tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-254457672024-03-13T08:30:15.736-07:00Toad ExodusRamblings of a Quirky Dresserthe Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-34599981771882093542010-05-14T12:59:00.000-07:002010-05-14T15:09:20.030-07:00<div align="center">TWILIGHT - THE BOOK THE MOVIE THE OPRAH INTERVIEW</div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/S-2svW7QhhI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/ov2aicfZCmQ/s1600/twilightcover.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471219051932976658" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/S-2svW7QhhI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/ov2aicfZCmQ/s320/twilightcover.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#990000;">There are 3 reasons why you should NOT read <span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><em>TWILIGHT</em></span> the Book:</span><br /><span style="color:#990000;">1. Bella</span><br /><span style="color:#990000;">2. Bella</span><br /><span style="color:#990000;">3. Bella</span><br /><p><span style="color:#990000;">There are 6 reasons why you should NOT watch TWILIGHT the Movie:</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">1. Bella</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">2. Kristen Stewart (Yuks!)</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">3. Bella</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">4. Kristen Steward (Yuks! <em>again</em>)</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">5. Bella</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">6. Kristen Stewart</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">I watched the movie first before I read the book. For a long time I couldn't "get" why women and girls are so gaga over Robert Patterson. One day, I accidentally came upon the movie playing on telly. After a few minutes I fell asleep - this was how much the movie impacted me. Then a few weeks later a friend gave me a DVD of this movie and was gushing so much about this Edward the Vampire that I conceded and sat down to watch it - making sure I watched it to the end. Yes I fell for Edward - but only because he is so uncannily like this person I love. His intensity, the things he says ... are exactly the same. I was stunned.</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">New Moon was sooooo soooooooooooooooooooo soooooooooooooooooooooo excruciatingly painfully dull - except the last part when Edward and those Italian vampires showed up. Somebody kill that insipid character Bella already !!!!! Arrrrrrgh!!!!</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">At first I blamed the actress - I thought they casted the wrong person for the part as you just could </span><span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><em>NOT </em></strong><span style="font-size:100%;color:#990000;">warm up to her. So, due to sheer frustration, I decided to pick up the book and read it. Arrrrggghhhh it doesn't get any better. Bella in the Book is a total PAIN. She is a total PAIN in all the books!!! WHY WHY WHY did someone, ANYONE, not KILL her within the first few sentences of this book???? How unlovable can the main character be??? Its like that bloody Catherine I used to hate in Wuthering Heights.</span></span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">There I was, over the weekend, mulling over why the Twilight series are such a hit. The author has got 2 things right in her formula. First - is of course - <em><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">Edward</span></strong></em> ... He is the epitome of most women's fantasies. The very reason Mills and Boons and Barbara Cartland made so much money. Good looking, brooding, can't find love until he finds that One person he has been searching for, Rich, intelligent, has nice cars, cool parents and siblings - damn he is just sooooooo perfect. NOW the second ingredient in the formula is, to me, the KEY to the success of this book and the movies. That HATEFUL INSIPID ANNOYING LOATHSOME Bella. There are more plain girls out there in this world who are weak, never been popular at school, who spend their time fantasing about the most good looking boy in school and in their fantasies, this boy will find that one special quality in this pathetic wallflower and fall madly in love with her, ignoring all the gorgeous cheerleading girls fawning after him. Yes! this is what it's all about. The Wallflower versus the A list girls in school. Revenge of the Wallflower. These plain girls are living vicariously through these books and movies. They are thinking to themselves - "See! The most beautiful vampire in the world did not fall for the beautiful blonde Tanya or Rosalie (both vampires) - he falls for the mere mortal, albeit colourless with mousy brown lank hair and zero personality - a squid can evoke more interest than this pathetic creature! In fact, all the boys in the entire school finds this kretin "attractive" and want to date her - sigh another wallflower fantasy the author has cunningly plugged in. Either the author is a genius to use this Wallflower-becomes-superhero-and-saves-the-day formula OR the author herself was once (and is probably still) a Wallflower herself and these are just HER fantasies that she has penned down.</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">This whole Werewolf fighting the Vampire for the Wallflower episode in New Moon and Eclipse nearly got me shredding the books or setting them on fire. I was sooo agitated, I couldn't enjoy the read at all <em>(And forget the literary skills of the author - this is no Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize material). </em>But, like a bad movie you have watched halfway, you watch it to the end, hoping to find that it gets better and justifying that you have not wasted your time to begin with. Luckily, it DOES get better with Breaking Dawn. Not because the insipid Kretin has turned into a vampire and given birth to Baby Vamp. But because you are now distracted with more vampires from other regions. The only interesting part of this Twilight series are the Vampires (not including Bella when she becomes a vapid vampire - no matter WHAT she morphs into, I just cannot find anything likeable about her).</span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">Then my friend sends me a link to the Oprah show where she interviews the main characters of the movies. Edward the Vampire, Taylor the Werewolf (can't remember the character's name) and Bella the Kretin. Maybe in real life the actress is more likeable, I think to myself, hopefully. Wanting to find <em>some</em> saving grace in her. Maybe she is a really good actress who portrayed how annoying this Bella character is. Then I watched her in the interview. <em>GAWD</em> ... she is just as annoying in person!!! They should just call her KRETIN STEWART. I don't think I am the only one who could not warm up to this person. I mean, whilst Robert Patterson and Taylor have thousands of screaming fans wanting to hug them, they had to fly in this <span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><em>ONE</em></span> single fan (from 25 000 miles away) - the <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">only </span></em>fan this Kretin has - just to show that she has a fan somewhere in the world. And the poor fan had to even ask her if she could have a hug. And whenever Kretin tries to speak, you couldn't understand WHAT she is trying to say. She is not articulate at all. Then, in comes Dakota Fanning - confident, beautiful, intelligent and articulate. Dakota plays the baddie vampire who tries to kill Bella (or at least cause her lots of pain which she truly deserves). Dakota <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">TOTALLY ECLIPSES</span></strong> this Kretin. It's like putting Angelina Jolie next to that Jennifer Aniston <em>(Another annoying vapid creature)</em>. I mean - <em>res ipsa loquitour!!! </em>Casting this lovely vivacious Dakota as the Baddie who in the end is outwitted and outpowered by the insipid, weak, gawky, unattractive, bumbling Bella. <em><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">What</span></strong> </em>does this all point out to?? It is a fantasy to cater for all the Wallflowers of the world. This is the success formula of the book. And this is WHY I HATE IT SO MUCH. Women have, for decades, been MISLED into thinking that even if they are weak and unattractive, some day some rich powerful gorgeous guy is going to fall in love with them and lift them out of their sorry existence into a Happily Ever After. <span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;">BULLSHIT!</span> Irresponsible writers should <em>stop</em> perpetuating this myth for commercial reasons. There are already loads of depressed women out there because their fantasy has not materialised and they have married some loser fat bastard and have to support him. Stop trying to exploit these sorry creatures. They bought into your whole fantasy because they haven't got the strength of character to see their own worth so they have to live in this dream world you have created for them. </span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">Same like these Bollywood movies. Same formula. Poor girl meets Rich Boy. Rich Boy falls for Poor Girl, ignoring Rich Beautiful Articulate Girl. Millions of Indians bought into this fantasy - because millions of them are poor. Life is like the Matrix movie. Everyone is living in a dream world. Perpetuated by the movie moguls, the media and irresponsible writers who just want to exploit the masses' weaknesses. If you are living in this dream - you deserve to be exploited and you deserve to be depressed when you wake up to the sad reality of your life. </span></p><p><span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>You can stop dreaming of becoming a vampire now. </em><br /></span></p><p><span style="color:#990000;">Watch how Dakota Fanning totally <em><span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;">Eclipsed</span></em> Kristen Steward at the Oprah show:</span></p><p><a href="http://community.livejournal.com/rpattzdaily/1638690.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium+twitter">http://community.livejournal.com/rpattzdaily/1638690.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium+twitter</a></p><p>Anyway, all this angst against Wallflowers has given me an idea on my next Chapati Moments. Watch out for it soon in Navel Gazing!<br /><br /></p><p><span style="color:#990000;"></span></p><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#990000;"></span></p><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#990000;"></span></p><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#990000;"></span></p>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-85132764052105056092009-09-01T10:52:00.000-07:002009-09-01T13:39:02.511-07:00<div><div><div><div><div><br /><div align="center"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 310px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376583542747819954" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Sp12Puqx77I/AAAAAAAAAZY/0FLrXGNnVSQ/s320/Islam_Muhammad_Calligraphy2.png" /><br />O Muhammad</div><br /><div align="center">You are the Perfume of God's Essence</div><br /><div align="center">The Rose of His Heart</div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center">Yet you were betrayed by your own people</div><br /><div align="center">Those who profess to follow you and to love you</div><br /><div align="center">Those who profess to believe you</div><br /><div align="center">Those who killed your family</div><br /><div align="center">Those who beheaded your grandson</div><br /><div align="center">Those who tortured and turned into captives and slaves </div><br /><div align="center">the women and children of your family</div><br /><div align="center">In your name</div><br /><div align="center">In the name of God </div><br /><div align="center"></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 199px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376599680838929650" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Sp2E7FviDPI/AAAAAAAAAaI/Qt6wviKQslE/s200/islamic_calligraphy_birdtext_101.png" /><br /><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">O Isa</div><br /><div align="center">You are the Light of God</div><div align="center"><br />God's Love</div><br /><div align="center">Yet you were betrayed by your own people</div><br /><div align="center">Those who profess to follow you and to love you</div><br /><div align="center">Those who profess to believe in you</div><br /><div align="center">Those who pretended not to know you when you were taken away </div><br /><div align="center">To be tortured and killed</div><br /><div align="center">In the name of God</div><br /><br /><div align="center"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 190px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376594876127804562" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Sp2AjazIfJI/AAAAAAAAAaA/wus9-E9Uddk/s200/Islam_JudaismChristianityIslam.png" /></div><br /><div align="center">O Musa</div><br /><div align="center">You are God's Wisdom</div><br /><div align="center">His Strength</div><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">Yet you were betrayed by your own people</div><br /><div align="center">Those who profess to follow you and to love you</div><br /><div align="center">Those who profess to believe in you</div><br /><div align="center">Those who made a golden cow into their god the moment you turned your back</div><br /><div align="center"></div><div align="center">Those who have broken every single commandment God has given them</div><br /><div align="center"></div><div align="center">Those who think nothing of stealing land from the innocent</div><br /><div align="center">Those who humiliate, torture and kill the innocent</div><br /><div align="center">In the name of God</div><br /><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376583535607969618" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Sp12PUEgd1I/AAAAAAAAAZQ/2PtPRTjnr4Y/s320/calligraphy-inshallah-circle.jpg" /></div><br /><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">I feel your great pain</div><br /><div align="center">I feel your deep sorrow</div><br /><div align="center">I weep endlessly from your pain and sorrow</div><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">I feel the agony of your betrayal</div><br /><div align="center">In the hands of those you trusted</div><br /><div align="center">Those you guided</div><br /><div align="center">Those you loved</div><br /><div align="center">The anguish in your hearts is also in mine</div><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">I have nothing to offer you except -</div><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">My heart</div><div align="center"></div><br /><div align="center">My faith</div><br /><div align="center">My love</div><br /><div align="center">My loyalty</div><br /><div align="center">My life</div><br /><div align="center">In the name of God.</div><br /><div align="center"> </div></div></div></div></div></div>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-14286210028817173862008-06-05T00:46:00.000-07:002008-06-05T01:22:27.453-07:00<div align="center"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><u>ISRAEL: THE STOLEN LAND</u></span></div><br /><div align="justify">Israel is now celebrating <span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;">60</span> years of Zionist rule over the land they have <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">STOLEN </span></strong>from the Palestinians. The Palestinians whom they killed mercilessly by the thousands as they marched to the land to occupy it. Men, women and children were murdered so that they can have<span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"> the Land Which God Promised Them</span>. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Which God is this that they pray to? I do not know this God. They killed over 80, 000 Palestinian Arabs when they first occuppied the land and have since continuously killed, tortured and driven away many more. They want the Palestinians numbed. They want them to forget that they belong to this land. They want them to leave the land or to stay and die. <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">Why?</span> </span>Because their God has promised this land to them. I say it is their God because I do not recognise such a God. As a Muslim I believe that there is only ONE God. But this God they refer to is alien to me. To me they have truly insulted God by their behaviour. They should not be allowed to occupy this Stolen Land any longer. They have forgotten who their real God is the moment they set foot on this land and killed and plundered as a matter of GOD-given right. <span style="color:#ff0000;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Where are their 10 Commandments?</span> </span>Have they read it recently?? <span style="font-size:180%;color:#009900;">Return the Land to the Palestinian Arabs.</span></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208301093674198562" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/SEeaP_u6piI/AAAAAAAAAMo/blMOHA3lAjk/s400/israel_map.gif" border="0" /></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#009900;"><em></em></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#996633;">I would like to share with you a letter written by <span style="font-size:130%;color:#009900;">Gandhi</span> when asked by Martin Buber to voice his opinion on Israel. Martin Buber was expecting Gandhi to support the existence of Israel but this is what Gandhi has written <span style="font-size:85%;color:#339999;"><em>(see below)</em></span>. If you google to search for this letter, all you will find is the letter Martin Buber sent in reply and other comments condemning Gandhi. The Israeli lobby is very strong. They will not even allow free speech against them. They drown any comments against them. So here I post Gandhi's letter for you to read and ponder. