Today Is Murshid Hidayat Inayat-Khan’s 95th Birthday

Dear Family,

Murshid Hidayat was born on this day in 1917 in London, and survives as the only living child of Hazrat Inayat Khan and Pirani Ameena Begum Ora Ray Baker. He currently serves as Co-General Representative of the Sufi Movement International’s Pir-O-Murshid Council and oversees the Movement’s summer school each year in Katwijk, Netherlands.

He and his wife Murshida Aziza are our Dervish Healing Order’s God-Parents. He continues to write prolifically on aspects of the Sufi Message, and as an internationally recognized composer he continues his work of setting many of the 99 Names of God to music so that they may be sung as spiritual practices. Murshid Hidayat and Murshida Aziza currently divide their time between Holland and Germany.

The planet is blessed to still have him with us! May we all be as bright, clear and energetic as he, as we journey through our ‘chronologically gifted’ years. If you have a moment today, you might pause and send a deep breath of love in his direction. Like all of us, he could use the ‘juice.’

Together in the One,
Love,
Aslan

_________________________________________

Alhamdulliah!

Many thanks for the reminder.

May they have another 100 years of health, clarity, and happiness.

all blessings,
sauluddin

 

Audio file of a Talk by Saul

Hakim Sauluddin gave a great talk at the SRI leadership meeting last fall, and by request I’m posting it on the Web for listening or downloading.

Here’s the link: http://sufipaths.net/dho/SB071107.mp3

TO HEAR THE MP3 FILE WITHOUT SAVING: Click the MP3 file name above to download as one big audio file. Then you can just “open” the file and your computer should start playing it. You’ll probably see a window with ‘Play’, ‘Pause’ and ‘Rewind’ etc buttons on it, these should help.

TO DOWNLOAD THE MP3 FILE AND SAVE IT ON YOUR COMPUTER: On a PC in Windows, right-click the MP3 file name above and select ‘Save as …’. Or on a Mac I believe this is done by clicking while holding the Control key. Now either (1) the file will download to your usual downloads folder (possibly the desktop, so you see it on the startup screen) … OR (2) you’ll be given a choice what folder to save it in. Later you can navigate to that folder and click to open it, and it will play; OR you can put it on a CD (holds up to about 70 minutes) using your favorite CD burning program; or transfer it to a portable MP3 player.

Much love to all     — Abdul Shaffee

Workshop: Nourishing Our Health

Nourishing Our Health

A Workshop with Murad Malvin Finkelstein
Saturday, January 19, 2008
1:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Held in Portland

According to the teachings of mystic and spiritual traditions from around the world, the health of our body is inextricably linked to the health of our minds, emotions and our spiritual bodies.

In this class, we will utilize teachings and practices (sound, breath, visualization, meditation, qigong) from Sufi and Qigong/Chinese Medicine traditions to:

» find and maintain balance in the midst of the chaos of everyday life;
» listen to our bodies’ messages to allow healing in our bodies and in our lives;
» find the balance between doing and being;
» nurture ourselves.

This workshop is designed to accommodate questions of the participants and allow for an active dialogue and tailoring of the presentation to participants’ interests and needs.

Murad brings stories and teachings from the Universal Sufi tradition, Sufi Healing and Chinese Medicine. He is a senior teacher in the Sufi Ruhaniat International and the Dervish Healing Order. Murad is an acupuncturist/OMD in Eugene and the former president of the National Qigong Association. He has 25-30 years of experience as a teacher of Sufism, qigong and Oriental medicine. In his teaching, he combines the wisdom of Sufism and Taoism/Oriental Medicine.

Suggested donation: $35. Sliding scale also available.
To register, contact Frank O.

Drop-ins are welcome, but space is limited – please call prior to the workshop.

Report: DHO 2007 updates

Dear family,

We got the financial figures in from the ‘walk around’ and Jennifer will be delivering a check for $1,733.12 to Khankah S.A.M. for renovation and repair of the hot tub.

Rug sales generated $380.00, and I shall purchase a great rug for Wali Ali & Sabura to welcome them into their new home.

