TARIQA: Commonly translated as “path,” but here understood to be LIFE as every microcosmic expression of the life-living-dying etc is part and parcel of the path itself. The fulfillment of tariqa occurs both self-aware and ignorant since all beings “go” willingly or unwillingly.

HAQIQA: Usually translated as “Truth,” however here translated as THE MERGING OF DIRECT AND PRE-SOCIALIZED EXPERIENCE WITH “IT” IN A SIMULTANEOUS IMPLODING OF BOTH SHARI’A AND TARIQA WITH OR WITHOUT HUMAN PARTICIPATION. It is Chogyam Trungpa’s “blue pancake” and the clap of the zen wood block. It simply is and your Kali-severed head. ]]> http://baraka.progressiveislam.org/?feed=rss2&p=148 http://baraka.progressiveislam.org/?p=147 http://baraka.progressiveislam.org/?p=147#comments Wed, 16 May 2007 13:49:49 +0000 Baraka B Current events Booklet http://baraka.progressiveislam.org/?p=147

Here is the first of what I hope will be a long and creatively booming adventure. Basically these booklets will be what Baraka Bashment could be if I was more html savvy. You can expect a deliberate and intentional attack on institutionalized anything and the oscification of mystic inquery. Also, you’ll hopefully find attempts at re-appreciating, re-investigating, re-elaborating, and re-evaluating the always already anarcho-mysticsm that is everyday life (with of course some direct perception-bending action).
If you’d like a copy just send me your address via this comment box thing and I’ll send you one free while I can.

All the best,

BB

PS- Hakim B, MMK, and DA already have copies being delivered. Thanks!

I’m making a booklet.

It’s gonna be an extension of this page.

I am still baffled how people become so into airing their “feelings” and making their diaries public. It’s weird to me. I never liked keeping a journal. So I never did. The thought of being like “I feel like [this] today” and waiting to here a bunch of strangers confirm it is weird to me. SOOOOOO weird. I just don’t get it. In a way I’m doing it right now. WEIRD.

Aliens would definitely look at it as a sign of the alienation overall society feels. Throw out a net. Screaming out the window: Does anyone else feel like I do!?

Or is it a backlash against concrete/non-linear poetics to have cyberspace flooded with base confessionalism?

Eee gads.

In either case… I’m moving over into hard copy print matter, cause tactile is the only tile.

It’s gonna be chant down babylon stuff with a heap the world is an anarchic non-thing exploding in our faces while fascists try to kill you slowly with chemical foods type of thing.

If you want it when it’s done (a few weeks for issue one) get me your address.

Roughly 20 pages of quick read and imagery.

P,B

Some of these next few are repeats but updated as I am putting together a manuscript. A number are brand spankin’ newbie.

Do you not see that all creatures
in the sky and on earth glorify God—
even the bird on a wing?
Each one knows its prayer and manner of praise.
Qur’an 24:41

The outline of the human figure is often hard to perceive. The farther one stands the more blurred our once pristine reference becomes as it merges into innumerable Others. And yet, approaching the Other gives us a similar lack of outline. The closer we investigate—the deeper we dig—the human skin once again loses interest in its definition and dissolves into a deviant migration from one atom to the next. Tendon yields to wormhole yields to the unnamed. The human being! The assumed form of context and experimentation.

However, the irreducible rarely remains as such. Always a work in process, this culmination of interest, ecology, language, salt water, and breath constantly defines and is instantaneously defined. The senses relay to the totality a category of responses. Upon utterance the deliberately almost-constitution—now a human-thing—walks with a (not always) invisible burden. This human-thing, no longer a work in process, is idolized and immersed in the corporate plasma of social admen. The continuous unfolding becomes frozen in time.

Do they seek something other than the religion of God,
to Whom all in the heavens and on earth
have submitted, willingly or unwillingly,
and to Whom they will be returned?
Qur’an 3:83

If God is (not just) the uncontainable totality of is-ness, and Islam is a peaceful surrender to the already immersed nature of the human being into this is-ness, and to be muslim (not necessarily a Muslim) is to be a person who willingly or unwillingly submits to these conditions, how than and to what does the plasma stick?

