Change, Violence, Control, and Religion; A Sufi Perspective

Recently, I had an exchange with a person I know ... someone who is a non-believer with respect to spiritual issues, but someone about whom I care. The discussion began with a post which concerned some of the problems inherent in modern systems of education, both public and private, Muslim and non-Muslim, as well as in relation to American and non-American educational programs. The first several paragraphs of the aforementioned post were as follows:

“The six functions of education (both public and private) are: (1) Adjusting; (2) Diagnosing; (3) Sorting; (4) Conforming/Unifying (5) Tagging; and (6) Preserving/Perpetuating. These functions are obsessively and compulsively pursued by a set of "overlords and overladies" in order to establish and realize a means of imposing a process of framing and filtering reality upon a population. The first statement is not a conspiracy theory since I am not necessarily contending that a group of people gather together in secret in order to bring about the instituting of such a system. Rather, I am suggesting that there are a group of people who are so enamored with themselves that they each individually, and in their own inimitable style, develop a delusional disorder which whispers to their egos that they have the right to control and rule over the lives of other people, irrespective of what the costs of such control might be to society or the world in general.

“The foregoing process of six functions is instituted as a means of: dumbing the population down, controlling them, and perpetuating an arbitrary, and rigged system of: militarization, economics, monetary policy, legal processes, politics, together with a system of policing (which, when push comes to shove, is not intended to 'serve and protect' the people, but, rather, is dedicated to serving the interests of the elite). Moreover, the purpose of such a system of dumbing people down is to ensure that the few (the overlords and overladies of control ... i.e., the aforementioned elites) may benefit materially, financially, and through a progressively enhanced accruing of power (the Anaconda Principle), while the many are educated and trained to serve and worship the likes and dislikes of that elite. The foregoing is true of all religious (including Muslim), communist, socialist, capitalist, democratic, and monarchical nations.”

There was more to the post than contained in the foregoing comments, but that excerpt provides something of the flavor of what was written in the original set of remarks. My fellow interlocutor raised a question about what I had written, wanting to know how I proposed to move into the future with respect to changing the problematic way through which things currently are being done.

I replied to the inquiry with the following words:

“Everything begins with our selves. The only thing over which any of us ought to have some degree of control is ourselves as individuals.

“I don't believe in trying to impose a system (educational, political, economic, philosophical, or spiritual) on someone else since this would be just as arbitrary and unjustifiable an act as is that which is done by those who seek to impose their systems on me. Important changes always happen from within, not from without. Change takes place one consciousness at a time.

“We all have a responsibility to change and struggle toward realizing the constructive aspects of the potentials that we are. If not enough people are interested in doing this, then we, as a society, will reap what we sow ... and the reaping which currently is taking place is evident in the many forms of violence and terrorism (domestically, medically, politically, psychologically, economically, culturally, religiously, environmentally, educationally) which are taking place all around us.

“The only tools which are available to us are: sincerity, courage, tolerance, perseverance, dialogue, critical reflection, the interrogative imperative (the importance of asking questions), as well as the honoring or respecting of the inherent sovereignty of one another (a sovereignty which precedes both social and governmental institutions). This is how we change ... this is how we move into the future, but if people do not come to appreciate what is necessary in relation to such internal changes, then there may soon be no future to move into.”

Upon reading the foregoing remarks, my friend replied by saying that the ideas being expressed seemed rather impractical. In addition, the individual said that unless the violence being perpetrated by religions is stopped, then my friend didn’t see much hope for any sort of constructive dialogue being able to take place by which we, collectively, might be able to try to resolve world problems.

Furthermore, while my friend thought that the idea of sovereignty was okay, he believed that those who are exercising it should stay on their own reservations. In other words, the implication of my friend’s statement was that people should hoe their own row and leave other people alone.

The foregoing remarks led to another response from me. These latter comments are fairly lengthy and are, with certain changes and additions, given expression through the following material.

I began my comments by providing a brief overview of a book of mine that was published last year – namely, ‘The Unfinished Revolution: The Battle for America’s Soul.” My reason for mentioning the book was because, on the one hand, its contents were apropos to my friend’s concern about the nature of the dynamic between sovereignty and non-interference, and, on the other hand, I wanted to indicate to him that it was quite possible to talk about constitutional and political issues in a way that might be able to establish some common ground for both those who had a spiritual orientation as well as those, like my friend, who did not share such an orientation.

I indicated that despite the wording of the subtitle for: the aforementioned book, it is entirely free of any discussion of spiritual issues, per se, and is entirely dedicated to deconstructing what passes for the constitutional basis of American life. If one were to reduce the book down to one idea, it would parallel my friend’s statement about 'sovereignty being fine as long as people stay on their own reservation' -- although, in practice, that kind of sentiment is a lot more subtle and complex than some people (for example, libertarians) suppose. In fact, the complexities involved are such that I required more than 600 pages in the aforementioned book in order to outline some of the nuances of what is entailed by the sort of perspective being alluded to by my friend.

I mentioned two further books that I had written which were related to the issues being considered -- ‘Democracy Lost and Regained’, together with a small book on education (‘Reflections On Education and Learning’) ... especially the long 'Paradigm Shift' chapter in the latter work during which the 'establishment clause' of the First Amendment was taken to its logical conclusion.

More specifically, a lot of people mistakenly refer to the relevant part of the First Amendment as the 'separation clause' – believing that the whole idea was to make sure that, unlike the case in many other parts of the world, government in America would not be a function of anyone's religious beliefs ... which is a sentiment with which I am in agreement. However, the wording of the First Amendment makes it quite clear that the crux of the matter revolves around the establishing of religion of any kind as a vehicle for governance.

Unfortunately, many people suppose that the meaning of the First Amendment maintains that any and all secular or non-religious points of view constitute acceptable candidates as a basis of government. However, I take issue with political and/or economic philosophies which seek to impose a worldview of any kind on a citizenry since I consider this to be, in its own way, an establishment of religion. I, then, proceeded to put forth the bare-bones reasons for such a claim.

There is no God-concept in Buddhism, and, yet, it is considered a religion. It is not theism that is the sin qua non for religion but the treatment of certain principles that are considered to be sacred, and, therefore, sacrosanct, inviolable expressions of what is considered to constitute reality or truth ... e.g., the notion of the ‘free market’ in economics which are considered to be a sacred basis for all commerce and, therefore, should not be regulated.

All public policy constitutes so many exercises that attempt to smuggle religion -- in the broad sense of the last paragraph -- into the realm of governance. If one really wants everyone to ‘stay on their own reservation’, then this goes for both secular and theistic versions of religion ... all such systems are arbitrary in the sense that one cannot prove them to be true beyond a reasonable doubt or even in conjunction with the lesser standard of a 'preponderance of the available evidence' when such matters are being considered among an impartial panel of our peers.

Everyone has his or her own opinion about the nature of reality. Nonetheless, proving the truth of such opinions to the satisfaction of other people is problematic in a variety of ways.

Given the way some Muslims act, many people – including some Muslims – might be surprised to hear that the Qur'an is very clear that there can be ‘no compulsion in matters of religion’ – and, surely, this is quite consonant with the meaning of the establishment clause which forms part of the First Amendment. Every human being must be free to make his or her own decisions concerning where that individual comes down on the issue of the nature of reality.

I wrote a small book on 'Shari'ah' which delineates how, in my opinion, the vast majority of Muslims today have been misled by so-called religious leaders with respect to the way in which they understand the actual meaning of the term: 'shari'ah'. They believe – mistakenly, I feel -- that the Qur'an was intended as a rule book which should constitute the basis of a legal system that is to be imposed on people.

In reality, however, shari'ah is about delineating a methodological process that is capable of exploring the character of natural law concerning the issue of how to go about realizing the potential inherent in the essential self and, as such, is intended to be pursued on an individual basis, not on a collective
one. To this extent, the purpose of any government is to establish a stable and non-oppressive public space within which every individual has the right to seek to push back the horizons of ignorance concerning the nature of reality as long as such a pursuit is consonant with a like right for others.

