S7E6 Deep Dive #01 – Are you paying Attention? The Reinvention Series starts getting serious

This room is on. Our aim is nothing less than reinvention.

So let's do that. Let's go on this deep dive that I promised you.

What if I told you that most people live and die without knowing that they really had a life.

This is in fact true. If you've suffered mentally, one of the things that becomes very real, once you realize that you have had a Mental Difficulty in the sense that you suffered, is the sense that you have actually had a mind and your mind is vulnerable. And it's got vulnerabilities and strengths.

I would say that this is a gift from Allah, because you are given the chance to see that you are more than your thoughts.

And this is the first thing that we have to try to appreciate.

You are more than your thoughts, you are more than your achievements, more than your worries, you are more than your desires, you are more than what your parents think of you, you are more than what you earn, you are more than all of those things.

But you might not realize it for many years will lie some people don't realize it until the moment they're about to die.

So what am I talking about?

I'm talking about true awareness, awareness that everything you are in life is happening right now. awareness that whatever you are thinking or doing, you only really get a chance to feel it. Once you understand that you have a choice as to how you react to it. You are not just a passive being, you are not the summative list of all the things that you're trying to achieve. And you're not defined by those things, or what anyone else says you are defined as you are just you valuable as you are, that awareness itself is a gift.

And you don't have to spend years achieving it.

Think about it this way, you're a bit puzzled or intrigued listening to this. You're trying to work out what I'm saying.

And that's it. That is your awareness right there. It happens in those moments that you are in a space of paying attention to something that is meaningful, that helps you to escape from those distractions, and helps you to appreciate the wonder of your life right now.

It's remembering that you are here and enjoying appreciating that you don't have to go anywhere, or change anything, just to be a value. It's paying attention to what you are right now without any judgment, without any sense of urgency or impatience. It is humble appreciation of the being that you have been created to be by Allah.

Let me put it this way, if you think that this is not important,

one Hadeeth says that two records offered with attention is worth more than 1000 offered when you're distracted.

So what is this attention?

Is it important to Islam?

Well, Islam is a religion that has put awareness at the center of itself. awareness of Allah, what else would you expect of a religion whose very name, Islam is descriptive of a state of constant awareness and submission to power that's greater than you.

In that submission, there is actually your true power.

It's the realization that when you are truly aware that you control the nature of your behavior, or your decisions that you will actually get to where you want to go more quickly. Then all of those years that you spent rushing, why? Because you remember to just be here.

Allah said B and then you were and you have struggled to say that of yourself. You have been trying to think things or decide things or do things just be

and you know what the Arabic word for remembering and awareness is?

It's liquor.

People say Oh, meditation, that's an Eastern practice shouldn't happen Islam. Is it strange if meditation? What are you talking about brother Islam is, first and foremost, a meditative religion. It's where we pay attention to our God more formally than any other religion

and informally outside.

In informally allies pleased when we are remembering him and we're remembering ourselves in this moment, reflection, that's our first insight. So right now if you can, let's do some informal Vicar. And what I mean by informal Vicar is just the appreciation of who you are and where you are. look upwards. Lean back a bit. Slow your breathing down.

That helps prime your body for us.

reflection. And now, look for something to admire, look at the sky or appreciate some nice color, or appreciate something nice in your mind. And if not, well let your mind drift to something that's unpleasant.

The point is, there is Vicar in appreciating that what there is right in front of you, good or bad, is all written to you, or written for you, by Allah.

Bad things lose their power over you when we realize that these bad things can never be more powerful than God Himself. He loves us regardless of what we think of ourselves, regardless of if we think we're worthless, or anything like that.

And the good things are there as signs to remind us to just be here. Otherwise, you might look around and find that you've lived many years without actually having been there.

We'll look at this more closely over the next few days. And if you want something more concrete tonight than what sounds like what a wishy washy thing, maybe this isn't for you. Well try this.

Try when you place a law today, I want you to praise the law with one simple Focus, focus on your body, as you sit where you stand, focus on the feeling of your feet as they're on the ground connected to the earth, pressed down by a force that is generated by a law, the gravity that is clinging you to the earth for no earthly reason. It's just a force.

Elias put you on there. And then he says, when you do sij da he putting your head on the ground, you are caring, you're saying I don't really care about gravity, but I'm putting my head on the ground, because I'm displaying my submission to Allah.

And maybe just your breathing or your feet as they connect to the ground. Use these things as anchors to hear the voice of the Imam or your own voice.

Pray like that and tell me what it feels like at the end. If you do it right. It will feel completely different. It will feel as if you actually turned up to Salah.

And if you didn't feel that, that's fine. You know why? Because it's not about achieving that state.

It's about gently humbly trying.

And this brings us to the point of Ramadan. Ramadan is a gift, which is full of opportunities, where we gently humbly try to be more present. Right. So that's what we're going to do over the next few days. Talk more tomorrow, inshallah.