surah vii: the heights

"He it is who did create you from a single soul" (vii: 189).

the enlightened of the world recognize this.the enlightened exist in the heights, they can see from the heights,

"And the dwellers on the Heights call unto men whom they know by their marks: What did your multitiude and that in which ye took your pride avail you?" (vii : 48). the enlightened are known in yoga as masters, as people who have awakened their kundalini and in turn the subtle paths of energy along the ida and pingala channels, all the way through to the crown chakra. their 3rd eye is wide awake. they move fearless through soho shops, wall street bankers and lower east side projects.

the enlightened diminish the walls of their bodies in reaching into the One.

from brahma -the great nothingness, the maha consciousness, the realm of sattva, arises akash, vayu, agni, jala, prithvi - the elements that manifest as the doshas ayurveda has come to be known for - vata, pitta, kapha.

from a single atom...

adam fell prey to the need for more, for lust, took from the tree, even though he was warned to stay clear of iblis (shaitan/satan/lucifer/). even after adam was a testimony to the impeccable power of Air Land Liquid Atmosphere Heat to be more than just each of these elements.

adam's fallibility leads to the expansion of atoms, leads to the eve of ascension and, a constant flow of generations, of 6.5 billion on earth, plagued by the responsibility to reconnect, to get Higher. we have a great duty before us in our healing process. i wish you prayers in your healing. hugs, love, love you.

surah vii lays forth the equanimity of action, of karma.

all of our actions have a consequence, whether we can immediately recognize them or not. our words remain in the universe forever, bounce from tongue to ear to brain to heart to smile to hurt, to heartache, to fright or flight or plead, please, begging, knees, down on my knees girl - you can have it all - the house, the keys, the car. action, reaction. inhale exhale, attach, detach.

surah 7 reminds us to heed beyond the indriyas (senses) and connect the manas (mind) with the atman (soul) and avoid placing too much emphasis on adam, on these atoms that comprise you, which without proper practice, leads to the realm of punishment,  of fallibility into the trap of shaitan. this happens when you grow arrogant in your costume, when you put too much emphasis in this skin that is withering everyday, that holds an expiration date like a bottle of milk. bout to spoil. time is running out, debdas baul, sings, as he whirls in the hills of border bengal, between bangladesh, india and the transcendental. peace to the bauls.

so bow down. bow. touch your head to the ground. if you do so for an intimate other, do so in connecting to that soul that they are encased in, if you do so for another person, as you should, bow to the divinity in them, that is the single soul that is in bear and kangaroo and owl and pigeon and dolphin and chakma, and shantal, and baluchi, and waziri, and masai and taino and hopi and mong and kurd and comet and valley and jade and all praise to them. also bow down when no one is around, bow to the Great Mystery, to the fabric of it all.

among the spirit life, among those who already treaded on the earth and beyond it, iblis refused to prostrate. "i am better than him," iblis said of the formation of adam. "thou createdst me of fire while him Thou didst creat of mud," iblis said, referring to adam, referring to the protons and electrons that gave way to cells that formed into tissues that formed into the 7 dhatus referred to in ayurveda - rasa, rekta, mamsa, meda, asthi, majja, shukla. the story of lucifer is understood among muslims, christians and jews. the devil was an angel whose arrogance, whose refusal to bow to the atomic being of adam, led to his banishment, led to his contract to exploit the weakness of humans.

audzu biilahe minash shaitanur rajeem.

iblis is us. iblis lives in us like the parasitic worms i tried to flush out of my system during my december fast and almost did so.

karma. action reaction, my yoga teachers laid out for me in india. our deeds have consequences. so we reap what we sow, thus the need for Guidance from the gurus of the heights, from the enlightened ones. thus the need to humble up and listen or dwell in the static energy that leads to hell. hell is a consequence of action, is the cess pools that run like stale urine and defecation along the broken streets of bangalore.

 prophets were sent to provide us direction, be our gurus: "We sent noah" (59), and aad (65), and salih (73), and  moses...

"lo! they who deny Our revelations and scorn them, for them the gates of heaven will not be opened nor will they enter the garden until the camel goeth through the needles eye." (vii : 40)

the revelations are the scripture of life, of soul, can be heard in the mountains as moses heard them when he spent 40 nights there, after being so distraught by his people's constant questioning of him, even after he saved them from pharoah, even after he successfully negotiated the safe passage of his people through the parted sea.

"and we brought the children of israel across the sea, and they came unto a people who were given upto idols which they had. they said. o moses! make for us a god even as they have gods." (vii: 139). the israelites exemplify our desire for acceptance, our easy assimilation into what glitters, into being literal and looking for quick and easy solutions. "and the folk of moses, after, chose a calf, out of their ornaments...saw they not that it spake not unto them nor guided them in any way?" (vii: 148).

prophets, messengers, enlightened ones, yogis, gurus, arrive at their Arrival with a tuning fork so great they Harmonize and offer the perspective of Divinity, of the laws. but some of us hate hearing about laws, of accountability.

i'm a rebel to suits and ties, but also to sagging pants and new era hats, and also to dread-locks and images of yogi-being, of what it looks like to be spiritual - babylon. i am rebel to laws that benefit the exploiter class and penalize the soul class. but, as the book ishmael has taught me, as the rise and set of the sun and the seasons have taught me, there is a mathematics to this as ancient as the parched earth. this is observable.

none of us are above the law, even though we act like it, even though we have our middle fingers up to everyone and anyone in between us and whatever we want to do whenever, however.

we want evidence to everything, proof that there are laws - there is no proof that ayurveda works, i hear. the proof is before us. not even prophets can provide answers to sealed hearts. even the prophets have recognized their limitations: "knowledge thereof is with ALLAH only. He alone will manifest it at its proper time" (vii: 187).