiguous alike; it is not a sort of a meaning of the word; it is a fact that is too sublime for words. God has dressed them with words to bring them a bit nearer to our minds; in this respect they are like proverbs that are used to create a picture in the mind, and thus help the hearer to clearly grasp the intended idea.

 

HISTORY OF SUFI COMMENTARIES

One of the notable authors of esoteric interpretation prior to the 12th century is Sulami (d. 1021 CE) without whose work the majority of very early Sufi commentaries would not have been preserved. Sulami's major commentary is a book named haqaiq al-tafsir ("Truths of Exegesis") which is a compilation of commentaries of earlier Sufis. From the 11th century onwards several other works appear, including commentaries by Qushayri (d. 1074), Daylami (d. 1193), Shirazi (d. 1209) and Suhrawardi (d. 1234). These works include material from Sulami's books plus the author's contributions. Many works are written in Persian such as the works of Maybudi (d. 1135) kash al-asrar ("the unveiling of the secrets"). Rumi (d. 1273) wrote a vast amount of mystical poetry in his book Mathnawi. Rumi makes heavy use of the Quran in his poetry, a feature that is sometimes omitted in translations of Rumi's work. A large number of Quranic passages can be found in Mathnawi, which some consider a kind of Sufi interpretation of the Quran. Rumi's book is not exceptional for containing citations from and elaboration on the Quran, however, Rumi does mention Quran more frequently. Simnani (d. 1336) wrote two influential works of esoteric exegesis on the Quran. He reconciled notions of God's manifestation through and in the physical world with the sentiments of Sunni Islam. Comprehensive Sufi commentaries appears in the 18th century such as the work of Ismail Hakki Bursevi (d. 1725). His work ruh al-Bayan (the Spirit of Elucidation) is a voluminous exegesis. Written in Arabic, it combines the author's own ideas with those of his predecessors (notably Ibn Arabi and Ghazali), all woven together in Hafiz, a Persian poetry form.

 

LEVELS OF MEANING

Unlike the Salafis and Zahiri, Shias and Sufis as well as some other Muslim philosophers believe the meaning of the Quran is not restricted to the literal aspect. For them, it is an essential idea that the Quran also has inward aspects. Henry Corbin narrates a hadith that goes back to Muhammad:

 

"The Quran possesses an external appearance and a hidden depth, an exoteric meaning and an esoteric meaning. This esoteric meaning in turn conceals an esoteric meaning (this depth possesses a depth, after the image of the celestial Spheres, which are enclosed within each other). So it goes on for seven esoteric meanings (seven depths of hidden depth)."

 

According to this view, it has also become evident that the inner meaning of the Quran does not eradicate or invalidate its outward meaning. Rather, it is like the soul, which gives life to the body. Corbin considers the Quran to play a part in Islamic philosophy, because gnosiology itself goes hand in hand with prophetology.

 

Commentaries dealing with the zahir (outward aspects) of the text are called tafsir, and hermeneutic and esoteric commentaries dealing with the batin are called ta'wil ("interpretation" or "explanation"), which involves taking the text back to its beginning. Commentators with an esoteric slant believe that the ultimate meaning of the Quran is known only to God. In contrast, Quranic literalism, followed by Salafis and Zahiris, is the belief that the Quran should only be taken at its apparent meaning.

 

TRANSLATIONS

Translation of the Quran has always been a problematic and difficult issue. Many argue that the Quranic text cannot be reproduced in another language or form. Furthermore, an Arabic word may have a range of meanings depending on the context, making an accurate translation even more difficult.

 

Nevertheless, the Quran has been translated into most African, Asian and European languages. The first translator of the Quran was Salman the Persian, who translated surat al-Fatiha into Persian during the seventh century. Another translation of the Quran was completed in 884 CE in Alwar (Sindh, India now Pakistan) by the orders of Abdullah bin Umar bin Abdul Aziz on the request of the Hindu Raja Mehruk.

 

The first fully attested complete translations of the Quran were done between the 10th and 12th centuries in Persian language. The Samanid king, Mansur I (961-976), ordered a group of scholars from Khorasan to translate the Tafsir al-Tabari, originally in Arabic, into Persian. Later in the 11th century, one of the students of Abu Mansur Abdullah al-Ansari wrote a complete tafsir of the Quran in Persian. In the 12th century, Najm al-Din Abu Hafs al-Nasafi translated the Quran into Persian. The manuscripts of all three books have survived and have been published several times.

 

Islamic tradition also holds that translations were made for Emperor Negus of Abyssinia and Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, as both received letters by Muhammad containing verses from the Quran. In early centuries, the permissibility of translations was not an issue, but whether one could use translations in prayer.

 

In 1936, translations in 102 languages were known. In 2010, the Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review reported that the Quran was presented in 112 languages at the 18th International Quran Exhibition in Tehran.

   

Although we can not perceive any consciousness in stones or plants does not mean that consciousness does not exist there. There is no unconscious matter. Some quality of discernment occurs in everything in the cosmos although we are often only aware of such qualities in humans and certain animals.

These other consciousnesses or intelligences consolidate archetypes which create those “forms” which are the collective memories of genetic awareness which guide evolutionary development.

 

Follow God by the Way of the Cross | Gospel Movie "Perilous Is the Road to the Heavenly Kingdom"

 

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/perilous-is-the-road-to-t...

 

Follow God by the Way of the Cross | Gospel Movie "Perilous Is the Road to the Heavenly Kingdom"

 

Christian Zhong Xin is a preacher in a house church in mainland China. He leads his brothers and sisters to investigate the true way and determines that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. However, some are perplexed by the CCP government's and religious circle's mad resistance to and condemnation of The Church of Almighty God. By reading the words of Almighty God, and by listening to the fellowship of witnesses from The Church of Almighty God, they understand the root cause of mankind's defiance of God, they see clearly why the road to the kingdom of heaven is full of hardships, and they come to have discernment about the truth-hating, God-opposing essence of the CCP's satanic regime and the leaders of the religious world. At last, people such as Zhong Xin have resolutely accepted Almighty God's kingdom gospel.

  

Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.

 

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Leaving aside any political overtones which the word may have, the conservative is someone who seeks to conserve. In order to say whether he is right or wrong, it should be enough to consider what it is he wishes to conserve. If the social forms he stands for—for it is always a case of social forms—are in conformity with man’s highest goal and correspond to man’s deepest needs, why shouldn’t they be as good as, or better than, anything novel that the passage of time may bring forth? To think in this way would be normal.

 

But the man of today no longer thinks normally. Even when he does not automatically despise the past and look to technical progress for humanity’s every good, he usually has a prejudice against any conservative attitude, because, consciously or unconsciously, he is influenced by the materialistic thesis that all “conserving” is inimical to constantly changing life and so leads to stagnation.

