The cave, the sun, and God

I have found myself listening to quite a bit of Mumford & Sons music lately.  Their style and sound are so unique in today's musical generation, and I find their lyrics always get my mind pondering.  One of my favorite tracks by them is called "The Cave."

Now, from my understanding, a lot of their lyrics having Biblical undertones, however one of the verses in this song in particular has always caught my ear.

"So come out of your cave walking on your hands
And see the world hanging upside down
You can understand dependence
When you know the maker's land."

For those that are familiar with the works of Plato, this rings loudly of his "Allegory of the Cave" found in "The Republic."  For those unfamiliar, or in need of a quick refresher, here is a quick excerpt from good ole' Wikipedia:

"Plato lets Socrates describe a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato's Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners."

Tied with the allegory of the cave, is the metaphor of the sun (again, stolen from Wikipedia):

The eye, Plato says, is unusual among the sense organs in that it needs a medium, namely light, in order to operate. The strongest and best source of light is the sun; with it, objects can be discerned clearly. Analogous things, he writes, can be said of intelligible objects (i.e., the fixed and eternal forms that are the ultimate objects of scientific and philosophical study): 

When [the soul] is firmly fixed on the domain where truth and reality shine resplendent it apprehends and knows them and appears to possess reason, but when it inclines to that region which is mingled with darkness, the world of becoming and passing away, it opines only and its edge is blunted, and it shifts its opinions hither and thither, and again seems as if it lacked reason. (The Republic bk. VI, 508d; trans. Paul Shorey) 

By "the world of becoming and passing away" Plato means the familiar visual or perceptual world we see around us. Thus if we attempt to understand why things are as they are, and what general categories can be used to understand various particulars around us, without reference to any forms (universals), we will fail completely, as if [we] lacked reason. By contrast, "the domain where truth and reality shine resplendent" is none other than Plato's world of forms--illuminated by the highest of the forms, that of the Good. Since true being resides in the world of the forms, we must direct our intellects there to have knowledge, in Plato's view; otherwise, we are stuck with mere opinion of what may be likened to passing shadows.

So how does God come into this equation?  Well, within Islam there is the paradox of tanzih and tashbih; that at all times we are completely and utterly independent of God, but at the same time we share all the same attributes as Him, because for us to exist, He had breath his spirit into us.  To analogize, God is given many "names" in Islam, or "attributes."  One of the most commonly given names of God is mercy, therefore a Muslim would say that God IS mercy.  So under the concept of tashbih, since we all share the attributes of God, we can be merciful; but under the theory of tanzih, we can never BE mercy.

Ok, so how does this relate to the allegory of the cave and the metaphor of the sun.

Well, another common analogy in Islam is that of light, in relation to nearness and distance of our souls and God.  As you may remember from high school science class, when you see an object, your eyes are not technically seeing the object itself, but the reflection of light upon the object.  So let's say you are standing so far from a light source, that when you look down at your body, you see almost nothing.  There is so little light emitting onto your person that you are dark, void of details and life.  As you move closer to the light source, the more your body is illuminated, and all the details that make up yourself become visible (the color of your skin, your hairs, your wrinkles, etc.).

Now, if this light source is a man made light source, artificial light if you will, it can affect the way that you appear.  Not just your person, but also your surroundings.  If you have a flashlight in a dark room, you only see what the beam of light allows you to see.  Compare that to the way the world around you appears when illuminated by the Sun, which is widely considered to be the "purest" source of light in our existence.  It illuminates and provides light/life to our world without any human alteration.  As much as human made light attempts to illuminate the world around us, it can never offer the complete illumination and perspective of the light emitted by the Sun.

Now consider the light emitted by God.  In Islam, God IS light, He is the purest generator of light in "our" universe, our existence.  It is said that the closer we allow ourselves to become to God, the more his light illuminates our souls, the more beauty we see in the world, and the more we reflect his attributes of mercy, compassion, love, etc.  In contrast, the more we remove ourselves from God's light, the more our souls feel distant from him, and devoid of the beauty He shines into our existence.

So that sheds light on the metaphor of the sun and it's relation to God (pun intended), but how about the allegory of the cave, and Mumford & Sons?  I mean, wasn't this whole rant triggered by a couple of lines in a random song?

Well, many people live their lives confined within the cave.  They build their opinions of the world purely on man made shadows and illuminations around them.  They attempt to make sense of tragedies and other things in the world purely through comparison to their interactions with, and expectations of, other humans.  In doing so, they may never fully understand their existence, because their perspective is restricted to only those illuminations created by man.  In their attempt to make sense of the world around them, they never allow the purest source of light to break through and illuminate the entire world around them.

