Being Present in Relationships

'Sunny' The Portuguese

Do not hark back to things that passed,
And for the future cherish not fond hopes:
The past was left behind by thee,
The future state has not yet come.
But who with vision clear can see,
The present which is here and now,
Such wise one would aspire to win'
What never can be lost nor shaken.
(From The Pali Canon.)

It is the relationship to others that we see ourselves like a mirror that reflects what is before it without any judgement or discrimination, however when there is taints and flaws and the mirror the reflections takes is not as pure and faultless. Constantly cleaning our own mirror of perception, impulses and consciousness will help towards getting a clearer image and impeccable response in our relationship to the rest of humanity. Reality reveals itself undistorted, our relationship to the the whole of humanity any any level or given moment in time becomes direct and simple leaving no traces of discord. I had a long discussion over the matter of Islam its purity in practice as well as the issues that is haunting the Muslims with regard to sectarian conflicts. The way that my friend at the fisherman's jetty, "the pondok' expressed to me about what it is being a Muslim, the rituals and the practices made a whole lot of sense as well as cleared up the airs over the matters that had been questions in my mind. Islam when one thoroughly comprehend the religion is a very practical as well simple to follow religion and it is not as cut and dry like what is being propounded byt the modern day Ullama's who dwells on right and wrong, good and bad with no in between. Islam is a Compassion and tolerant religion not the unforgiving dogmatic with a wrathful God at the head. 'Allah is oft forgiving anf Most Mmerciful and not waiting for you at the End of Days to judge and throw you into Hellfire; Allah gift to man is the freedom to choose one's own path in our return to Him.
The first of the five pillars of Islam is the 'Shahadah" or the profession of the 'Unity of the One 'God' and that The Prophet' Muhammad is his Messenger, the deliverer of this Truth. La,illa ha' illal lah! No God, only Allah! Allah is Muhammad's (pbuh) 'God'. The word Allah has become a controversial issue among the Muslims and Christians in Malaysia where the learned Muslims Malays stakes a complete claim over the name that non-MUslims are forbidden to use it in their worship of the 'Chriatian God' or use in the biblical texts of the Holy Bible when translated into Bahasa Malaysia. Ever sons of the earth worthy to call themselves Malay Muslims were up in arms to protest until the issue reached the highest court of law in the land; over one Word - the word that is suppose to symbolises Unity. I am not about to make any form of argument for or against the use of the word Allah for non-Muslims or that a non-Muslim's greeting of Assalamualaikum (Peace be with) in Arabic cannot be answered by a Muslim or that young Muslim ladies cannot take part in the beauty pageant among other issues cropping up one by one in our community, but I am concern over the fact that the religion is getting more and more extremist in nature and is being run by the clerics like it is their ways or no ways at all. Islam has slowly become stagnant and claustrophobic in its manifestation There is no room it seems for any discussion once a 'Mufti' let loose a Fatwa over this or that, and more often than not the fatwa or edict serves the sanctity of the clerics not the religion and worse yet it serves the political power that be.
It is hard enough to keep one's faith intact despite all the trials and travails of life and the inner communication one has with his Maker is sacred and a paramount act of a human right to existence. In all religious belief and faiths it is the desire of the follower to find solace in his Maker and to receive His Grace through His Forgiveness and Compassion. It is our human nature to lok to something for that we can become subservient and find refuge in throughout our lives especially ni our times of dire need. Take this away from us and we are left with what? There is a line one of the short verse of the Quran (Surah Al Kafirun - The disbelievers) that says "lakum di nukum wali adin.." = to you be your religion and to me my religion. We are in fact told to mind our own business when it comes to our worship of The Lord and let others be in their own ways. No man can gguarantee the rewards or punishment of any other person in the afterlife; only the Lord has this option. For even he who is pious and devoted in this life may find himself guilty in the eyes of the Lord for something he or she may commit in the very act of being pious. he may become overly judgemental, o he may feel like a spiritual idol among his followers, or he may become so rigid in his believe that he suffocates others with dogmatism: no man is perfect and each man is personally answerable for himself.
The perfect man (Al Insan Kamil) said the Buddha is one who has attained to liberation from this cycle of Life, Death and Rebirth. To me the perfect man like the Buddha, the Prophet of Allah and many others who have lived their lives exemplary are a rare specie and they appear once in every lifetime to lead the masses towards this sense of Liberation from the bonds of  human existence in our material egoic dominated world. As mahatma Ghandi is said to have said, the Way to God is many, the end is one. It is not the end that that justifies the ways but the opposite is true. How we live and love how we serve, how we understand and so forth is our worship of god is our motive towards becoming a perfect man in the eyes of the Divine not so much is how we bow or prostrate ourselves before Him; this we do with every breath we take with or without our consciousness in this moment to moment of existence; God is in Me.. He is my Essence, I dwell in Him.
I serve my Lord by serving His Creation in all its Forms and Glory and for as long as I am breathing in and out every moment of my life I surrenders my will to His Will and His Will shall be done (with no effort -effortlessly). There is not a movement of mine that is without His ssanction and no thought of mine escapes His Knowledge, the rest is just details I call, Living. Jesus taught us the Way of Love, The Buddha taught us of Compassion and Muhammad taught us the Din of Allah. (The Rreligion of Allah). It is entirely up to us to find the truth in these teachings through ardent study and practice and not become followers of dogmatic gurus and clerics, and fanatics. We can pick the Lotus without getting our fingers wet. and the perfection of the beauty of the lotus is the result of it having grown out of the muddy waters; we are growing out of the muddy waters we call life.