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If these three fundamental "truths" are in fact factual, why are each riddled with contradictions?

Perception

Physiologically, the way we perceive reality occurs through our cognitive ability, a completely subjective experience, and our objective experience resulting from our five physical senses.

While we do not really know a lot about the source and function of our subjective experience, we know quite a lot about our objective experience. We know how the senses function, and the electro-chemical processes that give each sense it's ability to detect and recognize experience. Herein lies the dilemma;

What we physically sense must first be translated to an electro-chemical code that our body must relay to the brain, where this code is then translated into the experience we just recognized.

For example, if we touch a sharp object, whether we can also "see" it or not, it is our sense of touch that must convert this encounter to an electro-chemical code that must travel through the nervous system to the brain, where this code is translated into the recognition of this particular sharp object.

Not until the brain assigns an identity to this code, can we know we are having a potentially cutting experience. The same process applies to all our sensory experience. In the most literal sense then, our objective perception of reality is purely a subjective one.

This of course appears totally nonsensical. If we look around, there is a multitude of objects and events with which we can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. All these reside outside ourselves and are obviously objective experience. Who can even question this?

This is because of the almost perfect nature of this Grand Illusion, for quite literally, there cannot be objective experience. The only experience we are capable of having is exclusively subjective.

If we focus on the nature of our physical senses, and visualize the process they must perform in order for us to have recognition of experience, we would have the proof of the above statement, not because it is stated here, but because the evidence lies in our own experience of this process.

Matter and Energy

OK, you might be willing to consider there is an illusionary nature to our perceptive ability, but what about the "stuff" we and the universe are structured of? What about matter and energy. Certainly these are no illusion.

Then why, as we break matter down from its form as compounds to its form as molecules, then its form as atomic structure, and then its form as subatomic particles, does it become less and less physical to the point that the only time it can only appear physical is when, and only when we observe or measure it? When we stop observing, it loses all physical characteristics completely, so we cannot be sure it is even there any more.

This is Quantum Physics, and has scientists baffled. Why is this so baffling? Because we assume the physical reality is absolute, just as we assume our perception of physical reality is absolute.

But how can either be absolute when the evidence we each have available to us is that what we perceive is purely subjective, and what we observe at the quantum level is consistent with this subjective evidence of our physical senses.

It is only our observation of reality, whether on the macro level or quantum level that "causes" physical characteristics to appear as physical in the first place. It's just Grand Illusion. The reality of reality is everything is non physical subjective identity.

Space and Time

What then of space and time? Surely these have to be absolute, for whether we are experiencing objective experience or subjective experience, it still has to occur somewhere and has to take time to experience.

What really is space and time? Nothing more than a place for physical objects to appear to reside with a means to give them dimension and relationship to one another.

If physical reality is an illusion, and we each are the physical illusions of ourselves, how could space and time even exist? What meaning would they have apart from supporting the physical illusion?

None. We even have the direct evidence of this.

Think of any experience you choose. Reading this article for example. Where is the space in which you reside having this experience? Where is the time it is taking? Well, its all around me you think, and the clock assures me this is taking time. Grand Illusion. The only "time" that physical reality appears physical is in this present instant of observation that allows us to perceive things as physical. Our entire history, all we know, happens right now. because this is the only time it can.

Now think of some event from memory; something that happened to you in the past. When did this experience occur?

Despite what you think, it is occurring right now, in this present instant, in your subjective perceptive reality. Why? Because right now is the only time that exists; it is the only time there is; it is the only point in which you can experience anything, whether you believe it is real or imagined, or remembered. History, both personal and collective, can only exist right now.

Let's go to the dawn of time as we understand it, the Big Bang. When did that happen? Yes, as difficult as it is to comprehend, it didn't happen, but is instead happening right now in this instant of awareness and recognition, again, because right now is the only time we can have awareness and recognition. There simply is no other time. Think about it.

You cannot objectively or subjectively experience a millisecond ago any more then you can experience a millisecond from this instant, except right now. Everything that happens can only happen right now, in this present instant. This instant is not a function of time, for it has neither a beginning or end. It's quite incomprehensible actually, but again, it is the only "time" that both our subjective recognitions and our objective experience can occur; it is the only point in which anything can exist, whether considered real or imagined.

This article began with the premise that we each are the center of the reality we each perceive.

