I made an in-depth comment on Bernardo’s Facebook page under the post he made of the above mentioned youtube discussion, and Bernardo quickly deleted my comment and blocked me from his page completely… And so he is as I have always hoped and wished he wasn’t, merely another patriarch busily climbing the intertwined and presently very loudly creaking ladders of western empire…

And so now my comment is here, exactamente as it was there…

Bernardo Kastrup

This ALL continues to be words, separation identities (aka ego) and concepts, still grasping upon delusional beliefs that they are active and most importantly "evolving" separate things, in and of themselves...

In other words just another of the countless efforts thriving in the academic and scholarly circles you hang around in, to become ever more distinct as separate entities...

Or in other words an effort to somehow prove all of you "exist" ever more firmly within your mutually reinforcing and spinning (rather than spiraling), imaginings regarding a "something" that clearly has at least some effects upon all these concepts of yours...

And yet as always a something you can neither freely move within nor encompass while you remain in the belief you are primarily these seeming "other" separate-from-each-other "things" called body-minds...

A "something" which your projections, reactions, conceptualizations and unique subjective experiences are agreeing to call "time"... With "forever" now become merely more time than you can imagine, measure, conceptualize or agree upon...

All this pretense of words, mathematical equations and arbitrary "measurements" of concepts, inventions and contraptions with other concepts, inventions and contraptions... All of which always and forever leads to merely more blah blah concepts, inventions and contraptions...

A collection of interchanging actors and audiences who are seemingly, for as long as you keep believing you exist as separate entities, joined in your common delusional quest to make whole what has never nor ever could be apart... All the while as you continually and forever "figure out" all the many ways you can that you are "not really" separate...

Even to a point of giving what you are calling in the conversation "now" (which in certain non-dual teachings is a pointing to what is prior to all time, language and dimensions) an actual measurement or number...

An onward and continual effort to capture and contain what cannot be captured and contained because, simply and most ordinarily of all, it is already what we have always and never not been...

What an incredible hubris it all continues to be...

---

What is THIS, when ALL that CEASES, knowing and knower NOW, never was apart, One whole spiraling dance in, of and as itself, suddenly and FULLY realizing, IT is so...?

Just, simply and ordinarily,

SO...

🙏🌻💕

P.S...

I'm only and always trying to nudge you Bernardo, not tear you down... Do you and your amazing mind really want to be a part of the healing of all this insanity that is now literally and very practically destroying our actual whole world, or do you merely want to be a more important and prominent "part" of the insanity, as it continues to destroy itself and pretty nearly all of life and creation as we know it...?

I feel sorta like a bee trying to nudge a bear up the mountain when I am addressing you... 🙃

My words from an exchange I had with a friend about this, as a postscript… Edited…

Bernardo is just using the ideas of non-duality and consciousness-first, and also using people seriously efforting in these ways, to give him some validation in exchange for him giving them some validation, all in order to, as I have always hoped and wished he wasn’t, to further his own efforts as merely another patriarch busily climbing the intertwined and presently very loudly creaking ladders of western empire…

He is a perfect example of the way western patriarchal empire has always absorbed any questioning of its very existence back into itself, making the question itself merely now another part of the buttresses of the same old western patriarchal empire… Bernardo is changing nothing real in that extremely encrusted establishment…

Otherwise he would welcome the kind of questioning I and others similar attempt to bring into the realms he is maneuvering within… Instead he is just another male defending and repelling other mere “males” and similar actors from his domains, as he sees them… Notice that he is seldom if ever (I remember none) in a dialog with new women thinkers…

And so for me he is NOT a fellow human on a shared human journey… Instead just another no different - just merely appearing and acting as a more “enlightened” version of the same - as always it has been in western patriarchal empire… For him as all of them who a part of establishments and empire it is all a win-loose, zero sum reality… They are just as much why wars happen as politicians and capitalists are…

Bernardo has now thoroughly bought into the rewards of empire… I’ve seen it coming for a long time, and have kept trying to believe otherwise…

🙏🌻

I want to share out here in the open something I wrote in a comment to someone on their FB page who, somehow in the midst of my own wild, extremely radical and by some opinions outrageous life, still remains a family connection...
---

YES, you have a right to your opinions... AND, the way you talk (and vote) also influences others around you, perhaps even other people who also haven't yet found the freedom (or interest) to form their own examined, researched and considered opinions...

The point is to NOT to be calling or voting for laws or lawmakers who only want to literally FORCE "your" opinions (which happen to coincide with "some" of their opinions) onto others, via laws that ONLY "respect" your opinions, and/or the "opinions" of the so-called lawmakers...

THAT is what the racist and rightwing christian nationalist and so-called MAGA lawmakers are doing in Louisiana, and in a lot of other regressive so-called "red" states as well...

Including passing laws that take away women's autonomy over their own bodies and lives, and laws against teaching in our schools a lot of things that people NEED to become able to know and understand in order to form well and accurately informed opinions and beliefs... Repeat, ACCURATELY informed opinions and beliefs...

When you only listen to mainstream media, no matter whether you think it is "left" or 'right," your opinions are only going to be in-formed by what the owners and determiners of mainstream media WANT you to to believe, or in other words, what THEY want YOUR opinions to be...

You are not seriously, as far as I can tell or see, and with mainstream TV probably running in your house near 24/7 (figuratively speaking), if it is still how I remember it, looking for anything other than what that same ruling class media has been feeding you for literally decades now, and more and more on steroids so to speak (aka in spades) since as you say the 1970s... In fact...

And it is the ruling class owners of all of that, and their oligarch associates in all of the myriad other OWNED institutions, corporations, and yes owned lawmaking and law-enforcing and military bodies across the land and around the globe, who are the actual primary causes and enforcers of all the actual disruption you are concerned about since the 1970s... The same owners and their scientists who literally KNEW in the 1970s(!) that burning fossil fuels would bring about disastrous climate change, FOR INSTANCE, and yet kept it from you and everyone in the mainstream until just recently, in the scale of things... And STILL attempt to deny it... Repeat, for instance... All so that they could and can continue to gain profit and power...

But you gotta want to step out of that closet they have put you into, no one can open the door but you, because it is only there blocking you from seeing beyond all the obscuring paintings on the closet wall because you still want to believe all of that...

It is your own beliefs, in other words, that they have closeted you in with, beliefs they control via the mainstream media you are conditioned to not ever look beyond...

It is comfortable in that closet in other words, and really scary and confusing to consider all the paintings on the wall may not be real after all...

And that is what the ones who are destroying our communities and our cultures and our planet, for more and more mere power and profit, count on, that it is too scary and confusing to you and all the many others who keep believing what they tell you...

Do understand, the oligarchs and rulers and owners own and control both Biden and Trump, and every other politician who needs multiple millions of dollars to get elected and stay in office...

But that door out of the closet ONLY opens from the side you are on...

And it opens simply by you being willing to learn from directions and from sources that the mainstream media and their owners do not want you to even know exist...

The world has been changing rapidly since the 1970s, including that there are now way over twice the humans on our planet than there was then... Repeat, waaaay over twice... All the ways we lived on this planet and in our local bioregions then do not even slightly work now...

But the rulers and owners want to stay in power and keep owning and controlling and "profiting," and so they do not want things to change in ANY of the REAL ways they NEED to change now...

There are approaching three thousand billionaires in the world now... In 1970 there were about a dozen... One billion equals one thousand millions... And some individual people now have hundreds of billions...

The world needs to rapidly and radically change, or it is going to be LITERALLY destroyed by greed and power egos and human hubris... If you care about your kids and grandkids then you need to be willing to get on the right side of some of this and learn for yourself how to nudge things in some good directions...

From there, where you are, not from where I am at... Learn from there, looking in some new ways, and not here where my words are now coming from... Therein lies your true freedom, and the possibilities of some true freedom for your kids and grandkids... By actual example...

While there's still time...

🙂🙏🌻

Excerpt:

"𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐡 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐚 (𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐡 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝. . . 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐩 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬).

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚, 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐲 “𝐘𝐞𝐬” 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬.

𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐞.

𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡, 𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞. 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐚’𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞.

𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐞.

𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡, 𝐧𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞. 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐚’𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞."

~
In full:

Gaza is far from its relatives and close to its enemies, because whenever Gaza explodes, it becomes an island and it never stops exploding. It scratched the enemy’s face, broke his dreams and stopped his satisfaction with time.

Because in Gaza time is something different.

Because in Gaza time is not a neutral element.

It does not compel people to cool contemplation, but rather to explosion and a collision with reality.

Time there does not take children from childhood to old age, but rather makes them men in their first confrontation with the enemy.

Time in Gaza is not relaxation, but storming the burning noon. Because in Gaza values are different, different, different.

The only value for the occupied is the extent of his resistance to occupation. That is the only competition there. Gaza has been addicted to knowing this cruel, noble value. It did not learn it from books, hasty school seminars, loud propaganda megaphones, or songs. It learned it through experience alone and through work that is not done for advertisement and image.

Gaza has no throat. Its pores are the ones that speak in sweat, blood, and fires. Hence the enemy hates it to death and fears it to criminality, and tries to sink it into the sea, the desert, or blood. And hence its relatives and friends love it with a coyness that amounts to jealousy and fear at times, because Gaza is the brutal lesson and the shining example for enemies and friends alike.

Gaza is not the most beautiful city.

Its shore is not bluer than the shores of Arab cities.

Its oranges are not the most beautiful in the Mediterranean basin.

Gaza is not the richest city.

It is not the most elegant or the biggest, but it equals the history of an entire homeland, because it is more ugly, impoverished, miserable, and vicious in the eyes of enemies. Because it is the most capable, among us, of disturbing the enemy’s mood and his comfort. Because it is his nightmare. Because it is mined oranges, children without a childhood, old men without old age and women without desires. Because of all this it is the most beautiful, the purest and richest among us and the one most worthy of love.

We do injustice to Gaza when we look for its poems, so let us not disfigure Gaza’s beauty. What is most beautiful in it is that it is devoid of poetry at a time when we tried to triumph over the enemy with poems, so we believed ourselves and were overjoyed to see the enemy letting us sing. We let him triumph, then when we dried our lips of poems we saw that the enemy had finished building cities, forts and streets. We do injustice to Gaza when we turn it into a myth, because we will hate it when we discover that it is no more than a small poor city that resists.

We do injustice when we wonder: What made it into a myth? If we had dignity, we would break all our mirrors and cry or curse it if we refuse to revolt against ourselves. We do injustice to Gaza if we glorify it, because being enchanted by it will take us to the edge of waiting and Gaza doesn’t come to us. Gaza does not liberate us. Gaza has no horses, airplanes, magic wands, or offices in capital cities. Gaza liberates itself from our attributes and liberates our language from its Gazas at the same time. When we meet it - in a dream - perhaps it won’t recognize us, because Gaza was born out of fire, while we were born out of waiting and crying over abandoned homes.