Positive ripples are still going out from our “city experience,” and once again I am so proud and pleased with our family. Not only did we do it, we did it with fabulous style and with great verve. Yeah us!

A Heads-Up on Lama Upcoming:

Dates: June 23rd (Monday) – June 29th (Sunday) – 2008
Theme: Oracles and the Oracular Function (Tuning into the Spirit of Guidance)
Place: Lama Foundation, above Taos, New Mexico
Cost: To be a benefit for the Lama Foundation…more details on costs soon
(Please note – all monies collected will go to Lama)
Registration: We are still uncertain if Lama or us will do the registration – more soon.

I am hopeful we can gather together some of the pieces of the oracular puzzle, and with Murshids assistance, put them to work for us in our personal and professional lives.

Looking forwards to being on the Mountain together again.

I send all my love and many blessings,

sauluddin
October 25, 2007
Charlottesville, VA

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear family,

One of the “positive ripples” mentioned in Saul’s email was our re-connection with Joe Miller’s family at the Theosophical Society.

Richard Power of the SF Theosophical Society sends us this update:

The Lodge web site has now posted —

  • Almost three hundred digitized photos from the Walk, the Lodge, etc.
  • All of Joe and Guin’s sheet music w/ the lyrics
  • Eight more hours of Joe’s raps (these are from circa late 1970s, few have ever heard them)

As well as a whole lot more …

We offer it to all for free and forever (or at least as long as the Net exists) and hope these resources are used and shared by all.

Please spread the word far and wide.

For a directory of what is available — go to the Miller Archive section of the SFTS Lodge site — here is the URL —

http://sftslodge.org/category/miller-archive

Love,
Murad of Eugene

 

Summer Solstice Walk on the Beach, Thursday 11am

Toward the most beloved one,

Meet at the bottom of Judah St. at the Coffee Shop.

This is NOT Joe Millers walk although he started it….and will certainly be walking with us in spirit along with Gwen, Achim and beloved others.

Gather at 10:45 am or so for a 11am launch of our Solstice walk, bring a sandwich.

Rain or shine we walk!

Longtime Bay Area Sufi community member and San Franciscan  Hayat and Friends directs these weekly walks .

Murshida Vera Corda pbuh on more than one occasion after Joe and Gwen passed said this weekly community walk should comntinue for the good of all and al Hamdulilah it does!

This particular thursday walk space will be held for Achim (His first Urs) in two days. and of course Summer Solstice…

Bring a sandwich, poetry, open heart and mind….

toward the fun,
Rainbowheart Francis O’Hara

 

Review of Mansur’s Book: Murshid

Cries for Attention: Nuggets of wisdom are buried in this difficult tome about American Sufi Samuel L. Lewis 
By PAUL WINE

Sufism is the mystical heart of Islam. As with most forms of mysticism, the basic goals of Sufism are to free the mind from its conditioning and attachments, dissolve the ego and awaken the soul to spiritual reality.There are numerous books about Sufi beliefs and practices–many by Sufis themselves–but any book on this topic is a bit paradoxical because, as most Sufis will tell you, the written word is quite limited in its ability to convey spiritual ideas. Deep mystical understanding, they insist, can be grasped only through communion with a spiritual teacher or murshid.A new book by Tucsonan Mansur Johnson details his three-year association with Sufi teacher Samuel L. Lewis in the San Francisco Bay area during the late 1960s. Murshid: A Personal Memoir of Life With American Sufi Samuel L. Lewis, Johnson’s seriously underedited journal of the time, examines the final years of a complex mystical guide, as well as the peaks and valleys of Johnson’s spiritual odyssey.

In the midst of California’s eclectic spiritual counterculture, Lewis was a leader of some prominence (he was profiled in a 1969 Playboy article on California’s religious cults), and his story is indeed interesting.

