abuse that is Haram and Sharia
absolutely and there's no proof or
justification for it and we're going to
look at the verse that a lot of people
misunderstand including unfortunately
some Muslims about that but it's it's
well-known in the Islamic sharia that it
is prohibited to physically strike
anyone with violence hmm
no that's poor on ya it's a there are
several verses that deal with that
actually but the one I gave you was
twenty two five
now in twenty two five it continues and
it says afterward we bring you forth as
infants the word in Arabic this stage is
called the foot now Tuffle means in
arabic poof a li is a parasite the
puffle is somebody that cannot live on
its own it needs a host so the child
needs the parents and this is the
responsibility of the parents to nurture
the child now the Prophet Mohammed salat
is that I'm said that every child is
born on fitrah and this is an important
concept in Islam filtra is the inherent
nature of the human being
it's his aboriginal nature it is
believed in Islam that human beings are
good in their nature and it is it is
diseased societies that will affect the
the nature in a diseased way now this
obviously doesn't is not congruence with
the traditional Christian belief of the
corrupt nature but there is a similarity
between the Islamic and the Christian
belief in that there is a hadith that
says that every child is born with a
black seed in the heart and this is
similar but not the same as the
understanding of original sin
it's going kinda yeah this is going to
be the shield the actions of the parents
affect their children and there are like
in the Bible the idea of visiting on
seven generations which is you know it's
a lot you're dealing with sixty four
parents there is that concept in Islam
that your actions do affect your
offspring but there is no accountability
of the offspring in other words nobody
bears the burden of you do not like in
some of the Chinese traditions you have
the idea of inherited curses you know
that a family gets cursed for doing
wrong in one generation and their
offspring will suffer the fate of that
curse but there is a belief in Islam
that that righteousness will affect your
offspring and also wrongs will affect
your offspring you don't think as it is
available the concert hall
of inhibited agent but was a clang baby
in the census starts all over and
addiction an addiction right and the
mother is responsible for that not the
baby so the mother has has affected the
and that's we have that ability to
completely destroy the fitrah the
parents can do that to the child they
can ruin it and that's what happens
filter is not you know children will not
be if they're nurtured properly now
there is a bad seed there is a concept
of bad seed in Islam there's definitely
a concept in other words there is a
belief that there are Shelton and intz
which are demonic humans and this
results one that demons will actually
partake in the insemination that there's
Hadees that indicate that people that
are like in fornication in and it's
interesting because Islam accepts
marriage in every tradition you know
even though it doesn't accept the the
Buddhists as a people of the book that
you know they're accepted as a as a
tradition in that they can pay the jizya
tax according to imam malik but they're
there their books are not accepted as
revealed books they're not rejected but
they're not accepted it's not in the
articles of faith like the Bible and the
gospel but Buddhist marriage is accepted
if if two buddhists become muslim their
marriage is violent they don't have to
renew that marriage because marriage is
believed to be a divine institution that
it was through revelation that marriage
came about so marriage in any tradition
is accepted and therefore children that
are born of legitimate marriage in any
tradition those children have the
protection of the
sanctity of the men of the union
children born out of wedlock do not have
that protection and there can be effects
on the children because of that and one
of the things that the Prophet salat is
that I'm said is beware the wrath of
bastard children beware the wrath of
bastard children that if you do that to
children they will be angry and their
wrath will come back to you and he said
if he legitimacy spreads amongst the
people then they are spreading the wrath
of God amongst themselves and the wrath
is in the children because that was a
right that you have deprived them up
they have a right to legitimacy and if
you do not give them that you have
oppressed them and oppression engenders
anger and they are often they don't know
why they're angry right they don't know
why they're angry but they're angry and
and for our country when you're looking
at 70 percent the legitimacy rates
amongst certain communities right and
the dominant community it's it's it's in
the 40 percentile range right that which
a lot of you grew up in an age where you
know girls disappeared in high school
right I mean it's really amazing how
much has changed in our generation right
I mean in 1968 a woman was kicked out of
Vassar for living with a man in an
apartment 68 and it's really interesting
how how that's happened in this culture
so this fifth row nature is this
inherent nature and it is that the
potential for good and evil exist but
the inclination is too good if it's
nurtured but the seed of evil can be
nurtured also and if that's done then
you get people that that will they're
inclined to doing bad stuff not good
stuff absolutely and there is no
responsibility until puberty of the
child it all falls on the parents after
puberty according to the hadith the
parents are taken to account in the next
life but not in this life once the chap
you know like if you've got children
that were raised brutalized right by
