Now there's a noise. This is our second class, meeting with myself and Yasir Kadli, and exploring in our respective Sufi and Zen traditions what is a good life. But we were just working on song. Yasir, we were talking yesterday, last week, about how the The Gimbre, which he was playing last week, was like a banjo. And this week, it's a banjo. It's not a Gimbre. It's great. Why don't you care a little about what it is? You start speaking and explaining and you take too much time.

[02:19]

Just be brief. We call this banjo called Svita. Svita. Usually it's a drum, a round drum like this, and they stick a broomstick to it, and they put the strings and it makes that high sound. It's similar to the band. days where the sun is always the same.

[07:18]

So we follow the moon. This month is the third month out of twelve. This third month is called Rabia al-Awl, first spring. It's the month where the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was born. And today in Morocco they are celebrating the birth of Prophet Muhammad. not just in Morocco, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, everybody celebrating the birth of the prophet. And so I sent a song about the prophet because it was the right thing to do. Today is the, here in America, the calendar is the 13th of first grade, or 13th. But in Morocco there, The 13th there today, yesterday was the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet here in North America.

[08:21]

It was yesterday, Wednesday, which is the 12th. The 12th is the day they celebrate every year, the celebration of the Prophet's birth. The Prophet loved his birthday. He was born on Monday. So he used to fast every Monday. So they said, why do you fast every Monday? He said, that's the day I was born. So he celebrated his own day by fasting. They usually fast from first light to sunset. That's the kind of pattern of fasting. So this song was about the prophet praising the prophet and also saying that Allah has the power to change in it and in the blink of an eye he can make someone who's really poor for a blink of an eye change to be very much like the possibilities this is land possibilities so Allah has a lot of possibilities and he said also he can make the Arah to speak back to you in that song they placed in the Prophet and Allah at the same time

[09:38]

That's the whole nutshell of this song. You know, in the Zen tradition, there's a saying that all beings preach the Dharma, including rocks, trees, oceans, that they are all speaking. And we may not be able to hear them, but they're all speaking. That's right. Yes, that's mentioned in the Quran. He said everything does vicar. Vicar is repetition because the whole universe has a pattern of repetition. Right. Like the hair on our head is one hair repeating itself.

[10:40]

Or walking is one step repeating itself. Or blinking is one blink repeating itself. And on and on. So they say every creation has their own repetition. But we cannot hear it. And we cannot understand it. But they do. They do. And that we call zikr. So when we join in a circle and we're making zikr of just Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah. We're not doing something new. We're just joining what's going on already. That's the same thing. Yes, it's very similar. One of the Zen stories, the student asked the teacher, about all things preaching the Dharma. And he asked the teacher, so can you hear it?

[11:44]

And the teacher says, no. And he said, well, one night he said, if I could hear it, then you wouldn't be able to hear me. So we have to listen for it, even though we may not be able to hear it. So I'm wondering, I have some questions, but I'm wondering if there are any questions left over from last week that any of you have been carrying around? Last week? Do you remember last week? Yeah, last week was not good for me. I apologize because sometimes my English people might listen to me sometimes. And so I have my guardrails. Sometimes it's... What do you mean by guardrails? My wife is my team.

[12:47]

She didn't say that. That was not good. Stuff like that. So that's why I'm trying to be more careful. Because we have to speak according to the level If you speak to another level, some other people say, what are you talking about? And I don't want to be in that place. So if I said something last week that was upsetting, it's not my character in me to do that. So that's why if you ask me questions sometimes, I might not answer what you're asking. because I might understand it differently. Yes, I was reading something from Rumi, Geraldine Rumi, by this American guy who translated his work.

[13:52]

Yes, that one. So he has one that's really good for this project, project these things about what makes a good life. And Rumi, he put it like that. He said, human beings should think like you are a guest house. You are a guest house. I don't know if you read this one about guest house. And he said you should welcome anybody who comes because they are your guests. Those who come, they could be a depression, joy, meanness, anything, you should embrace them all, because that's who you are, I guess. And then you should embrace them, allow them, don't fight them or something, they're your guests. I thought that was something about it.