Lewis came from a well-to-do family (his father was an executive with the Levi Strauss and Co., his mother a Rothschild), and, from a young age, he appeared spiritually precocious. As he grew older, he demonstrated little material ambition and, consequently, became estranged from his family. He spent his life reading voraciously, writing, traveling, studying a broad range of religions with a number of teachers–including Hazrat Inayat Khan, a guiding force in the Western migration of Sufism–and working a variety of jobs from military intelligence to highway landscaping. In 1967, three years before his death, he had a vision in which he said God anointed him “spiritual leader of the hippies” and soon began teaching Sufi dances, breath work and philosophy to a growing number of young disciples.

Johnson learned about Lewis while teaching at a Michigan university and seems to have experienced an immediate calling. He soon moved his family to California, becoming one of the murshid’s most devoted disciples.

Living and traveling with Lewis, Johnson became his “esoteric secretary,” often transcribing the murshid’s enormous output of letters. A good third of the book is composed of Lewis’ correspondence, and these letters provide our clearest view of the murshid.

Lewis was a driven communicator, writing to anyone–politicians, academics, journalists, religious leaders and numerous others–who would listen (and some who didn’t want to), descanting on topics ranging from arcane mystical concepts, to the Vietnam War, DDT, the Black Panthers and Joe Namath. Lewis’ assertions are generally lucid, but sometimes–he says that the rhythm of a Tennyson poem helps him foretell the future–we need a mystical Rosetta stone to understand him.

However, Lewis’ constant theme was his anger and frustration over not being universally hailed as a spiritual teacher. He complains to everyone about being rejected and ignored, shouting to the rooftops about his spiritual eminence, often sending carbon copies to the offending parties. This overarching bombast raises a question that the book never satisfactorily answers: What exactly was Lewis’ allure?

Johnson writes that, in his case, he wanted to find out what was behind the murshid’s braggadocio, and that he also had an almost childlike need for guidance. Johnson tells of his wholehearted quest for enlightenment, complicated by the painful breakup of his marriage after his wife’s affair with another murshid. Johnson gives glimmers of Lewis’ empathy and insight, and of some kind of mental attunement between them, but we’re hard pressed to pinpoint how the murshid actually helped him.

What we get more than a glimmer of, though, is a kitchen midden of utterly useless minutiae, including shopping expeditions, house and auto repairs, meals, weather reports, trip routes, the murshid’s day-by-day itineraries and his endless pontifications.

“My practice,” Johnson writes, “is … remembering what I do and recording it … to make it more real.”

This material is all very real, but it would be far more accessible and compelling if Johnson’s journal had been turned into a tightly focused narrative with more about his inner struggles before meeting Lewis, the spiritual ramifications of his divorce and his reflections since the murshid’s death.

Still, this is a worthwhile read for those willing to sift through the clutter for the occasional nuggets of wisdom and a taste of an authentic spiritual journey.

Buy this book from Amazon.com!

Murshid: A Personal Memoir of Life With American Sufi Samuel L. Lewis
Mansur Johnson
Peaceworks Publications
ISBN: 0915424169
$25

 

 

Original URL: http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Books/Content?oid=oid:93957

enjoy!
~heather

Ritual in India

Hi Saul,

I hope all is well with you. We’re back, and there really IS no place like home

Besides me being a pilgrim on this voyage, and being with our Sangha (there were 74 of us plus) it fell to me to be Musician, Physician and Technician — and I tried to see these roles in that order.

And in addition it seems to be one of my roles to make sure the Healing Ray is not absent from our gatherings. So during the Urs celebration — on the 6th, which was the final day of public Urs events at the Dargah, I scheduled and conducted the ritual, with the support of the other DHO folks present. Neshamah assisted and Rajaji (Roger) sat to my left. Right in his burial chamber.

I had great joy in doing this, and also in the thought that we were bringing it back home to Papa (along with the Dances, the Zikrs, the UW, and the Ruhaniat’s special energy).

I made a variation on the script, which was only for that exceptional day, and I announced that I was doing so.

As I say, I’ve done this before, introduced the Healing Ritual into a large gathering; and it hasn’t felt right to me to limit ourselves to ten names on the list and exclude everyone else’s names. So as I sat at the Dargah it came up within me to do a slight variation. Before the actual service, while we were chanting “Allah Shaffee, Allah Kaffee” I brought the voices down soft and then invited the forty-odd participants (many brown faces as well as white) to call out the name of anyone who wants healing, to put all those names into the energized space.

