Before I heard anything about the 68 nafs, I wasn’t nearly as angry as often as I used to be. And when I was angry, my anger didn’t stick around as long. I was way ahead of where I used to be. I thank God and Heavenletters for that. This cooling down happened naturally by itself without effort on my part. I love that, and I am grateful whenever or however I make progress.

Just being in life we learn and we progress. I progress faster with Heavenletters and with you.  And I am in a hurry.

I am grateful for this list of nafs. They support love and honor. It seems to me that in the world we get support for other things. What is truly important doesn’t seem to get much press.  Other things are advertised and given precedence in the world.

I just heard that term papers are sold on line. Somebody buys them, and somebody thinks it’s smart to sell them. Viagara is advertised ad infinitim. Some companies think they are smart to take advantage of others, as shown in that movie Flash of Genius. Lying isn’t seen as so bad, etc.

From my side, instead of calling these reminders nafs, I could call them:

Ways in which I may not honor myself and God

Ways in which I may kid myself

Cowardly ways not to live by

We could turn it around. Instead of saying how not to live, we could say how to live. Instead of saying not to cheat,  we could say be honest. We could entitle this new positive list something like:

How to live a life closer to God

How to set a good example to myself and others

How to become brave and unselfish

But somehow, don’t cheat seems to come out stronger than be honest. Don’t cheat is more concrete. Be honest is more vague.

When I taught school, I said to my kids straight out: “Don’t take drugs.” “I don’t want you to take drugs.” I was very clear.

I want to work on my nafs. I don’t want them. I feel empowered to have a list.

Four more I’m going to work on removing are:

To be self centered in conversation

To forget about one’s own shortcomings and be preoccupied with the shortcomings of others

To make oneself depressed

To  make excuses for the nafs