Truthfulness will set you free

Truthfulness, and not the truth, will set you free.  Truthfulness starts with being truthful to one's self internally.

"the "unconscious" is the locus of the all the ways I have lied to myself…my unconscious is the locus of my insincerity, of my being less than truthful with myself, less than truthful about my subjective depth, my interior status, my deep desires and intentions.  The unconscious is the locus of the lie.

The example we used was "sad" and "mad" about an absent father. What that means is that at some point early in my life, I started interpreting anger as depression. Perhaps I was enraged at my father for not being around. This rage, however, is very dangerous for a child. What if this rage could actually kill my father? Perhaps I had better not have this anger, because after all I love my father. So I'm angry at myself instead. I beat myself up instead.  I'm rotten, no good, wretched to the core. This is very depressing. I started out mad, now I'm calling it sad.

One way or another, I have misinterpreted my interior, I have distorted my depth. I have started calling anger "sadness". And I carry this lie around with me. I cannot be truthful with myself because that would involve such great pain - to want to kill the father I love - so I would rather lie about the whole thing. And so this I do. My "shadow", my "unconscious", is now the locus of this lie, the focal point of this insincerity, the inner place that I hide from myself.

And because I lie to myself - and then forget it is a lie - then I will lie to you without even knowing it. I will probably even seem very sincere about it.  In fact, if I have thoroughly lied to myself, I will honestly think I'm telling the truth. And if you give me a lie detector test, it will show that I'm telling the "truth".  So much for empirical tests.

Finally, because I have misinterpreted my own depth, I will often misinterpret yours. I am cutting something off in my own depth - I am dissociating it, or repressing it, or alienating it - and so I will distort interpretations from that depth, both in myself and in others.  My interpretations will be laced with lies, nested in insincerity. I will misinterpret myself, and I will often misinterpret you."

- Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything. 2nd Edition. 2001

Shirk Alert: Pope's Brother Confirms Pagan Practices Widespread Amongst Catholics and Society

In a recent article quoting Monsignor Georg Ratzinger's new book, My Brother The Pope, he remarked that “an almost pagan way of life has taken root” amongst many of today’s Catholics and others in society.

The observation was that remembering and thanking God for His daily gifts were absent in most people’s lives today. “It starts with sitting down at table and beginning a meal without even thinking about prayer, an it ends with no longer coming to church regularly”.

The article includes another interesting personal fact that Monsignor Ratzinger and his brother grew up in a devoutly Catholic household where the family would pray daily to St Dismas, a “good thief” who allegedly died alongside Jesus on the cross, to protect their father, a policeman.  Praying to some other entity than God for protection is a clear instance of major Shirk.

Many of us are guilty of taking God’s daily gifts for granted. What does God have to do with getting paid for being smart and having a great life? We are blind to God’s mercy and grace in our success, much less be thankful to him.  Herein lies the path to minor shirk for the unaware.   

The illustration of a family praying to some other entity for protection, a former thief in this case, is an illustration of major Shirk and a clear violation of the First Commandment.  Many who pray to saints and entities other than God will not dispute the supremacy of God but argue that their lowly spiritual station in life as a result of sinfulness requires a spiritual intermediary who is a more keen and sympathetic listener than God and would make their case better heard with God. 

These beliefs assume that the once human saint’s spirit was conferred extraordinary powers by God to match the desires of the humans who conferred sainthood on him. The very idea of this is a clear example of major Shirk.

There is a place for great men and saints in our prayers. We ask God to bless them and have mercy on them and their families for the great and good things they did in their lives.  If those great souls are informed of our prayers, they may reciprocate a request to God in our favor.  

There is no disputing the good and great deeds of the saints or prophets and the desire to remember and honor them. The issue is not if but how it should be done in our prayers where the major caveat is to avoid committing shirk.

To those whose religious traditions include the mention of saints, prophets and holy men in your prayers, please take care of your intentions and beliefs before God. Beware violating the First Commandment.

