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MORE THAN FIVE SENSES

The humans have a lot more than five senses. It turns out, there are at least nine senses and most researchers think there are more like twenty-one or so. Just for reference, the commonly held definition of a “sense” is “any system that consists of a group of sensory cell types that respond to a specific physical phenomenon and that corresponds to a particular group of regions within the brain where the signals are received and interpreted.”

The commonly held human senses are as follows:

Sight: This technically is two senses given the two distinct types of receptors present, one for color (cones) and one for brightness (rods).

Taste: This is sometimes argued to be five senses by itself due to the differing types of taste receptors (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami), but generally is just referred to as one sense. For those who don’t know, umami receptors detect the amino acid glutamate, which is a taste generally found in meat and some artificial flavoring. The taste sense, unlike sight, is a sense based off of a chemical reaction

Touch: This has been found to be distinct from pressure, temperature, pain, and even itch sensors.

Pressure: Obvious sense is obvious.

Itch: Surprisingly, this is a distinct sensor system from other touch-related senses.

Thermoception: Ability to sense heat and cold. This also is thought of as more than one sense. This is not just because of the two hot/cold receptors, but also because there is a completely different type of thermoceptor, in terms of the mechanism for detection, in the brain. These thermoceptors in the brain are used for monitoring internal body temperature.

Sound: Detecting vibrations along some medium, such as air or water that is in contact with your ear drums.

Smell: Yet another of the sensors that work off of a chemical reaction. This sense combines with taste to produce flavors.

Proprioception: This sense gives you the ability to tell where your body parts are, relative to other body parts. This sense is one of the things police officers test when they pull over someone who they think is driving drunk. The “close your eyes and touch your nose” test is testing this sense. This sense is used all the time in little ways, such as when you scratch an itch on your foot, but never once look at your foot to see where your hand is relative to your foot.

Tension Sensors: These are found in such places as your muscles and allow the brain the ability to monitor muscle tension.

Nociception: In a word, pain. This was once thought to simply be the result of overloading other senses, such as “touch”, but this has been found not to be the case and instead, it is its own unique sensory system. There are three distinct types of pain receptors: cutaneous (skin), somatic (bones and joints), and visceral (body organs).

Equilibrioception: The sense that allows you to keep your balance and sense body movement in terms of acceleration and directional changes. This sense also allows for perceiving gravity. The sensory system for this is found in your inner ears and is called the vestibular labyrinthine system. Anyone who’s ever had this sense go out on them on occasion knows how important this is. When it’s not working or malfunctioning, you literally can’t tell up from down and moving from one location to another without aid is nearly impossible.

Stretch Receptors: These are found in such places as the lungs, bladder, stomach, and the gastrointestinal tract. A type of stretch receptor, that senses dilation of blood vessels, is also often involved in headaches.

Chemoreceptors: These trigger an area of the medulla in the brain that is involved in detecting blood born hormones and drugs. It also is involved in the vomiting reflex.

Thirst: This system more or less allows your body to monitor its hydration level and so your body knows when it should tell you to drink.

Hunger: This system allows your body to detect when you need to eat something.

Magnetoception: This is the ability to detect magnetic fields, which is principally useful in providing a sense of direction when detecting the Earth’s magnetic field. Unlike most birds, humans do not have a strong magentoception, however, experiments have demonstrated that we do tend to have some sense of magnetic fields. The mechanism for this is not completely understood; it is theorized that this has something to do with deposits of ferric iron in our noses. This would make sense if that is correct as humans who are given magnetic implants have been shown to have a much stronger magnetoception than humans without.

Time: This one is debated as no singular mechanism has been found that allows people to perceive time. However, experimental data has conclusively shown humans have a startling accurate sense of time, particularly when younger. The mechanism we use for this seems to be a distributed system involving the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia. Long term time keeping seems to be monitored by the suprachiasmatic nuclei (responsible for the circadian rhythm). Short term time keeping is handled by other cell systems.

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The Sixth Sense

The sixth sense is another term for extrasensory perception. Extrasensory perception (ESP) would involve the reception of information not gained through the recognized senses and not internally originated.

Sixth sense, or subtle perception ability, is our ability to perceive the subtle-dimension or the unseen world of angels, ghosts, Heaven , etc. It also includes our ability to understand the subtle cause and effect relationship behind many events, which is beyond the understanding of the intellect. Extrasensory perception (ESP), clairvoyance, premonition, intuition are synonymous with sixth sense or subtle perception ability. Throughout this website we use the words sixth sense, ESP and subtle perception ability interchangeably.

We perceive the gross or seen world through the five physical senses (i.e. smell, taste, sight, touch and sound), our mind (our feelings), and our intellect (decision making capacity). When it comes to the unseen world or the subtle-world, we perceive it through the five subtle-senses, the subtle-mind and the subtle-intellect – this is what is known as our sixth sense. When the sixth sense is developed or activated, it helps us to experience the subtle-world or subtle-dimension. This experience of the subtle-world is also known as a ‘spiritual experience’.

The world is made from the five Absolute Cosmic Principles . These Cosmic Principles cannot be seen but make up all of creation. When our sixth sense gets activated, we begin to perceive these Absolute Cosmic Principles progressively, beginning from the most gross to the most subtle. Thus, we are able to perceive them in the order of the Absolute Earth , Water , Fire , Air and Ether elements through our subtle-sense of smell, taste, vision, touch and sound respectively.

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What are Thoughts ?

After posting sufi articles those are based on truth and realities, now i am going to discuss about modern sciences or so called mind sciences. However whatever you find in this blog related to healing therapies, mind sciences or any kind of information i must say that i have very serious reservations about them. But my motive to discuss first of all what we are having in world today in modern sciences or in a modern spiritual ways.

Many make the mistake to think that the Mind is thought. No, it isn’t. What we call thought is a product of the Mind and for the time being, from the human brain. So the human being, for the time being, has the need of the human brain to produce thought. Why? Because: he or she is under the domain of the human brain. Definitely, the Mind is not this little handful of clay in our skull called the material brain. I repeat – the Mind is not a handful of earth in the skull we call brain, just as a battery is not electricity, since a battery may be charged or discharged (while electricity is everywhere). So, we have to study the nature of the Mind in all of its vibrations and frequencies. It needs much study.

