Man has two facets to his personality - body and soul. Both need sustenance for their health and progress. Material things such as food and water sustain the body. If anyone is deprived of food and water for several days, his or her physical health will suffer. If such deprivation continues over a long period of time, he or she will be starved to death. The same is true of the soul. I believe that Spirituality is man’s spiritual food for the soul. It boosts man’s inner personality to reengineer one’s minds towards positive thinking that is a guarantee of man’s spiritual life. Without spirituality, man would languish.
The question that comes to mind is how does one reengineer one’s mind? The formula that I give for re-engineering of minds is:
Change yourself through spirituality – by living a God-oriented life and you will be able to change the world.
I believe that there is only one way to do this and that is through spirituality. Although there are two major schools of spiritual discipline: one based on meditation and the other on contemplation, I subscribe to the school of contemplation. I believe that, as it is man’s mind that differentiates him from the rest of creation, it can only be through the development of his mind that man can attain true spirituality. Following this principle, I have developed a comprehensive Ideology of spirituality, based on contemplation – derived directly from the Islamic scriptures. For decades I have been making people aware of this ideology of contemplative spirituality and training individuals in its principles.
I have trained people in the art of clear thinking, the art of conversion of negative experiences into positive lessons, deconditioning of the mind, intellectual awakening and personality development. Once individuals undergo this training, they are able to re-focus their minds, unleash their spiritual potential and develop intellectually.
I have developed a full-fledged Ideology of Spirituality, based on Islamic Scriptures of Contemplative Spirituality. As it is the mind that differentiates man from the rest of the creatures, it is the mind that gives man answers to his eternal questions: Who am I?, What is my purpose?, Does God exist?, Is man’s life dependent on destiny or free will?, etc.
According to me, the quest of man’s spiritual journey is two fold: one is to solve the riddle as to why all men and women undergo negative experiences in this world; and the other is with regard to finding positive solutions. It addresses the paradox of human beings having been given the freedom to make their choices. But their frequent misuse of this liberty causes them to repeatedly face situations in which people do each other harm; losses are incurred because of the injustice of others; severe provocations are suffered because of untoward experiences. These trigger negative thoughts such as malice, anger, arrogance and greed. But when man raises himself above his immediate surroundings – from the material level to a higher level of thinking – he is able to eradicate his negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones.
True Spirituality thus provides human beings with a starting point for their lives and tells man about God’s creation plan. Spirituality is, indeed, a representation of truth – Truth is Spirituality and Spirituality is truth.
Art of Conversion
Spirituality, in fact, is a mental condition, which teaches man the Art of Conversion or to convert everyday material events into spiritual experience, negative experiences into positive ones, non-spiritual matters into spiritual matters. Although such conversion takes place in the spiritual rather than in the physical sense, the principle by which this conversion operates governs the entire material world.
I believe that everyone may be born spiritual, that is, one may be spiritual by nature, but, after birth, one lives in a society, which, with its multiple influences conditions or shape man’s personality or nurture one based on negative feelings – just like the layers of the onion that cover its bulb. These negative feelings can be of anger, revenge, jealousy, hatred and rivalry.
Deconditioning of the Mind
I believe that the individual, to regain his spiritual character, has, therefore, to de-condition himself through a superior intellectual process. And it is spirituality, which makes it possible to de-condition the individual by training him in the Art of Deconditioning, so that he may revert to the natural state in which he was born. For this to happen, he has to re-engineer his mind. In this way, spirituality trains one to become positive. Man thus becomes disciplined and does not allow his personality to develop under the influence of external incentives. He, by his own decisions, constructs his personality on the basis of higher principles. Only then does he develop a divine character. He shakes and jolts and remoulds his personality to abide by the plan of the Creator. He thus turns himself into the kind of person who is shaped not by society, but by spirituality and thus lives a God-oriented life.
God-Oriented Life
The Earth is the sun’s satellite. It constantly orbits around the sun. It takes one year to complete such a rotation. This movement of the earth around the sun is essential for the healthy functioning of life on earth. If the earth did not revolve around the sun, its existence would have no meaning, and life would come to an end.
This is a practical example of how we should lead our lives in this world. This example is indeed a physical demonstration that shows how man must revolve around God, just as the earth revolves around the sun. It means that all of man’s activities should be based on God.
The earth rotates as compelled to by the laws of nature. But man, of his own free will, should surrender to God. He should build a life, which is based on the concept of God. This consciousness is the real ascension of man. In this consciousness lies the secret of all success.
In Conclusion
So spirituality, based on contemplation, helps individuals to re-engineer their minds and build positive personalities. In effect, we can say that contemplative spirituality – by awakening of the mind – provides the best formula for character building and makes one a peaceful and positive person. When such positive thinking reaches a collective level in society, it results in what is known as peace.