their father you know or a crack-cocaine
mother who doesn't do anything for a
child these type things the
responsibility this is why you can't
judge people in this world in any
absolute sense the prophets that I was
commanded to judge outwardly but not
inwardly we we do not have the authority
to make inward judgments against people
we can only judge outwardly and those
outward judgments in Sharia are related
to transgressions but you cannot condemn
people to hell you can't none of that
that's all inward judgment and we have
no authority in that realm the variables
that are involved in any human action
are so vast that no individual can grasp
them we can but responsibility is lies
on the adult once you reach adulthood
you are responsible and in Sharia it's
not
hold up in court to have a psychologist
in there explaining what happened when
they were children and why they're doing
that that does not hold up in in Sharia
Court although Sharia laws are often
contextualized in that upon decide to
implement a HUD punishment one of the
the penal punishments because of
contextual circumstances that that does
exist so there is that realm it's it's
very organic the Islamic legal system is
it's not black and white at all between
7 and 15 Buddhism huge difference to
some communities or traditions through
the 1 to 7 and the other one to 15 I'm
looking at all you know a lot of the
crimes being committed by 315 yeah
that's that in in Sharia if they're
adult they're responsible although this
culture by Islam you cannot apply
Islamic law in the United States you
can't it would be completely
unacceptable because Islamic law is
organic it's it's a it's a holistic
system you cannot have so like let's
chop off the hands of thieves and you
have a consumer culture where the whole
society is is is is is locked in to the
the system of creating consumption as an
addiction right I mean you have to
change it's it's you know the Islamic
legal system the first chapter of
Islamic law books is called the chapter
of purity I mean it's a spiritual
tradition before it's a legal tradition
and so you can't cannot impose
the legal laws on a materialistic
society you have to introduce and this
is why the Meccan stage precedes the
medinan stage the Meccan state had no
legal rulings it was a stage of changing
the perceptions of the people and once
that ship took place this radical
paradigm shift once that took place then
the rules begin to make sense but to
apply the rules without that would be
injustice which is what you know this is
the kind of conservative approach let's
just make harsher laws right see the
problem is the laws aren't harsh enough
well you know why are people doing what
they're doing and why is it that our our
prisons you know are over 60% in fact in
most places it's more like seventy five
eighty percent minority why is that well
that's more evidence you know that these
are inferior type people I mean there's
a lot of that's an unspoken belief
amongst a lot of people in this country
you know I mean there's a lot of people
that are politically correct in their
public discourse not in their private
discourse there's a lot of people that
say well you know these people you know
they're different from us they have
different values whatever or no values
so whereas the Islamic situation is
saying look what's going on right that
these situations are being produced
what's in generating this because this
is alien you see if if you go to a black
African if you go to a Gambian village
where there's no crime right I mean it's
true or not true and isn't it a large
percentage of the african-americans in
this country are from Senegambia right
this
their genetic inheritance so why is it
that a Gambian African in his village is
not stealing raping and pillaging right
and their 12 year olds aren't going
around doing gangbang and yet the same
genetic bank in in the inner cities of
New York or right or Chicago are doing
that you see what's going on well from
the Islamic perspective you have a
diseased Society and therefore you have
symptomatic pathology and the pathology
is manifesting in children that are
being raised in a diseased engendering
culture so during these seven years it's
not encouraged to teach children either
because they're learning they have their
own learning schedule and in traditional
cultures you did not begin to train
children until they reach seven which is
consistent also with the the Waldorf
right Rudolf Steiner fell back in the
20s that if we begin to educate children
at the age of five we are going to see
precocious sexual development occurring
and the reason he said that is is
because you're dealing with a divine
programming that's designed at that if
you if you bring programming that's not
meant to be introduced earlier then
you're going to pull the whole process
down so instead of the sexual maturation
occurring like in this culture when
people who here might have grown up in
the 50s at the age of fourteen most boys
and girls we're not thinking about
sexual experimentation right really they
weren't and you can talk to your parents
if you're not that old right I mean this
is not I'm not making this up this is
even the menage has you know the period
now
we have early onset periods we've got
girls now at 7 & 8 that are beginning to
menstruate ins in certain areas right so
something's going on right now if you
introduce it's actually considered
damaging now this is not true of all
children there will be because there
you're going to have children that want
to read at the age of 3 or 4 but the
vast majority of children are not going
to be like that and so they're doing
their work between 1 & 7 they know
exactly what they're supposed to be
doing and you let them do that
they're developing their their minds and
