BOOK : A NEW EARTH - ECKHART TOLLE
Six million copies world wide best seller.
I highly recommend this life changing book. Do buy a copy and see your life for ever changing for the better, and once you change, the world around you will surely change.
Sharing my reflections.
In the first chapter - The Flowering of Human Consciousness, there is a narrative, about Gautama Buddha.
' The Buddha is said to have given a 'silent sermon' once during, which he held up a flower and gazed at it. After a while, one of those present, a monk called Mahakasyapa, began to smile. He is said to have been the only one, who had understood the sermon.
According to legend, that smile (that is to say realization) was handed down by 28 successive masters, and much later became the origin of Zen.
Now when I read this, I quite understood that yes Spiritual Truths are transmitted from one to one, but what was more awakening was the figure of 28. Why not 20 - 30 or any other number and 28.
Gautama Buddha lived and preached 600 years before Jesus. In my earlier 100 meavi milad posts entitled QUEST,I have been trying to understand, how through centuries the Spiritual Truths, like a child growing in stages in the mother's womb, found its completion.
Our Deen teaches us that the shariat of Nabi Adam (SA) was complete in itself, but was akin to the first month of the growth of the unborn in the mothers womb. The shariat of Nabi Nuh (SA) similarly symbolized the second month and so on. With Nabi Mohammad (SA) the sixth Natiq, the Seal of Prophets, the DEEN was complete all in itself.
With this knowledge as a premises I tried to reflect and the answer to why 28 and no other numerical was found in the composition of kalemat-us- shadat -
La - ilah - illah -Allah.
Those who have been fortunate to attend Asb'aq (plural of sabaks)know that the kalema is made of 3 alpha bate namely 'alif' 'lam' and 'hey' there are 4 words La - ilah - illah -Allah. Total number of alpha bates are 12 and when you write the kalema in Arabic, the tip of your pencil/pen will have to be raised a total of 9 times. So 3 + 4 + 12 + 9 = 28
But more significant than above is the Spritual Truth that, the entire universe is said to be represented in this kalema Tawhid, and if you attend Asb'aq, you will learn how all permutations of - land, air - water - fire, the seven tenets of our Deen, Walayah, Taharat etc: all add up to 28 thus the entire Universe does Tawhid of Allah.
Nasihat of Syedi Sadik Ali Saheb :
'gar maut ne samjo to' - kunji chhe hayati ni
tehkeek yeh madin chhe - roohani hayati ni'
To understand the depth and beauty of this verse, here is an excerpt from the Book:
' When death approaches, your sense of Beingness, of I am, is freed from its entanglement with form. Spirit is released from its imprisonment of matter.
Syedi Sadikali saheb uses the metaphor of mother giving birth of everlasting life. So concise, at the same time having an in depth meaning.
Eckhart continues ' You realize your essential identity as formless, as an all pervasive presence of being prior to all forms, all identifications. You realize your true identity as consciousness, itself, rather than what consciousness has identified with. That's the peace with God.
The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this, or I am that, but I AM
Friends, so as I continue to read the Book, if I come across any nuggets worth sharing, I will surely do so.
