Essential Spirituality: The 7 Essential Spirituality: The 7 Practices to Awaken Heart Practices to Awaken Heart

and Mindand MindAn Islamic perspectiveAn Islamic perspective

Presentation Presentation by Amina by Amina InloesInloes

Introduction• Multi-faith approach• Practical exercises (long-term)• A word from the author (video clip https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPPAWNL8CTs)• “Wisdom is the lost property of the believer,

so take it even from the polytheist, because you are more deserving of it.” – Imam ‘Ali (A)

• Today’s approach– Introduction to each topic– Do selected exercises– Note down ideas for the future– Critical analysis

I. Transform your Motivation: Reduce Craving and Find Your Soul’s Desire

• “Free yourself from greed, for greed is itself an impoverishment.” – the Prophet (S)

• “Asceticism (zuhd) is not that you should not own anything, but that nothing should own you.” – Imam ‘Ali (A)

•  “All you want is to be happy. All your desires, whatever they may be, are of longing for happiness…Desire by itself is not wrong…It is the choices you make that are wrong. To imagine that some little thing—food, carnal desires, power, fame—will make you happy is to deceive oneself. Only something as vast and deep as your real self can make you truly and lastingly happy.” – Hindu approach

I. The wrong path to happiness?• Everyone wants to be happy, but most of

us have mistaken ideas about what makes us happy.

• Once we have escaped poverty, material gain only makes people marginally happier.

• Satisfaction isn’t so much about getting what you want as wanting what you have.

• “The richest among you is the one who is not entrapped by greed…the miser is the poorest of all.” – Prophet (S)

• Mulla Nasruddin story

• Desire is wanting; attachment is a compulsive necessity. Unfulfilled desires produce little impact; unfulfilled attachments yield frustration and pain.

• “The Soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for, until the cord be broken the bird cannot fly. So the soul held by the bonds of human affections, however slight they may be, cannot, while they last make its way to God.” – Christian quotation

• Happiness lies not in feeding and fueling our attachments, but in reducing and relinquishing them.

• Do we need attachments to motivate ourselves?

I. Desire vs. attachment

I. Exercises to remove attachment1. Consider a worldly attachment.2. Focus on it – recognize pain as

feedback. How much pain are you willing to tolerate for it?

3. Examine the experience of craving – what does it feel like? (Physically? Emotionally?)

4. What beliefs are underlying it? (“I’ll die if anyone finds out.” “I’ll be a failure without it.”) Now that you are aware of those beliefs, can you change them?

II. Cultivate emotional wisdom: heal your heart and learn to love

• “The most thankful of you towards Allah is the one who is most thankful towards people.” – Imam al-Sajjad (A)

• “No sooner do two brethren-in-faith meet than the better of them is the one who loves the other more.” – Imam al-Sadiq (A)

• “It is well known that emotions of the soul affect the body and produce great, significant and wide-ranging changes in the state of health. Emotions of the soul should be watched, regularly examined, and kept well balanced.” – Maimonides (Musa b. Maymun, twelfth-century Jewish sage)

How do you feel?

How do you feel?

II. Emotions and the world around us

• Our emotions color how we see the world• We can influence our emotions to reduce painful feelings

such as fear and anger; to foster helpful attitudes such as gratitude and generosity; to cultivate positive emotions such as love and compassion

• Addictive or self-serving love versus mature love: “One of the great tragedies of our times is that our culture has confused love with addiction…Mature love is based more on sufficiency and wholeness than on deficiency and fear. But fear-based infatuation and craving for affection are so common and fill so much of the media that we sometimes assume this is all that love can be.”

• Wrong actions and negativity usually come from fear and insecurity

II. Exercises to reduce fear and angerExploring fear

•For now: Think of something you fear (mildly). – Note the sensations that you feel. Where is it located? Is the actual

sensation as bad as what you fear?– Does the fear go away when you concentrate on it?

•For later: Do what you fear“Do not fear anything except your sins.” – Imam ‘Ali (A)

Exploring anger•For now:

– Consider something you are angry with. Now consider your own mistakes.

– Think of people who are loving and kind. How does it affect your mood?•For later: give the person you are angry at a gift.“Who do you imagine to be strong or powerful? It is the one who masters himself/herself while angry.” – the Prophet (S)

The story of a woman whose two-year-old daughter fell and faced possible paralysis

II. Exercises to cultivate love and gratitude• For now:

– Recall two or three helpful people. How have they helped? How do you feel?– Recall two or three loving people. What qualifies make them kind and

loving?– Consider qualities of mind you would like to give others and thereby enjoy

yourself.

• For later: – Before eating, thank Allah and also all the people who participated in the

production of the food– For a fixed period of time (such as an hour or a day), try to think of a reason

to feel grateful to everyone you meet

“If you feel hatred toward someone, that hate boomerangs back and scorches your own mind. On the other hand, if you offer love to someone, that love first fills and heals your mind.”

III. Live ethically: feel good by doing good

• “[A wise person] is good to people who are good. She is also good to people who are not good. This is true goodness.” – Lao Tsu

• “Regard your neighbour’s gain as your gain, and your neighbour’s loss as your own loss.” - Taoism

III. The cost of unethical living• Unethical behaviour is self-perpetuating

because it not only springs from destructive states of mind but also strengthens them; what we do, we become

• “It’s hard to sit and meditate after a day of lying, cheating and hurting people.”