and they're actually they are according
to Islam and according to a lot of our
neurological research it's confirming
these ancient beliefs because this is
not just Islam this this this is
congruence with many traditions 7 was an
age of initiation in many many
traditions and in the classical European
oral culture before Christianity litter
eyes that area 7 was actually you are an
adult at 7 you went from childhood to
adulthood at the age of 7 because in
oral cultures 7 year olds speak like
adults and you'll notice a radical
change in the the ability of a child to
articulate at about the age of 7 and 8
there's a real change in their ability
to express themselves and this is why
even in England you know in the 8th 9th
century at 7 year olds and 8 year olds
were being hung for a horse theft right
which I mean obviously that's horrific
but it's indicative of an oral culture
and how they view and this is why you
will find marriage occurred in oral
cultures at early ages also it was not
uncommon in Europe Asia the Middle East
Africa for an eight or a nine year-old
girl to be married not uncommon at all
because they were considered to have
already reached
the age of maturation in the oral
understanding so at the age of seven
they enter into what's called sinew
Tamizh which is the age of
discrimination they can't now they're
beginning to understand certain certain
things Imam al-ghazali said you can
introduce to them now the concept of
time in a real way so they can
understand things like that they're in
time creatures and also the
responsibilities of actions although
they're not fully responsible yet
because they don't have all of the
hardwiring yet
so this fitrah and it's in the chapter
called the chapter of the Byzantines or
the Europeans or Rome means Europe it
also means the Byzantines it says that
you set your face to the religion which
is the religion of nature the fifth are
given by God and then it says and do not
change that nature which is an
indication that we can alter the fifth
era of people and we have thousands of
years of anthropological evidence that
most cultures were benign cultures I
mean we have a great deal of evidence
you know we would like those people who
make weapons would like us to believe
that we are aggressive by Nature
in other words that by nature we like to
inflict violence and aggression there
are many people that there's there's a
vested interest in having that the truth
is that most of the evidence that we
have from Aboriginal cultures is
contrary to that the Shoshone Indians
you know this is a good example of a
culture that really rejected violence as
a as an option right and there are many
many other many African cultures where
this is very clearly the case that that
violence was seen as surgery you know
that you did not use that route unless
there was no other alternative whereas
in our culture it's its primary care
right its lines in the sand and anybody
who knows Arab psychology knows that you
don't draw lines in the sand if you want
to stay at the the table of dialogue
right if you want to reach some end and
you know it's it's really fun I want to
get into politics but that what happened
in 1991 was an act of madness complete
act of madness and we were as a culture
collectively drawn into something that
had nothing to do with our vested
interests right and and unfortunately
still going on but Arab posturing is
anybody who knows the Arabs is that
they're people that posture this is part
of their nature and Saddam Hussein you
know was was literally doing a classic
Arab posturing because the OPEC
countries reneged on a promise that they
made that they would help him with his
war debts that were incurred during the
Iranian Iraqi war and they reneged on
and he put his troops there at the
border as a to force their hand and they
were told by our foreign policy here you
know we're going to stand behind you
don't you can stand up to him right and
that was a very easily you know not an
intractable problem at all but
unfortunately there are people that have
vested interests in using the violent
option before the diplomatic options
right there's a lot of money to be made
in war Bechtel was already was already
before that war began had contracts with
the Kuwaiti government to rebuild their
infrastructure right so I mean Thoreau
said an educated soldier is usually
called a deserter right if you really
know what what the fight is about you
know sorry
count me out on this one right what a
wonderful world it would be they say if
somebody called a war and nobody showed
up and you know the ancient peoples when
they used to fight they had these war
bonnets if it rained they'd call off the
battle and and they used to do you know
the Prophet Mohammed is seen as this but
in the West is this violent person over
over 23 years less than 1,200 people
were killed in all of the engagements
that took place less than 1,000 - we had
it's recorded every battle how many
people died and they actually prefer to
have you know the heroes would go out
and they Duke it out and then they you
win and they'd all go home right and
that's I mean would that be a great way
right let let it's like you know
Lindbergh said the America first during
World War two he said it's not their
sons that are going to die in this war
right the war mongers they never send
their sons right and that's why the
Iroquois nation in the Iroquois nation
it was the women that were the war
council the women decided whether the
nation would go to war with another
tribe with the belief that it was the
women who sent their sons to die right
and there's the great Greek play yeah
thank you about the women all going on
strike okay
all right is minaton online
the the next
these are the two classical divisions