[14:54]

We have a, in Zen, there's a, There's a formulation of a set of teachings about guest and host. Host and guest. And the way it unfolds, sometimes you are the host and sometimes you are the guest. And it's very important to be able to take either role you know, in a certain circumstance. Instead of being host, you're the guest. In the same way, sometimes you are the teacher and sometimes you are the student. And I think what we learn to be is flexible so that we're not caught in one position.

[16:00]

We're not fixed in that one position. So that's when I'm around you, I'm a student. And now I'm speaking and you're listening. So we're switching, we're trading these roles back and forth very freely. Yes. Yes. And that's the reason in the Quran is what you're saying. A lot of times when I ask some, a lot of Americans, say, you know about the Qur'an? Did you read the Qur'an? No. So they don't know what's in there. But what's in there? It says, He said, help each other. This is like the host and the guest. sometimes the host has more knowledge than the guest, then the guest should take from the one that has more.

[17:09]

And the one that has more should give to the one that has less. That's the exchange there should be all the time. And help each other. It talks about a group. It doesn't say by yourself you can reach somewhere. But you always find someone that knows more than you can take from them. And they also know that you need and they can give you. So give and take is the pattern that is encouraged for us to be. Yeah. One time when we were having some challenges in our community, Laurie said, she's my teacher. Laurie's my teacher. or one of my teachers. She said, well, where my teacher is ahead of me, I will follow. And where my teacher is not ahead of me, I will lead.

[18:15]

This is difficult because it's, it causes you to be flexible in your relationships with each other. which are usually fall into a certain pattern. The teacher usually feels like the teacher. But it's good for the teacher to be the student. And it's good for the student to be the teacher. When we talk about relationship, it's a perfect relationship. They give us an image that used to be knives and people didn't know about scissors so they created to put the two knives together they become one and then if the men and women are one the couple they're one then they point toward what they're going to cut in life high life sickness old age or something they're always together to cut

[19:27]

But they used to be separate. And then once they become together, then it's expected for them to go to life. That's what makes a good life. They're cutting to problems and to high life, low life, they're cutting. And the point of the scissor is also pointed out there. If the scissor breaks and then the sharp points are pointing at each other, we call the sharp point the tongue. And then the tongue, one word, you can never miss. You can always hit and reach your target with your sharp tongue. You can reach the heart of the other person and hurt them with one word. Yeah, you also, you can't take it back. No, once it comes out. Right. Once it hits its target, there's a wound or there's a scar.

[20:32]

Yes. So we have to, so this is a, in the Jewish tradition, there's the expression, guard your tongue. Yes, yes. We have two things to guard in the Muslim tradition by the prophet. He said, if we guard two things, I promise you others. One of them is the tongue. What's the other one? Your eyes. Or something that is in your body. Your heart. Heart. Heart? No, heart is okay. It's something else. He said, watch your tongue. Or he said, watch what's between your lips. Your tongue. And we said, and watch what's between your legs. And that, if you watch these two things, you'll be fine.

[21:39]

A lot of people get in trouble from either or both. Yes. We have some people that are good with everything, but they have a weakness there. And everything they do, they fall in that place. My son had this dog who was good with everything, except he had this problem. What does he do? He humped every other dog he saw. Doesn't matter. It's a male or female dog. All he tells me about humping. That's it. He passed now, but I can see that. And that can be, in human beings, they can be attached to this sickness. And that's why they say, wash these two things. Is there a celibate tradition in Islam? They don't encourage it. It's called to be a monk and not to deal with the world, not to have family.

[22:43]

It's not encouraged. But there's no order or anything? There are no orders or sects? There are. There are. There are. There are some ones that are absorbed with the divine presence. They cannot deal with it. regular life. They are. It's not the bulk. It's the particular. These are the elite in the illumination. They are in the dark level. There was one elite illuminated and famous in Tanta. Tanta is a place in Egypt. There's a great saint, his name is Ahmed al-Badawi. He never married, never was thinking about having kids or nothing.

[23:45]

This Ahmed al-Badawi, he used to live on the roofs of people. They call him the roof guy. And then he used to cover his eyes. He was like almost seven foot tall. He was born in Fez. Then he moved to Mecca. From Mecca, he moved to Tanta, there. His eyes had so much light. If people want to see him, if you look at them, they can faint and fall. And then the scholars from Egypt in the big school called the Azhar. Azhar is where they check every new thing, whether it's halal or haram. They heard about Ahmed Badawi, but they heard he never goes to Friday prayers, which is obligatory for men to go at noon and pray the Friday prayers, because Friday is a holy day. And that's why here they make it holy by saying TGIF.

