Beyond Beliefs- Embracing Our Shared Humanity

Celebrate the differences and diversity

Garden of Eden-Lets the serpent bite us

The allies

I always think its beyond bonkers not to believe in god.

As I mentioned before , as a man of god I attributed and dedicated everything to the one , the true ultimate god.

I always a believer in god, was a Muslim for 40 years, Allah was the almighty.

I made a promise or rather sworn to myself that no matter what happened I will forever be muslim.

Born and die as one.

What if I was born as non muslim? How will I know if my religion is the one?

I didnt choose it myself, I was born into Islam and nurtured as one. Certainly, unfair to others.

To me, insyallah, I will be rewarded jannah/paradise eventually because am muslim and for others am afraid they are doomed to hell.

Majority of us are born into a religion and its no surprise we believe ours as the true religion.

This somehow changed Jan this year.

One day I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and realised that my life was an utter lie.

All of them.

As my life falling apart, I embraced spirituality and in this journey I found another god that feels and behaves like one.

The same god spoken by Rumi and Lao Tzu.

The god above all who is way cooler and kinder than I could ever imagined.

Yes, very cool because the god saved this sinner despite all his many wrongdoings and accepted me as am.

Spirituality trancends beyond religion. If religion divide us then spirituality is the answer to unity.

Spirituality is love and kindness, to you and others. Simple and thats what life should be.

Instead of claiming superiority, spirituality embrace everybody regardless of our beliefs and differences, believer or non believer.

Spirituality is remembrance , the unbecoming and the return to god and to our true self.

Spirituality reminded us that we are all connected we are one. The very important fundamental nature forgotten or ignored by many.

Nobody is above or less than the other because we are all equal, the universe the god itself experiencing life in infinite realities and possibilities.

Spirituality invite us to find the god inside us, the same concept once echoed by Jesus himself.

Luke 17:21- The kingdom of heaven is within you.

The ultimate god the god above all needs no religion or worship.

In spirituality, no middle men , medium, ritual, or places of worship needed, neither that we have to be the perfect pious all light nor travelling to the exotic far such as Tibet or the deep amazon rainforest to find god.

Why searching the outside when god is right there in our heart.

Rumi reminded us the same since the 13th centuries.

He searched every places and religions and eventually found god in his heart.

God is simply asking us to open our heart and embrace the light.

Love , compassion and understanding to each others are the way forward.

Its inclusive where diversity and differences are valued.

Authenticity is encouraged and regarded highly.

Instead of pitting one against another , divided or fighting because of differences in our beliefs, spirituality calls for reconciliation, acknowleging the differences instead and working together towards the betterment of humanity.

That’s very beautiful .

That’s what the world desperately needs.

So fragmentation is in essence a confusion around the question of difference and sameness( or one-ness), but the clear perception of this category is necessary in every phase of life. To be confused about what is different and what is not, is to be confused about everything. Thus, is is not an accident our fragmentary form of thought is leading a widespread range of crises, social, political, economic, ecological, physchological and etc, in the individual and society as a whole.

David Bohm on Wholeness and The Intricate Order

Lets plant kindness and compassion

If that was my ‘ awakening’ I must consider myself as very lucky indeed. A privilege to walk the path and to have renewed perspective and approach to life.

I was learning about religions for little while from the summer last year, knowing about Gnostic teaching for the very first time and alternative views on world religions.

Saying that am no theologist and there is still tons that I don't know.

Back home in Malaysia open discussion about religion or interfaith dialogue is rare and the moment you raise question you are tipping into dangerous zone .

Will be frowned upon, ostracised deemed as liberal or threat to the society.

In our conservative society, everything claimed coming from our chosen authorities are considered as the absolute truths.

We hardly hear anybody questioning religion as we are all the faithful the obedience.

kudos to the alternative and progressive new voices challenging the centuries old beliefs and flawed societal values.

Kudos to those many silently walking away from the crowd.

Questioning is a big no to many ,the one which is considered as heretics or attacks to the organised religions risking prosecution and if unlucky in some countries could put an end to one' life.

What a desperate way to silence and control.

Religion equal to power, wealth and control.

If the history didn’t teach us anything many hiding behind religion to pursue their own agenda or interest.

Do we practise what we preached?

Billions are religious or identify to particular religion, if we embraced the true teachings and avoid cherry picking , cultural bias, and misinterpretations then we are in good hands.