some will put it into five and other
seven seven is you know Shakespeare has
the Verona tapestry that has the seven
stages of man and so it's consistent
some of the Western tradition but here
one through 1515 was traditionally more
commonly the onset of puberty was around
that age where I was in West Africa
that's that's pretty much when when
puberty happens for most of the people
there but you're obviously going to get
some are delayed and some are earlier
but it's around that and this is also
consistent with neurological research
that indicates that the brain is pretty
much by 15 its fully formulated and at
puberty there's actually a hormone
that's released that that will remove if
networking was not done it removes all
the potential so which is really
important why children need so much
stimulation in those early periods and
we've shown now there's a Israeli study
that indicated that for the first at
least 10 months there was strong
corollary study that showed that
children that were breastfed that their
IQs increased about a point for every
month that they had mother's milk and
it's interesting also that it's actually
a right of a child to be nursed with
breast milk it's it's a right and if a
woman is not able to do it then it's a
responsibility of the man to find what
we used to call wet nurses which
obviously we don't have this anymore but
mother's milk is seen as really
important and in fact the Arabic word
for the the actual tit of a woman's
breast is is Halima which mean it's the
same root word for compassion and
forbearance and there is a belief you
know it's what we used to call in this
tradition the milk of human kindness
that there's actually that that is
transmitted to the children through the
breasts that there is a transmission of
him and it's interesting that
historically the wet-nurse of the
prophet's name was Halima that was the
name of his wet nurse was Halima Satya
and so it's also believed in the Islamic
tradition that this hill which is
forbearance proceeds in which is
knowledge and so the woman for the first
seven years is inculcating forbearance
in the child that that is what the child
needs to learn in those first seven
years is how to be a human being how to
actually have the ability to be empathic
compassionate forbearing kind generous
the these this is what the mother is
imparting to the child and and this is
why she's been given and there's a very
interesting correlation between the
breast and the womb that many women know
the womb in Arabic is ryeom which which
the root word is compassion and there is
a hadith in which the the prophet
sallallaahu sanam said that God says I
have derived the womb from my name the
merciful so ever severs the womb has
been severed from my mercy so the womb
is the source of human Rama and this is
why kinship ties are so important
because if a child does not learn to
have mercy at the at the at the the unit
of the family it will never be able to
extend mercy to the greater human family
so in the Islamic tradition is it's
essential that a child learns to be
compassionate within
family unit and this is why rama is is
believed to be the dominant Sakina and
this why the quran says that the male
and the female come together with two
qualities moet de and rama moet de is a
love that is not less full its
transcending the the erotic love and
moving into the the the the divine love
and this is why one of the names of god
is edwin it's from the same root the one
who loves divinely so milada and also
the prophet peace be upon him said the
best woman was the wudood this woman
that has this divine love because she
will transmit it to her children and
then the second quality of marriage is
Rama which is compassion and mercy the
two of these result in Sakina which is
tranquility and Shekinah in the Hebrew
tradition right Shekinah which descends
the the Trank the word in Arabic for
that marital house is called muskan
which in arabic means the place of
tranquility so this is what the the
marital house is a place where this
divine Sakina is allowed to descend
because of divine love and compassion
and children that grow up in that
environment our children that are fit
for our children that will have
compassion love and tranquility so that
when they move out into the dominant
culture and society they're not a threat
to people they're actually a
contribution and this is why the the
prophet sallallaahu said i'm said one of
the three things that a human being
leaves behind that will benefit him in
the next life is righteous children
righteous children so
this stage cannot be underestimated this
stage will actually affect the parents
afterlife if they do it properly and he
also said that people that don't do it
properly they will accrue the wrong
actions of their children throughout
their lives so it will have the opposite
effect so at the age of fifteen to
thirty five you enter into the new stage
which is you it's called Shabab which
comes from a root word Shepperton all
the fire became inflamed so youth is
when you have this energy and this is
considered the age of plowing the field
there's a tradition of imam ali but of
the Ilan who said he's the nephew of the
Prophet and one of the greatest scholars
of Islam he said play with your children
for seven years
educate them for seven years befriend
them for seven years and then release
their reins right let their reins go
play with them for seven educate them
for seven and then befriend them for
seven though that age of fourteen to
twenty-one it's the identity they need
that mentorship you know they're they're
moving into the world and then at
twenty-one your job is done and now if
you do that then there'll be a
contribution to yourself and to society
so from that period is seen as the
