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The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (1)
Religions have come and gone,
And Books have been delivered ...
What have the peoples of the Books and the Hikmah understood?
But judge not others so you may not be judged ...
I can’t help, however, observing the thoughts and actions of the peoples of sects and religions,
One learns by the mistakes of others: that one learns to observe one’s own mistakes ...
This chain of posts in English: to reach a wider audience,
Of the peoples of the Book and the Hikmah, and anyone who can discern,
The human mind is one,
But thoughts and the impressions are too many,
In the midst of confusion people have begged for guidance ...
And when it comes: they remain in their confusion,
Because guidance should always be sought in one’s own mind,
The Ten Commandments were delivered to all humanity,
They came again and again in the Books and the Hikmah,
And in the Ghita and the Dharma,
It is for the people: to read them in their minds,
Else, they are ink on paper that Quintessence has forsaken
The Ten Commandments (2)
Whatever your belief: the Ten Commandments are constantly relevant,
Without them human relations and societies falter, and the human mind disintegrates,
Whether you believe that they are the product of human evolution, or the words of The Creator: they are the innateness of the human mind,
Thus it was said in the first and second commandments: I am the Lord your God, have no other gods before Me,
So here you face your faith: where do you invest it?
The question, by any wording, bears a degree of perplexity that you have to overcome:
Do you believe that god’s finger did the writing?
If so: you have assumed an image or a medium ...
Multiple such images and mediums have been sought, ranging from written words to stones, and from people to other beings,
Contrary to the third commandment: take no graven image for yourself.
The call to monotheism: that is the belief in one god: has never pointed to one god,
Indeed, there are as many gods in monotheist religions as religions and branches thereof,
Of course, one might have to start with a concept,
That is only a pointer,
And the pursuit of knowledge has not ended,
Until all perplexity is overcome, and all confusion gone,
And the search of a third-party god: as in: the world, mankind and god: is put where it belongs: in pagan beliefs,
Because The Creator is in every human’s heart and mind,
If witnessed there, this is True Witness,
This is Union: Tawheed
The Ten Commandments (3)
It is when the Word is taken by its literality that essence is lost,
This has been the destiny of all Discourses in the hands of bewildered people,
And as if the available dictionary at the time of reading is the judge,
In fact: definitions are set: when physical objects are the subject, but not an essence,
Because if the essence was the subject: words fade in superfluousness,
This has been the mission of the Word across time,
And the different wording of the commandments in different languages: has made it possible for the dictionaries to distinguish between the different monotheist gods,
So if no graven image is to be taken: a non-graven stone cannot be taken either,
Nor an animate image, like the image of a man or another being,
Because the essence points to absoluteness:
Far above any representation,
Hence I don’t say it enough, if I keep saying: that it is awareness that determines the degree of faith,
And faith has never been a blank cheque given to people upon surrendering their minds to the dogmas of their clergymen,
I hope that the people of the Books and the Hikmah do understand what is being said,
At least some atheists have not claimed a heavenly authority and are happy to learn bit by bit,
But when heavenly authority is claimed at a low level of literacy and comprehension: they should not be surprised if hell’s doors are wide open, all around
The Ten Commandments (4)
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” (third Commandment),
“Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool ...” (Gospel of Matthew),
“And make not of God an exhibit of your faith, that you have fidelity and you refuge [in Him] and reform between the people; God is all hearing and knowing” (the brackets are mine); (Qur’an, Baqarah 224, from my reading of it in English, available on COB’s website).
I must hasten to provide the mainstream reading of this Qur'anic verse:
“And do not make [your oath by] Allah an excuse against being righteous and fearing Allah and making peace among people. And Allah is hearing and knowing” (the brackets are the translator’s); (Translation of the Meaning of the Qur’an, translated by Saheeh International – Jeddah. Distributor Dar Maktabet Al Iman, Tripoli Lebanon 1997),
And my choice of this particular translation is because it is the only hardcopy that I have at the moment. Other translations aren’t essentially different, and the electronic ones on the Net can be verified.
