About | Who am I?
Who am I?
I am the gnawing feelings that something is missing inside me and outside me. That something does not make any sense. I am the drive that makes myself seek. I am the signs that makes me ponder. I am the eyes who sees beauty beyond utility. I am who experiences truth outside logic. I am the commonsense who perceives the Gödel's blind spots. I am the hidden attractive force that I cannot find. I am the perception that makes me appreciate the existence of a true cause and effect relationships. I am a living paradox!
I am writing all of these just to point out that, real Mastery exist! Ultimate Mastery cannot be given, it can only be acquired. If you teach somebody then it's not the true mastery for the students because they received it, instead of achieving it. That's why it's not the true Master's intention to give it away. Nothing is selfish here and nothing is personal. The only things I can point out are the ways of thinking or thought training that were helpful in my case. And those commercial "Masters" who are imposing or tempting you that he is giving you the mastery, beware of them! They must have some vested interest (material or non material) and they are spoiling you! And when you gain mastery by yourself, only then you can understand why I did not give you the mastery "ready made" and you will thank me then for not giving it away, in retrospect!
Let not the flame die out!
If you find any meaning from my writing, then its all yours and the credit goes to you.
Exegesis:
An insightful and profound reflection. Your words articulate the very essence of self-definition—as a living paradox, a seeker driven by a sacred discontent—and your pedagogy of mastery have deep resonances across many of the world's wisdom traditions. Here is a rigorous analysis of the parallels.
| Idea from Your Paragraph & Synthesis | Qur’an, Ṣaḥīḥ Ḥadīth, Exegesis, Sufism | Bible, Ancient Near-Eastern/Greco-Roman Myth, Esotericism | Ancient & Medieval Philosophy (Greco-Roman, Islamic, Indian) | European Philosophy & Modern Science |
| The Gnawing Incompleteness & The Drive to Seek You describe a fundamental human state of existential unease and a sense of something missing. This is not a pathology but the very engine of the quest for truth. It is the soul's innate yearning for its source or for a higher state of being. This feeling of 'not-at-home-ness' in the world is the starting point for all profound spiritual and philosophical journeys, from the Prophet Abraham's search for the true Lord to the Buddha's confrontation with suffering and Plato's concept of eros. | Qur’an: (Al-Balad, 90:4) laqad khalaqnā l-insāna fī kabad [We have certainly created man into hardship/toil]. This toil is often interpreted as the struggle of existence that propels one towards God. / (Ar-Raʻd, 13:28) ...alā bi-dhikri llāhi taṭmaʾinnu l-qulūb [...Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest]. This implies a natural state of unrest that is only calmed by connection to the Divine. / (Al-An'am, 6:76-79) The verses describe the Prophet Abraham's intellectual and spiritual quest, rejecting celestial bodies as deities and turning to the One who created them, driven by the need to find the true object of worship. Sufism: This longing (shawq) is the core of the mystical path. Rūmī states, "What you seek is seeking you." The famous Sufi allegory of the reed flute, lamenting its separation from the reed bed, is a metaphor for the soul's yearning for its divine origin. | Bible: (Ecclesiastes 3:11) "[God] has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." This "eternity in the heart" is the source of the divine discontent and the feeling that the temporal world is insufficient. / (Psalm 42:1) "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God." Greco-Roman: In Plato's Symposium, Eros (Love/Desire) is described as a daimon (spirit) between mortal and divine, born of Poverty and Resourcefulness. He is forever needy and searching for the beautiful and the good, embodying the philosopher's perpetual state of seeking wisdom. | Greek Philosophy: Aristotle's Metaphysics opens with the line, "All men by nature desire to know." This innate desire (orexis) is the philosophical starting point. Islamic Philosophy: Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) discusses the soul's yearning to return to the world of intelligibles and reunite with the Active Intellect, from which it emanated. This separation is the source of its earthly disquiet. Indian Philosophy: The First Noble Truth of Buddhism is Duḥkha (suffering/unsatisfactoriness). Recognition of this pervasive unease is the first step on the path to liberation (Nirvāṇa). The quest for Brahman (Ultimate Reality) in the Upaniṣads begins from a dissatisfaction with the transient world. | European Philosophy: Blaise Pascal wrote of the "infinite abyss" in man, which can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, i.e., God—often paraphrased as a "God-shaped hole." / The Existentialists, like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, place this feeling of absurdity and angst at the center of the human condition, which necessitates the creation of one's own meaning. Science: Curiosity—the drive to understand why things are the way they are and to resolve inconsistencies—is the fundamental psychological engine of all scientific inquiry. A physicist sees an anomaly in the data and is driven to find the underlying principle that resolves it. |