At this point, I returned to an earlier comment made by my friend which suggested that my approach (as outlined earlier in the comments concerning education) was rather impractical – that nothing would be accomplished through such a way of doing things ... that I was just spouting words. I disagreed with the individual on this point and proceeded on in the following manner.

One could, of course, cite figures such as Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King as examples of individuals who appeared, from the vantage point of some individuals, to be pursuing a rather impractical, quixotic path in relation to world problems, and, yet, those historical figures ended up helping people to change in substantial ways. However, most of us will never even remotely approach the level of impact that the aforementioned individuals had upon the world, and, so, perhaps the more direct challenge entailed by the charge of ‘impracticality’ concerning my previous suggestions for moving forward into the future with respect to changing things is to talk about what impact average, everyday sorts of people might have upon the considerable problems with which we all are faced.

I believe that a great deal has been accomplished in my life by using the principles of non-violence and attempting, as best as I am capable of doing, to act through the qualities of character ... accomplishments that go beyond 'just words.' For example, without violence and through the exercise of character, I have helped -- along with many others -- to end the Vietnam War by refusing to go along with an arbitrary and indefensible policy of hostilities in Southeast Asia. Moreover, without violence and with the assistance of qualities of character, I – along with others -- helped to force the government of Ontario to the bargaining table with respect to the way education was conducted in that province. Furthermore, without violence and through the use of principles of character, I stood up against the faculty and administration of a major university in relation to the plagiaristic activities of one of the faculty members of that university ... and while the university in question did nothing of a punitive nature in relation to that faculty member (in fact, it promoted him to a position that had oversight concerning the student honor code), the university also did not sanction me in any way as it surely would have done if what I had been alleging was untrue.

Without violence, I resisted the attempt of certain facets of the University of Toronto, and the provincial government of Ontario, to oppress me and unjustly deprive me of a doctoral degree largely because I was a Muslim who had the temerity to speak out about a variety of issues. Obtaining the doctoral degree took me 16 years and required me to think fairly far outside the box in order to finally succeed and overcome the forces of opposition that were aligned against me both from within the university as well as within the provincial government of Ontario. In addition, without violence and through the use of principles of character,  I (along with help from my present wife) helped to throw a monkey wrench, of sorts, into the spiritual abuse that was being perpetrated by a so-called Sufi teacher that I encountered following the passing away of my spiritual guide, Dr. Baig.  This was a battle that lasted for a number of years and, in some respects, still continues.

Did any of the foregoing activities significantly change the world? No, they didn’t, but they were actions that made a difference – on however small a scale – to my life and the lives of other individuals with whom, in one way or another, I have come into contact.

 Finally, without violence and through the application of principles of character, over the last forty years, paths of communication have been established with many people through public talks (e.g., Fordham University, McGill, Carleton University, the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, the University of Alberta, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Maine.) There were also a number of television and radio interviews (e.g., CBC and BBC radio) concerning Islam that reached millions of individuals.

In fact, the CBC interview was originally slated to run just 5-10 minutes, but the network was so happy with the initial program that they invited me back to continue things for three more days -- which added up to an hour, or so, altogether, in air time. Following the series of interviews, a number of people – who were not Muslim -- approached me and indicated that they had appreciated and learned from the interviews.

Attempting to communicate with other people -- reaching out to them and trying to establish some sort of common ground through which dialogue might arise – are not just words. It is a word-based activity which constitutes an attempt to bridge the chasm of alien silence that often exists among people ... it is an attempt to try to begin a search for solutions to problems that will work for everyone – irrespective of their spiritual orientation, or lack thereof -- in a constructive way.

Moreover, I have conducted classes – both in Canada and the United States, involving hundreds of students -- that explored topics such as: psychology, philosophy, and diversity in a manner which did not cover just the required subject matter but attempted to serve as a means of assisting students to struggle toward finding their own voice, identity, and way in the world. I did not teach the students about Islam or the Sufi path in any of these courses, but I did seek to treat the students in accordance with principles and values that were consonant with the Islamic and Sufi perspective.

Providing food for thought is not an empty exercise in word usage. Rather, seeking to induce people to seriously reflect on issues ... to ignite their smoldering curiosity to seek out answers and solutions... to encourage them to ask significant questions of both themselves and others – these are activities, not just words

Thousands of copies of various books written by me over the last 20 years, or so, have been sold in 16-17 countries around the world, and, moreover, a number of those titles have been obtained by libraries such as: Harvard, McGill, Princeton, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Maine, as well as by a variety of public libraries in the United States, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Oxford, England. While the foregoing is small potatoes compared to the best sellers of our day, nevertheless, people all over the world (even if they constitute a relatively small group of individuals) have come in contact with ideas that encourage them to reflect, ponder, question, explore, analyze, and engage existence constructively ... that is, to embrace life through more than words, but via actions that display respect for other human beings and their different points of view.

For roughly 52 weeks a year, over a period of nearly 20 years (from around 1975 until the early-to-mid 1990) I conducted the Sufi Study Circle (a discussion group) at the University of Toronto. This was done at the request of my shaykh.

Sometimes no one showed up to those meetings, and on other occasions anywhere from 5 to 12 people might show up, rarely more than this. For most of the people who attended the meetings they (the meetings) served as little more than a temporary way-station before moving on to somewhere and something else. However, in a few cases, the seeds which were being sowed through those discussions came to fruition and such individuals began to seriously pursue Islam and the Sufi path, but perhaps even more importantly, as far as those individuals who were not interested in Islam or the Sufi approach to mysticism are concerned, both during and following those meetings, those individuals were treated with respect and consideration ... again, this is not a matter of just words but spills over into the realm of action.

Over the years I have built a variety of websites which have been visited by thousands of people from all over the world. Some of those visits have been quite fleeting (seconds), while other visitors have stayed for hours, and, of course, one can determine all of this by looking at the raw data for the website.

For roughly seven to eight years, I did a podcast – ‘Sufi Reflections’ – which had an audience that ran anywhere from 500 to 900 people for the 42 programs that were put together during that period of time. A certain number of those individuals have written to me and expressed appreciation for the contents of those podcasts.

In a world of 7 billion people, an audience of hundreds or thousands of people hardly constitutes anything more than a blip on the screen of life. Nevertheless, like George Bailey in Frank Capra’s ‘A Wonderful Life,’ I believe the foregoing activities have made a difference in the lives of other people that extends beyond words.

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Will I solve the world's problems on my own? No!!

Are the world's problems solvable? I believe the answer is: Yes!!!

Will human beings do what is necessary to help bring this about in a
peaceful manner? I really don't know.

I don't have control over what anyone else does. I only have control
-- within certain limits of imperfection -- over what I do, and though relatively limited in stature, what is done through me goes far beyond the typing or speaking of nice sounding words. I say what I mean, and I mean what I say, and my words are never intended to remain within the realm of just the spoken.

We don’t have to be famous movers and shakers in order to have a constructive impact on the lives of other people ... even if only in a very limited manner. There are many things which each of us can do to try to improve the condition of the world – however small-seeming such acts might be.

Seen from the bottom, the idea of reaching the summit of Mt. Everest seems overwhelming. Yet, many people have made it to the top of that mountain by putting one foot in front of the other and continuing on in that fashion.

Similarly, if one looks at the problems of the world, the difficulties seem too numerous and complex for anything to be done to improve matters. In this respect, one might think about the words of Neil Armstrong who said: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” ... every step a human being takes in the service of truth and improving the lives of others, no matter how small that step might seem at the time it is taken, is always a giant leap for humankind, and if enough people came to understand that truth and actively incorporated it into their daily lives, then, maybe, some of the world’s problems might begin to dissipate.