• What is ethical living?– “Actions are according to….” – the Prophet (S)– Speech and action– Ethics versus ritualism

Psychosomatic symptoms

III. Exercises in ethical livingFor now:1.Reflect on your good deeds2.Consider an act you are unhappy about and how to try to fix it. Commit to doing that in a specific time period.

For later:1.Tell the truth for a day (including avoiding lying by omission). If you lie or feel tempted to lie, notice the fear or attachment that triggered it, and what you learned from it. What did you gain from telling the truth?2.Give up gossip. Suggestion: only say about someone what you have said to them or what you would be willing to say to them.

IV. Concentrate and calm your mind

• Visualization exercise• Western psychology has concluded that

people cannot concentrate or control their minds; world religions emphasize this

• Concentration in prayer: should we focus on what happens during the prayer, or outside the prayer?

• Technological, lifestyle, and physiological aspects

IV. Exercises to develop concentrationFor now:

•Contemplative prayer (i.e. prayer that is not a request or a dialogue) and focus on the name of Allah.

– Allow whatever emotions are present to surface, painful or positive

For later:•For one day, commit to doing one thing at a time•“Transform daily activities into sacred rituals” (intention)•Transform interruptions (such as telephone calls) into wakeup calls

Exercise in contemplative prayer: Du‘a al-NurIn the name of Allah, the light,

In the name of Allah, the light, the light,In the name of Allah, the light over light,In the name of Allah, who is He who manages all affairs,In the name of Allah who created light from light.Praise be to Allah who created light from light, and sent down light on Mount Tur, in between the inscribed book, in the parchment unrolled, by a measure, well-determined, on the Prophet, the giver of glad tidings.Praise be to Allah; it is He who is remembered with the highest of the high attributes, who is known to be the most glorious.In joy and happiness, in sorrow and distress, He (alone) is thankfully praised.Blessings of Allah be on our master, Muhammad, and on his pure children.

ور الن نور الله بسم ور الن الله بسمالله  بسم نور على نور الله بسم

االمور ر مدب هو ذي المن  ور الن خلق ذي ال الله بسم

ور النمن  ور الن خلق ذي ال لله الحمد

في sالطور على ور الن انزل و ور الن . منشور رق في مسطور كتاب

محبور نبي على مقدوsر بقدرو  مذكور بالعز هو ذي ال لله الحمد

و اء ر الس على و مشهور بالفخرمشكور اء الضر

و  محمد دنا سي على الله صلى والطاهرين آله

Click black box for video (also available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpwf7jYIRss

)

Building a cathedral

Building a cathedral (continued)

V. Awaken your spiritual vision: see clearly and recognize the sacred in all

things• “Wherever you turn, there is the face of

God.”• “The past is history, the future is a mystery,

this moment is a gift, which is why it is called ‘the present’.”

• “Be always mindful of what you are doing and thinking. So that you may put the imprint of your immortality in every passing incident of your daily life.” – Thirteenth-century Sufi

V. Benefits of living mindfully• Interpersonal sensitivity• Giving up attachment to sensory

pleasures• Refining the senses to enhance

appreciation and pleasure, cut down on craving, and fostering concentration and calm

• Freedom from automaticity• Awareness of motivations and feelings

V. Exercises to promote mindfulness

For now: •Eating mindfully

– “Even the most mundane act can become an intimate experience of the Divine. This concept is manifestly more explicit in Jewish teachings regarding eating. It is taught that when a person eats, s/he should concentrate totally on the food and the experience of eating it, clearing the mind of all other thoughts. S/he should have in mind that the taste of the food is also an expression of the Divine in the food, and that by eating it, s/he is incorporating this spark of the Divine into his/her body. A person can also have in mind that s/he will dedicate the energy obtained from this food to God’s service.” – Jewish teaching

– “Chances are that you will recognize this is one of the few times in your life when you really tasted and enjoyed a meal.”

•Being open to the sacred in nature

V. Exercises to promote mindfulness

For later (or for now!): become a good listener and fully focus on the person who is speaking.•“When the Prophet (S) shook hands with someone, he would never withdraw his hand until the other person withdrew his hand first and when he was occupied with someone in fulfilling his needs or conversing with him, he would never leave until the person himself left first. When someone was talking with him he (S) would not become silent until he became silent, and he was never seen stretching his leg forward in front of the person sitting with him. He did not choose between two options except that which was the more difficult of the two.” – Imam ‘Ali (A)•“It is from the sunnah, when speaking to a group of people, that you do not face one person from the gathering, rather look at all of them in turn.”

VI. Cultivate spiritual intelligence: develop wisdom and understand life

• “And whoever has been given wisdom has been given a great good.”

• “Wisdom is the lost property of the believer.” – Imam ‘Ali (A)

• “Knowledge of the self is knowledge of the Lord.”

• What wisdom is not: – Intelligence, knowledge, dramatic experiences, or

personal power• Two aspects of wisdom:

– Vision and understanding

VI. Exercises to cultivate wisdom• The wisdom of ignorance – reflect on

what you do not know• Reflect on death• Spiritual reading• Enjoy the company of the wise: Make a

list of those people you know personally who are wise or who want to learn to become wise

• Reflect on your philosophy of life• Corrective visualization

VII. Exercises to cultivate generosity

Reflections for now:•Find out how you would like to help•MotivationFor later:•Turn work into service•Change pain into compassion•Giving anonymously