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To Medi
In a branch of Sufism, 'the undercurrent' of Islam, the gravest sin is to be offended. It may be puzzling to those used to more conventional formulas, such as “Thou shalt not kill”, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”, etc. The Sufi commandment does show a different approach. Many would say: God is truth. They would go on to supply: God cannot be mocked. Piecing these together: truth cannot be mocked. In the same vein, those standing on truth cannot be mocked either. In this light, offending someone would be nothing but testing his or her spiritual grounds. Finally, staying calm despite being offended suggests being on close terms with truth. Putting it in a more 'secular' way: the dog barks, yet the caravan goes on.
At the same time, calm is by no means at odds with 'oscillations'. For one thing, the sea waves go well with the serenity of its depths. In keeping with the subject, having blasphemy outlawed may agree with God's general insensitivity to the mockery. Should it cause His wrath indeed, it is the transgressor who would get into trouble whilst nothing would send ripples to God's 'kernel'. This would signify His innermost peace.
Coming down to the human level and now speaking of peace versus oscillations in most general terms, any need, want, craving, or interest – in bulk, these can be referred to as drive – would upset some balance or normal course of events. Satisfying a drive would reclaim the peace and may become a step towards a deeper serenity. In turn, this would allow a more sublime and higher drive to come into play. Losing peace and reclaiming it, becoming more peaceful or falling short of one's peacefulness, by and large, outlines the dynamics of human life.
Higher up again, if the absolute peace, or God, or truth are just all the same and held as the ultimate goal, the most sublime drive would be satisfied with knowing truth or partaking of Divine peace. This particular one seems to be marked with joy. For instance, a Hindu way of describing the God's nature is “sat-chit-ananda”, that is, existence-attention-bliss. At the same time, feeling happiness or satisfying a drive at a lower level seem to be only possible through the interplay of antipodes – essentially, masculine and feminine principles.
The transition from imitations of towards genuine peace comprises what is known as “the middle way” or “the straight way”, or simply “Way”. Along this Way, the antipodes are meant to turn into companions and, ultimately, become very intimately interwoven. Under different names in various traditions and schools of thought, these to-be-companions are known as “yan” and “yin”, “rajas” and “tamas”, “sun” and “moon”, etc. Bearing a close semblance to Way is “Tao” or “Sattva guna”, or “Great Doing”. Having selected “sun” and “moon” together with “Way” from the names at hand, I will be using them from now onwards.
For convenience's sake, one may visualize a pivot, that is, Way, encircled with two spirals – those of sun and moon – gradually accelerating and capering towards the top (a sort of inverted Rod of Asclepius). A more three-dimensional image of that would be a benched, conic structure, something similar to a minaret or a Buddhist stupa. One way or another, a deviation of either spiral would cause the entire structure to oscillate, down to collapse, this way more resembling a pendulum. In other words, the companionship may turn into a negative interdependence.
Speaking of qualities of these 'celestial bodies' in more abstract terms, light, order, heat, hardness, lightness, detachment lie mostly within sun's domain. Those are set off or balanced with darkness, chaos, cold, softness, heaviness, 'viscosity' coming from moon. With regards to their more concrete manifestations in the human psyche, sun would show as reactivity, dynamism, ambitiousness, consciousness, discrimination, comprehension, transcendence. Faces of moon would reflect passivity, desireness, inspirability, emotionality, intuitiveness, memory, subconsciousness.
It is plausible to say that various 'beams' of sun build up one's individuality or 'ego' with moon matching them up with some tangible, palpable, feelable counterparts or, as it is the case with subconsciousness, something latent that is yet to be manifested. This pairing of sun and moon would make up one's composite dynamic Self (the capitalization is to emphasize its composite nature, not a higher status). Not only does the dynamism part of Self suggest different physical, emotional, and mental states that one would most likely go through on a daily, if not on an hourly basis. Over the long run, it is either rising or descending along 'the pivot' of Way – normally, there appears to be no third scenario – this way claiming different states of happiness and peacefulness. Some individuals, it seems, happen to catch the upward momentum and align themselves with truth, or God, up to the point of becoming barely shakeable in their peace and joy. Among other things, that would make them much less sensitive to an offence.
In light of all above, it should have now become clearer why some adherents of Sufism would say: the greatest sin is to be offended.