Phantom_X (Offline)  

I recently read your thread on wanting to go to LSE to get a good education; erm... I strongly advice you to ask around about the "quality" of LSE's teaching; I heard not so great things about them : /

Hiya. I saw your post about trying to get a training contract and just wanted someone to talk to who is in a similar situation to me! I'm waiting to hear back from 3 firms, I've been rejected from all the others I applied to where do you plan to study the GDL? Have you got a place anywhere?

Hi Phantom x

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Hi,
Im a 4th year student currently writing a dissertation about the effects of the tuition fee rises. I came across your post under the thread "Is a rise in tuition fees necessarily a bad thing?" and was wondering if i could possibly use parts of it in my dissertation? Also i was wondering what you education status was?

Thanks, would be a great help.

I would argue that what you say is true for orthodoxy, but not for mystical schools of thought. There is a hierarchy even in Sufism, a place of congregation, and master but ultimately a great deal of emphasis on the individuels journey. The act or ritual of drinking a cup of coffee reinforces the pleasure and well being of the self (ego) surrendering to the substance of hot coffee is in my opinion negligible in spiritual terms when surrendering to a belief with an act of faith. If drinking coffee in the morning is viewed as a religious act of devotion if our spirituality is channelled through then it is transfigured into ritual akin the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Pardon my English.

I don't know if you can define spirituality, or more particularly religious experience. How does one define an apple to someone who has never seen or tasted one before? Other than giving them seeds and asking them to take it on "faith" that should they be nurtured in time they will taste an apple. The Islamic approach to salaat is one of surrender to achieve a sense of peace, unlike du'a and or the more meditative dzhikr. In other words there exists even in Islam a plurality of "prayer". The differences lie in the ritual act of submission of ones ego to the infinite; for me that is where spirituality lies. However, I would argue that orthodoxy mistakenly identifies ritual as a means to an end, the spiritual is forgotten, in what becomes a banal, legalistic, and ultimately superficial engagement of repetition.

Hajj exemplifies the power of pilgrimage sine pari, and ritual which are both individual undertakings reinforced by the group. The difference between a morning coffee, and coffee at Starbucks with friends It all depends on the nature of a religious experience; coffee particularly the lone morning drink can often lead to one loosing a sense of the present, and deep contemplation, a more spiritual experience from drinking with friends or even attending a coffee convention which is more about the qualities of coffee than what it evokes because it lacks the ritualistic element. In an evangelical church the focus of the stage and lighting, smoke machines, lasers, music all become the focus of the group and the shared spiritual experience, a Buddhist would emphasis the present, and discourage contemplative "navel gazing". So perhaps there are different forms of spiritual experience, or that there are different ways to experience the spiritual. Why are they a fallacy? English is not my first language so I lost your argument there.

Twelver, Isma'ili or Zaydi is I may ask?

You appear to share a "Sufi" view regarding spiritual experience; Ibn Arabi spoke of there being many paths to God. Do you believe spiritual experience as part of say a tariqah is "religious"? The end goal is more spiritual rather than social ordering in my experience. I suppose what I'm getting at is the question of wheather congressional experience of of religion is achievable, and "real", or whether you would argue that it is entirely individualistic, and the congregation only provides an illusion of united spiritual experience? Thank you for replying.

I found your post on page 2 of the "Muslim -> "Atheist"?" excellent, and reflected many of my own struggles with orthodoxy. + rep.

You mentioned you did a great deal of reading, I'm curious as to what books you read, and what conclusions you drew regarding whether a space exists for those of a more progressive mindset. Kind regards. x

Props for that post.