charlie wrote:
Glimpses of paradise, like what?
First stage of paradise (say) 100 watts light.
Second stage 200 watts light.
Seventh stage 1000 Kw of light.
Depending upon the background of an individual, he may experience blessed visions of Muhammad, Christ, Krishna as indications of being on the right path, for example.
In the granth Bhrahm Pakash extra sensory perceptions are mentioned as markers or indications of the higher life.
namahee beech rahyaa nav maas ohee dhyaan obhee sukh veelaasaa.63
After being immersed in this name for nine months maintaining the same concentration and enjoying the same bliss.....
pachham deesaa hoi chadde aakaashaa, jaai dekhyaa agam tamaashaa.64
Then in the west the skies get overcast or start glowing and you start seeing a unique or unparalled show (tamaashaa) or light.
beenaa megh jahaa(n) a(m)bar gaaje, beenaa mahol jahaa(n) betthaa chhaaje........................................................65
Without the presence of rain, there is the thundering of the skies and you feel that you are sitting in a balcony without the presence of a palace.
beenaa badal jahaa(n) barase mehaa, rahet purush jahaa(n) ek vann dehaa..........................................................66
One experiences rain (rain of pearls) without the presence of the clouds and feels that he/she is living without the presence of his/her body.
Nasir Khusraw: Knowledge and wisdom critical to a foretaste of Paradise
Nasir Khusraw, a Persian poet, philosopher, traveller, and a da’i, was born on 1004 in Qubadiyan, a small town in eastern Iran into a Twelver Shi’i family. After completing his schooling, where he studied Arabic, Persian, mathematics, philosophy, and religious sciences, Nasir entered government service in the revenue department. Nasir enjoyed travelling , admiring the architectural and cultural creations of the regions to which he travelled, engaging in conversations with the shopkeepers, poets, and others. But he wondered about “the delights of the world” and desired to have an answer to the question of why all this exists. “He asked all the teachers and clergy he knew, inquired of all denominations and schools of thought…but no response satisfied him” (p 5).
Nasir-i Nasir Khusraw
Nasir-i Khusraw. Photo: Wikipedia
After studying the Ismail interpretation of Islam, he was convinced “that the answers to these ultimate questions could be found in the doctrines of the Ismaili Shi’i faith” (p 5). “Ismaili doctrine appealed to him on many levels, most particularly in what he interpreted as its promotion of intellect and knowledge…Ismaili precepts championed human intellect as God’s finest creation” (p 78-79).
He converted to Ismailism, left his job, and embarked on a seven-year journey spending three years in Fatimid Cairo during the time of Imam al-Mustansir bi’llah (r. 1036-1094) and chief da’i al-Mu’ayyad al-Shirazi (d.1078). When Nasir told the chief da’i what he was searching, al-Shirazi said:
‘Cease worrying, the jewel has been found in thy mine.
Beneath the idea of this world there lies an ocean of Truth,
In which are found precious pearls, as well as Pure Water.
This is the highest Heaven of the exalted stars.
Nay, it is Paradise itself, full of captivating beauties.’
(The Ruby of Badakhshan p 62-63)
“The phrase ‘the jewel has been found in thy mine’ is “the pronouncement that the most wonderful treasure, the essential component for understanding the truth lies within Nasir Khusraw himself. In this sense, the jewel is the soul itself, hidden within the body. A jewel (and thereby the soul, too) needs to be found (often a difficult task) and the polished (requiring hard work and talent) in order for it to become perfect and to realise its unique capabilities… The jewel of knowledge and wisdom lies within every person, only to be extracted by plumbing the depths of the psyche” (p 64) also conveyed by the metaphor of the ocean.
The ocean “contains two things of value: precious pearls and pure water… A pearl is a tiny, rare item of beauty and wealth hidden within coarse surroundings (the scabby oyster shell). The pearl of knowledge is external to the seeker, and to find it, he must descend into the ocean’s dark and dangerous depths.
In the Ginan Satgur aviya, Pir Shams mentions descending the depths of the ocean to find pearls of knowledge and wisdom:
Listen
For the believer who finds it, the pearl brings infinite spiritual satisfaction in this world and assures him of salvation in the next.
The physical water in the oceans is vital for life, transportation, cleaning, and gathering various types of food, in addition to housing countless unknown creatures. In Ismaili religious symbolism, water symbolises the hidden world of esoteric reality, in fact for the entire esoteric realm that sustains the exoteric. This ‘pure water,’ like the physical water, nourishes life, transports the seeker to a farther shore, washes away error and sin, contains glorious spiritual foods, and holds within itself a vast territory of unfamiliar characters” (p 63).
Hidden knowledge belongs to God, as He says [in the Qur’an, 11:123], ‘To God belongs the unseen [secrets] of the heavens and earth.’ So, whoever knows more hidden knowledge…is closer to God” (WD, 30).
“Indeed knowledge is of critical importance for Nasir that, in this world, the believer can experience a foretaste of Heaven or Hell through knowledge or ignorance. In poem after poem, and in all his prose writings, he hammers home the necessity and virtue of the pursuit of knowledge and the attainment of wisdom” (p 79-80).
Adapted from Nasir Khusraw, The Ruby of Badakhshan, by Alice C. Hunsberger, I.B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, 2000
pearl oyster ocean
Formation of a pearl. Photo: National Geographic
“As we use our intellect to gain new knowledge about Creation, we come to see even more profoundly the depth and breadth of its mysteries. We explore unknown regions beneath the seas – and in outer space. We reach back over hundreds of millions of years in time. Extra-ordinary fossilised geological specimens seize our imagination – palm leaves, amethyst flowers, hedgehog quartz, sea lilies, chrysanthemum and a rich panoply of shells. Indeed, these wonders are found beneath the very soil on which we tread – in every corner of the world – and they connect us with far distant epochs and environments.