It is true that Gaza has its special circumstances and its own revolutionary traditions. But its secret is not a mystery: Its resistance is popular and firmly joined together and knows what it wants (it wants to expel the enemy out of its clothes). The relationship of resistance to the people is that of skin to bones and not a teacher to students. Resistance in Gaza did not turn into a profession or an institution.

It did not accept anyone’s tutelage and did not leave its fate hinging on anyone’s signature or stamp.

It does not care that much if we know its name, picture, or eloquence. It did not believe that it was material for media. It did not prepare for cameras and did not put smiling paste on its face.

Neither does it want that, nor we.

Hence, Gaza is bad business for merchants and hence it is an incomparable moral treasure for Arabs.

What is beautiful about Gaza is that our voices do not reach it. Nothing distracts it; nothing takes its fist away from the enemy’s face. Not the forms of the Palestinian state we will establish whether on the eastern side of the moon, or the western side of Mars when it is explored. Gaza is devoted to rejection. . . hunger and rejection, thirst and rejection, displacement and rejection, torture and rejection, siege and rejection, death and rejection.

Enemies might triumph over Gaza (the storming sea might triumph over an island. . . they might chop down all its trees).

They might break its bones.

They might implant tanks on the insides of its children and women. They might throw it into the sea, sand, or blood.

But it will not repeat lies and say “Yes” to invaders.

It will continue to explode.

It is neither death, nor suicide. It is Gaza’s way of declaring that it deserves to live.

It will continue to explode.

It is neither death, nor suicide. It is Gaza’s way of declaring that it deserves to live.

Mahmoud Darwish
1973

In the Name of Goddess, the Compassionate, the Merciful . . .

Praise belongs to Goddess, before whose oneness there is no before unless the before is She, and after whose singleness there is no after unless the after is She. She is, and there is not with Her any before or after, above or below, closeness or distance, how or where or when, time or moment or duration, manifested existence or place.

And She is now as She has always been. She is the One without oneness and the single without singleness. She is not composed of name and named, for Her name is Her and Her named is Her and there is no name or named other than Her. She is the first without firstness and the last without lastness.

Goddess is the apparent without appearance and the hidden without hiddenness. She is the very existence of the letters of the names, the first and the last, the apparent and the hidden. There is no first or last, apparent or hidden except Her, without the letters which form these divine names becoming Her and without Her becoming these letters.

Understand this so you do not make the mistake of those who believe in incarnation. Goddess is not in anything and no thing is in Her, whether entering into Her or coming out of Her. It is in this way that you should know Her and not through theoretical knowledge, reason, understanding or conjecture, nor with the senses, the external eye or interior sight or perception.

No one sees Her except Herself, no one reaches Her except Herself and no one knows Her except Herself. She knows Herself through Herself and She sees Herself by means of Herself. No one but She sees Her. Her veil is Her oneness since nothing veils Her other than Her. Her own being veils Her. Her being is concealed by Her oneness without any condition.

No one other than She sees Her. No sent prophet, perfect saint or angel brought close knows Her. Her prophet is She, Her messengers She, Her message is She and Her word is She. She sent Herself from Herself, through Herself to Herself. There is no intermediary or means other than Her. There is no difference between the sender, that which is sent and the one to whom it is sent. The very existence of the prophetic message is Her existence.

There is no existence to any other who could pass away, or have a name or be named. Because of this, the Prophet, Goddess bless Her and give Her peace, said, whoever knows their self, knows their Lord. She also said, I knew my Lord through my Lord. What the Prophet pointed out by that is that you are not you but you are Her and there is no you. It is not that She enters into you or that you enter into Her, or that She comes out of you or that you come out of Her. It does not mean that you have being and you are qualified by this or that attribute.

What is meant is that you never were and never will be, whether through yourself or through Her or in Her or with Her. You have neither ceased to be nor are you existent. You are Her and She is you, without any of these imperfections. If you know your existence in this way, then you know Goddess, and if not, then not.

Most of those who claim to know Goddess make the knowledge of Goddess dependent on the passing away of existence and on the passing away of that passing away. That is clearly an error and misconception. The knowledge of Goddess does not require the passing away of existence or the passing away of that passing away because things have no existence and what does not exist cannot pass away. Passing away implies the prior existence of something that passes away. If you know yourself without existing and passing away, then you know Goddess, and if not, then not.

By making the knowledge of Goddess dependent on the passing away of your existence and the passing away of that passing away, there is an affirmation of something other than Goddess. The Prophet said, Whoever knows their self, knows their Lord. She did not say, Whoever annihilates their self, knows their Lord. Your being is nothing and whatever is nothing cannot be placed in relationship to anything else, whether capable of passing away or not, whether existent or nonexistent.

The Prophet pointed to the fact that you are nonexistent now as you were nonexistent before creation, because now is eternity-without-beginning and now is eternity-without-end and now is timelessness. Goddess is the very being of eternity-without-beginning, eternity-without-end and timelessness even though in reality there is no eternity-without-beginning, eternity-with-out-end or timelessness. If it were otherwise, She would not be alone, without any associate.

However, it is necessary for Her to be one without any associate because any associate would exist through itself, and not through the being of Goddess. Then that associate would not need Goddess and would therefore be a second Lord, which is impossible. Goddess has no associate, equal or like. Whoever sees anything with Goddess, whether coming out of Her or within Her, or dependent on Her by virtue of Her lordship, has also made that thing an associate even if that associate depends on Her by virtue of Her lordship.

Whoever allows that there could be anything with Goddess, whether subsisting by itself or through Her, whether in a state of having passed away or the passing away of passing away, is far from breathing the scent of self-knowledge. Whoever accepts that there could be any being other than Her, yet subsisting through Her and in Her, then passing away in successive stages of passing away, and the passing away of passing, is a polytheist (one who believes in many Goddesses) and knows neither Goddess nor their self.

The knowledge of the self and knowledge of Goddess consists in being aware that Goddess is, and nothing is with Her, and She is now as She has always been. Ask of Goddess to show you things as they are, to show you what is other than Her as Herself, without the existence of what is other than Her. In this way you may know all things as the essence of Goddess, who is exalted, without how or where. The word “things” applies to the separate self and to other things, because the existence of the separate self and the existence of things are equal in terms of being “things.”

When you truly know the things, you know yourself and when you know yourself, you know the Lord. What you think is other than Goddess is not other than Goddess but you do not know it. You see Her and you do not know that you see Her. When this secret is revealed to you, you will know that you are not other than Goddess and that you yourself are the object of your quest. You do not need to get rid of your self. You have not ceased nor will you cease to exist, without time and without moments. You will see Goddess’s attributes as your attributes, your exterior as Her exterior, your interior as Her interior, your first as Her first and your last as Her last, without any doubt or uncertainty.

You will see your attributes to be Her attributes and your essence to be Her essence, without you becoming Her and without Her becoming you in the least degree. Nothing exists except Her face, both outwardly and inwardly. Nothing other than Her has ever had being, and there is nothing that needs to pass away so that Her face remains. There is nothing except Her face.

It is as if a person does not know something, then comes to know it. Their existence does not disappear, but their ignorance disappears. Their existence remains as it was, without being exchanged for another, and without the existence of the ignorant person being added to or mixed with the knowing person: ignorance simply disappears.

Do not think therefore that you need to pass away, because if it were necessary to pass away, that would mean that you are Her veil. She would therefore be veiled by something other than Herself. This would require something other than Her having power over Her, preventing Her from being seen. That is an error and misconception. As we have already said, Her veil is nothing other than Her Oneness, Her singularity.

That is why the person who has reached the essential truth is allowed to say, I am the Truth, or Glory to me. No one has truly reached Goddess unless they see their attributes to be the attributes of Goddess and their essence to be the essence of Goddess, without their essence or their attributes ever entering into Goddess or coming out of Her, and without their passing away in relation to Goddess, or remaining in Goddess. They see that their self has never been their own, not that it was and then it passed away.

This is because there is no self except Her self, and there is no being except Her being. This is what the Prophet was alluding to when She said, Do not curse time, because Goddess is time and distance and closeness, and Goddess, who is blessed and exalted, is unblemished by any associate or equal or like. it is also reported that the Prophet said The high Goddess says, “O child of Adam, I was sick and you did not visit Me, I was hungry and you did not feed Me, I asked of you and you did not give to Me…”

The being of everyone who asks is Her being. When that is accepted, it is also accepted that your being is Her being, and the being of all created things is Her being. When the secret of the smallest is discovered, the secret of all created things is made clear, whether apparent or hidden. When that is truly accepted you will not see the two worlds as other than Goddess, without the two worlds and their names and what they name existing – or rather, their names and what they name and their existence are Her, without any doubt.

Do not see Goddess as having ever created anything but rather as being in every moment a different configuration that sometimes seems to reveal Her and sometimes seems to conceal Her, without any conditions, because She is the first and the last, the apparent and the hidden and She IS knowledge of everything. She manifests Herself in Her oneness and hides Herself in Her singularity. She is the first in Her essence and in Her Self-subsistence and the last in Her everlastingness. She is the very being of the name of the first and the name of the last, of the name of the apparent and the name of the hidden. She is Her own Name and what is named.

Just as Goddess’s existence is necessary, the nonexistence of what is other than Her is necessary. What you think is other than Her is not other than Her. She is free from there being any other than Her. Indeed, other than Her is Her without any otherness, whether believed to be with Her or in Her, inwardly or outwardly. Whoever is qualified in this way has innumerable attributes, without limit or end.

Just as the person whose physical form passes away is deprived of all their attributes whether praiseworthy or blameworthy, so the person who dies a mystical death has all their attributes, whether praiseworthy or blameworthy, taken away from them and Goddess comes into their place in all their expressions and states. The essence of Goddess comes into the place of their essence and the attributes of Goddess come into the place of their attributes.

Because of this, the Prophet said, Die before you die, that is, Know yourself before you die. She also said, Goddess says, “My servant continues to approach Me with free acts until I love Her. And when l love Her, I am Her hearing, Her sight, Her hand. . .” This refers to the fact that whoever knows their self sees their whole being as the very being of Goddess, without any change in their essence or attributes.

Goddess takes the last step upon a journey that never happened. There is no need for any change since a person was not the existence of their own essence but instead was simply ignorant of the knowledge of their self. When you know yourself, egoism disappears and your knowing is that you are no other than Goddess. If you had an independent existence, you would have no need of passing away or of self knowledge. You would instead be a lord apart from Her, but there is no lord apart from Goddess, who is blessed and exalted.

