faith

"I cried because I had no shoes, and then I met a man who had no feet.” Sufi poet Hafiz

To attain spirituality is to realize that the whole universe is one symphony in which every individual is one note" (Hazrat Inayat Khan 269).




Safeed Fareed says "in actuality nothing is separate, there's only the appearance of separateness" (Fareed Interview). How can everything be one in a world where contradictions are clearly present? He says that contradictions "reconcile in a paradoxical kind of way." In order to conceptualize the existence of Oneness, it is first necessary to move beyond certain barriers in our way of thinking (Fareed Interview). When I was at the Sufi class, they also talked about contradictions. They said that instead of switching from one opposite to the other, that we should embrace both opposites at the same time. What allows contradictions to "reconcile" in a person's perceptions? In order to create some ideas relating to this question, I thought about the times when I have felt the most united. This experience usually happens after my thoughts have become quiet and I become focused. I most often have this sense of unity when I feel a large amount of love for someone or something or when I am using my creativity in some way. Both of these things that cause me to feel united are related to the appreciation of beauty, many times in places where beauty often does not seem obvious at first.

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3281

http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~religion/newifo/religions/alternative/index/sufism/essay.shtml