The world’s economic health would improve if/when our way of dealing with financial matters would improve.

The principle: keep the money loop tight, lean, short, clean—and have many rapid (enough) cycles of spending/earning.

Spend as close to home as possible, unless inspired to do otherwise, for ‘hearts are homes’. Go where your (sincere) heart is. Sell fresh, buy fresh. Repay loans the first thing—other matters must not cross your mind until you’re done with discharging your liabilities.

Do the most prudent and necessary thing first, then build up or expand outwards.

Pay laborers or employees swiftly. Understand that creators, craftspeople, and artists are worthiest of the largest share of the final price of their enterprise. Attempt to earn as locally as possible. Travel when necessary. Give to charitable causes closest to home. When near needs are met, meet the far needs. Feed the hungry, clothe the unclothed, and shelter the homeless swiftly, quickly, compassionately, and while maintaining their secret and integrity. It is not your favor upon them; rather the favor is theirs that they gave you a chance to be human. (Conversely, when you are treated well, see not the other as God but do remember, know, and acknowledge—even if secretly—who favored you. You may just need/want to return it, or testify upon another’s goodness some time.)

Share, even if a little. Do not show off your gifts. Do not consider your earning your own earning, but rather a grant of God/Life given you so you may spread God’s/Life’s favor. Encourage prudence over exuberance in others lest their habits be twisted. Advise another to first meet their obligations; following which, they must pursue what they can possibly do; following which, they may consider something deemed impossible or extraordinary. (Exceptionally, dreamers finance their dreams through extraordinary methods. However, their energy, if not their pocket, is free enough to work on their dream and they have committed effort to it.)

Use money to create value, after fulfilling obligations. Meet others’ obligations for them and remove their burdens if they cannot do it for themselves—set more and more (animal and human) necks free. Loan prudently and not lavishly, and with accountability, lest you be come to seen as easy money. Whoever’s money it is, deal with it prudently and with extreme care. Do not spend on but the most necessary things of survival if you have a loan upon your neck, until the loan is repaid. Spend on health before sickness. Use money to cherish and upkeep your gifts.

Do not tax objects unnecessarily such that they may be exhausted too quick and may need expenditure that could be saved. If something is broken, fix it quickly lest repairs become costly. Scrap the very broken. Repair, beautify, add value, cherish.

Be grateful. Covet not more. Praise what good others have so they may be content with their lots. Encourage prosperity of hearts.
~
Such practices reduce sickness from the social system, and lead to richness and prosperity.

This much is enough for now. Amen!

Ramla

Originally published on Facebook. Nov 2012. Published here: May 1, 2013.
Image: ‘Ancient Olive Tree‘ by Valerie Ornstein. Used without permission.

In my quest to understand Man’s connection with ecology, I stumbled massively… and I stumbled upon some secrets of Creation. As I write—at this very moment—my heart is beating fast and I can feel the source of Creation, the point of (my) existence/non-existence within my self, within my chest. I can see how every time that I am thankful, every time I affirm existence, that source blows spirit out like a bubble, and fills my body up. I see, conversely, how when I am unthankful and uncreative, spirit recedes within that hole, like a sucked-in bubble gum.

I am in great terror. Having being born with a large and expansive spirit who somehow got misguided and learned to mistreat herself, I can now see how restricting and withholding myself from going and growing on benevolent paths has reduced my existence.

I am utterly terrified for ever having walked down dark paths, for not rescuing my spirit only for the ‘pleasure’ of family and friends. I never thought I’d do that, but I’ve done that. My once-luminous spirit has walked down dark paths. And so here I am, reduced to terror. Absolute horror and terror.

Every word that I’ve spoken wrong, every minute I’ve not been filled with Allah’s remembrance, every second that I relied not on the spirit within but on someone outside (someone who was not guiding my spirit towards light), every time I was filled with destructive anger… all that made me either non-existent, or turned luminous existence into dark one.

I wanted to understand Deep Ecology—Man’s relationship with outer creation. Allah took me within myself. In one year, I have seen horror upon horror (with guiding lights within, here and there, screaming at me to protect myself, save myself, get out). Alas, I was filled with overwhelming darkness. It won, and the lights lost out. I tripped and fell.