Many will say, “Don’t we know what thought is? Thinking means to know what thought is.” But I tell you that you do not know what thoughts really are, because you have not yet analyzed this question. What is the nature of thought? What do you think thought is? Thought is a concentration to gain knowledge of a condition or an object. To have the phenomenon of thought, we must have a being which we can call self-awareness, which is thinking – which is the thinker. But if we make an analysis, what is self-awareness? Is it not simply a formation of Divine Thought around a Being? This needs much study.

We have to analyze what thought is. Then we must ask ourselves from where we draw the power to form images and pictures from noetical substance through precise thoughts, which are maybe more real than material objects in the three-dimensional world. We call this process visualization. Again what is thought? We have said that everything is Mind as Super-substance, substance and super-matter. We are not concerned now with the lowest vibration of Mind, which is called matter. Yet, everything is Mind.

Thought is a form and thinking is a way to obtain, from the boundless ocean of formless Mind in its unexpressed and already existing condition. And we give it, in a certain way – form. We “formulate” it, and we bring it as a noetical image or mental picture within our inner world, our noetical world. But we also project it as an elemental into the environment around us. Have you ever thought about this?

We said that thought is the formation of Mind, Mind in a certain form, as specific pictures or images. Until now, man has learned to create these images completely mechanically. And these images are the product of his aims, his wishes, and his desires that are found in life and in his environment.

My comments: The above mention theory only works scientifically , but in reality… there are REALMS (Aalameen) and one of them is AALAM-E-KHYAAL , thoughts actually comes from that realms and if THOUGHT means Khayaal, so believe me khayaal never comes in mind but comes in HEART. This is same root of thoughts that sometimes comes from shaytaan or sometimes Allah guide us. However its a personal spiritual experience and has been proved as well.

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Imagining and Visualizing

The uses of Visualization and imagination

by José Silva

Visualization is a previous impression, impressed on your brain or mind.It is a receiving, detecting mechanism.We can detect with the left brain hemisphere, we can detect with the right brain hemisphere.In other words, in order to perceive it with the left hemisphere, it must exist. Whether somebody created something, or it is the sense of sight, then you make an impression on your brain.The sense of sight works like a camera. It makes a negative and impresses it on your brain, your left brain. And a duplicate is transferred to the right brain.Receiving information, receiving information, receiving information, is energy. This… Visualization is the receiver, imagination is the transmitter.You can also visualize with your right hemisphere. But in this case you can visualize what has been impressed on somebody else’s brain.This is why, if a person is injured a thousand miles away, and you know about that person, and you want to know how seriously hurt she is, or injured, you go to your level, turn on your intercom – your right brain – and the right brain functions on a different band, like f.m. does, not a.m., and you are tuning into his brain and getting information from his brain and transferring it to yours. Then you will know what happened to him. Because everything that has happened to him has been recorded on his brain already.We get it by observing, visually, biological senses…left brain; or right brain, at a distance, if we need to.Now usually, all of this becomes a lot easier if the intention is to help the individual to solve his problem. Not just to know. You don’t go far enough. Just to know, eventually, you will not receive anything, if you are just trying to have fun by wanting to know, for no purpose whatsoever.Your purpose is to follow through, to help this individual to correct his problem, solve his problem, keep him from suffering. That’s the main purpose.So we say the brain, the mind – left brain, right brain – were created to detect information that we can consider, that we don’t want, and make a correction.So information, if we cannot perceive it with the left, we can perceive it with the right.But we must follow through, the intention of helping correct the problem. Because that’s all we are here for. We were sent to planet earth to correct problems that cause people to suffer, to make this planet a better place to live. That’s it. No other use.Now we are using it to steal from others, to hurt others, to kill others, and it’s wrong, because it is all left brain. If they had developed the right brain, they wouldn’t even have attempted it, because they become spiritual. They become fully developed human beings.A person who uses only the left brain hemisphere cannot fully evolve into becoming a human being.Just keep in mind that a human being is not one who looks like one, it is one who acts like one.To be considered a human being, you must participate – take part – in humanitarian acts. Then you have qualified and passed the test to be considered a human being. If you have not taken part in humanitarian acts, you have not yet been in a position to be considered a human being. You have not been tested in other words.Now everybody knows the difference between visualization and imagination?Keep in mind that we visualize and imagine with the left, and we visualize and imagine with the right. Imagination with the left is fantasy, or rearranging what exists so it will serve a better… something, whatever that is. What you are doing is altering what exists, modifying it, to get better results out of it. That is left brain imagination.Right brain imagination is creating something that has never happened, has not occurred yet. That is the beginning of creation, the beginning of inventions, the beginning of discoveries. That happens for the first time. That’s right brain imagination.Visualization means the same thing, detecting information. One detects information in the objective world, and the other – right brain – detects information in the subjective world.(This was transcribed from a lecture that Mr. Silva presented in 1995)

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Sufi Muraqbah – Meditation

Muraqaba is the Science of Sufi Meditation. It’s more like visualisation/image practice based on the Name of Allah or the deep visualisation or watching of the Sufi Master’s face. The Word means observe, guard or control or vigilance or being aware, in this context referring to controlling and guarding one’s thoughts and desires. Muraqaba or visualisation is setting aside some private time to sit and reflect on Allah meaning-( al-the ilah-God Allah is a proper noun , there is only One and Unique Allah it is the ancient Semitic name that has been used by all Prophets from the beginning of time to call upon the Lord of universes, but the word God references many things and can cause confusions ).

The exercise the seeker strives is to empty the heart of all thoughts and images and allow blessings and mercy of Allah to enter the heart by erasing its darkness. As if in gratitude to being cleansed of darkness, the heart joyfully calls out the Supreme Name-Allah or the formula Kamila-testimony of unity – La-e-laha ill-lallah -(there is nothing to worship but Allah) over and over again. Muraqab-visualisation is keeping an image of the shaykh’s face in your heart, mind and thoughts while repeating the invocation of the Supreme Name Allah or testimony of unity-La-e-laha ill-lallah with deep contemplation and stillness until the falling away of attributes and the secrets are revealed. The secret of Muraqaba- visualisation or watching is mushahada-witnessing (That is, the secret of watching is witnessing.)