[24:49]

They don't say it about any day. It's a Friday. But that means the week is over. We're happy. We're happy. They're not really thanking God. Yeah, for us, it's like that. They said, this guy never seen him on Friday. Plus, you can see him. He's like seven foot tall. He doesn't come on Friday. So they sent his scholars to him to, what do you call this? Scold. Scold him and said, you're a bad example. You have all these people following you. and making zikker and everything, and then the fun, which is obligatory to be, you're not there. You are false and fake teachers. So the guy was telling him this, and then by the way, he pushed this guy like that, pushed him like that. The guy fell back. He fell back in an island.

[25:52]

He looks around. What am I? An island. He doesn't recognize anything in that island. He was walking on the shore. He found this fisherman. Where am I? He told him you are in this island far away from Cairo. How did I get here? Then he starts regretting. I should not put this man down. I should not have that intention. Then that fisherman said, if you want to get out of here and everything, go to that mosque. There's a man there who leads Friday prayer. He went there. Who's reading the Friday prayer? That one. Ahmed Benawi was there. Then he came and said, you see what I do Friday? I do it here because I have these people together. Then pushing back, he came back to that place. He said, no, I believe you are a wadi or saint.

[26:55]

That one, he never married or has children, but he used to communicate with me. gins. They're made from smokeless fire. They have big beads, like a thousand of them. You can still see them in the mosque where he's buried. And each bead, he has the name of a gin that he used to. So he used to say words that are not in Arabic or anything. Different, totally different. The names of the gins. Gins, yeah, each one. One thousand beads, big ones. And he used to be on the roof. When people come to greet him, he will put those beads down and they shake the beads and say, ah, assalamu alaykum, how are you doing? What's wrong with you? Ah, my son is being caught by the French. The French, at the time, they want to colonize dishes. My son is there in jail. And then he will say, go home and find your son. And then they go there and there is his son.

[27:55]

the sun with the steel metal they were holding. And they have those metals and have them to show how he freed a lot of them. They asked him, how do you do that? He said, I don't know. I was in the chair. Somebody came and took me from there to here. Because they shrink time and space. That was the level of Ahmed al-Badab. It was one of the great things. Every year they have this, they call Ross, means his wedding day. Wedding day for these people is the day they pass. Wedding is I'm going to find, I'm going to be with one. So that's the greatest day. My death is my wedding day. Also Geraldine Rumi, same thing. His death is his wedding day. They call it wedding day, those people. Geraldine Rumi, he wrote so much, But when I came here, he was a jurist.

[29:01]

You know, the rules and regulations. And then he was also not just sitting in a zipper. He was defending the place where he lived. He was going with his best horse. He checked the best horse because he had horses. So which one is the best? You ride on it and go all the way to the borders to stop and fight the Mongol of his time. It was not like sleeping and just doing zikr. It was a mover. But here in the West, they made sure to strip out this Islam. They don't say it's Muslim. They don't want to hear that. Because people sometimes, they have allergy. If you say Islam, they start scratching. They have allergy. If you even say Allah, they scratch. They have allergy. Allergy. Allergy. Allergy. Yeah, allergy. My mind is going in two directions.

[30:04]

One is a story, a same story, which is totally the other side. It's an older story from China where a woman was supporting a celibate monk for many years. And she built a hut for him and brought him food every day. And he would just meditate silently. He was a holy man. And one day she began to wonder, what's really going on here? Is there something, you know, I need to test it. So she sent her young daughter, her beautiful daughter, into the hut. And she took off her clothes and took berated in front of the monk and then left.

[31:10]

And the old woman goes to the monk and says, what about that? And he said, Something like, the withered tree grows on the rocky peak. And with that, she burned down the hut and kicked him out. Because to be devoid of feelings, of human feelings, is not the objective of... the vision of complete awakening that she understood. Do you follow the story? So, yeah. Basically, if you have a passionless person, then they have nothing to work with.