Then during the ritual itself, instead of ten names I had my assistant name ten CONDITIONS which I had written down, and we had the usual silence for each.

I’m going to write them down here …

  1. All those afflicted with the pain and suffering of illness, injury and aging
  2. All those afflicted with the pain and suffering of stress and disease of the mind.
  3. All those afflicted with the pain and suffering of anger and hatred.
  4. All those afflicted with the pain and suffering of poverty gone wrong.
  5. All those afflicted with the pain and suffering of wealth gone wrong.
  6. All those afflicted with the pain and suffering of violence and the threat of violence.
  7. All those afflicted with the pain and suffering of social upheaval and displacement.
  8. All those afflicted with the pain and suffering of abusing or of being abused in any form.
  9. All those afflicted with the pain and suffering of attachment to who we think we are, and of trying to defend the ego above all.
  10. All those afflicted with the pain and suffering of separation from the Truth.

It was a most fulfilling day for this one, and I believe an excellent manifestation of the initiation with which I have been entrusted.

All love and light to you — Abdul Shaffee

Healing the Heart of Humanity Weedend with Devi Tide and Hakim Sauluddin

Dear Friends,

Come to a groundbreaking, first time event sharing the synergy of the Dervish Healing Order and the Sufi Healing Order working together on March 16-18th Unity Village (Greater Kansas City Area).

Please join us in joy and peace as we share an intensive weekend “HEALING THE HEART OF HUMANITY”.

We will deepen our capacity to “heal and be healed” with the insight and delight of Devi Tide, Khafayat / Director of the Sufi Healing Order of North America and the wisdom and magnetism of Hakim Sauluddin, Khafayat / Director of the Dervish Healing Order.

Friday, March 16th 7:30pm-9:30 pm “Community Night”
Saturday, March 17th 9:30am-9:30 pm
Sunday, March 18th 9:30am-4:00 pm

$125 paid in full by January 29th
$150 paid in full by March 3rd
$175 paid in full after March 3rd

For detailed info about Registration, Accommodations & Transportation arrangements, go to the Shining Heart Community’s web site:
http://shiningheartcommunity.org/DS_Unity/DS.htm

Looking forward to Unity at Unity Village.

Sarfaraz Cathy Knight

DHO retreat at Lama Foundation, Taos, New Mexico, June 2006

The Dervish Healing Order serves as that aspect of the Sufi Ruhaniat which maintains and promotes the vision of health and Divine Healing as presented by Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan. It holds the concentration for the health of the Sufi Ruhaniat on all levels. One of the tools given by Inayat Khan is the Healing Ritual. In addition, we are guided by breathing practices, healing meditations, visualizations, and a body of esoteric papers on healing from Inayat Khan, with commentaries by Murshid SAM.

The DHO is an international initiatic order. All members have demonstrated deep commitment in some aspect of healing, either toward self, or others, or both.

Membership is open to all who meet the requirements of dedication to service on the healing path, whether or not they are mureeds of the Sufi Ruhaniat.

Initiates and prospective DHO members are encouraged to attend yearly Healing Order gatherings organized with input from regional initiators and Shafayats. The Shafayats serve under the leadership of the DHO director, the Khafayat, Murshid Sauluddin, in a similar capacity to Sufi Ruhaniat Sheiks and Khalifs.

This year the meeting is at Lama Foundation, near Taos, New Mexico. See the Lama website for more information on the history and purpose of this center for retreat and for mindful living: http://www.lamafoundation.org/

Getting to Taos proved to be quite an adventure with Southwest Airlines. The first indication that something unusual was going on is that arriving at the gate at La Guardia Airport, I found out that the previous flight had been cancelled. All these poor people were now on standby for our flight to Chicago that was already very full. We finally left one hour late. In Chicago, the mayhem was even worse with the advent of a major rainstorm. This flight left after more than two hours delay. I arrived in Albuquerque, NM and went to my rental car company. I got finally on the way at 8:30PM to arrive in Taos three hours later. After a futile attempt to find something open in Taos for food since I did not have anything to eat since the toast and tea of the morning breakfast, I decided to call it a day for fasting and just drank some water. I had some dry fruit on the plane and could not bring myself to eat anything else they call snacks.

