by Duality and Enlightenment
Do you sometimes wonder why exactly you are here on this earth? What is your purpose?
Here are some thoughts and reflections on the subject.
May Allah guide us all, forgive my mistakes and accept my best intentions.
Allah created us to give us the opportunity to know Him and experience the Real existence, beyond the world of appearances.
Our active worship of Allah takes place in the opening of our hearts to Him and in remembering. It is for us to become aware, to understand, experience and appreciate how the Divine Plan manifests in and all around us. And we are here to find our way back home to the One Source from whence we came.
On this earth much of our awareness takes place within the fascinating world of duality. As we come to witness the way in which opposites combine and play, to bring about a higher synthesis of experiential and harmonised understanding, we cannot help but surrender to the higher order of greater harmony and peace. It is wired into our very genes, the call of our ‘Fitrah’.
From it we develop our ‘Furqan’, or the ability to understand and appreciate the difference between such contrasting pairs as love and hate, fear and joy, struggle and ease, doubt and trust, denial and acceptance. Through it we are gifted with the power to choose in each and every moment of our lives to either surrender in peace or suffer in resistance and separation. It is part of the personal Jihadi path towards enlightenment and an important key in reaching our ultimate goal.
Nothing manifests in life without having an opposite. Whatever we experience is one of two sides of the same coin: each side may look different but is intimately connected to the other. So we have , for example, night and day, hot and cold, disconnected and connected, expanding and contracting, forgetting and remembering, rejected and embraced … in fact every experience we have in life, you could say is connected to its opposite.
This is very important in understanding how we operate.
The Role Of Ego
Our lower self or ego is deeply rooted in the need to control, to create everything according to the way it thinks it should be. This need to be in control is what creates all of our suffering. However, understanding that life operates in a duality gives us a key, a pointer to knowing that its opposite exists, and opens up choice. Instead of resigning ourselves to living in the cage or prison of our limitations, we can live in the hope of stepping out and beyond, into an expansive and unlimited realm.
The mind tends to focus on what it is not connected to, instead of what it is connected with. And is very good at producing stories … the great ‘because’, to hold all of its ideas and understandings in place.
“I’m stuck because no-one gave me the opportunity”
“I have low self-worth because I was brought up in poverty”
“I don’t have any confidence because I was bullied at school”
“I hate my friend because she betrayed me”
“I’ll be happy when or if …..”
We have so-o-o many stories
The mind loves to invent stories and they can all seem very real, because there are deep feelings attached to them. Our minds are addicted to the past and to the future, and over time we build up our own separate identity or personality that is held together by memories and all the meanings we attribute to them which we become attached to and believe. We hold onto certain concepts about who we are and about who we are not.
In this state of clinging on to our stories we have forgotten our connection to the Eternal Source and have forgotten who we truly are or why we are here.
We need to let go of our attachments and we need to remember and be grateful
“So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me.” S2A152
Everything comes from One Source. Deep down, our soul, spirit, or higher Self knows that it is connected to an infinite Divine being that is the Source of all that manifests in this life.
We will show them Our Signs in the universe, and in their own selves, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth. Is it not sufficient in regard to your Lord that He is a Witness over all things? S41A53
They are all pointers to His Perfection.
Take something as simple as an apple, for example. If you slice it open around the middle, you will find a perfect pentagram inside, with a golden mean ratio 1 to 1.618. This ratio repeats in nature almost everywhere that you care to take a look, in almost every plant and flower, an acorn, a pineapple, a snail ….
To remember Allah, to be enlightened, requires being in the stillness of the present moment, without story, recognising the essential connectedness of everything in the now of Tawhid. This helps to bring us back to our infinite spiritual Source. By simply resting deep in the core of our being, all stories dissolve into the Oneness of our Creator and King
Relax and Become Still
Try relaxing now and allow yourself to feel as a droplet in the ocean … merging with each sensation that arises.
Let yourself melt so that you cannot feel where “you” end or begin.
Keep the mind quiet (it helps to focus on your breathing, a good technique for stilling the mind)
That is enough… When stillness is here, spiritual vibrations start to manifest and flow.