The word that has caused confusion in the minds of Qur’anic interpreters is “عُرضة”, which is from the root “عرض”, which, in its transitive and intransitive usages and derivatives points to “standing across”, either for the purpose of obstruction, or for the purpose of exhibition and demonstration,
Also, the word “لإيمانكم” has been replaced by “لأيْمانكم”,
The first one translates to “ to your faith”, and the second: “to your oaths”,
It is the position of the hamzah and the tashkeel that has made the difference;
Provided that the original scripts didn’t have any tashkeel or hamzah, one can understand why there are a number of possible readings,
So how are we to decide which is the correct one?
I say: while providing all possible readings: the one which makes sense and which conforms with the previous Books should be adopted,
The Qur’an says repeatedly that it conforms to the Torah and the Gospel,
So before rushing to say that other religions have tampered with the words of their Books, Muslim scholars have to take a serious look at their own interpretations of the Qur’an,
They will notice that no Book has suffered more misinterpretation, which goes to the extent of tampering: than the Qur’an.
The Discourses address your minds,
So I leave it to the reader to try to make sense of the mainstream reading of this verse,
In the end, it is a matter of faith in one’s mind that The Creator bestowed on the people, or faith in the mainstream interpretations
The Ten Commandments (5)
“Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” (the fourth Commandment);
Although I do not read or speak Hebrew, I can say with unwavering assuredness that this is not referring to the seventh day of the week,
Because the Sabbath can be and should be observed any time ...
For it is the stillness of the heart and the mind,
From involvement with passions: of desire and want, hatred and envy, and a relentless pursuit of business and political competition ...
All of which are obscurers of the spirit,
And the root of the word in Arabic is سبت, which points to stillness,
I’m sure the Hebrew root points to the same essence,
So it has been difficult for the Jews to practise an exercise of stillness for the aim of achieving a state of equanimity and compassion, in order to come closer to The Creator,
As it has been difficult for the Muslims to practise prayer, fasting and purification (الصلاة و الصوم و الزكاة): which are meant to connect them with The Creator,
And remember that it is said in the Qur’an that the prayer is the mean, as in mediate: و الصلاة الوسطى,
Both Jewish and Muslim scholars and religious people will reject my purport and will be derisive of it,
Because the god they envisage is needy,
He creates people to watch them do things which they can never fathom,
Except that he demands of them to do them, because he is mighty and no one can stop him,
It is their failure to look in a straight direction: that has reduced this Commandment to a set of rituals, to be performed by physical activity, or the absence of it,
And ironically: those rituals cannot be performed in places where the days and the night can be weeks long,
This should’ve alerted them to the absurdity of the interpretations of their Books,
But they both have clung stronger to their irrationality
The Ten Commandments (6)
Those are the Commandments which are meant to open up your minds,
So you can be conscious of all its corridors, which lead you inside and outside you, and in all directions,
So you can witness your true identity: within you: projected in the cosmic manifestation,
And how often have you heard intelligent people say that people use only a small part of their brain?
I don’t know if psychology or neuroscience will start such an investigation,
But it will happen in the future,
Not for the purpose of discriminating against people or as an exercise of self-glorification,
But only to help people know their mental and moral capacity, for the aim of expanding it,
Religious beliefs, old and new and without any exception: have blocked those corridors of your mind,
Their beliefs: summarised by “holy” expressions, rituals and laws ...: work as mind blockers,
They dictate to you where their god allows you to look and go,
And what you should or should not do: as an animate image: and not as an essence,
So you remain in their mental confinements,
I have expressed this fact in many different ways,
To warn the people of the traps they’ve gone in, and how much narrow mindedness and trouble this has brought to them,
And how much suffering to themselves and others,
It takes giant souls to come out of the rock bottom of hell unscathed,
But it can be done,
While it is true that people need guidance, it’s about time that those facts are known to them,
And it is about time that laws around the world are set to put religions and dogmas where they belong: in the bucket of fallacies,
So that the beliefs that people are exposed to: point them in the straight and middle direction
The Ten Commandments (7)
You would like to believe that a child has an underdeveloped brain, and hence little knowledge or close to nothing,
And that the brain develops, and the child reaches adulthood, and suddenly: the brain is open to adult concepts, feelings and emotions ...