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#996633;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#009900;"><em>Mohandas K. Gandhi's Letter: The Jews<br /></em></span></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208301083261693042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/SEeaPY8YbHI/AAAAAAAAAMY/sMV5XzHZcyE/s400/Gandhi.jpg" border="0" /> <p align="justify"><br /></p><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;">"</span>Several letters have been received by me asking me to declare my views about the Arab-Jew question in Palestine and the persecution of the Jews in Germany. It is not without hesitation that I venture to offer my views on this very difficult question.<br /><br />My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa. Some of them became life-long companions. Through these friends I came to learn much of their age-long persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity. The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close. Religious sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out to them. Apart from the friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason for my sympathy for the Jews.<br /><br />But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. <span style="color:#3333ff;">The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. </span><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?<br /></strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#009900;"><span style="font-size:180%;">Palestine</span> belongs to the Arabs</span> in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. <span style="color:#ff0000;">It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs</span>. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home.<br /><br />The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French. If the Jews have no home but Palestine, will they relish the idea of being forced to leave the other parts of the world in which they are settled? Or do they want a double home where they can remain at will? This cry for the national home affords a colourable justification for the German expulsion of the Jews.<br /><br />But the German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel in history. The tyrants of old never went so mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For he is propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which any inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter. The crime of an obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity. If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province.<br /><br />But if there can be no war against Germany, even for such a crime as is being committed against the Jews, surely there can be no alliance with Germany. How can there be alliance between a nation which claims to stand for justice and democracy and one which is the declared enemy of both? Or is England drifting towards armed dictatorship and all it means?<br /><br />Germany is showing to the world how efficiently violence can be worked when it is not hampered by any hypocrisy or weakness masquerading as humanitarianism. It is also showing how hideous, terrible, and terrifying it looks in its nakedness.<br /><br />Can the Jews resist this organized and shameless persecution? Is there a way to preserve their self-respect, and not to feel helpless, neglected, and forlorn? I submit there is. <span style="font-size:130%;color:#009900;">No person who has faith in a living God need feel helpless or forlorn. </span>Jehovah of the Jews is a God more personal than the God of the Christians, the Musulmans or the Hindus, though, as a matter of fact in essence, He is common to all and one without a second and beyond description. But as the Jews attribute personality to God and believe that He rules every action of theirs, they ought not to feel helpless. If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile Germany may, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this, I should not wait for fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance but would have confidence that in the end the rest are bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy which no number of resolutions of sympathy passed in the world outside Germany can. Indeed even if Britain, France, and America were to declare hostilities against Germany, they can bring no inner joy, no inner strength. The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagine could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the God-fearing, death has no terror. It is a joyful sleep to be followed by a waking that would be all the more refreshing for the long sleep.<br /><br />It is hardly necessary for me to point out that it is easier for the Jews than for the Czechs to follow my prescription. And they have in the Indian Satyagraha campaign in South Africa an exact parallel. There the Indians occupied precisely the same place that the Jews occupy in Germany. The persecution had also a religious tinge. <span style="color:#ff0000;">President Kruger used to say that the white Christians were the chosen of God and Indians were inferior beings created to serve the whites. </span>A fundamental clause in the Transvaal constitution was that there should be no equality between the whites and coloured races including Asiatics. There too the Indians were consigned to ghettos described as locations. The other disabilities were almost of the same type as those of the Jews in Germany. The Indians, a mere handful, resorted to Satyagraha without any backing from the world outside or the Indian Government. Indeed the British officials tried to dissuade the Satyagrahis from their contemplated step. World opinion and the Indian Government came to their aid after eight years of fighting. And that too was by way of diplomatic pressure not of a threat of war.<br /><br />But the Jews of Germany can offer Satyagraha under infinitely better auspices than the Indians of South Africa. The Jews are a compact, homogenous community in Germany. They are far more gifted than the Indians of South Africa. And they have organized world opinion behind them. I am convinced that if someone with courage and vision can arise among them to lead them in non-violent action, the winter of their despair can in the twinkling of an eye be turned into the summer of hope. And what has today become a degrading man-hunt can be turned into a calm and determined stand offered by unarmed men and women possessing the strength of suffering given to them by Jehovah. It will be then a truly religious resistance offered against the godless fury of dehumanized man. The German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German Gentiles in the sense that they will have converted the latter to an appreciation of human dignity. They will have rendered service to fellow-Germans and proved their title to be the real Germans as against those who are today dragging, however unknowingly, the German name into the mire.<br /><br />And now a word to <span style="color:#009900;">the Jews in Palestine. I have no doubt that they are going about things the wrong way. The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, <span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun</span>. </span><span style="color:#009900;">A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb.</span> They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to convert the Arab heart. The same God rules the Arab heart who rules the Jewish heart. They can offer Satyagraha in front of the Arabs and offer themselves to be shot or thrown into the Dead Sea without raising a little finger against them. They will find the world opinion in their favour in their religious aspiration. There are hundreds of ways of reasoning with the Arabs, if they will only discard the help of the British bayonet. As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them.<br /><br />I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regarded as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.<br /><br />Let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home including Palestine not by aggression but by loving service. A Jewish friend has sent me a book called The Jewish Contribution to Civilisation by Cecil Roth. It gives a record of what the Jews have done to enrich the world’s literature, art, music, drama, science, medicine, agriculture, etc. Given the will, the Jew can refuse to be treated as the outcaste of the West, to be despised or patronized. He can command the attention and respect of the world by being man, the chosen creation of God, instead of being man who is fast sinking to the brute and forsaken by God. They can add to their many contributions the surpassing contribution of non-violent action.<span style="font-size:180%;color:#33cc00;">"</span><br /><br /><br /></p><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/SEeaPhUBbII/AAAAAAAAAMg/q3She8xIce8/s1600-h/Martin+Buber.jpg"></a>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-67178387308326204952007-10-02T22:09:00.000-07:002007-10-02T22:38:35.000-07:00<div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#009900;">LEMONGRASS</span></strong></div><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RwMkRnJaSqI/AAAAAAAAAL4/cMU0PGg3Fk8/s1600-h/lemongrass.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5116973486607846050" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RwMkRnJaSqI/AAAAAAAAAL4/cMU0PGg3Fk8/s400/lemongrass.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />An article was emailed around that the Israelis have found a way to use Lemon Grass to prompt cancer cells to commit suicide!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5116973495197780674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RwMkSHJaSsI/AAAAAAAAAMI/MHolK0UVh98/s400/israel-map+2.gif" border="0" /><br />Finally there is something good that comes out of Israel, the Country-That-Is-Not-A-Country or as I sometimes call it "The Stolen Land". They have found time to focus on killing something other than the Palestinians.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5116973490902813362" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RwMkR3JaSrI/AAAAAAAAAMA/x0SshRVHmco/s400/lemongrass+2.jpg" border="0" /><br />And where did they obtain these lemongrass from?? The Mossads must have tortured some makcik at a Pasar Tani to give them a batch not realising that it is easier to just buy them .. but then again they are Jews so its a bit difficult for them to part with a few ringgit. Am I Anti- Semetic??<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5116974667723852498" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RwMlWXJaStI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/HBHGv5Eu1XI/s400/pasar+tani.jpg" border="0" />And the irony of calling Israel a Mecca!!!!<br /><br />The next thing they should focus on is to learn how to spell their towns in a more user-friendly manner so that people can actually pronounce them.<br /><br /><div align="justify">The Article is set out below. Why don't they realise that its the depleted uranium they have dropped on their neighbour Lebanon that is causing the cancer? The wind blows it back to The Stolen Land.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">BOYCOTT PRODUCTS FROM ISRAEL</span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">and THOSE WHO SUPPORT THEM</span></strong><br /></div><div align="center">************</div><div align="center"><u>Article</u></div><div align="center"><u></u><br /><span style="color:#3333ff;">"Lemon Grass prompt cancer cells to commit suicide!Fresh lemon grass fields in Israel become Mecca for cancer patients"<br />by Allison Kaplan Sommer - April 02, 2006<br /></div></span><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:180%;">"</span>A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough citral to prompt cancer cells to commit suicide in the test tube. Israeli researchers find way to make cancer cells self-destruct - Ben Gurion University. </div><div align="justify"><br />At first, Benny Zabidov, an Israeli agriculturalist who grows greenhouses full of lush spices on a pastoral farm in Kfar Yedidya in the Sharon region, couldn't understand why so many cancer patients from around the country were showing up on his doorstep asking for fresh lemon grass. It turned out that their doctors had sent them. </div><div align="justify"><br />'They had been told to drink eight glasses of hot water with fresh lemon grass steeped in it on the days that they went for their radiation and chemotherapy treatments ,' Zabidov told ISRAEL21c. 'And this is the place you go to in Israel for fresh lemon grass.' </div><div align="justify"><br />It all began when researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev discovered last year that the lemon aroma in herbs like lemon grass kills cancer cells in vitro, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.<br />The research team was led by Dr. Rivka Ofir and Prof. Yakov Weinstein incumbent of the Albert Katz Chair in Cell-Differentiation and Malignant Diseases, from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at BGU. </div><div align="justify"><br />Citral is the key component that gives the lemony aroma and taste in several herbal plants such as lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), Melissa (Melissa officinalis) and verbena (Verbena officinalis.)<br />According to Ofir, the study found that Citral causes cancer cells to 'commit suicide: using apoptosis, a mechanism called programmed cell death.' A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough Citral to prompt the cancer cells to commit suicide in the test tube.<br />The BGU investigators checked the influence of the Citral on cancerous cells by adding them to both cancerous cells and normal cells that were grown in a petri dish. The quantity added in the concentrate was equivalent to the amount contained in a cup of regular tea using one gram of lemon herbs in hot water. While the Citral killed the cancerous cells, the normal cells remained unharmed. </div><div align="justify"><br />The findings were published in the scientific journal *Planta Medica* , which highlights research on alternative and herbal remedies. Shortly afterwards, the discovery was featured in the popular Israeli press.<br />Why does it work? Nobody knows for certain, but the BGU scientists have a theory.</div><div align="justify"><br />In each cell in our body, there is a genetic program which causes programmed cell death. When something goes wrong, the cells divide with no control and become cancer cells. In normal cells, when the cell discovers that the control system is not operating correctly for example, when it recognizes that a cell contains faulty genetic material following cell division - it triggers cell death, ' explains Weinstein. 'This research may explain the medical benefit of these herbs.' </div><div align="justify"><br />The success of their research led them to the conclusion that herbs containing Citral may be consumed as a preventative measure against certain cancerous cells. </div><div align="justify"><br />As they learned of the BGU findings in the press, many physicians in Israel began to believe that while the research certainly needs to be explored further. In the meantime it would be advisable for their patients, who were looking for any possible tool to fight their condition, to try to harness the cancer-destroying properties of Citral. </div><div align="justify"><br />That's why Zabidov's farm - the only major grower of fresh lemon grass in Israel - has become a pilgrimage destination for these patients. Luckily, they found themselves in sympathetic hands. Zabidov greets visitors with a large kettle of aromatic lemon grass tea, a plate of cookies, and a supportive attitude. </div><div align="justify"><br />'My father died of cancer, and my wife's sister died young because of cancer,' said Zabidov. 'So I understand what they are dealing with. And I may not know anything about medicine, but I'm a good listener. And so they tell me about their expensive painful treatments and what they've been through. I would never tell them to stop being treated, but it's great that they are exploring alternatives and drinking the lemon grass tea as well.' ......<br /></div><div align="justify">Wandering in the Paris market, looking at the variety of herbs and spices, Zabidov realized that there was a great export potential in this niche. He brought samples back home with him, 'which was technically illegal,' he says with a guilty smile, to see how they would grow in his desert greenhouses. .....</div><div align="justify"><br />His business began to outgrow his desert facilities, and so he decided to move north, settling in the moshav of Kfar Yedidya, an hour and a half north of Tel Aviv. He is now selling 'several hundred kilos' of lemon grass per week, and has signed with a distributor to package and put it in health food stores. .....