period of struggle this is where you're
really meant to do your serious work one
of the scholars said if you if a man has
nothing to boast of by the age of
twenty-one he'll never have anything to
boast right that this is the real time
of effort and struggle at the age of 35
a new phase is coming in and some take
it to 40 40 is productivity versus
stagnation right in Erickson's model 40
is the age now where the other world
is really moving in to picture now one
of the things that happens at 40 is gray
hairs begin to emerge and there's a
wisdom in that because gray hairs what
what the scholars say is that gray hair
is a sign that harvest time is soon
right the chafe is yellowing the Grim
Reaper's on his way and so 40 is seen as
a time of getting serious if you haven't
been yet it's no longer you don't have
the youth to waste anymore it's it's
time to really start thinking about and
this is what Erickson says what you're
leaving behind what your contribution is
right what what are you going to leave
behind and that will determine his later
stage of integrity versus despair did
you do something worthwhile that you can
say my life has had meaning or was it an
egocentric life and this is why in our
culture 40 can be so frightening for
people right men will often leave their
wives and go find a woman and now women
are starting to compete with men in that
realm as well right and with enhanced
cosmetic surgery and things like that
people are doing you know really bizarre
things because and this is our death
denial culture we're not dealing with
this this is a turning point right it's
it's literally the focus on this world
is really meant to
forty is is the transition where you're
turning your back on this world and
you're really starting to face your
mortality at in a deep existential way
and so this is called now the age of
maturity you Jula it's the age the
module which it can apply to the male
and the female it generally means man
but it's the idea of somebody now who
who has reached this age of dignity they
are no longer going to do anything that
is indicative of the folly of youth that
they have wisdom now there's no longer
an excuse for the stupidities of lack of
experience you should know better right
shame on you and this this period then
will be the most productive period from
40 to 50 in terms of contribution
because now you really have you still
have remnants of the strength of youth
but you also have the maturation of
intellect and spirituality according to
this tradition at 50 you move into
what's known as chez hoo-ha cher or Shia
this is now where you become an elder
your your your wisdom now has has
matured in a way that you are now
guiding peoples that went before you
you're you're giving them insights into
their own journey because you've gone
down the path you've been through these
stages and now you can actually guide
them and there's a hadith in which the
prophet sallallaahu sanam said he is not
from us the one who does not respect our
aged nor has compassion on our youth so
there is an interesting dyadic
relationship between the aged and the
youth the aging have to have compassion
because the youth don't have the
experience so they make these mistakes
but the youth have to have the respect
of the aged in that they can derive from
them
the wisdom of those who have already
traveled the path so this is a really
important period and this will go on for
about 20 years at about 70 you're moving
into the ages now obviously the baby
boomers are going to alter this because
of you know people now they're like 75
and they're they have the strength of
people traditionally that were you know
in their 50s we're seeing this now and
it's interesting but traditionally 70
was really where you're settling down
into you're slowing down physiologically
and in every other way and so you're
really now you walk slowly right there's
a type of dignity that goes with this
age and it's it's an age where the
Prophet Muhammad said that that God is
shy of punishing somebody who reaches
the age of 70 in a state of submission
in the next world
and then he wept and they asked him why
are you weeping and he said I'm weeping
for those of my community who are not
shy about disobeying Allah at that age
right so this is really a time where
people should be really directed
the other world this is a time when you
really leave behind this world you begin
to go into spiritual in in many you know
physiologically this is a time of
insomnia for a lot of people and
traditionally the that was because the
body is designed at this age to go into
deep meditative states in the night
which replaces sleep and and in the
traditional Muslim culture that's what
people did at this time it was going
inwardly in a very deep way and spending
the nights in meditation getting ready
for the afterlife and then we have death
now death is an amazing thing if you're
familiar with Heidegger's philosophy he
built an entire philosophy around the
phenomenon of death and death is
ultimately you know if you don't want to
think about where your you came from
everybody at some point has to think
about where they're going and I had a
professor once in fact in in Western
schools he was really the only really great teacher that I had, was a very brilliant Catholic scholar, Ken Kramer. Who in a class I had with him which summons materials taken from "Death and Dying in religious traditions" and he said one day, in class, there is a point in your life where you will become absolutely certain of your mortality and he said it comes to people at different stages in their life. Some people, it happens really early and other people it happens really late. When he said that to me, it struck a chord with me because I know that point with absolute certainty.
