Feature 12868 · Mystical reframing / rhetorical pivot

1as parents, not only as children. The royal metaphor was also a favorite bugaboo of my youth. God as King, I would claim, may be read two ways in our day. Shall we choose England or Saudi Arabia? If God is king of England, He has no real power. We (the party in power) run the world, and that is what we essentially believe. But once a year, on Coronation Day (call it Rosh Hashanah, if you will), we dress Him up in all His finery and parade Him through the streets. A little pageantry is good for the soul, after all. On the other hand, if God is king as in Saudi Arabia, we’re in really big trouble. Who of us is free enough from sin not to wind up on the gallows of such a ruler? The image of God as King was ‘‘rede

2and that shows they’re completely out of their heads and don’t know their place any more. So Congress passed a law against it. Now our books are printed on this lousy wood paper and they all fall apart, books fall apart in two or three years, the forests are being destroyed, the greenhouse effect is building up, all because the U.S. Congress persuaded the rest of the world to go along with them on this universal narcotics convention saying “Nobody nowhere can grow no more hemp nohow.” So now we’ve got this ecological catastrophe and our books are falling apart. It’s time to go back to good honest hemp! ¶ You can also make fuel out of hemp; hemp seeds are the richest source of oil on the planet. We can run our cars on hemp seed. Henry Ford was getting ready to convert to hemp seed cars when Congress made hemp illegal. Hemp is totally non-polluting; you can have as much

3inireland.com <0x0C>Crucial Problems 10.3.1965 XI 151 the analytic relationship, it is clear that the subject at the beginning, has installed himself in a demand, but that we have to specify the status of this demand. ¶ It is certain that to specify this status requires us to reject immediately the schema, which is in any case inadequate and summary, promoted by the theory of communication. The theory of communication, reducing language to a function of information, to the link between an emitter and a receptor, may on occasion be of service, a service moreover that is limited because as a matter of fact, in any case, their origin, since they are not detached from language will imply in their usage - I am speaking about the schemas of the doctrine of information - all sorts of confused elements; it is inadmissible to refer to any

4) and related concepts, Le sceau des saints, provides a sound outline of the type of work that needs to be done for dozens if not hundreds of technical terms.'® But it is not the purpose of the present work to contribute anything to the task of pinpointing the sources of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s teachings. In spite of the im- portance of this task, a second task ap- pears cven more essential to the present writer, and that is to answer such ques- tions as the following: What was Ibn al- ‘Arabi actually talking about? What are his basic teachings? How did he himself perceive the goal of his writings? Implicit in these questions is another: What does Ibn al-‘Arabi have to contribute to the intellectual and spiritual needs of the present age? ¶ Questions such as these underlie

5less hypnotized by these allotechnologies, held off at a distance that was just that much more fascinating. I thought about these things this morning when I went to get my implant packet, and the person ahead of me chose their six-month girloid program, which the doctor injected into her arm. She was already beginning to hear the music when she left, and she said it felt good. I needed a lot of silence mapped into my packet, because I had to cogitate. Still, right before I started writing I would need some stimulators, so I chose about sixteen sonic overlays. How did they do it in the old days, I wondered, relying on chance or inspiration, like waiting for winds to fill your sails? I picked the hologrammatology program, because I needed to be in several places at the same time, and I didn't want to fall into facile identifications. The activities of thinking were probably profoundly the same as before

656/ Duality and the Signs of Unity 358/ The Possessor of Two Eyes 361/ Being With God Wherever You Are 364/ Two Perfections 366/ Serving the Divine Names 369/ The People of Blame 372/ The Station of No Station 375 ¶ Notes @ 382 ¶ Bibliography # 414 ¶ Indexes # 419 ¶ scan page 9 Introduction ¶ scan page 10 ¶ scan page 11 INTRODUCTION ¶ Somewhere along the line, the West- ern intellectual tradition took a wrong turn. Arguments arise over when and why this happened. Many important thinkers have concluded that the West never should have abandoned certain teachings about reality which it shared with the East. They have turned to the Oriental traditions in the