And you would like to think that this is a chemical process ... carried out by hormones and whatever else ...
If you can remember what your mind was doing when you were a child: you will be stunned,
But this is all blocked out,
Because the adults around you did not want you to know ...
Because after many cycles of human existence: the focus is on the present moment: as perceived by sense organs,
But this is not an invitation to live in past memories or to keep dreaming of an unforeseen future ...
In early cycles of human existence: Adam and Eve were known as the Parents ...
Adam being the Word of Existence, and Eve being his partner that he created from his emotions,
They were the providers and the protectors ...
Humans were overwhelmed with peace and compassion: upon looking at them,
And the parents who raise you: still evoke those early feelings in you as a child,
If those feelings are not fulfilled: the child and the parents have missed out on something important: for the rest of their lives ...
This can be traumatic, and can take many lives to heal ...
And your innate morality is subtle ... but does direct you, if you haven’t gone too far from it ...
That’s why it was said: “Honour thy father and mother” (the fifth Commandment)
The Ten Commandments (8)
“Thou shalt not kill”, period,
There are no ifs and buts,
And neither is there a definition of kill,
Every human being endowed with a thinking mind knows precisely what kill means,
Of course you’ll say that it takes the right to defend yourself away from you ...
Or that it might cause you to starve, where the only available food is the flesh of animals,
But it does neither,
The world has been turned into a slaughter house, in the name of self-defence and food production,
And indeed in the belief that blood and dead meat must be offered to god ...!
And I can say that none of the wars raging in the world now are wars of self-defence,
And that the food production is not making the consumers of it healthier or wiser ...
Indeed, the world is about to destroy itself in the name of self-defence, and is getting sick in the body and the mind from over-eating,
The absurdity of human beliefs and practices is mindboggling,
But the killing that this Commandment forbids: is not only physical,
And that’s why the Qur’an worded it: “whoever kills a selfless self, or as despoil in the earth: it is as though they have killed the entire humanity”,
Here again I cite the translation based on the mainstream reading of this Qur’anic verse (Al-Maa’idah, 32), from the same reference that I used before:
“Whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – it is as if he had slain mankind”,
Hence the law of vendetta, which is heathen, pre-Islamic and pre-Jewish: holds,
And still does, in the entire of the Arab world, and the wider Islamic,
And yes, in the entire world, albeit in a subtle and “politically correct” manner ...
The people of monotheist religions cannot comprehend why the beliefs which are based on surrendering one’s mind to certain assumptions: are a death sentence,
By them: the believer’s right of inquisition is taken away from them, and they are made to fear the punishment of an assumed god: if they doubted or inquired,
And the aim of being alive in this world is masked: by a false promise of salvation and paradise,
This is why the reminders to answer the questioner and the people on the path (ألسائل و ابن السبيل): are too frequent in the Qur’an,
Unfortunately this was interpreted as a commandment to feed the needy and the homeless ...
Thus inequality, perpetuated by religious and civil laws, in Muslim and Hindu societies: is considered their god’s will, and that people are commanded to give charity ...!
So a selfless self: that is a self free from the shackles of ignorance: is read as a law saying: tit for tat,
And the tashkeel on “despoil” (فسادٍ) is set so that it is a predicate to the previous phrase, so that Muslims grant themselves the right to punish by death whomever they deem “despoiler” or “corrupter”,
If it was فساداً, as in my reading, it conforms to the Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (9)
The laws and traditions governing people’s sexual relations are many and strikingly different,
But none of them are perfect, and they are reflective of the rank of consciousness of the people who set them,
People have to go by the rules of their societies', even when they rebel: they have to go by the rules of the rebellion,
So when it was said: “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (the seventh commandment): adultery could only be defined by the agreed laws of marriage,
There is no standard model that is the purpose of human sexual relations ... except in the particular understanding of particular religions ...
In the pursuit of knowledge: people polish their behaviour and work hard to rein in their sexual desires,
If their belief dictates that they don’t have to do that: they precipitate in the animal,
Sex is the projection in matter of the capability of multiplication,
If it does not culminate in conception: something else is produced,
It has been said in the ancient Hebrew texts, and Plato mentioned it,
Science still has to find out where the dark matter of the universe comes from, but in a far future it will confirm that it is the product of human desire that has not taken an image ...