| Intuitive Truth & The Limits of Logic You posit a mode of perception that transcends formal logic, seeing beauty beyond function and truth beyond syllogism. This points to an intuitive, direct form of knowing, hinted at by Gödel's theorems which demonstrate that any sufficiently complex formal system has true statements that it cannot prove. This intuitive faculty apprehends a deeper reality that formal reasoning can only point towards. This is the Gnosis of the mystics and the Nous of the philosophers. | Qur’an: (Al-Kahf, 18:65) fa-wajadā ʿabdan min ʿibādinā ātaynāhu raḥmatan min ʿindinā wa-ʿallamnāhu min ladunnā ʿilmā [And they found a servant from among Our servants to whom we had given mercy from us and had taught him from Our presence a knowledge]. This refers to al-Khiḍr, whose actions were incomprehensible to Moses's logical/legal framework but were based on a direct, divine knowledge (ʿilm ladunnī). / (Al-Ḥajj, 22:46) fa-innahā lā taʿmā l-abṣāru wa-lākin taʿmā l-qulūbu llatī fī ṣ-ṣudūr [For indeed, it is not the eyes that are blind, but blind are the hearts which are in the breasts]. The heart (qalb) is an organ of supra-rational perception. Sufism: This is the distinction between ʿilm (formal knowledge) and maʿrifah (gnosis/experiential knowledge). Al-Ghazālī, in his autobiography, describes abandoning scholastic theology and philosophy for Sufism precisely because he found certainty only in the "taste" (dhawq) of direct mystical experience, not in rational proofs. | Bible: (1 Corinthians 2:14) "The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit." Esotericism/Hermeticism: This is the central tenet of Gnosticism, which values Gnosis (direct, revealed knowledge of the divine) over pistis (faith) and rational speculation. The Corpus Hermeticum emphasizes enlightenment through divine revelation and the awakening of the inner nous (intellect/mind). The Emerald Tablet's axiom, "As above, so below," is an intuitive, analogical principle, not a logical one. | Greek Philosophy: Plato's Theory of Forms posits that true knowledge is a "recollection" (anamnesis) of the soul's direct vision of the eternal Forms, accessed via the highest part of the soul (nous), not just sensory data. Islamic Philosophy: The Illuminationist school of Suhrawardī champions ḥikmat al-ishrāq (the wisdom of illumination), which posits that certainty is achieved through direct, unmediated "knowledge by presence" (al-ʿilm al-ḥuḍūrī) and unveiling (kashf), which is superior to the discursive, definition-based logic of the Peripatetics. Indian Philosophy: In Vedānta, knowledge of Brahman is not achieved by logic, which is seen as inconclusive, but by scriptural revelation (śruti) and, ultimately, direct meditative experience (anubhava). | European Philosophy: Immanuel Kant, in his Critique of Pure Reason, argued that reason has limits and cannot know the "thing-in-itself" (noumenon). / Henri Bergson contrasted the analytical intellect, which freezes reality into static concepts, with intuition, a mode of knowing that can grasp reality in its living, dynamic flow (durée). Science & Logic: Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems proved mathematically that within any consistent formal axiomatic system powerful enough to describe arithmetic, there will always be true statements that cannot be proven from those axioms. This is a formal, logical demonstration of the limits of logic itself, a "blind spot" as you put it. Scientific breakthroughs often involve an intuitive leap (e.g., Kekulé's dream of the benzene ring) that is only later formalized and proven. |
| Mastery is Acquired, Not Given You assert that true mastery is an internal achievement, not a transferable commodity. A true guide can only point the way; the journey must be undertaken by the seeker. This principle emphasizes personal effort, struggle, and realization over passive reception of information. The transformation is in the process itself, making the struggle a necessary and valuable part of the attainment. | Qur’an: (An-Najm, 53:39) wa-an laysa lil-insāni illā mā saʿā [And that there is not for man except that [good] for which he strives]. / (Al-‘Ankabūt, 29:69) wa-lladhīna jāhadū fīnā la-nahdiyannahum subulanā [And those who strive for Us - We will surely guide them to Our ways]. Guidance is contingent upon striving (jihād/mujāhadah). Sufism: The role of the spiritual guide (murshid) is not to "give" enlightenment but to guide the disciple (murīd) through the stations (maqāmāt) of the Path (ṭarīqah). The work of polishing the