The benefit of the knowledge of the self is to know for certain that you are neither existent nor nonexistent, that you are not, never have been and never will be. In this way, the meaning of There is no Goddess but Goddess becomes clear: there is no divinity other than Her, being belongs to none but Her, there is no other except Her, there is no Goddess but She. She has never stopped being both ruler and ruled, just as She has never stopped being both creator and what is created, and She is now as She has always been. Her creativity and Her lordship do not need what is created or is subject to Her.

When She brought creation and creatures into existence, She was already endowed with all Her attributes, and She is now as She has always been. Her oneness is the same whether it is seen as the new or the eternal. The new requires Her manifestation and the eternal requires Her remaining hidden. Her exterior is identical to Her interior and Her interior is identical to Her exterior; Her first is the same as Her last and Her last is the same as Her first, the all is one and the one is all.

He is described as every day in a different configuration when there is always nothing other than Her. And She is now as She has always been, since in reality what is other than Her has no being. Just as in eternity-without-beginning and timelessness, She was every day in a different configuration when no thing existed, so She is now as She has always been, although there is no thing or day, just as there has been from all eternity no thing or day. The existence of the creatures and their nonexistence are the same.

If it were not so, it would require the origination of something which was not already in Her oneness. That would imply imperfection and Her oneness is far more exalted than that. When you know yourself in this way, without attributing any opposite, like, equal or associate to Goddess, then you really know yourself. That is why the Prophet said, Whoever knows their self knows their Lord and not Whoever gets rid of their self knows their Lord, because She knew and saw that there is nothing other than Her. Then She pointed out that the knowledge of the self is the knowledge of Goddess.

In other words, to Know yourself is to Know your being, because you are not you but you do not know it. That is, know that your being is neither your being nor other than your being. You are neither existent nor nonexistent, nor other than existent nor other than nonexistent. Your being and your non-being are Her being, without any being or absence of being, because your being and your non-being are the same as Her being and Her being is the same as your being and non-being.

So if you see things without seeing anything else with Goddess or in Goddess, but see things as Her, then you know yourself and such a knowledge of the self is knowledge of Goddess, without doubt or uncertainty and without mixing anything temporal with the eternal, whether in Her or through Her.

If someone asks you: What is the way to union when you assert that there is no other than Her, yet one thing cannot be united to itself; this is the reply: There is no doubt that in reality there is neither union nor separation, distance or closeness, since union is only possible between two things and if there is only one there can be neither union nor separation. Union requires two things which are either similar – in which case they are equal, or dissimilar – in which case they are opposites. However, She is exalted far above having any opposite or equal. Therefore union lies in something other than union, closeness in something other than closeness and distance in something other than distance. There is union without union, closeness without closeness and distance without distance.

If someone asks: We understand union without union, but what does closeness without closeness and distance without distance mean; the reply is: In those times of closeness and distance you were not anything other than Goddess, but you did not know yourself and you were not aware that you were always Her, without “you.” When you reach Goddess, that is, when you know yourself in a way that is beyond all conditions, you know that you are Her, and you know that you did not know before whether you were Her or other than Her. When knowledge comes upon you, you know that it is through Goddess that you know Goddess, not through yourself.

Suppose, for example, that you do not know that your name is Mary, or that what your name designates is Mary (name and named are the same), and that you think that your name is Jane. If you then learn that you are really Mary, you do not stop being who you were. The name Jane is simply taken away from you because you have come to know you are Mary and you were only Jane by believing you were other than Mary.

Ceasing to be presupposes the affirmation of the existence of what is other than Goddess, and whoever affirms the existence of what is other than Her has attributed (projected) the existence of something other than Her. Nothing has been taken away from Mary: Jane did not pass away into Mary and Mary did not enter into Jane or come out of her, nor did Mary ever become incarnated in or as Jane. When Mary knew (realized) herself, that she was Mary and not Jane, she knew herself through herself and not through Jane.

Because Jane never was, how could anything be known through her? Therefore the knower and the known, the one who arrives and what She arrives at, and the seer and the seen are one. “The knower” is Her attribute and “the known” is Her essence, and “the one who arrives” is Her attribute and “what She arrives at” is Her essence. In actuality, the attribute and that to which it is attributed are one. That is the explanation of the saying, Whoever knows their self, knows their Lord.

Whoever understands this example knows that there is no union or separation. The knower is She and the known is She, the one who sees is She and what is seen is She, the one who arrives is She and what She arrives at is She. No other than She reaches union, no other than She separates from Her. Whoever understands this is free of polytheism, and whoever has not understood this has not breathed the scent of this freedom from polytheism. Most of “those who know,” who think that they know themselves and their Lord and think that they are free of the bonds of existence, declare that the way can only be travelled by passing away, then by the passing away of passing away.

That is because they do not understand the saying of the Prophet and, believing themselves to be free of polytheism, they allude sometimes to the negation of existence, that is, to the passing away of existence, sometimes to the passing away of passing away, and sometimes to extinction or annihilation. All these expressions are unadulterated polytheism because whoever accepts that there could be anything other than Her that is subsequently capable of passing away, then of passing away from passing away, affirms that there is something other than Her, and whoever affirms this is a polytheist. May Goddess guide them and us to the right path.

You thought you were you, but you are not you and never were. For if you were you, you would be a lord and the second of two. Stop what you were thinking. Between Her being and your being there is no difference. She is no different from you nor you from Her.

If you say in ignorance you are other, then you are stubborn, so that when seeming ignorance disappears you become submissive. This sort of union is more separation, separation that “becomes” union, distance that “becomes” closeness, and through such as that you believe you become suitable. Instead of all that, abandon the intellect and understand by the light of unveiling, which is the undoing of what never was, so that what you are still safeguarding does not escape you. Do not debase yourself by associating any other with Goddess, for associating other with Goddess is debasing.

Whoever truly knows their self knows that their being is not their being, nor other than their being. Rather they know they are the very being of Goddess, without their being becoming the being of Goddess or entering into Goddess or coming out of Her, and without their being existing along with Her or in Her. They see their being as it was before coming into being, without the need for passing away, effacement, or the passing away of passing away.

For the passing away of something implies that it was previously existent and that in turn implies that it exists by itself and not by the power of Goddess, which is clearly impossible. It is evident that the knowledge that the knower has of their self is the knowledge that Goddess has of Herself, because their self is no other than She. By this “self,” the Prophet meant “being.”

The being of the one who reaches this spiritual level is no longer their being whether inwardly or outwardly, but rather it is the very being of Goddess. Their speech is Her speech, their actions are Her actions, and their claim to the knowledge of Goddess is the knowledge Goddess has of Herself through Herself. Because of ignorance someone may hear this claim as though coming from a person, or see such a one’s actions as though coming from a person, and so see them as other than Goddess. But this is only because they are seeing themselves as other than Goddess.

The faithful ones are the mirror of the Faithful One. She is She in Her eye, for Her sight is Goddess’s sight without any conditions, though She may not be She through your eye or your knowledge, understanding, imagination, thought or vision. Yet She is She in Her eye, Her knowledge and Her vision. If it is this way, then if She says I am Goddess, listen to Her, because it is Goddess who is saying I am Goddess, not Her.

You have not reached the point She has reached, since if you had arrived here, you would understand what She says, you would say what She says and you would see what She sees. To summarize, the existence of things is Her existence, without them existing. But do not fall into confusion and do not let these allusions lead you to imagine that Goddess is created.

One of those who knows has said, The Sufi is uncreated. It is like that after the complete unveiling and dissipation of doubts and conjecturing. But this spiritual nourishment is only for the person whose nature is larger than the two worlds. As for the person whose nature is only as large as the two worlds, it is not suitable for them, for this nourishment is greater than the two worlds.

First, you must know that the seer and the seen, the one who finds and what is found, the knower and the known, the creator and the created, the perceiver and the perceived, are one. She sees, knows and perceives Her being by means of Her being, beyond any manner of sight, knowledge or perception, and without the existence of any of the forms of sight, knowledge or perception. Just as Her being is beyond all condition, so the vision, knowledge and perception which She has of Herself are without condition.

If someone asks: How do you view all the repulsive and desirable things? For example, when we see dung or carrion, do we say it is Goddess; the reply is: Our conversation is with those who do not see dung as dung, carrion as carrion, or desirable things as desirable things. We are only speaking with those who are endowed with inner vision and not with those who are inwardly blind. Anyone who does not know their self is blind and does not see. Until their blindness and lack of vision disappears, they will not grasp these meanings. Our conversation is with Goddess, not with other than Goddess and not with the inwardly blind.

Whoever reaches this spiritual station knows that they are no other than Goddess. We are speaking with those who have determination and energy in seeking knowledge of their self in order to know Goddess, and who keep fresh in their heart the image of their seeking and longing for union with Goddess, and not with those without aim or intention.

If someone objects: Goddess has declared that Eyes do not perceive Her but She perceives the eyes. Goddess is the subtle and well informed one and you are maintaining the contrary, so what you are saying is not true. Then the response is: Everything that we are saying is the very meaning of Goddess’s words, Eyes do not perceive Her, but She perceives the eyes, that is, there is no one else in existence, so there is no other that has sight which can perceive Her.

If it were conceivable that there were someone other than Her, then it would follow that this other could perceive Her. But Goddess has informed us in Her saying Eyes do not perceive Her that there is no other except Her. This means that no other than She perceives Her, that is, She who perceives Her is Herself. There is no other than She. She is the one who perceives Her essence, not another. Eyes do not perceive Her because there is nothing but Her being.

Whoever maintains that eyes do not perceive Her because eyes are transient and what is transient cannot grasp what is eternal and everlasting still does not know their self. For there is nothing other, neither transient nor not-transient, and there are no eyes which are not Her. She perceives Her own being without the existence of perception, without condition and without other.

I know the Lord through the Lord
without doubt or uncertainty.
My essence is really Her essence
without lack or imperfection.
There is no otherness between Us
and my self is the place where
the invisible appears.
Since I know myself
without mixture or blemish,
I have reached union with my beloved
without distance or closeness.
I have received a gift overflowing
without any giving or intermingling.
My self did not vanish in Her
nor does the one who vanished remain.

If someone asks: You affirm Goddess and you deny the existence of everything else, so what are these things that you see; the answer is this: These words are for those who see nothing other than Goddess. We have no discussion with those who do see something other than Goddess, for they only see what they see. Whoever knows their self sees nothing except Goddess, but whoever does not know their self, does not see Goddess. Each receptacle only exudes what is in it.

