On Power

Power has always been of primary interest to people. Be it economic power, religious power, personal power, or any other form of power imaginable.

This power is always a power over something or someone else: Power over nature. Power over people. Power over the body’s innate forces of slow deterioration, etc.

This power can be felt by humans and it is felt as a kind of stimulant that can become addictive. It is also often associated with an adrenaline rush, which makes it act like an addictive drug cursing through one’s bodily system.

This power is, in its purest form, a completely ruthless power. If nothing tempers it, it will lead to inhumane treatment of others. For example, human and animal sacrifices have been performed for the purposes of appeasing a god, and to ensure that the god’s power continues to work for the benefit of the worshipping people.

Even the notion that only believers are allowed into a pleasing place, while non-believers are relegated to eternal suffering is a pronouncement of power over others.

Essence of the Qur'an (Koran)

From reading and studying and meditating on the words of the Qur'an, I have come up with what I consider the essential elements contained in it. There are really only three:

1: God is Great

2: God Provides

3: Do good and be good

The supreme purity of god

The supreme purity of god, that is what the pursuit of spiritual values is all about. The individual soul is created in the image of the supreme soul, god. What stands between the individual soul and the supreme soul? It is the created world, where the individual soul gets entangled and where it forgets its identity with the supreme soul.

But, it remembers its innate purity, and so, when it is exposed to the supreme purity of god in the spiritual and religious teachings of this world, it feels attracted to those teachings. It senses a kind of welcoming, a kind of homecoming when it gets nearer the pure inner state of its own existence.

It begins to feel something like: “I am That I am. I am pure. I have always been pure. And I will make every effort to remain in this suspended state of inner purity.”

And so it enters the spiritual path in earnestness.

Believers and Disbelievers

What are believers and disbelievers? Believers believe in a particular system, while disbelievers don’t. It’s that simple.

There are many beliefs in existence today. These beliefs cover many, and vastly different subjects. There are religious beliefs. Scientific beliefs. Beliefs in the supernatural. Beliefs in nature spirits. And so on.

Wherever you place your faith, that becomes a major belief system for you. Those inside the belief, the insiders, are called “true believers.” Those on the outside, the outsiders, are called “disbelievers.”

Tolerant people accept that different people have different belief systems. What makes you happy does not necessarily make others happy. Your taste in music may not be shared by others, but for you it is heavenly music you are listening to.

The same is true with any other belief or interest that you follow in life. There is nothing sinister about the clothes you wear, nothing sinister about any of the interests that you follow, as long as this interest is something you are truly following with a heart full of pure intentions.

Purity in your intentions is a must, if you want to live in freedom from your possessions, your accomplishments, your deeds in life. When you are selfish, and use other people for your own machinations, while giving them nothing but dirt in return, then you can be considered an evil person who needs to repent and ask for forgiveness from those you have taken advantage of.

This principle of asking for forgiveness is found in science, as well as religion, and in all matters of life where humans are involved. It has been said that god lives in the hearts of all beings, and when you break a human heart, you are breaking the heart of god, the heart of the “I am That I am.”

And you must never break the heart of god, because when you do, you are at the same time breaking your own heart. You are diminishing the love you have for yourself when you break anyone’s heart. By mending that heart again, you are mending your own heart and the heart of god, the “I am That I am.”