At this point in the exchange with my friend, I changed topics and told him that I was inclined to agree with his belief (noted earlier) that many acts of violence are committed in the 'name' of religion. However, I provided a qualifying caveat to that agreement – namely, I indicated that I am not all convinced who use the name of religion in mischievous and destructive ways are necessarily all that religious.

I began to expand on the foregoing idea by mentioning that there is considerable evidence to indicate that most people have a real aversion to killing other people. Yes, every year -- at least in the United States -- one has the usual set of 16,000 murders, or so, which are committed, but this is a miniscule portion of the more than 330 million people who live in this country. Moreover, although murders are committed in other parts of the world -- and I will leave out, for the moment, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, the Sudan, Mali, Syria, and the Congo -- the fact is that in many countries there are even a smaller percentage of people who turn to murder as their coping strategy of choice as a means of dealing with conflict than is the case in the United States.

Furthermore, the aforementioned murders are, for the most part, not done primarily for religious reasons  ... although some of them might be. More specifically, while the surface motivations underlying such acts usually involve money drugs, or sex, there is also a strong component inherent in those actions that concerns the desire to control other people ... and, presumably, causing the death of another human being is the ultimate act of control ... something that plays a very prominent role in the thousands of cases of domestic abuse which occur on a regular basis around the world every year..

As Smedley Butler -- a winner of two Congressional Medals of Honor stated back in the 1930's, both in a book, as well as through an address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars -- 'War is a Racket.' It is a ‘racket’ specializing in the control of money, resources, and people’ for the benefit of the few.

Butler knew what he was talking about because he had been engaged in that very racket on behalf of the United States throughout Central and South America during the ‘Banana Wars’ which were waged on behalf of American corporations against the people of countries that had resources coveted by those corporations. Butler indicated that all wars are fought to gain access to money, profits, and the strategic control of both resources and people by the power elite.

God and religion had absolutely nothing to do with those activities except as an exercise in perception management. Perception management, propaganda, indoctrination, brainwashing, and undue influence are used by governments, school systems, and corporations to manipulate the emotions of the public and military personnel in order to induce segments of the population to be in a mood to kill whomever the powers that be indicate should be killed.

Many people cite the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand as the spark that started the World War I. However, the real key to understanding the underlying issues of that war are rooted in the desire of the German government to establish a railroad connection – along the lines of the Orient Express -- with Iraq and its oil resources ...and, it is interesting to note in this respect that the very first place where English troops were sent at the beginning of World War I was to Basra, in the oil-rich region of Southern Iraq.

Although people on all sides of the foregoing conflict might have invoked the name of God, it was not a religious war. While the name of religion might have been used to stir up resentments and other emotions amongst the general population as well as the troops, World War I was a conflict concerning control of resources ... it was a racket intended to serve the interests of money and power with respect to whatever side might win.

The seeds of the Second World War were sown, to a considerable degree, through the harsh provisions of the Treaty of Versailles which financially and economically decimated the German people. The destructive ramifications ensuing from that treaty constituted one of the primary factors that induced Germany to become highly susceptible to the delusional worldview of Hitler.

The Treaty of Versailles was not a religious document. It was an expression of political power and control concerning finances, economics, land, and people.

During the Second World War some researchers estimated that more than 50 percent of the soldiers who saw combat actions did not fire their weapons at the alleged enemy. Instead, those soldiers discharged their weapons in the direction of places where, hopefully, people weren't.

If the foregoing observation is correct and given that that more than 60 million people -- most of them non-combatants -- were killed during World War II, then one seems forced to conclude that some military personnel were much more active with respect to the killing of human beings than were others. Many people were killed through the use of air strikes, artillery fire, V-2 rockets, and the like ... that is, like the drone weapons of today, weapon systems in which one doesn't have to look into the eyes of the people one is killing.

Nevertheless, the Second World War was not a religious war. It was an exercise in German national self-aggrandizement in the service of a sense of racial superiority. The holocaust was about ethnic cleansing ... Blacks, Jews, Gypsies, and anyone else who did not fit into the mythical and delusional racial worldview of the German ideologues.

One could have been a non-believing Jew, and this would not have made the slightest bit of difference to those charged with carrying out ‘the final solution.’  There was no religious litmus test to determine who went to the concentration camps. What was important to the German hierarchy revolved around the issue of race or ethnicity rather than religion.

The mass murders and scientific experiments carried out by the Japanese on the Chinese were not primarily a matter of religion. Rather, one of the basic rationales for such activities centered on the Japanese belief (or, at least, the belief of those who were in power) that the Japanese were a superior race relative to all other peoples. Religion might have played a role, of sorts, with respect to that sense of superiority, but religion was in the service of race and ethnicity, not the other way around.

Similarly, the internment camps which were set up in the United States for Japanese-American citizens were not about religion. The Japanese were considered to be an alien racial and ethnic group who could not be trusted and, therefore, needed to be controlled.

The dropping of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not done for religious reasons. In fact, there is considerable evidence to indicate that the strikes were entirely unnecessary because the Japanese had been seeking a way to surrender, but those bombs were dropped anyway as a warning to the Soviet Union.

The fire-bombing of Dresden, Hamburg, and Tokyo was not a religious exercise. They were intended to let the Germans and Japanese know, in no uncertain terms, who was in control of their destinies ... as such, it was uncivilized diplomacy carried out through the means of war.

Stalin oversaw the slaughter, torture, and imprisonment of millions of people. This was not a religious exercise, but, rather, it constituted a raw, destructive expression of a delusion-based desire to control people, finances, resources, and culture.

Two million people – mostly civilians -- were killed in Korea for other than religious reasons. Two million more individuals – again, mostly civilians – were killed in Vietnam for other than religious reasons.

In the light of the aforementioned empirical findings concerning the tendency of many military personnel during World War II and the Korean conflict to not want to kill the “enemy”, training strategies for recruits did begin to change during the Vietnam War in order to induce individuals to be more willing than they had been in World War II and the Korean conflict to get over their natural reluctance to kill the ‘enemy’. Thus, the Vietnam strategy to 'kill everything that moves' (first made infamous in relation to the Mai Lai massacre but implemented in numerous other war crimes committed during the war in Vietnam) was rooted in a process of demonizing a people which made the latter into 'objects' which, according to the chain of command, could – and should -- be dispatched with all due haste.

The policy of training soldiers to objectify and de-personalizing the 'other' was stepped up in the first Gulf War of the 1990s, as well as in subsequent incursions into, first, Afghanistan, and, then, Iraq. This focus on demonizing the enemy is why places like Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and other similar venues of torture exist, as well as why some marines feel justified urinating on the Qur'an or flushing that book down the toilet or desecrating/dismembering the dead bodies of Muslims or killing children through an indiscriminate use of drones.

The people who torture and seek to humiliate other people are not conducting a class in religion. Those activities are all about seeking to control and dominate an alien people in the service of those who control the shots and do so for their own not so hidden reasons which are financial, economic, and resource-related  ... not religious.

Afghanistan did not attack the United States in 2001. In fact, the Taliban government was quite prepared to turn over ‘Usama bin Laden to American authorities, but certain facets of the American government and military wanted their war for both strategic and tactical reasons and,  therefore, refused the Taliban offer concerning bin Laden, and that desire had nothing to do with religion.

Iraq has never attacked the United States. However, for political, financial, and economic reasons, war-mongers within the United States decided to go to war against Iraq and sow the seeds of democracy.  And, this was true in both the First Gulf War in the 1990s, as well as the war which began in 2003.

These sorts of acts arise out of the same mind-set which created the techniques that have been, and are continuing to be taught, at the infamous 'School of the Americas' (which used to be in Panama, but has since been moved to Fort Benning, Georgia with a name change – namely, Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). Current and former US military personnel teach people from all over the world -- but especially from Central and South America -- how to murder, rape, humiliate, oppress, and exploit the indigenous and poor peoples in their respective home countries.