It is instead a Grand Illusion. Why? Because we cannot be physical identity if nothing physical is real, and only real appearing in this incomprehensible present instant. This concept of reality, called Reology, clearly shows we are in fact the illusion of ourselves experiencing the illusion of a physical reality. Illusion experiencing illusion.

Who are you then? Why are you here? What is your reality all about? These are still valid questions.

What we know for certain is we are not the physical identity we are so convinced we are, nor is this universe the physical reality it appears to be. As for why we are here, that is the real ultimate question.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

The term "sophistry" today has negative connotations as well it should. Since the sophists believed morals were relative they descended into philosophical pragmatism which is the idea that the best philosophy is that which is practical or that which "works" regardless of its moral implications.

Pragmatism is very popular in western civilization today. The pragmatist philosophy of the American philosopher William James is a flowering of modernist sophistry. In the West we now have a situation similar to that of ancient Athens. The ancient sophists charged high fees for their courses of instruction and this too was a departure from Athenian tradition which had always maintained that philosophers not charge for their instruction. Socrates was trained by the sophists but could only afford the short course.

The sophists taught rhetoric which is the art of verbal persuasion. Since the sophists made no firm truth claims so they just taught how to persuade. Each man made up his own truth and the more clever could persuade others.

Socrates saw the emptiness of this and feared for his city that the sophists, through their relativism, would destroy the foundation of morals and eventually lead to an extinction of ethics and a return to barbarism. Socrates' approach to the situation was to look to the intellect to try to discover the foundation of truth. He looked to the human conscience. Socrates had stumbled onto one of God's ways of giving revelation to man.

The Bible in Romans 2: 14-15 tells us that Gentiles who do not have God's written book, the Bible, do have their consciences which tell them right from wrong.

All people throughout human history have the inward witness of conscience which regardless of cultural training gives witness to God's will. The Bible also teaches that all people have the witness of nature (Psalm 19: 1-3; Romans 1: 19-20) which reveals things about God. Socrates had no Bible but was not totally without access to revelation of God's will. God has given light to all people including Socrates. Socrates did his best to live by the light he had.

I do not claim to know whether or not Socrates ever came to true repentance and received eternal life. I do believe that he made philosophical breakthroughs that brought about moral reform.

Socrates preferred argumentation over rhetoric. He sought to tease out a solid definition of virtue. His form of argumentation is called "dialectic." Dialectic is the practice of examining statements logically through question and answer. Thus arose the famous "Socratic questioning."

You can imagine how annoyed the older sophist philosophers were by this smart young man asking embarrassing questions. They could not answer his questions and their inadequate answers revealed the logical absurdities of the sophist positions.

Socrates changed the course of philosophy and is a hero to those of us who stand up for principle against persuasive demagogues. Later on Athens lost a war with Sparta and in that turmoil Socrates' enemies were able to level charges against him which resulted in a death sentence. The parallels between Socrates' Athens and contemporary western civilization are inescapable. Universities are currently rife with sophistry. Moral relativism, the idea that there is no real right or wrong, that each person makes up his own morals is taught in the college classroom.

At first glance moral relativism appears to be open minded and tolerant but since it provides no basis for right behavior it threatens the erasure of ethics and a return to barbarism.

There are three worldviews:

1) The modern worldview is the idea that absolute truth exists and that it can be discovered by human reason alone independent of the Bible or any other verbal revelation from God.

2) The postmodern worldview is the idea that no absolute truth exists and that truth is relative, truth is purely subjective and is created by each individual human mind.

3) The Christian worldview is that God has given us absolute truth through His divinely inspired book, the Bible and God has also given absolute truth through the human conscience and also through nature (God's laws are embedded in nature which is the concept of natural law).

Right now there are millions of young people who see themselves as being in the same position as Socrates. These young people see through the sophistry of the university elite. The difference is that while Socrates had no Bible these young people are born again Christians who know their Bibles and receive from the Bible a clear instruction of God's morality. There is an army of these holy Socrates' going forth, Bible in hand, to give western civilization absolute truth, the same absolute truth on which the West was originally founded. This truth is the Christian Gospel.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came in fulfillment of over 300 prophecies written centuries before His birth. No other figure in all of history can make this claim. The fact that Jesus would come to die for our sins and then be resurrected from the dead is foretold by Old Testament prophecies. These prophecies give Jesus Christ supernatural proof of His authority to give us absolute truth.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

The Influence of Neoplatonism on Sufism

Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism, conceived the Divine as the Alpha and Omega of Existence, its Source & Goal. The translations of Plotinus provided the philosophical ground for Sufism. One is struck by the similarities which exist in both systems, with regard to the concept of God, the soul, the body, Vice and Virtue, Life and Death and Beauty !