 

The state of need in which, today, every community that has not kept up with “progress” finds itself, seems to confirm this thesis; but it is overlooked that this is not so much an explanation as a stimulus for even further development. That all must change is a modern dogma that seeks to make man subject to itself; and it is eagerly proclaimed, even by people who consider themselves to be believing Christians, that man himself is in the grip of change; that not only such feeling and thinking as may be influenced by our surroundings are subject to change, but also man’s very being.

 

Man is said to be in the course of developing mentally and spiritually into a superman, and consequently, 20th century man is looked on as being a different creature from the man of earlier times. In all of this, one overlooks the truth, proclaimed by every religion, that man is man, and not merely an animal, because he has within him a spiritual center which is not subject to the flux of things.

 

Without this center, which is the source of man’s capacity to make judgements—and so may be called the spiritual organ that vehicles the sense of truth—we could not even recognize change in the surrounding world, for, as Aristotle said, those who declare everything, including truth, to be in a state of flux, contradict themselves: for, if everything is in flux, on what basis can they formulate a valid statement?

 

Is it necessary to say that the spiritual center of man is more than the psyche, subject as this is to instincts and impressions, and also more than rational thought? There is something in man that links him to the Eternal, and this is to be found precisely at the point where “the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9) touches the level of the psycho-physical faculties. If this immutable kernel in man cannot be directly grasped —anymore than can the dimensionless center of a circle— the approaches to it can nevertheless be known: they are like the radii which run towards the center of a circle. These approaches constitute the permanent element in every spiritual tradition and, as guidelines both for action and for those social forms that are directed towards the center, they constitute the real basis of every truly conservative attitude. For the wish to conserve certain social forms only has meaning—and the forms themselves can only last— if they depend on the timeless center of the human condition.

 

In a culture which, from its very foundations (thanks to its sacred origin), is directed towards the spiritual center and thereby towards the eternal, the question of the value, or otherwise of the conservative attitude, does not arise; the very word for it is lacking. In a Christian society, one is Christian, more or less consciously and deliberately, in an Islamic society one is Muslim, in a Buddhist society Buddhist, and so on; otherwise, one does not belong to the respective community and is not a part of it, but stands outside it or is secretly inimical to it.

 

Such a culture lives from a spiritual strength that puts its stamp on all forms from the highest downwards, and in doing this, it is truly creative; at the same time it has need of conservational forces, without which the forms would soon disappear. It suffices that such a society be more or less integral and homogeneous, for faith, loyalty to tradition, and a conserving or conservative attitude mirror one another like concentric circles.

 

The conservative attitude only becomes problematical when the order of society, as in the modern West, is no longer determined by the eternal; the question then arises, in any given case, which fragments or echoes of the erstwhile all-inclusive order are worth preserving.

 

In each condition of society (one condition now following the other in ever more rapid succession) the original prototypes are reflected in some way or other. Even if the earlier structure is destroyed, individual elements of it are still effective; a new equilibrium —however dislocated and uncertain— is established after every break with the past. Certain central values are irretrievably lost; others, more peripheral to the original plan, come to the fore. In order that these may not also be lost, it may be better to preserve the existing equilibrium than to risk all in an uncertain attempt to renew the whole.

 

As soon as this choice presents itself, the word “conservative” makes its appearance (in Europe, it first received currency at the time of the Napoleonic wars) and the term remains saddled with the dilemma inherent in the choice itself. Every conservative is immediately suspected of seeking only to preserve his social privileges, however small these may be. And in this process, the question as to whether the object to be preserved is worth preserving goes by default.

 

But why shouldn’t the personal advantage of this or that group coincide with what is right? And why shouldn’t particular social structures and duties be conducive to a certain intelligence?

 

That man seldom develops intelligence when the corresponding outward stimuli are lacking, is proved by the thinking of the average man of today: only very few—generally only those who in their youth experienced a fragment of the “old order”, or who chanced to visit a still traditional Oriental culture—can imagine how much happiness and inward peace a social order that is stratified according to natural vocations and spiritual functions can bring, not only to the ruling, but also to the laboring classes.

 

In no human society, however just it may be as a whole, are things perfect for every individual; but there is a sure proof as to whether an existing order does or does not offer happiness to the majority: this proof inheres in all those things which are made, not for some physical purpose, but with joy and devotion. A culture in which the arts are the exclusive preserve of a specially educated class (so that there is no longer any popular art or any universally understood artistic language) fails completely in this respect.

 

The outward reward of a profession is the profit which its practice may secure; but its inner reward is that it should remind man of what, by nature and from God, he is, and in this respect it is not always the most successful occupations that are the happiest. To till the earth, to pray for rain, to create something meaningful from raw material, to compensate the lack of some with the surplus of others, to rule, while being ready to sacrifice one’s life for the ruled, to teach for the sake of truth—these, amongst others, are the inwardly privileged occupations. It may be asked whether, as a result of “progress”, they have been increased or diminished.

 

Many today will say that man has been brought to his proper measure, when, as a worker, he stands in front of a machine. But the true measure of man is that he should pray and bless, struggle and rule, build and create, sow and reap, serve and obey—all these things pertain to man.

 

When certain urban elements today demand that the priest should divest himself of the signs of his office and live as far as possible like other men, this merely proves that these groups no longer know what man fundamentally is; to perceive man in the priest means to recognize that priestly dignity corresponds infinitely more to original human nature than does the role of the “ordinary” man.

 

Every theocentric culture knows a more or less explicit hierarchy of social classes or “castes”. This does not mean that it regards man as a mere part which finds its fulfillment only in the people as a whole; on the contrary, it means that human nature as such is far too rich for everyone at every moment to be able to realize all its various aspects. The perfect man is not the sum total, but the kernel or essence of all the various functions.

 

If hierarchically structured societies were able to maintain themselves for millennia, this was not because of the passivity of men or the might of the rulers, but because such a social order corresponded to human nature.

 

There is a widespread error to the effect that the naturally conservative class is the bourgeoisie, which originally was identified with the culture of the cities, in which all the revolutions of the last five hundred years originated. Admittedly the bourgeoisie, especially in the aftermath of the French revolution, has played a conservative role, and has occasionally assumed some aristocratic ideals — not, however, without exploiting them and gradually falsifying them. There have always been, amongst the bourgeoisie, conservatives on the basis of intelligence, but from the start they have been in the minority.

 

The peasant is generally conservative; he is so, as it were, from experience, for he knows —but how many still know it?— that the life of nature depends on the constant self-renewal of an equilibrium of innumerable mutually interconnected forces, and that one cannot alter any element of this equilibrium without dragging the whole along with it. Alter the course of a stream, and the flora of a whole area will be changed; eliminate an animal species, and another will be given immediate and overwhelming increase. The peasant does not believe that it will ever be possible to produce rain or shine at will.