Before explaining the full secrets Muraqaba-visualisation, I want to share show thoughts and points that we all may have had experienced and do already but just don’t realise. And this will make understanding Muraqaba- visualisation more simpler to some degree.

If you’re female (even some males), but mainly females will have had this experience, you’re sitting down in class or lecture or somewhere in a public place and suddenly you feel the sense that someone is looking at you, you turn your head and your eyes lock on that person straight away, you will feel heat on your upper back and neck and the feeling being watched your soul will feel that person, what happens is their Aura is touching your Aura. Now nobody told you who it was, if the room was full of say 20, 50 maybe 100 people or more, how did you know who to look at, who told you it was that person, think about that for a moment.

Also have you ever walked into a room when people are talking and they suddenly stop and change the subject when they catch sight of you, and you can Feel they were talking about you and when you look at them, they look all shifty.

Again who told you they were talking about you, yet you can feel it in the room and similarly when you walk into a room and the people there don’t like you and you can feel they don’t like you, nobody has to speak it’s in the air, ‘ you can cut the atmosphere with a knife’, is the expression it means it’s a very tense and difficult atmosphere.

Nobody has taught you any of these feelings, you didn’t read it in a book or learnt it from school. So how do you know about these moments when they happen? Simple, we all have an Aura and that has a basic defence shield when we are in trouble it will turn on more, it says the Aura can travel about 12-20 feet in a straight line and about 6 feet in a round circle. We subconsciously turn it on, when the aura feels threaten or disturbed, our subconsciousor the automatic mental process of reactions takes effect or simply kicks in.

So in modern terms our Aura’s can network or connect with each other, This can be trained and enhanced to open up at different levels, so consciously we are aware or in the mode of Muraqaba. This happens with the help of visualisation (of the shaykh) meditation which opens the doors to the Spiritual Heart-Basirah and it has eyes, ears and a brain-( the heart has 40,000 neurons-nerve cells which scientist discovered) ( Basirah is the ‘eye of the heart’ a term that is used in the Quran)

The Spiritual Heart, when trained can network and access others just like the internet someone from one part of the world can make contact or connect with someone from another side of the world or any were else that allows the connection. The connection is made through the telephone to connect to the internet. The spiritual heart when connected or even looking for a signal is like that it can send and receive messages. Just like email the heart receives 70,000 Khawatir-thoughts or messages a day which are of four categories either;

1.satanic, 2 from the Ego –desires, 3. Angelic or 4. Lordly

(most of these thoughts are the same thoughts we have through the day or days that go past) the same way we get emails which are either useful from friends and get junk emails or messages. The Heart is the same we need to learn how to filter and delete junk mail thoughts from real mail thoughts and images.

Muraqaba is the most powerful method of spiritual contemplation through which man is able to Gain the primordial knowledge of his Ego, Self, or Soul. After gaining that knowledge, anyone can Gain Access to his Ego or Soul. The main objective of Muraqaba is to understand the spiritual mysteries of the Self, Universe and to experience an eternal life in union with Allah.

Muraqaba improves human memory, mental concentration in and boost spiritual energy in individual. You will experience well being and glow by the spiritual enlightenment of Muraqaba. Muraqaba can help you to develop paranormal abilities like extrasensory perception and clairvoyance as well, this happens by focusing and tuning on the spiritual teacher (which is the actual method of Muraqaba) to make the transfer of spiritual knowledge possible from master to student, focus of mind on Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to make the transfer of private spiritual knowledge from the Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) to student possible and above all focus on the Mind of God by following the life of Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him). Thus there are 3 levels to Muraqaba.

1 st stage Fana fil Shaykh – attaining ‘annihilation in the Shaykh’ 2 nd stage Fana fil Rasul – attaining ‘annihilation in the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).’ 3 rd stage Fana Fillah – attaining ‘annihilation in Allah-God’

And so the goal and purpose of Sufi Meditation is to manifest Hadra-(perpetual presence) in the reality of the Shaykh-the Sufi master. The more one keeps to this vital practice, the more its benefits will manifest in ones daily life to the point that he reaches fana’ fil-shaykh-(the state of annihilation in the Shaykh) the first stage.

One must know that the Shaykh is the bridge between illusion-(The World) and reality-(Allah-God) and he remains in this world only for this purpose. The Shaykh is thus a unique rope like the Quran says ‘And hold fast, all of you together to the Rope of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves’ (3:103).

The Shaykh is the rope to any who seek freedom from this world, he is the link between this world and the Divine Presence. To be annihilated in the presence and reality of the Shaykh is to be ( Fana Fillah)-(annihilated in reality, in Allah-God), in the Presence of the Divine, for this is precisely where the Shaykh is, in the court of the Divine.

Although the principal goal of visualization is establishing and maintaining a connection with Allah-God, for the seeker to begin he starts with the form of the shaykh’s appears or face, by placing it in their heart to assist the seeker. Later, the shaykh’s heart spurs or pushes the seeker’s heart leading to the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) presence or the 2nd stage Fana fil Fasul-attaining ‘annihilation in the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The novice, having the picture of his shaykh’s face in his heart at the point, is assisted by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to arrive at Allah-God. Divine grace is then transmitted from the Prophet’s heart (pece be upon him) via the Sufi master at the seeker’s heart. The last stage is the Seeker becomes blessed and now is covered in saintly energy and not many can reach the 3rd stage Fana Fillah – attaining ‘annihilation in Allah-God’ and if they do, they reach real sainthood. For many the 1 st stage is enough to aim for and try to perfect to some level or another.

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Energy and Protection

Keeping the negative energy away is our whole path, our path is based on that. To give a little sort of summary of what we are trying to accomplish is an internal protection and external protection. External and internal protection are related. It means that the strength of the internal protection and the practices begins to create a field of energy that protects us externally. So the internal practices would involve washing, the understanding of how to wash, the understanding of what to eat and not to eat.