Rock. Tar sticks easily to rock. Feathers stick easily to tar. On the road to Mecca there is rock, tar, possibly feathers, and a number of road signs. One sign in particular dictates that all Muslims may stay the coarse while all non-Muslims must exit to the right. The questions one must ask are: does this sign describe anything real—anything possible? Who in the desert must really veer to the right? If a person exits to the right, does the road continue to turn right until it places the human-thing where it previously veered? Does the exit from the road to Mecca even exist? Can a person really veer in any direction? Are we not all willingly or unwillingly enveloped by the perpetual manifestations of Truth?

The world as experience exists as an infinite number of potentials. In the constructed social realm (how social this realm truly is has yet to be seen) people do in fact turn right—people whose identity does not coincide with the dominant identity construct. All non-Muslims must exit, which ironically enough includes muslims who do not bare the title Muslim™. At its best, radical monotheisms consider all beings partial to the same divine motivation, thus challenging egocentric sectarianism and categories beginning with “non.” Radical monotheism recognizes a common breath that manifests in as many ways as there are people to in fact breathe. To restrict this breath is to provide only a straw through which to suckle air, over time converting raw brainpower into a lethargic brain damage.

However, this strangling of the process-human is by no means limited to religious affiliation. The human-thing is a perpetual manifestation of the linear narrative that careens through the mind upon noticing an Other of notable interest. Atheism may strangle. Pantheism may strangle. Communism may strangle. Monotheism may strangle. Anarchism may strangle. Post-postmodernism may strangle. The common thread is the common narrative where ideological borders solidify and condemn those outside the gates to subjugation. This narrative typically plays out as such: Two people are walking towards one another at which point the mind begins to construct a flawless personal identity that in turn maintains an Other’s flawless personal identity. Here is a person doing the “business thing.” S/he is an asshole. I probably wouldn’t be able to talk to him/her about anything. They are against all that I believe and therefore is an enemy and needs to be avoided. At best I will ignore this person.

One way to even begin to recognize a subversion of this common scenario is to possibly follow this person (to whatever degree this objectifies her/him and makes him/her a goal I am not sure) and proceed to engage her/him in the most lengthy conversation possible-making sure to ask many questions. With a sense of humility the conversation may yield a transcommodified experience—one in which the minute orchestra of cellular activity is (sub)consciously appreciated. Mind you, this is not a goal. And this is certainly not an attempt to have us “get along.” Rather it is a simple practice of moving away from engaging with the representation of the Other (via film, TV, newspaper, etc.) towards engaging the Other directly, taking notice of the subtle body language. Smelling the breath. Hearing the voice among other voices. Remarking about someone’s cough. I don’t expect us to like this so-called Other, however, I expect us to recognize its humanity. It’s a very preliminary and small step with possible radical implications.

The questions still remain, however. Is talking to a stranger revolutionary? Will it lead to a global or even local dialogue? Are we using strangers for our own therapy? Have we merely fashioned them into golden calves? Is the exit from the road to Mecca an expression of samsara, a blessing, both, or neither? Maybe we should first get in touch with our loved ones. Have we listened what they have to say? Have we asked? And when they answered have we heard?

I was 9.

The first recording I made was that same night when I took one of my step-brothers “sound effect” records, put on the track of helicopters, turned up the volume, plugged in my new working red trash-guitar and hit record on my Texas Instruments tape recorder and made a “song.”

It was a love affair ever since.

The first band I decided to learn every song by was Black Sabbath.

From here I jumped into anything German and noisy. And from there I discovered Sonic Youth “Confusion is Sex” and Sonic Youth “Sonic Death” followed immediately by Michael Gira’s The Swans “Kill the Child: Live ‘85-’87.”

Needless to say this has a major impact on a pre-teen’s musical tastes.

When I go back to my mom’s house and look through my old mix tapes I smile at how I managed to make the mix-tape series titled “METAL” 1 thru 7 include such diverse bands as Jane’s Addiction, King’s X, The Cure, Iron Maiden, Kiss (with make-up), The Black Crows all under the genre metal. Awesome.

Over the past few days I have been reinvestigating my noise-violence music leanings that I had left about 8 years ago. Things don’t seem to have changed much, and I’m happy about that. The Japanese are still mutilating ears more than ever and the American scene is still as diverse as it will always be.

