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… that my reoccurring top post is “to tattoo or not to tattoo”. out of all my other “soul searching” posts the one post that comes up as most viewed is this. it’s ironic. what’s so important about tattooing? it’s permanent definitely, but besides that. definition of identity… in the ambiguity of identity lives anxiety. so then is it just to make me feel better about myself, feel secure? to say “this is who/what i am.” to quite literally wear my self on my sleeves. not trying to sound aloof or arrogant since someday i might get a tattoo. just wondering out loud…

My heart is a wine glass and only Allah can make it sing. Only He can fill it. Only His touch to the lips of my heart has the right pressure and friction to produce the resonance that makes it sing and shatter into a million pieces. Only the voice of God can speak my pieces back into the Oneness that can only be filled by Him. I long to be Sufi.

Whether I be Sufi or Christian, I don’t know. I know the basics of what I believe. I know what my heart believes. I know that my faith always seems to be walking on the razor’s edge. CERTAINLY i don’t boast with this. So much i wish i had a normal faith like everyone else that is easily “explainable”. Will I always struggle with this feeling of being an outcast? Jesus was an outcast, and look. So I should be thankful of my “problem” I guess. Maybe belonging to man’s delineation of God’s Kingdom is not my purpose. I don’t know. All I know is that Allah chooses to fill my cup through the Sufis and the Christians. For some reason I don’t find fullness in Sufism or Christianity alone. My cup is filled through Allah and Christ. I know my God, because even when I think I don’t, He knows me. I rest in that.

Christ is in our midst, Insha’Allah.

If you were married or had a Beloved you would come to realize…

The good you do for your beloved is the same good or actually better than the good you do for yourself.

Why serve yourself for the moment, when the fruits of serving your beloved in the midst of suffering, make your heart and belly full of peace, love, joy and satisfaction?

To serve The Beloved is to serve my beloved. To serve my beloved is to serve The Beloved and to serve My Beloved beats serving myself.  If only I could finally learn this lesson…

may you have deep peace…

After watching an Indian film (called, ‘Water’) about Hindu widows, my heart got to thinking and asking…

“What if your conscience conflicts with your faith?”
–quote from ‘Water’

“I used to think that God was Truth, but now I know that Truth is God.”
–Ghandi (paraphrased)

If one seeks truth above all else, does one find God? Not necessarily…? Then how does one find Truth? Purely by God’s grace. Purely by God’s predestined grace!

Abraham  was a righteous man. God loved and blessed him for his righteousness. How did Abraham find righteousness outside of ‘religion’? (The same goes for Buddha.) Why does everyone after him need religion to find righteousness? (what about relationship?) Is it about a guarantee or a ‘get out of jail free card’ or a ‘life insurance policy’? What does Jesus say about righteousness in the context of his cultural Judaism and outside that same context? Can we trust the ‘Christian Gospels’?

Legalism is bullshit, a mockery of the Truth and the Law. A mockery of the Heart. But what of purity? Is righteousness found in one Man? In returning to the purity of God’s creation that He called ‘Good’? In the many idols of mankind? Or in the act of TRYING?? Is it found in the depths of the longing of the Heart of Hearts? Is Righteousness found in the Heart? Can God put it there to be found if He so pleases? Does He do so in everyone? Where is righteousness to be found? How is righteousness to be found?

Questions are not a sign of doubt.
Doubt is not a lack of Faith.
Faith is not a sign of Truth.
Truth is not a lack of Questions.

…and the Dharma wheel turns…

Why do people seem to need a system to find God? Do people who search for God in a system really find Him?

Many people in the system will find God, Truth, Al-Haqq, but many may not.  Many people outside the system will find God, Truth, Al-Haqq, but many may not. Are there no guarantees of God’s predestination to His Will? (this definitely isn’t a path for discipleship)

I feel like a spiritual or religious outcast. An untouchable. Caught between systems. I cling ever so tightly to the Lord of Outcasts and Untouchables, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God and Man.

Thank you immensely for doing so.

Arthur held the vile meticulously in his hand. The waters of the tiny world trembled in his grip. He imagined a microscopic version of himself doing a cannon-ball into this little ocean.

His mind wandered past all of the cataclysmic events of the last few days and weeks and  years that had led up to this point in time, the point in time where Arthur Holt was grasping the last 4 ounces of water on earth. The chemical’s new found singularity struck him strange, for prior to this moment, water had been the most common, elemental, forgotten and taken for granted substance known to man. Even if he was completely parched, he knew that somewhere, no matter how inaccessible it might be, there was water. But now… this was not even the case.

Now Arthur really held the last drop of water in his fingers. He wondered what it would feel like to drink the last 4 ounces of water, what emotions would rush through his veins, what thoughts of despair or ecstasy would swim around his head. This single water might be saved for later when truly needed at a cataclysmic moment of desperate rescue. It was a glistening potion of hope and despair, of comfort and anxiety, a monument to creation and a crumbled ruin of a reminder to the past.