Sufism was influenced by Orpheus and Pythagoreanism. Orpheus was a poet who lived in Anatolia in the 6th and 7th centuries BCE. He had divine qualities and he could influence wild animals with his music. He postulated that the human soul can achieve perfection by refining itself from all passions and worldly possessions. Soul travels from body to body for self purification and reaches the Perfect State. Pythagorus adopted Orpheus' philosophy and integrated it with his own concepts. Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism took Plato's Theory of Ideas and reinterpreted them from Protagoras' point of view. Neoplatonism considers the Divine as the Alpha & the Omega. From Him everything comes into being, in Him everything exists, and to Him all return. Communion or Union with Him is the highest Goal, therefore. Our lives have only a symbolic meaning and it is good and necessary as a Becoming. But all Becoming has Being as its Goal and Fulfillment and God is the only Being !

Sufism is the Path of Love - Al Muhabba. The Lord is understood as Universal Love and the aim of Sufism is to unite with the Source of all Being, Universal Love ! Love without Philosophy is superstition and Sufism therefore encourages the adventures of the intellect, the scientific and the philosophical pursuit, Al Marifa !

When he was asked about Sufism, Junayd ( the preceptor of Mansur Al Hallaj ) said, "Sufism is that you should be with the Divine-- without any attachment."

Sufism emphasises upon the struggle to overcome the dominance that one's Negative Ego ( Nafs ) has over one. The war depicted in the great Epics - Iliad & the Odyssey etc - depict the great war between Good and Evil happening inside the human bosom - where the great struggle for supremacy is fought out on the ground floor of our existence, between the black and white opposites of Virtue and Vice, Light and Darkness, prosperity & adversity. The Beloved ( God ) may manifest as Benevolence or Severity and the Sufi aspirant has to love both !

As Rumi said:

I am a lover of both His benevolence and severity! Amazing it is that I'm in love with these opposites !

If the aspirant can overcome one's Negative Ego, ( in the inner War, Jihad ul Nafs ) he can achieve Bliss, the Bliss for which the world's derelict sorrows yearn !

If you could get rid of yourself just once, The secret of secrets would open to you. The face of the Unknown, hidden beyond the universe Would appear on the Mirror of your perception. ~Rumi

Annihilation in the Divine Ocean

Like the waves of the Ocean, we are individual egos in the Divine Ocean of Existence. The aspirant, desirous of union with the Beloved, has to go through many stages of Consciousness. He has to lose his illusory individuality in the Infinite and this can only be achieved by Annihilation and Subsistence.

The Sheik of Naqshbandi wrote

In my annihilation of annihilation In my annhilation I found You !

Annihilation in the Divine Beloved.

For every initiate, there will be a Master ( Shaikh ). The Shaikh imparts his power to the disciple. The initiate goes through a process of purification and initiation. Once the initiate attains maturity, by the Grace of his Shaikh, he attains the state of Fana fi Shaikh, a state of annihilation in the astral plane.

The next stage is Fana fi Rasool, enjoying the qualities of the Prophet. Grace descends on him as he furthur advances on the path.

Next stage in the Evolution of Consciousness is the state of Fana fi Allah, annihilation in the Beloved. The initiate loses his identity in the all embracing Beloved, who he now understands is the Prime Mover of everything and who permeates the cosmos !

Rumi wrote

I thought about You so often
That I completely became You !
Little but little You drew near
Slowly but slowly I passed away.

This passing away is Annihilation in the Beloved ( Fana fi Allah ). There is another intermediary state - Fana al Fana and the last state is Baqi bi Allah or Permanence in the Beloved, which is the Eternal or Ultimate State. Fanah refers to Annihilation & Bakah refers to Subsistence.

The Universal Truth, extolled by all religions and philosophies, is the Essential Self, which is the substratum or the basis for the Persona, or the superficial personality. Every man has a Persona or Mask, but deep within him is the Ultimate Reality or Essential Self. Now to manifest the Essential Self, the initiate goes through a process of purification & transmutes his carnal ego into a refined ego, by the process of Prayer and Meditation. He seeks the Divine, loves the Divine, embraces the Divine, lives with the Divine and sacrifices for the Divine ! By his noble sacrifice, he earns for himself Heaven ! Only by hard sacrifice is high Heaven earned !

