And Rambling On...

 " The devil is n the details they say,

A book this size has allot of devils, any one of which will bite you if you don't watch..." - Acknowledgement to the novel, " A Game of Thrones" or 'A Song of Ice and Fire' by George R.R. Martin.

"Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons...don't you see me..?" The first of the four novel series  came to an end as Daenerys stood in the flames of her husband, the Great Khal Drogo's funeral pyre and later surviving to step out reborn and untouched accompanied by three baby dragons, as the Dragon Queen. I finished reading the novel a few days ago and after having seen the whole series twice back to back, the does justice to the Movie and the movie does a great deal of justice in manifesting the Book. I cannot tell whether having seen the series and then reading the book was better or vice versa. A Game of Thrones is no doubt in my mind rank alongside Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Harry Potter and such similar genre of fictions today. At my age I am blessed to have been present while all these great fictions becomes alive on the cinema screen and the fact that I love to read is more than a blessing. Now I have to wait for my son Karim to place an order for the next one. The novel was bought for him to read but I don't think it is ever going to happen not during this pandemic at least.

As have been warned I will not go into too much details of how I feel about the story as a whole, too many devils, however I will share a little about the power of reading. Reading like art or a dance, is a powerful mode of meditation as it capture your mind into taking a trip of fantasy or otherwise as your interest might choose. For as long as the story runs and your mind is stuck with it you are focused and your mind is not as scattered as it would normally be as when you are simply drifting. The more absorbed you find yourself immersed in the story the more focused is your mind and then you start to identify with a character or two from the tales and this takes your mind to a whole different level of that of visualizations, or taking on an identity that was created by someone else of someone else. To become lost finally into the story as though it was your own story will finally make you realize what the power of reading can do to you; It triggers your imagination and your power to visualize and promotes your creativity; you become one with the illusion created for your entertainment, you become attach with the story, it becomes a reality for you and when you wake up from this created reality you find yourself drifting with no anchor to latch on to and this is your life, my life. Life is an illusion and we live in a world of Maya, the unreal manifested world a product of the collective mind of collective dreams and visions, of collective fears and sorrows, we exist in the realm of a fabricated consciousness. When they say we exist within a matrix, it is not far from the truth, the only way the human consciousness has been able to evolve is towards a collective whole in body mind and spirit and this may not happen in the most ideal way but it will happen one way or another; mankind will evolve into a single entity, the unity of one, the power of One, the single celled amoeba or we will become God.

If 'the devils were to be found in the details,' a story will have no end, 70 odd years is a drop in the bucket where tales are being kept in the human consciousness. What happened today and yesterday and what will happen or is yet to happen it is all contained in the story and can be just another boring episode or a life altering event, it does not matter, it is still a part of the whole story. The question is how willing are you to dive deep into your bucket and draw out the ancient twisted karma of your evolving existence and air them out to be dissolve into the void once and for all. The only way to remove the devils from your system is to send a virus much more potent that can wipe them out of the system. The details are what holds together the whole story if the story is to be real or truthful, genuine and sincere, so the devils has a role to play in any given tale that is told. This is perhaps why most people loves to hear the details of an event or a story as it is the details that devilish acts are found and makes for amore exciting if not intriguing and captivating read. When you are hooked to a story, you live that narative and the more convincing it is for you the more real it becomes; it becomes your reality.

I would like to remind myself sometime the fact that wehn I say 'you' in my writing I alkso mean me, I am addressing myself, it is a converstation I am having with myself, perhaps my mental self, my mind and I; who am I? Beyond the thinker and the story teller, beyond the writer and the artist, the father and the brother...who am I? My stories are one of my path towards self liberation, towards staying wide awake at every mile of my journey from cradle to my grave, my stories helps me to map out my journey towards self understanding and awareness of who I truly Am in the scheme of things in this realm of my existence.; to see the real from the unreal. to transcend beyond fear and ignorance and to become enlightened from the suffering of my existence and while at the same time leave behind some stories on the details of how I got to be here in this moment in time, of the COVID lock down era, with not much to do but tell my stories as it comes to my mind.

If you are reading this then I am telling you my stories and I hope i can keep you  entertained for while, see if we can swap stories about ourselves. Who we are and where we were or where we want to be, how far or how near are we to where it is we want to be. Most importantly, whoever or wherever we want to be, we need to have a good sense of humor about it. Cannot take it too seriously and inflate your ego along the way, a story has to be told straight from the heart where the 'thinker' is not present. When the thinking mind is present the story telling becomes less potent for lack of better words, you cannot think of a story to tell a story' story telling simply happens and it keeps on happening fo as long as you allow your mind to proceed in doing what it loves to do; telling stories. Who is 'the thinker?' You ask. Call him your shadow, your ego or the other side of the moon, you. that is the thinker. He is the choreographer and the producer, why he is the director of this series, he is who you think you are, He,the thinker is your general manager who is wheeling and dealing for you so as to make life more bearable and eventful than it normally would. But the thinker is of the past as thoughts is of the past, thoughts are memories, experiences, dreams and imagination, thoughts are conditioned by time and the thinker is limited by time; it takes time to think. We all carry him around with us, the thinker and perhaps until we come fully understand the significance of having your shadow as your companion I feel it is best to hang on to it as a back up plan. Just learning how it works is a small step towards self realization.

Embracing both Light and Dark I walk the middle path a path that that is neither extreme nor too leisurely, not too tight nor too loose, at least i tryas best I could and not often succeeding in my efforts. Sometimes in moments like this I take deep breath and exhale and remind myself of who I am and who the thinker is and where we stand while in ur Dharma position before Gods and Man alike. I am not the mid nor am I the body, this the ancient has already worked it out and the question they left you with is to find out for yourself your true divine nature or are you willing to be reborn again as a toad. A bit extreme! I know and this is when I turn my senses to "Ecstatic India A Spiritual Journey" on You Tube. This is where East meets West in the Spiritual/ Techno music to stimulate my mind from the devilishness of drifting into details, a change of course, or perception of stepping out of the groove or the rut. I tell myself often to just,Stop! Keep Silence! Freeze! Whenever i remember I would pull my hand brakes and freeze the motion of my vehicle that I often find was drifting  and getting me nowhere. Followed by a few long deep breaths and I am back on the track that I prefer to be an at this moment in time, being ith you as I make this posting.

For the first time in a long time I stood facing the morning sun like i normally do every morning, for the first time I felt how truly grateful that I have been bathed in solar rays and that my very survival depends on it continuing to be present. I felt grateful that on top of supplying vitamin D to my body I am also being showered deep within my heart with the heat of pure energy, I felt the healing process and am eternally grateful to my source of energy the Shams or the Sun, I was born in August and the sun is my solar extension. It has always been my practice to kep my physical form get soaked in the sunshine at least once a day especially in the morning while doing your Chi Gung or TaiChi, your walking meditation or Yoga stretches, just say stop! STOP! and immediately simply step back and notice what happens, holding on to this state of being motionless in words, thoughts and deed what do you find? I have no vision of how Allah or God would look like and really do not even want to entertain it, but for me the times when I attain to this level of silence in my consciousness and before i start to drift off from this state of almost blissfulness, Allah comes to my mind and I would remind myself by reciting Astarghfirrullah or May the Lord forgive me, I remind myself not to fall into the trappings of my ego or my nafs, I am a Muslim and my faith is in the One and only ONE! Then I am no more, only the Divine Presence manifest itself within and without these moments that words only gets in the way in trying to describe.