How, Arthur wondered, how could this simple compound of Hydrogen and Oxygen contain so many paradoxes, enigmas and mysteries of the life it used to uphold. It held every question to every answer of earthly life. It was life itself. It told a story, not a human story, but a story of energy, power, creation, of god breathing life into a fiery, explosive element. The human element, they had exploded on the earth and scorched it beyond recognition ironically using the element of fire that when bonded with the breath of god created this basic building block of earthly life.

The vile, so precious and so endangered reminded him of the stories he read as a child where there was always a precious vile, singular in it’s ability and availability to offer its barer hope in darkness, healing at the last gasp of life and protection in the face of horror.

…………….

This list touched me so so deeply. Not out of simple bitterness, but rather out of, “thank god someone’s finally willing to say it.” Everything registered as true to one side of my experience of this planet.

-jfs

———

The other side of being human.

http://www.metagifted.org/

I’m tired of trying to prove myself to people who seem determined to dislike me.

I just hope I can get through another day of this crap.

I can’t stand humanity any more. Why is everyone so cruel?!

My life is intrinsically small and meaningless.

I can’t help wanting to hurt people.

I try to channel my rage and fury into good things, but it doesn’t always work.

I can’t help but see other people as objects.

No one even makes an effort to understand me.

I wish people would just LEAVE ME ALONE!!!

I can’t get far enough from the people that want to get close to me.

I don’t want to deal with your pain!

I try to care about what you’re saying, but I don’t.

Life IS all about me.

No one likes it when I’m really honest.

If you could see what I truly am, you’d think I was insane.

You cannot fully comprehend my sadness or my pain.

You do not understand the magnitude of my rage.

The day ahead seems insurmountable.

Life mostly sucks.

Being human HURTS.

Most people are mean.

No matter how hard I try, I cannot be completely sympathetic with you.

Sympathy does not seem worthwhile.

I have enough problems of my own.

Opinions are judgments!

Even when you think you’re being kind, I want to hide from you.

Teaching me a lesson won’t work.

I don’t really care what you believe.

The reward of affection is too complicated to obtain.

Affection is always overcomplicated.

Being empathic really sucks.

I don’t always want to know what’s going to happen.

How come I have to be the aware one?

Even being around other people hurts!

I want someone to understand me, but I don’t want to be be a part of any group.

People are overcomplicated and I just want to push them away.

If you really cared about me, you’d let me be myself.

I know you don’t believe most of the things you say.

Your responsibility is not my responsibility.

Please don’t indoctrinate me.

You can’t fix me; don’t even try.

Just because we don’t agree doesn’t mean I’m broken.

It doesn’t seem like humanity is improving, no matter how hard we try.

Everyone’s reality is different; don’t force yours upon me.

I can’t stand more than a tiny bit of interaction.

I don’t really care what I’m supposed to do.

I’m not a sheep, don’t herd me.

You shouldn’t be telling anyone what to be doing if you’re not perfect.

Why do we keep trying so hard?

My own humanity feels incredibly restrictive.

The world doesn’t want to be helped.

I won’t be a part of your dog and pony show.

Why don’t you just shut the hell up?

Can’t you tell I really don’t like you?

Other people do not truly understand me.

There is no real point to mutual understanding.

There’s nothing I have to do.

Your requirements can go fish.

I have had just about enough.

What is the point of your aspirations?

You don’t seem to be actually getting anywhere.

Did you think I was talking to you?

How many indigos does it take to change the world?

The world doesn’t really need either one of us.

Why the hell did we choose to reincarnate?

It’s impossible to keep higher goals in mind all the time.

If you truly don’t believe time doesn’t exist, why do you force your schedule upon me?

Why do you play by the rules if there are none?

Why do you force arbitrary rules upon me?

I doubt you can actually practice what you preach.

It’s too bad you can’t be honest about your emotions.

I can’t stand being around a lot of people.

Preachy assholes annoy the hell out of me.

Having you tell me how human I am is not what I came here for.

I don’t like how you live your life.

The status quo sucks.

You are making my life harder.

I never feel like I have a home.

Interacting with you weakens my sense of self.

When I exert effort to make the world a better place, mostly no one cares.

I feel alone and tiny in the Universe.

We are NOT ONE.

Being around others makes me want to hide my individuality.

Even my most aspiring thoughts seem to have no effect.

I am not always happy. Why should I be?

My life feels purposeless and difficult.

Trying to be myself or speak my mind only has harmful repercussions.

There is a feeling of tension, isolation, and discord that never goes away.

Most activities people think are fun leave me empty and disillusioned.

Violence begets violence, yet unconditional love is a shroud of denial. There IS no solution in any situation.

Absolutely everything is completely out of control.

You pretend you’re tough, but inside you secretly feel lost and terrified like me.

Reality Bites.

— Patrick M. Jordan

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you and I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road although I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."
-Thomas Merton

John