 

It would be wrong to conclude from this that the conservative viewpoint is above all linked with sedentarism and man’s attachment to the soil, since it has been demonstrated that no human collectivity is more conservative than the nomads. In all his constant wandering, the nomad is intent on preserving his heritage of language and custom; he consciously resists the erosion of time, for to be conservative means not to be passive.

 

This is a fundamentally aristocratic characteristic; in this the nomad resembles the noble, or, more exactly, the nobility of warrior- caste origin necessarily has much in common with the nomad. At the same time, however, the experience of a nobility that has not been spoiled by court and city life, but is still close to the land, resembles that of the peasant, with the difference that it comprises much wider territorial and human relationships.

 

When the nobility, by heredity and education, is aware of the essential oneness of the powers of nature and the powers of the soul, it possesses a superiority that can hardly be acquired in any other way; and whoever is aware of a genuine superiority has the right to insist upon it, just as the master of any art has the right to prefer his own judgement to that of the unskilled.

 

It must be understood that the ascendancy of the aristocracy depends on both a natural and an ethical condition: the natural condition is that, within the same tribe or family, one can, in general terms, depend on the transmission by inheritance of certain qualities and capabilities; the ethical condition is expressed in the saying noblesse oblige: the higher the social rank —and its corresponding privilege— the greater the responsibility and the burden of duties; the lower the rank, the smaller the power and the fewer the duties, right down to the ethically unconcerned existence of passive people.

 

If things are not always perfect, this is not principally because of the natural condition of heredity, for this is sufficient to guarantee indefinitely the homogeneous nature of a “caste”; what is much more uncertain is the accomplishment of the ethical law that demands a just combination of freedom and duty. There is no social system that excludes the misuse of power; and if there were, it would not be human, since man can only be man if he simultaneously fulfills a natural and a spiritual law. The misuse of hereditary power therefore proves nothing against the law of nobility. On the contrary, the example alone of those few people, who, when deprived of hereditary privilege, did not therefore renounce their inherited responsibility, proves the ethical calling of the aristocracy.

 

When, in many countries, the aristocracy fell because of its own autocracy, this was not so much because it was autocratic towards the lower orders, but rather because it was autocratic towards the higher law of religion, which alone provided the aristocracy with its ethical basis, and moderated by mercy the right of the strong.

 

Since the fall, not merely of the hierarchic nature of society, but of almost all traditional forms, the consciously conservative man stands as it were in a vacuum. He stands alone in a world which, in its all opaque enslavement, boasts of being free, and, in all its crushing uniformity, boasts of being rich. It is screamed in his ears that humanity is continually developing upwards, that human nature, after developing for so and so many millions of years, has now undergone a decisive mutation, which will lead to its final victory over matter. The consciously conservative man stands alone amongst manifest drunks, is alone awake amongst sleep-walkers who take their dreams for reality.

 

From understanding and experience he knows that man, with all his passion for novelty, has remained fundamentally the same, for good or ill; the fundamental questions in human life have always remained the same; the answers to them have always been known, and, to the extent that they can be expressed in words, have been handed down from one generation to the next. The consciously conservative man is concerned with this inheritance.

 

Since nearly all traditional forms in life are now destroyed, it is seldom vouchsafed to him to engage in a wholly useful and meaningful activity. But every loss spells gain: the disappearance of forms calls for a trial and a discernment; and the confusion in the surrounding world is a summons to turn, by-passing all accidents, to the essential.

 

----

 

Titus Burckhardt: What is Conservatism?

 

Saint Pio (Pius) of Pietrelcina, O.F.M. Cap., (May 25, 1887 – September 23, 1968) was a Capuchin Catholic priest from Italy who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. He was born Francesco Forgione, and given the name Pius (Italian: Pio) when he joined the Capuchins, thus he was popularly known as Padre Pio. He became famous for his bearing the stigmata. On 16 June 2002, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II.

 

Prayer for the Intercession of St. Pio of Pietrelcina

 

Dear God, You generously blessed Your servant,

St. Pio of Pietrelcina, with the gifts of the Spirit.

You marked his body with the five wounds

of Christ Crucified, as a powerful witness

to the saving Passion and Death of Your Son.

Endowed with the gift of discernment,

St. Pio labored endlessly in the confessional

for the salvation of souls.

With reverence and intense devotion

in the celebration of Mass,

he invited countless men and women

to a greater union with Jesus Christ

in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

 

Through the intercession of St. Pio of Pietrelcina,

I confidently beseech You to grant me

the grace of (here state your petition). Amen.

 

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning,

is now and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen (Say three times)

 

The thoughts that run the road of our mind, the green pleasant ones that lift our spirit, the red danger one that hurl us down the tunnel of hate and despair....to have the ability to choose and run thoughts that is good for our being..

Can that be discernment...:)

Beauty isn't a performance, we don’t twerk for a cause.

We rise in solidarity. United strength changes laws.

Power is in the spirit, in the mind, in the soul.

Power is not in how many body parts one can grab,

and hold.

 

If you want to be respected, know that your body is

not a commodity. And yes, you should be proud of

your beauty. But don’t let it go to your head. We don’t

forge a path forward, by offering ourselves in bed.

 

And i bet she got them flavors. I bet her twerk is mean.

But them things ain’t for everybody spending money

on the scene. And sure you ain’t trying to lay up, and

stay up with a broke lover. But you don’t truly love

 

yourself if for money you under covers. You up under

them sheets, thinking like street walkers in the streets.

And you thinking that you hot. You like men that

carry heat? And what you going to say when you

 

find that you lost your way? When you finally meet

God because you got shot in the face? You got that

lingerie? It look hot on you today! But are you really

safe, running around with your lace. Sure he down to

 

ride, until he start to catch a case. You certain that he

love you? Or that he might lay your body to waste?

Don’t waste… time. Elevate your mind. You can be

intelligent, pursue your own wealth, and stay fly.

 

Yeah, you look fine. But don’t let your looks mess

with your mind. Sure; you can be captivating.

Hear what i’m saying. It’s your ass at the party! It’s

your ass he displaying. But you still having fun.

 

Everything seems right. You got your man, got your

money, got your car, got your hype! But you influencing

others to follow in your path. The dark night of the soul…

will be the aftermath. You see, there is always, the one.

 

The one that is on the prowl, the one that wants to see

you lead astray. Away from God’s love as soon as… now!

Away from God’s gifts. And you don’t believe it, because

you can’t see it? But, what you can see… is the comedy and

 

the tragedy! The industry, the entertainment, and the system…

that ultimately causes many to fall. Open your eyes to the

scheme of it all. See where humanity is meant to fail.

