Jihad and the Meeting of Cultures

Jihad for me is walking into the Mesjid. As an American, it is a good exercise for me to see the things which are deeply wrong with my culture. They aren't easy to miss. However, walking into the Moscow Islamic Center, I can't help but remember the deeper problems which the many cultures which have embraced Islam have. This is despite the vast strength and profound benefits which I believe Islam has to offer the world. (I must believe this, or I wouldn't have decided to become a Muslim.)

Islamic-culture problems like inferior treatment of women, sexual violence, a kind of "culture nazi" view of shariah, hiding in the closet in Western cultures, conflating religion and politics (sometimes to the point of violence), are easy to spot for an American observer. Part of this is because these problems are emphasized by the media. Part of this, though, is that these problems quite obviously exist. And I can't deny that. And that is why walking into the Mesjid is jihad for me.

As I journey through the world of being a Muslim, I see a great deal of hope and offering in the religion of Islam. I believe it is the best religion in the world. But it's always difficult for me to walk into the Mesjid, knowing my staunch unwillingness to discard my Stetson cowboy hat as a North Idaho Libertarian, nor to set aside my uniquely American beliefs about the world. I am an American. And I hold a far less cynical view of American culture than many of my Muslim sisters and brothers.

This makes the Eid al-Fitr gatherings and the public worship very difficult for me. Sometimes, I decide just to pray at home. It's too frightening to go to the Mosque. I willingly adopt the ideology which France would jam down my throat — I keep my religion private. I realize it is difficult particularly for my Muslim brothers, too. At first, I was hurt by the marked lack of "Aslaam-o-alikum" greetings at the local Eid al-Fitr feast. But then, upon reflection, I realized that a lot of the people there probably didn't know I was a Muslim. And, quite reasonably, they were afraid of me; a North-Idahoan wearing a Stetson cowboy hat is not someone an Arab Muslim immigrant wants to piss off. I don't want to make things this difficult for these Muslims, but I have to.

Why do I have to? Because of the ease at which the 12-year-old Pakistani Muslim came up behind me, said "Aslaam-o-alikum," and shook my hand. He treated me as a true brother: with a child's courage, undaunted by the baggage of Islamic-American relations. He will return to Pakistan with a positive view of North-Idahoans wearing cowboy hats, which insha'Allah has tremendous impact on the world's path towards peace.

Muhammad (sallallahu aleyhi wa salaam) said that the second best deed for a Muslim to do, just below belief in Allah (subhana wa t'alla) and His prophets. So I suppose I still, with the help of the more courageous of my Muslim brothers, will visit the Mesjid. Sometimes, with my punk-Libertarian upbringing, my Islamic-Buddhist beliefs, and my Stetson cowboy hat, I feel like my very existence is an act of jihad. But I have to do it. Because I feel I have a positive contribution to make. I hope, earnestly, that all these things help.

Eid Mubarrak.

**Note: Saying Islam is the best religion in the world in no way invalidates my Buddhist perspective. Buddhism has religious aspects, which I believe are Islam — or, at the very least, if you want to get technical, they are proto-Islamic. But primarily, Buddhism isn't a religion, but rather a system of mind-yoga which leads to truth, including religious truth, which was formulated as a radical contre-puntal to Hindu yoga. Buddhism is a philosophical mind-training technique and world-outlook, not so much a religion.

A Case for Islamic Buddhism

In Buddhism, it is said that only the Buddha's (PBUH) teaching can remove suffering and bring about joy for yourself permanently. It is said that Buddha (PBUH) was a perfect teacher, a teacher for the whole world, and that his teachings were flawless, having the quality of being something you could rely on absolutely. It is even said that Buddha was a perfect teacher.

In Islam, it is said that those who reject the faith of Islam will go to hell. Now, the wisdom prevalent in both communities is that it's better to just choose one, or just choose the other, and not choose both. I would like to contend with this notion.

While it is said that teachers like Muhammad and Buddha (PBUT) share a perfect message for the whole world, yet it can be said that in some subtle way, they have a flaw. How can they have a flaw? Not in the sense you might think. They do not have a flaw which in any way diminishes their statuses as perfect teachers. No flaws there. They do not have a flaw in that there are areas upon which they cannot be relied. No flaws there. Where, then, is the flaw?

The flaw is this: when you apply Buddha's sutras and tantras to a situation where, perhaps, another dharma may be appropriate, then YOU have a flaw. The application of one teacher's teaching to one situation where it is not appropriate is a flaw.