</div><div align="justify"><br />Zabidov is pleased by the findings, not simply because it means business for his farm, but because it might influence his own health. Even before the news of its benefits was demonstrated, he and his family had been drinking lemon grass in hot water for years, 'just because it tastes good.' <span style="font-size:180%;">"</span><br /></div>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-52251615146225437172007-09-19T00:39:00.000-07:002007-09-19T20:28:08.514-07:00Chapati Moments<br /><br />There is a new chapati at Navel Gazing. I can't get into the blog right now so I can't post a link here (you should know by now I'm not computer savvy). Go find your own way to Navel Gazing and look for <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Chapati Moments: Maya and the Fire of Love</strong></span>.<br /><br />Ok ok, some of you are just soooo spoilt. Here's the link:<br /><br /><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://thegazerofnavels.blogspot.com/search/label/Chapati%20Moments" target="_blank">http://thegazerofnavels.blogspot.com/search/label/ Chapati%20Moments</a>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-39685338104068109442007-08-22T23:58:00.000-07:002007-08-23T00:26:04.205-07:00<div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#000000;"><u><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><span style="color:#999900;">Toade News:</span></em> Black Hawk Down</span></u></span></strong></div><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rs0woZZNjgI/AAAAAAAAAK4/8mRtfR5UVtw/s1600-h/black+hawk.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101787423450172930" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rs0woZZNjgI/AAAAAAAAAK4/8mRtfR5UVtw/s400/black+hawk.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Al Jazeera Wednesday 22 August 2007 reported that a US Helicopter, the UH-60 Black Hawk, has crashed in Northern Iraq, killing <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>14 soldiers</strong></span> on board.<br /><br /><em>Americans must thank their President for more deaths in the US Military - collateral damage eh Mr President.</em><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rs0wopZNjhI/AAAAAAAAALA/7XmMCXbEwro/s1600-h/bush+plane.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101787427745140242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rs0wopZNjhI/AAAAAAAAALA/7XmMCXbEwro/s400/bush+plane.jpg" border="0" /></a>The Black Hawk came down during a night operation on Wednesday. A statement said the aircraft experienced mechanical problems and that there was no sign of hostile fire. The soldiers killed were with Task Force Lightning.</p><p><em><span style="color:#666600;">Yeah, Task Force Lightning indeed. They sure went down like they were struck by lightning.</span></em></p><p>The report went on to say that it is the deadliest crash for the US Army since January 2005. </p><p>Hmm... deadliest crash and it wasn't even hit by anything .... <em>Force Majeure </em>... An Act of God, perhaps. And our Government is considering buying these Black Hawks to replace our Nuri helicopters which are nothing more than glorified flying scrap metal. </p><p><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rs0wopZNjiI/AAAAAAAAALI/-ILc-RBijCA/s1600-h/crazy+dancing+frog+toad.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5101787427745140258" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rs0wopZNjiI/AAAAAAAAALI/-ILc-RBijCA/s400/crazy+dancing+frog+toad.jpg" border="0" /></a> </p>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-83648485573808543432007-07-13T01:03:00.000-07:002007-07-13T01:39:52.916-07:00<div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#ff6600;">AJIT BHASKARAN DASS</span></strong><br /></div><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></strong></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><strong><span style="color:#ff6600;">GOWRISHUARA - DANCING WITH THE COSMIC DUALITY</span></strong></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#3366ff;"><br /><strong>Suvarna Fine Arts</strong> presents a Bharata Natya dance feature in praise of Shiva and Shakti featuring <strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Shri Ajit Bhaskaran Dass</span></strong> and the Suvarna Dance Company with live music accompaniment. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5086590896567183698" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RpczeHOfaVI/AAAAAAAAAKo/recM50hJ1eo/s400/ajit+3.jpg" border="0" /><strong><u><span style="color:#ff0000;">About Ajit<br /></span></u></strong><br />Ajit was trained as a lawyer and left law practice to focus on his passion - Indian Classical Dance. Ajit has performed in Germany, New York (Lincoln Centre), Los Angeles, India, Bali, Singapore and Malaysia. He was invited to perform for UNICEF in New York in July 2005. Ajit spends 6 months in a year in Los Angeles, teaching and performing there. For the rest of the year, he is based in Johor Bharu, teaching at his dance company Suvarna Fine Arts and in Singapore.<br /><br />The Los Angeles Times described him as follows after one of his performances in Los Angeles:<br /><br />"The brilliant Bharata Natya soloist, Ajith Bhaskaran Dass, who with his "Nureyev appeal" has been clebrated for his skill in bringing out the technical glory of Bharata Natya while evoking a remarkable depth of feeling transcending all boundaries of gender, space, style and form with spellbinding dexterity."<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5086590909452085602" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rpcze3OfaWI/AAAAAAAAAKw/VPPCf_Fc06Y/s400/Ajit+4.jpg" border="0" /></span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#999900;"><u><span style="color:#ff0000;">Performance Time and Venue<br /></span></u><span style="color:#3333ff;"><strong>Saturday,<br />14 July 2007<br />7.30pm<br />Malaysia Tourist Centre (</strong>MTC)<br />Kuala Lumpur<br />Auditorium Dewan Tunku Abdul Rahman<br />109 Jalan Ampang<br /></span><br /></span><span style="color:#ff0000;">Invitations will be issued for donations of RM100, RM50 and RM 30.<br />Please contact Mrs Madasamy at 019 399 9418<br />or Ms Chelvi at 012 710 1900<br /></span></div><div align="center"><br />*************************************************************</div><div align="left">Dear Friends, </div><div align="left">I know I have posted this information rather late. I have been very busy. If you manage to read this on time, please do come and watch this utterly mesmerising dancer. I'm just lost for words on how I feel every time I watch him perform. He transports you to another world which I dare say is nothing less than divine. Not many Malaysians know of him, which is a great shame. When he performs in Los Angeles, his fans include people like Ravi Shankar. </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">When he dances, you will clearly see his passion and love for his art. It is not just mere entertainment or technical perfection. It is a form of worship and those who are spiritually inclined will be able to feel this in his performance. So do not miss this rare opportunity. My friend Tempias has just flown in from New Zealand and will watch the show with me. My American friend (<em>yes, I do have American friends!</em>) watched his last performance in KL, Echoing Anklets, and was amazed at his talent, choreography, costumes etc. Ajit choreographs his own shows, composes the lyrics for the songs, designs the costumes and chooses the fabrics in India himself. </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">Ajit combines intelligence, extraordinary talent, deep spirituality, breathtaking creativity and absolute sensitivity in his performances. </div>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-80037433112884469352007-06-22T00:53:00.000-07:002007-06-22T01:03:45.765-07:00<div align="center"><strong><u><span style="color:#33cc00;">Friday Ramblings</span></u></strong></div><p><br /><br /></p><p><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RnuAF7NlTlI/AAAAAAAAAKY/dce5Uc_Gl1U/s1600-h/spa_features_masthead.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078793844072730194" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RnuAF7NlTlI/AAAAAAAAAKY/dce5Uc_Gl1U/s400/spa_features_masthead.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">Hooray its Friday! Am going for a Balinese Spa tomorrow. Its been so hectic at work that I felt I need to relax at a spa. Am also looking forward to going to Cherating at the end of the month.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RnuAF7NlTmI/AAAAAAAAAKg/INReqgePb-Y/s1600-h/BALISPA.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078793844072730210" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RnuAF7NlTmI/AAAAAAAAAKg/INReqgePb-Y/s400/BALISPA.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">I have posted a new chapter of Chapati Moments in Navel Gazing. Here's the link:</span><br /><a href="http://thegazerofnavels.blogspot.com/2007/06/chapati-moments-flight-of-condi.html">http://thegazerofnavels.blogspot.com/2007/06/chapati-moments-flight-of-condi.html</a><br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">This one is very different from the other chapters. Though its done in my usual tongue in cheek, irreverent style, the information in it is extensively researched. Sources are The Times, the Guardian, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, JUST, John Pilger's website, Seymour Hersh's articles in the New Yorker, Global Research, Michel Chossudovsky's book "America's War on Terrorism", Matthias Chang's book "Future Fast Forward" and various other human rights websites. Do try to read it and post your comments there or here.</span></p><p><span style="color:#cc0000;">Yawn, am soooo tired. Ciao people! Have a great weekend.<br /></span></p>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-70890515869143273602007-06-11T02:38:00.000-07:002007-06-11T03:28:23.197-07:00<u><span style="color:#33cc00;"><strong>Ramblings</strong></span></u><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">Had a lovely weekend after the Hammam. Lunch with Daef & Art on Friday was excellent - didn't notice the food as the company was great fun.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">Then I set out for my mini adventure at the Hammam. What I described earlier (last week) was pretty much what happened there. I was in this hot bathroom with this Moroccan woman giving me a bath and a good scrub. There was a communication problem at first - ie there was no communication because I don't speak Arabic and she doesn't speak English. At one point I desperately wanted to ask her something about my hair treatment (some rose mask they massage into the hair) and to tell her to be careful about massaging my head as I had cracked my skull in a horse riding injury when I was a kid. </span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">Sign language led to a lot of confusion. Then a thought struck me ... countries in the Middle East and Africa were either colonies of the British or the French. So I asked her in French whether she spoke French. There was a look of delight on her face. Sigh... that was the first hurdle I got past. Thereafter I had to dig deep into my memory bank to recall my French lessons at boarding school in England with Madame Currie (<em>my French teacher</em>, not the scientist!) scolding me in French. Oddly, French was compulsory in an English boarding school despite the fact that <em>les Francais tres deteste les Anglais </em>and vice versa<em>. </em>The Moroccan lady asked me whether I went to school in France so I replied "<em>Non, l'Angleterre</em>" ie England or better known by the French as "the land of people who don't bathe very much". Then I proceeded to ask her about my hair treatment and to explain to her that I had fallen of my horse and hurt my head. That led to a lot of confusion as the word for "hair" and "horse" is quite similar in French. I can't for the life of me understand <em>how</em> I remembered those words in the first place. Cheveux (hair) and Chevaux (horses). She thought I pronounced hair incorrectly as she did not expect me to talk about horses whilst pointing to my head. After five minutes of excitement in the steaming hot bathroom with me gestulating furiously to make myself understood whilst in a state of near nudity (apart from the protection of a flimsy paper panty provided by them), she finally understood what I was trying to say. Then we burst out laughing - in relief. Thereafter, we managed further conversation on her life in Morocco, her family and sister and her marital status and mine. I was quite amazed at myself. I guess the heat in there brought out all French I thought I had forgotten.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">Quite some time later after lying down on those hot tiles for what seemed like ages and feeling like (and probably looking like) a hot freshly steamed dim sum ... just when I thought I was going to pass out from the heat, she came back in to splash some hot water on me. Then after being towelled dry, I went off to another room for a massage. Oh, whilst waiting in this cozy waiting area, drinking Samarkand tea and eating baklavas before my massage, I sat opposite this woman who reminded me of my roommate at boarding school. She said I looked familiar too. But we realised we didn't know each other after introducing ourselves. She is English. Married to an Malaysian Indian and she was complaining about her in laws.... haahhhaa, wait till I tell my friends... my Indian girl friends that is ... who are always warning me about the perils of getting involved with an Indian man who are always Mummie's boys for the rest of their lives!!</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">All in all it was an absolutely lovely self indulgent afternoon/evening.</span>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-70513305554897783802007-06-07T20:51:00.000-07:002007-06-07T21:20:36.123-07:00<div align="center"><u><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc6600;">Hammam</span></strong></u></div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RmjTELNlTcI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/t6Opope4MJk/s1600-h/hammam+2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5073537048915561922" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RmjTELNlTcI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/t6Opope4MJk/s400/hammam+2.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="color:#cc6600;">Hooray, its Friday and I have taken the afternoon off!! Am going to have a long leisurely lunch with fellow bloggers from Navel Gazing at Cilantro. Apparently they have a set lunch with free flowing wine. Well, since I don't drink I'm just there to enjoy the company of these witty friends. </span><br /><p><span style="color:#cc6600;">Its been a really hectic 2 weeks at work, rushing for a signing and new projects coming in. Its also been a trying month or two. One of my closest friends in the Firm left - She Who Should Be Blonde. Just as I was getting used to not having her around here, another very close friend resigns ... 2 days ago.... She Who Is Already Blonde. Here I am, alone again. The last of the Renegades. I was just sooo tired, crawling home at night after work that I decided that I needed to go to a spa of some sort. That's why I have taken the afternoon off. In fact, I have been rather self indulgent this week. She Who Is Already Blonde and I are making the most of our time together. We have been working in 2 firms together - gosh I guess, its over 10 years of our working lives together! This week we had lunch at Zipangu (Japanese) and then on Wednesday when she tendered her resignation, we went out to celebrate at Lafite. Both restaurants at the Shang. Today I'm having lunch at Cilantro with Daef and Art, who are always good fun to be with. After that comes my self indulgent afternoon. I am going to a Hammam. Its a Moroccan bathhouse. She Who Should Be Blonder set out earlier this week to check it out as she is made of sterner stuff than me and not likely to break when being tossed about and pummelled at a bathhouse. She came back glowing and with glowing report of her experience. You enter this hot room (bathroom) with literally no clothes on (maybe a paper panty is allowed) and this Moroccan woman with bathe you, scrub and polish you. Then you are made to lie on some hot stones or a hot tiled surface. After that you will be splashed with hot and cold water. (<em>Geez... why don't I just check into Abu Ghraib for such treatment and I don't even have to pay them for it!</em>). Ooops, I have to go for my lunch appointment now. Will tell you all about my Hammam experience next week. Hey, Tempias! I'm sure you would love to come to the Hammam with me. When you are in KL next we will go together. Ciao! Have a beautiful weekend everyone!</span></p>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-63855283076401067962007-06-05T23:27:00.000-07:002007-06-06T00:46:18.129-07:00<div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#999900;"><em><u>Toade News</u></em></span></strong></div><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">Anyone of you who are still not convinced how <span style="font-size:180%;">dumb</span> the Americans are, please read this article from <strong><span style="color:#33ccff;">the Guardian</span></strong>. Note the intelligent comment by the FBI Agent that Arabic writing are full of squiggles and can thus easily hide messages..... errr ....??? I rest my case. Should these dumb people be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction?</span><br /><div align="center">******************************</div><p><strong><em><span style="color:#00cccc;">Saturday, the Guardian</span></em></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#00cccc;">"</span><em><span style="color:#3366ff;"><u>No Fairy Tales Allowed</u></span></em></strong></p><p>Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith has 36 clients in Guantánamo and has visited many times. In this powerful extract from a new book he argues that secrecy in the camp is a disease. I had visited several times and there was something nagging at me. I could not work out what left me uniquely unsettled about the place. It was not the depressing environment; few prisons are inspirational. It was not the occasional intimidation. Eventually it came to me: I could not remember being lied to so often and so consistently. In Guantánamo, lying was a disease that had reached pandemic proportions. Former "detainee" Binyam Mohamed [British resident arrested in Pakistan] viewed the whole military commission process as a con, a lie that was meant to deceive the world. In June 2006 the supreme court said the same, in more temperate terms, and struck down the commissions as illegal. It rejected Donald Rumsfeld's assurance that the trials would be fair, accusing the administration of "jettisoning" legal rights. In Guantánamo, the military began with smaller lies and worked upwards. I was visiting Camp Echo one day and they had messed up the visitation schedule. The client I was meant to see was not there, although I had sent the schedule for my visits several weeks before. I thought I might as well go ahead and see Shaker Aamer [British resident captured in Afghanistan], whom I was not meant to meet until later in the week. So I asked the SOG (the sergeant of the guard, in charge of the camp) whether Shaker was in his normal cell. "No, he's not here," the SOG replied. I settled down for another wasted hour, waiting for the military to bring over someone I could see. It was hot even under the umbrella at the "picnic table" - the area behind one of the cells in Camp Echo where they made lawyers wait. I watched a lizard crawling up the green mesh on the wire fence. I thought about the spider in Robert the Bruce's cave, continually battling to spin its web and teaching patience to the early Scottish nationalists.<br /><br />The next day I saw Shaker. "Were you here yesterday?" I asked. "Yeah, ofcourse. I've been here for weeks," he replied. So why did the SOG lie to me? He could have said, "Sorry, sir. I am not permitted to speak about that," or "Yes, sir, he is here, but I am afraid we cannot deviate from the schedule." Instead he looked me in the eye and lied. It was unsettling. He had seemed a clean-cut, well-mannered sort of person. The dissembling disease got worse as time passed. First there was the effort to suppress the truth, with censorship or silence rather than any overt falsehood. Then there was the lie by semantics, where the US military redefined the language to provide plausible deniability. Finally, there was the bare-faced lie. This kind of culture does not germinate in a vacuum. Rumsfeld is responsible for a reconstitution of the English language. I set about compiling a glossary of the Gitmo-speak. The language was so deceptive that I found it appalling and amusing in equal measure. In a December 2004 press conference, the US navy secretary Gordon England tried to defend conditions in Guantánamo by producing the novel argument that the camp was rehabilitative: "People have learned to read and have learned to write, and so it's not just being incarcerated. We do try to get people prepared for a better life." Prisoners had some difficulty exercising their new-found abilities. Indeed, contrary to England's statement, prisoners in Guantánamo were certainly not considered "people" and the guards were not even allowed to call them "prisoners". One of the escorts told me that, on pain of punishment, soldiers are required to call them "detainees". He wouldn't even say the word "prisoner" out loud. The Pentagon had come to the conclusion that it sounds better for us to "detain" someone for several years, given that he has not been offered atrial. Naturally I set about avoiding the word "detainee". Meanwhile the authorities exercised rigid control over any information that the prisoners received. Each time I went to visit, I would take a suitcase full of reading materials. I maintained a log reflecting the fate of each publication. Magazines awarded the stamp DENIED included <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">National Geographic, Scientific American and Runner's World</span></em>. On one occasion it seemed justified, since that month's <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">National Geographic</span></em> had a story about building an atomic bomb, but the editions about whales and African tribes hardly seemed a threat to national security. One soldier explained the censorship of <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Scientific American </span></em>to me: the prisoner might learn about some hi-tech weapons system. Banning <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Runner's World</span></em> was less obvious, given the naval base was surrounded on one side by a Cuban minefield and on the other three by ocean. I was surprised - and Shaker Aamer was incensed - that they would not let in <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">The African-American Slave</span></em> by Frederick Douglass. Uncle Tom's Cabin was also barred. I dropped off an anthology of first world war poetry for Omar Deghayes that included Wilfred Owen's poem <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Futility</span></em>, about the ghastly violence of war. It was returned DENIED. Omar was born in 1969 and was a British refugee from Libya. His father was tortured and killed by Muammar Gadafy in 1980, and as a teenager Omar moved with his family to Brighton and studied law. He had not completed his law exams, so I brought his books so he could study, ready for his release. Law books, though, were not permitted, least of all a subversive to me about thelegal rights of prisoners. The Save Omar campaign auctioned off an autographed copy of John Pilger's book <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Hidden Agendas</span></em> to raise funds. The highest bidder donated it back, soI could try to get it in to Omar. It was written in 1998 and the index hadno references to Islamic extremism. The most controversial statement I could see in the book was Pilger's comment that most of the victims of terrorism were Muslims. It never got through. At this point British political authors began to vie for the status of having a book banned. The New Statesman editor John Kampfner gave me a signed copy of his book <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Blair's Wars</span></em> for Omar. Clare Short signed a copy of <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">An Honourable Deception? New Labour, Iraq and the Misuse of Power</span></em> with a dedication: "Hope you will be back with us soon, Omar.". An inverted snobbery began to develop: if your book slipped through the censors, perhaps that would cast doubt on the credibility of your opinions. I worried that Jeremy Paxman would be disappointed that his book <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">The English</span></em> was allowed in.<br /><br />The only Australian left in Guantánamo, David Hicks, was facing a military con-mission, like Binyam, and his lawyer was banned from giving him Scott Turow's legal thriller <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Presumed Innocent</span></em>. The basis for censoring <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">The New Dinkum Aussie Dictionary</span> </em>was less clear. Perhaps the strangest decision involved four books returned with the notation: "These Items were not Cleared for Delivery to the Detainee(s)." They were <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Beauty and the Beast </span></em>- all in Arabic translation. As one <strong><span style="color:#3366ff;">FBI agent</span></strong> admonished me: "<span style="color:#3333ff;">You know that Arabic script is full of squiggles, and it can easily hide messages to the prisoners</span>." Could it be, I wondered, that <em><span style="color:#ff0000;">Cinderella</span></em> was secretly an enemy combatant? Eventually the military barred us from bringing books for our clients altogether. So much for education.<br /><br />Next there was the senseless secrecy. Every word that my Guantánamo clients said to me was deemed classified and I had to get permission from censors to reveal it. To violate them would be a criminal offence and I could end up in jail. Whenever I met with a client I would take notes, but I could not take them with me when I left. I was obliged to put them into an envelope, seal them with SECRET stickers and give them to the military escort to mail to Washington. The notes went by normal mail, which seemed far from secure. Indeed, the first time I visited the military lost my notes for weeks. This procedure prevented the lawyers from revealing the truth about Guantánamo for a long time after any visit. This meant that I would visit Guantánamo, fly back to England, then return to Washington three weeks later to review my own notes. Meanwhile I was forbidden from saying anything to anyone about what my clients had said. Once the notes arrived in Washington, I would get notice that I could come to the "secure facility" to review them and submit facts for classification review. Even today I cannot repeat some of what my clients told me, but nothing I learned in Guantánamo would be classified in a sane world. I never saw anything that was relevant to US national security, unless it would make the US less secure to admit the truth about torture committed by American personnel. All this was to control the flow of bad news out of Guantánamo. From the beginning Joe Margulies, the other civilian lawyer working for Binyam Mohamed, encapsulated the proper response to this: if we could open up the prison to public inspection, the government would close it down. The awkward truth about what was happening there would outweigh any perceived benefit of keeping the prison open. Meanwhile, the government wrote the rules. The military censor was dogged in defence. It was not his fault; he was merely applying the rules and trying to do it as politely as possible when we met in the secret Washington facility. In November 2004, I met Moazzam Begg in Camp Echo. Moazzam was from Birmingham, and we talked for hours and he poured out his desperate experiences. He impressed me from the beginning with his understated eloquence. He had been with his family in Afghanistan, working on a charitable project that involved schools and water wells. When he and his family fled the war to Pakistan, he became one of hundreds sold for bounties to the Americans. Later, he ended up in Guantánamo, tarred as amajor terrorist. When my notes got back to Washington, in January 2005, I wrote a 40-page memo about how Moazzam had been abused by the US military in Afghanistan. Every word was censored. The way the military had pretended to torture his wife in the next room, even information about American soldiers murdering two prisoners in front of Moazzam, was considered a "method of interrogation" that could not be revealed. I was not allowed to reveal how my clients' mental health was crumbling either. Moazzam had been tortured, then held in solitary confinement for 18 months; he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder; he had nightmares, flashbacks, all the symptoms. But this, the military said, was a privacy issue. The effort to suppress this backfired. Had they come out immediately, the facts of Moazzam's abuse would have soon have slipped into obscurity. The cover-up ran and ran. I wrote one letter to Tony Blair which began with a title, Re: Torture and Abuse of British Citizens in Guantánamo Bay. The next two pages were the highlights of the torture committed against Moazzam and other British citizens. I put in a paragraph saying, "Anything that has been censored or blacked out in this letter, your close allies in the United States don't think you should be allowed to hear." I then attached the 40-page memo detailing Moazzam's abuse. What I got back from the censorwas extraordinary. Every word about torture was declared to be classified, except the title, but the last sentence made it past the hovering blackmarker. By now there were perhaps a dozen on our team of volunteer lawyers and eachone was running into similar problems with the censorship regulations. We tried to press the issues systematically, and eventually the government was persuaded to relax the rules. At last we could get information out to provehow the clients had been mistreated, and the memos about Moazzam's mistreatment were cleared. Indeed, with the threat of this evidence of torture making it into the public eye, the pressure on the Bush administration increased, and at the end of January, Moazzam and the three British prisoners who remained in the prison (Feroz Abbasi, Richard Belmar and Martin Mubanga) were set free. Moazzam and Feroz had been among the six prisoners originally charged in the military commissions, supposedly the very worst terrorists on the base. Their release, and the fact that the British government found no charges to bring against them, illustrated the extent of the US military's delusion.<br /><br />Gaining trust is not easy. When we won the right to visit the prisoners the military tried to outflank us. They began by sending in interrogators pretending to be lawyers. They said all the lawyers were Jewish, relying on perceived Muslim prejudices to drive a wedge. The next gambit was arguably even sillier. "They have been saying ..." Usama Abu Kabir hesitates, not wanting to go on. "They say ... " By this time Usama is scarlet. He is a courteous man. "Well ... that you like having sex with men!" I want to say that it should make no difference to him. I can't afford to, as so many of my clients here have been brought up in conservative Islamic countries, and we don't have time for a debate. I have to wave my wedding ring about and issue a denial. There are valid reasons for mistrust. What is to distinguish the lawyer from an interrogator after years of deception? To represent a prisoner here you must be an American citizen. "Hi! I'm from America and I'm here to help you." When a prisoner has a legal visit it is called a "reservation", the euphemism used for interrogation. Some lawyers say the meetings are confidential. The prisoners laugh. Everyone knows that there are cameras in the cell and microphones by the door. There are other problems. One saw a client for the first time with a translator whom the prisoner had previously seen working with US military intelligence.<strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#00cccc;">"</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>Extracted from Bad Men by Clive Stafford Smith, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson on April 26th priced £16.99.</em></span></strong> </p>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-8571143344945397102007-06-03T22:06:00.000-07:002007-06-03T22:56:21.283-07:00<div align="center"><strong><u><span style="color:#ff6600;">Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi: </span><span style="color:#3366ff;">1165 - 1240 AD</span></u></strong></div><div align="center"></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#3366ff;"><em>'Mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhammad b. 'Ali Ibn 'Arabi is one of the world's great spiritual teachers. Known as Muhyiddin (the Revivifier of Religion) and the Shaykh al-Akbar (the Greatest Master), he was born in 1165 AD into the Moorish culture of Andalusian Spain, the centre of an extraordinary flourishing and cross-fertilization of Jewish, Christian and Islamic thought, through which the major scientific and philosophical works of antiquity were transmitted to Northern Europe.' <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#ff6666;">(</span><span style="color:#ff0000;">excerpts taken from Ibn Arabi Society's website)</span></span></em></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#33ccff;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#33ccff;">The Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#33ccff;">*****************************</span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span><span style="color:#ff6600;">The movement which is the existence </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">of the universe is the movement of love.</span> <span style="color:#33ccff;"><span style="font-size:180%;">"</span><br /></span><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Ibn 'Arabi, Fusûs al-Hikam</span></em> </div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><br /><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span><span style="color:#ff6600;">It is He who is revealed in every face, </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">sought in every sign, </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">gazed upon by every eye, </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">worshipped in every object of worship,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and pursued in the unseen and the visible. </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Not a single one of His creatures </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">can fail to find Him in its primordial</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and original nature.</span><span style="color:#33ccff;"><span style="font-size:180%;">"</span> </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><em>Ibn 'Arabi, Futûhât al-Makkiyya </em></span></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span></em></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span><span style="color:#ff6600;">If the believer understood the meaning of the saying </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">'<span style="color:#3333ff;">the colour of the water is the colour of the receptacle</span>', </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">he would admit the validity of all beliefs</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and he would recognise God </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">in every form and every object of faith.