When it happened to me, I was 17 and I was in a really intense car accident. I realized during the accident that I might be going into the next world. I realized it, I mean completely, a total realization of mortality. And that completely altered my experience of life after that. I was disconnected for about a year after that accident. Completely disconnected. Conversations: I couldn't hear people talking. I mean it was very very profound experience for me and that was my experience
For him, he said it happened when he was 25. He was in Theological Seminary sitting on a windowpane looking out and he realized he was going to die. That realization of death and mortality I think for most people and there's also
I believe in my own experience there is, a because this happened several times. Since then there's an experience that that you can you know there's a belief
that you cannot experience get death in
this life there is a belief amongst a
lot of the Freudians and and and other
psychologists in this culture that you
know human beings cannot really
understand death as long as they're
alive
in all the traditional cultures death
spiritual death is real that you can die
to the sensory in this world before you
leave this world and in fact that is the
goal of most religious traditions that
the spiritual death and the spiritual
death is where one enters into meaning
you die to the sensory and this is an
inward experience and once that death
occurs you can never look at the sensory
world in the same light you're freed
from it the chains of it in a deep way
one of them said
furro furro Calissa and the decay
Niharika one Anna Magnani lay ahead Luke
Arakawa poet said he freed himself from
sensory sensoria that was his obstacle
and he embraced meaning and embrace that
he's not permitted to ever leave so the
ideas once you make this you embrace
this meeting which is your mortality and
that you will be brought back into the
divine present that will completely
alter your life you will never be able
to look at the world in the same way and
this is the spiritual goal of the
spiritual path now there's a lot of
reasons that why we fear why we fear
dying right and these these five are
going to be the majority of people are
going to fall into this people have a
fear of pain there is a hadith on which
the Prophet said whoever loves to meet
God God loves to meet them and his wife
said what about fearing death and he
said we all fear death
in other words it's very human to fear
the pain right that comes with death
what's called in the Quran Sakura to
melt at the Quran says a Jessica rattle
molt Bill Hawk the pangs of death have
come in truth and then it says this is
that which you were putting off right we
don't like to think about this the fear
of loss separation leaving this world
loved ones the fear of meaninglessness
right despair that comes with feeling
that your life really didn't turn out
the way you wanted that it wasn't really
you
didn't get what you wanted to get done
right I can't die now I've still got
things to do fear of the unknown right
of what's going to happen in the next
room many people will say well there's
nothing but it's Pascal's wager which is
in the Muslim tradition called Satan
Ali's wager because he preceded Pascal
by centuries with that somebody was
debating with him about you know believe
in the afterlife he said well if if I'm
right you're in big trouble but if
you're right I don't have a problem
right in other words in the next world
if the materials who says it all ends
with death if it indeed does then the
religious man has has or woman has led
an ethical life I think it was Whitehead
who said even if there isn't a day of
judgment we should all live our lives as
if there was which is the secular
humanist perspective right it's we've
still done the right thing
whereas the the the aesthetic or the
garment or the the person who wants to
live the sensual life
and not think about what's coming after
or say nothing's coming after if indeed
there is something after then he's he or
she is in in trouble and then fear of
non being right it's hard to imagine
ourselves in fact it's really at one
level impossible to imagine ourselves
just not here at all now
if you look at death there's different
types of death we have physical death
but we also have psychological death
what one is in Georgia with all cos a
homeopath said was in America we die at
25 but live to 75 right that that at a
certain point a lot of people literally
stop experiencing life and go into this
just numb to state where they've had a
psychological death a physical death is
determined by Harvard's right I used to
always be amazed in the hospital in it
because I saw a lot of people die nurses
can't say they're dead
you need the doctor to come in and
declare them dead I mean if that's not
religion I don't know what is the priest
has to come in right yeah he's dead okay
thank you
brainwaves that that determines death
right that is one type of death brain
death so if they're not seeing brain
activity they're determined to be dead
heart and blood if the heart stops and
blood start circulate stop circulating
death occurs very quickly all right
there can be resuscitation if somebody
is for instance defibrillated or
something brought back into you know a
beating heart but that happens pretty
quick the nervous system is one way of
determining so you poke you don't get
any reactions and then breath and lungs
you really have to have all four in
order for them to you know this is a
dead there there's no longer life now at
one point people started weighing
cadavers because there was a belief you
know that the soul leaves and obviously
it's going to be lighter which again is
such a stupid concept because
the soul is immaterial right so