Last night I began digging through a whole stew of old homemade cassette recordings of mine and converted about twenty six tracks of noise etc to cd to remix.

This on the heels of playing roots folk traditions for the past year or so.

Dub/dancehall on the decks.

I will sing for the most disturbingly brutal noise band ever if asked.

etc etc

Most practitioners I have come across respect the diversity of the tradition enough to make this disclaimer when talking about their yoga practice. This specificity pleases me, because I realize it must be an insatiable drive to want to consume the entire history of kundalini yoga, in all its complexity, and represent it back to the public as a singularity conveniently encompassed by their specific teacher. Anyone who’s studied Islam for five minutes can attest to the many “One True Islam”s that are really store-fronts for a specific teacher, lineage, and ideology. The same goes for all the great traditions. Behind EVERY pamphlet is an organization. Behind every “Pure Religion” is a guy writing books cutting down someone else to build himself up. And behind every translation is a fund.

Yogi Bhajan’s take on the practices of kundalini rising are very specific to YB, and yet in essence his methods are all based on the traditional sources. I know this because I have made it an almost part-time job “checking up” on YB. All the great traditions demand that you see for yourself the validity of the teachings. I appreciate this and take advantage of the request at every turn. Truly nothing is sacred until it is sacred. This is important, since there have been many times where I have been in a yoga class singing “Happy am I. Healthy am I. Holy am I.” while thinking to myself: this CAN’T be right!!! So, I look around. I check up on YB to make sure I’m not being taken. I can honestly say that what I have found has pleased me.

2.
YB’s lineage is a Sikh one (I believe he was actually raised Christian and converted at a young age, I THINK), which differs in some ways from the Hindu tradition. Admittedly, kundalini yoga as it comes from the Hindu tradition does not seem to incorporate “happy songs” (at least not in the books I have read), and these traditions also seem very skeptical, almost paranoid, about facilitating these practices in group form. For example, the Sivanada/Satyananda tradition doesn’t even allow people to engage the kriyas (complete “sets” of practice including mantra, pranayam, and movement simultaneously. For example, sitting in rock pose with hands on shoulders turning left to right, while breathing in to the left and out to the right silently chanting Sat Nam [True Name, or “Truth is your identity” as the teachers translate]) before years of traditional hatha yoga, dietary changes, stints of celibacy, retreats, courses, seminars, which add up to roughly five years or more of study (at least according to one woman I spoke to on the phone recently). YB’s approach is much different.

KY as per the SSS is a system that puts the practitioner directly in the center of the practices. While there are a few levels of in-depth study (where you become a teacher, YB is quoted as saying he was not teaching students but future teachers) on the whole the classes are for all levels of experience, since in the end KY is about you versus you. KY as per the SSS is a system that immediately works the body over. And by that I mean completely changes the physicality of your body. It tones it. It stretches it. It shapes it. It cleans out the cobwebs and dissolves the knots in the different spots. After all, it’s yoga. My understanding is that through this freeing up of the body through the body itself, one makes room for the kundalini, the latent clarity or potential in all people, to move up the spine through the shushumna (central nadi). (You know that feeling of “I feel more whole and complete. I can take on the world.” when your body is “in shape?” That’s in a way the latent potential, only slightly different in make-up). So in a way this is no different from the Satyananda tradition where the body is “prepped” for kundalini practice. However, my understanding is that YB felt that regardless of where you were at emotionally, physically, spiritually, the practices he gave (and there are literally thousands) would have a positive effect on you because the practices themselves had an effect on you. Kind of like the way you’re going to get some what of a better vocabulary if you read a lot, even if your hearts not in it. And similar to Chogyam Trungpa’s take on Ati Yoga, or Maha Ati/Dzogchen, if you aren’t ready, you won’t hurt yourself since the important stuff will simply float by. One cannot see what one has no reference to see.

PRECAUTIONS: Consult the doc and all that. Always take cold showers in a warm bathroom. Never exit the cold water into a cold room. Be smart, not a martyr.

First: Turn on only the hot water so as to make sure it’s up to speed
This serves two puposes. 1. It allows me to regulate the temperature more easily. 2. If I need to bale, I’ve got a quick out.

