Ways
of
Being

You know, humans are strange.

They have these minds inside them that they think are in control,

keeping everything nice and tidy,

and then all of a sudden something called a feeling comes along,

and goes right to the middle of that nice controlled mind

and then proceeds to explode like a firework.

That's what feelings do.

And of course almost all of us

know how the physical feeling of touch

can be associated with so many different kinds of pain,

that feeling of tearing skin

or touching the fire.

But we also have to deal with the feelings of pain

that come from our emotions

like anger and jealousy

which can hurt as much but in a different way.

We have to live with minds and emotions,

how we understand things

and how we feel about them.

We have to work out how we think and feel about ourselves,

and what we like and dislike about ourselves.

And we look at the people around us

and see what we think and feel about them,

and use that as a guide to try to work out what other people think of us.

It can all get pretty complicated,

but fortunately we have the Deen

to help us see the way things work,

and we learn to control in ourselves

what we don't like in others.

We try to show tolerance, patience and perseverance in our lives,

and to be modest, hard working and trustworthy.

We try to nurture the good things about us

and to starve the bad things about us

or what feeds them.

And following the Deen

we each grow into the person we would want ourselves to be,

not what we would want to be in the way of 'a scientist'

or 'a doctor',

or just 'rich',

but the kind of scientist or doctor or rich person we would want to be,

the kind of person that we are on the inside.

And so we live our lives with compassion

and loving concern for our fellow humans,

and live a life giving thanks to our Creator

for the wonders that surround us.

And we search for knowledge to help us find

the best way through life,

the straight path,

the middle way,

and the Deen in which we live.

What saves us from the sufferings of life?

What gets us where we want to go?

What's the difference between Pride and Conceit?