Showing posts with label mysticism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mysticism. Show all posts

Thursday, July 29, 2010

inception and islam

Inner Wakefulness

This place is a dream
only a sleeper considers it real
then death comes like dawn
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought
was your grief

A man goes to sleep in the town
where he has always lived
and he dreams
he's living in another town
in the dream he doesn't remember
the town he's sleeping in his bed in
he believes the reality
of the dream town
the world is that kind of sleep

Humankind is being led
along an evolving course,
through this migration
of intelligences
and though we seem
to be sleeping
there is an inner wakefulness,
that directs the dream
and that will eventually
startle us back
to the truth of
who we are

-Rumi






'Man is asleep and when he dies he awakens'
-attributed to the prophet Muhammad





And nothing is the life of this world but a play and a passing delight; and the life in the hereafter is by far the better for all who are conscious of God. Will you not, then, use your reason? (Quran 6:32)



I saw the movie Inception this past weekend. It was a pretty enjoyable and thought-provoking film. For those that don't know, Inception is the latest entry in the genre of reality-bending films like Total Recall and the Matrix series. If you have already seen the film, you can follow some of the links below to see more detailed discussions and debates over what is "really" going on. If you haven't seen the film, I don't want to ruin it for you with spoilers. I'll just say that the film plays around with the distinction between dreaming and reality and that one of the more common ways to "wake up" from within the dream is to die.

One of the things which struck me about this film (as is hopefully evident from the various quotes at the start of this blog entry) is the extent to which Inception resonates with Islamic metaphysics. In other words, from the perspective of Islam (or at least, some of the mystics) our world is actually very similar to that of Inception. In fact, there are at least two interesting ways to make this correspondence. As suggested by the above quotes, either we are the dreamers and we wake up when we die. Or if you look at some explanations of wahdat al-wujud, then Allah (swt) is the reality and we are less real (dream-like projections) relative to Him.

On a related side note, one of the characters of the film is actually named Yusuf (played by Dileep Rao) who in the Quran (and the Bible) is known for his ability to interpret dreams.


Goatmilk: “INCEPTION – THE TOP KEEPS SPINNING”
Goatmilk: “INCEPTION – The Top Stopped Spinning”
The Volokh Conspiracy: Understanding Inception
Cinematical: Dissecting 'Inception': Six Interpretations and Five Plot Holes
Vulture: Inception’s Dileep Rao Answers All Your Questions About Inception

Sunday, July 04, 2010

christian book touting manly aggression inspires violent fundamentalist meth trafficking cult

To be fair, John Eldredge, the author of the book Wild At Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul is probably not happy that his book has become required reading for a "a ruthless cultic Christian paramilitary fundamentalist crime syndicate that controls most of the Crystal Meth traffic in the US and is fond of tossing severed heads into Mexican discos". Furthermore, it isn't as if the meth gang (La Familia) had been selling Girl Scout cookies before Eldredge's book came out.

On the other hand, the book does say things like:
Aggression is part of the masculine design, we are hardwired for it. If we believe that man is made in the image of God, we would do well to remember that “the LORD is a warrior, the LORD is his name.” (Ex. 15:3)

and
The kingdom of heaven suffers violence,” Jesus said, and violent men take it by force.” (Matt 11:12 NASB) Is that a good thing or a bad thing ? Hopefully by now you see the deep and holy goodness of masculine aggression and that will help you understand what Christ is saying.

and
(quoting Tremper Longman, author of God is a Warrior) Virtually every book of the Bible–Old and New Testament–and almost every page tells us of God’s warring activity… what would Miss Manners have to say about taking the promised land ? Does wholesale slaughter fit under “Calling on Your New Neighbors.”


In a lot of ways Eldredge is a fairly mainstream evangelical who happens to be less apologetic than most about the patriarchal and martial aspects of the Bible. In any case, even apart from Eldredge's influence, the cartel also has ties to a Traditionalist Catholic community called New Jerusalem with its own history of latent sectarian violence which bubbles to the surface from time to time.

The Arizona Republic: Government, leader deaths reshape apocalyptic sect in Mexico
NarcoGuerraTimes: More on The Faith-Based Cartel
Alternet: Christian Book Touting Manly Aggression Inspires Violent Fundamentalist Meth Trafficking Cult

see also:
all terrorists are muslims... except the 94% that aren't
on joe (joseph) stack
claim that all terrorists are muslims ignores history
the murder of george tiller
thoughts on the hutaree

Monday, June 02, 2008

ken wilber

So I'm in the middle of reading The Essential Ken Wilber: An Introductory Reader. Wilber's an interesting guy. He's a perennialist in the sense that he attempts to bring together a number of different religious, mystical and psychological systems into a single integrated structure. He seems most familiar with Buddhism and Hinduism and doesn't really do much to actively incorporate Islam into his work. But the brother over at Inspirations and Creative Thoughts has a couple of interesting posts which emphasize some of those connections anyway.

Inspirations and Creative Thoughts: Integral mysticism in the postmodern world | Integral Spirituality and also I AMness | Integral vision of Ken Wilber and Sufism

See also:
Integral Naked on YouTube

Planet Grenada:
more on perennialism
perennialism and traditionalism