About Universal Truth, Ibn Arabi, the Great Master , ( al Shaikh al Akbar ) wrote

She has eluded the learned of Islam

And those who have studied the Psalms

The Jewish Rabbi

The Christian priest !

The greatest Sufi was Mohammed himself ( Peace be upon him ), he who said that " Shariah ( Ethical Law ) is my speech, Tariqat ( the Way ) my actions and Haqiqat ( Truth ) my states " !

Sufism can function as a Universal Religion & the well known scholar Kabir Edmund Helminski wrote thus about Sufism

" If Sufism recognizes one central truth, it is the unity of being, that we are not separate from the Divine. The unity of being is a truth which our age is in an excellent position to appreciate -- emotionally, because of the shrinking of our world through communications and transportation, and intellectually, because of developments in modern physics. We are One: one people, one ecology, one universe, one being. If there is a single truth, worthy of the name, it is that we are all integral to the Truth, not separate. The realization of this truth has its effects on our sense of who we are, on our relationships to others and to all aspects of life. Sufism is about realizing the current of love that runs through human life, the unity behind forms."

Inner & Outer Jihad ( Struggle ) in Sufism

"And those who perform jihad for Us, We shall certainly guide them in Our ways, and God is surely with the doers of good". (Quran XXXIX; 69)

"You have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad" . (Hadith)

Jihad means struggle and there are two types of struggle. The lesser Jihad is struggle against the oppressors; the greater Jihad is the inner struggle against the inner enemies, the Seven Deadly Sins ( lust, greed, anger, jealousy, sloth, covetousness & gluttony). The outer struggle is defined as Al Jihad Al Asghar and the inner struggle is Al Jihad Al Akbar !

Fighting against one's negative ego is the most difficult, as the most difficult conquest is the conquest of the Mind. Verily it is said that the noblest conquest is the conquest of Mind or the greatest conquest is the conquest of oneself.

In his journey, the aspirant ultimately overcomes his Negative Ego & he becomes the Perfect Man, Al Insan Al Kamil !

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

The great scientist Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany on March 14, 1879. His mother was Pauline Einstein and his father was Hermann Einstein. His family was a Jewish however they were not observant of its religious practices. Instead he attended in a Catholic elementary school; he was a top student then. When he reached the age of ten he was to science, mathematics and philosophy books. He loves classical music and playing violin. Even at a young age, Einstein showed much curiosity about different things. He was self-sufficient, intellectual and thoughtful.

Albert Einstein got his first job as a patent clerk at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property. In 1909 he became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague. He also became a staff in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey in 1933. He accepted the position for life, working there until his last days on earth. After the World War II, Einstein was even more famous. He was considered to be one of the most leading figures and he was offered to be the President of the State of Israel. Knowing what he had caused the world, he declined the offer.

Einstein marriage to Mileva Maric was considered a personal and intellectual partnership. They had two wonderful sons, Hans Albert Einstein and Eduard Einstein.

In his life, Albert Einstein has given and achieved so much. We can say that truly he has lived a full life. He died at the age of 76 in Princeton, New Jersey.

Another remarkable scientist is Sir Isaac Newton. Get to learn about his life and education.

Sir Isaac Newton was born as a premature baby at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire on December 25, 1642. His father had died three months after he was born. At the age of three, his mother got married again with a ministry and he was left in the care of his old grandmother. Newton is believed by some researchers to have suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism.

At the age of 18, he entered Cambridge University in 1661 since he was not interested in their family farm. At the university, he was elected Fellow of Trinity College in 1667 and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669. He was also was elected Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge to the Convention Parliament of 1689, and sat again in 1701-1702. After he graduated, he went back to their family farm. It was believed that most of his important discoveries were made during 1669-1701. He was elected as President at the Royal Society from 1703 until his died at the age of 85.

He also became a member of the Parliament in England until 1701. Newton then wrote some religious tracts about the interpretation of the Bible. He also became the warden of Royal Mint in1696. Newton has countless contributions in optics, math and science as well as in physics. .

He spent his last decades his major works, polishing his studies of ancient history, defending himself against critics and carrying out his official duties. He died on March 20, 1727 at Kensington, England and his remains was laid in Westminster Abbey,

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