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Made of the Same Matter

When I remember how vast the universe is, I feel awe not only at its scale — trillions of planets, billions of stars, and countless galaxies — but at something more intimate and humbling. The very same matter that gives shape to this immense cosmos also shapes me — my molecules, my atoms, my electrons.Knowing I am made of the same matter as everything else in the universe and around me, changes how I experience my place in the world. The boundary between “me” and “everything else” is not as solid as it feels. Recognizing this helps soften the feeling of being isolated or an outsider.This understanding speaks to “interconnectedness,” not “oneness” that I often speak of. Here, I refer to belonging within a shared material reality — a physical connection — the secular, scientific fact of shared matter and shared processes. I’m still me, the universe is still the universe, and the distinction remains real.

Non-Reactivity Is Not Complicity

Someone told me this morning — echoing what many people might feel — that spiritual people like me who choose non-reactivity and non-anger in the face of today’s events are no different from the bystanders who enabled Mussolini or Hitler to rise.That hit me hard, because history does warn us about the danger of silence in the face of injustice. But here’s the thing: non-reactivity is not silence, indifference, or complicity. It doesn’t mean I’m ignoring what’s happening. It means I’m not letting fear, rage, bias, or hate hijack my mind.And here’s something else that is often misunderstood: non-reactivity or non-anger in the face of current events is not a technique I put effort into or consciously adopt. When we are aligned with our deeper essence, non-reactivity arises naturally and automatically. From that place, we don’t need to suppress reactivity and anger — they simply don’t take over.Non-react

When the World Exhales What It Can No Longer Hold

The world is not ending — though it can feel that way, especially in my homeland, Iran.What is happening is something more unsettling: the world is exhaling what it can no longer hold. When life outgrows its container, the container cracks. What we are witnessing collectively is the sound of that cracking. As it weakens, it grows louder. This is the final brightness of a dying star — not yet the birth of a new one.Power is panicking. Suppressed grief is surfacing. Ancestral wounds are asking to be seen, not repeated. This is why my country feels so tense, unstable, and yet strangely intimate all at once. The familiar is dissolving because the ground no longer responds the way it used to.The same fire is burning what is false and, simultaneously, illuminating what is real. This is why we see both cruelty and extraordinary courage rising at the same time. The veils are thinning in both directions.What remains when this compression eases will not be a perfect world &

Iran’s Two Rebellions Against Imposed Faith

Feeling turned off by Islam as represented by the current Iranian state’s politics, many Iranians are turning to the country’s pre-Islamic past for meaning and pride. Zoroastrianism, which became the state religion under Cyrus the Great over 2,550 years ago, has re-emerged as a powerful cultural symbol. Often associated with one of the earliest declarations of human rights, it is seen as the Persian Empire’s traditions of governance, continuity, and religious tolerance before the Islamic conquest.This is not an argument about Islam as theology or the private faith of Muslims, but about what happens when religion — any religion — is fused with state power and enforced through law.The First Rebellion: Conquest and Cultural SurvivalLong before Islam, Iran had been shaped by Zoroastrianism, influenced by the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster. By the early 7th century — shortly after the death of the Prophet Mohammad in 632 AD in Medina and a d

When Matter Dissolves, the Sacred Remains

Science takes matter apart, as you see in this image. Mysticism listens to what remains.Our true nature is not captured in matter — by our appearance. However powerful, charismatic, beautiful, or compelling that appearance may be, it is composed almost entirely of “empty” space, giving the illusion of solidity through the motion of electrons orbiting atomic nuclei.Science tells us that all matter in our universe — including our bodies, the food we eat, the trees, the rocks, and even our possessions — is in constant motion. Everything is made of molecules, atoms, and electrons, all vibrating at different frequencies, as this image suggests.An apt analogy is the blades of a fan: as they rotate faster and faster, they appear to become a single, still disk. My fingers, which are now forming these words on a keyboard, are themselves made of molecules and atoms whose electrons are endlessly in motion.If the volume created by that motion were remov