The Civil War -- which resulted in the deaths of more than 600,000 people -- was not about religion. Both sides might have invoked the name of God in relation to their cause, but that war was about the control of resources -- banks, people, slaves, the economy, and government.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not primarily a religious issue -- after all, there are many Palestinians who are not Muslim or Christian but secularists and non-believers. The same is true on the Israeli side.

The issue is about control, land, water, and ethnic cleansing. To borrow words from Leonard Cohen, but used in a slightly different way, wars concern: “The homicidal bitchin that goes down in every kitchen to determine who will serve and who will eat.”

The 2-3 million who have died in the on-going war taking place in the Congo which has been transpiring for nearly ten years, or so, is about controlling the mineral Coltan which is used in cell phones ... a big money maker around the world. That war is being armed primarily by entrepreneurs from Belgium, France, England, and Germany, and while some of the people in the Congo who are being armed might have a religious orientation of sorts, religion is serving economic interests, not the other way around.

The 2 million people who died in Rawanda were the product of the racial/ethnic hatred that was established between the Hutu and the Tutsi with the considerable assistance of Belgian colonial rulers. The atrocities which have taken place, and are continuing to take place, in the former southern portion of Sudan were -- and are -- primarily the result of tribal, racial, and ethnic hatreds that, on occasion, were dressed up in religious language and used for purposes of gaining control over resources. The Nigerian civil wars of the 1960s involved a litany of tribal, racial, ethnic, and cultural tensions, only some of which were religious,

The genocide committed against indigenous peoples around the world --including America -- was not primarily about religion. The issues primarily were a matter of money, property, control of resources, and an irrational hatred of Indian racial and ethnic characteristics which exists to this day and which is why Indians today are far more oppressed than Black people are ... indeed, the Buffalo Soldiers (cavalry units consisting entirely of Blacks) used to serve the interests of the powers that be by hunting Indians down (did those soldiers learn nothing from their own history of slavery?).

The recent incursions of the French, English, and Americans into Libya were not about religion. In fact, there is considerable evidence to suggest that Gaddafi was pushed from power, raped and assassinated because of ethnic/tribal tensions which had been brewing for many years, as well as because Gaddafi recently had proposed establishing an international gold-based dinar system which would threaten the dollar as the monetary unit of last resort (a mistake which Saddam Hussein made in the run up to the first Gulf War and which may be playing a significant role in the present saber rattling that is taking place in relation to Iran since Iran has been asking that payments for its oil be done in currencies other than the dollar.)  

The tragedy of Syria which has been unfolding for a year, now, is not primarily about religion. It is about which ethnic/tribal group gets to control financial, economic, and political resources, and all sides of the issue who have each played a role in constructing the mess are guilty of committing atrocities (as indicated in a recently released UN study) for the sake of such control.

Many of the problems and conflicts in the Middle East that are erupting today are the direct result of the arbitrary manner in which Western powers – notably France and England – carved up the territories in that region and created countries with all manner of ethnic and racial fracture-lines built into the arrangement. That geographical gerrymandering was not about religion but, instead, was about creating nations that would serve the economic, political, and military interests of the West.

Although religion may factor into the foregoing problems, this is more as an effect of political, economic, and military policies rather than as a cause of such matters. The people in power have found ways through which to induce soldiers -- via techniques of undue influence -- to commit all manner of atrocities, and if the name of religion is invoked in such a process, this is done only as a means to further the more important economic, political, and military ends of control.

If one needs to misuse the words of this or that religion in order to fan passions and create a sense of self-righteousness in the soldiers with respect to the atrocities they commit, then so be it. However, this is not about religion ... it is about: (a) people in control who are decidedly not at all religious irrespective of what they say for public consumption; and, (b) the susceptibility of human beings to having their minds manipulated through techniques of undue influence, and, in the process ceding their agency to the people of power so that the agendas of the latter individuals might be better served.

Fundamentalism of any variety – religious, economic (communists, socialists, and capitalists are all fundamentalists, each in their own inimitable style), or political (and seeking to forcefully impose an arbitrary notion of democracy or some other political system onto people certainly constitutes a form of fundamentalist terrorism – is not about religion. Rather, fundamentalism is about insisting that everyone else must believe, think, speak, and act as those fundamentalists do, and, as such, fundamentalism is more about a desire to exercise control over people than it gives expression to any authentic spiritual purposes.

In short, for the most part, religion is not the cause of the world's conflicts. Rather, religion has become a tool to be manipulated by those in power (whether with respect to familial, governmental, educational, or corporate forms of control). And, my contention is that most, if not all of, the people in power do not believe, in any essential way, in God, or accountability, or morality, and, therefore, have no qualms about engaging in the sort of Machiavellian tactics that use religiously-toned propaganda to get people to do what the power-elite desire and which the average person would not otherwise ever think of doing on his or her own.

Am I saying that religious people are free of any wrong-doing? No, I am not.

Nor am I trying to argue that any and all people who do not believe in God are responsible for the wars of the world, both present and past. Rather, I am saying that notwithstanding the spouting of religious verbiage by this or that leader, anyone who would seek to induce people to go to war in order to slaughter other people has little concern about either religion or morality and is primarily motivated by visions of money, profit, wealth, and control ... regardless of the costs to the rest of the world or their own citizens.

The normal inclination of most people – whether believers or non-believers in spiritual matters -- is to try to get along with other individuals irrespective of whatever philosophical and spiritual differences might exist. And, like Newton's laws of motion, people will tend to continue on in that same normal trajectory (i.e., not resorting to violence against their fellow human beings) unless acted on by an external force -- namely, the powers that be who are interested in nothing more than extending their sphere of influence, control, and power and who will use whatever means are at their disposal to accomplish this ... including fanning religious sensitivities.

Are there idiots within any given religious tradition who are delusional and believe that their God-mandated mission in life is to control what other people do or believe? Yes, there are, but such individuals are the exceptions that prove the rule – namely, those sorts of delusional individuals are human beings who have become infatuated with the idea of controlling the lives of other people, and as such, they are all brother and sisters under the skin with those non-believers who seek to dominate the world for their own personal reasons which have nothing to do with religion and have everything to do with being caught up in a frenzied compulsion and obsession that seeks to control anything and everything.

My Dinner With Andre

'My Dinner With Andre' (see the 5 minute clip through the link below, written by, and stars, Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn and was directed by Louis Malle) is one of my favorite movies of all time. More than thirty years have passed since that film first began to be distributed (1981), and, yet, despite the fact that the film displayed a brilliant, insightful, witty, sobering, thoughtful, analysis of the problems facing humanity, one hardly hears about the movie anymore or meets anyone who has seen it ... I guess there was not enough sexual, violent, and/or x-rated content to make it memorable. 

The truth of the matter is that the aforementioned film puts to shame all the modern-day pretenders who believe that one must have sex, violence, and x-rated language in a movie in order for it to be considered as capable of offering intelligent reflections upon the nature of reality or of providing a cogent, mesmerizing, viable, artistic point of view. In fact, the film puts to shame much that Hollywood has had to offer in the last three decades as far as distributing the sort of material is concerned which is directed toward helping people to wake up from the nightmare that has been haunting humanity for quite some time. And, yet, we continue to sleep while the clock is ticking toward a midnight bewitching hour when the room of existence will be swept clean of wasted opportunities.

The film approaches an astonishing array of issues from a rather universal perspective ... one which is capable of addressing the vast majority of human beings irrespective of their religious, ideological, or humanistic inclinations. In its own way, the movie is quite spiritual in character.

Some aspects of the film might be a little dated and somewhat whimsical, but, on the whole, the movie encompasses a diverse set of ideas which are still well worth reflecting upon. The following excerpt is only 5 minutes, or so, long. I hope -- if you view it -- you will be motivated to make the effort to find your way to experiencing the rest of the film which, I believe, is just as captivating as this 5 minute excerpt is. 