Clean Your Food’s Energy with a Prayer

What we are going to bring into the body through our mouth and through our eating and drinking has tremendous amounts of negative energy. There is a power of praying over our food, mentioning the names of pious people over the food. Prophet ﷺ’s teaching is that any time you mention pious people, “tanzil ar-rahmah,” it brings a rahmah and a mercy.

عِنْدَ ذِكْرِ الصَّالِحِينَ تَنْزِلُ الرَّحْمَةُ “Inda dhikres Saliheena Tanzilur Rahma.”

“In mentioning the names of the pious people, Allah’s Mercy descends.” Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)

So then the power of praying over that food, watching what type of food you eat, the energy from that food, who is preparing that food. Then how to eat and drink, the adab (manners) of the eating and drinking, that, preferably eat with the right hand because we use left hand for cleaning ourselves. All of those mannerisms are then going to determine the quality of energy that is entering within ourselves.

Then our practices, our zikr, our wudu (ablution), our namaaz (daily prayer), the different prayers – all of those again begin to build the inner energy. Then the most important in that development is when we are trying our best to perfect our self.

Negative Energy moves through the Blood

Prophet ﷺ’s teaching is that the evilness is moving through our blood.

قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ يَجْرِي مِنْ الْإِنْسَانِ مَجْرَى الدَّمِ.”  صحيح مسلم

Qala Rasulallah (ﷺ): “Innash Shaitana yajri minal Insani majrad dami.”

The Prophet said, “Satan circulates in the human being as blood circulates in the body” [Sahih Muslim 2174]

Evilness gains access into the being, to a black spot onto the heart. So it operates heart at the level of the qalb, enters into the heart, moves throughout the body through the blood. That’s why in the purification of meat, we eat meat that the blood has been taken out of the animal, because the dirtiness and the bad energy is within that blood.

So the concept of the halal, the zabiha, all of those are tremendous energy practices as we begin to open up and understand that the energy I have within me, how am I going to control that negativity? So then what I’m eating and what I’m drinking, praying over it. Then understand the energy internally, the different chantings, the different zikr, the different practices- all of that going to build the energy purification internally. And then that energy begins to provide an energy and a force field outside and begins to push away negativity.

The earth is in a fast motion and the core of the earth has a magnetic core, the iron within the earth. It moves and because of the speed and the movement, it creates a force field around the earth. That force field is protecting the earth from all sorts of penetration. That as things are penetrating and astroids and all sorts of rays and things that are trying to hit to the earth, by the force field inside the earth produces an energy that called the Van Allen belt.

So then the core is going to determine the quality of the external. If the core not strong, then the external has no protection. So if the earth’s core stops, there is no more shield. The sun will completely burn us, annihilate us. So then in ourselves, the strength of the core practices within ourselves, the part that people don’t see, going to determine the field of energy that we have as a protection. And the strength of that protection will repel and push away negativity.

So the fastest way towards that perfection is in the madad of the master(any spiritual master in tassuwaf or directly from Allah SWT). That bringing the presence of the master and the perfection of his light or their light into my life. As he begins to dress me from his perfection, then it’s no longer me only trying to build myself to push things back because God wants us to know that our life is about a companionship and fellowship- a fellowship of the ring.

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللّهَ وَكُونُوا مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ ١١٩

9:119 – “Ya ayyuhal ladheena amano ittaqollaha wa kono ma’as sadiqeen.” (Surat at Tawba)

“O you who have believed, have consciousness of Allah and be with those who are truthful/pious (in words and deed).”  (The Repentance 9:119)

Means the company we keep is going to be very important. So when we seek out that pious company, then we trying to attune our self to their energies. So the whole concept of the meditation and Sufi muraqabah (spiritual connection) is that we are calling upon these masters to dress us from their spiritual presence: visualizing their presence, keeping them always around us, looking at their picture, remembering them, remembering them, remembering them.

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We are Energy Beings

In Sha Allah, in a very simplified and very basic language, doesn’t have to be complicated, but has to be understood. That we are a people who are understanding energy. A good and solid understanding of energy should lead to a happy life, In Sha Allah, a guarded and protected life, In Sha Allah. That it becomes so simple in our day and in our time, when you reduce everything to the understanding of energy. That everyone has an energy and there is so many energies surrounding us, that we are an energy being. We are a spiritual being.

Every communication is through Energy

Every communication now is through energy, that every radio wave, microwave, every type of television signal, transmission- all of these are energies. That when you deduce them and reduce them to the core, it’s energy. Most powerful energy is the human, insan, “Wa laqad karamna Bani Adam,” that Allah says, “I have honoured your creation”. One of the true honours of the creation is the amount of energy that flows from the soul, from the being, from the nafs, from everything around insan (human being).

وَلَقَدْ كَرَّ‌مْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ… 17:70 – “Wa laqad karramna bani adama…” (Surat al Isra) “And We have certainly honored the children of Adam…” (The Night Journey 17:70)

A very simple understanding of the tariqas (spiritual paths) is to perfect the energy. Everything that they give us, every practice that is given to us, every teaching of Holy Qur’an, of Hadith an-Nabi ﷺ , of all of the amal and the actions- all reduced to energy, building our energy, perfecting our energy and building a shield of perfection and protection around us.

Take an Account and Hisab of your Daily Action

When we begin to think at the level of energy, then we begin to understand cause and effect. That if all my thinking is based on energy, that am I producing enough positive charge? Are my actions producing a positive charge? Are my prayers, my meditation, my zakat (charity), my pilgrimage, all my amal, all my actions- are they producing enough positive charge? Then I keep a mental understanding, within my mind and my heart about roughly what my positive charge is.

Then begin to take an account and hisab of our lives and our everyday action. That everywhere I go and everyone I meet and everything I come in contact with, also has an energy charge. The people that I work with, the people that I communicate with, the people I go to school with, the people that I socialize with – all of them are producing an energy. Now if their energy charge is positive, you feel an abundance of good feelings good energy. By coming to the masjid, coming to the ahlul zikr (People of Remembrance), coming to the holy places, people feel a positive energy and they don’t really rush to go home. They stay within that energy, they are being charged within that energy.