[32:16]

If he has no passions, then he has no work to do. And if he's not responding to this beautiful young girl, there's something not alive in him. So this is very much the complexity of this introduction, where you have both sides. You want to be free, not free from your desire of success, but free... in your desires, and yet not yielded them. Still, you know, guarding your tongue, guarding what's between your legs, but not pretending that there's nothing that comes up in your mind or in your body that is going to affect you. So it's a different thrust to that story.

[33:17]

So you were talking about a couple of directors. One, you were talking about the scissors. So I think that there's certainly questions that people have about the role of women, relationships between men and women in what they hear of Islam. or what they see in the media, which to me there's all kinds of Islam and there's also patriarchy in virtually every religion that we could think of, including Buddhism. A lot of it is in the culture that these religions emerged from. But I wonder if you have something that you could share with us about how you feel men and women are in your vision of Islam.

[34:44]

You know, the prophet, peace be upon him, peace be upon all of them. A man came to him and asked him, give me advice. He looked at him, he said, take care of your mother. I said, OK, give me another advice. He again said, take care of your mother. He said again, give me another advice. He said, take care of your mother three times. Then he said, give me another advice. He said, then take care of your father. And this in the Muslim world, they take it at heart that the mother is sick. It's called Ummah to be a nation. It's from Ummah, mother. Ummah. So that women is sacred. So the sacredness of a lady is described in the Holy Quran that has, you know how many chapters are in the Quran?

[35:53]

There are 114 chapters. There is one chapter that is named after Miriam. Miriam. Miriam is mentioned in the Quran 38 times. Miriam is in the Old Testament, right? Yes, the mother of Isa, which is called Jesus. That is the symbol of sacredness from the Muslim world. That's why she has a whole chapter in her name. No other ladies are mentioned by name except her. The whole Koran, you don't find ladies that she did this, or she, even Sarah is not mentioned by name, Abraham's wife. Not mentioned by name. Except Miriam. Even her mother did not mention my name, except Maryam.

[37:00]

So the Koran gave you that symbol. Now if you imagine in your head Mary, you can see her attire. You see the sacredness. You're never going to want to see her without covering you. She covers. So the Muslim world they like to cover the same way what we call hijab. Cover because ladies are sick. So there's... There's the Koran and there's the world. Yes.

[38:02]

And both of them are the Koran. There are two. There's the written Koran and there is Koran. Everything that you see is written. So there is a writing Koran the creation Qur'an, because we have two. So those who don't know the Qur'an may know the creation, and whatever they see, they find it mentioned in the Qur'an. And those who study just the Qur'an, they can see later, oh, the Qur'an said about that, there's a connection. And that's mentioned in the Qur'an itself. One is the Kitab al-Masfoor, the words that are written. And the other one is wal-lawhin al-mahfoor.

[39:05]

In this nature that we are living in. So they go hand in hand. But even if the only woman mentioned in the Quran is Myriad. Yes. in this world, half the world is women. What's your instruction? What's the instruction that you're given about how women and men share the world? It's not to black out the sacredness of women. and mostly mothers. They are sacred for the Muslim men. In Islam, women are sacred. They are not to be dealt with as a tool for commercial, to attract people, to use women because they need money to use them like that.

[40:19]

That is not what Islam That's the goal. The goal is sacred. If the lady thinks herself sacred, by herself she will move in a holistic way by themselves. If they don't know this information, they can be lured for money or for fame or for whatever it is, that leads the world like that. And that's because we have free will and choice, that sacredness is part of Islam, that they want you to look at every woman as a sacred woman. Therefore it tells, oh man, all your gaze. And therefore that, oh women, all your gaze. Because when we say a thief,

[41:22]

For rubber? There's also rubber for the tires. For the what? Tires. Tires? No, he's confusing robber and rubber. Oh, rubber. Yeah. Which one is the thief? The robber. Rubber. I don't think there's any difference between the robber and the robber. They're all the same. And what do you put on your car? This English. It's crazy. Air. In Arabic storage, for example, lying. How many words do you have to describe lying? How many are there lying? What? In Arabic, lying has ten words. Ten to say lying. That's because, you know, there weren't a lot of lions in England.

[42:26]

Probably more lions. There are many, many names for this, for one thing. Many names. What I was thinking, you know, there's an evolution of the Buddhist tradition, which is troubling and complicated. You talk about women being sacred. Yes. In the early Buddhist tradition, in order to become a Buddha, in order to become awakened, you had to have a male body. Women were not initially seen And then at a certain point, the Buddha made some pronouncements. And we don't know actually what happened, but the way that women were seen began to shift as the culture shifted, I think.