Dumbing Us Down: The Attempt to Exterminate Critical Thinking

The six functions of education (both public and private) are: (1) Adjusting; (2) Diagnosing; (3) Sorting; (4) Conforming/Unifying (5) Tagging; and (6) Preserving/Perpetuating. These functions are obsessively and compulsively pursued by a set of "overlords and overladies" in order to establish and realize a means of imposing a process of framing and filtering reality upon a population.

The first paragraph is not a conspiracy theory since I am not necessarily contending that a group of people gather together in secret in order to bring about the instituting of such a set of functions. Rather, I am suggesting that there are a group of people who are so enamored with themselves that they each individually, and in their own inimitable style, develop a delusional disorder which whispers to their egos that they have the right to control and rule over the lives of other people, irrespective of what the costs of such control might be to society or the world in general.

The foregoing process of six functions is instituted as a means of: dumbing that population down, controlling them, and perpetuating an arbitrary, and rigged system of: militarization, economics, monetary policy, legal process, politics, together with a system of policing (which is not intended to 'serve and protect' the people, but, rather, the elite). Moreover, the purpose of such a system of dumbing people down is  to ensure that the few (the overlords and overladies of control ... i.e., the aforementioned elites) may benefit materially, financially, and through a progressively enhanced accruing of power (the Anaconda Principle), while the many are educated and trained to serve and worship the likes and dislikes of that elite. The foregoing is true of all religious (including Muslim), communist, socialist, capitalist, democratic, and monarchical nations.

I have gone through the educational offerings of some of the best institutions in the world, both in the United States and Canada. Whatever I have learned that is of value to me either has to do with: (a) coming to understand the nefarious purposes of such institutions, despite their best efforts to induce me to become caught up in their illusory and delusional practices of conceptual/emotional legerdemain, and/or (b) realizing that pretty much everything of substantive worth which I have learned has been accomplished independently of the official channels of educational practice.

Education has become just another psychoactive pharmaceutical that is heavily marketed through the media. The media (for a price and because they believe they have the right to control the dissemination of information which serves their own interests) helps to manufacture an array of fears and aspirations in the general population. This is done so that significant portion of the general populus might become hooked on an expensive snake-oil which people are encouraged to consume for the rest of their lives, despite the many destructive side-effects entailed by that potion (one of which is the dampening down of critical thinking), and despite the fact that those who drink the Kool-Aid will become so financially over-burdened with the cost of purchasing the drug that they can exist only as indentured servants who will be compliant with the agenda of the psychopathic/narcissistic push and manufacturers of that drug who, like the loan sharks they are, hold the papers of debt over the heads of those who were tricked into acquiescing to such a scam ... much like the liar-loans that were foisted on unsuspecting people leading up to the financial meltdown of 2007-2008.

The following 7-plus minute video is an animated commentary by a former New York teacher of the year -- John Gatto -- who has come to realize the nature of the former beast he served and who, as a result, wishes to share with you some of what he has learned about that hydra-like creature.

Fracking the Atmosphere: A Weapon of Mass Destruction

I began hearing about chemtrails a number of years ago (chemtrails are toxic-laden aerosol sprays released by high-altitude airplanes and these sprays are not to be confused with the water vapor-based contrails produced by jet engines). However, I always associated chemtrails with something that seemed to be happening only in the western part of America (e.g., California, Arizona, and so on).

Last summer and fall, I began to see the chemtrail grid and ‘X’-patterns being laid down by airplanes in the skies over Bangor/north central Maine. On one occasion, I saw six or seven high-flying aircraft involved in one day’s operation.

Chemtrails are an expression of geo-engineering. In fact, one might refer to it as the ‘fracking of the atmosphere’ – not only because, like ground-fracking, the process injects all manner of toxic chemicals into the environment (in the case of chemtrails, these include: barium, arsenic, aluminum, silica, polymer fibers, and boron), but, because, as well, the chemtrail process is connected with the release of methane gas.

In the case of the kind of fracking which takes place in conjunction with the ground (e.g., the Marcellus Shale of the eastern United States ), various greedy, self-absorbed, and reckless energy entrepreneurs are interested in retrieving the methane as a profitable by-product which just happens to be accompanied by an intense polluting of the ground water. As such, fracking is a bit of technological wizardry that injects about 43 different toxic chemicals into the Earth (exactly how many of these sorts of molecules are involved is hard to say because the precise identity of the ingredients of the poisoning process is considered to be proprietary, corporate information).

Fracking of the atmosphere, on the other hand, is due to a secret, government-mandated spraying program (a secret which is imminently viewable in the skies above us ... only the steps which led to the spraying decision are hidden from public view). This process of air-fracking is speeding up the release -- into the oceans and atmosphere -- of a gasified form of the methane hydrate deposits that have been laying at the bottom of the ocean (where they had been resting in frozen form)  ... furthermore, in one form or another, the air-fracking work is probably being contracted out to private entities who, like their Earth-fracking corporate counterparts and the government which authorized them, don’t really seem to care what happens to people or the environment as long as such activities generate a profit and keep them in control of the profit franchise).

Supposedly, one of the theories underlying the application of geo-engineered chemtrails to the skies above is the belief that chemtrails are capable of degrading – into a less harmful form -- the rising levels of methane which, currently (and for number of years now) are being (and have been) released into the seas and atmosphere at an alarming rate. One of the geographical areas of concern with respect to the release – into the oceans and atmosphere -- of gaseous forms of once-frozen methane hydrates is situated near the eastern Siberian shelf of the Arctic. That reservoir contains enough frozen methane (estimated by some to be about 10 thousand giga-tons) that should it be released in gasified form (or, if even a sizable portion of it were so released), then this event would be capable of extinguishing most life on Earth.

Another geographical region of concern is the Bermuda Triangle. More specifically, it is quite possible – perhaps fairly likely -- that sudden transformations of frozen methane to a gaseous state -- and not aliens or other paranormal phenomena -- are responsible for some of the anomalies (such as sea-fairing ships suddenly disappearing) which have been reported in that region.  The gas aerates the water and, as a result, ships lose buoyancy and sink to the bottom, and, as well, if methane were suddenly released in sufficiently large quantities and under the right conditions, airplanes flying through the region might be problematically affected as well.

Unfortunately, as is the case with respect to the genetically modified life form controversy, some geo-engineering scientists don’t appear to understand the nature of the dynamics involving problematic feedback-loops which they have introduced into the ecological equations of life through the use of chemtrails and HAARP. Rather than constructively degrading methane and, thereby solving a problem, there is considerable evidence to indicate that chemtrails could be one of the primary causes (although not necessarily the only one) for assisting frozen methane hydrate deposits on the bottom of the ocean to become released, in gasified form, into the oceans and the atmosphere.

In other words, chemtrail spraying is having exactly the opposite effect from the one which, purportedly, was intended when that geo-engvineering program began. Moreover, unfortunately, instead of backing off from the chemtrail spraying (as any reasonable, observant, and moderately cautious scientist might do), the government is, instead, doubling down – apparently believing that if a certain amount of chemtrail spraying is causing considerable difficulties, then increasing the dosage will, somehow, magically, solve the problems which have been created by that very same process.

As a greenhouse gas, methane is many times more problematic than is carbon dioxide. When considered across the time-frame of, say, a century, methane has 20 times the capacity of carbon dioxide to generate greenhouse gas effects (i.e., global warming/climate change), but when considered over the much shorter time scale during which geo-engineering projects, of one kind or another, have been taking place, methane’s potency as a greenhouse gas (relative to carbon dioxide) rises five-fold to, about, 100 times.

When one factors-in the chemtrail effects with the problematic manner in which HAARP (the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program -- located in the Gakona region of Alaska) is affecting both the atmosphere and the Earth, one might well be generating the conditions for environmental catastrophe.  In addition, to add insult to injury, there is one group of scientists that has proposed a plan for using the HAARP facilities in different localities around the Earth (the United States is not the only country that possesses such instruments of mass destruction) to extensively zap the ionosphere in a last-ditch, desperate, frenzied attempt to set in motion a process that, allegedly, will degrade the rising levels of methane in the atmosphere ... when all such a proposal is likely to do is further destabilize the atmosphere in a problematic fashion.