obviously it's not going to have any
weight I mean that's the point of the
soul it's it's not material substance
it's not part of this this realm it's
from another realm the body is material
now the soul you know there's a lot of
people that don't believe in this all in
fact there's a lot of scientists with
that would really like to prove that we
are nothing other than anabolic and
catabolic processes just biochemistry
that's what we're dealing with now at
the psychological level you have types
of death so at the brain level you get
cognitive impotence where the brain is
not functioning anymore so
psychologically you know people
literally stop thinking and they become
automatics that that literally kind of
go through life without really ever
thinking about anything other than the
most functional things you know so
people go into these trance-like states
and and they go into this this
perfunctory life that is nothing other
than routines right and this is why like
Ezra Pound here all teachers Ezra Pound
said the day that a teacher is not
excited about teaching a class is the
day they should retire right so this
isn't really a type of of death of brain
death when you're no longer excited
about the material I was telling a Hakim
I rented a car and this man said to me I
said he was from another state and I
said how long you've been here he said
thirty years but I'm moving on I said oh
really what you don't like here anymore
he said well seen every mountain been on
every trail hunted every hunting area
fished every stream I'm bored right and
I was just I mean that always amazes me
because I've never looked out here and
seeing the
same place every single time looked here
I've been coming here all these years
I've never it's like where did that
mountain come from you know it's and
it's all lights you know it's always
changing here the lights are incredible
and so this idea of like boredom that's
something I you know I've that's another
thing I really always amazed me about
people who say I'm bored
right how people get into that state
what happens where something say I'm
bored and children are not like that
we teach them boredom right children are
not bored I mean they're just you know
they're you know in everything right
which is people that take hypertrophic
drugs or like that right they'd start
looking at leaves like you know amazed
at and that's why children are they're
in a whole other realm right and that
type of excitement about life is not
something that has to stop discovery in
in Arabic the word to find something or
discover something means to be ecstatic
and the word for existence is the same
root word existence is the arena of
ecstasy and but you have to be alive to
be in that to be in that state where it
is you are in an ecstatic state because
there's constant discovery this is a
theater of enlightenment there's all
these revelations happening in every
moment you know the divine attributes
are manifesting all over the place and
and then the next is emotive dissonance
people who die emotionally and this is
the ruin of myriad marriages emotional
death that occurs in marriages where
there's no nothing's happening people
are dead and numb inside to each other
which one of the things about death and
really keeping death in perspective is
unlike having the morbid experience it
actually invigorates your experience of
life because
it's like this might be the last time
I'm ever with you right this might I
might never see you again we leave we go
to work or and come home and think that
it's always going to be like this
but there's people all over this country
right now that are getting phone calls I
hate to tell you this but your husband
was in a car accident today
you know your wife or I hate to tell you
this but you know the tests came back
positive
you've got terminal cancer I mean this
is going on all over right now
everywhere right and we forget that you
know we go into this thing that's always
going to be like she'll always be around
he'll always be around volitional
routinization of life right just sit
down at the terminal turn on plug in
check my email coffee you know phone
rings yes okay it's people all over the
world like that literally just right
driving cars same radio station right
it's amazing so that's a type of death
and then intuitive paralysis losing that
expansion contraction the breath you
know losing that that experience of
right that that breath can be cut off
and that when you're connected to your
breath you're connected to yourself in a
really powerful way which is why breath
is a primary meditation now you have
these are not universal and there's
actually knew death work that's that's
beginning to go beyond kubler-ross is I
mean she was important at one point
singh's book the art of dying which is
published by Harper has taken a whole
other and that's probably going to
become an important book it's going
really beyond that because there are
many people that do not go through these
ages there are many people that you know
but but this is a common death denial
people in a death denial culture this is
very common these stages and they do
work denial is the first stage right
he's relating them to these but I'm not
going to go into that but denial is the
first stage you know people hear it
there's a film called the doctor I don't
know if people saw that but that's very
much in that genre of somebody who's
told they're going to die and they
thought it's not going to happen to me
it happens to everybody else and this is
one of you know our joonas asked krishna
with what is the the greatest wonder of
the world and he replies that the
greatest wonder is that you see people
dying all around you and you don't think
it's going to happen to you right so we
you know we go into this denial of death