[43:41]

But there's also a long tradition, even in the Japanese Buddhist tradition of women as unclean, as perhaps the opposite of sacred. And there's an internal dynamic and struggle about that, which is not particularly relevant in our modern terms, but we're still working with it. We're still working with the transformation of our communities and with the development of women as religious leaders.

[44:47]

Part of their body they use to steal their hands. And we think that's it. But there's another way of stealing is to steal with the eyes. These ones, stealing with the eyes is very, very subtle. The Quran mentions to say Allah is aware when you steal with your eyes. Therefore, they say you should lower your gaze. To lower your gaze, for the man that is past 40, they tell you walk with the stick, not because you need stick for your legs or knees. The stick to keep looking where your eyes go, where you step. And then the prophet, most what he looks at when he walks is his feet.

[45:48]

And he avoids stealing with his eyes. Who? The form of ladies. So if a lady is coming like this, a man is going like this. It's fine. Hi, hi. Good morning. Good afternoon. The woman keeps on walking. But the man turns to steal with his eyes. the form of the lady. That is a sin. If you keep on stealing and stealing and stealing, it gathers dark dust around the heart. But you're not aware of it because it becomes, yes, it's our right to look. It becomes a habit. Habits. And then now they can even invade you in your own house. If you say to someone in your house, Somebody knock and you open and you find a naked lady. Can you invite her in? You say no. But then they come in to the TV.

[46:53]

TV. They come in there, and then you sit down, and you start stealing with your eyes. And Allah said in the Quran, . You know , means you are a thief. with your eyes, thinking that nobody can know that. That's the false inside of you. You think nobody is aware of this. Therefore, they said, lower your gaze, because Allah is aware. So most of what the Prophet looked when he walked is his feet. To avoid this. And women too. He said, lower your gains too. This is more dangerous for the men because their eyes, they like to steal.

[47:55]

How to change that? You have to look at women as secret. Then you don't look at them with the eyes of desire. You don't know their intelligence, their soul. You don't care about that. You only look at the materialistic and the desire pleasure well desire is you know seen as the primary source of suffering in Buddhism to say the Four Noble Truths to say life is marked by suffering what's the cause of suffering because the suffering is attachment desire reactivity But all these things are part of the same mental formations. And they have a very evolved notion of what we call karma.

[48:59]

Karma is volitional action that is the manifestation of mind, speech, and body. So it's not just what you do or what you say, it's also what you think, which is exactly what you take in through your senses, right? You take in through your eyes, through your nose, through your ears, and touch. And those are potentially, they have a potential effect on how you live. What happens, what's the causes that What's the effect that flows from those causes? Want to open up questions, thoughts? Please.

[50:01]

There must be something on your hands. Yeah. I don't really know exactly what my question is, but in the beginning of the talk, you were talking about how all objects expound the dharma or the sacredness of all aspects of reality. And then when you're talking about these kind of gender dynamics, there was this way in which I think part of my question is, what is the special sacredness of women that is distinct from just the inherent sacredness of everything? Is that different? So let me repeat that. question as I hear it so you can hear it online. Mark was asking, what's the special or particular sacredness of women as possibly distinct from the sacredness of everything?

[51:03]

Is that correct? Do you understand the question? Yes. Is a woman more sacred than a rock? Yes. Of course. There is something that is connected with when we say Bismillah, the name of Allah, and then we say Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim. Ar-Rahman, most merciful. It comes from this word Ar-Rahman. Ar-Rahman is the woman. That is the sacredness of ladies because of the womb. For all of us, when we do a ceremony for marriage, it said, be aware of the wombs. Because we want to introduce that to people of different belief.