You Either Take Positive Energy of Lose it

And then we know, because again the energy people and the people of tafakkur and contemplation, the people of zikrullah, “Zikrullah tatmainnal quloob,”

الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ اللَّـهِ ۗ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّـهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ ﴿٢٨

13:28 – “Alladheena amano wa tatma’innu Qulobu hum bidhikrillahi, ala bi dhikrillahi tatma’innul Qulob.” (Surat ar Ra’d)

“Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah. For without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction.” (Holy Quran, the Thundar 13:28)

It means that the tranquillity within the heart is that the heart becomes very subtle. It begins to understand with the little bit of zikr, it feels the energy. It knows that when it goes somewhere, it’s feeling a heaviness, that this place I went, it’s very heavy. The heart is not going to lie; it’s telling you the charge that is being emitted from the people, from the place, from that location is a very heavy energy. If it’s not positive and giving to you, it’s very simple: it must be negative and taking from you.

Means that if we go enough places that take energy, your battery becomes empty, my battery becomes empty. The more this negative charge goes, the more this negative charge goes, then as the battery becomes empty, your field of protection is now dropped. And again you will see the sign within dunya and within ourselves.

سَنُرِ‌يهِمْ آيَاتِنَا فِي الْآفَاقِ وَفِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ ۗ … ٥٣

41:53 – “Sanureehim ayatina fil afaqi wa fee anfusihim hatta yatabayyana lahum annahu alhaqqu, …” (Surat Al Isra)

“We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that he is the truth…” (The Night Journey 41:53)

Protect Your Energy Field like the Earth

Dunya, the earth, has a field of protection they call the Van Allen belt. They say that that belt of protection is actually from the core of the earth, the magnetic core of the earth, that the earth is spinning. With its magnetic core, the iron within the magnetic core is producing an energy. This energy is emitting and providing a protection for the earth.

Allah teaching, ‘You are the same’. Your skin is like the ard (earth), you are from clay. And you have very holy ingredient within your being which is iron. That iron is what makes your blood to be red, with pumps through your blood, moves into your heart and the heart’s zikr, the heart’s energy, is stamped upon the iron. It’s not stamped upon the water; water just allows energy to flow.

But what really captures and holds the energy of the body is the blood and the iron within that blood. The perfection of insan and the perfection and purification of the iron within the body is the perfection of its energy, its energy field. The energy that it begins to produce and provide a protection against an attack.

When the energy is depleted and the energy goes down, or there has been a major sin or transgression against the body, immediately the veil of protection is dropped and shaitan is piercing because he is waiting. Very basic understanding, that Prophet ﷺ is teaching: it’s your life, is a state of vigilance. At one point or some point in your life you wake up and realize, that this fight with shaitan is very real, that this fight with shaitan is constantly against me. He is waiting for me to make a mistake and full attack.

You watch movies where there is a hole blown into the castle and every type of shayateen is running through that hole. And as soon as the shaitanic attack comes, it begins to drop the energy of the person. It begins to make the person to come down because he’s now reducing the energy force of that servant.

The Negative Energy Changes the Character

When the energy force is reduced and reduced and reduced, the abundance of negative charge begins to then change the character of that person. They become very negative, they become very angry. A sign of that negative energy is that what zikr now is moving through their heart is zikr of a horrible language and horrible tongue. It’s no longer the zikr of Allah and the praising of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ, because the negative energy has overtaken that body.

They teach us, so that when you go out and about, you see. You turn on TV, you turn on movies, you see- but how they talk like that, nonstop?! Their zikr is the f- word and every word that they speak is a cursed word on every word that they speak, means shaitan is in their heart and all their zikr is the zikr of shaitan. And that is the only energy that they are producing.

Ask Forgiveness of Allah to Cleanse Yourself

So then it is very real for us, that if my heart is filled with the love of Allah, love of Sayyidina Muhammadﷺ , then it should be busy asking Allah’s forgiveness and praising upon SayyidinaMuhammadﷺ. That making salawat on Prophet ﷺ, making salawat on Prophet ﷺ, and asking Allah’s Divinely Forgiveness. ‘I know that I’m making mistakes left and right. I’m not claiming to know anything. I’m not claiming to be perfected. Ya Rabbi, astaghfirullah al ‘Azim (I ask for forgiveness o Magnificent). Sifat al-’Azim(Attribute of the Magnificent) is that from Your Might and Magnificence and Munificence, grant me Your Istighfar, ya Rabbi. I’m nothing, i am an epsilon, I’m not even visible throughout your universes.’

If Allah just in the had (limit) of creation, from the highest point of this universe, our galaxy, if you look to this earth, we are not even visible. Means that ‘Ya Rabbi, I am nothing in Your Presence, grant me Your Forgiveness, grant me Your Forgiveness’. Means that our zikrs have a power. By making istighfar we are asking Allah’s Forgiveness: ‘Where I’m coming short, where I know I’m coming short, where I don’t know I’m coming short, grant me Your Maghfirat (forgiveness). And what is Allah’s reply? Most definitely as you know the back of your hand, you know that Allah say, ‘If you ask Me, you should receive’,

That as soon as we say ‘Istaghfirullah al’Azim wa atubu ilayh,ya Rabb‘ (I ask your forgiveness O’ Allah, the Most Magnificent, and I repent). Allah’s reply, “Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem”- ‘In the Name of My Mercy and My Compassion”, I’m forgiving you; I’m forgiving you; I’m forgiving you’. So all day long busy with istighfar: astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah. After we cleaning and cleaning our self, cleaning our loved ones, cleaning everyone that we know from our community. Everyone that we are coming in contact with, their energy is affecting us.

Again, very simple energy- when you put out a positive charge, positive charge by its nature picks negative charge because two positives repel. So the positive charge goes out and the negative charge is attracted. That is what Allah describes as a khidmat (service). ‘If I’m going to give you a positive charge, you are your brother’s keeper.’ That if you are an abundance of positive charge, you are responsible. You go out amongst mankind and their negative energy going to be dressing you.

Zikr, Praising and Spiritual Practices are for Your Protection

So then now, our zikr is not only by choice. It’s a responsibility. It’s in Allah’s Divinely Service, unless you want to be loaded by negative energy. So then just the understanding of energy. ‘Ya Rabbi dress me from these positive lights, dress me from these positive lights’.

