The Parable of The Naked Man

Posted on by toomajj

(The image is the famous Hubble Ultra-Deep Field.)

We often demand miracles as proofs for the transcendental origin of the world; but in demanding so we are blind to the miracle in the fact of being and the act of demanding. Our mundane preoccupations eclipse the sense of wonder inherent in each moment and its content; and we take for granted the strangest of all things, that the world is.

We take the scientific descriptions as causal explanations, as if science really explained the why of being and becoming! We look for miracles inside the world but fail to see that the very being of the world is itself the most obvious miracle, the ground of all miracles.

The miracle of Being is something beyond the scope of all rational inquiry, for reason itself must first be before it can know, and hence itself remains always a mystery.

The parable of the naked man: “God is With You”

Once upon a time a skeptic scholar surrounded by his pupils bumped into a naked man dancing and singing the names of God. They asked him, “What is wrong with you?”

The naked man said, “God is with me.”

The scholar mockingly said “If God is with you, then why don’t you perform a miracle for us!”

The naked man replied, “Yes sirs, I shall perform a miracle for you.” Pointing to a stone farther away he said, “You see that stone over there! I can move it from here.”

The scholar and his students became curious and demanded the naked man to do as he had claimed.

The naked man walked to the stone, moved it around, and came back to where he was standing and said, “Done.”

The crowd laughed at him; the scholar said “That was not a miracle you fool; you were supposed to move it from here but you walked there.”

The naked man said, “Exactly sir, I walked there, and that is the miracle. From here I can move a bigger thing called the body and with it I can move everything else. I will and it moves. If you cannot see the miracle in that, then you are the performer of a bigger miracle: You can doubt the self-evident and deny the most obvious; even I can’t do that. Indeed God is with you too,” said the naked man and continued dancing and singing.

[Note: I like to add this point about the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field which shows billions of galaxies spread out in boundless space: I have heard people say that this image makes them feel so insignificant. But we must understand that if we feel insignificant it is because we can feel the significance of the image and the infinite greatness implied in it. The image is just a small piece of paper. Both the greatness and the littleness that we experience come from within ourselves, hence preexisting all creation. This is how the macrocosm is reflected in the microcosm transcendentally and primordially.]

28 thoughts on “The Parable of The Naked Man”

  1. Toomajj, may I reblog this? I remember as a child the first time I became aware of my own existence and the sublime joy that caused within my young heart. I also remember the first time I was aware of the teaming life all around me extending from my previous self awareness out all the way through universes of light. Of course, I had no idea what it meant, but to this day it happens sometimes. I am in awe at the magnitude of His creation and bowled over by the indescribable vastness that must be Him. This article and story made me think of this. 🙂

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      2. Toomajj, I’d like to ask you a question, if that’s okay? I see a lot of end of life suffering and have learned a lot from you about suffering. I watch these people and I am trying to reconcile myself to the realities of this. What do you think about the possibility that they are no longer really “in” their bodies and aren’t really experiencing the depth of their pain? I don’t think they’ve already gone on but could their souls be travelling?

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      3. This is a very difficult question as the experience of pain, and also peace, is subjective; my guess is that it depends on the individual; I think if they are more conscious of their spiritual essence, they feel more detached from the pain and thus settled in their soul. It is possible to be in suffering and peace at the same time.
        Perhaps they soul is less detached from the body. In general suffering and crisis loosen the soul a little bit, that is why there can be great spiritual awakening in pain and crisis.
        I personally see soul as something not within space and time but belonging to a higher realm which is timeless, hence the immortality of the soul. In this sense, it is not the soul that travels but the body that falls off from it.
        One reason there has always been mortification in almost all religions is because pain keeps the soul conscious; suffering from pain comes because the soul, being forgetfulness of its origin and essence, identifies with the body. Without suffering the soul wouldn’t become conscious of this identification. Through suffering it becomes conscious and comes to learn that suffering is of the body and not of the soul. Detachment is the virtue behind all this. When the soul remembers its origin and essence it realizes that it has never been suffering to begin with; suffering is of the body; the soul is only watching it.
        In cases of suffering prior to death, if the person is spiritual perhaps they soul is loosened enough that they feel ready. This is what I have thought about it. Not sure if it answers your question.
        The key to deal with suffering is detachment, and be detached we only need constant remembrance of God since as human beings we are naturally inclined to forget.

