God Suffices – Part 4, Eternal Life is Only Possible Through Eternal Existence

(Continuation of the Fourth Ray, the First Degree of the Luminous Verse ‘For us God suffices’)

“Also, through the insight of belief and that connection and relation, a bond is formed with all beings; a sort of union is attained with them. In this way, apart from one’s personal existence in second place, through the insight of belief and that connection, relation, bond and union, a boundless existence comes into being which is as though one’s own; and one’s innate passionate love of existence is quietened.”

We live in this universe, we interact with creation and so our connection with the universe cannot be meaningless. Belief introduces to us a sense of connection with all beings. Only when we are aware of what belief in the “existence of the Creator is”, we establish a connection or a bond with the universe. When we are convinced that the universe has a Creator, this conviction brings to us the news that everything is created by the same Source. As a result, everything then becomes our brothers and sisters.

Our senses and emotions are to be practiced in this world because our existence is with us i.e. the Source of our existence is Eternal; we belong to the Eternal One and so does everything else. Example: When we eat ice cream, how can we transform that experience into Eternity? The taste, the pleasure and the happiness that we experience is all given but lasts less than a fraction of a second. The instant pleasure is from an Eternal pleasure Giver. In and of itself, pleasure cannot exit by itself.

• This awareness is the requirement for belief. After realizing that everything is coming from an Eternal Source, every moment becomes Eternal because we attach ourselves to the Eternal One. In this regard, our existence never ceases.

When we come to the conclusion that the universe has a Creator, it means that the object, its qualities and everything that we experience through it belongs to the Source. The object is created and it is given existence by an independent Source. Our appreciation of the Source is also created and we are part of this created universe.

Belief in the Creator puts us in touch with the whole universe from the beginning to the end; and the Source of this universe is Eternal. Just as we can never get to an infinite number in Mathematics, similarly, we cannot comprehend the capacity of the Creator in its entirety because the Creator is “Eternal” or “Absolute”.

• The Source of existence cannot be described within the conditions of what He creates in this universe. It is another dimension of existence, we cannot put any limit to it and so, the Source of existence is “Absolute” and therefore “Eternal”.
• Eternal existent One is the Creator.
• Eternal life can be gained if we know how to connect ourselves to the Eternal Creator.
• This makes us realize that we live in a complete universe that belongs to us.

Going back to the ice-cream example, if we are aware that the taste is coming from the Eternal One, we establish a sense of security in our existence i.e. the taste and pleasure I experience belong to the Eternal Source. Do we worry at all that this pleasurable moment is gone after realizing that this taste belongs to Him? Not at all, we belong to Him. Our senses are a promise from Him that He is the One providing us with the desire for the pleasure to last forever. He is the One giving us the awareness that everything is provided by Him, so we should not worry because we are being taken care of by the Absolute One.

The creation is realized in such a perfect way that our expectations can never be fulfilled by directing the expectations to the universe itself. Do not lay your hope in anything created. Creation is a means to get to Him, a call to trust Him and get to know Him better.

• Without connection to the Creator, we cannot find satisfaction in our existence.

Although, we may find temporary satisfaction to our existence by consuming goods/services as much as we can but we will disappoint ourselves in the long run. Only by attaching our existence to the existence Giver can we free ourselves from this circle of consumerism which exploits our humanity.

We are created beings and the universe is a sign continuously being created by the Creator. Everything is interconnected and so we are the product of our Creator. If we think that we exist by ourselves independent from other beings, then we have an individualistic approach towards the universe. Similarly, if someone closes his eyes and mind to the universe, that person cannot speak about the Creator.

• REMEMBER: We should be describing our existence in accordance with the Eternal Creator.

We may not like a certain type of life that we are living in, but at the same time, we cannot deny the value of our existence. We are created with a desire to exist in the best form of existence. The One who gave us this desire wants us to connect our expectations to Him. My expectation is to enjoy the best type of existence at the highest level. Because we are disillusioned that at the end we will die, we lose hope in appreciating the value of our existence. Without reflecting on our existence, we wish for not wanting to exist anymore. We evaluate our conditions without paying attention to the existence itself.

• Our given conditions/situations are a sign for us to connect our existence to Him.

Even the momentarily existence of a pleasure is a sign coming from the Creator, so benefit from it and get to know who the Creator is. After all, we belong to Him. I belong to you, you have created this pleasure and I want to experience this pleasure eternally and only you can do it.

