If the greatest war is the war over oneself, the greatest enemy is anger. There are people who live in eternal fear of their anger.
Anger is a drop of ink in a glass of milk. Once we become angry, there is no turning back. Once the ink gets into the milk, the milk is lost forever.
In an instant, a decade of good work can be wiped out by anger. Anger doesn't go away when we give in to it. It feeds and results in even more anger. Hence, the cycle never ends.
However, anger also has its uses. Scriptually, God gets angry too but only as a manifestation of his love. Anger as a manifestation of love is detached. Anger to one who is attached, is like a sword or a gun and if someone loses control, it is a weapon that can kill or destroy.
Anger is never an effective way to resolve conflict. Ultimately, it diminishes us all. Anger harms us as much as it harms others.
It destroys lives, relationships, families and communities. It can unravel the fabric of society and destroy nations in its path.
In detachment, anger, at best, is a tool and many great men have used it in order to create an impact. By practice we can become detached and this allows us, in turn, to redirect our anger without to become what it should be, a passion. A passion that drives us to achieve. The more we're willing to let go of our attachments, the more powerful we become.
However, it is the malicious anger within that is at the heart of vengeance, hatred and jealousy. It, invariably, destroys.
In short, if detached, anger is a tool. If attached, we become its tool. We can keep a sword or a gun but never have to use it; so should it be with anger.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Oldest Scripture
The body is the oldest scripture written by the hand of God Himself.
We did not choose to have two hands or one mouth or two eyes. Our parents did not have any say on the design of our body. But if we are to look at our body, everything comes in pairs; our eyes, nostrils, ears, our left and right brain, left and right hands and legs, left and right ventricle of the heart and so on. But right smack in the middle of our face is one organ that is singularly alone: the mouth, our tongue. From there, one can divine a particular message.
One should see twice as much as one speaks. One should think and hear twice as much as one speaks. One should work twice as much as one speaks. One should breathe twice as much as one speaks.
Yet we are all slaves of the tongue. It never rests. We hardly think before we talk. We talk even in our sleep.
There are 2 major barriers to hearing your inner self; the noise that you produce and the noise of the outside world. When you are too busy listening to yourself talk, you don't listen to others. There is too much noise outside and there is too much noise within.
The tongue, arguably, the single, is the most overworked organ in the entire body. First, we need to shut it down.
Then, we shut down the noise of the world, tracking down every single sound and telling ourselves that we do not hear it. If the word is more powerful than the sword, then every word that we speak must be of value.
Ultimately, when it flows, talk is cheap. But if we restrict it to a drip, then every drop will resound and every word reverberate.
"Silence of the heart, not only of the mouth - that too is necessary. Then you
can hear God everywhere: in the closing of the door, in the person who needs
you, in the birds that sing, in the flowers, the animals - that silence
which is
wonder and praise." - Mother Teresa
We did not choose to have two hands or one mouth or two eyes. Our parents did not have any say on the design of our body. But if we are to look at our body, everything comes in pairs; our eyes, nostrils, ears, our left and right brain, left and right hands and legs, left and right ventricle of the heart and so on. But right smack in the middle of our face is one organ that is singularly alone: the mouth, our tongue. From there, one can divine a particular message.
One should see twice as much as one speaks. One should think and hear twice as much as one speaks. One should work twice as much as one speaks. One should breathe twice as much as one speaks.
Yet we are all slaves of the tongue. It never rests. We hardly think before we talk. We talk even in our sleep.
There are 2 major barriers to hearing your inner self; the noise that you produce and the noise of the outside world. When you are too busy listening to yourself talk, you don't listen to others. There is too much noise outside and there is too much noise within.
The tongue, arguably, the single, is the most overworked organ in the entire body. First, we need to shut it down.
Then, we shut down the noise of the world, tracking down every single sound and telling ourselves that we do not hear it. If the word is more powerful than the sword, then every word that we speak must be of value.
Ultimately, when it flows, talk is cheap. But if we restrict it to a drip, then every drop will resound and every word reverberate.
"Silence of the heart, not only of the mouth - that too is necessary. Then you
can hear God everywhere: in the closing of the door, in the person who needs
you, in the birds that sing, in the flowers, the animals - that silence
which is
wonder and praise." - Mother Teresa
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Self Mastery
A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream and put it in her bag. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry. The wise woman opened her bag to share her food.
The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman for it. She gave it to him without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime.
But a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. "I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone."
This means that our vision will become clear only when we can look inside our heart. The one who looks outside, dreams; while the one who looks inside, awakens.
Our Beloved Prophet (s.a.w) has said:
"The greatest jihad or the greatest war is the war over oneself."
Therefore, the man who desires to rule, must begin by ruling himself and only those who master themselves can be masters of their fate.
The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman for it. She gave it to him without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime.
But a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. "I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone."
This means that our vision will become clear only when we can look inside our heart. The one who looks outside, dreams; while the one who looks inside, awakens.
Our Beloved Prophet (s.a.w) has said:
"The greatest jihad or the greatest war is the war over oneself."
Therefore, the man who desires to rule, must begin by ruling himself and only those who master themselves can be masters of their fate.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The Rhythm of Silence
What would happen if the earth paused for a fraction of a second in its rotation?
There would be chaos and it would be a catastrophe of planetary proportions.
There is a continuity, a rhythm in all things, that is imprinted within us down to our cellular structure.
Our cells move with us as we move with the earth, as the earth moves with the sun, as the sun moves with the solar system, as the solar system moves with the universe.
In all things, there is a pattern, a rhythm.
But there would be a state of chaos and insanity prevalent around us if we moved against the flow of the universe.
Silence brings us back to the rhythm that is as old as the universe and with the universal source of strength that throbs through every living being.
A new born baby starts bawling because it is cocooned in complete silence until the moment it is born.
From the time we were born, there is a continuous din that hits and assails our senses. It never ceases even when we are asleep. It is a din that cocoons us so much so that we stop hearing. And even as we stop, we can still hear the din but not the silence.
Mankind has been adept at creating pleasure and satisfaction for the senses because they are superficially created, they are neither permanent or real. We feast our senses on a continuous array of new toys, new scenes, and new pleasures but there is rarely a true, peaceful moment.
Hence, one of the most valuable things we seek to find is tranquility and ultimately, silence.
Therefore, the ideal man is he, who, in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the most intense activity and in the midst of the most intense activity, finds the silence and solitude of a desert.
There would be chaos and it would be a catastrophe of planetary proportions.
There is a continuity, a rhythm in all things, that is imprinted within us down to our cellular structure.
Our cells move with us as we move with the earth, as the earth moves with the sun, as the sun moves with the solar system, as the solar system moves with the universe.
In all things, there is a pattern, a rhythm.
But there would be a state of chaos and insanity prevalent around us if we moved against the flow of the universe.
Silence brings us back to the rhythm that is as old as the universe and with the universal source of strength that throbs through every living being.
A new born baby starts bawling because it is cocooned in complete silence until the moment it is born.
From the time we were born, there is a continuous din that hits and assails our senses. It never ceases even when we are asleep. It is a din that cocoons us so much so that we stop hearing. And even as we stop, we can still hear the din but not the silence.
Mankind has been adept at creating pleasure and satisfaction for the senses because they are superficially created, they are neither permanent or real. We feast our senses on a continuous array of new toys, new scenes, and new pleasures but there is rarely a true, peaceful moment.
Hence, one of the most valuable things we seek to find is tranquility and ultimately, silence.
Therefore, the ideal man is he, who, in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the most intense activity and in the midst of the most intense activity, finds the silence and solitude of a desert.
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