Pretend you are standing on the surface of the earth.  A light is triggered on and illuminates a group of five people murdering an innocent person.  If that is all you are allowed to see of the world around you, your opinion of the world is that it is a dark evil place.  If instead a light is illuminated and all you witness is a single person tending to and caring for a group of sick persons, your opinion of the world will be that there is sadness in the world, but there is goodness as well.  It is only through illumination of all of your surroundings that you can gain a proper understanding of your world, and how the things within it interact with each other, and they they interact the way they do.

Just as one must remove himself from the cave of man made shadows in order to fully understand what the world around him looks like, we must remove ourselves from the cave of only human interactions and expectations, and let the purest source of light illuminate our souls for us to gain a proper understanding of our existence.

And that is why I enjoy the music of Mumford and Sons.

/rant

Time to make some chex mix and watch football!

To which religion does Christmas belong: Christianity or Capitalism?

I am currently on winter break between my Fall and Spring semesters of law school, and while most of my law school classmates are singing the praises of being able to do absolutely nothing for a month, my inner nerd is screaming for some type of intellectual stimulation.  The idea of reading a single sentence from my Spring semester law books makes my brain cry for mercy, so that's out of the question.  However the large stacks of unread non-law books weighing down my book shelf should fit the bill quite nicely.

One of the books in particular has been sitting on loan from one of my law professors, and has topped the "you should really try to read this book someday" list for over a year now.  The book is titled "Progressive Muslims," edited by Omid Safi, and contains over a dozen individually written essays on a whole range of topics concerning Islam.  Over the last several days I have finally put a dent in this collection of knowledge, and a portion of the 2nd essay entitled "In Search of Progressive Islam Beyond 9/11" by Farid Esack has really stuck out to me.

With it being the holiday season, the western concept of "Christmas" cannot be ignored.  With consumerism and capitalism overflowing from window displays, television screens, and stereo speakers, I find myself growing increasingly tired of this holiday.  Don't get me wrong, there are certain aspects of this time of year that will never grow old.  A short-list of holiday related items that still bring me happiness:

• "A Charlie Brown Christmas," both the TV special and the brilliant musical composition of Vince Guaraldi
• "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"
• "A Christmas Story"
• Christmas trees
• "Elf"
• Any and all food items that are delicious and seem to only appear this time of year
• Christmas specials of the following TV shows: Garfield, Rugrats, Family Matters, Rocko's Modern Life, Hey Arnold (seriously, why does someone always start cutting onions when Helga helps Arnold track down Mr. Hyunh's long lost daughter?!), Kennan and Kel, Ed Edd & Eddy

Anyway, you get the gist of it.  

At this point I feel I must be honest.  At no point in my life have I ever associated the feelings of joy that I derive from these things, or any other Christmas-related item, with the birth of Jesus Christ.  Do I believe that Jesus Christ was born?  Yup.  Do I believe that he was a prophet of God?  Yup.  But I have never associated my affection for Christmas with his birth.  Instead, my affection with Christmas has always been an association with all that I find to be beautiful in the world, which I would argue is mostly aligned with what Jesus taught to his disciples.  Loving your family and friends, using human creativity to beautify the world around us, appreciating the natural  beauty of God's work (the world looks so incredibly peaceful when it snows, makes me think of a world without human corruption, but that's another rant), and above all the over arching theme that we should give, that we should dedicate our time and our money to help improve the lot of those who are not as blessed as we are.

As I grow older and wiser I realize how this innocent perception of what Christmas should be, has become nothing but a commercial assault on the American public, preying on the consumerism of our culture.  How companies that build their fortunes on the backs of the poorest in the world, turn around and use these messages of "loving thy neighbor" to convince you into not thinking about what country, and what person, had to suffer to put that product on the shelf in front of you.  Christmas is still a religious holiday, but to what religion does it now belong?  Does it belong to Christianty, or capitalism?  This brings me to the essay I discussed earlier, which I will quote a portion of below:

Harvey Cox has detailed the way the remarkable similarities between the description of God and the Market as omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.  Here I want to briefly deal with the way we relate to the Market as God and to Market Capitalism as religion.  Adherents of the Free Market see their lives driven to the worship of the One All-Powerful and Jealous God: Capital.  Underpinned by its theology—economics—it has numerous huge temples in the form of shopping malls where people are increasingly being drawn to by deeply unfilled inner needs; for which the temple, church or mosque were earlier viewed as adequate.  (“I shop to feel good”, “I go to the Mall to hang out”).  The connectedness with both God and community provided by the temple has now been supplanted by the highly individualized and anonymous encounters between cashier and consumer.  These temples of consumerism often display a determination to drive out all the smaller little corner churches propounding insignificant little heresies such as “the humanness of chatting to your own friendly butcher”.  The major symbol of this religion, that “Golden Arches” of McDonalds, has driven out that other symbol of a now old-fashion religion, the crucifix of Christianity, as the most widely recognized symbol in the World.  The arch is telling the crucifix: “The Lord, Your God is One; You shall have none others in my presence.” 

Many who have remained nominal religionists find their lives rotating around the worship of Capital and like suicide bombers drive themselves to death as sacrificial lambs (or martyrs) at the altar of “success” in its service.  “Shop till you drop” is a basic creed of faith.  It is difficult to leave one’s home or switch on one’s TV without being confronted by its missionaries or having a pamphlet thrust in one’s hand (“Convert Now Or You Will Lose Out!” “Buy Now - The Sale Ends Today!”) So successful, however, have their missionary activities been that people restrain their annoyance at these intrusions to the Jehovah's Witnesses.  The Religion of the Market also has an eschatology, even a theory of the “End of History”; Paradise awaits those who believe and hell those who reject or who fail - or have failure written in their destiny. ("The unemployed are just lazy", "The poor shall always be with us.").  Images of the ideal of “the Glorious Lounge”, “The Perfect Toilet for you!”, “The BMW accompanied by your very own sex-bomb”, correspond to images of paradise presented by other religions that sometimes have their own sex-bombs, Houris - or a few - thrown in as an added incentive for martyrdom.  While very few can ever hope to “possess” the ‘Houri’ accompanying the picture of the BMW, hope springs eternal. 

The struggle against countries which choose an independent economic path is unashamedly described as a “crusade” with collateral damage ("There are no innocent victims in our crusade against Cuba. Their children dying under our sanctions are either the offspring of infidels so who cares. We are doing it for the Greater Good.”).  Damnation awaits those who do not share the beliefs of its adherents.  Belief is important; for believers will always fall short as practitioners.  The vast majority of believers in the Market are destined to be failures simply because the market economy success can only come to a minority.  Its paradise, after all is founded on an earth that has limited resources.  This fundamentalism of the Market seeks to convert all other cultures in its image, utilizing them for consolidating the system.  In the aftermath of 11th of September, several spokespersons for the USA, including Colin Powell, have linked ‘anti-terrorism’ to the adoption of “free trade” policies as the dual requirements of allies in the “you’re either with us or against us” doctrine of the Bush Administration.  The Market is thus being openly presented as the only way with the assertion that outside its pale there is no salvation for the world, only hell-fire of destruction, or the limbo of ‘primitivism.’

I do not intend to promote the idea that if you celebrate Christmas by going shopping and giving presents that you are somehow a bad person.  I myself have purchased several presents to give to my family who still celebrate Christmas.  I guess the whole point of this massive rant basically comes down to the phrase, "be sure to remember the reason for the season."  Corporations have blurred the line between capitalism and Christianity so much that emotional desires such as doing good for others, which are rightfully associated with the Christian origins of the holiday, are now subconsciously linked to the desire to spend money, in order to make those around you happy.  This idea has been created in our culture that if you don't buy the right gift, the right amount of gifts, that if what is under the tree isn't up to par, than you have failed.  My own mother used to have anxiety attacks over making sure she bought me and my sisters the right gift, the right amount of gifts, that she would have enough money to give us a "good Christmas."

Christmas has gone from serving as a reminder of a feeling of community and responsibility to your neighbor, which should then be carried all throughout the year, to a one month worship of the Market, where we are told that we all must do our part to make sure it stays alive and strong.  I would argue that the more time you spend reflecting on why Christmas should be important, the more you will realize that it is the same reason every single day should be just as important.  And the more you realize that every single day is a chance to do good for others, to spend time with family, to reflect on how you can become a better person, the more you will purge yourself from this Market induced idea that it is only to Christmas that these feelings belong, and it is only through purchasing gifts that you can fulfill those needs.

As I start to purge myself of this subconsciously planted idea, I start to realize what I have always loved about Christmas: funny cartoons, relaxing music, pretty lights, and a season where the ideals of moral good are promoted widely.  Even though I am Muslim, I like to believe that it is possible to take Christmas back from Capitalism, and return it to Christianity, where ideas of salvation through moral goodness can be promoted, instead of salvation through shopping sprees.