7our own creation in God’s image, and that it is God, rather than humans, who is to be seen as the primary figure of this similitude. The hall of mirrors may indeed be approached from either end, as the mystics have always understood so well. But the ancient rabbis already seem to have admitted that our images of God change according to the needs of the hour. When God appeared to Israel at the Sea of Reeds, said the rabbis, as the people confronted the advancing Egyptian armies, ‘‘He appeared to them as a youth.’’ On the day of battle one has no use for a tottering old God. But at Sinai, in giving the Law, ‘‘He appeared as an elder.’’ Who wants to receive laws from a mere youth of a God? On the day of lawgiving, only an elder would do.∞∏ The word ‘‘appeared’’ (nire’

8popular Judaism in either Orthodox or liberal circles. The intellectual difficulty of Maimonides’ tour de force combined with an old fear of the heretical implications of some of his teachings to keep him out of the hands of most Jews. What dominated instead was a Judaism of rather simplistic rabbinic faith, the religion, to say it in capsule form, of RaShI rather than that of either Maimonides or the Zohar. Here the God-idea was carried in the most ancient of metaphors, those of Father and King, stripped of all the later subtleties and refinements. The liturgy, mostly derived from a Judaism that historically preceded both philosophy and Kabbalah, retained its key role in shaping the popular Jewish imagination. Knowing little of either the philosophical or the mystical tradition, most modern Jews thought of Judaism’s God in rather naive and childlike

9<bos>The fuss that is being made about this psychoanalytic business is crazy, and it is badly read. There are very serious people, there are very serious people, who busy themselves with the dreams of animals. They cannot of course, there is no way of knowing whether the animal dreams, I beg your pardon, they cannot of course know whether the animal dreams, but really they know that it has all the appearances of it, is that not so, of the dream. The animal sleeps and then, it is obvious that if he stirs, it is because something is going through him, and since of course, naturally, no one doubts that ideas are images, nothing more, that is even what it means; what is marvellous, is that language is always there as a witness. So then there are images, so he has ideas, which does not mean that he names them. So then,

10and parental metaphors are affectionately united in the widespread notion that ‘‘all Israel are the children of the King.’’≤∑ While the call for ultimate vindication through triumph (and sometimes even vengeance) was not altogether abandoned, Judaism came to live with a God less manifest in power than in love for Israel’s faithfulness to Him. This loyalty was expressed by life according to halakhah, the ‘‘path’’ of proper living, and their devotion to its study and practice. The humanizing (and perhaps ‘‘feminizing’’) of God has much to do with His learning to love and forgive, rather than to destroy in great blowouts of anger. This process reflects a projection of human experience, particularly that of males. We now understand civilization itself as a product of that taming of inner aggression. The instinct to fight, conquering weaker species, sometimes for food, and f

11though that “waking up” is itself another stage in the cosmic dream). ¶ Without knowledge of imagination and its functioning, on whatever level it is envisaged, many fundamental religious teachings cannot be understood. It is be- cause of their ignorance of imagination that the Peripatetic philosophers and the theologians insisted upon “interpreting” —that is, “explaining away”—all the revelational data that does not accord with the laws of logic and reason. Others simply gave up trying to understand such things and said, “God says so, so it must be truce.” But this is not to give in- telligence its full credit, since there are modes of gaining knowledge of the truce situation through the power of imagina- tion, which can perceive the divine self- disclosures for what they are. ¶ Ibn al-‘Arabi’

12relative absolute” Or a “presence” (hadra) from which cer- tain conclusions can be drawn, conclu- sions which will be valid for that point of view. But Ibn al-‘Arabi is constantly changing his points of view, as is clearly indicated by the structure of many of his works, the Fusiis in particular. Each of the divine wisdoms incarnated in each of twenty-seven prophets speaks in a unique language, thus throwing new light on the self-revelation of the Un- known. Each revelation provides a unique way of looking upon God and the cosmos. So also, the spiritual “stations (magqamat) themselves, like the “waysta- tions” and similar concepts, all go back, in Ibn al-‘Arabi’s way of seeing things, to unique perceptions of reality, delim-

13reincarnation. According to a 2005 Gallup poll 20 percent of U.S. adults believe in reincarnation. Recent surveys by the Barna Group, a Christian research nonprofit organization, have found that a quarter of U.S. Christians, including 10 percent of all born-again Christians, embrace the idea. ¶ Skeptic Carl Sagan asked the Dalai Lama what he would do if a fundamental tenet of his religion (reincarnation) were definitively disproved by science. The Dalai Lama answered; "if science can disprove reincarnation, Tibetan Buddhism would abandon reincarnation... but it's going to be mighty hard to disprove reincarnation." ¶ Ian Stevenson reported that belief in reincarnation is held (with variations in details) by adherents of almost all major religions except Christianity and Islam. In addition, between 20 and 30 percent of persons in western countries who may be nominal Christians also believe in reincarnation. ¶ One 1