I found my way in the dark up a dirt road leading to Lama Foundation, height thousand feet above sea level, in those mountains of New Mexico, it was difficult to breathe and I felt the oxygen ramification right away. This was a moonless dark night, since I had made a printout from Lama’s website, I was able to find the entrance of the dirt road at mile 15 from Taos. When I finally arrived, it was past midnight and the whole complex was quiet and dark. I resolved to pull my sleeping bag and accommodate myself in the car until morning. When I opened my suitcase, I found all the content soaking wet. The airlines had left the entire luggage on the airport tarmac during the major storm that delayed us. Luckily the inside of the sleeping bag stayed dry. I made myself a bed in the back of the car and slept until five thirty in the morning when the sunlight started illuminating the sky.

At 6 AM, I decided to put on my winter mountain jacket and boots and complete my pilgrimage to the feet of our beloved Murshid SAM. I made up the trip up the hill from Lama, crossing the village still deeply asleep made up of houses and tents.

When I reached the Maqbara, where Murshid SAM is resting under a tomb made of simple stones, I came down to my knees and touched the ground with my forehead in gratefulness and thanks.

I spoke to Sam:

“You see I came to you again to thank you. I wish to ask nothing more for myself. I have received so many blessings. The cry of my childhood heart has been answered, that deep longing to know the truth that has driven me for so many years has been quenched. Allah and this wonderful lineage have led me all along to reach this point in my life, to come to you, so here I am again. I am throwing myself at your feet. Not to worship you, but as a companion praying with you to the Divine Grace of Allah that we all be One in the presence of the Beloved. At times, I believed that I was acting from my own free will, what an illusion, you have driven me and I could only learn to surrender to the process. Thank you for my dear friend Sauluddin who I have known for thirty years. He told me once that he did not like puritans and wanted to make sure that I knew that true liberation comes when saint and sinner come together around the circle of unity in all my selves. You know that I had realized that already and this is why I love him so much as he is, accepting him in his totality as a being led by the highest ideal combined with all his humanness. Thank you for all the godfather and godmother in our lineage such as my friends Hidayat Inayat Khan and Aziza, Reverend Master Jiyu-Kennett, Nyogen Senzaki, Mother Mary, Suleyman Dede, Joe & Guin Miller. Thank you for Moineddin Jablonski, for Pir Shabda Kahn and for Murshida Khadija Julia Goforth. Thank you for allowing me to be with the companions, to walk in the footsteps of such friends, of the Silsila, of all the prophets, to allow the Sifats to exemplify their wondrous qualities in my heart that is really the heart of the one. You remember my longing in the cliffs of Mendocino, immersed in the One, helped by the magic of the peyote, looking for the guide who could help unlock the doors to come back in the fold of the beloved at will. I am so grateful to all of you who have by your compassion so generously bestowed your blessings on my longing heart. Shakur Allah. In this caravan of life, I am not only grateful for all those who have shown the way before but also for all those who are entrusted friends and who feel the same longing to be in the presence of the Beloved. I bring with me not only my dear wife Monick and all the children and grandchildren, the family, the friends but specially the mureed. I pray that I can be true to the spirit of my beloved Majid, an instrument of the divine grace in service to all. I bring you my beloved Sophia, Salima, Nadia and Noufissa in Morocco, Cigdem in Turkey, Cora & Lisbeth in France, Umbreen in Pakistan, Noor, Bitak, Chakameh, Deirdre, Fareen, Juanita, Lisa-Renee, Sanaa, Shahid, Shihana and Sophia Nazli in the US. Please help me and pray with me for all those named and for those friends close to our heart like Imrana, Nipa, Sakeenah and Trish. Let’s say the Fatiha together for all of them known and unknown who you are placing on my path so that I can be of service to them, to help them find the light in the niche of their heart, light upon light.”