The whole world will prosper instead of the dire situation we are in now.

Religion is way of life, most advocate good virtues and values but very often corrupted by us.

The religion itself is pure and beautiful as long as it's free from manipulation and abuse by our own kind.

Here in Dublin, a good friend of mine, was the first among us being very vocal against Islam particularly the Holy Quran.

He would have all the detective work done and would not waste any chances to educate us on his new found truths.

He eventually, declared himself as an atheist but contrary to my previous response , I simply listened to his confession as respect to his journey and choices.

For myself, at that time even prior to embracing spirituality I wasn't bothered too much with those newfound "truth" because I wasn't strictly religious to start with and didn't see how they would change the way am living.

Even when I was in the conservative Malaysia I never was threatened at any point by Islam.

I respected the majority and I do believe changes will happen but will definitely will take some time.

Our best bet is with the younger generations and it's happening.

In this age of enlightment and explosion of knowledge am hopeful, the sun is rising on the horizon.

We are waking up.

I didn't have to provoke them or felt needed to be openly gay.

There is time and place for everything.

In fact, there are many gay around and nobody really going to prosecute you unless maybe politically motivated.

Another point is, I might be gay and non practising muslim but my goal in life is to always to be kind person, to me and to others.

It’s nice to be nice and thats how I live and aspire my life to be even before I known spirituality.

Religion with billions of believers are still hugely relevant in these modern era and will always be.

The right to religion should be respected and honoured.

On the other side , we have our friends who don't believe in god, the atheist.

From their perspective, the lack of empirical evidence, the presence of evil and injustices in the world, the differences between holy scriptures are some of the arguments against god which I respected.

When I was a muslim, I was taught that if you don't believe in Allah , you are 'Kuffar" which means your will end up in the hell or ' Jahannam"

Its is hard for me to understand the atheist' logics.

If we look inside our heart it's very hard to dismiss god.

I say no to organised religions but I do believe there is true god, the One.

The One who is always inside us.

The One who needs no middle men or religion.

The One from where all of us came from.

The great but humble one who been waiting for us to remember for very long by time.

Your life must have been so perfect , that you blinded by god’ grace.

Or too imperfects that you hurting and mistakenly turned your back against god.

The evidences are all around us for those willing to see with their heart.

The universe is all in perfect order from the smallest atoms/sub atoms to celestial bodies to galaxies.

Even man made creations need supervision and monitoring and still hardly perfect.

How is the infinite universe run on its own with such precision and order?

Its mind boggling.

God didnt play dice according to Einstein.

I was once wrongly loathed the atheist and non muslim.

To me Islam was the true religion and the rest just destined for hell no matter whether they are good person or not.

I also thought the beliefs were first and we have to be exclusive meaning either spirituality, religion or atheism.

But in the inclusive spirituality, the beliefs are second and good virtues and values are the pillars.

A very beautiful teaching- Emphasising on the positive values that unite and promote togetherness rather than the differences which more than often contributed to the negativity.

Regardless of our beliefs, majority of us believe in being a good person and living as one.

Its not us to say or judge if a person is worthy or not

A good person is worthy no matter what their beliefs are.

This is in line with the teaching that god is benovelent

God is all knowing all forgiving

God exist outside time and space and would have a complete knowing of a particular person.

God knows everything, the past, the present and the future.

Thus , god comprehend beyond what we can understand beyond our limited senses.

Many religions promote, love, kindness and compassion.

Many atheist also embody and live for the same values as well.

Good and bad people exist everywhere from both sides.

DIfferences in our beliefs didnt break us apart because we shared the same langguage of love and compassion.

Our common shared positives values make the world a better place.

Instead of emphasising on the differences in beliefs that will likely lead to provoke and cause separation/dysharmony we should really focus on those shared positives values to create a more compassionate and harmonious world.

All of us are worthy despite our differences.

We are not better than others because of our beliefs but for our actions and how we treat each others.

lets practise empathy- To cultivate deeper understanding and relationship with others.

Let's celebrate diversity- Wheter in perspectives, cultures or beliefs which are the essential in human experience.

Lets love each others, we are one we are all connected.

Let's live together as we instead of the selfish I.

Yes, my dear.

Kitty not kutty

Red and yellow beak for summer.

Grumpy alert

I Love her squinty eye

She's the cutest oddball