See that the more you lose your way, the more that others

 

rise. It is a power dynamic playing out right before your

eyes. Men are dying, women are dying, because of the

images we choose to lift up and project. Are these images

showing the strength of our ancestors, our people, or

 

neglect? What is true wealth and where does it come from?

First off, true wealth is knowing that love isn’t for sell.

True wealth is individual growth, mental growth, spiritual

growth, physical growth, family growth. And… financial

 

growth, yes, but not growing financially while selling your soul.

You see, the goal is for you to lose your way, and forget.

This truth is hidden deep within the recesses of the spirit

and mind. And it takes true discernment, and pure intentions

 

to find. And when you seek out money in a way that elevates

it, as more important than considering God. You fall into the lie.

And the truth seems a facade. And so you have a decision to

make in this life. And i suggest you dig deep. Because

 

discovering the truth when it’s to late… the price to pay is

to steep. And i’m not talking about Hell. I’m talking about

missing a true Heaven. You can get lost from it in your pursuits

of a material life. There are gifts that God is waiting to give

 

you when you are ready! And the longer you take to get ready,

possibly lifetimes… and the more lost you become and the

more astray you go, the more the gift is lost and the connection

is broken. Seek the power of the truth that is always spoken!

 

Your breasts, like pearls. Your body brings ecstasy. This gift

is meant to parallel the feeling of Heaven and it is a gift from

God: not meant to be exploited by anybody! Only lost ones,

and dark hearts seek the exploitation of the gifts of the light.

 

Sex is a gift and God provided it, because God is Love. God

gave the gift of Life. Therefore, God stands Above! Consider

God in all matters. Consider God with Love. You do this, and

you will perceive beings that are of Heaven. This i know to be

 

True. Then all successes will be in reach, not only financially,

but spiritually. If this is something you don’t care about, than

continue to do you. Just keep in mind that our children's

children will be screwed! Our descendants, always failing!

 

Why, because if we don’t lead Our people in the “right”

direction, who will? We can lead simply by living decent lives,

and being a positive influence, but instead, we put our bodies

up for give and take. And there’s always people waiting in the

 

shadows, waiting to point out our flaws, and our mistakes!

We call ourselves goddesses, queens, princesses and more.

So why influence women, and young girls to act like whores?!

This is what some women do! And just because they may be

 

educated doesn’t make it right. Manipulated, manipulative

fools… Following these self proclaimed so called “Kings” that

exploit you! Notice the relationship drama on television or at

home? Notice the declining importance of life and love, and the

 

rising importance of primitiveness in relations to sex? Notice

the pain, and needless killings inflicted from one person to

the next. Is your worth really Valued in the world? Products…

of a clever ruse, meant to Stop your peoples Evolution and

 

cause Your People to Disappear off the face of the Planet,

One by One, and to never discover your gifts from God. This

is the resulting future… of female empowerment fraud.

 

- China Alicia Rivera

8/27/2020.

  

*Personal Blog: chinaaliciarivera.wordpress.com

 

*Twitter: twitter.com/photoshopflair

*Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/photoshopflair

*Instagram: instagram.com/photoshopflair

*Website: photoshopflair.com

Hemis Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, Ladakh, India. Situated 45 km from Leh, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century and was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honoring Padmasambhava is held here in early June.

   

Terma and tertöns : The essence of Tebetan Buddhism.

 

Padmasambhava (lit. "Lotus-Born"), also known as Guru Rinpoche, is a literary character of terma (Terma or "hidden treasure"- are key Tibetan Buddhist teaching, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts, in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a tradition of continuous revelation in Tibetan Buddhism. Termas are a part of Tantric Literature. Tradition holds that terma may be a physical object such as a text or ritual implement that is buried in the ground (or earth), hidden in a rock or crystal, secreted in a herb, or a tree, hidden in a lake (or water), or hidden in the sky (space). Though a literal understanding of terma is "hidden treasure", and sometimes objects are hidden away, the teachings associated should be understood as being “concealed within the mind of the guru”, that is, the true place of concealment is in the tertön's mindstream. If the concealed or encoded teaching or object is a text, it is often written in dakini script: a non-human type of code or writing).

     

Terma is an emanation of Amitabha (Amitābha or Amideva, is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. Amitābha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia, while in Vajrayana Amitābha is known for his longevity attribute, magnetising red fire element, the aggregate of discernment, pure perception and the deep awareness of emptiness of phenomena. According to these scriptures, Amitābha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakāra. "Amitābha" is translatable as "Infinite Light," hence Amitābha is also called "The Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light" ).

 

Terma that is said to appear to tertons (A tertön is a discoverer of ancient texts or terma in Tibetan Buddhism) in visionary encounters and a focus of Tibetan Buddhist practice (Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, Mongolia, Tuva, Bhutan, Kalmykia and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, and India (particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Dharamsala, Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. It is also practiced in Northeast China. Religious texts and commentaries are contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon such that Tibetan is a spiritual language of these areas. The Tibetan diaspora has spread Tibetan Buddhism to many Western countries, where the tradition has gained popularity. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million).

   

History

 

Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century. Naropa, the pupil of the yogi Tilopa, and teacher of the translator Marpa is connected with this monastery. A translation was made by A. Grünwedel (Nӑro und Tilo,: Festschrift Ernst Kuhn, München 1916) of Naropa's biography that was found in Hemis monastery.

 

In this manuscript Naropa (or Naro) meets the "dark blue" (Skr.: nila: dark blue or black) Tilopa (or Tillo), a tantric master, who gives Naropa 12 "great" and 12 "small" tasks to do in order to enlighten him to the inherent emptiness/illusoriness of all things. Naropa is depicted as the "abbott of Nalanda" (F. Wilhelm, Prüfung und Initiation im Buche Pausya und in der Biographie des Naropa, Wiesbaden 1965, p. 70), the university-monastery in today's Bihar, India, that flourished until the sacking by Turkish and Afghan Muslim forces. This sacking must have been the driving force behind Naropa's peregrination in the direction of Hemis. After Naropa and Tilopa met in Hemis they travelled back in the direction of a certain monastery in the now no longer existing kingdom of Maghada, called Otantra which has been identified as today's Otantapuri. Naropa is consered the founding father of the Kagyu-lineage of the Himalayan esoteric Buddhism. Hence Hemis is the main seat of the Kagyu lineage of Buddhism.

 

In 1894 Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch claimed Hemis as the origin of an otherwise unknown gospel, the Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men, in which Jesus is said to have traveled to India during his "lost years." According to Notovitch, the work had been preserved in the Hemis library, and was shown to him by the monks there while he was recuperating from a broken leg. But once his story had been re-examined by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence. Bart D. Ehrman states that "Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax". However, the Indian Pandit Swami Abhedananda also claims to have read the same manuscript, and published his account of viewing it after his visit to Hemis in 1921. Abhedananda claims on the book jacket that it was translated for him with the help of a "local Lama interpreter." In the same vein, Notovich did not initially translate the manuscript, but reported his Sherpa guide did so as Notovitch could not read the original text. Notovich's version of the manuscript was translated from Tibetan to Russian to French to English. According to Swami Abhedananda's account, his Lama's translation was equivalent to the one published by Notovich. The Gutenberg Project has published the entire manuscript as a free ebook.