Aspirancy, the Preliminaries of Spiritual Stuggle, and the Path of Discipline

“Be it known unto you that the man who has in all certainty beheld the harvest of the Afterlife with his heart must needs aspire to it, and must long for it and follow its ways, despising thereby the pleasure and delights which this world contains. For the man who has a bauble will lose all desire for it when he spies a precious gem, and will long to make an exchange. Lack of desire for the harvest of the Afterlife and the meeting with God (Exalted is He!) is the outcome of a lack of faith in God and in the Last Day. Now, I do not mean by “faith” the discourse of the soul” and the movement made by the tongue when pronouncing the Two Testimonies in a way which is devoid of any sincerity or single heartedness, for this would be equivalent to believing that the gem were better than the bauble while knowing its name alone, and not its reality. Such a believer will not renounce the bauble, having grown accustomed to it, and will harbor no passionate yearning for the gem.

The obstacle which bars us from attaining to God is therefore our lack of wayfaring, and this in turn proceeds from a lack of aspirancy, this being the result of an absence of faith, which is in turn the consequence of a lack of guides and of people who might remind one, and who know about God (Exalted is He!) and will lead one along the path to Him, who give men to realize the baseness and impermanence of this world and the great import and everlasting duration of the next. Mankind is in a state of heedlessness, having plunged into the desires of this world and fallen deep into slumber, and there is not a single scholar of the Faith who is working to arouse it from this plight.

Should anyone happened to awake he will find himself incapable of following the Path because of his ignorance, when he questions the scholars about it he finds them to be far removed from it and disposed instead towards their own whims. Thus it is that weakness in aspirancy, ignorance of the Path, and the self-interested discourses pronounced by the scholars, are the causes of the present absence of wayfarers on the Path of God (Exalted is He!). If the objective be veiled, the guide absent, worldly desire predominant and the seeker heedless, then attaining unto him is an impossibility and the Paths must needs fall into desuetude.

But should it happen that a man awake, either of his own accord or by virtue of the activity of another, and aspire to the commerce and harvest of the Afterlife, he should be aware that there are diverse requirements which must be observed at the outset of aspirancy, and that there exists a place of refuge and a fortress within which he must defend himself if he is to be safe from those highwaymen who would obstruct him, and likewise that there are duties which he must perform while on his journey without cease.

The requirements of aspirancy which must be observed pertain to the lifting of the veil and the barrier which lies between one and the truth. For mankind has been deprived of the Truth by reason of a successive establishment of veils and the presence of a barrier on the Path.  God (Exalted is He!) has said, And We have set a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, and have covered them so that they cannot see (Quran XXXVI:9)

Now the ‘barrier’ which lies between the aspirant and the Truth is constituted of four things: wealth, status, imitation, and sin. The veil of wealth can be lifted only by divesting oneself of it so that no more than the necessary quantity thereof remains.”

 ~ An excerpt from Al-Ghazali’s 12^th century treatise on Disciplining the Soul, 22.11, translated by T.J. Winter, University of Cambridge. 1995.  

The Simple Believer - Purifying Man's Relationship with God

The following is a simple view of monotheism and the belief in a single God, the Creator of the Universe and all things since and after.

Politics, competition, bigotry and bias aside, we believe that it is important to have a pure relationship with God regardless of which worship system you were born into or choose to adhere to.

In an age of confusion, seeing and understanding the truth is elusive. Understanding the fundamental truth, that we are all a creation of a single God and given an opportunity to exist in our own moments in time on this tiny yet perfect rock in the midst of a grand explosion, is the critical starting place.

We will never understand it all. How could a three dimensional brain comprehend and see a universe with eleven or more dimensions? Even if we figure out the math, we would be a long way off from making sense of the whole picture. The part of reality we can comprehend is clouded with the fantasies and speculations of selfish human agendas.

How do we know we are not an accident? Well we've had repeated messengers and prophets bearing the same message from the Creator with scriptures that resonate logically with everything we can observe and describe scientifically and mathematically.  Yes, we have also corrupted most of the messages and scriptures to suit our own selfish agendas but lots have been and is being said about this by others.