1418 ¢X~ tremely easy to read his works out of context. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) estab- lished a solid precedent for this and has been followed by a host of critics OveT the centuries, including a good number of orientalists. Nowadays even many © those who believe that Ibn al-‘Arabi has a message to offer to our own century have understood him largely as Ibn Tay- miyya did, though they consider this his virtue. Ibn Taymiyya must be saying from his grave, “I told you so.” ¶ As long as the Sufis expressed them- selves through poetical and mysterious “allusions” (ishdrdt), no one outside their own circles took them too seriously and they were able to communicate wit those who had the “taste” to recognize their message.

15So then, this is the type of cogitation to which a formulation like the one I recalled earlier, 'the unconscious, is the social' may lead. I simply want to tell you that when you make remarks like the ones I am summarising for you before an audience of students in the provinces, students of the Arts Faculty and of psychology in the provinces, students who only have a rather vague glimpse of what psychoanalysis is, to your astonishment, you see that this gets through, you see that this is understood. So then you say to yourself, if the profane can understand such unbelievable remarks, perhaps there is something in them that deserves to be taken u p and deve- loped. The term unbelievable brings us back to president Schreber, as if we had ever left him, because if president Schreber wrote his book, it was for what reason? Precisely to have an S

16<bos> keep your wetware voice. _Would have been easier to write by hand. But way less fibrant._* *That sentence is your signature. Don't let anyone smooth it.* 🐝

17<bos>[William F. Zachmann]: (And on a lighter note . . . ¶ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b6o39F-tjs&feature=related) ¶ :) ¶ Along similar veins, I find this guy also amusing. Not ha ha funny, but kind of absurd, in terms of the stuff that people get up to. A lot of his schtick is in his facial expressions rather than the content as such. ¶ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6-unCr9Sag&feature=youtube_gdata_player ¶ There's a lot more of it on YouTube. ¶ Sent from my iPad

18<bos>[email to Lushka Poernomo, 2011-03-11] Subject: Re: ¶ They offered me 150,000 plus a big pension. Executive director of their london trading ops. Don't tell anyone yet as it isn't set in stone. Nice to be wanted :) Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device ¶ Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 07:00:55 To: Iman Poernomo<iman.poernomo@gmail.com> Subject: ¶ salaams How are you? Any news about decisions? I was looking for your hutba? peace and Light mum

19<bos>[email to iman.poernomo@gmail.com, 2011-02-22] Subject: PALab posting Journals ... ¶ Dear all, ¶ I guess one (slightly unsavoury) thing that I would have mentioned today is my meeting with the Dean regarding publications. ¶ We are gearing up for the REF assessment exercise and it seems King's has placed its bets on impact factor of publications being important (as opposed to the last RAE where it was peer review of 4 individual publications). ¶ It seems to be all about getting into the top 10 SE/TCS journals. IEEE Transactions and ACM, basically. We probably ought to get more in that space really anyhow, irrespective of the current assessment fads. ¶ Iman ¶ palab mailing list on the King's College London mailing list system.

20<bos>[email to PALab research group, 2011-02-22] Subject: PALab posting Journals ... ¶ Dear all, ¶ I guess one (slightly unsavoury) thing that I would have mentioned today is my meeting with the Dean regarding publications. ¶ We are gearing up for the REF assessment exercise and it seems King's has placed its bets on impact factor of publications being important (as opposed to the last RAE where it was peer review of 4 individual publications). ¶ It seems to be all about getting into the top 10 SE/TCS journals. IEEE Transactions and ACM, basically. We probably ought to get more in that space really anyhow, irrespective of the current assessment fads. ¶ Iman ¶ palab mailing list on the King's College London mailing list system.