In combination, the two aforementioned government-designed programs (along with their counterparts in other countries) are adversely affecting the environment – not just locally, but world-wide. More specifically, ocean currents are being adversely affected -- e.g., warm, ocean currents that used to run southward have had their courses altered by geo-engineering processes (HAARP interferes with atmospheric currents which, in turn, affect ocean currents) and, now, warm waters are flowing into the Artic regions and, among other things, thawing frozen methane deposits.  

Moreover, recently, during the ‘melt season’, the Arctic Ice Cap has been losing about 100,000 square kilometers of ice surface per day. Near the end of the ‘melt season’ the loss of ice surface per day approached 130,000 square kilometers. If this rate of decline in ice surface continues, the Arctic Ice Cap could be completely devastated in a matter of years, not decades or centuries.

As the ice surface of the Arctic disappears, an increasing amount of the Sun’s thermal energy will be absorbed by the ocean.  Among other things, this means that the frozen methane hydrates on the bottom of the Arctic Sea will thaw at an increasingly rapid rate and, in the process, release substantial quantities of gaseous methane into the ocean and the atmosphere ... all thanks to the hard work of geo-engineering where progress means business.

Furthermore, the ozone layer also is being adversely affected by chemtrail sprays – e.g., the degradation of this portion of the atmosphere has been tied to the particulate matter contained in the chemtrail sprays, and not just as a result of the presence of CFCs – that is, chlorofluorocarbons. Such chemtrail-induced degradation of the ozone layer is a further reason why frozen methane deposits are thawing and escaping in gaseous form into the ocean and the atmosphere since more of the Sun’s thermal energy will be entering the atmosphere rather than being intercepted by an intact, functional ozone layer.

Besides the aforementioned problems concerning ocean currents and the ozone layer that are a function of geo-engineering activities such as chemtrail spraying, there are also additional problems.  For instance, the acidity of oceans is rising as a result of the way in which methane in a gaseous form is being released due to a thawing oif the methane hydrate deposits and which are entering into solution in the ocean water. In addition, the jet stream is being experimented with courtesy of the geo-engineering effects of HAARP, and this affects both ocean currents and weather patterns.

The boreal forests -- thanks, in part, to the role of geo-engineering projects such as chemtrail spraying – also are dying. Boreal forests are comprised of northern latitude forests covering portions of Siberia as well as the Pacific Northwest, especially Canada.

These forests constitute a significant part of the ‘lung-like’ system of the planet as far as the manner in which forests breathe in carbon dioxide  and, then, breathe oxygen back out into the atmosphere is concerned. As they are dying, the boreal forests are becoming less and less a sink for various forms of carbon that are in the atmosphere, and, instead, they are becoming an increasing source of carbon dioxide generation as the forests decay and the carbon that had been trapped within life is released upon death.

 Finally, overall climate patterns are being destructively disrupted and affected by the activities of geo-engineering. Apropos of this situation, Mark Twain is reported to have said: “The trouble with the world is not that people know too little; it's that they know so many things that just aren't so”. Indeed, the fact-challenged processes of geo-engineering that are being employed by the government and its corporate allies are touted – if only to themselves -- as incorporating deep insights concerning reality, when, in truth, they only give expression to a profound ignorance concerning the ecological dynamics of nature.

If the foregoing possibilities are not enough to strip the varnish from one’s hopes concerning the future, there also seems to be a form of ice nucleation – chemically induced ice/snow-formation – which is occurring in relation to many forms of precipitation and, as a result, constitutes another kind of fallout from the spraying of chemtrails. Ice and snow are forming under conditions where, except for the presence of the nucleation process, it might not be happening (e.g., too warm), and, as well, the ice formed from this process stays longer -- even after temperatures have risen above freezing -- than if the underlying chemicals responsible for the phenomenon had not been present.

The chemicals involved in the foregoing process are unknown – except to the perpetrators. More importantly, the kind of impact that such chemicals are having on the environment is also unknown.

Under such circumstances of uncertainty,   wisdom would warrant pursuing the Precautionary Principle ... a course of action which calls for rigorous, critical reflection and additional empirical data before making the kind of weighty decision that could affect all life on Earth.   Unfortunately, the perpetrators of chemtrails and HAARP appear to be operating in accordance with the Arrogance Principle or the Indifference Principle which such individuals seem to believe justifies enacting whatever delusions happen to bubble to the surface of their consciousness ... and, in the process, drag everyone else along on a potentially hazardous, if not fatal, journey irrespective of whether, or not, the rest of us wish to be dragged along on such a reckless, ill-conceived, irresponsible delinquent joy ride.

Unless government-sanctioned geo-engineering scientists stop spraying the chemtrails and using HAARP to interfere with the natural order of things, the Earth, and its many species, may soon be placed on code blue ... if this is not already the case. The oceans, the atmosphere, ground water, the jet stream, the ozone layer, and millions of species are all being subject to the process of government-encouraged air and ground fracking with demonstrable catastrophic results

For example, there are estimates from some researchers that as many as 100-250 species of life-forms (including insects, plants, birds, and mammals) might be disappearing from the Earth every day as a direct, and indirect, result of the methane release issue (along with the effect of the HAARP emanations). If this is true (and, certainly, more research must be done to verify that such estimates are reliable ... even though we might be running out of time needed to be able to carry out such research), then one could be witnessing the greatest mass-extinction set of events since the dinosaurs were forced to leave the building approximately 65 million years ago.

Moreover, if the foregoing estimates are correct – and the operative word is “if” – then, perhaps, somewhere among the upcoming attractions involving the ‘Chemtrail Horror Picture Show’ (the accompanying music is available for download through your favorite internet distributor) could be the extinction of such mammals as, say, human beings. Yet, even if the foregoing bleak scenario is not the case, tremendous damage is still accruing with respect to many different species and ecological systems of Earth as a result of the synergistically negative impact which chemtrails and HAARP are having upon the environment. 

As tragic as the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Palestine, and elsewhere are (as if millions of lives lost is not sufficiently nightmarish), those conflicts are but a Machiavellian-constructed smokescreen of political theater that is intended to hide the real destruction which is taking place across the Earth – and the issue of chemtrails is but one manifestation of that agenda -- in a war being waged against all forms of life in order that a very few individuals can realize their pathological dreams concerning money, power, and worldly delights ... irrespective of the costs to: other people, the environment, or the future. In an ancient ritual of governmental and corporate prestidigitation, the attention of the people is being misdirected away from the manipulative character of the sorcerer’s underhanded covert actions in order to create the desired illusion – that everything is under control and being made safe – and it is – but the control being exerted and safety being established (whether by governments or corporations) is entirely dysfunctional -- both currently and into the future ... at least whatever might be left of the latter.

If left to itself, nature does quite well, and this has been so for millions of years. Geo-engineering is the work of hubris and, if the current ecological situation continues to deteriorate under the relentless pressure of such artificial activities, governments and corporations are shameless enough to try to claim – when some of the dire facts noted in the foregoing commentary begin to increasingly infiltrate the awareness of the general public -- that geo-engineering is the Earth’s last, best hope, when, in reality, that diabolical process has been playing a major destructive role for a number of decades ... as such, geo-engineering is a major part of the problem, and not at all the sort of solution that it is being -- and will be  -- sold as by the marketing gurus of government and corporations. Caveat emptor!!!!

If you would like to learn more about the potential downside of geo-engineering, please go to:

http://geoengineeringwatch.org

or, view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_lgPGdgBTaY#!

which is a 28-minute interview with Dane Wigington

Bushmasters and Drone Masters

My heart and soul commiserate with the parents and families of those whose lives have become so tragically entangled in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. As a result of the events of last Friday -- as well as in conjunction with other school shooting tragedies over the past several years -- many people in the United States want to place a ban on assault weapons.