I am overwhelmed. I am overwhelmed with Allah. I am simply amazed and overwhelmed with the might of Allah—the Lord of the Worlds (inner and outer), the Master of all Creation. Allah, the Hayyee, the Qayyum. The Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining One.

I am filled with realization, filled with terror, feeling cornered and not sure where to go from here. When you search for Truth, and step back from the morass of Reality tempered with Illusion into what is Real/Real… Ah! How may I describe the horror of having lived in the unreal?

What have I done!?

There is nothing more that I can say but Subhan’Allah! Subhan’Allah! Subhan’Allah!

Oct 10, 2012

I had little idea of what my life was going to look like when I committed myself to these intentions made on October 1st, 2011, the day after a year-long retreat.

I had intended Deeper Honesty, Deeper Silence, and the practice of Deep Ecology.

Nearly six and a half months later, I have inevitably moved closer to what felt true and honest to me… what was inevitably my ‘track’… what I could not leave and move away from. The result is that I have curtsied myself out of various engagement and relationships that did not align with my inner tracks. I am (cautiously) opening up more and deeper to other relationships. Above all — ha, this is true! — I am feeling a deeper ‘relationship’ with myself, I am feeling a deeper ME. I feel as though I am living in my heart. My heart feels full, it feels a sitting presence. Right now. It is full.

The world doesn’t feel the same: I have begun feeling ME. Me. The me that was lost years ago. Here am I, and I can feel a luscious, weighty, sensuous presence. I can feel me. I feel me from within… and it’s a luscious, rich, full, meaty presence.

I am also more silent. Ah, yes, it has meant completely butchering some habits, some old means and avenues of communication. But I am off the pulpit (though not yet completely in habit), I am off the city square, I am no longer the weeping muezzin no one hears the call of. I hear myself. I hear myself weeping (it is now rarer), I hear myself enjoying (it is now more modulated). I am sane and sensible… and yet, my world has broken into color and eccentricity. I am free. I am more silent and self-referring than I have even been in the past 16 or so years. I am back to myself.

Which bring us to Deep Ecology.

I had not quite bargained for what has happened: my heart has opened, and I am lost! I am lost, and in this lostness I am found.

Some weeks ago, my heart was gripped in an insane distress. I could not breathe. Calamity seemed to be descending. I gripped my chest and in fever… I began to draw. Draw-draw, sketch-sketch. I took a black felt-nib pen, and drew feverishly. Out came a tree… one with a thick foliage, my signature tree… on the page. I tapped tapped tapped the thick foliage in place. Soon, the tree — bleak and solemn — emerged on the page.

The next day, municipality crew chopped down the Neem tree that stood in front of our house the 22 years I have lived here. Whack-whack-whack, and 22 years of love were gone by the evening. All that was left was a choppy hole in the ground, and a scattering of twigs and leaves on the street. I picked a twig, and brought it home.

This is the tree that I had drawn. It is possible that I felt its onslaught coming, and felt the same panic that this tree, marked some days earlier for its departure, might have felt. It did not even get a chance to say good-bye. It was not hugged, held, asked its permission of, explained the reasons for its necessary departure, and then gently laid down to rest. No. It was whacked in a surprise, cold attack by callous, purposeful men.

This is Deep Ecology. It is not statistical crap-making about the factors going into and out of a planetary ecological collapse. It is to feel the terror and joys of a tree in your veins. It is to know that you and the tree have the same origin. It is to have the courtesy and the decency to inform a tree of its impending departure, and to discuss with it the necessity of such a move.

Who knows who informed the tree of the municipality men’s bad intentions? It nevertheless sent a wave of panic, I am certain in retrospect, to lovers all around it. I caught the wave — too strong for me, for I am younger and less maturer than the Tree — and fell panicked and ill.

~

And this is how and where things stand six-and-a-half months after my Sabbatical.

“What you sow in the Now, is reaped in Eternity! (Unless, of course, you make a cleanse — or mess, as the case may be — later on. But what you lost will be lost for good, and that is the lesson that will prevent you from further folly, and encourage further goodness. The other case is that you are a soul that reaps goodness and learns from its goodness, and thus makes perpetual goodness. The example of that in the Scriptures is that of a grain of wheat that yields many stalks, and each stalks bears many more seeds. This is a virtuous cycle. It seems that most of us rarely opt it by choice, though — but that is just my opinion, perhaps not reflective of all reality.)” ~ra

~

P.S. Though it may not sound like it, I am also having a lot more fun (for example) than I ever did in the past 16 years. The start of that period was when I had made a particularly sad inception: choosing to let go of the academic path I loved, for one that I favored so little, I practically despised it. But that’s another story for another time! For now, enjoy yourself! ;)

Author: Ramla Akhtar
- My vision is that food once again gets associated with nurturing, kindness, love and abundance rather than be treated as a mere product.