Attention must be focused on the inner. Once we surrender to our deep inner truth, without resistance, suffering fades away, dissolving easily and effortlessly in the light of The All-Encompassing.
Harmonising the opposites through greater expansion is enlightenment
Here truth throws light on the false. No matter how separate or contracted we may have been feeling, we are in truth always intimately connected to or expanded by Source. We just need to ‘remember’ this in a direct experiential way. Thinking, acting and doing … which are activities that separate … must be brought into balance with ‘being’ … in surrender to the present moment.
When the mind is set aside and relieved of its self-appointed job of having to constantly think and analyse, and as you stop exhausting yourself with all of the doing, doing, doing… some space is created where you can relax deeply and become still. In the stillness, higher inner energies, the other side of the ‘lower energies coin’, such as abundance, clarity, peace, love, connectedness and joy are released and flow without any effort on your part
He guides unto Himself all who turn unto Him” S1A327
This is where you can know, with the certainty of experiential knowing (ilm al yakin), your connection with the All-Powerful and where your fulfilment, peace and deep satisfaction lies
Like Fish in an Ocean
We are like small fish living in a vast all-intelligent divine ocean of love, intimately connected with it and depending on it for our very existence, yet at the same time swimming around in our own little worlds, often oblivious to the whole wider reality. Much of our suffering is in that oblivion. As we swim around in the illusion that we are separate and alone, we have no real awareness of our deep connection to all that is. Most of our live are spent just running automatic patterns, disconnected from any awareness of our true reality, believing that our limitations are our whole world.
The enlightened person, however, is fully aware of the world and its forgetfulness, its separations and its limitations. He or she has awakened to another level, the vast ocean of all expansive, all-inclusive consciousness. The key is in remembering. At that moment we find ourselves reunited with that which we cannot live without, our intimate connection with everything.
Those who believe and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah: for without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction.” S13A28
As long as the mind has forgotten this and believes we are a separate self, with separate thoughts that are totally disconnected from everyone and everything else, we will continue to live a life lost in distraction, agitation, suffering and pain.
When we turn our attention inwards to the higher frequencies of our hearts a deep inner connection to Allah is opened and everything falls into place. We are able to step outside of the box. Everything is harmonised and included in the bigger picture. When we look at the world from this inner perspective Allah’s patterning, energies, attributes and signs are revealed, experienced and understood.
O ye who believe! if ye fear (are consciously aware of) Allah He will grant you a criterion (to judge between right and wrong) remove from you (all) evil (that may afflict you) and forgive you: for Allah is the Lord of grace unbounded.” S8A29
The mistake many of us make is to assume that we are our mind when in fact the mind is only a tool. It becomes our master when it should be our servant. It masters us by constantly making us think, think, think – mostly about the past and future and hardly ever about the present, since the present moment is a doorway to the soul.
We need to open a heart or soul connection to what is latent or hidden within us, witness it and surrender
I was a hidden treasure and wished to be known (hadith qudsi)
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Our Facebook community ‘Truly Transformational’ is full of resources for finding your true self, letting go of attachment to ego and moving towards a life of true happiness, peace, clarity and well being.
“Since I joined the group, I have learned how to slow my thoughts through simple breathing techniques, and then connect my breathing to my heart. I’ve learned how to quieten my mind enough to hear and listen to my heart. I’ve learned that I am enough, and I have always been enough, I am loved, and I have always been loved and am love. I have always been… I had just forgotten.
Now I am learning to remember. The best thing of all that I have learned, is that I always have a choice. I can choose whatever I like. I am learning to become an observer of my thoughts and reactions, which is enabling me to realize that there are other options, other thoughts to think… which create other feelings… I can choose to feel happy whenever I wish, no matter what I might have previously automatically thought.
I love this feeling – it feels like being free… to be me… to be happy and loved… and to love x Joy, much love and gratitude to you… Today, I am remembering, and my wish is that I remember this every single day of my life xxx” Liz Fleming
How does it feel when you are grateful? Let’s just take a few moments to explore this.