Indeed, many citizens are outraged about, and deeply troubled by, the intrusion of so much mass violence into American society. Yet, nearly ten times as many innocent children have been massacred by U.S. drones along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border than perished in Newtown on Friday ... but barely a whisper is being heard about any of this among American citizens.

If people want to ban assault weapons, then, all the more power to them, but the logic of their argument should extend to the role that drones play in killing equally innocent children in other countries. Or, is it only the lives of American children that matter? If so, then there is considerable hypocrisy and bigotry in the arguments which call for the cessation of senseless deaths with respect to innocent American children, while turning a blind eye, ear, mind, heart, and soul to the senseless deaths of children in far away places through a weapon -- i.e., American drones -- which is far more destructive than a Bushmaster assault weapon.

There are places along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, as well as elsewhere, which have drones flying over them 24/7. Those people do not know who will be bombed or when, and the result has been a reign of terror which is deeply affecting the psychological well-being of innocent citizens and leading to, among other things, not only widespread cases of severe post traumatic syndrome disorder among those people who must live under the sense of doom that those constant drone flights inflict upon the inhabitants of those regions, but, as well, constitutes a focal issue which is leading to the generation of a great deal of resentment against the United States ... what is happening in those regions is comparable to an armed gunman stalking the halls of the elementary schools of America 24/7 without any of the students, teachers, or parents knowing if today is going to be the next tragic incident.

To put a truly pathological seal upon all of the foregoing, the people in the Pakistan/Afghanistan border areas have reported that on numerous occasions, they have been subject to what is known as a 'double tap.' More specifically, this means that after a drone strikes a village, the drone comes again a short while later to bomb the village a second time just as first responders have arrived to assist with the injured and traumatized. As a result, many people have become unwilling to go to the assistance of the injured because of the double tap policy involved with some drone strikes ... this is comparable to someone attacking the first responders who came to assist the students and teachers at Sandy Hook -- something which would be morally abhorrent and completely uncivilized if this were to happen here and, therefore, something which is both morally abhorrent and completely uncivilized when it happens elsewhere. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf8bnYF-WxE&feature=player_detailpage

Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park on Labor Day 2012.

New eBook: The Pathology of Leadership: A Sufi's Perspective

The word "leadership" is, and has been for some time, a buzz word which is espoused by many to be 'the' key to solving most, if not all, of the problems in the world. If only there were the 'right' sort of leaders in the world, then the political, economic, educational, business, scientific, environmental, military, judicial, and spiritual difficulties facing humankind could be resolved.

The desire for leadership is a pathological disorder which is engendered in others by those who already have succumbed to the malady. Leadership is a delusional belief system in which a human being believes that he or she should be given (or usurp) the authority to organize and control the lives of other human beings.

Chaos is not the opposite of leadership. The co-operation of equals stands in opposition to the idea of leadership.

Every human being is sovereign and has an inalienable right to seek to push back the horizons of ignorance free from interference as long as such efforts are consonant with honoring a like right in relation to others. Reconciling the boundaries of sovereignty among human beings is a dynamic, complex, and nuanced process ... a process that can only be successfully navigated by means of an exercise of co-operation among sovereign individuals and not through the leadership of the few with respect to the many.

This book explores different aspects of the pathological character of 'leadership.' Once the underlying principles of the delusional disorder are appreciated, an individual might be in a better position to realize the character of the pathology of leadership and resist its seductive, Siren-like wail.

 

This book is now available at Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble and soon will be released at Amazon in paperback.

 

To purchase the Kindle version, click this link:  Amazon Kindle

Sunflower blooming here at Bilquees Press

From the garden at Bilquees Press.

Gardens, both wild and cultivated, appear to have an attraction of near universal proportions for human beings. Different races, ethnic groups, nationalities, religious traditions, and eras all have been drawn to gardens.

One might wonder why this should be the case. Why do gardens appeal to us in such a deeply satisfying manner?

To be sure, the flowers, shrubs, trees, grass and so on, have both individual, as well as collective, beauty. In addition, the diversity of shapes is intriguing, and the endless combination of flora arrangements is fascinating. Moreover, everything contributes to the wonderful bouquet of aromas which vary in character throughout the day and night.

Toss in the mystery of the unfolding of life going on in the garden, and one might suppose all of the foregoing explains why most people are inclined to gardens. The answer, however, may run deeper still.

We find gardens peaceful and restful. Gardens seem to induce us to reflect on life. We find varying degrees of contentment and joy from gardens.

We come away from gardens refreshed. There appears to be some kind of energy or source of renewal which we take away with us from gardens.

There is almost a timeless quality to gardens. Things do change, but, somehow, time often seems to be suspended. The rest of the world recedes.

Our senses are somewhat intoxicated from the effects of the garden. Our minds are massaged.

Gardens tug at our hearts and emotions. Every aspect of our being seems to be connected to, and affected by, gardens.

We are captivated by the balance and harmony in gardens. Thoughts and remembrance of God tend to arise naturally in the context of gardens.

Sufi masters indicate physical gardens are only one variety in a spectrum of infinite diversity. In fact, the gardens of the physical world are but a distant reflection of the gardens associated with spiritual possibilities.

Whatever contentment, peace, joy, happiness, rest, refreshment, wonder, beauty, fascination, intoxication and satisfaction we may receive from physical gardens is virtually nothing compared to what can be experienced in different kinds of spiritual garden.

Indeed, on the basis of experience and not theoretical speculation, the Sufi masters note there is no way to describe the intensity, depth, richness, subtlety and diversity inherent in spiritual gardens. At best, one only can allude, in a very limited way, to a few superficial dimensions of the experiences involving non-physical gardens.

Our senses, mind , heart and soul are drawn to gardens because their many qualities strike a resonance deep within our being. For people of insight and understanding, such as the Sufi masters, the qualities of the gardens of the physical world are but a sign of the existence of other non-physical gardens which have garden-like qualities capable of reaching even further into the possibilities of our essential being.

The meaning of "garden-like qualities" in the foregoing refers to the capacity of non-physical gardens to generate, albeit on a much grander scale of both majesty and beauty, a sense of peace, joy, refreshment, contentment and so on, just as physical gardens do. However, the ultimate character of these non-physical gardens may not have anything in common with the structural forms given expression through physical gardens. In fact, some spiritual gardens are without any form, per se, whatsoever, yet induce in us extremely intense experiences which are somewhat analogous - in a distant sort of way - to those experiences engendered in us in physical gardens.

One does not necessarily have to leave the physical plane in order to get some semblance of taste of a non-physical garden. For example, in the garden of association with one's spiritual guide, one experiences garden-like qualities.

When one is with one's shaykh or teacher, one feels at peace. One is happy, joyful, restful. One discovers a contentment in the presence of one's spiritual guide.

Time almost seems to be suspended. The rest of the world becomes relatively unimportant.

Life seems to have more balance and harmony while in the company of one's teacher. One finds thoughts of God and remembrance of God come more easily in the presence of the shaykh than when one is removed from the teacher. One is more given to spiritual reflection when associating with one's spiritual guide.

One is drawn to the inner beauty of one's shaykh. One keeps discovering new facets of wonder and fascination in her or him.

One can become extremely intoxicated or ecstatic in the presence of the teacher. One comes away from the spiritual guide refreshed and invigorated. One longs to return to the garden of spiritual association as quickly as possible.

Sufi masters refer to many other kinds of garden. There are, for instance, gardens of remembrance which are accessed through saying, and becoming absorbed in, the Names and Attributes of God.

When, by the grace of God, one is summoned into the reality of these Names and Attributes, as well as opened up to their infinite meanings of overwhelming beauty and majesty, one is transported to gardens unlike any in the physical realm. One is given entrance to gardens beyond all description.

There are gardens of forgetfulness in which one is released from the veils of the false self. There are gardens of subsistence in God when one's true, essential self is realized.