- I dream that no one goes hungry for want of money, and that good food is accessible to all. I dream that food us not bid off off the table of the poor.

- I dream that food is once again grown as a sacred trust between humans and God/Life. I dream that the energy of life, care, and service goes into growing, distributing, and providing food.

- I dream that it is culturally recognised, once again, that cooking and preparing food — whether at homes or commercially — is not a low, menial, or tedious job, but a supreme act of love. I also dream that whole families — women and men and children — partake in the preparation and good preservation of food; and that women, though in charge of the house, are not enslaved to the preparation of food.

- I dream that food is once again honored and respected and loved and thanked for. That to see edible food going to bins due to greed or mismanagement should break our hearts and bring tears to our eyes in the recognition that Life itself has gone to waste without being of use.

- That whether it is plant or animal or mineral life we consume — and humans consume from ALL, while accounting for physical needs and the given environment — we remember our sacred bond with Earth, of which we are made just as everything else on Earth is. That we do not rape, destroy, hurt, harm, waste, or hoard these gifts but that our hands are laid on them in brotherly/sisterly live and trust.

- I dream that families once again take charge of the food they eat, and food that grows.

- I dream that all people re-acquire at least a basic, intuitive understanding of our relation with food, which is the source of life to us all.

- I dream that we remember that food makes us.

- I dream that (at least some) social networks are organized around food and the growing of it. That location-based communities connect through the Net and in person, educate themselves, and then begin deciding what are they going to grow. I dream that this becomes the model for a new Super-Democracy. Humans need LAND to stand on and FOOD to move. For thousands of years, we moved for food. Now let us bring the food home. Let there be food where there are people. Let’s nurture ourselves, and grow! Let people connect around food!

- Let people invest in local/ neighborhood farms! Let’s put our money in ‘food banks’ close to us!

#

Note: This is a vision I shared with a Kitchen Gardening group I founded on Facebook. The group is now administered by the talented Mrs. Salma Kamal. 
Originally published on: December 09, 2011

Art: Cornucopia, by Ron Jenkins

Greetings!

On 30 September 2011, I concluded a year-long Sabbatical. At the conclusion of this retreat, it has become apparent to me that I would now spend some time with all that I learned and discovered and promised myself in this while. This year that I spent mostly with myself—in my room at the writing desk, or in my garden lounging curled up in an old, beat-up but lovely cane garden-chair—initially reintroduced me to my inner life and landscape. In its latter half, the journey turned outwards. I knew, with ever-greater clarity, what I was to be and do ahead.

Here are a few things I know for sure I intend:

— To live a less ‘wired’, and more ‘earthed’ life. This means a greater, conscious contact with Nature. Less Internet.

— To move into deeper silence. Avoid unnecessary speech.

— To cultivate greater quality in relationships with people, places, things.

— To appreciate that which is not a person, place, thing, or event.

— To teach and communicate what I know.

— To continue learning and unlearning, as necessary.

— To align with the greater (and smaller) rhythms of life.

— To do what I must do, how I must do, when I must do.

— To create. (Update, 20 Jan ’12: My first creative project since the Sabbatical, On Writing, is now under prep for release.)

— To enjoy my time on Earth.

— Be authentic.

There are a few things here that are new, such as a deeper connection with Nature. I was born and have lived in dense urban settings. This intent answers an inner longing.

Other matters are re-affirmations and rediscoveries. I learned in the year of my retreat that re-affirmations are important, often daily. Each day in life is to be lived saying “Aye, aye!” to that which is true within. If this practice is dropped, one may get floated away to places that are alien and unfamiliar to their true nature. Try as one might, there is no peace in such a situation. Can a fish make peace outside of water? (If it decides to go in a new direction, however, then it must evolve into something other than a fish.)