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  2. Reblogged this on WritersDream9 and commented:
    I am a true fan of Tomaj Javidtash and am always inspired by his posts at Noemaya. This one especially touched a chord with me and I wanted to share it with you. If you like it go on over and read him! You won’t regret it! tomajjavidtash.com

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  3. i am interested in some of your studies, however i am a non believe that there is god, which created man, nonetheless do believe that man created a god?

    i have a belief that if you wake-up upon death of one’s vehicle (body) where time has no boundaries, to begin a new existence, however ifinn you don’t wake, one becomes dark-matter floating through space.

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    1. Thanks for your comment. I am not myself a fan of belief; what is the point of having a belief if it have not experienced its truth directly; and if we do experience it directly, then we don’t need to believe; we just know it.
      I personally go with radical empiricism when it comes to reality or truth: “Knowledge MUST begin with experience, proceed within experience, and end with experience.” All scientific concepts, including dark matter, particle, matter and motion, etc. are abstractions in principle transcendent to experience, hence unempirical.
      The religious person though believes in god does also experience it, in whatever form, and hence his/her belief turns into intuitive knowledge. But no amount of belief in scientific concepts can help the scientist to have an intuitive experience of the scientific reality, for this reality is mere abstraction. Science works perfectly; it is a tool for dominating nature; but it is not about reality because the reality of science itself is derived from the reality of the subjective states of the scientist. A hammer my work perfectly; but does this justify us in rising and saying that ‘hammer is the truth!”
      The reality of god, or spirit, or I would say the Ground of Being, is something we either know intuitively or not at all. There is no point in entertaining beliefs for or against it.
      That is why when it comes to Reality I find science and its finding absolutely irrelevant. It is futile to use science in this regard because presupposed the reality of world that it is trying to explain.
      Some come to know that Ground of Being through religion, some through Plato; one calls it god, another calls it pure consciousness, another calls it singularity, etc. All radii of a circle lead to the same point at the center; all paths lead to the One, and That is known only through direct perception and realization; belief and opinion come when we stop thinking or seeking. Conviction is the death of the intellect. My suggestion is endless inquiry until one come to the point where one realizes “I am the beginning, the middle, and the end of all inquiries.”

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      3. in short it all start, by hearing voices, then narrowing it down to people walking by…

        Which then progressed into ask question, what i was hearing, most times with startling results, hence an answer by reaction. As i beg to play with un-said thoughts, by provoking a, as time moved on touch those finding my boundaries, leaning that more women are in-tuned than men. Obviously it became more know in the area, i began hear you are one… What it mean i have no idea, or possibly this is what i want to hear…

        The conclusion is up to those, which i find sadly mistaken…

        Any more question, feel free to ask!

        Myself i believe it is a curse…. (lets say bad karma)

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      4. What I would say is that all we say is an expression of the deeper truth that we are. In other words, you are the truth; whether I am a theist or atheist it is “I” who am that and make it to be my truth; the “I” is the ground of all truths but it is the “I” who admits to the truth of something. The truth we believe in derives its validity from our own consciousness. By this “I” I mean not the psychological ego; because this ego is the ego of the “I.” Your truth and reality is THE ONLY truth and reality; even if you say that there are other truths and that yours is not the only one, then this is your truth. Without you truth makes no sense whatsoever. what we name this truth matters not at all. It is important that we act accordingly and honestly.
        From this angle, the theist and the atheist believe in the same thing; the theist (I mean the honest theist), however, acts according to that believe but the atheist acts contrary to his belief.

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  8. Interesting example for me as I have Parkinson’s disease. If I have not taken my medicine for a while I just cannot move. After I take my medicine (dopamine) I am able to move again; That is the miracle.

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  10. So the body, at death, is kind of discarded? I see. Our level of suffering is dependent on several things, what it can teach us, what our perceptions are, and the circumstances that we have created for ourselves. Correct? Thanks, Toomajj!

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