A Nation In Pain, A World Waking Up

There are more openings for spiritual awakening among those who suffer than among those who are endlessly insulated from life. This becomes painfully clear when we look toward Iran. The Iranian people have been asked to suffer far more than anyone should. And yet, from that suffering has emerged extraordinary moral clarity: courage in the streets and a refusal to let truth be erased. Their pain has not made them small. It has made them awake.Suffering does not sanctify us automatically. But it can break us open. It can burn away illusions that comfort preserves. And when it does, something luminous appears — not because suffering is good, but because consciousness can grow even in the darkest soil.Those who are pampered in fictitious Malibu spas or enthroned in political and religious hierarchies obsessed with power and accumulation, may experience pleasure — sometimes even joy. But that joy is fragile. It is stitched to circumstance. Change the scenery, remove th

Abbas Milani on Iran: Clear-Eyed Analysis, Hard Truths, and a Path Forward

Abbas Milani is a prominent Iranian American historian, author, and professor, widely respected for his expertise in Iranian politics, culture, and U.S.–Iran relations. He is a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and teaches at Stanford University, where he co-directs the Iran Democracy Project. He is also the author of numerous influential books on modern Iran, including major biographies of the Shah.What stands out in Milani’s analysis is its moral clarity and political realism. His proposed solutions are direct and uncompromising:• International pressure and condemnation: Governments around the world must state clearly that “the regime cannot kill its way out of the Iranian people’s peaceful demand for change.”• Support for democratic voices: The United States and other nations should align their strategic interests with the Iranian people themselves, actively supporting democratic voices inside Iran and throughout the diaspora

When Power Loses Its Claim to Moral Order

For over four decades, the power of Iran’s religious authorities rested not only on force, but on a story: that they were guardians of faith and moral order. The massacre of young protesters shattered that story beyond repair.Once a leader is seen ordering the killing of his own children, legitimacy collapses from within — even if the regime’s structures remain standing.In Iranian culture, historical judgment has a long memory. Leaders are not remembered by their titles or sermons, but by the wounds they leave behind. When a ruler becomes associated with the death of the young, the verdict is sealed in the collective mind. Protest can be crushed. Memory metastasizes.The regime may not fall quickly. It survives by exhausting people rather than convincing them. But legitimacy is already draining away. They are no longer seen as religious authorities — only as stains that will not wash off.To my Iranian grand family who are grieving, like I am, may we lea

What Those in Power in Iran Don’t Learn, They Carry Forward

The authorities in today’s Iranian regime carry egos swollen with the hunger for power. When power becomes the center of one’s identity, the door to the inner self quietly closes. What remains is a rigid attachment to what is “believed” — conceptually — in this case God’s will.In that state, compassion cannot flow, because compassion arises only from inner connection, not conceptual thoughts. We “can” know this from personal experience. When we touch our essence, even briefly, something unmistakable happens. Self-compassion grows. Compassion for others becomes natural. Reverence for life and its Source deepens.When a person loses contact with their essence — their soul or that quiet spark of the Source within — compassion and oneness disappear. Other people — in this case protesters — are felt as obstacles, threats, or tools.We may not be able to speak with certainty about what happens after de

What A Mystic Really Is

universWhat A Mystic Really IsThe word “mystic” often brings to mind romanticized images shaped by myths and movies: someone renouncing all possessions, sitting in meditation all day, eating almost nothing, rejecting pleasure, dressed in flowing robes, always “somewhere else” mentally.But in reality mystics throughout history and across traditions have often been farmers, poets (like Rumi), parents, and community leaders — deeply engaged with society, speaking of justice, compassion, and human dignity. Many are also joyful, humorous, and very ordinary in their daily lives.The heart of mysticism isn’t about escaping life — it’s about seeing life more deeply. It’s about discovering the sacred in the everyday: in tending a garden, listening to a friend, or even conducting scientific research.Mystics remind us that the extraordinary is woven into the ordinary. At first this is known as an idea, then practiced, until — th

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