Finally, as expected, the year-off led to re-discovery: of who I am, of what I love, of what matters to me. A re-discovery of my values and my unique understanding of existence. It was quite unsettling to observe how far I’d gone from what I believe to be true. What was unexpected in all this was the content of what was discovered. A Buddhist teacher says, “Enlightenment is nothing like what you expect it to be.” Truly, I did not go in directions I expected to go into; I discovered something else. Yet it was familiar. And this is what was unexpected: that I knew ‘it’ all along! Argh!

I hear that many are investing into gold these days. The discovery of one’s true nature is worth more than gold—it is real gold. While I wouldn’t prevent anyone from investing in whatever property they consider it safe and prosperous to invest in :-}, I do invite the ones who’d care to seek my opinion that it is worth far more to invest in discovering and living themselves. (Discovery alone is not enough. It can indeed be painful, if one lacks the courage to put it into practice.) I think self-discovery does not serve mere philosophical needs: it is a matter of practical use. It governs all aspects of one’s life, including the all-important financial aspect. A person who considers themselves worth discovering and worth living excels in the practical areas of life in a way that someone with an opposite attitude would not.

These are the openings, the directions I have discovered. If I were to highlight two phrases that describe the emerging road ahead, it would be these: Deeper Silence. Deep Ecology. The links lead to inspirations for each. I invite you to explore them.

Edit, 13 October 2011: I must add a third without which nothing else would work: Deeper Honesty. As one contemplates, one discovers. When one discovers, inner honesty arises. This honesty then asks itself to be put into practice. Practicing honesty engenders further honesty. This entire process needs one to remain always aware of it. When one stops paying attention, they may slip inadvertently into dishonesty. This dishonesty may be as simple as mindlessly accepting invite to an event that one has not consciously decided to go to. A friend asks you to come over next weekend. You say, without thinking, “Yes, sure!” without actually meaning it. It may be that you’ve already promised to be elsewhere — perhaps to take a family member out. Why did you say yes?

This is the question I ask myself as I look back at life. Mindless ‘yeses’ and ‘nos’ take us to places where we hadn’t intended to be. As we trace the path back, we realize the value of always choosing consciously. That does not mean excessive thought. That just means knowing at the right time what exactly do you want to do at that moment, and then going with it. Your path is the standard by which you choose. If you chose wrong, but chose it mindfully, there is no resentment. If, however, you chose mindlessly, you would not be pleased with yourself.

To choose and to live with Deeper Honesty is to choose what I wish to choose at any given moment. That choosing can be in circumstances of outward freedom or force — it does not matter. What matters is me granting myself the freedom to choose with open inner eyes.

Now, a word for friends and others who may care:

I can also share that I intend to teach what I know to be true. Programs will be announced on this website in time. Though as I am paying a greater attention to place-based community and minimizing one’s footprint (and word-print!), I am testing the idea of working quietly and privately within my circle(s) of influence rather than broadcasting to the unconcerned. This is why this website remains barren. I am aware of some fantastic online solutions, but have not settled on one, yet. I vastly prefer that I am found in person; I have mostly shunned email. Thus it’s likely that any teachings I give are communicated through word-of-mouth.

Please know that since I am shifting from a life of self-regulation to a life based on natural rhythms, my energy is haywire during this shift, and I have not yet figured my pace out. For a long time, this behavior struck me as ‘shifty’ and I was deeply aggrieved with what I considered a personal flaw. Resistance to change only deepened what I thought was a crisis. For the past 5-6 years, I’ve been concerned about low energy levels and the sudden disappearance of interest in matters.

I have finally discovered that this relates to diet and life-value changes—thank goodness! Some of these were beneficial, and I would not have faced any challenge had I not resisted the changes that were occurring. Other sprang from foolishness, including sudden and extreme ‘environmentalist’ practices in a hostile setting. In retrospect, it’s both educative and amusing to me, and I look forward to share the experience. (I’ve been hearing a lot of similar stories; if you think there’s resonance here, please keep tabs on this space and on my Facebook page. I may just share a useful resource or plan a class on this!)

What stands true is that I have opted for a slow and deliberate lifestyle. I don’t get up and jump into things. I plan and pace ahead. I try my best to say “no” to that which doesn’t fit in with my life anymore—but much of it remains to be negotiated with those used to an older me or other life values.