   

Hemis Festival

 

The Hemis Festival is dedicated to Lord Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche) venerated as the Dance Performance at Hemis Monastery representative reincarnate of Buddha. He is believed to have been born on the 10th day of the fifth month of the Monkey year as predicted by the Buddha Shakyamuni. It is also believed that his life mission was, and remains, to improve the spiritual condition of all living beings. And so on this day, which comes once in a cycle of 12 years, Hemis observes a major extravaganza in his memory. The observance of these sacred rituals is believed to give spiritual strength and good health. The Hemis festival takes place in the rectangular courtyard in front of the main door of the monastery. The space is wide and open save two raised square platforms, three feet high with a sacred pole in the center. A raised dias with a richly cushioned seat with a finely painted small Tibetan table is placed with the ceremonial items - cups full of holy water, uncooked rice, tormas made of dough and butter and incense sticks. A number of musicians play the traditional music with four pairs of cymbals, large-pan drums, small trumpets and large size wind instruments. Next to them, a small space is assigned for the lamas to sit.

 

The ceremonies begin with an early morning ritual atop the Gompa where, to the beat of drums and the resounding clash of cymbals and the spiritual wail of pipes, the portrait of "Dadmokarpo" or "Rygyalsras Rimpoche" is then ceremoniously put on display for all to admire and worship.

   

The most esoteric of festivities are the mystic mask dances. The Mask Dances of Ladakh are referred collectively as chams Performance. Chams performance is essentially a part of Tantric tradition, performed only in those gompas which follow the Tantric Vajrayana teachings and the monks perform tantric worship.

 

Source: Wikipedia and others.

Ordination

God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.-

Oswald Chambers

letters

 

discernment...

paper blank...

thinking?

 

answer…

word heaps….

somewhere?

 

prayer…

one way…

up?

 

grief…

swells nowhere…

why?

 

rest...

buried phrases...

now?

-rc

   

Ordination

Ordination

Outlining a Theory of General Creativity .. on a 'Pataphysical way

Entropy ≥ Memory . Creativity ²

Entropy ≥ Mimesis . Catharsis ²

  

Etude du jour ( en guise de discussion de l'Allégorie de la caverne de Platon )

 

Il était une fois deux petites boîtes sombres, illuminées de certitudes ; deux petites têtes vides, pleines d'espoir ; dont l'âme sensible attendait impatiente que la lumière extérieure les pénètra pour faire naître en elles une image vraie de la Réalité Vraie.

 

Quand le moment fut venu, elles s'ouvrirent.

 

Camera, en quête d'Absolu voulait tout ressentir sans chercher à comprendre. Tout percevoir, absolument Tout ! Le moment venu, elle décida de se laisser submerger par la plus violente énergie possible, toute sa sensibilité offerte à la jouissance de tout engloutir intensément, sans aucun jugement, sans penser une seconde avec ces mots qui obscurcissent l'esprit plus qu'ils ne l'éclairent. Elle installa un film hypersensible qu'elle pousserait au développement malgré son gros grain. Elle ouvrit son diaphragme au maximum, longtemps, et s'abandonna à l'ivresse extatique d'absorber sans retenue tout le flot entropique de la Réalité Vraie qui s'engouffrait en elle.

 

Obscura, en quête d'Universel voulait tout comprendre sans se laisser émouvoir. Tout concevoir ! Absolument tout ! Le moment venu, elle décida de tout distinguer avec la plus grande profondeur de champ possible, toute son intelligence concentrée à tout discerner avec finesse, sans la moindre distorsion, sans céder à la tentation de croire à ces apparences qui éblouissent plus qu'elles n'éclairent. Elle installa un film à grain hyperfin qu'elle développerait rudement pour compenser sa faible sensibilité. Elle ouvrit dans son diaphragme un interstice minuscule, un infime instant, et concentra toute sa minutieuse lucidité à détecter le sens de la moindre particule de Réalité Vraie qui parviendrait à s'infiltrer en elle.

 

La morale de cette histoire ? Tous les photographes vous la dirons !

 

Camera obtint l'image la plus lumineuse qui soit, c'est à dire l'image la plus floue à la fois, d'un blanc aussi immaculé qu'uniforme.

 

Obscura obtint l'image la plus nette qui soit, c'est à dire l'image la plus sombre à la fois, d'un noir aussi immaculé qu'uniforme.

 

Laquelle eut tort ou raison ? Laissons cette dichotomie manichéenne à tous les donneurs de leçons stupides, à tous les castrateurs en théologie du mal et du bien, à tous les marchands de bonnets d'âne du saint marché des bons-points, à tous les coureurs de records à podiums collectionneurs d'échecs à médailles.

 

Observons plutôt comment la diajonction de leurs expériences respectives leur apporta finalement la réponse ultime à la question initiale : Quelle image peut-on discerner de la Réalité Vraie ? Ou autrement dit, avec la joie de pictosopher : Quelle est l'épaisseur des apparences ?

  

Désormais, lorsqu'elles choisissent une ouverture et un temps de pause susceptibles de former des images moins aveuglées, Camera et Obscura sentent se former en elles quelques soupçons de Réalité Vraie, des images aussi pauvres de Sensibilité Absolue que démunies de Connaisssance Universelle, mais des images merveilleuses et magiques, aussi riches de signes ambivalents que de sèmes ambigus, illuminées de formes et de couleurs inattendues, toutes d'innonbrables demiVérités.

 

Elles sont devenues sages, parce qu'elles savent que tout en prenant des milliards d'autres images, la Réalité Vraie leur restera à jamais inconnaissable. Elles sont devenues sages lorsqu'elles cherchent ce qu'il y a hors champ, lorsqu'elles cherchent ce qui se passait avant et ce qui arrivera après, lorsqu'elles cherchent l'invisible sous l'infra-rouge et au-delà de l'ultra-violet, lorsqu'elles cherchent ce qu'il y a à voir ailleurs quand elles sont là, et là quand elles sont ailleurs, en somme lorsqu'elles cherchent, . . simplement parce qu'elles cherchent.

 

Elles sont devenues sages lorsqu'elles s'interrogent sur ce que pensent et ressentent profondément, les autres petites chambres obscures d'à coté. Lorsque de temps en temps, interconnectées sur le réseau des réseaux des camera-obscura, elles se racontent leurs éblouissements respectifs et partagent leurs aveuglements réciproques.

