You and me ... different garments of the same Person.

... And God laughs on....

.. And here we are ... still committed to the game...LOL!

The Thin Veil of Heaven and Hell

Choose the lightest font for "/" .. and that is how thin the veil between happiness and sorrow...

this.is.free will.

Science already embraced that energy exists in two forms: wave and particle. Philosophy is still struggling with "destiny vs. free will".

If God lent you his eyes...

I was born in a very pious Muslim family. The "dos" and "don'ts" of Islam were practiced in such a way that molded me into a rebellious boy that saw life as an enigma that continuously challenged my mind.

I still remember, when I was about 15 years old, I asked a dear teacher, "If God lent you His Eyes, wouldn't you see us human beings as a mere joke whereby our existence was just to feed His Ego? He is already the Greatest. What else does He want from us?"

He looked at me, scandalized. I continued:

"Picture this:

Imagine you are God, and you have the entire Universe you created on a table in front of you.

You created living beings. You created mankind. You gave them a tiny piece of your mind - the power to think and to choose, you gave them a soul, you gave them desire and you gave them lust.

You gave what they needed.

Then you created seduction and obedience, angels and devils. You created Sins and Rewards. You created Heaven. You created Hell. Then you created dogma and the will to go against it - You created laws you expected them to follow and you deny them the right to rebel. You made them in your image and you called them slaves. If they obeyed, you granted them Heaven. If they didn't, you granted them suffering...

What game is this?"

Even though my teacher didn't provide a satisfying answer, now after so many years I know that the answer lies in the question itself. Do you realize that I asked him to visualize the Universe on the "table"?

When I asked him those questions, I made myself very small like one of the hopeless creations on the table, and I saw God as a conceptual being separated from myself and judging me from beyond the sky above my head. What I didn't realize was that the very being who was witnessing the whole universe "on the table" is also myself - the Divine in me, participating in the physical realm.

How do we know if we are going to Heaven or Hell?

How do we know if we are going to Heaven or Hell? Sounds tricky, eh? But perhaps we can have some clues on the path we might end up on after death.

Here’s how:

Neuroscience proved that the way we think affects the neural links in our brain. They call it “neuroplasticity” - it simply means that we can alter the circuitry of our brain according to the way we see ourselves, others, God and the world.

In “This is Your Brain on Joy”, Dr. Earl Henslin shows the difference between a happy person’s brain (it looks like a smiling face) and the brain of someone in emotional pain (it looks scary!).

In their book “Buddha’s Brain”, Dr. Rick Hanson and Dr. Rick Mendius show how Jesus, Moses, Buddha and other great spiritual teachers were all born with a brain built essentially like you and me, but they used their minds to change their brains in ways that changed civilizations.

“How God Changes Your Brain”, the book that made it to the front cover of Time Magazine by Dr. Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman, shows us how God becomes neurologically real in our brain as we contemplate God.

In short, these books validate what Berry Neil Kaufman once said, “The way we choose to see the world, creates the world we see”.

That’s how powerful our mind is - even though we can neither touch it, nor can we see it.

In other words, our intangible mind creates the tangible realities in our lives. It also means the physical reality that appears to be real in our senses is actually plastic.

Even though physical brain will be left behind after death, it doesn’t mean that our consciousness won’t be there. Studies on near death experiences showed evidences on the existence of our consciousness during and after death, even without the physical brain.

(More over, scientists recently found out that the physical universe that we see, is only 4% of the whole thing - 23% is what they call "dark matter" and the remaining 73% is known as “dark energy” - they are called “dark” because they are unseen.)

In my personal life, these books (plus many other books) explained what actually happened in my brain when I was diagnosed with high blood pressure eight years ago (I am totally cured now, by the way). Because I unconsciously believed that the world is a dangerous place, I developed a certain dysfunctional psychological habits to keep me “feel” safe.

