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http://musicmeditate.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,4702.msg28592.html?PHPSESSID=03528a6f9413d86dc30b2329036f525e#msg28592I disagree with your comment of no hope or no vision for the future but that doesn't mean there aren't people who feel similarly to your views. This is a reminder of how divided people are in their opinions over matters we scarcely understand. I appreciate your responding in a separate thread but would ask you leave my replies in their original place, I don't mind you quoting me when jumping around if it provides context. Isn't it lovely that today's wisdom from Hazrat Inayat Khan also references Maya?
Plato wrote that we live in a shadow world, where we confuse the shadow of ourselves with reality. This is the Nafs, the false ego, which stands in the light before God, causing, so to speak, a spiritual eclipse.... The Nafs turns us from the One to the many, enticing us with the things of this world. Then man attaches himself to one thing after another, which brings, at best, momentary satisfaction. Through his spiritual practices the Sufi learns to chain the Nafs, to perceive that it is only a shadow of reality; and finding the sun of truth within his being, looking upon it, one is no longer aware of the shadow.
Then the Nafs is not destroyed, but harnessed. The whole of man's being is attuned to God and everything within him serves God. This is the work of all on the path of illumination, of whatever school they may be. There is no other obstacle than this false self, and there is no better means of controlling it than by meditation and by practicing the presence of God.
~~~ "Githa II, Dhyana 2, Meditation", by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)
Nice synchronicity.
Peace Brother!