 

Elles sont devenues sages, émerveillées d'être des mémoires qui résistent à l'Entropie, émerveillées d'être sensibles à l'infime surface visible de l'inconnaissable, émerveillées d'être à la fois transcendantes et superfétatoires, où que ce soit, quand que ce soit, sur le pli du Vide Médian.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Study of the day (debating the Plato's allegory of the cavern)

  

"THE ALLEGORY OF CAMERA & OBSCURA".

 

Once upon a time there was two small dark boxes, illuminated with certainties, two small empty heads, full of hope, and whose sensitive soul was waiting until the external light penetrates them to dazzle them with an image of the "True Reality”. At the proper time, they finally opened.

 

Camera in pursuit of the Absolute, wanted all to see without any reflection. All, absolutely All ! Then, at the proper time, it decided to be totally overcome by the "True Entropic Reality", all its sensitivity offered to intensely feel everything, without any prejudice, without thinking one second with all these words which darkens the mind more than they enlighten it. It installed a hypersensitive film which it will push in spite of its coarse grain. It tuned her diaphragm to the maximum aperture, a long time, and gave up itself to ecstatically feel the whole true light of the whole True Entropic Reality.

 

Obscura in quest of the Universal Knowledge, wanted all to know precisely, it wanted all to understand and memorize with a maximum of details and discernment. Then at the proper time, it decided to focuse a depth of field as deep as possible, to choose a pause time as short as possible, to be sure to get the highest neatness of the True Real Universal Memory. It installed a hyperfine grain film which it will develop energetically to compensate its low sensitivity. It tuned the aperture at less than anything, and adjusted the pause time at an infinitesimal fraction of nothing.

 

The moral of the story ? All the photographers will say it to you !

 

Camera obtained the most luminous image which is at ounce the fuzziest one, an immaculate uniform Absolute Entropic white 100%blank.

 

Obscura obtained the finest image which is at ounce the darkest one, an immaculate uniform Universal black 100%blank.

 

From now on, when it chooses an aperture and a time of pause suitable to create less blind images, Camera finally formed in itself several suspicions of True Reality. They are images as poor of Absolute Sensitivity as weak of Universal Knowledge, but they are marvellous and magic images, illuminated by unexpected ambivalent shapes and colors.

 

In the neighbourhood of the Absolute Entropy, each cell of Camera opens like a white sapphire prism dispersing and breaking up the Entropic light in colored iridescences. From her cells juxtaposition are emerging lines and shapes, metamorphosing the dazzling Entropic light in simple but unknowable .. shapes, only lacking some .. words to name them.

 

From now on, when it chooses an aperture and a time of pause suitable to create less blind images, Obscura finally formed in itself several suspicions of True Reality. They are images as poor of Universal Knowledge as weak of Absolute Sensitivity, but they are marvellous and magic images, rich of unexpected ambiguous signs and senses.

 

In the neighbourhood of the Universal Memory, each cell of Obscura opens like a black sapphire crystal dispersing and breaking up the universal darkness in colored enlightening sparks. From her cells juxtapositions are emerging now vowels, consonants and others signs, metamorphosing the gloomy universal darkness in simple but unknowable .. words, only lacking some .. shapes to imagine them.

   

_______________________________________________________________________

. . [ F11 ] . . cOmplete randOm rectO-persO . . [ F11 ] . . bigHuge Flickr DNA . . [ F11 ] . .

 

I'm often behind the times, so here goes with my stone-tablet list of 16 things about me (remember that??). I was tagged a few times waaay back. At first I didn't think I would do this, but I so enjoyed reading other people's entries that I decided to go ahead. Now it appears I may be the last man on Earth to do this. So I will not bother with the Ponzi-scheme tag-game part of this exhausted meme. Just read on for what it's worth... 16 not-entirely-random and possibly boring things about me.... (ha ha, and nothing much about photography).

 

(1) I took a one-unit course in programmable calculators in college. That was my entire computing experience until I got a job in 1984 at a small graphics software company in Berkeley. There I discovered that computers could be pretty cool, and that I was good at technical writing and allied activities.

 

(2) I once sold a pair of bongo drums to the writer and Black Panther activist, Eldridge Cleaver.

 

(3) I am a terrible packrat (cluttered, not messy) and absolutely hate filing things. Yet, I like it when things are organized. Go figure.

 

(4) I was a Geography major in college and got into mapmaking and related graphics work for planning outfits. I drafted general plan maps for Kern County, California, using Rapidograph pens on mylar. I created credits and subtitles for a documentary film in the early '80s, and helped film animated map sequences using a 16 mm camera on an old animation stand. I am glad to have been able to use an array of old-fashioned techniques like these that few people know these days.

 

(5) I have done many linoleum-block relief prints. (See my artwork set.) Working with computer graphics led me to better appreciate slow and manual techniques not mediated by Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, et al.

 

(6) I took several hundred color slides of old sidewalks in the early 1980s. Most of these were to capture the stamped logos of paving companies, some dating back to the 19th Century. I also photographed manhole covers and the like.

 

(7) One of my older brothers "got me high" smoking oregano once, when I was in 4th grade. Italian food has always seemed somehow illicit ever since.

 

(8) I met my wife in high school, but she doesn't remember meeting me. She came to a huge party at our house back in the day (given by my brother and me), at which the back door was kicked in. We went to several other events in common, until meeting for real 10 years after high school through mutual friends.

 

(9) I really like old movies and appreciate finding odd little gems on DVD. We just watched "Stage Door" with Katherine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers.

 

(10) It bothers me that I cannot rate Netflix movies at a finer discernment than "integer" stars out of 5. Obviously, this type of rating doesn't provide any real insight into what a movie offers, but, in terms of overall quality, there is a world of difference between 5 stars and 4, 4 stars and 3, etc. Isn't there?

 

(11) My grandfather was one of six brothers, almost all of whom at one time worked for railroads, mostly as station agents and telegraphers. In the 1930s, my father attended the funeral of one of his uncles, at which another of his uncles (a deaf-mute who had been looked after by his late brother) had a heart attack and fell dead right into his brother's grave. I visited their graves a few years ago in L.A. My dad was so turned off by experiences with mortuary hucksters that very late in life he refused to watch "Six Feet Under," until my stepmother convinced him it was worth seeing.

 

(12) My grandmother lived for a time in the same boarding house in Lander, Wyoming as the writer Owen Wister, author of "The Virginian." This would have been around 1906. Earlier, this grandmother, who had been the valedictorian at her high school, became superintendent of schools in her rural Minnesota County when she was just 21. She later taught kids at god-forsaken Mojave desert towns, where her own kids made up half the pupils. She lived into her 90s and I knew her. I got the desert bug from my dad, and often go camping or exploring in those same areas myself.

