04-05-2006, 09:17 PM
As an aside, many of my curiosities about other religions, and other cultures all together, are centered around the mode of consciousness, if you will, that people of various paths develope over a life of exposure to their local sociological macrocosm. Our spirituality, especially, is one of the most critical factors in this developement. People of various faiths THINK differently on a very fundamental level. What is important to someone who has grown up in one faith is not so important to someone of a different faith. This is common sense in the understanding of cultural differences.
What I am targeting here is an understanding of the unique elements of consciousness within the sociological construct of Islam as a whole. I realize that it will vary greatly in the details - but the fundamental elements at the base of the construct will almost undoubtedly be universal. I could peruse books and articles on the subject, but Discussion and debate are the best ways that I have found to come to a more complete understanding than what the perspective of one author will generally allow for.
I think that the source of most cultural friction is simply an inability to fully comprehend how one another's thoughts are moving. This Protocol of consciousness is very real and easily demonstrable - or at least, it has proven so to me - and the effects of the differences can be crippling to communication, when not present beside individual minds who are able to keep their minds wide open at all times. I have been a 'fortune teller' after a fashion, for many years, for instance, and I have found that I can more easily read a person who is closer to my own protocol of consciousness. The further away they are, the larger the gap between our thought processes, the harder it is to connect at all.
So, I will have many questions dealing with what is important to the average Islamic devotee. Not in order to create blanket generalizations, mind - rather, to find the common threads which will almost certainly connect the vast bulk of the demographic.
Namaste :peace:
Mahasvapa