</span><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span></strong><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"><em>Ibn 'Arabi, Fusûs al-Hikam </em></span></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="color:#ff0000;">And this has to be my all time favourite of Ibn Arabi's works....</span></em><br /><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span><span style="color:#ff6600;">O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">My heart has become capable of every form:</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">it is a pasture for gazelles </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and a convent for Christian monks,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Kaa'ba,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and the tables of the Torah </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and the book of the Quran.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I follow the religion of Love: </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">whatever way Love's camels take,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">that is my religion and my faith.</span><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span><br /><em><span style="color:#3366ff;"><span style="font-size:85%;">'Tarjuman al-Ashwaq'. Theosophical Publishing House, 1911. Poem XI</span>. </span></em></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span></em></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">'</span><span style="color:#3366ff;"><em>We are given a key to understanding, however, in the triple vision of the three great prophets of the Western world - for to Ibn 'Arabi these three bring the same message,the same essential religion of love. He considers all prophets and saints to be explainers of this primordial religion: There is no knowledge except that taken from God, for He alone is the Knower... the prophets, in spite of their great number and the long periods of time which separate them, had no disagreement in knowledge of God, since they took it from God. We are given a key to understanding, however, in the triple vision of the three great prophets of the Western world - for to Ibn 'Arabi these three bring the same message, the same essential religion of love. He considers all prophets and saints to be explainers of this primordial religion:</em></span><span style="color:#ff6600;"><br /><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span>There is no knowledge except that taken from God,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">for He alone is the Knower... </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">the prophets, in spite of their great number </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and the long periods of time which separate them, </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">had no disagreement in knowledge of God, </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">since they took it from God.</span> <span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">'Futuhat al Makkiyah' II. 290. Trans. W. Chittick, 'The Sufi Path of Knowledge'.<br /></span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span><span style="color:#ff6600;">A thin veil separated me </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and him in such a way</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">that I was able to see him </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">while he was unable to see me </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and ignorant of my presence. </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">He was so absorbed that </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">he paid me no attention </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and I said to myself </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#009900;"><em>'He is not destined </em></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"><span style="color:#009900;"><em>to follow the same path as me'</em></span>.</span><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">Futuhat I. 154. Trans. C. Addas, 'La Quete pour la Soufre Rouge'</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span><span style="color:#ff6600;">The Most Merciful looked down upon me</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">with a look of Benevolence </span><span style="color:#ff6600;">and sent </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">to me</span><span style="color:#ff6600;"> while I slept. </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Jesus encouraged me toward asceticism </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and ridding myself of unnecessary belongings; </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Moses gave me the 'disk of the sun' </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and predicted that I would obtain <em>'ilm ladunnî</em></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">from among the sciences of the tawhîd; </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and Muhammad commanded:</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span><span style="color:#009900;"><em><strong>'Hang on to me, you will be safe!'</strong></em></span> <span style="font-size:180%;color:#33ccff;">"</span></div>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-33047094677693511182007-05-31T22:25:00.000-07:002007-05-31T22:37:02.953-07:00<div align="center"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><u><strong>Sheikh Qadir Jilani</strong></u></span></div><br /><div align="center"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rl-ujpXbAvI/AAAAAAAAAJI/GBoZqdABd58/s1600-h/sufi+painting.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070963632865215218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rl-ujpXbAvI/AAAAAAAAAJI/GBoZqdABd58/s400/sufi+painting.jpg" border="0" /></a> Anything you call upon, is a god.</div><div align="center">Anything you depend on, is your god.</div><div align="center">Anything you fear, is your god.<br />Anyone you implore, is your god.</div><p align="center">Look at yourself.</p><p align="center">Your heart does not agree with your tongue</p><p align="center">And your actions are in conflict with your words.</p><p align="center">Say: "Allah u Akbar"</p><p align="center">One thousand times in your heart</p><p align="center">Before you say it even once with your tongue.</p><p align="center">Are you not ashamed of yourself</p><p align="center">To say "There is no god other than Allah,"</p><p align="center">When in truth you worship one thousand deities besides Him. </p><p align="center">Repent to Him from all your lies.</p>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-58306482028951769922007-05-27T22:09:00.000-07:002007-05-27T23:41:48.457-07:00<div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong><u>The Witch of Portobello</u></strong></span></div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlpkJ5XbAsI/AAAAAAAAAIw/Gm_6K6pS7s4/s1600-h/paulo+coelho+witch+of+portobello.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5069474451739574978" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlpkJ5XbAsI/AAAAAAAAAIw/Gm_6K6pS7s4/s400/paulo+coelho+witch+of+portobello.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />I strongly recommend all of you to go out and buy Paolo Coelho's latest book - <span style="color:#ff0000;">The Witch of Portobello</span>.<br /><br />I have always loved Coelho's books. My favourite is the <span style="color:#ff0000;">Alchemist </span>- <em>but of course</em>! The others I loved are:<br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">By the River Piedra I sat down and wept</span><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">The Pilgrimage</span><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">The Fifth Mountain</span><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">Eleven Minutes</span><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5069474451739574994" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlpkJ5XbAtI/AAAAAAAAAI4/QxZvFxKTg8A/s400/Paulo_Coehlo_pic.jpg" border="0" /><br />I did not like <span style="color:#ff0000;">Valkyries</span> and <span style="color:#ff0000;">Veronika Wants to Die</span> and I felt that <span style="color:#ff0000;">The Devil and Miss Prym </span>was a little flat at the end - that there was much more he could do with that story. I felt that he held back the important revelations in that book - thinking that the world is not ready for it. But I know it was missing.<br /><br />To tell you the truth, I haven't read a novel for many years. When I was a kid I read a lot, devouring books like a demon. Once I pick up a book, I wouldn't put it down until I finished it - going to school bleary eyed the next morning as I had only finished reading a particular book at 6 am. I would be very rude and read at the dinner table despite being scolded by my mum. By the time I was in University, I was too scared to read novels fearing that I might not be able to put them down and then I would miss my lectures and tutorials as well as deadlines for my assignments. When I came back to Malaysia, I brought back crates and crates of books, some signed by the authors eg John Mortimer (<em>love him!</em>) and some first editions, some gems I found at Camden Market where I used to browse on Sundays, buying antiques, eating a paper bag full of hot mini doughnuts and drinking freshly brewed steaming hot coffee. Yes, I used to do this all by myself ....<br /><br />There was a point of time when I lived at Notinghill Gate, just at the top of Portobello Road. That was fun! Strolling down Portobello Road on weekends, going to the all day cinema down the road. You just have to pay for one ticket and you can watch several movies, come out, have a bite to eat and go in again whenever you feel like it ... This is where I would watch my arty farty movies, my favourite Pedro Almadovar movies etc. All these things I would do on my own - such as going to the opera, ballet & scouring antique markets. My brother, cousins and friends were ino interested in such activities. They went to Sting , Phil Collins and Genesis concerts. None of them could understand me - thinking that I'm such a bizarre moody person, sitting by myself at home listening to Le Nozze di Figaro or Don Giovanni, refusing to answer the phone or doorbell.... things haven't changed much since then. They still think I'm beyond eccentric.<br /><br />Now my workmates think that too. Years ago my big boss had a word with me about my anti social behaviour - saying that I'm cliquish and selective with my friends. To tell you the truth, he is right. I can't stand having lots of people around me. I instantly feel my energy draining out. Most people are pretty toxic. And with all my meditation, cleansing and detoxing during weekends, the last thing I need is for these corporate vampires to suck my energy out. I take great heed of Al Jilani's words - stay away from ignorant people, stay away from people whose energy is lower than yours. My Sufi guide told me that our energy is like water. If your energy is high and you spend time with someone of lower energy, your energy will flow downwards to the other person so that your energies will balance. That's why you always feel tired when you spend time with people who have low energy levels and they feel rejuvenated when they are with you. Stay away from toxic people. They are energy spongers. What they should do is increase their energy levels on their own through meditation.<br /><br />Anyway, back to Paolo Coelho's latest book. Here are some excerpts of some of my favourite passages in this book:<br /><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><span style="color:#000099;">"A curse on all those who never listened to the words of Christ and who have transferred his message into a stone building ..... Today the Church has changed those<em> [Christ's]</em> words to read "<em>Come unto me all ye who follow our rules, and let the heavy laden go hang.</em></span><span style="color:#3366ff;">"</span></div><p align="justify"><span style="color:#3366ff;">"My way of approaching Allah - has been through calligraphy, and the search for the perfect meaning of each word. A single letter requires us to distill in it all the energy it contains, as if we were carving out its meaning. When sacred texts are written, they contain the soul of the men who served as an instrument to spread them throughout the world. And that doesn't apply only to sacred texts, but to every mark we place on paper. Because the hand that draws each line reflects the soul of the person making that line."</span></p><p align="justify"><span style="color:#000099;">" Elegance isn't a superficial thing, it's the way mankind has found to honour life and work. That's why, when you feel uncomfortable in that position, you musn't think that it's false or artificial: it's real and true precisely because it's difficult. That position means that both the paper and the brush feel proud of the effort you are making. The paper ceases to be a flat, colorless surface and takes on the depth of the things placed on it. Elegance is the correct posture if the writing is to be perfect."</span></p><p align="justify"><em><span style="color:#ff0000;">**(Tome this is the same with life: when all superfluous things have been discarded, we discover simplicity and concentration).</p></span></em><em><span style="color:#ff0000;"><p align="justify"><span style="color:#000099;">"In order to </span></span></em><span style="color:#000099;">forget the rules, you must know them and respect them."<br /></span><span style="color:#ff0000;">Paolo Coelho also quoted one of my favourite poets Kahlil Gibran from his masterpiece <em>The Prophet</em>:</span></p><p><span style="color:#ff0000;">"</span><span style="color:#000099;">Is there anything you would withhold? Some day, all that you have shall be given. The trees give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish....</span></p><p align="justify"><span style="color:#000099;">And what greater merit shall there be than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving? You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."</span></p><p align="justify"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>In the book, one of the characters is an historian who said "the center of a person is the navel" and expounded on how important the navel is. Then he said "My daughter said that I was behaving oddly thinking only of myself</em> - <em>that I was in short, <strong>navel gazing</strong>!" Heeheeh, my fellow naval officers Daef and Art should take note of this!</em></span></p><p align="justify"><span style="color:#000099;">"I spoke only of love. He says the earth needs rituals, well, I can guarantee that if there's love enough among you, you'll have an abundant harvest, because love is the feeling that transforms everything. But what do I see? Friendship. Passion died out a long time ago, because you've all got used to one another. That's why the earth gives what it gave last year, neither more nor less. And that's why, in the darkness of your souls, you silently complain that nothing in your lives changes. Why? Because you've always tried to control the force that transforms everything so that your lives can carry on without being faced by any major challenges."</span></p><p align="justify"><span style="color:#000099;">"I am ... universal wisdom. I came into the world accompanied only by Love. I am the beginning of everything ... For me, love fills everything. It cannot be desired because it is an end in itself. It cannot betray because it has nothing to do with possession. It cannot be held prisoner because it is a river and will overflow its banks. Anyone who tries to imprison love will cut off the spring that feeds it, and the trapped water will grow stagnant and rank."</span></p><p align="justify"><span style="color:#000099;">"Religions will revert to being a refuge for the weak, who are always in search of guidance."</span></p><p align="justify"><strong><u><span style="color:#ff0000;">On <em>Sin</em>:</span></u></strong></p><p align="justify"><span style="color:#000099;">"We all have a duty to love and to allow love to manifest itself in the way it thinks best. We cannot and must not be frightened when the powers of darkness want to make themselves heard, those same powers that introduced the word <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>sin </em></span></strong>merely to control our hearts and minds .... What is sin? It is a sin to prevent Love from showing itself."</span></p><p align="justify"><span style="color:#ff6600;">So ... what are you waiting for? Go get this book! However, even here, I felt Coelho held back and could have done much more with this book. He is just skimming the surface but I feel he did it on purpose to cater to a wider range of people. I understand why he does it. He throws in deep messages which most people would find unpalatable and couches it in an entertaining story so that these people would continue reading it ... and hopefully these messages sink in or provoke them to think and not just accept life as they were taught to by their parents, priests etc. I try to do that with Chapati Moments and some of you have picked it up whilst others are just entertained by this dysfuntional family I write about.... <strong>:)</strong></span></p>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-82772614875771152852007-05-21T02:41:00.000-07:002007-05-21T03:22:17.723-07:00<div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9966;"><u><strong>Thank You to My Beloved</strong></u></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">by the Anomaly</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"><em>18 May 2007 night time</em></span></div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlFpbZXbAqI/AAAAAAAAAIg/N81n1umSykQ/s1600-h/standing_maidens_in_garden_19th_cent.