Therefore: we only know for sure when we know for sure! :-}

All I can say is this I am very glad for having taken this journey, this far. Shukr’Allah!

On this note, I’d like to put the pen down for today, the first day after my year-long time-off—Saturday, 01 October 2011. It’s been a long and testing and delightful journey, and I am now preparing to let my Self go in directions best for its growth. Deeper stillness! Deeper silence!

Thank you for following this journey! Peace!

Summing up three years of my work for Triple Bottom Line Magazine, I watched a surprising conclusion emerge: It is our right to create, as individual humans, that entire groups of people are fighting for today.

Indeed, all the popular activism of the day is not the end in itself, but rather it is paving the path towards a place where individuals can create they way they choose. Of course, there’s still some agreement to be reached on the nature of The Creative Project. In fact, the process of attempting (and avoiding!) to reach this agreement or understanding is what ‘The Fight’ is.

So far down the evolutionary human journey, countless ideas about what-exactly-is-the-project and how-it-should-be-carried-out have been generated, tested, scrapped. Some have evolved, and thus become part of the living human consciousness and practice. Structures of living spaces, and uses of energy are some such resilient schemas which, once developed, have stuck around. Tools and their uses are another. It takes stepping back to the age when we humans lived in caves to truly appreciate the scope of our evolution.

While across the world evolution of the human journey is manifested in its various stages (some are ahead, some are trailing behind like the tail of the snake), it may safely be assumed that the most-evolved are now freely creating with responsibility, those behind them are learning to assume responsibility/authority that allows sustainable creativity, and those behind them are fighting for the right to create. This third bracket is where I’d put this Spring of Arab Uprisings (or whatever they call this thing now). Indeed, Egypt is now facing the next evolutionary challenge: assuming personal, individual responsibility, which in turn will enable authority. The success of the Egypt Revolution at this point, indeed, rests on how quickly individuals and clusters configure, how deeply they accept, and how ably they assume their respective responsibility.

Individuals across the globe are faced with this incredible evolutionary pressure. Some may not grasp what the worldwide pandemonium is all about, but certainly, societies are feeling the rush to do something. To… be creative.

CREATIVITY is the proverbial elephant in the room. It is being sensed, though not quite visible. Yet.

Aside: It is to discover this very elephant-in-the-room, CREATIVITY, that I am undertaking a creative retreat. Updates are posted here.

~ rumi ~

February 2011 marks the fifth month of my year-long Year “Off”.

Starting 01 Feb, I am taking myself away on a 12-week retreat.  This retreat involves dance & movement therapy for the body, and an artist re-discovery course for the mind. My aid for the first is yoga and intuitive movement, which I am learning from various sources. More on this in a minute. The second part of the course is self-taught with the guidance of Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way.

For movement, I have enlisted the help of these various sources: Anna Halprin’s Returning to Health with Dance, Movement and Imagery; Tara Stiles’ Strala Yoga (aka Rebel Yoga); and a variety of wonderful excursions into the enchanting world of YouTube. Finally, my own body remains the master guide to my intuition.

This is it for now. Updates will be posted here.

* Update, 26 May 2011: The retreat, originally scheduled to end on 30 April 2011, has now extended until the Summer season. If I go by the book (The Artist’s Way) henceforth, I shall only take four more weeks, and conclude in the last week of June 2011. The course, however, has been demanding. It asks for practical action on the heels of inner and outer exploration — and this is where I am going by my own speed. The greater dysfunction in the land sometimes becomes a spur for action. Often, though, it occupies the mind and slows it. My method previously would have been to force myself against such pressure. Living intuitively, however, one knows better than to commit such folly.

Therefore the retreat continues for now. The creative output so far has been fantastic. Things have absolutely not gone in the direction that I expected them to. And after some weeks of struggling with this, I decided it was best to relax the reins on the inner horses of creativity and see which direction they gallop into.

So far, so wild a ride. Peace!

P. S. I hope to write a more detailed update, later. While the retreat continues, though, I prefer silence to talk. ~ Love!

* 08 April 2012: I discovered that the true verse may be: “Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.” Well! That changes everything! Almost!

I need to be silent 
for a while,
worlds are forming
in my heart.

— Meister Eckhart

I am on a year-long Sabbatical —
from Friday, 1 October 2010
till Friday, 30 September 2011.

Expect changes.

.ramla