The Magnetic Third Eye That Attracts Attention, Spiritual Meditations, NewAgeIslam.com

Spiritual Meditations

The Magnetic Third Eye That Attracts Attention

Osho

Posted: 19 January 2010

When Greek philosopher Pythagoras reached Egypt to enter a school -- a secret esoteric school of mysticism -- he was refused entry. And Pythagoras was one of the best minds ever produced. He could not understand it. He applied again and again, but was told that unless he goes through a particular training of fasting and breathing he cannot be allowed entry.

Pythagoras is reported to have said: "I have come for knowledge, not for any sort of discipline." But the school authorities said: "We cannot give you knowledge unless you are different. And really, we are not interested in knowledge at all; we are interested in actual experience. No knowledge is knowledge unless it is lived and experienced. So you will have to go on a 40-day fast, continuously breathing in a certain manner, with a certain awareness on certain points."

There was no other way, so Pythagoras had to pass through this training. After 40 days of fasting and breathing, aware and attentive, he was allowed to enter the school. Pythagoras reportedly said: "You are not allowing Pythagoras in. I am a different man; I am reborn. You were right and I was wrong, because then, my whole standpoint was intellectual. Through this purification, my centre of being has changed.

From the intellect it has come down to the heart. Now I can feel things. Before this training I could only understand through the intellect, through the head. Now I can feel. Now truth is not a concept to me, but life. It is not going to be a philosophy, but rather, an experience -- existential."

http://newageislam.com/the-magnetic-third-eye-that-attracts-attention/spiritual-meditations/d/2396

Islam and Inter-Religious Dialogue, Islam and Pluralism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Pluralism

Islam and Inter-Religious Dialogue

By Maulvi Syed Nikhat Husain Nadwi

Translated by Yoginder Sikand

Some people argue that each culture should be allowed to grow on its own, in isolation from others. This suggestion is simply unworkable, because if a culture restricts and cocoons itself in this manner its rapid death is inevitable. In today’s world, no culture can even conceive of, leave alone claim to, exist isolated from other cultures because every cultural group’s very existence is now so heavily dependent on other groups. Global progress, peace and welfare are a common need and a shared aim of all the communities of the world, without which each community cannot properly prosper.

Some other people are of the view that each culture should be given full freedom to expand, even though this might mean that one particular culture finally dominates the entire world. Yet, this is a sure recipe for conflict. The same result would follow from another approach to inter-cultural relations that is rooted in a vision of cultural hegemony that refuses to tolerate the existence of other cultures and seeks to wipe them out or else subjugate them. Obviously, this is a totally unrealistic approach. It is also a negation of a basic message of all Divinely-revealed religions, according to which all human beings are made of the same basic substance and are offspring of the same primal parents, and that, till the Day of Judgment, all human beings will remain tied to each other through their shared humanity. This bond of humanity that knits together all people is the primary, most basic and strongest of all relations.

http://newageislam.com/islam-and-inter-religious-dialogue/islam-and-pluralism/d/1585

William S. Burroughs vs. The Quran By Michael Muhammad Knight, Interview , NewAgeIslam.com

Interview

William S. Burroughs vs. The Quran By Michael Muhammad Knight

by Richard Marcus

In William S Burroughs Vs The Qur'an Knight details how his search for his place in Islam inevitably led him to an earlier generation of white Western converts to Islam. In particular he tells of his attempt at writing the definitive biography of his Anarcho-Sufi hero and mentor Peter Lamborn Wilson, also known as Hakim Bey. The first part of the book is taken up with his recounting his times spent with Wilson and excerpts from the biography he's destined never to finish. We learn that Wilson's Islam has its sources in both the experiences of Burroughs and other Beats (Paul Bowles, Alan Ginsberg and the rest) in Tangiers during the years of the International Zone and the Moorish Science Temple of America founded by Noble Ali Drew of Chicago.

http://www.newageislam.com/interview/richard-marcus/william-s.-burroughs-vs.-the-quran-by-michael-muhammad-knight/d/7269