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066946975155028642" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlFpbZXbAqI/AAAAAAAAAIg/N81n1umSykQ/s400/standing_maidens_in_garden_19th_cent.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff9900;"><strong>Today</strong></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I finally passed the test</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I finally learnt my lesson</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I finally know</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">How to love myself.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">To learn how to love yourself</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">You must first</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Know who you are</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">You must know your value</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and your worth</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">You must never let another person </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">determine your worth</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">and tell you who you are.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">So I thank you, </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">my Master, my Guide,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">my Beloved</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">for leading me to this path</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">to this knowledge</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">to this awareness.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">To love yourself is to never allow anyone </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">to have control over your destiny</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">To never accept second best</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">To never be second best</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Your soul belongs to Allah</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Our Creator</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Our Ultimate Love</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Your life belongs to Allah</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Never surrender your love and your life </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">to anyone else.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Know yourself and you will know Allah</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Love yourself and you will love Allah</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Love Allah and you will love yourself</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">It matters not which comes first</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">By the time you come to this realisation</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">You are nothing but a mirror</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Reflecting</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Allah's Beauty</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Allah's Light</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">So learn to love yourself.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Do not accept a tarnished gift</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">For you are worthy of something better</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Do not accept love in half measures</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">For you are worth</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Much, much, much more than that</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Do not accept insincere friendships</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">for they are worth nothing and you are priceless.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">It is better to be alone </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">than to be with those </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">who do not know how to value you.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">It is better to stay away from those</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">who do not know how to appreciate your worth.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">They are not worth a single tear in your eye.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Finally I learnt and practised all this.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I have passed the test.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Thank you thank you thank you</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">My Love</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">for leading me here.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">My chains are broken</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I am finally released.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I finally know:</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">how to live</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">how to love</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">My burdens are gone</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I am ready to live</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I am ready to love another</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">How can you love another </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">when you do not know how to love yourself?</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">How can you value others</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">when you do not value yourself?</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">And today I have proven it</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I love myself</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">I value myself</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Thank you my Love.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;"></span></div><br /><br /><p><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlFpbpXbArI/AAAAAAAAAIo/VN9bOd0lTIY/s1600-h/Divan_hafiz.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066946979449995954" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlFpbpXbArI/AAAAAAAAAIo/VN9bOd0lTIY/s400/Divan_hafiz.jpg" border="0" /></a> </p><p><span style="color:#ff0000;">The poetry</span> ab<span style="color:#666666;">ove was inspired after going through a tough period for the past 2 weeks. I had come to realise that 2 people whom I am very fond of, whom I trust, whom I regarded as my friends have betrayed my trust and are not sincere to me. I struggled with myself - <em>do I ignore it, accept them as they are and accept the half measures they mete out insincerely?</em></span></p><p><span style="color:#666666;">Then I realised - there is a difference between accepting people as they are and the treatment they show you. Accepting them as they are means not judging them and letting them be who they are and allowing them to find their own way. Eventually, we hope they will get there. But we don't have to suffer in their ignorance and accept their treatment.</span></p><p><span style="color:#666666;">So I stepped out of this circle of their ignorance and contempt.</span></p><p><span style="color:#666666;">What a release that was. To not be stuck in this vicious circle. I thought I would be upset and distraught over this. But all I felt was a sense of emptiness. I was worried. I thought I must be numb. But its night time now and I still don't feel anything. Just a sense of relief that I don't have to think about this anymore. I don't have to get upset over their behaviour anymore. </span></p><p><span style="color:#666666;">Then I realised - I finally liearnt my lesson which God was trying to teach me since 2000. I learnt to love myself. </span></p><p><span style="color:#666666;">So thank you God for this revelation, for this gift. It took me seven years of pain to learn. Seven years of joy. Seven verses in the Fatihah - The Heart of the Koran.</span><br /></p><div align="center"></div>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-7521837847693326142007-05-21T02:06:00.000-07:002007-05-21T02:39:10.797-07:00<div align="center"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#999900;"><strong><u>Hafiz</u></strong></span></div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlFhVZXbAnI/AAAAAAAAAII/rxi13kG6YBY/s1600-h/hafizdoor.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066938075982791282" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlFhVZXbAnI/AAAAAAAAAII/rxi13kG6YBY/s400/hafizdoor.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="center"><u><strong><span style="color:#009900;">I Have Come Into This World to See This</span></strong></u></div><br /><div align="center"><span style="color:#999900;">I have come into this world to see this:</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">the sword drop from men's hands even at the height</span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">of the arc of their anger</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">because we have finally realised there is just one flesh to wound</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">and it is His - the Christ's, our</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">Beloved's.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#999900;">I have come into this world to see this:</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">all creatures hold hands as </span><span style="color:#cc6600;">we pass through </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">this miraculous existence we share on the way</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">to an even greater being of soul,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">a being of just ecstatic light, forever entwined and at play</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">with Him.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066938075982791298" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlFhVZXbAoI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/7TFLmft8PEw/s400/hafiz_sm.jpg" border="0" /></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#999900;">I have come into this world to hear this:</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">every song the earth has sung since it was conceived in</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">the Divine's womb and began spinning from </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">His wish,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">every song by wing, fin and hoof,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">every song by hill and and field and tree and woman and child,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">every song of stream and rock,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">every song of tool and lyre and flute,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">every song of gold and emerald</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">and fire,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">every song the heart should cry with magnificent dignity</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">to know itself as</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">God;</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">for all other knowledge will leave us again in want and aching -</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">only imbibing the glorious Sun</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">will complete us.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#999900;">I have come into the world to experience this:</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">men so true to love</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">they would rather die before speaking</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">an unkind</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">word,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">men so true their lives are His covenant -</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">the promise of</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">hope.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#999900;">I have come into this world to see this:</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">the sword drop from men's hands</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">even at the height of </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">their arc of </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">rage</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">because we have finally realised</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">there is just one flesh</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">we can wound.</span></div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlFhVpXbApI/AAAAAAAAAIY/sP7J3-yuC3M/s1600-h/hafiz+3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5066938080277758610" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RlFhVpXbApI/AAAAAAAAAIY/sP7J3-yuC3M/s400/hafiz+3.jpg" border="0" /> <p align="center"></a><strong><u><span style="color:#999900;">More from Hafiz .....</span></u></strong></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">I have learned so much</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">from God</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">that I can no longer call myself</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew.</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">that I can no longer call myself </span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">a man, a woman, an angel, or even a pure soul,</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">Love has befriended Hafiz,</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">It has turned to ash and freed me</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">Of every concept and image </span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc6600;">my mind has ever known.</span></p><p align="center"><br /></p>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-23489685022496385242007-05-15T02:47:00.000-07:002007-05-15T02:55:56.317-07:00<u><span style="color:#ff6600;"><strong>Chapati Moments: Auntie Roopah</strong></span></u><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RkmB4-AFvVI/AAAAAAAAAIA/BCnsHwMi0xA/s1600-h/aunty+roopah+2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5064722071670865234" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RkmB4-AFvVI/AAAAAAAAAIA/BCnsHwMi0xA/s400/aunty+roopah+2.jpg" border="0" /></a> This is not a picture of Auntie Roopah. Its just a picture I posted to entice you to read further.<br /><br />I have posted a freshly cooked Chapati in Navel Gazing:-<br /><a href="http://thegazerofnavels.blogspot.com/2007/05/chapati-moments-auntie-roopah-and.html">http://thegazerofnavels.blogspot.com/2007/05/chapati-moments-auntie-roopah-and.html</a><br /><br /><em>Bon appetite!</em> Any indigestion caused - please direct complaints to the chef.the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-72022055061071712602007-05-14T02:06:00.000-07:002007-05-14T02:23:00.628-07:00<div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;"><u>The Thoroughbred</u></span></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><u><span style="font-size:100%;color:#cc0000;">by the Anomaly</span></u></strong></div><br /><div align="center"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rkgm6uAFu-I/AAAAAAAAAFI/7RinApUiFBw/s1600-h/thoroughbred-horse.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5064340571200797666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rkgm6uAFu-I/AAAAAAAAAFI/7RinApUiFBw/s320/thoroughbred-horse.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="color:#000099;">Only a King knows how to appreciate a thoroughbred</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">Only a King knows how to treasure it</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">Holding it high above all else</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">Only a King can appreciate</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">the thoroughbred's</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">lineage</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">elegance</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">beauty</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">spirit.</span><br /></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rkgm6uAFu_I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/MEyyhMx35NA/s1600-h/cow.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5064340571200797682" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rkgm6uAFu_I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/MEyyhMx35NA/s320/cow.jpg" border="0" /><p align="center"></a><span style="color:#000099;">A King knows</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">not to compare a thoroughbred</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">with a farm animal</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">A King has no need for a farm animal</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">What would a King do with a stable full of farm animals?