[52:05]

Even if somebody is atheist, they cannot say, I came from a tree. I need to come from a womb. He said, no, we all came from a womb. The womb is the specialty of ladies. That's what made them really sick, is the womb. And the womb, from the womb, Allah created the word Rahman. And the womb is Rahm, Rahm. Rahm means mercy, Rahman. because Allah took care of us when we were in the womb without the mother getting her hands in there to feed the baby or something. No, something else is taking care in that place, sacred place called the womb. And that's what the Quran says about the ladies. And also, there's 114 chapters in the Quran. One chapter was for Miriam. The only woman mentioned my name

[53:07]

38 times. Another chapter is called Al-Nisa. Women, whole chapter for women only. Have you read the Korah before? I read parts of it, but not the whole thing. Yes. In a class at a divinity school. You can zoom on the chapter called Women. There, Allah speaks on behalf of women. He said, if you ask me about women, let me tell you. Allah speaks like that. So that's the sacredness. That's what makes them, their value is different. And we have to be respectful of the womb that we came from and other ones who have the womb. Doesn't matter. That's the special. On our altar here. Yeah.

[54:08]

We have the Buddha, and then that figure beneath the Buddha, that is, the figure is called Prajnaparamita, who is also one of the epithets for that is, Prajnaparamita is the mother of the Buddha. And you can see it's a very, it's a very feminine figure. And so, It's also representative of, and we also talk about, the womb. So we have various ways of expressing the totality of the universe. And one of the ways that that's expressed is as Tathagata-dharva, which means the womb of the Tathagata. So when we talk about the universe, the universe is that from which everything emerges.

[55:11]

And that's characterized as, that's from which life emerges mysteriously. It's complete mystery. You were talking about how child is growing within the mother, and yet the whole body, without any instruction, without any, you know, without our doing anything, the body is nourishing the child to the moment at which it comes forth. This is beyond our understanding. Completely beyond our understanding. You know, maybe only the Buddhas of Allah can understand that. Other questions? What does Buddhism say about abortion?

[56:20]

That's a really interesting question. I don't know that it says anything in particular. I think it becomes... This comes back to one of the places that I wanted to go, which was to talk about the law and discipline in our respective traditions. The law, the rules that were established, were rules for celibate nuns. And then by extension for celibate nuns. that celibacy is a given, right? And so abortion doesn't, you know, doesn't make it onto the list. So we have to, each of us has to struggle with what our understanding is of that act.

[57:34]

And, you know, we bring here, you would bring a modern sensibility to the questions, which means we might think on either side of that, right, in ethical terms or moral terms. But there's really, I can recall, maybe if someone knows differently, you can contradict me. I can't recall any direct instruction about that. What does Islam say? What does Islam say about abortion? The choice of the mother to spouse. Nobody can interfere with that. And then what the prophet said about the womb, he said at the beginning the sperm comes with the egg and they

[58:37]

have a play, and he said it was for 40 days with each other like this. Another 40 days, they hang. They become like a hanging. You've heard that before? You agree? No, I have heard it before. You've heard this before? Another 40 days, so three 40s. How much is that? That's four months. Four months? Yeah. After four months, they say the soul comes in. When the soul comes in, at that time, there's a soul. Before that, it's only the house where the soul is going to come. That's what I, last Thursday, I was talking about this. And I think I didn't explain it really clearly.

[59:40]

So that's what the Prophet said. So before that, from zero to four months, there's no problem if you don't feel like you want to have this. But after four months, you're dealing with the soul that is there. That is the Islamic teaching. and the choices in the lady not anybody should interfere with what the lady wants to do there's more details but this is the general general because after that they said angel comes when the soul is in there the angel comes and they write the future of this new And then we do that here, but we don't pay attention to it.

[60:43]

There was a long time when you came here, when you have a TV, then they have a little book on top of the TV. They call it TV Guide. TV Guide. It has all the programs. Even before the program happened, the program is written there. What's going to happen? The angels, they also, they know the program. Allah tells them, being is going to go left or right. They write all that program. Even though they have free will, they can change if they are sitting with a master that can break the ego tunnel that they are inside. They can change it. That's also written in the divine TV Guide. And they wrote on that how much you're going to eat, how much you're going to drink, air, and the expiration date. Sometimes we go take some milk, and my wife, she looks at the expiration date.

[61:47]

We can do it to the milk. They don't think they can do it to us. They do. But we don't know that expiration. Because of that, we can live a happy life. If you know you're going to die here and there, you will lose all your weight. It's good for losing weight. Worried. It's a great weight loss program. Yes, there's a lot of details and I don't want to share something. I was thinking, so last week, just now, you were speaking about basically how The vision of Allah is all-knowing. Knowing all that has happened and will happen.