The illusionary feeling of being safe came with a price - I lived in stress and anxiety. I was angry with my life and the world. I felt small and lived in separation emotionally. I judged every person with whom I was in contact, and I used to wake up every morning believing I would have to struggle through another day.

Imagine if I were to die in that time. I was already living in hell. Even if I would go to heaven, how could I possibly be able to recognize it?! The only thing that I knew was, “life is stressful and the world is a dangerous place” - in short, “life is hell”.

It reminds me of what happened to the Aztecs when the Spanish conquistadors invaded their empire. Because the Aztecs didn’t have any knowledge about ships, they thought the Spaniards were floating on the water and believed that they were white, shining gods coming from the northern shore of the Yucatan peninsular ("white" because of their skins and "shining" because of their helmets). They failed to see the ships until their wiseman alerted them about it.

Pema Chödrön once said, “The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.”

So, to me personally, where do we go after death depends on how we see and experience our lives in the world at this moment in time. If we begin to believe that nothing is wrong with the world, perhaps we will slowly begin to be able to see that Heaven is right here in front of our eyes.

Where do we go after death is not a matter of God judging us the way we judge others. We'll be dearly ushered to our heaven according to the levels of consciousness that we have right now. Science told us that we create the world's physical realities in our mind; So it is undeniable if we create heaven's physical reality too, after death.

Here's some simple exercise that never fail to provide me with some clues on my unconscious believes about life and the world (It also give me some clues on the path I'll most likely end up on after death ;o) I believe it can help you too:

Take a piece of paper and fill in the blanks:

1. I am ___________________________

2. Others are ___________________________

3. The world is ___________________________

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven”
- John Milton, English poet.

God is beyond religions

“Do you believe that God doesn’t need religions to tell us that He exists?” Asked a Sufi master when I had an opportunity to meet him a couple of years ago.

“Yes” I replied.

Recently awarded with a PhD in Holistic Medical and Metaphysical Science, this beautiful soul was about 82 when I met him. When he look at you, you just can sense that he is seeing beyond what meet his eyes.

He continued, “Do you believe that God is beyond religions?”

“Yes, I do”

“If so, are you willing to step upon religions.. for the love of God?”

Without thinking twice, I said “Yes”.

While nodding his head, he smiled. I knew he was just stirring up my mind.

“There are people who kill themselves and kill others in the name of God. They give God the Almighty a bad name. They thought what they have been conditioned to believe is the Truth. But that doesn't matter... It’s the journey of God himself.”

The conversation about God continued hours after that. In that evening, he brought me into seeing the Divine the way he sees it.

Hello Yin! Meet Yang...

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.
I'll meet you there."
- Rumi

Okay, here's the game:

“Whoever run crazily faster from Yin, gets Yang!”

Is this game sounds familiar to you? I bet not... I just invented it...

But, we play this game all the time. Myself included.

Let’s flip to any page of our newspapers for proofs. Everyday, we can see stories about the struggle between “good and bad”, “having and not having”, “hunter and hunted” and many other life’s games of polarity. We have been taught to believe that winning these games of contrast is a mandatory precursor to happiness and a meaningful life. But yet, it has caused so much pain, suffering, rejection, stress, anxiety and sadness, to name but a few.

Is "the-game-of-running-away-from-the-other-side-of-the-coin", what life is all about? Is this how life should really be? Should the foundation of a meaningful, joyful life be the result of these "vicious" games of polarity?

If our lives have caused us so much tears and pain, too much scars from torn and bleeding wounds, perhaps we need a totally new perspective to approach these games. Perhaps, when we begin to know who we really are, we begin to appreciate the totality of life in every duality - Yin needs Yang to exist. Yang is impossible without Yin. They are just a flip of the same coin. Both are meaningless without each other.

"Without the two forces there cannot be the One."
- Chang Tsai (1020-1078), philosopher & poet.

this.is.stillness

Behind the ups and downs of the world, there's a realm within us that is in constant stillness. It is the reality of who we are... And everything else in life is meant to be enjoyed.