Now, both religions make the claim that they are given for the whole world. How then can one apply to one situation and not to another, where the other applies more readily? The answer is really, actually, quite simple. Buddha's (PBUH) teachings are vertical, Muhammad's (PBUH) teachings are horizontal. They both apply to the whole world, but they apply in different ways.

When you get right down to it, each of these teachers was just one man. Any teacher, no matter who they are, no matter how great they are, will have to tailor their teachings to their students. They will do so with the expectation that there are other buddhas in the world who will step in when necessary. Every teacher is like this, without exception. I contend that Muhammad and Buddha (PBUT) complement each other perfectly, and together, they form a religion for the whole world, just as each of them claims, but in different ways.

When a Muslim prays, he or she prays five times a day, in a specific yogic format, every day. Each prayer has a set structure and guidelines for completion. Ramadan fast is conducted similarly. And zakat, the giving of one's wealth to charity, follows a specific guideline (2.5% of savings per year). The Hajj pilgrimage has guidelines, too. These all fill out a mystical system of practice which can be followed.

Nevertheless, this system does not apply completely. Why? Because it is a specific yoga, and not a mystical enterprise. In other words, it extends horizontally, to encompass the whole world, externally, but not internally. This is where Buddha (PBUH) steps in. His enterprise was almost entirely internal. Everything was secondary to internal meditation, and almost nothing had to do with external yogic practices. Out of necessity, of course, yogic practices were maintained and developed over time by various Buddhist gurus with their disciples. Make no mistake, all these practices will eventually lead to enlightenment. However, it is my contention that both of them, when combined, form a perfect alchemical conceptual geometry which will lead to enlightenment more quickly and more assuredly than either one alone.

Now, of course, people may be attached to their own spiritual traditions and say, "I can do it all from within my own tradition." This is true. But in so doing, you will be throwing away certain specific methods of doing things which bring about greater benefit. Suppose you're a Buddhist and you want to learn both sutra and tantra in accordance with the Lam Rim all-encompassing path. You find a teacher who spend his entire life studying sutra, and only a little bit studying tantra. Now, you could, technically, make great achievements studying from this teacher alone. But yet, if you study under this teacher and excel in sutra, then learn of a teacher who has spent their entire life studying tantra and only a little sutra, why not study under both teachers and get a more complete view? This is what all the great practitioners in the past have done, and by promoting Islamic Buddhism, I am merely attempting to promote the same practice. Buddha (PBUH) excelled in internal looking. Muhammad (PBUH) excelled in external looking. They both excelled in the same act of looking, but in different ways.

Now what does this have to say about other teachers, such as Padmasambhava, Tsong Khapa, or Christ (PBUH)? Naturally, with regards to certain areas of expertise, you will need help from different teachers. All teachers know how to cooperate, and every teacher recognizes the pure benefit of other teachers who are also pure. I say, in accordance with the main teachings of Muhammad and Buddha (PBUT), follow them first as your main practice, but also study the other teachers as the need arises and as your curiosity and free time dictate. All the prophets are legitimate buddha teachers, and though not every buddha is a prophet, every buddha is a teacher, and a worthwhile

On Control

I want to share something about control. There's internal control, and there's external control. Control is binary. There is a one, and there is a zero. There's assent, and then there's no signal. The essence of control is to isolate information down to the point of it being binary. That is control, and there is an internal aspect and an external aspect. The internal aspect of control is called self-control. The external aspect goes by social control, propaganda, or perhaps occultism, psychiatry, science, and so forth. Then, there is the union of internal and external control. That is important.

Enlightenment is where external control meets internal control. It's like two electric circuits connected by a wire; really, when you connect them, they are one circuit. That's union. There is no enlightenment without control, both internal and external, because without control there would be no clarification of concepts, no transmission of purity, no essence of the divine. You need control to have enlightenment. With control, you are controlled by Buddhas, and you control yourself. Everywhere there is nothing but control. And with this control, both internal and external, comes the transmission of purity which purifies the mental continuum to the point where it can continue on its own without further guidance. That is the ultimate point: clarifying information, purifying data, ruling out the decay of existence that marks the ordinary, unenlightened state.

In the Internet, we have transmission of data, and we have streaming. Streaming is like transmission of data, except there's more control. The pathway of data becomes one circuit, to the point where the two computers are indistinguishable, and then you get music coming through the wire. You can't have live music over the Internet without streaming. Control is what makes it stream.