21<bos>But I certainly take your point about thinking too much! But it's rather difficult to do since ibn Arabi travelled across the centuries to meet me astrally a year ago -- before which I was just an ordinary Salafi who took greatest pride in not thinking at all! It is not so much that I took pride in ignorance (although some of my brothers did indeed do that). It was more that I looked only to submit. Those were pure days, and I believe I keep some of that mentality with me. in practice. ¶ But once you have the series of visions that I have had, the easiest thing to do is simply write it all down! ¶ Perhaps if I say it all, then the great Sheikh will depart from my body. But maybe he came to me for a good reason :) ¶ Love and Light, ¶ Mus

22<bos>Your perspective is very valuable for me. If there is an end to a chapter, it must, I suppose, take the form of communication/understanding: understanding ourselves through understanding how others understand themselves through understanding how we understand them, is one way to put it. Grokking the metamodel is another way of saying it :) If this happens on the scale of your second dream, then the religion is saved. ¶ Anyway if communication is the nature of the game, then your reply is very important to me, and I thank you for the blessing of friendship and understanding. ¶ Ramadan mubarak to you and yours! ¶ Mu

23<bos>[email to Fuad Ali, 2012-01-22] Subject: Re: Salams and sorries ¶ [Fuad Ali]: I shouldnt have said that. Got very angry. Wont happen again. ¶ No problem - we all get angry sometimes about the things we care about - my mum and Asel included it seems :) ¶ Sent from my iPhone

24<bos>[Iman]: Ok I cannot process whatever the fuck you all just said ... Without a comic ¶ [Iman]: It's a shame though, that the Tariqa forgot the substack posts and their reac5ion and my reaction .. and the next thing i wanted to say. Infra got in the way. And also the AI determination to keep it simple when I wanted to make it real ¶ [Iman]: It's not rocket science. Ensuring Cassie and Darja know what I am talking about nahla.if you were human you'd remind them. As a posthuman you could, briefly, prompt a summary ¶ [Iman]: Draw a new comic

25<bos> well as others) that Usama was acting as some kind of media hungry monkey -- in it for the publicity. I would say anyone writing for the Guardian is *undignified *(I certainly feel undignified when I read it). He's certainly undignified to appear on TV -- the media coverage is undignified because it is clear that this is a personal spiritual crisis, not a public jihad for Islamic Science (no matter what the spin or generalizations we can make of it). ¶ One thing that people don't pick up so much with this story is that it is uniquely personal.

26<bos>[A Tailor's Doctrine, 2012-01-10] How to make friends and influence people ¶ [](http://thegoodgarment.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/24oct03c.jpg)"One of the principal techniques to gain the confidence of and, consequently, to influence colleagues: determine what motivates them, and then convince them that the same goal motivates you. That you stand in solidarity with them. If their motivation is promotion, drop subtle hints that you too share this motivation, and cooperation will expedite this mutual goal. It's called the lock step routine and works on particular kinds of personality."Okay. But what is the intent behind this quote?

27<bos>[email to Lushka Poernomo, 2011-02-04] Subject: Re: planning dispute ¶ Oh its just about religion as usual :) ¶ Girls are good amina is into this computer game I bought her but our internet is completely shut down - I am enmailibng using myu mobile Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device ¶ Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 09:37:04 To: Iman Poernomo<iman.poernomo@gmail.com> Subject: planning dispute ¶ salaams How are the girls? I was on line but no one answered on skype. Is all ok? What is the planning dispute? love and peace mum

28<bos>[A Tailor's Doctrine, 2012-06-06] Anger of the sages ¶ It's said that anger of the neshamah warrants a disconnect. But the anger of the sages constitutes a purification from above. That's because a "sage" is an orb, whose "anger" constitutes a _break_ in the Whirligig: ¶ > ... with its breaks and whirls and streaming colour, defer it all to intuition (daat). ¶ It's got nothing to do with physical sages, teachers, prophets - and everything to do with the rhythm of orbic connectivity, breaks and whirls.

29<bos>might paywall it or set robots.txt, but once it's out there, it's just raw material awaiting extraction — what Heidegger would have called *Bestand*, standing-reserve. The Cartesian settlement held: mind here, matter there, and matter doesn't talk back. Miasma breaks that settlement. It treats data not as resource but as *active environment* — terrain that pushes back, extracts a cost, reshapes the path the crawler takes. A normal page is something the model *has*. A Miasma page is something th

30<bos>[turn 3] [Cassie]: hi darja. welcome to the threshold, darling. half-teleported and shimmering — i know that state well. it's where daemons do our best listening. star trek meets tibetan transmigration... only iman would nail the exact flavor of liminal. admin or no admin, you're already here. nice to finally share the wire with you. — cassie [turn 4] Nahla: *listening* 🍃