heart's mirror to reflect the divine light is the disciple's own. Bayazid Bastami said: "I went from God to God, until they cried from me in me, 'O Thou I!'" This is a journey of self-realization, not a gift. | Bible: (Philippians 2:12) "Therefore, my dear friends... continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling." / The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) condemns the servant who passively buried his talent, rewarding those who actively worked to multiply what they were given. Alchemy: The Great Work (Magnum Opus) of transforming base metal into gold is a metaphor for the alchemist's own spiritual transformation. It is a long, arduous, and secret process of purification (solve et coagula) that the alchemist must perform himself. The Philosopher's Stone cannot be given; it must be made. | Greek Philosophy: Aristotle's concept of virtue and flourishing (eudaimonia) is not a state but an activity (energeia). One becomes virtuous by repeatedly performing virtuous acts. It is a practice (askēsis), not a theory. Indian Philosophy (Buddhism): The Buddha's last words were reportedly, "All conditioned things are impermanent. Strive on with diligence." He often stated, "You yourselves must strive; the Buddhas only point the way." The path to enlightenment is one of personal effort in meditation and ethical conduct. | European Philosophy: The motto of the Enlightenment, according to Kant, is "Sapere Aude!"—"Dare to know!" or "Have the courage to use your own understanding!" This is a call for intellectual self-reliance. / Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the Übermensch (Overman) is one who overcomes himself and creates his own values through a process of intense self-discipline and will-to-power. This cannot be taught; it must be lived. Science: A PhD is not "given." A student is guided by a supervisor, but they must conduct original research, struggle with failed experiments, and achieve a personal, deep understanding to make a genuine contribution. Reading a physics textbook is not the same as having a physicist's intuition, which is earned through years of problem-solving. |
| Warning Against False Teachers & The Inner Flame You caution against commercial "masters" with vested interests and end with a plea: "Let not the flame die out!" This combines a practical warning with a profound mystical imperative. The warning protects the seeker from exploitation, while the plea encourages the preservation of the inner spark of questioning and yearning—the very thing that initiated the quest. This inner fire is the authentic guide. | Qur’an: (Al-Baqarah, 2:16-17) A parable of those who "purchased error [in exchange] for guidance, so their transaction has brought no profit... Their example is that of one who kindled a fire, but when it illuminated what was around him, Allah took away their light and left them in darkness, not seeing." This warns against inauthentic guidance that leads to a loss of the true inner light. Ḥadīth: The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) warned against charlatans and false prophets who would appear before the end of time. A central theme is the importance of authentic transmission and knowledge (isnād). Sufism: Sufis distinguish between a true murshid who guides to God and a false shaykh who calls followers to himself. The preservation of the divine secret (sirr) or inner spark is paramount. | Bible: (Matthew 7:15) "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." / (2 Timothy 4:3) "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." Greco-Roman Myth: The myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, represents this divine spark of intellect, creativity, and consciousness that must be tended. | Greek Philosophy: Socrates fought against the Sophists, who were itinerant teachers charging fees for instruction in rhetoric, often without concern for truth. Socrates, by contrast, claimed to know nothing and charged no fee, seeing his role as a "gadfly" to awaken the inner conscience and desire for truth in others. Indian Philosophy: In the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, Yama (Death) tests the young seeker Nachiketa by offering him worldly wealth and power. Only when Nachiketa rejects these temptations in favor of true knowledge does Yama agree to teach him. This is a classic test of the seeker's motive. | European Philosophy: Søren Kierkegaard railed against the institutionalized "Christendom" of his day, arguing it had become a comfortable social club that had lost the fiery, paradoxical, and demanding nature of true faith. He contrasted the objective "professor" with the subjective, passionate believer. Modern Science: The scientific community has rigorous peer-review processes and standards for evidence precisely to guard against "pseudoscience" and "charlatans" who make extraordinary claims for personal gain without providing verifiable proof. The "flame" is the principle of skeptical inquiry and intellectual honesty. |