I started the Fatiha. On the first words Bismillah er-rahman, er-rahim, I could not go any further, shocking with tears. I felt my heart exploding in compassion and gratitude. I could only think of Hafiz’s poem shared by Saadi under Ar-Rahim, the moon of love in his beautiful book “The Sufi Book of Life, 99 Pathways of the Heart.”

The sun is the wine, the moon is the cup.
Pour the sun into the moon if you want to be filled.
Drinking such wine could be good or bad.
Why not drink anyway!

I tried again to restart the Fatiha and now could not go beyond the first word “Bismillah.” I had to let the tears flow freely, my whole body was shaking uncontrollably. This could have been embarrassing. I was not crying for want, for pain, for longing, just for gratefulness for all the miracle of having the blessing to be in presence of the scent of the beloved. I just remembered all the blessings, the miracles, the inspirations and the sweetness of all those friendships. Sophia came first to my heart and I cried sweetly again. Then I thought each one, they were all there with me. I did not have anything to dry my face and used my sleeves. Those gestures made me laugh, seeing my dear wife scolding me for my lack of good manners.

Finally I was able to sing a Fatiha with a trembling voice and then another and another again. I started doing my daily practices. To be there, praying with my Murshid, being so thankful of all the blessings of the beautiful transmission that he left for us and also all the abundance of blessings of all that has happened in my life since the last visit and since I came to this blessed spiritual path, was overwhelming. I could not stop the tears.

I did the Muslim call for prayer, the Fatiha, the Suratul Ikhlass and Suratul `Asr, the full Zikr of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the recital of the 99 names of Allah, the prayers Saum and Salat and finally the heart sutra. By that time it was past 7 AM and I was feeling the pain of hunger in my stomach. I made my way back after offering once more my thanks for Murshid blessings.

Breakfast was wonderful and most welcome. Of course meeting all the old friends is part of the wonder of such retreat. Michael, Aslan, Saul, Ananda, Aarifa of the true north, Eddie, Murad, Sarfaraz, Mansur, Deborah Sabura and so many more, it was a reunion full of the joy of kisses and hugs.

Mansur Johnson was with us again to introduce his book Murshid, a personal memoir of life with American Sufi Samuel L. Lewis. He was taking orders for delivery in September 2006. This book will go fast and only 2000 copies have been printed. Otis B. Johnson was a young college professor of English in the 1960’s when he joined the exodus of hippies to California to meet someone his friend said could take them where they wanted to go the fastest. Where did they want to go? They wanted to meet the divinity, obtain God-consciousness, get enlightened, find love, experience Samadhi, in short didn’t know for sure. What happened? Otis B. Johnson became Mansur Johnson during a three year encounter with the world’s first Guru-Roshi-Murshid, Samuel L. Lewis. Murshid shows in intimate detail how Murshid, the first Western born Sufi teacher, Zen master, and practitioner of Indian cosmic metaphysics, accomplished his life’s purpose.

“Everytime I remember Sam, I end up laughing at myself. That’s pretty good work for a dead rascal-saint.”  Wrote Ram Dass, author of Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying.

We had our first meeting in the great dome at 10 AM. First we did the prayers Saum and Salat and then did an old practice from Murshid Sam “Ya Allah, in love, reverence and humility, I surrender to thee, to thee alone and Thou thus raise me spiritually.” Saul mentioned the importance of keeping up the old practices from Sam that got us where we are today. Since his passing we tend to adopt so many new practices and sometimes do not put enough concentration on Sam’s original practices.

We did the healing ritual with a beautiful Zikr lead by Ananda singing “Bismillah, er Rahman, er Rahim.” I do not know if it was the melody, the remembrance, the feeling of Shakur, but the tears flowed again down my checks and I did not try to hide them, I was among friends. They knew, most of them felt the same way anyway.

At lunch we have the custom to hold hands with the residents of Lama Foundation and sing the blessing “O Thou, the Sustainer of our body, heart and soul, bless all that we receive in thankfulness.” Before the blessing another custom is to wish well those who leave Lama. We sang from the Native American tradition “While you are away from your people, we do pray, that in your searching, you will find balance in your heart and mind.”

