the Path To Enlightenment.
By: Eleni
Muller
[email protected]
Dear Mr. Sina:
Your humanist insight is a real eye opener
to the message of Islam.
When I read your page about "Why I am
not a Muslim" it shocked me because I went through a
similar experience. I was bought up Greek Orthodox and
have been questioning my mother about the hypocrisies that I
would encounter in Church. Naturally, she never answered
them in a way that made any sense. I've been questioning since I
was 10!
My only criticism is your soft view on
Christianity. I realize that your page is geared
more to Islam because that was what you experienced and grew up
with. But some focus should also be paid to other
religions as well.
We, as citizens of the Earth, will never
have peace if we continue exercising blind faith in ANY
RELIGION.
Your Islamic readers need to recognize the
falsity of the Judeo-Christian bible because the Koran has some
of the same belief systems. Some Moslems may feel that
your words are not coming from wisdom but from a hatred of
Islam. Of course those of who are seeking knowledge
understand where you are coming from. You love humanity
and want to bring everyone together. Your site is to
enlighten. Your arguments will become ever more thought
provoking if you tie the Koran in with the bible.
Here are some of the most heart-warming
words of wisdom from Jesus that Moslems might not be aware of:
Think not that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
Matthew 5:17 (So, he does not condemn the acts of rape, murder
and Genocide in the OT).
think not that I am come to send peace on
earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. Matthew
10:34 (Hmmm...isn't "Peace on Earth" written on
multitudes of Christmas Cards?)
If any man come to me, and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
-Luke 14:26 (KJV) (what Christian can resist this loving
devotion to family togetherness)
These are just a FEW of the passages that
led me out of the God Myth. The Old Testament is even worse.
How can anyone read the bible and believe that it inspires peace
and love. It's beyond my understanding how I did!
My freedom came when I used logic. If
more Christians read the bible, they would have little choice
but to see the lies. All Moslems need to read the bible in
addition to the Koran.
By the way, your article on EL and Yahweh
was eye-opening about monotheism resulting from the merging of
two Gods. It's funny how inaccurate translation can tear
the bible to shreds.
The insanity of Religion continues to this
day. Christianity is unfortunately still producing
megalomaniacs and murderers. http://www.usafricaonline.com/rwandabishop.html
Anyway, I would like to tell you a little
of my experience with "enlightenment." Many of
my friends laugh when I tell them how I escaped Religion. The
beginning might seem "hocus pocus" but please read it
all the way through and you will see how our story relates.
However, I feel you may have had some of these similar
occurrences to experience what you did.
Please feel free to post this on your
sight. It is long...leaving out the details won't help
anyone. Even if it is just one person, it will be well
worth my effort!
When I entered my twenties, I stopped
attending church completely and started seeking out other
religions. However, everything sounded the same to me.
Everything was immersed in ritual, dogma, and dependence on a
priest, guru, etc.
My mother started attending this Sahaja
Yoga group where they were practicing kuhndalini Yoga.
(for those not familiar, it is also known as chi). I
learned the techniques and quickly left the group because they
worshipped their leader as a God (This leader actually had the
audacity to claim that she alone could bring about this energy
in people!)
The power of this type of meditation is so
strong that these Gurus get complete control of their subjects.
Countless cults exist that practice this same method. My
mother is so far gone in this group that I doubt she'll ever get
out. This is what happens when we don't investigate other
cultures and religions. My mother never bothered to read
that this type of meditation has been around for thousands of
years!
The experience with this group made me come
to the conclusion that they were no different from Christians,
Jews and Moslems. All walking around blindly worshipping
something, someone, something without ever looking to themselves
to discover reality. This discovery caused such despair in
me that I almost gave up hope in living. I came to a point
where I didn't care whether I lived or died. How can I
live in a world based on empty faith?
I started meditating on my own and attained
some high mystical states, but they led me to more confusion.
What did they mean?? I had a feeling of being
connected to everything, everywhere. It was quite
physical, I would literally feel vibrations throughout my body.
When I would stop meditating, I would reflect on my experience
and realize that I had no recognition of a personal God.
Please note that this was in the back of my mind. I didn't
let it become my reality for quite a few years. Now you can see
why I was confused and full of despair!! I now was more of
a deist. I believed in a creator but rejected the bible.
I continued my meditating and it cured me
of clinical depression which I have suffered with for many
years. Other things started occurring as well. I noticed
that I became somewhat detached from misery, loathing, hatred
and other aspects of human emotion. This is not to say
that I didn't feel, but I was not affected. Sill, I
did not understand why. My temper evened out, I contemplated
more, I listened to opposing views with a feeling of calm.
Eventually, I started reading more and more about organized
religion and my guilt turned to anger. Why did I buy into
this??? I felt that all my problems were caused by
believing in
God and Religion.
My anger slowly led me to discover the same
thing you did. I call it God, but beyond human terms.
It is not a being, not a thing. Exactly how you came to
see it!!! Such relief! A million pounds of guilt and
anger disappeared. Yes, there was no one watching me! Yes,
I am my own truth! Yes, that is reality! True freedom from
an invisible watcher!
To my utter amazement, I later went on to
read some Buddhist writings and realized that true Buddhism is
not about ceremony and ritual. It is SOLELY about this
truth that you refer to as the "singularity principle.
However, to me, it is not a theory because I have SEEN it. But,
you are 100% right when you say that one must discover
reality on one's own. I can have a diamond in a closed
fist and tell you that it is there. You have to believe
me, have faith in me. But....once I open my hand and you
see it. AHA! Now you SEE it!! That's what
happened to me! I see it! I enjoy living now.
No religion could grant me that. To really see what life is
about one must experience it for one self.
What people must see is that ALL religion
today is like a closed fist. Even worse, the American Government
is fighting the war on terrorism using religious terms,
"good versus evil." "If your not with us,
you're with them." The problem with this black and
white thinking is that it is not explaining why this is
happening....belief. That's it. See this sight:
http://www.nobeliefs.com/beliefs.htm
Will we one day annihilate ourselves with weapons of mass
destruction because of these beliefs?
So, is it realistic to "believe"
that belief will die anytime soon? I fear not. Think
about philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. Their
cries for common sense made no difference in this Subjective
Reality that we are a prisoner of. Our only hope is to
educate as many people as possible. That is why your site
touched me as much as it did. Because you didn't rely on any
external sources to come to your conclusions. You used rational
thinking which annihilated your doubt and eventually flourished
into wisdom. How lucky you are! The experience of
enlightenment cannot be put in words, although some of the
pleasant side effects are liberation from an imaginary
watcher in the heavens and a knowledge that human nature is
learned and not in fact reality! Wow, it's the exact opposite of
what the priests and anthropologists have been telling us!
This is the liberation that all that read your words should aim
to personally experience. Enlightenment is not religion,
it's just seeing. That's why it's the only truth. A man
living apart from society can come across this truth. A
man living apart from society cannot learn about Mohammed and
Jesus. What does that tell us about truth?? It told
me everything.
In some of your correspondence with
visitors to your sight, I was shocked to read how some wanted
you to guide them to this enlightenment, and how you patiently
explained to them that it was up to them. It sounds
simple, but as you discovered, it isn't because the closed fist
refuses to open for them. They have to
metaphorically become that man/woman living apart from society
to discover true reality.
Unlearning what is learned is difficult.
You did it. I did it. Countless others did it.
So...naturally, all can do it.
Warmest of regards,
Eleni
|