</span><br /></p><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rkgm6-AFvAI/AAAAAAAAAFY/LbgQz9lyb4Y/s1600-h/peasant+and+farm+animal.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5064340575495764994" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rkgm6-AFvAI/AAAAAAAAAFY/LbgQz9lyb4Y/s320/peasant+and+farm+animal.jpg" border="0" /><p align="center"></a><span style="color:#000099;">Likewise, do not give a peasant a thoroughbred</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">He has neither the capacity nor the depth to appreciate true beauty</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">For a peasant knows only how to appreciate a farm animal</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">He cannot place a yoke on a thoroughbred to till his land</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">The thoroughbred can die under these hardened conditions</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">Be very careful with the thoroughbred</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">Place it in the wrong hands and it will wither and die</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">The peasant only deserves a farm animal</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">For that is the only thing he knows how to value.</span><br /></p><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rkgm6-AFvBI/AAAAAAAAAFg/uSVe2c0E3KQ/s1600-h/egyptian+farmer.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5064340575495765010" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rkgm6-AFvBI/AAAAAAAAAFg/uSVe2c0E3KQ/s320/egyptian+farmer.jpg" border="0" /></a>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-53486515871111977182007-05-08T19:10:00.000-07:002007-05-08T19:53:50.177-07:00<div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff0000;"><u>My Heart</u></span></strong></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">by the Anomaly</span></div><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RkEyteAFu9I/AAAAAAAAAFA/560YXak-g5c/s1600-h/MendaBrokenHeart.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062383212870089682" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RkEyteAFu9I/AAAAAAAAAFA/560YXak-g5c/s320/MendaBrokenHeart.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">I have denied what I feel about you</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Counting your flaws</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Ignoring your virtues</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">To protect my heart</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Whilst declaring loudly </span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">that I always follow my heart</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">that I know what my heart wants</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">And it is not you,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">I say to myself</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Because you are not worthy of my heart</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Nor even my thoughts.</span></div><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">I have even managed to convince myself</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">that I still love another</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">who is more worthy</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">But the truth is,</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">I realise now that</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">I have been denying my heart.</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">The truth is</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">when I stand next to you</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">my heart feels waves of pain</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">I am startled by that</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">But my heart does not lie</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Only fear makes us deny what the heart feels</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">I tell my heart repeatedly</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">that you are not worthy</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">that there is another</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">more worthy</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Another who would protect me</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">from your ignorant ways</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Another who would not hurt me</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">like you do with your clumsy manner</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Another who would treasure me</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">more than you are capable of</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Who would protect me from</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">myself.</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">For my Beloved has revealed</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">that He will only bless my union</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">with the one</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">who loves me more</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">and not the one</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">whom I love more.</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">In that way, my Beloved</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">would have fulfilled His covenant to me</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">and I to Him</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Understand, that I am only allowed</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">to be with those who are worthy</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Understand, that I am not allowed</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">to throw pearls before a swine</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">So dear heart,</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">take heed of my plea</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Be strong</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">Withstand the waves of pain</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">For the one you pine for</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">is not worthy of your love</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">He will hurt you</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">He will toss you about</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">with carelessness</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">if not cruelty</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">And this is forbidden</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">For you have made a covenant</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;">to the Beloved.</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#330099;"></span> </p><p><span style="color:#330099;"></span> </p><div align="center"><br /></div>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-4562812506783517872007-05-04T01:28:00.000-07:002007-05-04T02:44:31.332-07:00<div align="center"><u><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><em><strong>Sufi Wisdom: Shaykh Abd Qadir Al Jilani</strong></em></span></u></div><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjrvyeAFu2I/AAAAAAAAAEI/wzz1mS5fZq8/s1600-h/thesecretofsecrets.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060620781630110562" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjrvyeAFu2I/AAAAAAAAAEI/wzz1mS5fZq8/s320/thesecretofsecrets.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color:#cc6600;">"The Prophet said "<span style="font-size:100%;"><em>Gabriel once came to me and said: "The Lord of Truth has instructed me to tell you:</em>'<span style="color:#ff0000;">Pardon those who do you wrong. Maintain a connection with those who would cut you off. Give to those who deprive you. Reflect on the blessings of Allah, on His handiwork and His ways of managing His creation.</span></span></span><span style="color:#ff0000;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;color:#cc6600;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;color:#cc6600;"><span style="color:#ff0000;">If you suffer unjust treatment, do not act unjustly. If you are praised, do not feel too pleased about it. If you are criticised, do not feel too depressed. If you are accused of telling lies, do not get angry. If you are betrayed, do not betray another.</span>"</span><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjrvyeAFu3I/AAAAAAAAAEQ/zJxbl_nJerQ/s1600-h/Al+Haq.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060620781630110578" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjrvyeAFu3I/AAAAAAAAAEQ/zJxbl_nJerQ/s320/Al+Haq.jpg" border="0" /></a><em> </em><span style="color:#009900;"><em>Shaykh Qadir Al Jilani on the Sufis</em>: "In your case, you belong to the group consisting of those who love Allah both through involuntary compulsion and through a process of free choice.</span></p><p><span style="color:#009900;">If only you would leave the company of the unbelievers and the hypocrites today, and stay away from them tomorrow. If only you would get up and walk away from meetings held by those who idolise their fellow creatures and material means, and who quarrel with the Lord of Truth. Do not meddle with the treasuries of worldly kings, and do not pry into their secrets.</span></p><p><span style="color:#009900;">If a person does not acknowledge his own worth, the decrees of destiny will teach him to acknoledge his own worth. To recognise your own worth is better than refusing to acknowledge you own worth, because an ignorant person is someone who knows neither his own worth nor the worth of other people."</span></p><br /><p><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjrvyuAFu4I/AAAAAAAAAEY/fqk-Iz-hsQw/s1600-h/Qilani.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060620785925077890" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjrvyuAFu4I/AAAAAAAAAEY/fqk-Iz-hsQw/s320/Qilani.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="color:#cc6600;">"You must dedicate your hearts entirely to Him. You must turn to Him in humble entreaty, and beg Him to supply you with everything you need. You must apply to Him for all your urgent requirements. You have no other place to turn. You have no other door by which to enter. All other doors have been locked shut. You must spend time alone with Him in lonely places. You must talk to Him and speak to Him directly with the tongues of your faith.</span></p><p><span style="color:#cc6600;">As soon as the other members of your family have all gone to sleep, and the sounds and voices of your fellow creatures have fallen silent, you should cleanse yourself by performing the ritual ablution, then lower your forehead to the ground. While you are in humble posture, you should repent, beg pardon, confess your sins, implore your Lord to grant His gracious favour, and ask Him to supply your needs. You should also complain to Him about any problems that are causing a feeling of tightness in your breast. He is your Lord, not any other, and He is your god, not any other.</span></p><p><span style="color:#cc6600;">You must not run away on account of the arrows of His afflictions. He has treated all your predecessors in the same way, exposing them to pain and suffering, making them experience difficulty and hardship as well as ease and comfort, so that they might acknowledge Him and be grateful to Him, so that they might learn to be patient with Him and entrust themselves to His care.</span></p><p><span style="color:#cc6600;">Punishments are for common folk, while acts of atonement are for the truly devout believers, and </span><span style="color:#ff0000;">spiritual degrees are for the righteous of true conviction, the triumphant champions of truth.</span></p><p><span style="color:#cc6600;">The Prophet has told us: "Of all people, we Prophets are the ones most sorely afflicted. Then those who resemble us most closely, and so on down the scale."</span></p><p><span style="color:#cc6600;">When the true believer is afflicted, he bears his affliction with patience. He keeps it well hidden from his fellow creatures and does not complain to them. This is why the Prophet has told us: "the believer wears his cheerfulness on his face, while his sadness stays inside his heart."</span></p><p><span style="color:#cc6600;">That is to say, he greets other people with a cheerful expression, so that they will not notice what is in his heart.</span></p><p><span style="color:#cc6600;">True believers hide the treasures of their inner beings. They act in accordance with the natural disposition of their hearts. Sadness is the natural disposition of our lower selves. Sadness is a cloud that showers the heart with drops of wisdom and secret knowledge. Why will you not be patient in bearing sadness and broken-heartedness, when Allah has said in one of His utterances: "<span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">I am with those whose hearts are broken on My account</span>."</span></p><p><span style="color:#cc6600;">Whenever their hearts are broken because of remoteness [from Him], along comes the mender of nearness to mend them. Whenever they are alienated from their fellow creatures, along comes intimate friendship with Allah to put them at their ease. Whenever they become estranged from their fellow creatures, they discover intimate friendship in the nearness of Allah. Whenever their sadness lasts for a long time in this world, their happiness is of long duration in the hereafter.</span><br /></p><br /><p><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rjrvy-AFu6I/AAAAAAAAAEo/Z04cAWEzP4o/s1600-h/Futuh+al-Ghaib.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060620790220045218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rjrvy-AFu6I/AAAAAAAAAEo/Z04cAWEzP4o/s320/Futuh+al-Ghaib.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="color:#cc0000;"> The Prophet would often experience prolonged bouts of sadness, and he was always given to contemplation. He would seem to be listening carefully, as if to an invisible speaker who was talking to him, or to someone calling out to him from the unseen. His executors, his representatives, his deputies and his heirs are likewise notable for the long duration of their sadness and the constancy of their contemplation. How could they fail to follow the example he set by his actions, when they are standing in his stead, feeding people with his food and quenching their thirst with his drink, using his horses for transport, and wielding his swords and his spears in battle?</span></p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060631166861032370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rjr5O-AFu7I/AAAAAAAAAEw/FJw9p5ipFhc/s320/sufi+painting.jpg" border="0" /></p><p><span style="color:#999900;">The people of the Lord have inherited the situation of the Prophets and their position in the scheme of things, though not their personal names and titles, nor the special attributes and peculiar virtues with which they never fall short. It may therefore happen that one of them begins to play his role at a very early age, while in the case of another, his true role does not become apparent until the latter part of his life. Transformations are brought about through the presence of such an individual, for he is the friend of Allah in the knowledge of Allah.</span><br /></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#cc0000;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060631171155999682" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rjr5POAFu8I/AAAAAAAAAE4/I8Xi6iSblJg/s320/tomb.jpg" border="0" /><em>The Tomb of Shaykh Qadir Al Jilani</em></span></p><p align="center"><em><span style="color:#cc0000;">(which was hit by <span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><strong>US</strong></span> bombings in Iraq)</span></em></p><span style="color:#cc0000;"><p align="left"><span style="color:#999900;">Of the <span style="color:#ff0000;">ignorant people</span>, the Shaykh said:</span></p><p align="left"><span style="color:#999900;">"You do not recognise the true condition of the people of the Lord, and you do not acknowledge the truth of what they have to say. Your involvement with worldly creatures is an obstacle that prevents you from getting to know them. Your love of prestige in this world, and the ambitious pursuit of political leadership, these are obstacles that prevent you from getting to know them. If you had been genuinely interested in trying to find them, you would have recognised them by now, and you would have derived complete satisfaction from what they had to tell you. You do not spend any time in the company of people who put their knowledge into practice. You are not like those who drink what they have to offer, here in my presence, so you do not experience the effect of that kind of wine."