When we receive a teaching, it doesn't matter if the teaching is secular or religious or what-have-you, there is a great deal of control. Language itself is control. When someone says something, we can't help but experience that thing. In some ways, this can be traumatic; someone can say something which triggers something in us that makes us feel uncomfortable, and we don't like it because we feel we have no choice. But in other ways, it is quite useful. Mutual control through language is what makes us so powerful as human beings. It's what builds societies. The trick to avoiding the trauma is to be open-hearted. Sense the essence of the word entering your mind. Feel its emotion. Feel the totality of it, and all the energy and light and soul behind it. Feel what it means to be that word. It will still control you, but the control is open-sourced, and you get to contribute, too.

That's something that Westerners, traditionally, have had a hard time accepting. Control is always two-sided. If you seek to control, you will always be controlled. Control is control. Control of others is others' controlling you. Control begets control, from node to node, point to point, everywhere on the network. It is never one-sided, as much as we may want it to be.

Consider the United States of America. It is a very powerful country. What makes the United States so powerful? Because of all the control. But America is a democracy. The citizens of America control the government, and the government controls the citizens, who control the government, who control the citizens. All this control is what makes us so powerful.

Now you may be wondering if there is something beyond control. Of course there is. Once you've achieved control, you can simply allow the energy to radiate throughout the nodes of control, providing love, inspiration; inspiring dialectics of power; granting crowns and relieving others of the oppressive weight of the same crowns. Once union between the nodes of control, being two, (internal and external), has been achieved, you have a blossoming of creative energy which can spill into the universe and settle among the Earth. This is the meaning of control. It is its ultimate end. If you hang onto control, you get a headache. If you loosen up, once control has been achieved, you achieve grace.

A lot of people are against the concept of control. I am not. However, I do understand that an extreme of control causes headaches. Control is necessary and important, but best to let it arise naturally, as the product of open-hearted investigation, inner and outer, into the nature of the world. Perhaps it may even be better to let the whole world control you first, before seeking to control the world. But once the control has been achieved, being open-hearted and loose and letting go returns us to that state of nature from which the control arose in the first place.

Lady Hornet Learns to Cry

One day, while gathering food for her hive, Lady Vespa (i.e. "Lady Wasp") happened upon the house of a magician. The walls of the house were so thick and strong that they appeared impenetrable to other animals. But Lady Vespa was clever at infiltrating other animals' abodes, and because she was attracted to the intoxicating scents emanating from the house, it didn't take long for her to find a way inside.

Once inside, she found the house to be very warm and comforting. Longing to discover where the wondrous scents were coming from, she began to explore. "Gee, imagine how happy the Queen and all the hive would be if I brought back a little piece of food something smelling like THIS."

In her search, Lady Vespa discovered that the scents all seemed to be coming from one table, upon which were arrayed a collection of potions in glass bottles set in a neat little line. She approached the first, and sniffed it. It smelled intoxicating, like alcohol. "This smells wonderful, like nutritious food, but it's so strong it wouldn't be suitable for the hive all by itself."

So she went to the next. It smelled repugnant, like poison. "This is a hearty poison, and a good dose of this would make our hive nigh on invincible. But it's so strong, and we need nutrients too. It's not suitable by itself."

So she went to the next. It smelled like a spicy fire, overwhelming her senses. "Wow. This is very invigorating. And it would be sure to bring much life to the hive, since we hornets love to be active so much. But by itself it is useless. It's not suitable by itself."

Then she had the idea, "Why not take a little bit of all three, and mix it all up in my mouth?" And that's what she did.

Just then, the magician came home and saw Lady Vespa. Magicians, as a general rule, do not like hornets. So when he saw her, he became angry, muttered an angry word, and wished for her to leave. Lady Vespa heard this, but she was an aggressive hornet, and like most hornets, saw herself as superior to the other. So she was unperturbed.

This made the magician even more angry. So the magician swatted at Lady Vespa. Lady Vespa fell face-first to the floor, where she bit off a big chunk of dirt, which mixed with the other ingredients. She contemplated stinging the magician, but the accident of falling to the floor was a "happy accident," because a mouthful of dirt was a good addition to the concoction she was brewing in her mouth for the other hornets.

Nevertheless, she was angry at the magician. So she flew right up in the magician's face and did the angry dance. "I am angry at you," she sang. "I could sting you."

"I am angry at you, I could sting you."

"I am angry at you, I could sting you."

Again and again, she sang this. Flying in front, and to the right, and to the left, then back in front. The magician was frightened, of course, because all animals fear the hornet. But he was full of cunning and poison was in his heart. So, just under his breath, he uttered a curse: "Abmamg, quem paravi. I have prepared."