 

(13) I lost one of my older brothers when I was 18 and he was 20. His name was Danny. I still miss him. I have two other brothers I don't see often enough.

 

(14) My wife has made two artcars and one art-trailer, and I am now (still) painting my own artcar. We have no vehicles except artcars. We have made many close friends through artcars, and many Flickr contacts directly or indirectly came from artcar connections. Artcars are not for everyone, but there is nothing like making or driving an artcar. The main drawback is you rarely get to see the parade, because you are IN the parade.

 

(15) Occasionally, I write and sing song parodies. This is how I came up with the name "Frank Synopsis." At a previous job, I sang at a talent show as "Kenny Login" (while a friend accompanied me on guitar as "Doris Data"). I made fun of the CEO in a parody of "Joshua Fit the Battle," but no one seemed to mind. I think many gatherings can be made more special by a performance of some kind, though I am mindful that not everyone feels the same way about amateur singing. :^)

 

(16) When I was a kid, someone told me that the robins we have here in California are really thrushes. I misunderstood and have felt ever since that this means our robins are somehow *bogus*. At some level, I remain not fully convinced that I'm looking at a genuine robin. Isn't that sad? (Start therapy session...)

 

*Bonus item: I saw Bob Marley and the Wailers in live performances four times.

 

Hemis Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, Ladakh, India. Situated 45 km from Leh, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century and was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honoring Padmasambhava is held here in early June.

  

Terma and tertöns : The essence of Tebetan Buddhism.

Padmasambhava (lit. "Lotus-Born"), also known as Guru Rinpoche, is a literary character of terma (Terma or "hidden treasure"- are key Tibetan Buddhist teaching, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts, in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a tradition of continuous revelation in Tibetan Buddhism. Termas are a part of Tantric Literature. Tradition holds that terma may be a physical object such as a text or ritual implement that is buried in the ground (or earth), hidden in a rock or crystal, secreted in a herb, or a tree, hidden in a lake (or water), or hidden in the sky (space). Though a literal understanding of terma is "hidden treasure", and sometimes objects are hidden away, the teachings associated should be understood as being “concealed within the mind of the guru”, that is, the true place of concealment is in the tertön's mindstream. If the concealed or encoded teaching or object is a text, it is often written in dakini script: a non-human type of code or writing).

  

Terma is an emanation of Amitabha (Amitābha or Amideva, is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. Amitābha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia, while in Vajrayana Amitābha is known for his longevity attribute, magnetising red fire element, the aggregate of discernment, pure perception and the deep awareness of emptiness of phenomena. According to these scriptures, Amitābha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakāra. "Amitābha" is translatable as "Infinite Light," hence Amitābha is also called "The Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light" ).

Terma that is said to appear to tertons (A tertön is a discoverer of ancient texts or terma in Tibetan Buddhism) in visionary encounters and a focus of Tibetan Buddhist practice (Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, Mongolia, Tuva, Bhutan, Kalmykia and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, and India (particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Dharamsala, Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. It is also practiced in Northeast China. Religious texts and commentaries are contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon such that Tibetan is a spiritual language of these areas. The Tibetan diaspora has spread Tibetan Buddhism to many Western countries, where the tradition has gained popularity. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million).

Interested Viewers can see the following documentary on Padmasambhava:

Padmasambhava

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQBbfLtxj8A&spfreload=10

  

History

Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century. Naropa, the pupil of the yogi Tilopa, and teacher of the translator Marpa is connected with this monastery. A translation was made by A. Grünwedel (Nӑro und Tilo,: Festschrift Ernst Kuhn, München 1916) of Naropa's biography that was found in Hemis monastery.

In this manuscript Naropa (or Naro) meets the "dark blue" (Skr.: nila: dark blue or black) Tilopa (or Tillo), a tantric master, who gives Naropa 12 "great" and 12 "small" tasks to do in order to enlighten him to the inherent emptiness/illusoriness of all things. Naropa is depicted as the "abbott of Nalanda" (F. Wilhelm, Prüfung und Initiation im Buche Pausya und in der Biographie des Naropa, Wiesbaden 1965, p. 70), the university-monastery in today's Bihar, India, that flourished until the sacking by Turkish and Afghan Muslim forces. This sacking must have been the driving force behind Naropa's peregrination in the direction of Hemis. After Naropa and Tilopa met in Hemis they travelled back in the direction of a certain monastery in the now no longer existing kingdom of Maghada, called Otantra which has been identified as today's Otantapuri. Naropa is consered the founding father of the Kagyu-lineage of the Himalayan esoteric Buddhism. Hence Hemis is the main seat of the Kagyu lineage of Buddhism.

In 1894 Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch claimed Hemis as the origin of an otherwise unknown gospel, the Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men, in which Jesus is said to have traveled to India during his "lost years." According to Notovitch, the work had been preserved in the Hemis library, and was shown to him by the monks there while he was recuperating from a broken leg. But once his story had been re-examined by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence. Bart D. Ehrman states that "Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax". However, the Indian Pandit Swami Abhedananda also claims to have read the same manuscript, and published his account of viewing it after his visit to Hemis in 1921. Abhedananda claims on the book jacket that it was translated for him with the help of a "local Lama interpreter." In the same vein, Notovich did not initially translate the manuscript, but reported his Sherpa guide did so as Notovitch could not read the original text. Notovich's version of the manuscript was translated from Tibetan to Russian to French to English. According to Swami Abhedananda's account, his Lama's translation was equivalent to the one published by Notovich. The Gutenberg Project has published the entire manuscript as a free ebook.

  

Hemis Festival

The Hemis Festival is dedicated to Lord Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche) venerated as the Dance Performance at Hemis Monastery representative reincarnate of Buddha. He is believed to have been born on the 10th day of the fifth month of the Monkey year as predicted by the Buddha Shakyamuni. It is also believed that his life mission was, and remains, to improve the spiritual condition of all living beings. And so on this day, which comes once in a cycle of 12 years, Hemis observes a major extravaganza in his memory. The observance of these sacred rituals is believed to give spiritual strength and good health. The Hemis festival takes place in the rectangular courtyard in front of the main door of the monastery. The space is wide and open save two raised square platforms, three feet high with a sacred pole in the center. A raised dias with a richly cushioned seat with a finely painted small Tibetan table is placed with the ceremonial items - cups full of holy water, uncooked rice, tormas made of dough and butter and incense sticks. A number of musicians play the traditional music with four pairs of cymbals, large-pan drums, small trumpets and large size wind instruments. Next to them, a small space is assigned for the lamas to sit.

The ceremonies begin with an early morning ritual atop the Gompa where, to the beat of drums and the resounding clash of cymbals and the spiritual wail of pipes, the portrait of "Dadmokarpo" or "Rygyalsras Rimpoche" is then ceremoniously put on display for all to admire and worship.