</span><br /></p></span>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-44814703779126233732007-05-02T23:07:00.000-07:002007-05-02T23:14:34.551-07:00<div align="center"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#cc0000;"><u>The Prophesy of Simeon</u></span></div><div align="center"> </div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rjl8OOAFu1I/AAAAAAAAAEA/YdJ083U9iG4/s1600-h/mary+3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060212240045947730" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rjl8OOAFu1I/AAAAAAAAAEA/YdJ083U9iG4/s320/mary+3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, His mother, <span style="color:#cc0000;"><em>"Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed-- and a sword will pierce even your own soul--to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed."</em><br /></span><br /><em><span style="color:#3366ff;"><strong>Luke 2:34 - 35</strong></span></em>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-85432407869933191412007-05-02T22:12:00.000-07:002007-05-02T22:33:58.941-07:00<div align="center"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><em><span style="color:#ff6600;"><u>Maryam</u></span></em> </span></strong></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc9933;"><em>- dedicated to the Mother of the Great Master</em></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#cc9933;"><em>- by the Anomaly</em></span></div><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rjlvp-AFuyI/AAAAAAAAADo/Q1CZ8iX6Bjw/s1600-h/mary_halo.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060198423136156450" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rjlvp-AFuyI/AAAAAAAAADo/Q1CZ8iX6Bjw/s320/mary_halo.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">O Maryam</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">the Beautiful</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">the Cherished</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">the Blessed</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Mother of True Love</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Mother of Unconditional Love</span> </div><br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rjlvp-AFuzI/AAAAAAAAADw/irt0ztscGgM/s1600-h/virgin-mary2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060198423136156466" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/Rjlvp-AFuzI/AAAAAAAAADw/irt0ztscGgM/s320/virgin-mary2.jpg" border="0" /><p align="center"></a><span style="color:#ff6600;">You are the only woman</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Allah has bestowed His great Light</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">To you, Allah has dedicated an entire chapter of the Holy Koran</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">You are the only woman</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Who knows Love as it truly is</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">The only one who has felt love</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">At its deepest, most wonderful,</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Most painful depths</span></p><p align="center"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjlvqOAFu0I/AAAAAAAAAD4/2kqsLj-9-IU/s1600-h/Virgin_Mary.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5060198427431123778" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjlvqOAFu0I/AAAAAAAAAD4/2kqsLj-9-IU/s320/Virgin_Mary.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="color:#ff6600;">Allah has reserved for you</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">A most special place in His Heart</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Glory to Maryam,</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">The Most Beloved</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">The One who gave</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Her soul</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Her life</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Her love</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Her Son</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">To Allah</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">As Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son to Allah</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Who knows what pain</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Maryam went through</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">To show her faith</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Her love</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">For the Beloved</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Who knows what hardship</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Maryam endured</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">To show her love</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Who knows her strength amidst</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">The rejection, the insults, the ridicule</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">thrown at her</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">hurled against her</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Who knows how alone</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">She felt then</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">With only her faith to hold on to.</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">As alone as I feel now</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Alone with the Alone</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Only the great Sheikh Ibn Arabi will understand</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">what I am talking about</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">For he too, the Seal of the Saints,</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Serves the Great Master.</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Maryam,</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">The day you choose to share</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Your love with us again</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Is the beginning of the end</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">And life will reach a full circle</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Dawn and sunset will become One</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Daylight and nightfall will become One</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Light and Darkness will become One</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">And we will all </span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">Return to the One who loves us</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">For you</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">are the Mother</span></p><p align="center"><span style="color:#ff6600;">of Dawn and Sunset.</span><br /></p>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-60548737834495538112007-05-02T20:21:00.000-07:002007-05-02T20:31:14.242-07:00<span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;"><strong><u><em>Dark Night of My Soul </em></u></strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;"><u><em><strong>- </strong><span style="font-size:100%;color:#ff6600;">by the Anomaly</span></em></u></span><br /><br /><span style="color:#996633;">O dark night of my soul</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">In this silence</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">I face the darkest night</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">I see the face of </span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">He whom all fear most</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">I submit to Him</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">I can resist no more</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">I can go no further</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;"></span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Seven years of light</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Seven years of darkness</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Seven years of pleasure</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Seven years of pain</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">I can go forth no more</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;"></span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Seven years of being cherished</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Seven years of being ignored, discarded like a worthless scrap of paper</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Burn this scrap of paper</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Burn me</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">I can go forth no more</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;"></span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">I bow down and kiss your feet</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">I submit to you</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Take my soul</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">For this body is weary, beaten, tormented</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">full of lacerations</span><br /><span style="color:#996633;"></span><br /><span style="color:#996633;">Take my soul</span>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-74569262613586867002007-04-27T01:32:00.000-07:002007-04-27T02:46:34.773-07:00<div><u><span style="color:#33cc00;"><strong>Ready For Silence - <em>Rumi</em></strong></span></u><br /><em><u><span style="color:#3366ff;"></span></u></em><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">I am about to go off for some days of contemplation, days of much needed solitude, solace and silence. So I will leave you to contemplate on some of Rumi's beautiful verses.</span> </div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5058034300784851682" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjG_ZeAFuuI/AAAAAAAAADI/WfERuOpEokc/s320/rumihdntrezur.jpg" border="0" /><u><em><span style="color:#cc9933;"><strong>Ready for Silence</strong></span></em></u><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;"></span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">The devotional moon looks into the heart and <em>is in</em> the heart.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">When the heart has a Friend like you, the universe cannot contain their pleasure. Anyone warmed by the sun feels courage coming in.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">If grief arrives, you enjoy it. Generosity: that's your hand in my pocket giving your wealth away. Yet you run from me like one raised in the wild. He comes this strange creature: me, in a hand-and-feet shape! The formless tries to satisfy us with forms!</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">A transparent nakedness wearing pure light says, </span><span style="color:#ff6600;"><em>Blessed are those who put on gold brocade!</em></span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">You may not see him,</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">but Moses is alive,</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">in this town, and he still has his staff! And there's water and thirst,</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">wherever and however water goes, and the one who brings water.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">The morning wind broke off a few branches in the garden.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">No matter, when you feel love inside you, you hear the invitation to be cooked by God.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">Its that creation the heart loves.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">For three winter months the ground keeps quiet. But each piece of earth knows what'sinside waiting: beans, sugarcane, cypress, wildflowers.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">Then the spring sun comes talking plants into the open.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">Anyone who feels the point of prayer bends down like the first letter of <em><span style="color:#ff9900;">pray</span></em>.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">Anyone who walks with his back to the sun is following his own shadow. Move into your own quietness. This word-search poem has found <em><span style="color:#ff9900;">you</span></em>, <span style="color:#ff6600;">ready for silence</span>.</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;"></span><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5058034305079819010" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjG_ZuAFuwI/AAAAAAAAADY/ujamd0Lfnc8/s320/rumi_amena.jpg" border="0" /><em><u><span style="color:#009900;"><strong>Why God Said He Loved Moses</strong></span></u></em><br /><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">One day God said to Moses, "<em><span style="color:#ff6600;">My chosen one I love you.</span></em>"</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">Moses asked "<span style="color:#ff6600;"><em>Bountiful One, tell me what in me is the cause of your love for me, so that I may make it grow</em></span>."</span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">God replied, "</span><span style="color:#ff6600;"><em>You are like a child in the presence of its mother. When she chastises the child it still wraps its arms about her and loves her. The child knows of no one in the world but her, and finds all sorrow and joy from her presence. If she should be angry with the child it still comes to her, for it never seeks any help from anywhere else.</em></span><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;"><span style="color:#ff6600;"><em>You are like this child Moses, for your heart never turns from Me to anyone else</em></span>."</span><br /><em><u><span style="color:#33cc00;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5058034305079818994" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjG_ZuAFuvI/AAAAAAAAADQ/u6XUSyN-szM/s320/Rumi+2.bmp" border="0" /></span></u></em><br /><p> </p><p><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#cc0000;"><u><strong>Saladin</strong></u></span></em></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#999900;">Heart sees the joy of early dawn, the breeze. What have you seen?</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#999900;">What have you not seen?</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#999900;">Sometimes, to plunge in a bewilderment ocean;</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#999900;">Sometimes to find the gray amber of whales deep in the mountain!</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#999900;">Hundreds of windows. Haze returns into the sea. My weeping eyes, wave by wave, mix with the ocean.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#999900;">It becomes an eye. Both worlds, a single corn grain in front of a great rooster! One who wants, one who is wanted, the same. Who knows God? Someone through with <em><span style="color:#ff6600;">La</span></em>. No!</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#999900;">The broken lover knows about this.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#ff6600;"><em>Nobody in this robe but God.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#999900;">Appear as you truly are.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;color:#999900;">Saladin, you are my soul, the eye that sees God.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5058034305079819026" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YHwRTht6tJg/RjG_ZuAFuxI/AAAAAAAAADg/kGw7lTNouM8/s320/avludadonen.jpg" border="0" /></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;"><em><u><strong>The Lover's Passion</strong></u></em></span></p><p><span style="color:#3333ff;">A lover knows only humility</span></p><p><span style="color:#3333ff;">He has no choice</span></p><p><span style="color:#3333ff;">He steals into your alley at night</span></p><p><span style="color:#3333ff;">He has no choice</span></p><p><span style="color:#3333ff;">He longs to kiss every lock of your hair</span></p><p><span style="color:#3333ff;">Don't fret</span></p><p><span style="color:#3333ff;">He has no choice</span></p><p><span style="color:#3333ff;">In his frenzied love for you</span></p><p><span style="color:#3333ff;">he longs to break the chains of his imprisionment</span></p><p><span style="color:#3333ff;">He has no choice.</span></p>the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25445767.post-61528542899144063062007-04-20T02:24:00.000-07:002007-04-20T02:36:58.927-07:00<em><span style="color:#cc0000;"><u>CHAPATI MOMENTS: Raison Etre</u></span></em><br /><br />I have posted 2 more chapters on Chapati Moments at Navel Gazing. The latest on Androo & Maya is at:<br /><br /><a href="http://thegazerofnavels.blogspot.com/2007/04/chapati-moments-androo-maya.html">http://thegazerofnavels.blogspot.com/2007/04/chapati-moments-androo-maya.html</a><br /><br />And the previous one "Uncle Veloo's Den of Disrepute" is at<br /><a href="http://thegazerofnavels.blogspot.com/2007/04/chapati-moments-uncle-veloos-den-of.html">http://thegazerofnavels.blogspot.com/2007/04/chapati-moments-uncle-veloos-den-of.html</a><br /><br />I remember now why I started writing Chapati Moments. I had this idea after the Bench & Bar Games 2006 (see my earlier postings last year). I was writing about the antics of the Malaysian lawyer and the Singaporean lawyer who are both Indian men and in it, I started calling it my own Tamil movie where I was this character called Letchumy.<br /><br />There are now 4 chapters of Chapati Moments posted in the Navel Gazing blog. Each are written in different styles. Its not done purposely. It just happened that way as even I don't know where its going and how it should be written each time. So we'll see where this goes...the Anomalyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03315118385154246809noreply@blogger.com0