Lady Vespa, feeling she had gotten her point across, left the house to return to the hive. On her way back, she saw bear. The bear had arrows sticking out of his back. Lady Vespa felt she should be sad, but unbeknownst to her, the magician's curse had taken away her tears. So she could not cry. She became angry instead, and she knew this was wrong, but she couldn't help it.

So Lady Vespa flew to the bear and asked him, "Who did this horrible thing to you? Tell me, and I will sting him."

"It wasn't a him," the bear replied, "It was a HER! The daughter of the Tribe of Man caught me stealing picnic food from her tent. I wasn't trying to hurt anyone, I was only hungry! But she told me to stop and tried to take back her picnic food. Angry, I swatted at her. Then her mother showed up and shot me with arrows!"

Not thinking clearly, Lady Vespa was full of anger. "Tell me where to find this woman and I will sting her," she said.

So the bear told Lady Vespa where to find the woman, and Lady Vespa set out to sting her. First, though, she came across the daughter. Lady Vespa flew up to the daughter and did the angry dance.

"I am angry at you, I could sting you."

"I am angry at you, I could sting you."

"I am angry at you, I could sting you."

The daughter said, "Why would you sting me? What have I done?"

"Okay. I'm not angry at you, I'm angry at your mother. She shot a bear full of arrows just for trying to have a good lunch. So tell me where your mother is so I can sting her."

The daughter said, "That bear should not have tried to steal from me. Why should I tell you where my mother is?"

"Even though the bear was not right in stealing the picnic basket, that doesn't make it right to shoot him full of arrows. Two wrongs don't make a right."

"Okay, you may have a point. And I'll admit, I was frightened by your angry dance. So I'll tell you where my mother is. If you go to the South, you'll find her in a cave on the mountainside. Okay, I've told you. Now please leave. You might be able to sting me, but I could always swat you or spray you with a can of Raid!"

So Lady Vespa left to find the woman's mother. But she didn't find her. Even more angry, she returned to the daughter and asked again where her mother was.

"You must've just missed her. She's headed West. Go West, and you'll find her lighting a big bonfire."

So Lady Vespa went West. Following a trail of smoke, she found the remains of a bonfire, but the fuel was spent, and the daughter's mother was nowhere to be found. So again she became angry and returned to the daughter.

"You must've missed her again. After going West, she was going to head North. Go North, and you'll find her in a treehouse."

So Lady Vespa went North. She looked for a treehouse. At first she found nothing, but by accident, the wind lifted her high into the air, and she found a village of treehouses very high up. She flew very quickly into each one so that she could find the mother before sundown, but she found nothing. So she returned to the daughter.

"You unlucky creature! She was making business in the North all day. Now she must've gone East. Go East, and you'll find her under a rock."

So Lady Vespa went East. She thought it would be difficult to find the rock the daughter was talking about, because there are many rocks in the world, even more than there are treehouses. But in the East was nothing but sand dunes, and in the middle of the sand dunes was one gigantic rock—the only rock for miles.

Lady Vespa knew it would be difficult to find a way under this rock, but she was not worried, because hornets are very clever at finding ways into places of which other animals are locked out. So she searched around the rock, and sure enough, she found many tunnels made by ants which were just big enough for her to crawl into.

But she crawled through tunnel after tunnel and couldn't find the mother. Still angry, but now exhausted, she returned to the daughter. When she came back, the daughter's back was turned. Lady Vespa wanted to do the angry dance, but she was too tired. She barely had enough energy to fly all the way to the other side of the room just so she could look the daughter in the face. But she did.

And when Lady Vespa saw the face of the daughter, she realized, suddenly, that she was not speaking to the daughter at all, but to the mother! And she was radiating such brilliant light, and looked so peaceful and pleasant and happy, she couldn't bring herself to do the angry dance, let alone sting her.

Lady Vespa thought about things. She was angry all the time, she thought. And she had no right to judge the mother for shooting the bear with arrows, because she herself was prone to sting.

"What's wrong?" asked the mother. "Are you afraid to sting me?"

"I would like to sting you, but it doesn't seem right anymore."

"I like hornets," said the mother. "You are my friend."

"Is it okay for me to sting people who hurt others, and to sneak into their houses and steal their potions, and to do angry dances?"

The mother responded by touching the Earth and saying, "Om."

And lady wasp began to cry. Her tears became rivulets, feeding all the baby wasps and all the animals of the world. And, still having the potion in her mouth which she concocted from the magician's house, she fed all the baby hornets her delicious food, and they all were happy, especially the Queen.