and and once people overcome that it's
it's anger will often emerge getting
angry why is this happening to me
especially you know you're 3540 and
you've got terminal cancer there's a
wonderful piece that was written by Lee
was it Lee Atwater who was the campaign
manager for Bush huh
Lee Atwater really bad guy this guy was
bet and he admits it in it was a piece
that was published in an Inc New Age
magazine several years back when he
first do you remember he had the brain
tumor he said that he based his life on
Machiavelli's The Prince you know he
said that that was my life Machiavelli
this guy on top of the world could do no
wrong the Republican golden boy but his
you know screw unto others before they
screw unto you that was the motto of
that man's life right really and he
admits that in there if he could you
know dam
bitch attack people's reputations do the
worst things that that was his realm and
that's why they loved him so much
right because he got people elected when
he suddenly came to terms with you know
this guy's early 40s wealthy politically
powerful one of the major players in
Washington at that time and suddenly
incurable brain tumor right that his
back piece you know that should be
memorized by every politician before
they're allowed to run for office
because he just talks about wanting to
make amends with all the people he ever
heard right and this is something
amazing is that even the the worst
people can have radical transformations
when confronted with their mortality why
does it have to take that right why does
it have to take that and the you know
one of the things about our age is work
we're confronting species death right
we're looking at you know our entire
world is being threatened with death
right our biosphere is is is showing
signs that it can no longer sustain us
because of what we're doing to it and
what if if that really enters in to the
collective consciousness of human
societies now what type of
transformation is that but as long as
we're in denial about this right or in
the anger stages like the echo warriors
right because they're furious right
earth first people they're not in denial
they see it happening but they're angry
you know the Unabomber let's blow these
people up that are ruining our world
right this is all anger what but if we
as
as species could really see that we are
threatened with our own extinction that
there is not going to be a sustainable
world for our children for our
grandchildren what type of
transformation is going to occur
bargaining give me another chance
god I know I mucked up give me another
chance right
and then acceptance this is submission
and I mentioned that you know the denial
is Kufa that's what Kufa means rejection
right anger is fighting it
fighting the truth bargaining is trying
to deal with the truth on your own terms
right trying to deal with it on your own
terms I know it's true okay but can't we
leave you know let's let's bargain here
a little bit you know give me a break
this is hard I can't deal with this and
submission is I submit I'm accepting
this thing completely and from that
experience is an incredible liberation
you transcend yourself you are a free
human being before that you're a slave
you're a slave to your fear you're a
slave to your desires once you accept
your own mortality
right what higher calls up being unto
death you can nurture you can enter into
your humanity as long as you're in
denial with that most fundamental fact
and Heidegger goes to the radical
proposition that that you that your
death Act will be the only real thing
that you will ever do that was not
determined by anybody else
that every act that you do in your life
is because you've been influenced by
your parents by
appears by your education by your
society it is death alone that will be
uniquely yours
no one will teach you how to do that no
one will show you that path you take it
on your own and so that is your one true
act that can be absolutely volitional
you can die and and that is really a in
harmony with the Islamic understanding
this is kind of interesting just in our
culture all these these are like
euphemisms because people don't like to
say he died I passed on croaked kicked
the bucket gone to heaven gone home
expired breathed his last to come left
us went to his return reward loss met
his maker wasted checked out eternal
rest laid to rest pushing up daisies
called home was a goner came to an end
bit the dust annihilated liquidated
terminated gave up the ghost left this
world rubbed out snuff six feet under
consumed found everlasting peace wishful
thinking went to a new life in the great
beyond no longer with us made the change
got Myrtle eyes on the other side God
took him asleep in Christ a part of
transcended bought the farm with the
Angels feeling no pain lost the race
time was up cashed in crossed over
Jordan Paris lost it was done in
translated into glory returned to dust
withered away in the arms gave it up it
was curtains a long sleep on the
heavenly Shores out of his or her misery
ended it all angels carried him away
resting in peace changed form dropped
the body rode into the sunset that was
all she wrote
so a lot of ways to say the same thing
one of the Arabs said
in them to mood to be be safe and mid to
be ready to know why this babble and
motor what I do if you don't die by the
sword
you'll die by something else there's a
lot of ways to die but death is one
right now
what happens then from the Islamic
perspective of when we die obviously in
in pre-islamic cultures the Arabians
most fascinating aspect of arabian
culture the arabs did not believe in an
afterlife really interesting because
most cultures have a concept of the
afterlife the arabs did not believe in
an afterlife they said now move to an
idea will not you live the lacunae
all