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#2219 -
I received three books from Fons
Vitae publishers -- http://www.fonsvitae.com/MG1.html --
and they're quite new and interesting. Nothing like them has ever
appeared in The Highlights.
One title is "Alone With the
Alone In the Name." What a cool title.
Another is "The Sacred Origin
of Sports and Culture." I haven't read the whole
thing, but there are some good portions.
The third one is "Me &
Rumi: The Autobiography of Sham-i Tabrizi." I
mentioned this book in an earlier Highlights. Shams was Rumi's
raucous sidekick. This is a 400 page book I really haven't
even started reading. If I had a sidekick I'd have him
read it. And he would ride in the sidecar of my motorcycle. And
he'd ask girls out for me.
So, enjoy. And visit Fons Vitae if you want
to find out more or order their books. I ordered my books right
off their website and the service was excellent.
--Jerry
Excerpt from "Alone With the
Alone In the Name," by Jean-Marie Tresflin
"Just as the eagle has only
the very pure space
in which to spread its wings;
thy spirit has only
the very pure Name
in which to spread its Self."
~ ~ ~
"Faith is difficult?
Nothing however
is more simple.
Thou believest
only in that
which God believes;
thy faith,
it is the Name,
it is God Himself."
~ ~ ~
"Thy salvation is entirely
in My Name;
on no account
allow it go out from It
into the mind and imagination,
so handing it over
to a thousand and one traps
of the devouring incertitude.
Thy salvation depends only
on the Name,
on Me;
NEVER add
anything else!"
Excerpt from The Sacred Origin of
Sports and Culture, by Ghazi bin Muhammed
One must also mention -- for its sheer
inanity -- the industry of "sports statistics," whereby
people ceaselessly calculate and computerize all manner of
trivial and almost bizarre information comparing the performances
of various athletes in various sports, and feed it to the public
via newspapers, television, books, computers, radio, news
programs, and magazines, encouraging the public to think about
them, memorize them, and talk about them. Aside from the fact
that one wonders how an adult human being could be truly
interested in such desparately meaningless statistics, it has to
be said that a frame of mind that can so thoroughly and almost
obliviously reduce activities which are by nature so
unequivocally qualitative to endless quantifications, is clearly
deficient in its scope and its imagination. Indeed, this
phenomenon has gone beyond merely being the symptom of a greater
moral decay in sports, to the point of being an autonomous
affliction in its own right. For there are people in the modern
world whose passion and hobby it is to memorize sports and
statistics and whose pride and joy it is to engage in mental
tussles surrounding such trivia, to the point where some of the
most successful television programs in the world are quiz shows
where the knowledge of such information is tested! Such people
regard it as a positive virtue to know who hit the most
"home runs" in 1987 or who "rushed the most
yards" in 1978 and even regard those unconcerned with this
kind of information as ignorant or conceited, as if this attitude
were itself not the clearest possible proof of true ignorance and
conceit as regards the real meaning of sports!
Excerpt from Me & Rumi: The
Autobiography of Shams-i Tabrizi, Translated, Introduced and
Annotated by William C. Chittick
Now there's no doubt that in the world
there's an intended one, a sought one. There is someone for the
sake of whom this tent has been raised up. The rest are his
subordinates and servants. The building is for him -- he's not
for the building.
For example, someone has a dear guest. for
his sake he builds a lodging. He's in one residence, and he sets
up this building for him.
There are those who are intent on reaching
the intended one. Not every one of those intent on him are given
the way to him, only the one whom he wants. The one who has the
intention will never reach him on his own -- only if the intended
one shows himself to him. The one who has the intention has
trampled the world underfoot and tossed it behind his back. He
has tossed knowledge behind and thrown away worlds subtler than
that, because he is prepared, he is thirsty for him. When he
starts presenting himself to him, he will not be let go.
This knowledge cannot be gained by struggle.
Were someone to exert the struggle of heaven and earth for this
knowledge, he would become more abandoned and disgraced. Unless
it happens that he undertakes servanthood and struggle in the
world of God -- but, his intention will not be gained by this
purpose.
Now, what if I were to say I'm the sought
one and Mawlana has remained far from me? What marvelous felicity
he has now that he has found and reached me! And the contrary
would be the contrary.
~ ~ ~
Let's go for a time to the tavern and see
those poor wretches. It's God who has created those women,
whether they're good or bad. Let's look in upon them. Let's go
to the church too, and look in upon them.
No one has the capacity for my work. It
would not be fitting for anyone to imitate me in what I do.
They're right when they say that people like these should not be
followed.