A Post from SABALAN : What is My Being?

I read this post from SABALAN and wanted to share it with you. I think rend's words have included himself and our community and have also given a push to where to go on from here. It is making me think more, wonder, question, go back to Jajrood, see all the hamrahs, remember last year with munir at the airport, in Isfahan and shiraz, and still wonder how Rend, ibnessabil, weeping willow, loud, ahmadreza, haji, munir's words are now making me move my own life and making me see more people around me as very important for who i am and who i become everyday.

Please READ........

...روزها فکر من این است وهمه شب سخنم

In our Jajrood learning-journey-trip (!) we talked with our SABALAN community members (and dwellers of other mountains!) about several themes including who we think we are and how we can introduce ourselves, that is, our Being.We un/learned that we can talk about who we are in terms are "our family", in terms of "our questions", in terms of "who we are not", in terms of "who our friends are"… and maybe in terms of "our names"!

Our dialogues on Being reminded me of Munir's self-introduction that he had written before he came to Iran last year. He started his self-introduction with writing abut where he was born and he lived…His introduction started with his HISTORY:

I was born in Jerusalem, Palestine in 1941, and lived in Palestine, Jordan and the USA. In 1948, I (with my family) were forced out of our home in Jerusalem and moved to Ramallah. That’s where I lived and worked most of my life.

He immediately moved to his QUESTIONS and his FIGHTS in life, that I think can most eloquently show who he is:I don’t know which started earlier:

my rebellion against the fragmentation of Palestinians or my rebellion against the fragmentation of knowledge. What I increasingly felt over the years, however, was that the two are strongly linked and that both were imposed from outside.

He went on to write about his Being in terms of his CHANGES:

Prior to 1971, I taught math for 8 years…as if it were separate and aloof from life…The 1967 Israeli-Arab war, and its aftermath, woke me up… I discovered my illiterate mother’s math…I started perceiving and experimenting with math and knowledge in a way that was more relevant, creative, and courageous.…

in terms of what he UNLEARNED:

I dropped the belief that all praxis can be reduced to theory…I dropped control, winning, and individualism as values that seem to govern many aspects in modern living.…

and interms of his discoveries in his reading of worlds of WORDS:…

when I came across Imam Ali’s statement…قيمة كل امرئ ما يحسنهI immediately felt that it could form a basis, a guiding principle for education/ learning in the confused and troubled modern world.

I'm now wondering how I may think and write about who I am in terms of my QUESTIONs, FIGHTs, CHANGEs, UN/LEARNINGs, and WORDs.

P.S.

او را چه خبر بود ز عالم..... کز با خبران خبر ندارد

I've just read what Ebnossabil wrote about KHABAR and I thought I could clearly, strongly, beautifully, meaningfully, and fully tell the story of who I am through my NEWS:

NEWS that I (do not) LISTEN to…
NEWS that I (do not) READ…
NEWS that I (do not) WATCH…
NEWS that I (do not) SAY…
NEWS that I (do not) WRITE…
NEWS that I (do not) BUY…
NEWS that I (do not) CARE about…
and
NEWS that I (do not) MAKE…
Posted by rend at 10:18 PM