In the afternoon, people can choose from many activities such as learning the art of the Tea ceremony, the singing choir lead by Aslan, and many other options. At 3:30 we all meet for the spiritual walks taught by Murshid Sauluddin. In the evening after dinner we shared Zikr.

The evening Zikr was magical with such a group of elders, holding hands in a circle and singing Allah or La illaha ilallahu, Mohamedah Rassul Allah in so many forms, tones and rhythms, thanks to Aslan for his great leadership. Not only Aslan makes it deep but fun as well.

The first night in the yurt was much better than sleeping in the car, however temperature that can be in the 80’s in the daytime dropped to 40 degrees at night. I was happy to have brought my sleeping bag.

In the morning after a 6 AM wakeup call, we ascended the mountain as a group to the Maqbara of Murshid Sam and did Zikr and Fatiha after spreading a cloth on his tomb that came from the tomb of Moineddin Chisti in India. We ended up with some original dances of Murshid Sam led again by Aslan. The sun finally warmed us around 7 AM and I shared Hafiz’s poem with everyone: “the sun is the wine, the moon is the cup….” So Asha suggested doing Murshid dance “fill your cup, drink it up, ya Allah Allah…”

After a breakfast prepared by Lama’s staff, we met in the main dome meditation room. Asha suggested to go to the small pueblo meditation room on the side, it is a most extraordinary architecture, first the door is very low, forcing the person to enter in humility by lowering one’s head, the inside altar is in the center of a circle built on two levels. Asha led some meditative practices and we went back to the main dome for the healing ritual led by Michael.

As we formed a circle, Saul called me in the middle of it. I hesitated and he called me again forcefully. I walked to him not knowing what he was going to do. Saul asked me to stand and took my hands. He initiated me as a Shafayat in the Dervish Healing Order. I had no clue that he was going to do that, he simply said that since I was functioning already as such it was just time to recognize it formally.

After lunch with Deirdre and her son Able, I found a couple of Lama residents willing to play GO with me, the meditative Japanese game with white and black stones.

The afternoon was busy with singing in the choir led by Aslan, with the spiritual walks by Sauluddin and since today was Friday, with the traditional practice of the Jewish Sabbath in the evening. Nasrudin was volunteered to tell us some stories in his stand up comedian act.

We talked about having our next year meeting at the Mentorgarten in San Francisco.

We did the walks of the elements led by Murshid Sauluddin and the walks of the sifats, the first one for Suhban Allah (God is pure), the second one for Alhamdullillah (All praise be to Allah) and the third for Allaho Akbar (Peace is Power as given by Murshid Sam).

Sabbath was officiated by Elaine, after the Jewish prayers, we shared the wine and the bread in communion. Not only all the people from the retreat were present but also all the Lama residents and staff members. Aslan led us in the dances including the Zikr with the outer circle singing Echad Yahid Umi Yuhad, the One, every single one, each one joined and united in the One and the inner circle singing La Illaha el ilallahu (nothing exist except Allah). This was quite a statement uniting two traditions in a single dance and witnessing both communities praying for the same thing that nothing exist except the One in Hebrew and Arabic.

Nasrudin was remarkable and performed an outstanding and hilarious stand alone act poking fun at various people and entities including the Sufis. He told us a poem from Kabir that to find out if you have a real teacher, you should hang him or her over a cliff for an hour or two and if you find out that they did not wet their pants, may be you found your real teacher. Someone in the group asked where the nearer cliff was suggesting that we should hang out our beloved Murshid Sauluddin. That brought some good laughter.

Murshid Sauluddin bed time story concluded the night. His story about the man who sold his tooth with the moral to the story that if you want to get rid of a mouse, you should not hire a tiger, was very entertaining in his well proven style of the old time story teller. During his bedtime story, everyone was to lie down on the floor with their pillow and blanket and the light was turned off.

