the imam at the bangli masjid, with a voice like maple syrup and smile like the hare krsna teacher from mysore, said that ramadhan is like a bootcamp, an academy of training, like the military. he said that the purpose of military training is to prepare the soldier for the battlefield. ramadhan exists, the imam expounded, to train you for the battlefield of the maya, the illusion of materialism, consumerism, sensory desires...
...nyc, my shiatsu teacher said to me recently, on a bus ride back upstate, is an assault on the senses.
tamasha, my ammu says, they say in bangla, the illusion of something happening, the crowd forming to spectate around the spectacle, but nothing's happening, or as they would say in south india, nothing doing...
the pakistani imam that led the second prayer i attended said that just as islam is being shaped to appear crazy, that instead of operating from a place of reaction and rage, we should exercise democracy, by participating in the democratice process. get involved, he said, in participating in the communities you live in. civil engagement to ensure a better, more harmonious union.
the ethiopian sister at the sufi masjid, when i asked her what the wisdom of this ramadhan was for her, said speechlessness and selfessness. i was speechless. all praise is due...speechless.
how was your eid? inshALLAH well.
unlike a birthday where all the focus/pressure is on celebrating a single i, it was nice to celebrate collectively, like it was all our birthday. it was. for a month, we surrendered together, gave up these senses and placed full faith in the Essence to make it through, a suspension of dsibelief in desire, lust, these cravings...and somehow it happened...even if your approach to ramdhan, to fasting is that it is a nuisance that you can't wait to be over with, that you are just starving until dusk, perhaps, at some point, during a quiet moment, you will have a reflection on what you are capable of accomplishing, that you are more than your base, lower i...
blessed b'earthday to the surrender, the surrenderers, even in regions chokeholded by the pangs of neo-colonial tricknology. blessings to the wolves in lambs skin. they even sold their lambskins on the market when i was a shorty. the desperate masses of hood bought them in droves, to look like the babylon kings. got shot. sheepskin shorties got shot. r.i.p
rest in peace for lives robbed. the millions mowed who appear without a name or a story. prayers for the snipers, "murderer, blood is on your shoulder; kill i today, you cannot kill I tomorrow." praayers for them to be more compassionate.
the lesson from this ramadhan, for me, is that everything passes, even this body, even within this lifetime. saw it wither and pass. been rebuilding. rebuilding takes work. otherwise default on obesity. work. everything is work. work is worship. the takeaway this ramadhan is to actualize, to build, to be fearless in the doing, to do it in the state of Witness...
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