Second: Hang towel against the hot water pipe so as to warm it up while I’m showering
Cold showers are not masochisms. They serve a physiological purpose, so there’s no need to punish myself. That warm towel feels good after ANY type of shower!

Third: When water is hot turn it way down and add the cold making the water a “cold-chilly” temperature
Yogi Bhajan is an extreme teacher in many ways. Very much an “Oh the water in your town is freezing? You’re lucky!” sort of teacher. I myself am much more “Do what works for you, but let’s not lie to ourselves” in my approach to this. My belief is that if the water isn’t cold enough you just end up shivering since the blood isn’t rushing to your skin cooling you off. However, if the water is icy (which it is in Brooklyn this time of year) my heart feels like it’s going to stop and it’s just painful. So I make sure the water’s right in that cold, but not icy spot.

Fourth: Put one leg in. Chant “Wahe Guru” over and over again as I place my other leg under the water followed by the rest of my body.
“Wahe Guru” is kind of the Sikh form of God is Great! No two things are the same, so I’ll leave it at that. Chanting Allah is also recommended, however I have stuck with Wahe Guru. I liek to follow a system for a little while until I get the ego-bugs out. As far as the parts are concerned, the belly and back are the hardest to love in cold water. With time these dips get a little easier though.

Fifth: Suds up! And keep the water cold
As I shower in this chilly blue, my body temperature seems to rise. Not sure if this is possible, but there is definitely a sensation of heating from the inside. This is a sensation that many people report. It has something to do with the blood rushing to the skin. So as this happens I continue to turn down any last remaining hot water and up the cold, making sure the physiological effects of cold showering maintain.

Sixth: Turn off the water when done and reap the benefits!
The pleasure begins immediately after the water is turned off and the warm towel hits the body. Muhammad is said to have commented that part of the beauty of the fast is in the breaking of it. This is also true of the cold shower. While there is no doubt a pleasure in feeling your body heat up in cold water, there is an even more exhilerating sensation when your body leaves the water and enters the air temperature with all that blood flowing. So far (and I have been doing this style of showering on and off for only a month or so) I have had experiences of euphoria for up to an hour after showering. This is followed by a nice calm and clear-headedness throughout the day.

BENES LISTED FROM THIS SITE

*Brings blood to the capillaries, therefore increasing circulation throughout the body.

*Cleans the circulatory system.

*Reduces blood pressure on internal organs.

*Provides flushing for the organs and provides a new supply of blood.

*Strengthens the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.

*Contracts the muscles to eliminate toxins and poisonous wastes.

*Strengthens the mucous membranes, which help resist hay fever, allergies, colds, coughs.

Many health problems are reduced or even eliminated over time by providing proper circulation of the blood to the affected area using the cold shower massage.

“Ishnan” is the term used in the old days when people in India referred to cold showers (very cold showers). “Ishnan” is the point at which the body, by its own virtue, creates the temperature that it can beat off the coldness of the water. This happens when the capillaries open with the onset of the cold water. They close again during the course of the cold shower and it is at that point that all the blood rushes back to flush the organs and the glands. This process allows the glands to renew their secretions and “youth” (i.e. young glands) again returns to the body. “

As far as I’m concerned, this society has taken every effort to separate the human from it’s body, while simultaneously conditioning this same human to obssess over the representation of the body (AKA I hate my body and yet am addicted to its appearance). So for me, any method that brings the consciousness back into the body, interweaving the two, is a method I am interested in.

Here’s it is. I’m going to be putting up some posts regarding what I have find out through direct experience and experimenting with my body. “What does it feel like to do this?” As the SSS has said, this new age will be the age of experience, where previously we were in the age of knowledge.I will write as much as I can on that in a few. Think: knowing about, versus, embodying the knowledge of.

I will also try and touch upon these fun topics:

How a cold shower in the morning will change your life (AKA heating your body from the inside-out)
Anarchism as the lens through which to view the world, not as a society of the like-minded

How when we see our religious garb (AKA costumes) as just that: costumes, we can finally wear them for the first time

Kundalini yoga as “working class yoga” (sayeth Sat Hari Singh)

Experimentation with body as radical rebellion

Osho’s take on religious dogma as the bandage for a weak and scared audience. GOD IS UNCERTAINTY!