And as people progress on their way of self-exploration: and the peace becomes achievable without a physical expression: their memory opens up gradually, and the sexual expression is not the bringer of peace any longer,
The emotional energy that sexual desire flares up is transformed to an expansion of consciousness ...
This is not a moment of magic, but rather many lives of relentless struggle,
One has to want the real thing so much, until the consciousness can swim in the Okeanos free from desire, and adultery now is any sexual encounter ...
So as this is said: many will be apprehensive, and they will say do not take us back to the times when this was doomed to fail,
But no one should feel guilty about their sexual desires,
It is religions that are the experts in creating guilt,
Guilt which cripples people’s minds and thrusts them onto misery,
Then they prescribe rituals ... and the worship of stones, places, symbols and people ... which bestow forgiveness ...!
All of which make the seizures of desire even stronger, and the suffering: more severe ...
And the only relief for a tormented soul that has deprived herself from every joy thus: is indulgence in more sexual pleasure ... for the purpose of escaping from the artificial guilt of sexual pleasure!
Better that people go by the laws and traditions of their societies ... and keep finetuning them
The Ten Commandments (10)
Thou shalt not steal, period, (eighth commandment),
Don’t write the definitions which allow you to bypass the commandments,
Hence I give you herein a list of robberies that have been happening all around the world, under the auspices of civil laws, and the blessing of religions:
The underpayment and exploitation of labour,
The occupation of inhabited homes and land,
Dishonest and unfair business competition,
Bribery which allows you to buy your way to something that someone else is rightfully entitled to,
Investment which profits by any of the above practices,
And the list can go on ...
But this concerns mainly material things,
Hence, here are the robberies ... which have caused so much suffering and destruction,
The theft of the Books: the Torah, the Gospel, the Qur’an and the Hikmah,
And by theft I mean the claim of exclusive ownership, understanding and interpretation,
This is how Abrahamic religions have managed to “conceal” the Books (تُخفون من الكتاب),
Sometimes metaphorically, by setting definitions and interpretation which conceal the original meaning,
And sometimes literally, by hiding them and claiming that no one can read them except certain tribes of people!
And as the bad outcome of such practices have become obvious,
And as COB has been warning everyone for ten years now ... while only a few have given heed:
The error has become more erroneous,
And the consequences more disastrous,
There’s a point at which there’s no return,
This is when contrition helps not,
And to no avail is every attempt of rectification
The Ten Commandments (11)
Upon reading the ninth commandment, one can’t but wonder: who exactly is “thy neighbour”, and what constitutes a “false witness” in: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour”,
The original wording in ancient Hebrew must’ve pointed clearly to being just to your neighbour,
The translation, however, based on the usage of the Hebrew words at the time of the first translation: must be behind the ambiguation,
But human innate morality, if not stifled by religious and materialistic beliefs, is in no doubt about the essence of this commandment,
Thou shalt be just to everyone,
Because, if you start setting definitions of “to bear false witness”, and “neighbour”: you end up justifying cruelty and injustice - because it is not “false witness” - to everyone: including your next door neighbour, who, by your definition doesn’t fall under the classification of neighbour,
Human intellect is the expert in self-deception,
Volumes of books have been written on the arts of hypocrisy and injustice: perpetrated in the name of righteousness and religiousness,
The world has not come to the state of anarchy that is today: by random events or by the will of a god who presses buttons to activate his punishment,
There’s mounting evidence on how intricately the world is interconnected,
If one part of it falters: the whole will,
Whether from an environmental perspective, or from a political and economic one:
One individual's or one nation’s decision affects every other individual or nation; and if it is selfish in its aims and purposes: it ends up firing back at that individual or nation,
What the leaders of the world do not understand is that the world is not captive of their decisions and actions,
The world is run by its Law,
It is the people who have to go by the Law of the world,
And the Law of the world is not a document written in one language or another ...
It is the innateness of the human mind, that the people have to uncover within themselves
The Ten Commandments (12)
It has been said in all the Discourses, that the entire world and mankind’s adventure in it: is the outcome of coveting it ...