We have already explained a great deal and if we explained more, whoever does not see will still not see, understand or comprehend; but whoever does see, sees, understands and comprehends already. A hint is enough for the one who has reached union. As for the person who has not reached union, they will not arrive by theoretical teaching, instruction, repetition, reason or learning, but only by putting themselves in the service of an eminent master who has arrived and so is a wise teacher. Guided by light upon the spiritual path, and progressing through the means of their own spiritual will, they will reach in this way what they are seeking, as Goddess wills.

May Goddess grant us completion in what She loves and in what satisfies Her in word and deed, knowledge and practice, light and guidance. She is the power of everything and will respond to every true request. There is no power or ability except in Goddess, the sublime, the magnificent.

Peace and blessings on the Prophet, Her family and friends.

Awhad al-din Balyani
13th century Sufi from Persia
(Rendered from a translation by Cecilia Twinch)

Prologue

I spent a whole complete year as the primary administrator of “The UNOFFICIAL Heather Cox Richardson Resource and Discussion Room,” on Facebook…  When I took the private group over, via the invitation and request of its previous active administrator, the group was static, no longer inspired and dying…  By the time this group was pirated, in a hostile takeover, just one full year later, it had grown hugely and almost exponentially to nearly 40K members, and had also become incredibly vibrant, inspired and active, as well as deeply inter-active between many of its members…  

And now, a year and some months after the take over, that old group has not grown hardly at all, and once again is stagnant, minimally active, uninspired, and irrelevant…   (I have a stealth FB account still in the group)

I am now the administrator of a much smaller private group, with our members originally made up mostly of the more active, concerned and involved members of our old group... Most of us having been limited,, removed and banned from the hijacked group, for showing our serious concern for what happened…  

Our (now not so) “new” group is similarly vibrant, inspired and active, as well as deeply inter-active, as our old group once was…

This new much smaller (300+) FB private group can be found and joined here- https://www.facebook.com/groups/awareness.diversity.democracy

The story of that shift and the hijacking can be found in its various parts here- https://www.unofficialhcr.com/

I believe this history along side current circumstances gives me some relevant and valid standing to address Heather Cox Richardson in and via the following…

And now HERE also, a followup, the next day… Though I suggest reading this post first…

Part One

Dear Heather, 

WHY are you so eerily silent regarding the U.S. government’s, the Biden administration's and the U.S. media's direct and active involvement and complicity in the hiding of what is now actually happening in Gaza, which MANY responsible people all around the world are calling genocide...  This now on top of the apartheid, repression, evictions and not so massive or visible killing that has been going on in the fenced off areas where Israel has been containing Palestinians for decades....??  

And the history and context for all of that...  Repeat, history, context…??

You are a U.S. citizen just like many if not most of those who may eventually be reading these words… You frequently speak and write about U.S. values and U.S. policies abroad as well as domestic, and almost incessantly in glowing and even fawning terms about the Biden administration, over and over and over… 

You are behaving most of all now like a publicist for Biden, not to mention as a lobbyist for the liberal ruling class elite, and even as a campaign worker for Biden as well… I would also not be surprised if you are maneuvering for a position in his second term administration as well…

You have become in many ways merely a puppet of the liberal ruling elites, in their fight with the now extremely regressive conservative ruling elites…  You have nearly totally ceased in being the critical interpreter of current events in the context of history, that once you were, and that you actually made your reputation being and doing…  So you are now just a perfect example of how establishment systems continue as always to coopt all those critics and media speakers who they cannot or decide not to first destroy… 

It is OUR U.S. government and most especially the Biden administration that is acting and being most out-in-front in support of what is now going on in Israel, Gaza and the Middle East… And this also includes Israeli actions in the past, for decades even for Biden, regarding the Palestinians and Palestine...   

In other words all of that destruction and killing, including the massive killing of children, women and old people, is being supported, fueled, excused (and bombed) in OUR names, which very much includes YOUR name...  And even MORE so in your name, simply because you have the bully pulpit of your fame and followers to speak from, and actually BE HEARD…   And still you do not…

You are STANDING where you could actually DO something, which is not even remotely true for most of the rest of us... 

To not speak up now, LOUDLY, as anyone of us can from wherever we are, which is one of your very own slogans from a more responsible (response-able) past, with ALL that is going on both here in the U.S. and abroad, is the very WORST thing anyone, and especially someone with your standing, can (not) “do” now...  

Your behavior, exactly now as I write, is NO different from not speaking up in Germany (as well as here in the U.S.) back in the 1930s...

80% of the bombs so far dropped on Gaza are U.S. manufactured and supplied bombs...  Soon it will be close to 100%...  At 6 days in it was 6000 bombs dropped on Gaza, by the Israelis' own count...  And now as I write it is likely more than 20,000...  A recent calculation of the tonnage of TNT dropped on Gaza up until now (Oct 31) is that it is equivalent to the explosive power of the Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945…

Many many people all around the world KNOW about the U.S.'s complicity and involvement in the Gaza genocide, a whole huge lot better than most of our very own U.S. citizens do even...  And it seems even more than you yourself are willing to look at and speak to…

You are a PhD historian and Professor of History at the highly ranked (top 50) Boston College...  You definitely know what has been going on around the world and in the middle east, historically as well as presently, even if it is not your so called "speciality"...  You hang out a lot with history professors and post grad historians, and many others of similar stature...  

When you write that “it is not your lane,” I see it as merely a serious and to my mind craven and cowardly sidestepping and avoidance of responsibility...  Break that down…  Response ability, ability to respond…!  Instead you are running away from taking ANY risk to speak the truth that you are very much more than capable of seeing and writing about, and to DO this no matter what it personally costs you…  

In other words, risking your favoritism status with the liberal elite ruling classes as well as with the Biden administration, for a couple things...?  And DO stand up for what is right, caring, and appropriate(!), especially for someone who is in your very unique position…

Heather, you know the history of the region far better than I do, and this even as I know a whole lot of it...  I can say plenty that is accurate (enough), and matters...  But just not nearly to as many people as YOU can speak out to, in some ways that matter…

Part Two

I certainly agree that we need to not make it easier for the MAGA crowd...    

But the balance is presently such that we are falling and failing, in a free fall now almost, socially and morally, no matter how much you try to glowingly write about Biden’s actions…  All of your words mostly blah blah blah these days, borrowing from Greta…

It is going to take some rather brave and risky action just as it is, if we as a U.S. society are ever going to “catch” ourselves so to speak, in time, and come back into some steady, shared and relatively balanced ways as a functional society…  AKA get onto our collective feet...  

"Even-handedness,” as you seem to be attempting to be, mostly by what appears to be some rather calculated avoidance, is how the educated Germans were also behaving in the 1930s...  Which can also very easily become, as it mostly did back then, a kind of sticking of one’s head in the sand... 

And so, say, you were living back then and the Nazi's won the war, and you had been able to keep your university job as well as standing with what eventually became a Fascist government…?  How do you think that (and you) would have become, over time…?

Yet the fact is, there is NO winning this “war,” a war by many other terms that is actually right now destroying the whole world and Earth as we know it...  More and more quickly, nearly ever day…  Just like those in Germany who played it safe still lost their asses, so to speak, because their war WAS lost and destroyed their whole country and society in the process...  

This current war, at all its levels and in all its skirmishes by whatever names and labels it goes by all around the world, will also be lost, by all of us, as well as by much of the rest of life on our planet…  Destroying near everything in the process…  And after this war has run its course their will be no “Marshall Plan” to bail us out and restart our planet and societies…

Everyone of us needs to be ready and willing to risk our lives and livelihoods now, while there is still a chance to catch our balance, and so that we as a country and an example might find some different momentum and trajectories for us go upon, differently, and together...  And ESPECIALLY this is true for people with your visibility and standing…

And so yes, again repeat, you are exactly a perfect example of how success in the worlds of power, "business" and wealth coopts the very people who do actually become able to speak, with them always being coopted by fame, fortune and approval...  

And again as always, the coopted become merely another part of the problem(s), with them very (if not most) often lending a rather bland, apologetic and "nicely" liberal "face" to the the deeper and destructive actualities of the our shared problems in the beliefs of separation...  

And this all the while as the Nazis in their various forms, labels and guises keep taking over more and more, behind the scenes...  In other words like the MAGA republicans are doing today, state by state...

You and Biden, exactly BECAUSE of the positions you hold, need MORE than anyone to actually take some risks...  Otherwise you are just like so many others, protecting your positions merely for as far ahead as you can see, with your heads still buried in the sand of your own illusions, fears and attachments to your self images, privileges and comforts...

This Earth, our human world, our shared environment for the most part, and even a bit of enlightenment and culture, actually survived the last World War... 

NONE of that will survive the next...

Cowards in positions like yours and Biden's, in other words positions where the truth could be spoken and actually be heard by large numbers of people, is NOT what our world needs now...  

ALL of us are going to die anyway...   Nobody lives forever...   So at least let's die doing what we know to be right, the very best we can, and no matter the personal cost...  This is what Biden is asking (and you all of us are expecting) of every member of the U.S, military…  

And yet NEITHER of you are willing to take any risks to your own lives, not any real risks, in other words… That is other than merely your typical, usual and calculated “risks” that can lead further into the possibilities of even greater rewards, in those realms of power and wealth you both gravitate to and within… Biden of course being much more “advanced” in these ways than you presently are…

In other words speaking and acting from the truth the very best you can... Rather than merely holding out for more rewards…   Something that EVERYONE of us who really cares must now begin to do, wherever we are at, and no matter what the personal cost…  Or, we are ALL lost…

In other words and for instance, like the medical workers and doctors and humanitarian workers and emergency workers and utility workers and reporters and just plain citizens are trying to do in Gaza right now, daily and hourly…  And this EVEN as they are also dying by the multiple dozens and hundreds under the bombs, daily...

Part Three

There is an old saying, ancient even, that choosing between the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil...

So, instead of allowing evil to keep catching us in that eternal trap it keeps catching so many of us in, why NOT choose to speak the truth the best we can, in the open, out loud, to the world, and then and yet, once spoken, ALSO keep looking, always reaching to keep seeing and learning better and deeper ways to keep speaking the truth to each other...?   

And if we made a mistake the truth now simple becomes that we made mistake… And so now we can see past that mistake, because we are STILL looking for and and being willing to see the truth the best we can...  And acting and speaking from wherever that may be, or finds us… 

Yes, early adopters of this "path" so to speak do take some very serious risks (Jesus got crucified for instance), but if WE keep doing it, and enough others follow our example in similar ways, eventually what REALLY needs to change, evolve and fall away, will...   