Then they begin to teach: your zikr, your awrad, your salawats, they are a protection for you, they are a dressing and a blessing upon your soul and you begin to purify and perfect that light. Then they begin to teach: wherever you are going, there is a light, there’s an energy. then begin to take a hisab that this energy I’m going out, is it positive? Then Alhamdulillah that that association that time was a positive charge? But if everywhere I’m going are negative charges, I have to increase my zikr, I have to increase my istighfar, I have to increase my salawat. I have to constantly make my wudu (ablution), I have to go home and make my washing, or my shower. If the abundance of energy was too much, too heavy, too many sick people, too many hasud (jealous) people; you have to wash, you have to shower. You have to take away all these negative charges.

Everything Produces Energy – Positive or Negative

And then they begin to teach us: when you have a real strong grasp of energy, they begin to teach everything produces an energy. So if you watch a islamic television show , or seeing a Sufi Shaykh is making zikr, you feel the positive charge. You feel the energy, you feel the excitement, because there are mala’ika (angels) coming through, the mumin souls are coming through. All that energy is flowing and you feel the charge. So then you know in that half an hour that you were watching, you are filled with a positive charge.

Now again the other side is if we watch negative and horrible TV shows, you keep watching them, you keep watching them and keep watching them, where is that energy going? And then put on top of that horrible sounds, horrible sounds, horrible sounds- where is that energy going? That is very simple energy because before you talk about it in too much of a religious term, they say, ‘Oh Shaykh, you know it’s like hocus pocus stuff,’- no! It’s very basic energy. When you are listening to somebody cursing all day long, where is that cursing energy going? It’s entering into your heart, it’s entering into your being. How are you going to rid yourself of that difficulty? How are you going to cleanse yourself and purge yourself of those difficulties?

Taking an Account of Yourself is a Sign of maturity – Rijalullah

Means to take an accounting of ourselves and the energy charge that is coming in. That is the concept of, of growing up. It’s the concept of coming out of heedlessness and moving towards Rijalullah (Men of God). What make the men of God, be it men or women, means that they are entering a state of maturity. When you enter a state of maturity, you begin to realize everything has a consequence.

Whatever I’m doing, either I’m making the energy or losing the energy. If I’m listening to these sounds, I am most definitely losing the energy, because satan is next to me making his chanting, chanting, chanting. I’m listening to it, absorbing that negative energy and my positive energy [goes]. “Qul ja al haqq wa zahaq al-batil. (The truth has come, and falsehood has perished.” (Quran 17:81) Either the haqq is coming and falsehood is going, or you are inviting falsehood and the haqq is going: the two don’t stay in the same place.

وَ قُلْ جَآءَالْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَطِلُ، إِنَّ الْبَطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا 17:81 – “Wa qul jaa alhaqqu wa zahaqal baatil, innal batila kana zahooqa.” (Surat Al-Isra)

“And say, “Truth has come, and falsehood has perished. Indeed falsehood, [by its nature], is ever perishing/bound to perish (The Night Journey 17:81)

So when Prophet ﷺ  was sitting and somebody became angry, Prophet ﷺ  would get up and walk away, because he said, ‘I cannot be in the proximity of satan’. As soon as you lose the character and the satanic influence comes, the reality of Prophet ﷺ  begins to move.

If you Watch many Crazy Shows, You begin to Copy Them

Then the guides begin to teach us that: everything has a consequence, that what you’re doing and what you’re hearing and what you’re watching, it’s dressing you. And you watch enough of these crazy shows and you begin to emulate and copy them. You see people change. They watch like a crazy biker movie and they begin to wear the rings that they wear. They begin to talk like they talk, they begin to walk around and dress like they dress. They don’t realize they are being influenced by that satanic reality. And it begins to dress them because that is all that shaitan wants.

Understand the Power of Negative Energy

Then we begin to understand negative energy. How much negative energy people are able to produce. How important it is to understand hasad (jealousy). When we understand how powerful we are as energy people, we have to understand how powerful hasad is, what type of energy emits from hasad. Then we begin to guard our lives appropriately: watch where you go, watch who you speak to, watch what type of actions you are doing, because all that negativity is around.

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Understanding of Muraqaba (Meditation)

Muraqaba is a sufi term that means fear, to inspect, to watch over, to take care of, to control, to look at one’s inner world, to be entranced, to think of the aim at all times, to look at Allah with the heart at all times, to keep the soul under control in order to protect the heart from bad deeds, to know that Lord knows every state of a person, to dismiss everything from one’s mind and be ready to receive inspiration from Allah by kneeling down and closing the eyes.

The gist of the teachings of the prophets of Allah is that man after negating the fictional sight, should equip himself with that sight which witnesses the reality. Entering into one after leaving the other or getting something after quitting the other is only possible when we can disunite ourselves from that which is to be quitted. This act of disuniting ourselves, in terms of spirituality, is called negation. And when a person manages to negate himself, the world of realty is witnessed by him.

Muraqabah is the first lesson of self-negation. Performance of Muraqabah is such an act which has no logical explanation except that there are two types of sight functioning simultaneously in man. One is limited and cannot see without a medium and the other one is unlimited and needs no medium to behold.

How to do we See?

Space having dimensions is the medium. The material eye cannot see beyond the limits of space and if space is removed it will not be able to see any thing. This can be proved by performing a simple experiment Just focus your eyes on a point steadfastly so that there should be no movement in the eyelids and the eyeballs. When the eyes will cease to move there would remain nothing before the eyes save light and empty space. Law:- In fictional senses the operation of sight takes place when the eyeballs move and eyelids are blinked.

If the eyelids of a person are stopped from moving, within few seconds, he will not be able to see anything except darkness. The act of blinking of eyelids slightly strokes the eyeballs which helps in transferring the images of the external objects to the screen of our mind.

Process of Vision in Muraqabah?

