My Meeting With Sufi Shaikh Kabir Helminski

While I was in New York recently, I had a meeting with Kabir Helminski, Shaikh of the Mevlevi Order of Sufism.

kabir

From Wikipedia: Kabir Helminski is the Co-Director of the Threshold Society, a non-profit educational foundation that has developed programs that provide a structure for practice and study within Sufism and spiritual psychology. He has translated many volumes of Sufi literature, including many works of Rumi, and is the author of two books on Sufism: Living Presence and The Knowing Heart.

For more than twenty years, Mr. Helminski’s focus has been developing and sharing a contemporary approach to Islamic concepts and practice, both within the Islamic community and outside of it. In 2001 he was the first Muslim to deliver the prestigious Harold M. Wit Lectures on Spirituality in Contemporary Life at Harvard Divinity School. His lectures are to be published as a book by The Paulist Press.

He is one of the signatories of A Common Word between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding.

The Realization Of Love Your Neighbor Will Save Us From Destruction

specialTwo questions I received about the purpose of the blows we receive from the Creator:

Question: Why do we need all these blows if it is entirely not obvious that they have to do with the connection between people and love for one’s neighbor?

My Answer: This is not obvious only for those who have not yet discovered the connection between everyone and between all the parts of the world in general. Only 0.1% of the people on the planet are saying that the current economic crisis is meant to reveal the connection between people. Everyone else is still unaware of the fact that people’s relationships in particular influence the economy, the outbreaks of epidemics, and of the  tsunamis, earthquakes, and other calamities of Nature.

However, if the connection between our relationships and our suffering becomes evident, people will have no choice but to reject their egoistic relationships.

Question: So then why doesn’t the Creator deal the finishing blows of suffering on us, so that we could realize His plan?

My Answer: There is no doubt that if the cause of tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, and the collapse of financial institutions was revealed to us as being clearly dependent on our behavior, we would change out of necessity. Even so, this change would not come willingly, but rather under duress. We would make the necessary changes merely to save ourselves from destruction and not for the purpose of coming to the realization of the greatness of bestowal and love for our neighbor.

It would be an animalistic escape from death, rather than a free choice that is made to rise above one’s nature to become similar to the Creator, even though the Creator could have created us this way right from the start.

In order to fulfill the Creator’s plan for us, we must undergo the gradual development that will bring us to the realization of the greatness of bestowal and love for our neighbor.

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Military Tactics Used Against Young Vandals In Japan

doIn the News (from Reuters):Park plays high-pitch tone to discourage vandals

A Tokyo park has started playing a high-pitched tone at night that only young people can hear to help drive away teenagers who keep vandalizing the toilets and other facilities.

My comment: It is known that before the age of 20, a person can hear the higher frequencies of the audio-frequency range. However, without showing them the method for the correction of egoism, we are using what amounts to military tactics against our children!

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My Meeting With Film Producer and Director Joshua Zeman

Recently I had a meeting with Joshua Zeman, an American film producer and director.

zeman

Joshua Zeman is a native New Yorker who has co-produced five feature films in recent years, most notably, The Station Agent, which won the 2003 Sundance Audience and Screenwriting Award. He was the producer of Mysterious Skin, which was nominated for a 2006 Spirit Award. His film, Choking Man, won the IFP Gotham Award.

He is a partner in the production company Ghost Robot and a fellow at the Sundance Institute’s Creative Producing Initiative. In 2002 he wrote and produced Members Only – a documentary on the history of organized crime in New York.

Recognizing The Good In What Appears To Be Bad

does20charity20really20help20anyoneA person always thinks that he is right. He expects that only good things are going to happen to him, and never the bad. Today all of humanity looks at life this way. The world is suffering through one crisis after another, more and more problems befall us, but no one stops to consider that perhaps there is a purpose to it all. Everyone thinks that all of these events are accidental.

In other words, we are not learning from our experience. We are not cognizant that we are the reason for these events.

In our current state this problem is revealed more and more acutely: from this point forward, the only way we can progress is by uniting together as one.

And this is possible only by drawing the Upper Force—the Creator. That is why it is so important to disseminate the knowledge of how to utilize this upper force of Nature. Only then will every person be able to learn about good in what first appears to be bad.

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