• Human qualities are given to us to connect our existence to the Creator of this universe.
• If I connect myself to the Creator, then everything becomes meaningful.
• If I disconnect myself from the Creator, then everything becomes meaningless.

Eternal existence or love of existence can only be satiated by becoming aware of the Eternal Creator. We should understand that we are given the abilities to understand the Source of our existence, and so we should attach our existence to Him alone. If a person does not want to exist anymore, that is the result of unbelief or not believing in the Creator. In this position, this person does not realize their Source of existence and so they are not aware that their feelings and desires to wanting to be eternally happy are given by the Creator. There is no other Source that guarantees Eternal happiness. We mostly take the existence of our feelings for granted.

• ASK: where did I get the feeling for wanting Eternal happiness?

We need to reflect on whether we are the owner of our feelings or did they accidentally happened to be there? There is no way that we can attribute the feelings to ourselves or our particles. The particles cannot be the Source of our feelings, let alone make our human senses; although, we understand with our human senses. Nothing has a conscious will of its own (lailaha); everything is given existence by the Conscious Will (illallah). Unfortunately, we may not be aware of what belief in God really means. Any psychological distress apart from the one caused by a biological disturbance is due to the lack of awareness of belief in God.

• Love of existence can only be satisfied by becoming aware of our consciousness i.e. belief.

We are created with the ability of disliking certain events. If an event is causing us pain, we should never criticize the existence of that event. Taking precautions so that the event does not harm us is another matter. Avoiding the event itself is running away from our reality. The fact of the matter is that that event is there to teach us something. We should know that through the existence of this event, we are being trained and educated to refer expectations to Him only. Any created object/event cannot be the Source of our happiness; we need to look for the Creator and lay our hope in Him.

• We need to acknowledge the existence of everything, even the existence of the pain is a blessing. Through it, we get to know that which we have to avoid.

The most powerful pain is the pain of non-existence. The text is drawing our attention towards existence; when we are aware (with our feelings and reasoning) that we exist, then we start becoming aware that non-existence is unbearable. It is easy to say that “I better not exist” but when we understand that existence is not only bound to this life only, we would never want to commit suicide, we will never be sorry for anything that happens to us because we will just try to see the wisdom in its existence.

Every event is a sign pointing to our existence which in turn points to our Maker (existence Giver). Example: at one instance, we may think that we are turning our eyes to look at something. In reality, we just desire it and it is given to us by our Maker. In this regard, being aware of the significance of existence makes us realize that the most unbearable thing for human being is to lose existence.

Just as we are aware of the importance of good health and we would not want to lose it, similarly, if someone really concentrates on the importance of existence (i.e. I exist), then he would not want to lose it at any cost. Unfortunately, not many of us are aware of our existence.

• THINK: Have I ever thought of my existence?

Everything we experience is given to us to help us fulfill the mission of our being in this world. We exist now, our consciousness exists now, and we are responsible for our existence now. Because we are given the power of imagination, we use it to refer it to past and future events which do not “exist”. We have to evaluate our being now and concentrate on the existence of everything now which is our reality.

• Human consciousness is a great gift given to us to evaluate the existence of the given moment.
• Belief in God as the Quran says is “healing”. God is sending “guidance for Mercy”.

“And we sent down in the Quran such things that have healing and mercy for the believers.” (17:82)

When we are aware that the universe has a Creator and everything is meaningful in its existence, then we will be comfortable in our existence because we will know that things are deliberately given existence. If we deny the Creator, our existence becomes meaningless and this is also created by the Creator to make us realize whether we are on the right or wrong track.

• Wrong track= contradicting our existence.
• Right track= being consistent in our existence.

We are created to feel humanly comfortable in our existence; that feeling in itself is an encouragement from the Creator letting us know that we are on the right track and so we need to carry on. Example: Let us say that we helped out our neighbor and as a token of appreciation, the neighbor gives us flowers. How do we feel? Practically, we feel happy, we smile and it is reflected in our overall being. The Creator is the Eternal One; He speaks to us all the times. Every moment, His act of creation hints us that when we have a positive attitude towards the Creator, we will experience it in our physical being as well.

In conclusion, we need to reflect on the fact that “we are created”. This day is created; it is a present to all of us. We need to see the wisdom in the creation of every event and see the message in its existence. Our humanity is created by Him in order to understand what is right and wrong.