A Divine Reading Trip

Religion should improve the life of mankind. The war on religious purity will fail if warrior fail to underestimate the power of humanity and love. Too much stress on morals make us immoral. Prohibition produces duality in us where our mind says 'No' and sub conscious says 'Yes' luring us into the addiction of things. So, let the life flow in the reigns of mystery, spontaneity and be full of love.

I have just finished 17 pages of  book written by Osho on Tao and completely feeling ease with my inner soul. See this beautiful paragraph --- One rule of the mind is, when you try very hard to do something, that something loses its edge. This is how we lose the edge of our happiness. What happens is instead that the edge of our unhappiness remains razor-sharp. We suffer so much misery in the world not because there is so much misery but because there is a fundamental error in our way of life. We do not want to touch unhappiness so its edge remains razor-sharp; and we are so eager to touch happiness that we blunt its edge in the process. In the final analysis we find nothing but misery all around and no sign of happiness anywhere. Then we say, ”Happiness is difficult to come by. It is only a dream. Life is a long stream of misery.”

This flow of misery and pain is entirely of our own making. One who keeps feeling the edge of misery and does not worry about happiness at all gradually finds that the edge of misery becomes dull and all of life becomes a fountain of joy. Whatever you touch is destroyed; whatever you desire is lost. You never attain what you run after. Life is not a mathematical equation but a riddle that defies solution. He who takes it to be a calculated science finds himself in difficulty. He who looks upon life as a riddle, a mystery masters all its secrets and attains the highest existence.

The experience of reading is like elixir to the heart and eases mind into nothingness. It is giving me confrontation with my fears, not any shallow consolation. You can also read them. Thanks to Rajjo for making me aware of these books.

Index of /Beloved_Osho_Books/
Tao_The_Golden_Gate_..> 04-Mar-2008 16:00 589K
Tao_The_Golden_Gate_..> 04-Mar-2008 16:00 547K
Tao_The_Pathless_Pat..> 09-Dec-2009 19:02 873K
Tao_The_Pathless_Pat..> 04-Mar-2008 16:01 938K
Tao_The_Three_Treasu..> 04-Mar-2008 16:02 561K
Tao_The_Three_Treasu..> 04-Mar-2008 16:02 540K
Tao_The_Three_Treasu..> 04-Mar-2008 16:03 527K
Tao_The_Three_Treasu..> 04-Mar-2008 16:03 515K
The_Secret_of_Secret..> 04-Mar-2008 16:04 1.0M
The_Secret_of_Secret..> 04-Mar-2008 16:05 942K
The_Way_of_Tao_Volum..> 04-Mar-2008 16:06 1.3M
The_Way_of_Tao_Volum..> 04-Mar-2008 16:11 1.1M
When_the_Shoe_Fits 04-Mar-2008 16:08 563K

Understanding Islamic Culture -1

Today Muslim world is deeply divided along the lines of separation between passionate liberalism and firm conservatism. Most of the Muslims do not debate with Non believers on Islam. They react and then huddle up behind flimsy and lopsided historical and national narratives about what being a Muslim is all about. That doesn't solve the problem of stereotyping of Muslims. I personally assume, Muslims as individuals capable of accepting cultural norm of others very easily and Islam as an institution going towards reform very slowly. This article is not be beginners guide for learning about Islamic cultural aspect. It is the first part of our essay that is focusing on current cultural environment in Islamic world. For beginners [History of Islam]

Arab world is the cradle of Islam and all the problems emerged in Islam can be studies better by understanding the mindset of Arab region. Arab countries are depending too much on religious books and have failed to educate a generation on rational and scientific thinking. When there is no cultural, political or social movement in a country, alternative forces emerge. That's the reason the Arab's secular renaissance has failed to take hold. Let us begin with few interviews :

1- In an exclusive interview, Tayyib Tizini, Professor of Politics and Philosophy at the University of Damascus, holds the view that the current strength of radical Islamist movements in the Arab world is the product of a lack of freedom.

2- In an exclusive interview, Tariq Ali, author of "The Clash of Fundamentalisms" and renowned critical intellectual, talks about Islam and the West and about reforms in the Islamic world.

3- The Arab world is marked by polarisation: between the elites and the masses, between town and country, between rich and poor. Development will not be possible as long as this polarisation exists. As the Lebanese writer Karam al-Helou notes, this blockade of progress threatens to destroy the Arab world from inside.

4- In a January 2008 interview with the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Georges Tarabishi, a prominent liberal Syrian intellectual living in France, spoke about democracy in the Arab world, the fundamentalist challenge, and secularism. He argued that just as secularism emerged in Europe as a remedy to Protestant-Catholic sectarianism, so it is needed in the Arab world to overcome sectarian divisions and pave the way for a democratic future.

5- Are Sharia Laws and Human Rights Compatible? In their correspondence, Emran Qureshi (journalist and expert for Islam and human rights) and Heba Raouf Ezzat (lecturer for political science and womens' rights activist) discuss the role of the sharia in Islamic countries and in how far sharia laws are compatible with human rights.

Status Updates

Life is seldom dull for the dissident like me. With too much energy combined with weak concentration forming restlessness is the disease thriving in me. So the seasons of either extreme energy or laziness surrounds my aura. I assume that mine cultural, social, economic and national background takes away the liberty to define myself. I will always be bounded by my social network, no matter what happens in the future. This identity question is really big and complex.

I always think my past and say: Here lives a man amongst us who will stand up and question thyself " Who will right the wrong?" ; There was a man who dared to inspire change or spoke his hearts out while hurting the beliefs of his friends and strangers.

Blog has become a part of my identity now. I love to write but unable to write or read these days. These days, I love my status updates on facebook. Entertainment is huge component of Facebook but its thinking component is much less than in blogging. Twitter is much shallow and works only for those having veil of mystery or stardom. Hence, I don't tweet.

If everyone had a job they loved, entertainment as a concept wouldn’t have been born. Without comparison one doesn't loose own soul in the rat race. Also, no reason to hell bent and prove an identity to society. Few lines to reflect on my attitude towards job is enough.

Today, I must confess that I am scared of the uncertainties the future holds. There is a little bit of hope as the future doesn't fit in the containers of the past. I will end this post with a poem :

Men look to the East for the dawning things,
For the light of a raising sun;
But they look to the West, to the crimson West,
For the things that are done, are done."
from "East And West".
-Douglas Malloch (1877 - 1938)