Poetry by Rumi

The Taste of Morning

Time's knife slides from the sheath,

as fish from where it swims.

Being closer and closer is the desire

of the body. Don't wish for union!

There's a closeness beyond that.
Why would God want a second God?
Fall in love in such a way that it frees you

from any connecting.
Love is the soul's light, the taste of morning, no me, no

we, no claim of being.
These words are the smoke the fire gives off as it

absolves its defects, as eyes in silence, tears, face.
Love cannot be said.

In love, aside from sipping the wine of timelessness,
nothing else exists.
There is no reason for living except for giving one's life.
I said, "First I know you, then I die."
He said, "For the one who knows Me, there is no dying."

Any soul that drank the nectar of your passion was lifted.
From that water of life he is in a state of elation.
Death came, smelled me, and sensed your fragrance instead.
From then on, death lost all hope of me.

Concepts

How I understand the concepts of time, free will, infinity and perception in the universe and how they relate to everything being preordained...

I was trying to explain my understanding of "God" as all-knowing to an atheist friend of mine one day... If time is a concept constructed to give humans a frame-of-reference with which to perceive their reality and the universe is actually infinite, than think of time on an axis of a plane in space... I am positive its way more complicated than this, but I think this is a simple way to begin to understand it.

Introduction to What?

This blog is more for me than for anyone else really, a place where I can gather my thoughts on what I am planning to explore. And what is that? Well, its life... its existence, reality, perception, meaning, spirituality, beauty, art, mathematics, religion and God. I want to document it as I do it, because I think it will help me understand things better, and maybe help open some other people's eyes as well.

MY first eye opener was quantum physics. Nothing in school ever interested me as much as the topic did. All of the ideas that surrounded and defined it were so different from the traditional way of thinking I grew up with, but made so much more sense to me despite their more complicated nature.

We (all humans, plants, animals, galaxies, planets, etc.) are all at the tiniest molecular level an interconnected ONE. That made sense to me, it felt right. The fusion of mathematics and philosophy in relation to quantum physics was a familiar and reassuring genius. Yes, ok, I can see that in life there are an infinite number of possibilities and realities simultaneously existing and that what I experience is only one perception.

I got a little deeper in my understand of things, or at least gained a different perspective. One that pushed me away from the strict moral code and world view that I was taught growing up through Islam. Now I don't want to say that I don't believe in religion or God or morals. I believe that "God" is loose phrase with a spectrum of meaning, is of a different nature than what religion has taught me, and that religion divides people and causes pain. That is an intuitive truth. I think that morals are very different from religion, and that religion is truly the opiate of the masses. What if all people just approached faith as an independent study course? Learned about everything and developed an understanding of existence that made the most sense and felt right to them? I think you need to do that to TRULY believe in something, not just believing it out of fear, which is how I think religion operates.

Now despite my skepticism of religion, I have held on to it. I try to make sense of other things in relation to it... because it is what I knew first, my foundation.

I have read and watched videos about quantum physics, ayahuasca, DMT, other dimensions, "aliens" or interdimensional beings, jinns, mysticism, cosmic spiritual experiences, sensory depravation chambers, the enlightened societies of the mayans and ancient egypt... and as much as elements of these things have made sense to me and I have been drawn towards them, I also REALLY fear them. I have explored topics including a range of conspiracy theories, secret societies, star gates, the illuminati, the new world order... and all of these concepts have become intertwined into one big evil blob. Religion has instilled this fear in me that if I get involved with anything in this blob, then I am getting involved with the devil and with evil...

...the devil, the "personification" of Evil. Yet how does Good exist without Evil? Good and Evil are both necessary, they both need each other to exist and in their existence are together something greater than they are individually. If the devil really exists than does that mean that God is just eternal good? How can the almighty be explained so simply then? And how is pure good to exist after the day of judgment when the devil is supposed to be defeated? I think then that God is related to that sum of Good + Evil, the whole bigger than the sum of two halves. That makes sense to me, the concept of the devil really existing does not...

...The same way as the idea that someone not born into a certain religion or even religion at all goes to hell don't make sense to me. And that following everything in religion will lead to "salvation" despite the many different sects, interpretations and perversions gathered along the way doesn't really make sense to me.

What does make sense to me, is that there is something in this life that I can experience beyond the everyday consumer-driven paper-chasing vague-understanding-of-but-full-faith-in-God-loving life that I am going to continue living unless I jump down the "rabbit hole", with fear swallowed, heart and mind open. If consorting with "the devil" is what it takes to gain a deeper understanding of God and existence then so be it. I have a steadfast belief that good energy is what I want to be around and what I want to exude, and I don't think that this experience will change that about me.

Today I spoke to an old friend from college. He is the first person that I actually know who has achieved what I want... existence on an elevated plane of consciousness. He has experienced astral projection, the highest state of consciousness through ayahuasca, and has a completely different world view than he used to. He suggested starting off with readings that were more scientific based and then branching out to the more esoteric stuff out there.

He focused on one spiritual leader as the best to start (Tolle) with but as I am skeptical of being pushed towards one school of thought or philosophy, I'll research and come up with some other names... things mentioned:
* Eckhart Tolle - A New Earth and "Power of Now" + a 10-week webinar Tolle put together with Oprah discussing different chapters of his book
* Brian Weiss - Books on past life regressions and psychotherapy
* Ken Wilbur - Books on reincarnation?
* International Academy of Consciousness - he learned to astrally project through this school
* The Singularity Summit at Standord - exponential growth of technology
* "Autobiography of a Yogi"
* Life as fractals

WHAT? Is both the question I am asking and a reflection of my thoughts on existence as of now... Its a pronoun, noun, adjective, interjection, conjunction, it is an infinite number of possibilities based on who, why, when and where in relation to WHAT is used.