With this macro perspective, the following is an attempt to focus on and purify a person's relationship with God, his Creator in an effort to be a simple believer who lives according to Gods' natural laws.

We need to be cognizant about the politics and corrupt agendas of men that manifest itself in every conceivable way. We must be able to distinguish between our personal, direct relationship with our Creator from the culture of the "faithful", from the corrosive politics of religion and from those that seek to profit from religion.

All of these detract from man's real relationship with God which is a very personal process that improves the way a person relates to their family, community, colleagues and society.  It is important to note that while many follow different worship systems, each person's faith is a reflection of their particular interpretation of the worship system of their choice.  The enduring nature of many of the world's worship systems is a testament to the eternal truth revealed to them by the same Creator.

Getting closer to God and purifying this relationship requires the embracing of a pure theology of simple monotheism that looks past the competitive politics of the different worship systems.

 From the perspective of the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism with the Old Testament can be considered Version 1.0. Christianity and the teachings of Jesus Christ with the New Testament would be Version 2.0 and Islam with the Koran revealed to the Prophet Muhammad would be the Final Testament and Version 3.0.  God's natural laws can be understood from them all.

God has sent humanity many righteously guided Prophets and Messengers as conduits for His knowledge and guidance which has always been the same:

1. Believe in God
2. Be thankful to Him
3. Be just to others
4. Be charitable to the needy

Pure theology is concerned with man's relationship with God and relies on divine Scriptures for guidance. The objective is to be a simple believer whose primary objective is to live a free, happy, successful and peaceful life in accordance with God's natural laws.

The real worship is mostly individual, private and meditative. It is manifested in our daily conduct with family, colleagues, community and society.  Guidance and an understanding of God's natural laws can be found in all of the Scriptures. It's interesting to cross check the Old, New and Final Testaments on rulings.

So next time you get disheartened by the conduct and opinions of members of your own faith and are subject to the corrosive politics of faith, focus on what really counts - your relationship with God. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Its people that are the problem and your relationship with God that really matters to you succeeding in life.

Religion expected to become extinct?

A Cornell University study predicts that religion is expected to become extinct in 8 countries including Canada.

"The model predicts that for societies in which the perceived utility of not adhering is greater than the utility of adhering, religion will be driven toward extinction.

We present a new treatment of the competition for adherents between religious and irreligious segments of modern secular societies and compile a new international data set tracking the growth of religious non-affiliation. Data suggest a particular case of our general growth law, leading to clear predictions about possible future trends in society.

People claiming no religious affiliation constitute the fastest growing religious minority in many countries throughout the world. Americans without religious affiliation comprise the only religious group growing in all 50 states; in 2008 those claiming no religion rose to 15 percent nationwide, with a maximum in Vermont at 34 percent. In the Netherlands nearly half the population is religiously unaffiliated."

The Shirk Spotter's view is the real question is how many people actually believe in God versus those that don't believe in the existence of the Universal Creator? This is the real question.

The Abrahamic faiths are essentially different competitive versions of the same religion. And then there are many who have moved away from their traditional religious affiliation to a different and personal set of beliefs where they choose to believe in God and have a relationship through private worship and meditation. 

The Different Kinds of Shirk

As a first post, we thought we would outline the different forms of Shirk that have been identified.  The following is based on the definition of Shirk from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirk_%28Islam%29

The different forms of shirk are identified as follows:

Category 1: Major Shirk

1. Shirk by Association. The worship of other deities other than God
2. Shirk by Negation. The disbelief in God.
3. Shirk by Humanization. Where God is given the form and nature of humans, animals or objects.
4. Shirk by Deification. To give a person, animal or object God's attributes and names.
5. Shirk by Worship. Where acts of worship are directed to parties other than God.

Category 2: Minor Shirk

1. Shirk in Worldly Possessions. Valuing wealth and possessions over God's grace to man.
2. Secret Shirk. Showing off to others in one's worship of God.
3. Shirk in Luck. Belief in luck rather than God's grace. 

There are probably other forms of Shirk. Looking forward to hearing from fellow Shirk Spotters!