Saturday, February 25, 2006

manifest liberation: the four gates

Even more from Amir Sulaiman (see also manifest liberation: virtue vs. vice)

In the Name of The One

Manifest Liberation is:

To Liberate Ones Self from Illusion
The world of illusion is the world of non-existence. In order to be effective, to move forward with high intent, one must be with Truth. How may one realize what is not real? How may one actualize what is not actual? In order to realize, to actualize, or to manifest ones liberation, one must be free from illusion and submit totally to Truth.

To Purify the Self
To truly purify ones self, ones purification must occur spiritually and physically, individually and collectively, internally and externally. Every self that has lived and will live is part of one Self, the Human Being. The lesser self is what allows the notion of ego and the greater Self is the collective consciousness that binds the Human Being together as one. One may not purify the self without purifying the Self nor may one purify the Self without purifying the self.

To Perfect Character
To perfect character is to perfect ones relationships. To perfect relationships is to perfect ones relationship between one and ones self, one and other selves, one and ones environment, and one and The One.

To Battle
To manifest ones liberation one must wage an unceasing war against vice and the vicious, against malice and the malicious, and against oppression and oppressors. Only through battle may the Self be free of the illusory shackles that bind the hands and restrain the mind. Only through battle, may one gain liberation and ensure sovereignty for virtue and the virtuous

6 comments:

DA said...

Amir Sulaimin is awesome.

Abdul-Halim V. said...

yup. I bought his CD after the show and it has been in heavy rotation in my CD changer ever since. I wish I could more of his words online.

jhbowden said...

Abdul-Halim--

Truth is not something submitted to, but discovered. Moreover, holding a belief to be true without evidence and reasoning is irrational.

Abdul-Halim V. said...

the arabic term usually translated as truth is "haqq" which also has the connotation of "reality". So in some sense, when i think of "submitting to the truth" it is not really a matter of "believing in this or that dogma out of faith in the absence of evidence" but it has more to do with living your life realistically in accordance to the way things are. And in practice, that will involve a certain amount of "reality testing" and discovery.

jhbowden said...

Abdul--

Reality and truth are two different things. When we believe reality is a certain way, and reality is that certain way, we call our beliefs true. When this doesn't obtain, we have an erroneous belief; the belief is false. This is obvious and not controversial, but one can never have too much clarity.

Sulaiman starts off in this vein, talking about reality and illusion. But just as it doesn't make sense to submit to truth, which is a property of beliefs, it doesn't make any sense to submit to reality, since we're already real. It looks less likely that Sulaiman is talking about matching means to ends in a Machiavellian fashion and more like, to quote Wittgenstein, "language gone on a holiday."

Abdul-Halim V. said...

I guess now I'm not sure what you are trying to say. Nothing in what he wrote suggests to me that he's advocating blind faith. The Quran generally encourages Muslims to investigate and study the world in order to observe things for ourselves. Blind faith isn't seen as a virtue.