And our always shared world will be more and more reflected by that which is actually true and real, rather than continuing to be reflected back to us from out of all the lies we have surrounded ourselves with, for such a long long time...  Sooo many generations upon generations of lies and mistaken beliefs…

THIS is the kind of honesty and willingness I am asking of you, Heather, right now...

There is not a person anywhere who does not know what is most true in their very own hearts, right now, whenever they are able to sit and be still, inwardly and outwardly, for a moment…  

And it is just THAT truth, which we all know in each of our own heart of hearts, that everyone who can hear needs to begin to be able to share and reflect back to each other...  

This kind of pattern or path does not start "somewhere else," it starts right here and right now, in whatever way(s) we are able to begin to listen, hear and speak, in truth, to each other...

Part Four

Heather, for you to fall back onto excuses like "not my lane,” in what is actuality and merely a cowardly silence and avoidance, as well as the manipulations of privilege, and in the process very visibly IGNORE all the lies and deceit coming out of the Biden administration these days, is a SHAME ON YOU of the first order… 

Acting for only one's own personal "best" (aka separate) interests, is NOT the way now, for ANYONE who really cares about what is happening in the world around us, especially in the long term…

THIS intentional ignorance is exactly what got us here, into our currently catastrophic predicament, as a human race...  The lane you are "staying" in, right now in these very minutes even, is LITERALLY rolling over the bodies of thousands of Palestinians, even as you just keep driving and following between your own self-determined dotted white lines...

Truth is literally the only way and the ONLY path, out of this insane world that is constructed of secrets, hidden powers, lies, and deceit..  

And what I'm calling truth needs to come from somewhere other than our heads, where most of us tend to fort up behind all of our fears' (mis)interpretations...  

I suggest it is our hearts (meaning also yours Heather) that literally need to break open and become free, and then speak speak speak, so that our individual as well as collective “heads” can start to learn how to serve and follow different sorts of possibilities...  In other words our heads also breaking free of all the fears that keep us believing we are separate from each other, from ourselves, and from the world around us...  

When in truth we are NOT separate, and it is our hearts most of all that KNOW this...  Heads are meant to serve, hearts lead, and NOT the other way around...  

And do realize I am not talking about emotions, nor instinct, but something much deeper and more profound, prior to all these words, that every one of us knows each time we are able to be present, still and quiet with ourselves, for a little while...

And it is you Heather who has an opportunity like most of us do not, and very very few elsewhere remotely do, to actually speak real and hard truths to the liberal middle and elite ruling class worlds here in the U.S...  Your primary audience in other words...  Jill Biden may even hear, and if so maybe some of it will actually reach through her and past Biden's defenses as well...  

No knowing, and it doesn't matter...   It is the speaking that matters, In these realms where words have literally become our actions, for some of us...

Part Five 

Maybe consider refreshing yourself, Heather, regarding some of the root causes of the conflict in Palestine, now called Israel…?   Perhaps you could even start with this article about the "Nakba," https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948  

And then maybe do some googling outside of your typical guide bars, so as to become even more informed…?  Developing your perspectives merely via U.S. corporate-owned mainstream media information streams is not ever going to be helpful towards a fuller understanding of our whole world’s actualities...

Israel has always had all of the power, in relationship with the Palestinian people...  Any conflict between people with power and people without power is never ever balanced, and never ever fair...  Whether or not you approve of conflict as a way to settle differences...  I personally do not...  And Israel has always and now continues to take full advantage of that very extreme power imbalance...  

When people are contained, repressed (and killed) for generations now, and have their lands and houses continually taken from them, and are forced to move into crowded "refugee camps," and try to rebuild their lives in such "camps" once again, and then have even those "camps" taken and bombed... 

Well, they WILL eventually react, and even often in unpredictable, horrific and stupid ways...  

Responsible and erudite people all over the world have been calling Gaza the largest open air prison in the world...  For years now...  Apartheid, control, domination and repression in the very worst ways...  And all of it direct Israeli government policy…

There is something called "laws of proportionality" when it comes to things like this as well...  It is deeply embedded in international law as well as national law...  Do google it...

There is a saying in Palestine "from the river to the sea"...  The idea behind that saying is that it is ONE country, and that both Jews and Palestinians CAN choose to live in one country in peace...  

It is the Israelis who have been denying and keep denying this possibility most of all… And who have had and continue to have the extreme and hugely dominating and disproportionate power to deny this possibility... A power they are continuing to wield now in spades… And it is our very own U.S government that has always and continues to support them in doing so, that is, wielding their disproportionate power over the Palestinian people…  

The "two state" solution for the rightwing in Israeli society, which is relatively speaking even more powerful than the rightwing here in the U.S., is their “code” (and continual excuse) for isolating and repressing Palestinians, and taking more and more of what is left of their land...  With the whole huge settler movement in Israel being an extremely important and fully government supported part of this takeover of Palestinian land, shops and homes...  

The Israelis in power, for the most part, from the "beginning" in 1948 and continuing now in spades, have been seeing it, whether we call it Palestine or Israel, as a country or nation of ONLY Jews...  And they are now using what happened on October 7 to scare and foment fear, holocaust guilt, antisemitism guilt, and then of course international support from both governments and individuals, not to mention their own citizens, for their now hugely expanding and escalating actions and reactions...

With October 7 now giving them some additional powerful excuses and opportunity for this continued and expanded takeover... There is credible reporting that the Israelis and Netanyahu were warned and knew the attack was coming, and ignored it…

It is also well know that Netanyahu supported the Hamas in its early rise in influence, mostly as a manipulative way to diminish the influence and power of the Palestinian Authority...  This behavior of course actually being not a lot different from U.S. strategies abroad in the past, including the invariably terrible outcomes of that U.S. behavior as well…

Though it has not yet come to bombs (for the most part), all this current behavior of the Israeli government is really not much different from the extreme MAGA rightwing Christian movement here in the U.S., who see “us” as needing to become a nation country of white heterosexual 'christians," with men in charge...  

Countries founded on religion are NOT good...  Our own constitution was originally written so that could not happen here...  Even as and all the while the MAGA crowd definitely do not accept this, and clearly and blatantly have every intention of changing it... 

I have no doubt there are huge things, negotiations, plays and counter plays going on behind the scenes in the halls and back rooms of world power now, regarding Gaza…  All the while as the individuals involved are also of course negotiating their own positions and realms influence, and in many if not most cases (with some notable exceptions) most of all...   

All we need do is look at our very own U.S. Congress and at as well many of our own state legislatures, to see how all that typically “works"...  Or look for another instance at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, aka COP, ”works”…  

And so, how IS all that working...?

And in the meantime what can now ONLY be called genocide is going on in Palestine, because no one with any real influence and/or standing wants to take some very serious political and influential risks to MAKE it stop...  

Instead, lots and lots of safe blah blah blah words all over the place, for corporate owned mainstream media to play out in front of mostly U.S. and European mis-informed citizens...  

Except that the educated and informed youth in our country are mostly not buying it, and large swaths of populations in other countries around the world are not swallowing it either...

If you ever actually happen to read this, Heather, well, the ball is now in your court…

John Fridinger
Talent, Oregon
Fall 2023

And now HERE also, for a followup, the next day… Though hopefully you will have read this post first, for the full context and effect…

Bernardo… Re your 5.2.23 essay about “time…” 

And quoting from it…

“…we can’t ever catch the present moment, even though we are—paradoxically—always in it.“

Not in it, we are IT…

“We live bang in the middle of eternity and have never lived anywhere else.“

Yes… AND…

“To realize this is the apotheosis of hard-nosed reason, not just romantic spiritual insight.”

“Hard-nosed reason” is still, just and merely another map… And what you are mis-calling “romantic spiritual insight” is the actual terrain itself, realizing itself, in ever more and infinitely greater and greater (relative) ways… 

As each of us and all of us, in all “our” myriad and various possibilities of expression, over “time”…

Time in this sense being the infinite and infinitely dimensional (unmeasurable in any dimension) “field” of all relationship... AKA relativity…

All of this existence, in and as which we share these ever differentiating and infinitely overlapping experiences, is NOTHING other than relationship…

Bernardo, you can stand on the edge of what I’ll call here for convenience the infinite precipice, and keep “cutting” your distance to it in half, forever… And forever “you” will remain only and mere conceptualization… 

“Forever” in this context being merely “time,” as you are attempting to describe it, in more and greater ways than you can ever ever imagine…  Only be…

Another way to say the same thing is you can play in the map rooms and upon the map tables “forever…” 

It will remain always and forever (continuing this same understanding or metaphor) be your choice… 

Go out the door and truly disappear into this terrain you always and already are, or keep hanging out within the confines of the maps… 

This IS the only real choice there ever truly is… 

Until, perhaps in one of these infinitely coexisting “moments,” so to speak, that you are still attempting to “grasp,” you choose, fully and consciously, differently… 

Therein will begin, in and AS this experience you are presently calling your "self," a whole different kind of Journey…

Cheers… 🙏🌻 

~ John Fridinger
Talent, OR
Spring, 2023

Here is a link to the Substack post these were comments on, only to be quickly deleted by Gurwinder…

The Prism

Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things

Read more

3 years ago · 296 likes · 85 comments · Gurwinder

—

Very nicely done, with a totally perfect example of EXACTLY what you are talking about, or “against,” right there, smack-dab in the middle of it...

And just in case you really are self deluded enough that you are missing it, I am pointing out to you (and of course to others here) that your whole bloody extremist diatribe "against" what you (and everyone similarly invested in the same ignorance) keep generating through disparate bits of disinformation, misinformation and downright stupidity, is essentially a separatist-ego driven patriarchal pot of your very own making, that you are gathering together under a label (epithet?) that you and everyone with your same similar acute and ugly bent are calling "wokeism"...

Which makes this whole post of yours merely a rather large and especially tawdry "framing," or may we say "justification," for just another nasty flavor of all the same old fascist rantings that continue to totally ignore truth, factual evidence, health, the natural world, science, and actual human history...

None of which I will attempt to direct your attention towards, most simply because it is all available for you to see, in various easily accessible public records, databases and libraries, when/if ever you actually develop some real actual curiosity (humility?) of the sort you are soooo obviously attempting now in this post of yours to fool yourself most of all into believing you actually have (let alone understand)...

Really amazing, actually... Sooo typical of all the same ignorance and self-centered narcissism that is now destroying our whole planet, yet with such a high degree of a particularly pernicious kind of false "intelligence," trying with all its might to masquerade as wisdom and understanding, and soooo clearly failing, miserably...