[62:51]

Yes, is that correct? Yes. And what occurred to me that the difference between... We keep trying to put it into... We try to put that understanding into human terms. which is impossible and it impressed me that for the way you were speaking of Allah and you were speaking in a very it was from a mystical dimension but in that dimension there's no time is there gender? no we say Allah but Allah He created the gender. He is beyond gender. Also, he created creation. He is not the creation. He created time, but he is not in time.

[63:54]

He's not in time. No. He created time. There is a surah in the Quran, a small surah. It started time. all human beings are on like going down here except if you have faith because even though you don't see Allah or other you should believe there must be something and seeing that we could have faith and then after that those who do good deeds and actions there are four faith, do good actions. And then what awasaw will haqq, and speak with each other about truth. And truth, if you simplify it in an equation like mathematics, you'll find an agreement between all the people.

[64:59]

If you put it in the most simplest way, you can say that 2 plus 2 is 4. Period. Everybody agrees. Between that 2 plus 2 is 4, there is guardrails. To not change that truth. Now, if people are greedy, then they say 2 plus 2 is 5, because they want one more for themselves. Or if they are stingy, they will say 2 plus 2 is 3. And that's outside the guardrails. They are not following that path. 2 plus 2 is 4 in the road or the freeway. There is a guardrail, but it has a destination. The destination is Allah. But He wants you to reach Allah. You have to be on that 2 plus 2 is 4 and continue with that truth. And don't get into another road where they permit.

[66:03]

They say, yeah, 2 plus 2 is 4, but sometimes 2 plus 2 is 5. because we need tax and we need this. And some, they don't want to give anything. They say, well, two plus two is three, because they're stingy inside of them. They can affect to their juggling the tools and making it to be different, and then sweeping the people, or making them to follow a wrong way. But they have to stay between those. a lot of rules and regulations on the God way. Right. Yeah, Zachary. I'm thinking about how kind of a key Buddhist teaching is non-separation. I guess I'm wondering, in the Sufi tradition, is Allah a separate being from all reality? Is there some essence that is a lot that is separate, like sitting outside of time?

[67:05]

all that we experience, or is it just the manifesting of all things and the continuous emergence of all things? Allah, there is nothing like Allah. Whatever you think Allah is, it's not. It's in your own imagination. Also, we can say Allah is not here, because this is infinite. But you cannot say he's here, because we can that's why we say la ilaha illallah la ilaha there is no God illallah but Allah both of them they go together yin and yin like that and yet we say how to believe in faith and that faith You cannot have evidence that Allah exists or doesn't exist.

[68:07]

It's only pure faith. There must be something. We deduct that from the singularity, how it started with the Big Bang. Boom! Everything started. What created that? That singularity to explode. And in the Quran it said everything is running away from each other. We are expanding, expansion. Always the expansion going on. It started from there. Then we say, well, nothing cannot stop that. Because nothing is nothing. It has to be something. That's something. Yes? Help me. Well, he wants, he's asking, I think, is Allah separate from the creation. You can't say separate or separate. It's both.

[69:07]

It's both. That's his answer. So that's non-separation. That's parallel to Buddha nature. Buddha nature is not a thing. You can't identify, you can't point to Buddha nature, which pervades. This is where, in our particular tradition, in one of the traditional teachings, it says all beings have Buddha nature. And what the founder of our Zen tradition in Japan, Dōgen, he re-translated that expression to say all beings are Buddha nature. Because to say to have Buddha nature means to have something, some essence within you that is apart from, that's separate.

[70:20]

But to say you are, it's like all of existence is the expression of And I think that's a key to what you're saying about Allah. Allah said in the Quran, I am closer to you than your own jugular vein. Like that? Yeah. So that means we all have jugular vein. It means Allah is there. So according to who is that person, some they can feel that presence because they're in that level. And some they're covered with layers and layers from their eyes and what they what they're covered with and from whatever pleasures and this and that and that. So there are different levels. But if you come to a high level where that oneness, that person doesn't speak on their bihar. It's Allah speaking through their mouth. These are the elites of the elites of the chosen ones that are spread on this planet.