And desire regenerates ... in an endless self-sustaining cycle ...
This is why the calls to slow it down ... in the Sabbath, and in the meditation disciplines of the Far East ...
Hence, by providing a list of things you should not covet: you actually open the doors of hell wide: to covet everything else ...
Because the distractions of life are limitless ...
And the mind games are too hard to resist ...
And the pleasures of the senses are alluded to in the Gospels: as a skin disease: that the Christ and the Messiah freed the true believers from,
Yet, the path of “purification” from coveting ... is not easy, and not everyone’s destiny,
And people shouldn’t be made to feel guilty about coveting ...
They should be guided,
Hence laws and traditions are set ...
The Qur’an calls them “the sick and the ones on travel” (مريض أو على سفر), and doesn’t force a sense of guilt into their minds ...
Religions have used blind faith and rituals to capture the hearts and minds of people who are sick or on travel,
When they should’ve guided them ...
Being coerced to surrender their minds to the beliefs of the frocked men, and the practice of rituals: have not taught them any virtue ...
To the contrary: irrationality is the natural outcome of such practices,
That’s why COB calls it: paganism,
The human mind is the cosmos in its entirety ...
The power it can muster and employ ... is beyond anyone’s comprehension ...
One has to look at the wars and the crimes of today’s world ... which have gone to unimaginable extents ...
Think of them as the power of desire ... and nothing else ...
This is what they are in essence ...
Desire that is frustrated,
And passions that are constantly being refuelled ...
This is an atomic bomb ... that can go off without giving a notice
The Ten Commandments (13)
Thus the Ten Commandments end with “thou shalt not covet”, repeated three times ...
To bring out the content of people’s hearts ...
Little did the interpreters see ... that the list of things not to be coveted that they provide: says a lot about what they do covet ...
I have said it repeatedly, and do not shy from saying it again:
The Books have revealed the content of your own hearts and minds:
If there was void in them: the Light of the Books went in them and found nothing to light, they hence remained dark,
If there were stones, people and other images in them: the light of the Books lit up those stones, people and other images, and they became your gods that you worshipped,
But if their true identity was still present: the skies and the earth lit up: by their own light,
This is the model of the Fibre Optic Tree that COB has drawn,
Or the Olive Tree that is in the Qur’an:
Its oil lights although no fire has touched it,
Light upon Light
The Ten Commandments (14)
Out of all the Books which have been delivered, the Hikmah stands out,
In that it is a set of philosophical documents of the highest order,
Unlike the previous Books, it relies less on linguistic miracles,
In either case, the purpose is to have the message delivered to the minds which are capable and ready,
And I often translated the word Hikmah to Philosophy,
After all, it was Plato who coined the word: “the love of wisdom”,
Similar Books were delivered to the Hebrew and the Aramaic people in ancient times,
Their destiny wasn’t unlike that of the Hikmah,
In that they were thought to be a privilege of their tribes,
And a secret code ... that no one except their people can decipher ...
Such beliefs go hand in hand with predeterminism,
In that god created the good people to reward them and created the bad people to punish them,
But practically, he punishes everyone anyway!
Such a miniscule view of the world can only precipitate in worshipping people and stones,
Not unlike every other religious belief,
And no matter what evidence to the falsehood there is, their frocked men tell them: not to worry it’s all part of the big plan,
This is a self-sentence to death,
The codes of behaviour, the traditions and the nationalism ... cannot guard people’s souls from falling down ...
The people of the Hikmah, by the looks of things, have thought that god didn’t deliver any commandments to them in the Hikmah!
But it was left to them, to live and act by the Highest Standard (ألمعروف),
The light of their minds and the compassion of their hearts: should guide them to the most virtuous laws and actions ... in their place and time ...
Unfortunately, the word itself was understood to be the name of a tribe or tribes of people, after some man ...
And this has been the destiny of the people of Israel, the strivers in god ...
And this has been the destiny of the people of the House (أهل البيت) ...
The mistake is being repeated ... and lessons aren’t learnt ...
The Middle East now is the last nation to guide the world ...
It’s incapable of guiding itself, and has surrendered its destiny to the politics of religion and money
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