When someone sits for Muraqabah and closes his eyes, the movement of eyeballs and eyelids remains in action. Although the blinking temporarily stops when the eyes are closed, the movement of eyeballs does not stop and with the movement of the eyeballs the eyelids also keep on moving which replaces the movement of the blinking, that is, the transfer of images keeps on taking place on the screen of the mind.

The person doing Muraqabah focuses his mind on one single point. The point in this case is usually the concept of his spiritual mentor, that is, he focuses all his witnessing abilities with concentration in thinking about his spiritual teacher, in order to get the image of his mentor on the mental screen, as long as he remains in the state of Muraqabah.

Law:- The properties, characteristics and potentialities related to an image also transfer on the screen of the mind when the image is formed on the mental screen and the mind perceives them accordingly. For instance, a person is looking at fire. When the image of fire transfers on the mental screen the warmth and heat of the fire is perceived by the mind.

A person who is present in a garden enjoys the freshness and coolness of trees and plants present in the garden to create their image on his mental screen. Similarly when image of the spiritual mentor transfers on the screen of mind, the Presented Knowledge which is operative in the spiritual teacher, also transfers with it and the mind of the student gradually assimilates the same. ‘Be!’ What is to ‘be’?

The program present in the mind of the One who uttered ‘Be’ should come into being, spiritually. When the program took the shape and form of incorporeal manifestations, The One who commanded ‘Be’, appeared before the spiritually displayed world so that the ignorance could change into knowledge and awareness.

We know, the sight gets activated when a focal point to concentrate is available to it. In that stage of creation, the focal point was the Creator and the Divine Planner. After coming to this world the focal point undergoes a change but the law remains the same. Just as the reality is transpired upon the mental screen, the hypothetical and temporary senses are also carried to the screen of the mind. It is only that the constraints of short lived and temporary states of mind keep us incarcerated in the limiting senses.

Muraqabah, thinking about the spiritual mentor, an attempt to concentrate and focus our thoughts on someone, so that his image could recurrently reflect upon the screen of our mind, we are liberated from the limiting senses.

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Sufism and Tasawwuf

Today most of people calling a spiritual one as “SUFI” . Even a meditation guy or girl also calling himself a sufi… so the word “SUFI” has been misunderstood in today’s society. The word SUFI defines a thought-form which believes in oneness, but islamic sufi is not a sufi without practicing Shariah. Islam has no SUFISM but a proper and powerful islamic branch of Tasawwuf.

Tasawwuf is a branch of Islamic knowledge which focuses on the spiritual development of the Muslim.

Allah sent His final messenger, Prophet Muhammad , as a source of knowledge for the entire ummah. He was the fountain of Quran, Hadith, tafsir, rhetoric, fiqh, and so on. After the Prophet, the scholars of this ummah carried and propagated each of these branches of knowledge. Because no one person can attain the perfection of the Prophet , who single handedly assumed all of these roles, various branches of the Islamic sciences developed. For example, Imam Abu Hanifah preserved the science of fiqh and after him thousands of scholars continued in his footsteps. Hence these scholars preserved the fiqh of the Prophet Similarly Imam Bukhari and the other famous scholars of Hadith, preserved the words of the Prophet. The scholars of tajweed preserved the recitation of the Prophet . And, the scholars of Arabic grammar preserved the language of the Prophet .

Along these lines, the Prophet was the model of spirituality for the world. His God-consciousness, deep spirituality, acts of worship, and love for Allah were preserved and propagated by an Islamic science called Tasawwuf. The aim of the scholars of this science was purification of the heart, and development of consciousness of Allah through submission to the shariah and sunnah.

How is Tasawwuf Related to Sufism?

Studying the life of the Prophet , the scholars who propagated the science of tasawwuf understood that a requisite for approaching Allah was abandonment of the common pursuits of the world. They often wore wool because of its simplicity and low cost. In Arabic the word for wool is suf and thus, those who wore it became known as the Sufis. Another possible derivation of the word comes from the root word safa, which means “to clean.” Because the scholars of tasawwuf focused on cleansing the heart, they later became known as the Sufis.

However now its clearer that Tasawwuf is a main sufism if shariah also be practiced with it.

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Islamic Spirituality & Sufism

Sufism is a way of life in which a deeper identity is discovered and lived. This deeper identity, beyond the already known personality, is in harmony with all that exists. This deeper identity, or essential self, has abilities of awareness, action, creativity and love that are far beyond the abilities of the superficial personality. Eventually it is understood that these abilities belong to a greater life and being which we individualize in our own unique way while never being separate from it.

Sufism is less a doctrine or a belief system than an experience and way of life. It is a tradition of enlightenment that carries the essential truth forward through time. Tradition, however, must be conceived in a vital and dynamic sense. Its expression must not remain limited to the religious and cultural forms of the past. The truth of Sufism requires reformulation and fresh expression in every age.

Reformulation does not mean that Sufism will compromise its challenge to a stubbornly materialistic society. It is and will remain a critic of “worldliness” — by which it is meant everything that causes us to be forgetful of the Divine reality. It is and must be a way out of the labyrinth of a secular, commercial culture. Most importantly, however, it is an invitation to meaningfulness and well-being.

Sufism, as we know it, developed within the cultural matrix of Islam. The Islamic revelation presented itself as the expression of the essential message brought to humanity by the prophets of all ages. The Qur’an recognizes the validity of 120,000 prophets or messengers who have come to awaken us from our selfish egoism and remind us of our spiritual nature. The Qur’an confirmed the validity of past revelations, while asserting that the original message was often distorted over the course of time.

Sufism’s claim to universality is founded on the broad recognition that there is only one God, the God of all people and all true religions. Sufism understands itself to be the wisdom realized by the great prophets — explicitly including Jesus, Moses, David, Solomon, and Abraham, among others, and implicitly including other unnamed enlightened beings of every culture.

In the Western world today diverse groups exist under the name of Sufism. On the one hand there are those who would say that no true Sufism can exist without appreciation and practice of the principles of Islam. On the other hand some groups exist that more or less ignore the Islamic roots of Sufism and take their teaching from further downstream, from “Sufis” who may or may not have had contact with specifically Islamic teachings.