The most esoteric of festivities are the mystic mask dances. The Mask Dances of Ladakh are referred collectively as chams Performance. Chams performance is essentially a part of Tantric tradition, performed only in those gompas which follow the Tantric Vajrayana teachings and the monks perform tantric worship.

Source: Wikipedia and others.

 

On 11th October , 2014, around 2.30 pm we reached our hotel at Leh. After a hurried lunch we proceeded to famous Hemis Monastery. In the late afternoon we reached at Hemis. It was behind a small hill, difficult to figure out such a huge structure from a distant point. We climbed few staircases, crossed a door and finally reached the main courtyard. What a wonderful ambiance it had been, so peaceful and serene. It was getting dark soon, and couldn’t see much of it. The next day we came again and had a vivid look. I was amazed by its richness and traditions of tantric practice of Tibetan Buddhism in such a remote place of the world.

  

Hemis Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery (gompa) of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, Ladakh, India. Situated 45 km from Leh, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century and was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honoring Padmasambhava is held here in early June.

  

Terma and tertöns : The essence of Tebetan Buddhism.

 

Padmasambhava (lit. "Lotus-Born"), also known as Guru Rinpoche, is a literary character of terma (Terma or "hidden treasure"- are key Tibetan Buddhist teaching, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts, in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a tradition of continuous revelation in Tibetan Buddhism. Termas are a part of Tantric Literature. Tradition holds that terma may be a physical object such as a text or ritual implement that is buried in the ground (or earth), hidden in a rock or crystal, secreted in a herb, or a tree, hidden in a lake (or water), or hidden in the sky (space). Though a literal understanding of terma is "hidden treasure", and sometimes objects are hidden away, the teachings associated should be understood as being “concealed within the mind of the guru”, that is, the true place of concealment is in the tertön's mindstream. If the concealed or encoded teaching or object is a text, it is often written in dakini script: a non-human type of code or writing).

  

Terma is an emanation of Amitabha (Amitābha or Amideva, is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. Amitābha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia, while in Vajrayana Amitābha is known for his longevity attribute, magnetising red fire element, the aggregate of discernment, pure perception and the deep awareness of emptiness of phenomena. According to these scriptures, Amitābha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakāra. "Amitābha" is translatable as "Infinite Light," hence Amitābha is also called "The Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light" ).

Terma that is said to appear to tertons (A tertön is a discoverer of ancient texts or terma in Tibetan Buddhism) in visionary encounters and a focus of Tibetan Buddhist practice (Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, Mongolia, Tuva, Bhutan, Kalmykia and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, and India (particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Dharamsala, Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. It is also practiced in Northeast China. Religious texts and commentaries are contained in the Tibetan Buddhist canon such that Tibetan is a spiritual language of these areas. The Tibetan diaspora has spread Tibetan Buddhism to many Western countries, where the tradition has gained popularity. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. The number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million).

Interested Viewers can see the following documentary on Padmasambhava:

Padmasambhava

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQBbfLtxj8A&spfreload=10

  

History

Hemis Monastery existed before the 11th century. Naropa, the pupil of the yogi Tilopa, and teacher of the translator Marpa is connected with this monastery. A translation was made by A. Grünwedel (Nӑro und Tilo,: Festschrift Ernst Kuhn, München 1916) of Naropa's biography that was found in Hemis monastery.

In this manuscript Naropa (or Naro) meets the "dark blue" (Skr.: nila: dark blue or black) Tilopa (or Tillo), a tantric master, who gives Naropa 12 "great" and 12 "small" tasks to do in order to enlighten him to the inherent emptiness/illusoriness of all things. Naropa is depicted as the "abbott of Nalanda" (F. Wilhelm, Prüfung und Initiation im Buche Pausya und in der Biographie des Naropa, Wiesbaden 1965, p. 70), the university-monastery in today's Bihar, India, that flourished until the sacking by Turkish and Afghan Muslim forces. This sacking must have been the driving force behind Naropa's peregrination in the direction of Hemis. After Naropa and Tilopa met in Hemis they travelled back in the direction of a certain monastery in the now no longer existing kingdom of Maghada, called Otantra which has been identified as today's Otantapuri. Naropa is consered the founding father of the Kagyu-lineage of the Himalayan esoteric Buddhism. Hence Hemis is the main seat of the Kagyu lineage of Buddhism.

In 1894 Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch claimed Hemis as the origin of an otherwise unknown gospel, the Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men, in which Jesus is said to have traveled to India during his "lost years." According to Notovitch, the work had been preserved in the Hemis library, and was shown to him by the monks there while he was recuperating from a broken leg. But once his story had been re-examined by historians, Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence. Bart D. Ehrman states that "Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax". However, the Indian Pandit Swami Abhedananda also claims to have read the same manuscript, and published his account of viewing it after his visit to Hemis in 1921. Abhedananda claims on the book jacket that it was translated for him with the help of a "local Lama interpreter." In the same vein, Notovich did not initially translate the manuscript, but reported his Sherpa guide did so as Notovitch could not read the original text. Notovich's version of the manuscript was translated from Tibetan to Russian to French to English. According to Swami Abhedananda's account, his Lama's translation was equivalent to the one published by Notovich. The Gutenberg Project has published the entire manuscript as a free ebook.

  

Hemis Festival

The Hemis Festival is dedicated to Lord Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche) venerated as the Dance Performance at Hemis Monastery representative reincarnate of Buddha. He is believed to have been born on the 10th day of the fifth month of the Monkey year as predicted by the Buddha Shakyamuni. It is also believed that his life mission was, and remains, to improve the spiritual condition of all living beings. And so on this day, which comes once in a cycle of 12 years, Hemis observes a major extravaganza in his memory. The observance of these sacred rituals is believed to give spiritual strength and good health. The Hemis festival takes place in the rectangular courtyard in front of the main door of the monastery. The space is wide and open save two raised square platforms, three feet high with a sacred pole in the center. A raised dias with a richly cushioned seat with a finely painted small Tibetan table is placed with the ceremonial items - cups full of holy water, uncooked rice, tormas made of dough and butter and incense sticks. A number of musicians play the traditional music with four pairs of cymbals, large-pan drums, small trumpets and large size wind instruments. Next to them, a small space is assigned for the lamas to sit.

The ceremonies begin with an early morning ritual atop the Gompa where, to the beat of drums and the resounding clash of cymbals and the spiritual wail of pipes, the portrait of "Dadmokarpo" or "Rygyalsras Rimpoche" is then ceremoniously put on display for all to admire and worship.

The most esoteric of festivities are the mystic mask dances. The Mask Dances of Ladakh are referred collectively as chams Performance. Chams performance is essentially a part of Tantric tradition, performed only in those gompas which follow the Tantric Vajrayana teachings and the monks perform tantric worship.

Source: Wikipedia and others.