🙏🏽🌻

—

Am continuing to be fascinated by how you actually write about and essentially deconstruct, in some well considered ways, exactly the behavior you are clearly intending, right here in the midst of and therefore “supported” by your “deconstructions” or “reasoning,” to very intentionally act out, or “do”…   

All of it together almost certainly motivated by hate, fear, prejudice, and painful identification with some extremely dysfunctional inner discontinuities, aka “personal” realms, and seemingly sublimated to such an extreme degree that they are probably tearing you apart inside, without you even realizing it… 

All the while as you strike out, with some rather well considered harshness, at what is essentially your very own inner conflicted world of distortions projected outward, and then mirrored back to you… And this is of course is how you are able to hide it from yourself most of all… 

Your very first baby steps towards real wisdom may just be when you become willing to see that what I am describing in these comments here IS actually what you are doing…

Therein could begin for you a transformative journey, from willfulness to willingness, through what might even become your very own personal experience and inner journey with, and through, an actual living womb of living curiosity and humility…

🌈

—
The “The Morning Dispatch” post, received via their daily emailed newsletter on 2.15.23, that included the Gurwinder Substack post, is here :
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/morning/a-chemical-train-derailment-in-ohio/

I have been following some of Bernardo’s writings for a long time. A while ago my cousin asked me if I saw something he had just written, and my thoughts on it…  My answer to her has evolved into this essay… 

Bernardo Kastrup doesn’t seem to fully realize the degree to which he is still trying to think his way to what in its primal essence is both prior to and the end of all thought, a sort of destination, phenomenon or quality he and his colleagues most often label “consciousness.”  They continue to promote their various philosophical, psychological, metaphysical and even scientific attempts to objectify, or in other words make into a “thing” that which precedes, is the source and substance of, and makes up all things, all thought, all language, all imaginings, all perceptions, all ideology and all concepts.

It is as if a being in a two dimensional world, deducing the existence of a three dimensional realm, is trying to “reach” (i.e., grasp, own, control) a deduced, imagined and overly theorized “three dimensional realm” by extending, articulating and refining all of his same old two dimensional and very artificial boundaries in merely greater and “more encompassing” ways.

One framework or scaffolding Bernardo seems to use a lot, in order to continue to be the identified “thinker” (doer) of his own thinking, is to challenge and debate (duel) with certain select (and necessarily contrary) scholars, peers and colleagues who might be willing to meet his challenges, and who, through a whole huge “rational” mess of convoluted and befuddled intellectual gambits and complexities, are even further lost than Bernardo is in what is truly a centuries-old game.

Similar to college football, most of these collegial scholars are extremely addicted to banging away at each other’s identities with post-modern formulations, words, data, concepts and publishing credits, rather than with mere bodies, balls, yard lines and goalposts. The seeming “winners” will gain more “identity” at the expense of the “losers,” all of it of course depending on who’s looking and from which sidelines.

It is a whole world of competing academic and institutional(ized) ideologues and their pet ideologies, each one trying to assert their own exclusive, special (personal) “understandings” of why it is that thought and/or matter, and all related and various space-time interactive measurable (graspable) effects, is all that there is. With every one of them coming from a different and very relative (to their own and each other’s backgrounds and conditioning) point of view.

Bernardo does know a good bit more and better than most of his colleagues, and articulates what he knows in some beautiful, clear and elegant ways.

He actually is, in some noticeable and certain ways, on the very edges of awareness, and probably experiences or has experienced in certain moments what can only ever be communicated via the natural realms, poetry, metaphor, certain stories, subtle pointings, pure art, dance, rhythm, music, etc. Or in other words, communicated through resonance.

Yet, in other ways, and particularly in such realms as empire, prominent social personalities, power, money and self-imagery, Bernardo seems to still be pretty lost in much of the meta-belief-in-separation’s dominant, conflicted and competing projections, collectively referred to as (by fragmented minds) the “world.”

Yet he has a highly trained and incredibly amazing mind as well, seems to be a profound intellectual adventurer, and is looking in some right directions through a massive education, all the while dragging bits and pieces of establishment science and academia, as best he can, along with him.

Never-the-less, Bernardo doesn’t seem to understand that for as long as he keeps arguing with establishment belief systems he will keep being co-opted back into them, always to serve establishment’s (separation’s) own purposes. The more successful his challenges are, i.e., the more he is able to reform aspects of the establishment into Bernardo’s own ideological self-imageries, the more encompassing and eventually successful will be his co-optation back into the very same systems he is trying to challenge. Or maybe he does understand this, and it is what he wants. No knowing.

For the purposes of this essay, establishment and our collective identity of separation are the same.

None of the ways human “civilization” has clawed itself to where we seem to be now are (any longer) the way forward. Every additional effort large and small based on that history (his story), or might I say our collective trajectories, will only lead us, as individuals, families, tribes, communities and societies, ever deeper into destruction, along with most of earth’s present and relative (related) forms and expressions of life.

In the same way the actual physical universe itself, at different major transitional points in its evolution, totally used up literally all the conditions, processes and circumstances that brought it to that point, making a whole new fundamental trajectory (never before known, implied or indicated in any of the universe’s preceding expressions of itself) both necessary as well as possible, human sentience on this planet, along with the planet itself, has now reached (and is reaching ever deeper into) a similar necessary as well as possible transition.

Earth has experienced some similar transitions or transformations, but never before has she done so in the company of consciousness or may I say Life awakening to itself, presently in this case, and only seemingly so far, through and as humans. Humans who also happen to be the cause(s) or catalyst for these end stages that are now coming to pass.

And just as as in earlier transitions, when none of the prior conditions (or stages) of the universe could guarantee, describe or “predict” what a new trajectory might look like, let alone survive its appearance (emergence), the same is true now for what is presently believing itself to be human, as a (potentially) awakening part of what is an immeasurably ancient yet always fresh and new, eternal journey.

Humans are now, unavoidably, overly, and irreversibly, the dominant determiner of Life’s journey on this planet, and it is both time and far past time for us to begin to let go of the destructive ignorance of the old, even as we, in all our two dimensional ignorance, are without any actual “knowing” (which is always based on the impressions, infatuations and conditioning of a nonexistent past) of the new.

All of us are a part of evolution. And not just evolution, the miracle of creation itself. We are being called now to really and actually step out of our illusions of separation together. What may go forward, in new ways we cannot know, at least not through and as these identities we must first and fully let go of, is what we have always been and only forgotten.

What we can hope for is that what comes will be more (and more) consciously awake, and ever more openly and relatingly interconnected and together. And it is we who must become the seeds for these sorts of possibilities.

We will, I believe, if and as much as we are able to let go, and most especially of what we believe to be the past, begin to discover other, deeper and better ways of engaging, first with our own selves, and then with each other, other life expressions, and the universe.

It is our willingness that we are being called to realize now, all the while as we let go of willfulness, otherwise known as the assertions of competing illusional and delusional identities lost in the beliefs of separation.

The modern western educated mind trying to understand this now primal requirement is like the proverbial camel trying to pass through the eye of a needle.

Going for a walk with Bernardo in these realms of thought and language, in these ways, if I ever were to find myself doing that very unlikely such, would be sort of like going for a walk in the forest with a world class olympic gold medalist gymnast who can virtually (pun intended) jump, twist and fly over all the seeming “obstacles” in the forest.

All the while as the forest is calling to both of us to slow down and bring our attention back to this expression or place that is unfolding both within and as a part of our very own here and now presence in the forest. This is the only place where he and I and a living world might begin to share a deeper awareness of what he and I and a living world also are, together, as each of us, as all of us, and as the forest.

Invite this amazing Bernardo of my fantasy, through a sort of sharing of what we are that is the very same, to actually experience our greater being as the very forest itself.

The two of us now discovering what is really the most intimate surprise of all, that this larger context (expression) of who he and I also are, that we were calling at the beginning of our walk the forest (or world), is now actually and consciously, without need of any labels, concepts or identity, discovering itself through and as our very own extant (here and now) conversation (journey) with each other.

Whatever it may be, through writings, conversation, dancing, or simply noticing, we are now, actually, walking on water. And behold, this very “water” itself is now fully revealed as the most vulnerable, intimate and ordinary expression of all. And so we are revealed, to ourselves.

In other words, realize with Bernardo a world of connection, rather than mere observation, all the while as we support each other and the world in letting go of some of the ways observation (separation) seems to offer (what is always and only) a temporary “sense” (illusion) of “control” over what we believe is other than us, or the so-called observed.

Neither the observed nor the observer are actually real. Yet our beliefs that they (as in us, you, me, other) are, is now rapidly destroying ourselves, each other, other life and the earth.

This consciousness of ourselves is an extension, and therefore not separate from the source of everything. The belief we are separate, the one meta belief every “modern” human seems to agree upon, and simply because in fact we are not and cannot ever be separate from source, actually has the power, simply through its own beliefs, to project and seem to make real illusions, and through acting as if these projections are real, destroy all that we are (in fact and truth) part and participant in.

Just as it is not always a blessing to have great wealth, privilege, power, it is not always or at least only a blessing to have a talented, healthy, highly trained and educated mind, or a talented, healthy, highly trained and educated body. “Blessing” in this context meaning truly helpful for our true purpose(s) here on earth.

Projections upon projections, none of it real. What is true and real never comes, never goes, never changes. And yet, all change, all form, all phenomena, all experience is made up of, arises from, and returns to the real.

This huge play of existence we are for a while believing we are separate from, in a sense condensates out of the real, and it will all eventually fall away, dissolve back into, return to the real.

That returning is also simultaneously a becoming, creation in greater and greater dimensions.

What I am calling here the real is what all of us who are blessed with a truly auspicious or human birth are now being called to fully realize is actually what we, also, always and already, are.

I actually believe there is an incredible gift in what we are all being called (invited) to accept.  This calling or invitation, that is arising through each of us and all of us who are also slowly beginning to realize that we also are what is calling, is not an abstract idea, concept or thought. It is reality itself.

How amazing is that, reality itself wants to come into an awakened and ever awakening relationship with itself, through each of us and all of us. I believe this may be the most truly incredible gift in ALL of creation.

Without becoming familiar with, embracing, and actually entering into and living paradox, none of this can be grasped. It is prior to all words, concepts, time and space. It can only seem to be grasped by allowing it to slowly (and sometimes suddenly) grasp us. Here is where we actually begin to experience the difference between willingness and mere willfulness. For it is always in its own time, and in its own infinite ways and manner.

When that sort of symbiosis happens, the forest (world) begins to converse, dance, sing, shape-shift, drum and paint into actual phenomenal existence its very own joy, love and beauty, otherwise known as Source, all of it now expressing and discovering itself through each of us, with each of us, as each of us, and all of life.