We could say that there are those who accept Sufism as both form and essence, and there are others who are Sufi in essence but not in form. In my opinion, an appreciation and understanding of the Qur’an, the sayings of Muhammad, and historical Sufism is invaluable to the wayfarer on the Sufi path.

Historically, Sufism was not conceived as separate from the essence of Islam. Its teachers all traced their enlightenment through a chain of transmission going back to Muhammad. While they may have disagreed with certain interpretations of Islam, they never questioned the essential validity of the Qur’anic revelation; nor were they fundamentalists in the sense of rigidly interpreting that revelation or discrediting other faiths. Most often they represented the highest achievements within Islamic culture and were a force of tolerance and moderation.

Over fourteen centuries the broad Sufi tradition has contributed a body of literature second to none on earth. Somehow the guiding principles of the Qur’an and the heroic virtue of Muhammad and his companions provided an impetus that allowed a spirituality of love and consciousness to flourish. Those who follow the Sufi path today are the inheritors of an immense treasure of wisdom literature.

Beginning from its roots at the time of Muhammad, Sufism has organically grown like a tree with many branches. The cause of the branching has usually been the appearance of an enlightened teacher whose methods and contributions to the teaching have been enough to initiate a new line of growth. These branches generally do not see each other as rivals. A Sufi, in some cases, may be initiated into more than one branch in order to receive the grace (baraka) and knowledge of particular order.

There is little cultishness in the work of Sufis. Sufis of one order may, for instance, visit the gatherings of another order. Even the charisma of a particular teacher is always viewed from the perspective that this gift is owed entirely to God. The charisma is valuable in so far as it may bind the hearts of students to a human being who is the truth of the teaching, but many safeguards exist to remind everyone that personality worship and inordinate pride in one’s affiliation are forms of idolatry, the greatest “sin.”

If Sufism recognizes one central truth, it is the unity of being, that we are not separate from the Divine. The unity of being is a truth which our age is in an excellent position to appreciate — emotionally, because of the shrinking of our world through communications and transportation, and intellectually, because of developments in modern physics. We are One: one people, one ecology, one universe, one being. If there is a single truth, worthy of the name, it is that we are all integral to the Truth, not separate. The realization of this truth has its effects on our sense of who we are, on our relationships to others and to all aspects of life. Sufism is about realizing the current of love that runs through human life, the unity behind forms.

If Sufism has a central method, it is the development of presence and love. Only presence can awaken us from our enslavement to the world and our own psychological processes. And only love, cosmic love, can comprehend the Divine. Love is the highest activation of intelligence, for without love nothing great would be accomplished, whether spiritually, artistically, socially, or scientifically.

Sufism is the attribute of those who love. The lover is someone who is purified by love, free of himself and his own qualities, and fully attentive to the Beloved. This is to say that the Sufi is not held in bondage by any quality of his own because he sees everything he is and has as belonging to the Source. Shebli said: “The Sufi sees nothing except God in the two worlds.”

This book is about one aspect of Sufism — presence — how it can be developed and how it can be used to activate our essential human qualities. Abu Muhammad Muta’ish says: “The Sufi is he whose thought keeps pace with his foot — i.e., he is entirely present: his soul is where his body is, and his body is where his soul is, and his soul where his foot is, and his foot where his soul is. This is the sign of presence without absence. Others say on the contrary: ‘He is absent from himself but present with God.’ It is not so: he is present with himself and present with God.”

We live in a culture that has been described as materialistic, alienating, neurotically individualistic, narcissistic, and yet ridden with anxiety, shame, and guilt. From the Sufi point of view humanity today is suffering under the greatest tyranny, the tyranny of the ego. We “worship” innumerable false idols, but all of them are forms of the ego.

There are so many ways for the human ego to usurp even the purest spiritual values. The true Sufi is the one who makes no claims to virtue or truth but who lives a life of presence and selfless love. More important than what we believe is how we live. If certain beliefs lead to exclusiveness, self-righteousness, fanaticism, it is the vanity of the “believer” that is the problem. If the remedy increases the sickness, an even more basic remedy is called for.

The idea of “presence with love” may be the most basic remedy for the prevailing materialism, selfishness, and unconsciousness of our age. In our obsession with our false selves, in turning our backs on God, we have also lost our essential Self, our own divine spark. In forgetting God, we have forgotten ourselves. Remembering god is the beginning of remembering ourselves.

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Spirituality and Religion

Maybe you’ve heard about spirituality but aren’t really sure what it is. Well, it’s different from religion, and you can practise it even if you’re not religious. Find out about different kinds of spirituality and the reasons why some people decide to live spiritual lives.

What is spirituality?

Spirituality is something that’s talked about a lot but is often misunderstood. Many people think that spirituality and religion are the same thing, and so they bring their beliefs and prejudices about religion to discussions about spirituality. Though all religions emphasise spirituality as being part of faith, you can be ‘spiritual’ without being religious or a member of an organised religion.

What’s the difference between religion and spirituality?

There are some pretty clear ways in which religion and spirituality differ.

Religion: This is a specific set of organised beliefs and practices, usually shared by a community or group.

Spirituality: This is more of an individual practice, and has to do with having a sense of peace and purpose. It also relates to the process of developing beliefs around the meaning of life and connection with others.

Organised vs freeform

One way to understand the relationship between spirituality and religion is to imagine a game of football. The rules, referees, other players and the field markings help guide you as you play the game in a similar way that religion might guide you to find your spirituality.

Kicking the ball around a park, without having to play on the field or with all the rules and regulations, can also give you fulfilment and fun and still expresses the essence of the game, similar to spirituality in life.

You can do either or both

You may identify as being any combination of religious and spiritual, but being religious doesn’t automatically make you spiritual, or vice versa.

Why do people practise spirituality?

Life can be full of ups and downs, good times and bad. Many people see spirituality as a great way to seek comfort and peace in their life. It can often be practised alongside things like yoga, which ultimately focus on stress relief and release of emotion.

Spirituality is a way of gaining perspective

Spirituality recognizes that your role in life has a greater value than what you do every day. It can relieve you from dependence on material things and help you to understand your life’s greater purpose. Spirituality can also be used as a way of coping with change or uncertainty. http://www.jahanz.com/spirituality-and-religion/