[71:23]

And in the Sufi, tradition we say there are hundred and twenty four thousand elites who Allah's presence you can feel it without them saying a word as soon as you see them you feel God's presence without saying a word because they can't so it's according to the levels so in order to manifest as one of those 124,000 is there a path to that? is there a path to become one of those? yes how do you do it? you stay between the guardrails the rules and the regulation and you have a target you're targeting Allah and they have love you want to know and they have a lot of love then if you ask

[72:24]

those illuminated ones, to show you that Allah sends those people to you, and then you become connected. Because there's a lot of people that speak about Allah, but they are disconnected. They only speak about what they read in books, and they're not connected with their master, you say sheikh. So there are the munfasil, the ones that are not connected, and mutasil, the ones that are connected. The ones that are connected goes all the way My Shaykh, for example, I know who is Shaykh and who the other one, the other one. You can go all the way up, up, up, up to the Prophet. And the Prophet with Angel Gabriel and then Allah. They all got connected. If that connection is true and then firm and you have certainty, then you can be part of this. And each one of these 124,000 lightened people They take from a source of a prophet that is similar to them.

[73:28]

If one has the love of the prophet. Particularly if one has the love to heal people and love them and he's a wanderer. He never stops. He goes from place to place wherever he happens to be. He sleeps there. We take that one is Esaui. He takes from the source of Jesus. It's similar to him. Some others are similar to Abraham. which they are surrounded by Allah. When somebody speaks to Abraham, he should look down. And the people, they say, ah, he's humble and everything. But no, he knows that it's Allah speaking to him through that. So yeah, that's like that. And each prophet has something particular. And these are the sources. And all the other 124,000 of them, they have a connection to one of those prophets. That's it. Actually, that's parallel. In Buddhist traditions, there are countless bodhisattvas.

[74:36]

And each one has a particular characteristic. In some of the texts, each one has a name which expresses their particular skill. You know, I could sing you a song on that one. And we have, so for the guardrails, we have what are called paramitas, perfections. These are bodhisattva practices, so they are generosity, morality, patience, Effort. What am I forgetting? Medication. Wisdom. Oh, that's it. Six. Six paramitas. And each one of those, wisdom, is the one that pervades all of them.

[75:43]

Wisdom is what makes it, it's kind of the catalyst for all of them to become, not just plain virtues, but actually bodhisattva practices. And so we say these are the practices of the bodhisattvas who are enlightened beings, awakened beings. It's what they do naturally. They don't have to think about these things as aspects that they have to cultivate. But for us, we have to take them on as particular practices. You know, we have to practice generosity, we have to practice morality or discipline, practice patience, et cetera. That's how, that's the way we aim, and you were using that word last time, that's the way we aim to, to become, um, polysatops. And then we're embodying these particular characteristics.

[76:49]

It's similar, yeah. I think someone can ask questions. Yeah. Other questions? Any questions? Actually, I haven't looked. Are there any questions out there in Zoom land? Does anyone want to ask anything? Can you raise your digital hand or just speak up? Carol, welcome back, by the way. Thank you. We can't hear you. Oh, you can't hear me? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me? No, you're still muted. You must have, on your vacation, you must have forgotten how to use Zoom.

[77:52]

I don't know. I'm not hearing. Oh, wait. I can hear you. Okay, here we go. Try again. All right, thank you. I've just come back from Istanbul, and I love that country and learned more about your religion. And I went to a whirling dervish performance, I guess we call it a performance, and learned more about that practice. how it expresses, you know, your love for Allah. Can you say something about it and how it's viewed with you? So the patron saint of this twirling dervish is Rumi, called Yaladi Rumi.

[79:02]

That's his full name. He was with a student debating which one carries who? Does the soul carry the body or the body carries the soul? Which one? So to demonstrate for them that the soul is more important than the body, he stood up and has one hand facing up and one hand down. Turn. When he turned, he started to lift. When he started to lift from the ground, he proved to them that the soul is carrying the body. Now, everybody turned that nobody was able to... Their ego is so heavy. That's how it's done.

[80:05]

Well, that's great. Thank you. Anyone else in here or out there? Well, I can sing you a song about Bodhisattva. Yes. Is that okay? Go for it. You've all heard of this, so please excuse me. It's kind of our theme song. . which is very old, comes from India, and it's been turned into song here.

[81:21]

And those of you who know it, they sing the chorus. Bye. And these were the folks who exercised great power and authority.

[83:17]

But my boy, he never conserved himself.

[83:21]

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