The universe in a grain of sand realizes that it is so…

That Love is so…

~ John Fridinger
Talent, OR
Spring, 2020

Been watching you since your beginnings, when you were seeing a few things truly, moved by what was apparently a sincere desire to seek further into truth, and share that experience, conversation or journey with others…

And then watching as you began to get side tracked more and more, and more and more, mixing your now fading glimpses of truth into more and more of your own fantasies, beliefs, conditioning and attachments, mistaking your head for an objective perspective upon what are merely your own projections, and which you actually seemed, and still seem, to believe is the world around you…

Appearances, seen through the mists of your own unique journey, are not the truth…

You are no different now than any trumpist or neorepublican, as you double down more and more on your fantasies, illusions, projections, disinformation and misinformation, all the while as you keep trying to set your thinking and projections apart, like they are special, and you are special because they are…

Your previous message really took the cake, and now this latest one (10.14.21) adds a slew of new delusional layers to it…

My advice, for what it is worth and to whatever part of you that may still be conscious enough to remember your own true desire for the truth, is to stop writing and give up both your followings and followers…

Go be alone, really, really alone, long enough that ALL of that falls away, and you are left to face everything all your writings and words and projections are trying so hard to get away from, within yourself…

For you, that won’t happen in a few days, weeks, or months even…  But it will happen, if you give yourself to it, long enough…  Always remembering that time is just another invention…

There is a profound saying I will paraphrase –  You cannot bring truth to illusion, or in other words you cannot make illusion true…  But you can bring illusion to truth, where it will be seen for what it is, an illusion, a mirage or mist that quickly evaporates into the nothing it really is, in the light of the sun…

Go be alone…  Find the light of your own true nature, the truth of you in other words, and slowly let ALL your illusions die in that light…  There is no human action on earth that takes more conscious, real, actual courage than this…

~ John Fridinger
Talent, OR
Fall, 2021

(Rendered by John Fridinger from a translation by Cecilia Twich)

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful . . .

Praise belongs to God, before whose oneness there is no before unless the before is He, and after whose singleness there is no after unless the after is He. He is, and there is not with Him any before or after, above or below, closeness or distance, how or where or when, time or moment or duration, manifested existence or place.

And He is now as He has always been. He is the One without oneness and the single without singleness. He is not composed of name and named, for His name is Him and His named is Him and there is no name or named other than Him. He is the first without firstness and the last without lastness.

God is the apparent without appearance and the hidden without hiddenness. He is the very existence of the letters of the names, the first and the last, the apparent and the hidden. There is no first or last, apparent or hidden except Him, without the letters which form these divine names becoming Him and without Him becoming these letters.

Understand this so you do not make the mistake of those who believe in incarnation. God is not in anything and no thing is in Him, whether entering into Him or coming out of Him. It is in this way that you should know Him and not through theoretical knowledge, reason, understanding or conjecture, nor with the senses, the external eye or interior sight or perception.

No one sees Him except Himself, no one reaches Him except Himself and no one knows Him except Himself. He knows Himself through Himself and He sees Himself by means of Himself. No one but He sees Him. His veil is His oneness since nothing veils Him other than Him. His own being veils Him. His being is concealed by His oneness without any condition.

No one other than He sees Him. No sent prophet, perfect saint or angel brought close knows Him. His prophet is He, His messengers He, His message is He and His word is He. He sent Himself from Himself, through Himself to Himself. There is no intermediary or means other than Him. There is no difference between the sender, that which is sent and the one to whom it is sent. The very existence of the prophetic message is HIS existence.

There is no existence to any other who could pass away, or have a name or be named. Because of this, the Prophet, God bless him and give him peace, said, whoever knows their self, knows their Lord. He also said, I knew my Lord through my Lord. What the Prophet pointed out by that is that you are not you but you are Him and there is no you. It is not that He enters into you or that you enter into Him, or that He comes out of you or that you come out of Him. It does not mean that you have being and you are qualified by this or that attribute.

What is meant is that you never were and never will be, whether through yourself or through Him or in Him or with Him. You have neither ceased to be nor are you existent. You are Him and He is you, without any of these imperfections. If you know your existence in this way, then you know God, and if not, then not.

Most of those who claim to know God make the knowledge of God dependent on the passing away of existence and on the passing away of that passing away. That is clearly an error and misconception. The knowledge of God does not require the passing away of existence or the passing away of that passing away because things have no existence and what does not exist cannot pass away. Passing away implies the prior existence of something that passes away. If you know yourself without existing and passing away, then you know God, and if not, then not.

By making the knowledge of God dependent on the passing away of your existence and the passing away of that passing away, there is an affirmation of something other than God. The Prophet said, Whoever knows their self, knows their Lord. He did not say, Whoever annihilates their self, knows their Lord. Your being is nothing and whatever is nothing cannot be placed in relationship to anything else, whether capable of passing away or not, whether existent or nonexistent

.

The Prophet pointed to the fact that you are nonexistent now as you were nonexistent before creation, because now is eternity-without-beginning and now is eternity-without-end and now is timelessness. God is the very being of eternity-without-beginning, eternity-without-end and timelessness even though in reality there is no eternity-without-beginning, eternity-with-out-end or timelessness. If it were otherwise, He would not be alone, without any associate.

However, it is necessary for Him to be one without any associate because any associate would exist through itself, and not through the being of God. Then that associate would not need God and would therefore be a second Lord, which is impossible. God has no associate, equal or like. Whoever sees anything with God, whether coming out of Him or within Him, or dependent on Him by virtue of His lordship, has also made that thing an associate even if that associate depends on Him by virtue of His lordship.

Whoever allows that there could be anything with God, whether subsisting by itself or through Him, whether in a state of having passed away or the passing away of passing away, is far from breathing the scent of self-knowledge. Whoever accepts that there could be any being other than Him, yet subsisting through Him and in Him, then passing away in successive stages of passing away, and the passing away of passing, is a polytheist (one who believes in many gods) and knows neither God nor their self.

The knowledge of the self and knowledge of God consists in being aware that God is, and nothing is with Him, and He is now as He has always been. Ask of God to show you things as they are, to show you what is other than Him as Himself, without the existence of what is other than Him. In this way you may know all things as the essence of God, who is exalted, without how or where. The word “things” applies to the separate self and to other things, because the existence of the separate self and the existence of things are equal in terms of being “things.”

When you truly know the things, you know yourself and when you know yourself, you know the Lord. What you think is other than God is not other than God but you do not know it. You see Him and you do not know that you see Him. When this secret is revealed to you, you will know that you are not other than God and that you yourself are the object of your quest. You do not need to get rid of your self. You have not ceased nor will you cease to exist, without time and without moments. You will see God’s attributes as your attributes, your exterior as His exterior, your interior as His interior, your first as His first and your last as His last, without any doubt or uncertainty.

You will see your attributes to be His attributes and your essence to be His essence, without you becoming Him and without Him becoming you in the least degree. Nothing exists except His face, both outwardly and inwardly. Nothing other than Him has ever had being, and there is nothing that needs to pass away so that His face remains. There is nothing except His face.

It is as if a person does not know something, then comes to know it. Their existence does not disappear, but their ignorance disappears. Their existence remains as it was, without being exchanged for another, and without the existence of the ignorant person being added to or mixed with the knowing person: ignorance simply disappears.

Do not think therefore that you need to pass away, because if it were necessary to pass away, that would mean that you are His veil. He would therefore be veiled by something other than Himself. This would require something other than Him having power over Him, preventing Him from being seen. That is an error and misconception. As we have already said, His veil is nothing other than His Oneness, His singularity.

That is why the person who has reached the essential truth is allowed to say, I am the Truth, or Glory to me. No one has truly reached God unless they see their attributes to be the attributes of God and their essence to be the essence of God, without their essence or their attributes ever entering into God or coming out of Him, and without their passing away in relation to God, or remaining in God. They see that their self has never been their own, not that it was and then it passed away.

This is because there is no self except His self, and there is no being except His being. This is what the Prophet was alluding to when he said, Do not curse time, because God is time and distance and closeness, and God, who is blessed and exalted, is unblemished by any associate or equal or like. it is also reported that the Prophet said The high God says, “O child of Adam, I was sick and you did not visit Me, I was hungry and you did not feed Me, I asked of you and you did not give to Me…”

The being of everyone who asks is His being. When that is accepted, it is also accepted that your being is His being, and the being of all created things is His being. When the secret of the smallest is discovered, the secret of all created things is made clear, whether apparent or hidden. When that is truly accepted you will not see the two worlds as other than God, without the two worlds and their names and what they name existing – or rather, their names and what they name and their existence are Him, without any doubt.

Do not see God as having ever created anything but rather as being in every moment a different configuration that sometimes seems to reveal Him and sometimes seems to conceal Him, without any conditions, because He is the first and the last, the apparent and the hidden and He IS knowledge of everything. He manifests Himself in His oneness and hides Himself in His singularity. He is the first in His essence and in His Self-subsistence and the last in His everlastingness. He is the very being of the name of the first and the name of the last, of the name of the apparent and the name of the hidden. He is His own Name and what is named.

Just as God’s existence is necessary, the nonexistence of what is other than Him is necessary. What you think is other than Him is not other than Him. He is free from there being any other than Him. Indeed, other than Him is Him without any otherness, whether believed to be with Him or in Him, inwardly or outwardly. Whoever is qualified in this way has innumerable attributes, without limit or end.

Just as the person whose physical form passes away is deprived of all their attributes whether praiseworthy or blameworthy, so the person who dies a mystical death has all their attributes, whether praiseworthy or blameworthy, taken away from them and God comes into their place in all their expressions and states. The essence of God comes into the place of their essence and the attributes of God come into the place of their attributes

.

Because of this, the Prophet said, Die before you die, that is, Know yourself before you die. He also said, God says, “My servant continues to approach Me with free acts until I love him. And when l love him, I am his hearing, his sight, his hand. . .”  This refers to the fact that whoever knows their self sees their whole being as the very being of God, without any change in their essence or attributes.

God takes the last step upon a journey that never happened. There is no need for any change since a person was not the existence of their own essence but instead was simply ignorant of the knowledge of their self. When you know yourself, egoism disappears and your knowing is that you are no other than God. If you had an independent existence, you would have no need of passing away or of self knowledge. You would instead be a lord apart from Him, but there is no lord apart from God, who is blessed and exalted.

The benefit of the knowledge of the self is to know for certain that you are neither existent nor nonexistent, that you are not, never have been and never will be. In this way, the meaning of There is no god but God becomes clear: there is no divinity other than Him, being belongs to none but Him, there is no other except Him, there is no god but He. He has never stopped being both ruler and ruled, just as He has never stopped being both creator and what is created, and He is now as He has always been. His creativity and His lordship do not need what is created or is subject to Him.