And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives – the more our imagination staggers. Just think for example what might lie below the surfaces of celestial bodies all across the far flung reaches of our universe. What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam
Ottawa, Canada, December 6, 2008
Speech
galaxy sombrero mystery
M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. Even at a distance of 40 million light years its beauty and mystery are not diminished. Photo: Morris Wade/Adam Block/ NOAO/ AURA /NSF/ Caelum Observatory
charlie wrote:
Glimpses of paradise, like what?
First stage of paradise (say) 100 watts light.
Second stage 200 watts light.
Seventh stage 1000 Kw of light.
Depending upon the background of an individual, he may experience blessed visions of Muhammad, Christ, Krishna as indications of being on the right path, for example.
In the granth Bhrahm Pakash extra sensory perceptions are mentioned as markers or indications of the higher life.
namahee beech rahyaa nav maas ohee dhyaan obhee sukh veelaasaa.63
After being immersed in this name for nine months maintaining the same concentration and enjoying the same bliss.....
So a blessed person has blessed visions of Muhammad, Christ, Krishna; it looks you concluded that these 3 entities are same as Prophets because MSMS in Memoirs mentioned them as Prophets, but these entities themselves had visions of higher authority.
Is it a condition that one has to wait 9 months to have vision?
charlie wrote:
So a blessed person has blessed visions of Muhammad, Christ, Krishna; it looks you concluded that these 3 entities are same as Prophets because MSMS in Memoirs mentioned them as Prophets, but these entities themselves had visions of higher authority.
Is it a condition that one has to wait 9 months to have vision?
I only mentioned the visions as an example of the glimpses of paradise that one may encounter. Of course the Prophets themselves could have had the visions themselves.
I don't think 9 months is an exact time. It is just a figurative or a poetic way of mentioning a time frame.
charlie wrote:
So a blessed person has blessed visions of Muhammad, Christ, Krishna; it looks you concluded that these 3 entities are same as Prophets because MSMS in Memoirs mentioned them as Prophets, but these entities themselves had visions of higher authority.
Is it a condition that one has to wait 9 months to have vision?
I only mentioned the visions as an example of the glimpses of paradise that one may encounter. Of course the Prophets themselves could have had the visions themselves.
So Krishna being a prophet had spiritual vision of higher authority, isn't it?
Krishna was Imam. For common purpose and non Ismaili audience, it is OK to say he is Prophet. Krishna's name was in the Imam's genealogy in the asal Gat Paat ji Dua
However the subject of this thread is far from this subject.
The idea of eternal damnation is neither biblically, philosophically nor morally justified. But for many it retains a psychological allure.
Once the faith of his youth had faded into the serene agnosticism of his mature years, Charles Darwin found himself amazed that anyone could even wish Christianity to be true. Not, that is, the kindlier bits — “Love thy neighbor” and whatnot — but rather the notion that unbelievers (including relatives and friends) might be tormented in hell forever.
It’s a reasonable perplexity, really. And it raises a troubling question of social psychology. It’s comforting to imagine that Christians generally accept the notion of a hell of eternal misery not because they’re emotionally attached to it, but because they see it as a small, inevitable zone of darkness peripheral to a larger spiritual landscape that — viewed in its totality — they find ravishingly lovely. And this is true of many.
But not of all. For a good number of Christians, hell isn’t just a tragic shadow cast across one of an otherwise ravishing vista’s remoter corners; rather, it’s one of the landscape’s most conspicuous and delectable details.
There is a simple proposition at the heart of classical Christianity: if you are a good person and do good works on Earth, when you die you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven and know the full bounty of God’s unending love. But if you are a bad person on Earth, and you sin without repenting, when you die you’ll end up in Hell for all eternity.
In many Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, that duality is baked into the singular notion of Karma: good intentions and good deeds will be repaid in the next life with great kindness; bad intent and bad deeds (or sin) will be repaid in the next life with great severity.
The Stoics take a different approach. They don’t say that cheating or lying or murdering should be avoided out of fear of future punishments at the hands of God. Instead, they make a much more immediate and self-interested case. Seneca especially, who saw Caligula and Nero and other infamous Roman rulers up close, takes pains to point out these people are not winning. Nor are they getting off scot-free for their crimes. Actually, they’re paying for it every single day.
Seneca would have liked the passage at the conclusion of the novel What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg, which renders this verdict on the empty, broken life of an immoral Hollywood studio boss:
I had been waiting for justice suddenly to rise up and smite him in all its vengeance, secretly hoping to be around when Sammy got what was coming to him; only I had expected something conclusive and fatal and now I realized that what was coming to him was not a sudden pay-off but a process, a disease he had caught in the epidemic that swept over his birthplace like a plague; a cancer that was slowly eating him away, the symptoms developing and intensifying: success, loneliness, fear. Fear of all the bright young men, the newer, fresher Sammy Glicks that would spring up to harass him, to threaten him and finally overtake him.
The Stoics would say don’t sin or your life will be hell. Not your next life, not your afterlife, but this life right now. Today.
Both heaven and hell begin in the mind.The moment we think something about good, the moment we pray and meditate and try to offer the inner light that we have gained from our meditation and prayers, we begin to live in heaven. The moment we think evil of someone, criticize someone, and cherish wrong thoughts about some one, then we enter into hell. Heaven we create; hell we create. With our divine thoughts we create heaven. With our wrong, silly, undivine thoughts we create hell within us. Heaven and hell are both states of consciousness deep inside us. When we go deep within, we see that the entire universe is inside us. Inside this physical body is the subtle body, and inside the subtle body, in the heart, we find the existence of soul. Then, from there, if we go deep within, we see the entire universe.