TRIGGERING THE MIND

Trigger is a mechanical term. It is a device which actuates the firing sequence of a firearm. It is used to initiate the firing of a cartridge in the firing chamber of the weapon. This is the mechanical concept of triggering but there is also an intellectual triggering. Just as mechanical trigger can produce an explosive result, the same is true of intellectual triggering.

For example, if you take a glass of water and drink from it, this is also an occasion that can trigger your mind. If you are an awakened mind, you are bound to reflect on how water was created. If you think how two gases could combine and form a very useful liquid (H2O), it would certainly trigger your mind.

If you continue your thinking process, it is bound to lead to a high level of spiritual development. Every moment you face such experiences in the form of the rising of the sun in the morning, the continuous supply of oxygen from air, the flying of birds in the sky, green trees standing on the surface of earth, flowing streams and so on. There are numerous such phenomena in nature that may trigger your mind and give you a high kind of spiritual food.

Anyone who wants to live as a spiritual person must develop himself as a person who can engage in tawassum.

The only condition is that you should be a prepared mind. A prepared mind is like a loaded gun; if the gun is loaded then the trigger will work, otherwise not. If you are a prepared mind or an intellectually awakened person, then every experience or observation is bound to trigger your mind and compel you to take to serious contemplation. It will initiate a thinking process in your mind. If you are not an awakened mind, then you will live in the midst of experiences but fail to avail it as an opportunity for spiritual development. You will live as a person who is blind and due to his blindness the rising rays of the sun are not visible to him.

Jesus Christ said the following prayer:

O Lord! Give us this day our daily bread (Mathew 6:11)

The same is referred to in the Quran as rizq-e-rabb (20:131), that is, the provision of God.

Daily bread and divine provision are not mysterious terms. They are derived through a well-known method that is referred to in the Quran as tawassum (15:75). That is, to draw spiritual lessons from material events or experiences. Anyone who wants to live as a spiritual person must develop himself as a person who can engage in tawassum. He must enable himself to draw spiritual lessons from the apparently non-spiritual experiences of daily life.