When He brought creation and creatures into existence, He was already endowed with all His attributes, and He is now as He has always been. His oneness is the same whether it is seen as the new or the eternal. The new requires His manifestation and the eternal requires His remaining hidden. His exterior is identical to His interior and His interior is identical to His exterior; His first is the same as His last and His last is the same as His first, the all is one and the one is all.

He is described as every day in a different configuration when there is always nothing other than Him. And He is now as He has always been, since in reality what is other than Him has no being. Just as in eternity-without-beginning and timelessness, He was every day in a different configuration when no thing existed, so He is now as He has always been, although there is no thing or day, just as there has been from all eternity no thing or day. The existence of the creatures and their nonexistence are the same.

If it were not so, it would require the origination of something which was not already in His oneness. That would imply imperfection and His oneness is far more exalted than that. When you know yourself in this way, without attributing any opposite, like, equal or associate to God, then you really know yourself. That is why the Prophet said, Whoever knows their self knows their Lord and not Whoever gets rid of their self knows their Lord, because he knew and saw that there is nothing other than Him. Then he pointed out that the knowledge of the self is the knowledge of God.

In other words, to Know yourself is to Know your being, because you are not you but you do not know it. That is, know that your being is neither your being nor other than your being. You are neither existent nor nonexistent, nor other than existent nor other than nonexistent. Your being and your non-being are His being, without any being or absence of being, because your being and your non-being are the same as His being and His being is the same as your being and non-being.

So if you see things without seeing anything else with God or in God, but see things as Him, then you know yourself and such a knowledge of the self is knowledge of God, without doubt or uncertainty and without mixing anything temporal with the eternal, whether in Him or through Him.

If someone asks you: What is the way to union when you assert that there is no other than Him, yet one thing cannot be united to itself; this is the reply: There is no doubt that in reality there is neither union nor separation, distance or closeness, since union is only possible between two things and if there is only one there can be neither union nor separation. Union requires two things which are either similar – in which case they are equal, or dissimilar – in which case they are opposites. However, He is exalted far above having any opposite or equal. Therefore union lies in something other than union, closeness in something other than closeness and distance in something other than distance. There is union without union, closeness without closeness and distance without distance.

If someone asks: We understand union without union, but what does closeness without closeness and distance without distance mean; the reply is: In those times of closeness and distance you were not anything other than God, but you did not know yourself and you were not aware that you were always Him, without “you.”

When you reach God, that is, when you know yourself in a way that is beyond all conditions, you know that you are Him, and you know that you did not know before whether you were Him or other than Him. When knowledge comes upon you, you know that it is through God that you know God, not through yourself.

Suppose, for example, that you do not know that your name is Mary, or that what your name designates is Mary (name and named are the same), and that you think that your name is Jane. If you then learn that you are really Mary, you do not stop being who you were. The name Jane is simply taken away from you because you have come to know you are Mary and you were only Jane by believing you were other than Mary.

Ceasing to be presupposes the affirmation of the existence of what is other than God, and whoever affirms the existence of what is other than Him has attributed (projected) the existence of something other than Him. Nothing has been taken away from Mary: Jane did not pass away into Mary and Mary did not enter into Jane or come out of her, nor did Mary ever become incarnated in or as Jane. When Mary knew (realized) herself, that she was Mary and not Jane, she knew herself through herself and not through Jane.

Because Jane never was, how could anything be known through her? Therefore the knower and the known, the one who arrives and what he arrives at, and the seer and the seen are one. “The knower” is His attribute and “the known” is His essence, and “the one who arrives” is His attribute and “what he arrives at” is His essence. In actuality, the attribute and that to which it is attributed are one. That is the explanation of the saying, Whoever knows their self, knows their Lord.

Whoever understands this example knows that there is no union or separation. The knower is He and the known is He, the one who sees is He and what is seen is He, the one who arrives is He and what he arrives at is He. No other than He reaches union, no other than He separates from Him. Whoever understands this is free of polytheism, and whoever has not understood this has not breathed the scent of this freedom from polytheism. Most of “those who know,” who think that they know themselves and their Lord and think that they are free of the bonds of existence, declare that the way can only be travelled by passing away, then by the passing away of passing away.

That is because they do not understand the saying of the Prophet and, believing themselves to be free of polytheism, they allude sometimes to the negation of existence, that is, to the passing away of existence, sometimes to the passing away of passing away, and sometimes to extinction or annihilation. All these expressions are unadulterated polytheism because whoever accepts that there could be anything other than Him that is subsequently capable of passing away, then of passing away from passing away, affirms that there is something other than Him, and whoever affirms this is a polytheist. May God guide them and us to the right path.

You thought you were you, but you are not you and never were. For if you were you, you would be a lord and the second of two. Stop what you were thinking. Between His being and your being there is no difference. He is no different from you nor you from Him.

If you say in ignorance you are other, then you are stubborn, so that when seeming ignorance disappears you become submissive. This sort of union is more separation, separation that “becomes” union, distance that “becomes” closeness, and through such as that you believe you become suitable. Instead of all that, abandon the intellect and understand by the light of unveiling, which is the undoing of what never was, so that what you are still safeguarding does not escape you. Do not debase yourself by associating any other with God, for associating other with God is debasing.

Whoever truly knows their self knows that their being is not their being, nor other than their being. Rather they know they are the very being of God, without their being becoming the being of God or entering into God or coming out of Him, and without their being existing along with Him or in Him. They see their being as it was before coming into being, without the need for passing away, effacement, or the passing away of passing away.

For the passing away of something implies that it was previously existent and that in turn implies that it exists by itself and not by the power of God, which is clearly impossible. It is evident that the knowledge that the knower has of their self is the knowledge that God has of Himself, because their self is no other than He. By this “self,” the Prophet meant “being.”

The being of the one who reaches this spiritual level is no longer their being whether inwardly or outwardly, but rather it is the very being of God. Their speech is His speech, their actions are His actions, and their claim to the knowledge of God is the knowledge God has of Himself through Himself. Because of ignorance someone may hear this claim as though coming from a person, or see such a one’s actions as though coming from a person, and so see them as other than God. But this is only because they are seeing themselves as other than God.

The faithful ones are the mirror of the Faithful One. He is He in His eye, for his sight is God’s sight without any conditions, though he may not be He through your eye or your knowledge, understanding, imagination, thought or vision. Yet he is He in His eye, His knowledge and His vision. If it is this way, then if he says I am God, listen to him, because it is God who is saying I am God, not him.

You have not reached the point he has reached, since if you had arrived here, you would understand what he says, you would say what he says and you would see what he sees. To summarize, the existence of things is His existence, without them existing. But do not fall into confusion and do not let these allusions lead you to imagine that God is created.

One of those who knows has said, The Sufi is uncreated. It is like that after the complete unveiling and dissipation of doubts and conjecturing. But this spiritual nourishment is only for the person whose nature is larger than the two worlds. As for the person whose nature is only as large as the two worlds, it is not suitable for them, for this nourishment is greater than the two worlds.

First, you must know that the seer and the seen, the one who finds and what is found, the knower and the known, the creator and the created, the perceiver and the perceived, are one. He sees, knows and perceives His being by means of His being, beyond any manner of sight, knowledge or perception, and without the existence of any of the forms of sight, knowledge or perception. Just as His being is beyond all condition, so the vision, knowledge and perception which He has of Himself are without condition.

If someone asks: How do you view all the repulsive and desirable things? For example, when we see dung or carrion, do we say it is God; the reply is: Our conversation is with those who do not see dung as dung, carrion as carrion, or desirable things as desirable things. We are only speaking with those who are endowed with inner vision and not with those who are inwardly blind. Anyone who does not know their self is blind and does not see. Until their blindness and lack of vision disappears, they will not grasp these meanings. Our conversation is with God, not with other than God and not with the inwardly blind.

Whoever reaches this spiritual station knows that they are no other than God. We are speaking with those who have determination and energy in seeking knowledge of their self in order to know God, and who keep fresh in their heart the image of their seeking and longing for union with God, and not with those without aim or intention.

If someone objects: God has declared that Eyes do not perceive Him but He perceives the eyes. God is the subtle and well informed one and you are maintaining the contrary, so what you are saying is not true. Then the response is: Everything that we are saying is the very meaning of God’s words, Eyes do not perceive Him, but He perceives the eyes, that is, there is no one else in existence, so there is no other that has sight which can perceive Him.

If it were conceivable that there were someone other than Him, then it would follow that this other could perceive Him. But God has informed us in His saying Eyes do not perceive Him that there is no other except Him. This means that no other than He perceives Him, that is, He who perceives Him is Himself. There is no other than He. He is the one who perceives His essence, not another. Eyes do not perceive Him because there is nothing but His being.

Whoever maintains that eyes do not perceive Him because eyes are transient and what is transient cannot grasp what is eternal and everlasting still does not know their self. For there is nothing other, neither transient nor not-transient, and there are no eyes which are not Him. He perceives His own being without the existence of perception, without condition and without other

.

I know the Lord through the Lord
without doubt or uncertainty.
My essence is really His essence
without lack or imperfection.
There is no otherness between Us
and my self is the place where
the invisible appears.
Since I know myself
without mixture or blemish,
I have reached union with my beloved
without distance or closeness.
I have received a gift overflowing
without any giving or intermingling.
My self did not vanish in Him
nor does the one who vanished remain.

If someone asks: You affirm God and you deny the existence of everything else, so what are these things that you see; the answer is this: These words are for those who see nothing other than God. We have no discussion with those who do see something other than God, for they only see what they see. Whoever knows their self sees nothing except God, but whoever does not know their self, does not see God. Each receptacle only exudes what is in it.

We have already explained a great deal and if we explained more, whoever does not see will still not see, understand or comprehend; but whoever does see, sees, understands and comprehends already. A hint is enough for the one who has reached union. As for the person who has not reached union, they will not arrive by theoretical teaching, instruction, repetition, reason or learning, but only by putting themselves in the service of an eminent master who has arrived and so is a wise teacher. Guided by light upon the spiritual path, and progressing through the means of their own spiritual will, they will reach in this way what they are seeking, as God wills.

May God grant us completion in what He loves and in what satisfies Him in word and deed, knowledge and practice, light and guidance. He is the power of everything and will respond to every true request. There is no power or ability except in God, the sublime, the magnificent.

Peace and blessings on the Prophet, his family and friends.

Awhad al-din Balyani
13th century Sufi, Persia

(Rendered by John Fridinger from a translation by Cecilia Twich)