Would you not like to be, sitting on top of the world with your legs hanging free...

"I can't believe that we would lie in our graves, wondering if we had spent our living days well. I can't believe that we would lie in our graves, dreaming of things that we might have been"

Tranquility, peace, love, harmony... stated hopes, dreams, and aspirations of many in this world. When one secludes themselves away from the different cultures and people of human kind, these might be easily achieved goals. When you don't let other people's lifestyles interact and invade your own, it's easy to live a perfectly peaceful and tranquil lifestyle... but wouldn't you always wonder what might have been had you exposed yourself to the chaotic world around you? What if you challenged you're own world, you're own sense of security? No matter which side of the line you are on, the majority or the minority, what if you sat and thought for a second that maybe, just maybe, you don't know what the other side is really thinking?

Judging people is easy. To take something that someone says, or how someone acts, and spin it to easily fit them into a category within your own world of definitions is one of the most convenient things we as humans can do, it's also one of the most self-destructing habits I see in life. I catch myself doing this from time to time, and work everyday to take each person into my life as their own separate unique definition.

To truly open your mind up to the fact that you know very little about this world, and the people in it, is a difficult task, but it is a task worth taking head on. Even though cultures collide, personalities clash, and people will always be crazy, it's the fact that we are all so different and unique that makes the journey so fulfilling.

What a boring life it must be to never have to challenge your own thoughts, to never meet someone that defies all your perceived ways of thinking, to never really take the risk of putting yourself in a situation where you aren't in control and have to rebuild your perceptions of people and your surroundings from the ground up.

The days of lying in my grave are well behind me, and I welcome all the crazy and chaotic moments that come with it... I think.

Into the void

I know this feeling... it's the same one I had in early August last Summer when I packed my life into the back of my car and backed out of my drive way on the way to California... I guess the best word to describe it would be "emptiness."

That's not to say that my life is empty, far from it.  I have an amazing family in Seattle, and some friends there that I wouldn't trade for the world.   I also have been blessed to meet some pretty great people down here in San Jose, some of which I'll be moving in with next year.

So what's with the emptiness? I guess it's the perfectionist in me, the idealist who is never satisfied.  When it comes to the painting that will be my life when all is said and done, I have a general idea of what I would like it to look like, but in the grand scheme of things I only have so much control over the brush strokes that compose it. Sometimes that one little spot in the top left corner that I've had planned out for the past 10 years gets covered up by paint running down from the area above it. Other times I'm minutes away from filling in the blank spot right in the middle, when I run out of the color I had planned to dip in to. These feelings are all too familiar, the sense of last minute panic, excitement, that feeling of planning everything out, and life saying "nope, sorry, we're gonna take a sharp left turn here instead." But, that's not what I'm feeling now.

No, this feeling is something else. It's when you've made a rough pencil sketch on your canvas of what you're pretty sure you want, but just aren't sure how to fill in the details.  No one you know has ever really done anything like it before; and up until this moment, you were doubting if you could even do it yourself.   It's the moment where the crazy idealist thoughts you've been having are about to become a reality, and you have no idea what they are going to look like as they unfold.  It could end up being one of the most gorgeous parts of your canvas, or it could end up ruining everything you had planned.

For someone who has a bad habit of always wanting to plan out the future, this is that moment of emptiness, where you really can't plan at all, life just won't let you. But that's what I love so much about it.  In a few weeks I'm boarding a plane to spend two months in Australia. This guy, the one who has never traveled off the west coast, whose only "abroad" experience is a weekend in Vancouver, Canada.  All practical reasoning says I should stay here, look for a job, network, not spend money on traveling;  but you know what... I really don't want to do any of that, so screw it.

I've come to believe that this emptiness is a good thing. Sometimes it's nice to wander into the darkness.  The stresses that come with always worrying if you are on the right path or not disappear.

Twelve months ago I came to a fork in the road: go down the predictable and established path, or head down the one less traveled. I came to a similar fork in the road several months ago, and in a couple weeks I'm about to plow straight down the middle, and right into the great unknown.

I made this blog because I think a lot, probably way too much, and I figured what better time to start putting these thoughts onto "paper" than now, as I prepare to head into the void. No matter what shape I come out in, I'm determined to take in as much as possible; so even if I end up living in a van down by the river, I'll have some pretty awesome stories to share with you all.