There are gardens of gnosis. In these gardens, one has direct, certain, unmediated knowledge of God. In these gardens, God discloses different dimensions or facets of Divinity.

There are gardens for every spiritual station. There are gardens of repentance and longing. There are gardens of dependence on God. There are gardens of gratitude, patience and sincerity.

One travels, if God wishes, from gardens of friendship to gardens of exclusive friendship. By the grace of Divinity, one is transported from gardens of passion to gardens of ardent affection.

There are gardens of intense love in which the spirit soars in flights of intimacy with Divinity. During such flights, one becomes both enslaved and bewildered by the infinite beauty of the face of the Beloved manifested through these gardens.

There are gardens of uniqueness. If God wishes, one is opened up to the mystery which is breathed into one's essential nature by Divinity at the advent of Self-realization.

There are countless other gardens. No two gardens are the same.

No two spiritual gardens give the same kind of joy and happiness. No two gardens give the same modality of contentment, peace and satisfaction.

No two gardens disclose the same Divine colors. No two gardens share the same wonder and beauty.

No two spiritual gardens bring the same flavor of ecstasy. No two gardens show the same kind of breathtaking balance, symmetry and harmony.

The point of embarkation for the possibility of journeying to any and all of the aforementioned gardens is, God willing, in the garden of spiritual association with the shaykh. Without this association and the grace and barakah, or blessings, of Divinity to which it gives expression, the nearest one will come to a first-hand experience of any of these other gardens is a spiritual travelogue such as the one being itemized in this essay.













 

Kashf
There are two kinds of unveiling (kashf) which occur on the Sufi path. One of these is potentially detrimental to the mystical wayfarer. The other can be a source of great blessings for, and help to, the individual.

The first mode of kashf or unveiling concerns the nature and events of the world. The second form of unveiling gives expression to spiritual realities which transcend the realm of the world.

When, by God's command, an individual is provided with a method for: accessing foreknowledge of worldly events; or, being a witness to events going on elsewhere in the world, without leaving one's residence and without any modern technological assistance; or, becoming privy to the details of the past, present and future of whomever one likes, then such a mystical wayfarer is confronted with a very substantial trial and risk.

There are two options for dealing with this situation. The individual can use her or his discretion for determining whether or not to utilize the abilities which God has made available. The person can wait for instructions from Divinity concerning the use of those abilities.

Whenever the mystical wayfarer uses his or her discretion with respect to whether or not to access hidden knowledge concerning the world, two contingencies come into play. First, this individual will have to answer to God on the Day of Judgement for each and every discretionary use of worldly kashf. Secondly, every time one makes discretionary use of worldly kashf, one runs a risk that one's spiritual progress will come to a standstill.

An individual may believe she or he is using worldly kashf only to help others. This may or may not be so. However, one thing is certain. The intentions, motivations, attitudes, understandings, goals, and purposes of a person who makes discretionary use of worldly kashf will come under the closest of Divine scrutiny and cross-examination.

The individual cannot presume she or he will come through the rigors of this investigation in unscathed fashion. The ordeal of being subjected to the intensity of the aforementioned scrutiny is, in and of itself, likely to raise the question of just how necessary was such discretionary use of worldly kashf.

Nevertheless, on the Day of Judgement, second thoughts don't count. One must be prepared to accept the consequences of the choices one makes in the present life. So, as is sometimes said in the military: "Be advised!".

Having access to hidden knowledge concerning the world and its people, can be very seductive and tempting. One may start out in a seemingly innocuous manner, only to discover, if one is fortunate, one is getting caught up in the world in, yet, another way.

Whether one is entangled in the world through "normal" means or through non-ordinary channels, is a moot point. In either case, entanglement means one has lost one's spiritual purpose.

If one loses one's spiritual way on a "lower" level or on a "higher" level, one remains lost in both cases. In fact, one's predicament may be much worse in the latter case since more is expected of the individual. This individual should have known better than to get seduced by the allurements of hidden knowledge concerning the world.

The foregoing comments notwithstanding, there are occasions when use of worldly kashf or unveiling may be required in the service of others. This especially may be true with respect to the kinds of thing a shaykh may do, from time to time, to help an initiate at certain stages of the mystical journey.

Nevertheless, one is better off when directives in these matters come from Divinity. Waiting, with patience, for Divine assistance is, spiritually, far superior to trying, with impatience, to take matters into one's own hands. The former approach is the best form of spiritual etiquette in these matters.

Some people may wonder why individuals should be given access to hidden knowledge while, simultaneously, being told to refrain from taking advantage of this kind of knowledge. One reason for juxtaposing such extraordinary possibilities next to the challenge of restraint is to test the individual concerning whether he or she prefers lordship over servanthood.

Ultimately, the Sufi path is a journey toward perfect servanthood. Those who become attracted to, if not addicted by, the discretionary use of worldly kashf, are indicating a preference for lordship. This inclination or preference becomes an obstacle to making further progress on the Sufi path.

In a sense, one becomes all dressed up with the powers of worldly kashf but with no spiritual place to go. At best, wherever one may be spiritually, on whatever level, one becomes stuck there and unable to fully realize the spiritual purpose of one's life.

At worst, things begin to deteriorate spiritually. One falls further and further away from the mystical path. Yet, the tragedy of this is one may not be aware this is happening because one still has use of the "toys" of worldly kashf.

The other kind of kashf, mentioned previously, concerns spiritual unveilings. These are transcendent to the sort of hidden knowledge about the affairs of the world which is the focus of the worldly mode of kashf.

Spiritual kashf involves unveilings in the form of experiences involving states and stations of the mystical path. Through Divine "flashes", intuitions, visions and so on, one receives knowledge, wisdom and insights about various spiritual realities.

The understanding gained from this form of kashf can be extremely useful to wayfarers of the Sufi path. Such understanding serves to guide, support, strengthen, protect, purify, perfect and illumine the individual's mystical travels.

Worldly kashf, for the most part, cannot assist the individual in any of the above mentioned ways. In other words, with certain exceptions, worldly kashf really has no useful role to play on the mystical journey.

There is only one cautionary proviso which needs to be stated in relation to spiritual kashf. This mode of mystical unveiling is not the goal of the Sufi path. Spiritual kashf is a means, not an end.

The goal of the Sufi path is to become a perfect servant of God through realizing one's essential identity and capacity. Spiritual kashf assists one in the pursuit of this primary objective of the mystical journey.

If one should become preoccupied with spiritual kashf, in and of itself, and, therefore, somewhat divorced from the proper focus of the Sufi path, one becomes spiritually at risk. These risks may not be quite the same as those which are associated with discretionary use of worldly kashf, but the risks to further spiritual progress are, nonetheless, still there.

More specifically, if one wishes to reach a particular destination, one cannot permit the beauty and majesty of the landscape to distract one from the original goal. This is especially the case if one is under a time constraint concerning how long one has to complete the journey to the intended destination.

If one spends too much time by the roadside smelling the flowers, one may never reach one's destination in time. As with everything else in life, one must keep things in a balance of proper moderation.

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The Unfinished Revolution: The Battle for America's Soul by Bill Whitehouse

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The Unfinished Revolution: The Battle for America's Soul

The Unfinished Revolution:  The Battle for America's Soul by Bill Whitehouse is now available in the Amazon Kindle Store and soon will be available in the iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, and other bookstores as an eBook and a hard copy book. 

The 'Occupy Movement' took many people by surprise with both its scope, as well as with the manner in which it resonated with the deep sense of discontentment that appears to be felt by many people in the United States concerning the economic and political character of American life. This book is intended to help bring a sharper focus to the concerns that are inherent in the dissatisfaction that people have concerning the idea of 'politics as usual' by offering a clear differentiation between the way of power (i.e., poltics as usual) and the way of sovereignty that gives expression to a very different notion of democracy ... one that is constructive, not destructive.

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