Again the night was cold and at 40 degrees in the yurt in the morning from the high of 94 in the afternoon, it was difficult to get out of the sleeping bag at 6 AM. The sun was most welcome around 7 AM when he appeared behind the mountain ridge.

Our homework for the night came from one of the 10 Sufi thoughts about finding the teacher and spirit of guidance ever present in each and everyone of our heart. I had done my homework the first morning at the Maqbara.

Saturday morning after breakfast at 8 AM and some smoothing with friends we started the meeting with a report from Mumin about Murshida Vera Corda Maqbara next to Murshid Sam. In addition to Mumin presentation on Murshida Vera’s life, many made comments and remembrances. Work will start soon to beautify the area around her tomb to make it more practical for people to sit and pray with her.

Noel sang for us a song that Murshida Vera Corda enjoyed hearing from him while he was taking care of her in her later years. Now Noel is like me, musically impaired, so we were moved by his effort and his heart more than his style.

I was invited to conduct the healing ritual which I started with the call for prayer, the Fatiha and practices on five of the 99 beautiful names that are pathways of healing the heart for Bar, Tawwab, Muntaqim, Afuw and Ra’uf. Then after doing the Ya Shaffee, Ya Kaffee breathing practices with a visualization of the elements of earth, water, fire and air, we did the prayer Nayaz : Beloved lord, almighty god, through the rays of the sun, through the waves of the air, through the all pervading life in space, purify and revivify us and we pray, heal our body, heart and soul. After the healing ritual, with Aslan as the balance and `Aarifa of the true north’ as the reader of the names, we closed the morning session and went for lunch prepared by the Lama staff, a vegetarian meal with pasta salad, tofu and a choice of dressings.

The company over the meal and the conversation were priceless. We bathed in the pleasure of each other company, exchanging high spirited jokes and laughter.

Monday was our last day together at Lama. In the morning we got up again in the cold at 6 AM to climb the mountain in pilgrimage to Murad Ahmed Chisti Maqbara. There Ananda led us in a meditation form dating back 18,000 years in the Bon Bon Tibetan tradition. We closed with a dance of thankfulness around Murshid Sam’s tomb and left the mountain after having created in our mind eye a connection from there to our home thanks to a meditation led by Murad, who was just back from an extensive trip in China where he studied another form of the Shi Gong tradition.

We sat again in the main dome to share our experiences of the night after having done our homework as assigned by Murshid Sauluddin. Many felt confident enough in this environment to open their heart and share their thoughts and dreams with the family.

Many people complimented the evening practice, after having led a Zikr separately for the men and for the women and then for the beauty of the moment when we all came together, the men making a circle around the women’s circle. Many felt the harmony in the energetic exchange between Jelal and Jamal. In the ruin of the old building, we had stand as a group of men, doing Zikr after recognizing each other as man among men. Mansur told us that Murshid Sam had initiated him as Naqib or representative of the spiritual hierarchy, even that he did not know what it meant at the time.

In the afternoon, Sauluddin led the saints and prophets attunement walks starting in the prayer Saum with Rama and also Sita, Krishna, Parvati, Hanuman, Shiva, Buddha, Abraham, Solomon, Zarathustra, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and then Quan Yin who he kept for last as the mother of compassion and love.

After dinner, we started the evening practices with the Japanese Tea ceremony presented by Asha and accompanied by Siddiq and some of Lama’s resident. Asha led us in a Zikr of La illaha ilallahu most uplifting.

In the morning, I got up at 6 and left following Sauluddin’s car. Saul, Ananda, Murad and I had breakfast in Taos and lunch at the airport in Albuquerque before saying goodbye until next time.

On the flight back home, reflecting on the week retreat, feeling the separation from the beloved friends, drinking once more of the wine of elation that we shared, feeling the gratefulness for the company of such Madzubs, revisiting the site of Murshid Sam tomb on the mountain, as if I was still there physically, tears filled up my eyes once more. The blessings of the healing of the heart felt like the greatest purpose of the DHO, now it is time to go back in service to bestow the light and share the Baraka with all the beloved, family and friends.

In service,

Alhamdullillah
Salik