No.5-Artistic Inquiry

I thought that to begin our foray into thought we might begin with a difficult subject: the abstract nature of the artist. Jalal ad-din Muhammad Rumi was a great poet, and spiritualist from the Sufi mystic tradition, which is a branch of Islam. His love poems, most referring to God in one way or another, are amongst the great works of penmanship in history.

Below is a translation of a poem called “A Star Without a Name”:

• When a baby is taken from the wet nurse,
• it easily forgets her
• and starts eating solid food.
• Seeds feed awhile on ground,
• then lift up into the sun.
• So you should taste the filtered light
• and work your way toward wisdom
• with no personal covering.
• That’s how you came here, like a star
• without a name. Move across the night sky
• with those anonymous lights.

Rumi’s poem refers to a person’s soul, or individual spirit. His unique voice conveys the effortless way a baby seems to live right. Notice how even the hardest of heart seem to melt at the sight of a baby, they cannot help but recognize that the baby is living the way we all wish to. Babies do not commit crime, acts of violence, or think selfishly. The only tendencies that show any selfish concern is in the baby’s demand for love, and if one really ponders that desire can it be considered selfish. For once a baby is familiar with anything, or any person his love automatically encompasses that object. A baby is incapable of withholding love from any object within the realm of its environment. As the baby grows into an adult it is taught by example, and sometimes even in words that there is such a thing as hatred. The young adult begins to deem himself a righteous judge presiding over a court which spans the width and breadth of the known universe. Yet some seem able to recapture their natural state of all-encompassing love, isn’t that what saints really are? Buddha, Jesus, Moses, the first Hindu sages, Muhammad are not foounders of religions, but men who realized their nature as divine souls or “Sons of God”. Spurred on by this realization, they saw with deep insight that this capability was within every soul, in fact this way of divine living was the natural state of human beings. So dropping our various closely held ideologies, can we all believe in an all-encompassing love? The very love that we exhibit for a short period after our birth without any effort? Is it possible that this love is after all second nature to us, and will come easily if we embrace it whole-heartedly? Finally, why do we hold ourselves back from the gift of this beautiful love?

Please join the conversation! You may or may not believe in your own power, but just for the sake of experimenting, try and see if you can change your paradigm, and thereby begin to change the world…

No.4- Understanding the Blogroll

Along the path of self-discovery, I want to share the great ideas that I run across on the web. For most blogrolls, people link to sites that are somehow related. Given the vast reach of thought, it seemed appropriate to me that the links in the Meditated Musings Blogroll should span a variety of inspiring sites that cause one to pause in contemplation of the hard work that goes behind making our world as glamorous and glitzy as it seems. So enjoy!

No.3-History’s Great Ideals

The ideals that I support here in the Meditated Musings Community are really the ideals of some of humanity’s greatest citizens. From the Bible to Einstein’s explanations of his Theory of Special Relativity, examples abound of how humans at the core want to leave peaceful, productive lives. Let me hear quote some of my favorite thoughts. They will come from Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus, and Albert Einstein. It does not escape me that these great souls are all males, and it is my sad observation that women have been systematically silenced for millenia. Therefore, I invite the readers to join in and contribute quotes from females about ideals to live by. Also, I want to clarify that gender is not in consideration in our community; I do not recognize you as a male or female, but rather as my fellow human being, or Divine soul. Further discussion on that topic however is for another post.

• Albert Einstein: A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
• Mahatma Gandhi: In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.
• Jesus: You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:42-45.

Thank you for your kindness in gracing this community with you presence!

No.2-Rules of Conduct

As a reader of Meditated Musings, I ask that you follow a few simple rules in replying to the posts. Not only do I hold you to these Rules of Conduct, I expect that you will keep me in line when I happen to forget them. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, your Rules of Conduct:

1. Try and make statements that you think will help others to sort out their feelings, and thoughts.
2. As much as possible try to cover new ground in your comments: repetition rarely furthers the discussion.
3. Please use your words to convey peace, love, and all that goodness.
4. If and when a person makes a mistake, try not to take it as a personal attack. Simply notify me of the problem and I’ll talk to that person.
5. Violation of the peace, love, and all that goodness vibe of the Meditated Musings community repeatedly may result in a user being blocked from commenting until Sharat Buddhavarapu and the offender resolve the problem.

If this article needs to be updated to match the rules that are laid out in it, do not hesitate to point that out.

No.1- Introduction

In opening Meditated Musings, my purpose is in discovering my metadata about my personal thoughts. I want to know why i see the world the way i do. Discovering my point of reference would in effect remove me from this paradigm. No longer stuck with one paradigm, I would be free to wander the realms of thought, free from attachment to any one point of view. Being freed from that one point of view, i would also be free from selfish compulsions;  a state where my thought is not attached exclusively to the limited realm of my own experiences, and the conclusions i garnered from these experiences.

If you are reading this blog, I hope my “musings” will inspire you to go on a quest of your own. A quest of self-contemplation in relation to one’s essential nature. The end of the quest will mean acceptance and compliance with some of humanity’s loftiest goals, what one might call divine callings, ie peace, love, and the realization of the unity inherent in the universe. Why strive for these goals in times when socioeconomic crises seemingly demand our attention? It is my belief, and history may bear me out here, that our paradigm of “instant gratification” is a dangerous one. Without paying proper attention to the details of the far-reaching effects of our thoughts, ideals, and actions, we will force a future generation to have to deal with troubles which they did not cause.

So setting our sails toward the horizons of the vast universe of thought, you and I shall explore the darker and lighter sides of the human perspective. My ultimate goal is to arrive at a Self-realization, or what Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, and other great meditators have said to be the realization of the truth of God. I do not wish to preach an idea that I do not practice, and neither do I wish turn off readers who don’t believe in a God. I simply want to offer a second paradigm; my request is simple: read, contemplate, converse. If you can follow this constructive process, this blog’s purpose will have been served. I do not want to convert people to any religion, or even the idea that there is a God; I hope people will come to this conclusion, but I do not expect it of anyone. By encouraging thought, and discussions I want you to gain knowledge, insight, and wisdom you hadn’t possessed before.

If you can think clearly from several perspectives, then I believe that you will be able to solve any economic, social, and political crises affect you. When you use this ability, you expand your capabilites as a human being, establish self-esteem, and begin to respect several different viewpoints. In other words, you become a pleasant, sociable, and intelligent person; qualities that most people appreciate in friends.

Please also read:
• Rules of Conduct
• History’s Great Ideals