Beginning January 2023

A 12-month interactive online exploration into the meaning and possibility of our human existence through the universal insights of Rumi, facilitated by Kabir Helminski.

The 13th-century poet and mystic Rumi has become one of the most popular spiritual voices of our time—known and loved by people of many faiths and worldviews for his rich metaphors, images, poems, and stories. Using his upcoming book, The Mysterion: Rumi & The Secret of Becoming Fully Human,

Kabir Helminski, one of the foremost translators and writers of Sufi texts, offers a program to deepen our appreciation of Rumi’s teachings by illuminating both the practical psychological dimension behind them, as well as the universal spiritual truths they offer about what it means to be human.

Numerous keys are available to us to open the deeper meaning that lives within us. The words of the Holy Qur'an are such keys. The original Arabic resonances bestow grace through portals of expansive meaning, but even in translation some of the inherent blessing can be known. We offer here a journey with these meanings. *Please note that within this text, each paragraph indent indicates a new verse (ayah, “sign").

When we are struck by the Lightning of Love during storms of intense grace, or when a key is provided to open an inner doorway for Divine Grace—that through which our own intrinsic spirit was formed—meanings may pour forth from within us, nourishing us afresh. We are not merely a molded substance of earth and water and synapses, but palpable beings of heart divined by the Eternal Spirit from which we were created. We know more than we know.

As Shams of Tabriz, the beloved mentor of Jalaluddin Rumi has said, “the Quran is a love-letter.” May it continue to be, as it has been for many centuries, of blessed companionship, an opening towards Divine Reality, for all who approach it with an open heart.

May it be love!

~ Camille

Sat 17th Dec, 12pm EST / 5pm GMT

Celebrate Mevlana Rumi’s union with the Beloved – the anniversary of his passing into the Unseen – with an online gathering of remembrance. Join Shaikh Kabir & Camille Helminski and Mevlevi Whirling Dervishes for zhikr, music, and poetry.

Nov 6th

Join us for a monthly online meditation and sohbet with Shaikh Kabir and Camille, and special guests from the Threshold community. Held on the 1st Sunday of every month at 12pm Eastern Time (5pm UK).

Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/j/435138208
Zoom passcode: threshold

Watch last month's meeting below and see all our videos here.

Solve your problems with love.
~ Shaikh Kabir Helminski

We welcome your reflections on this theme.

~ Shabana Dar Baker [London UK]

It is with sincere gratitude to Kabir Dede and Camille Ana for their elucidation of the monthly theme, in their October Sunday Meditation, that I begin this reflection. The richness of this teaching takes me back to when I first encountered their teachings and the transformational energy this brought to my spiritual life and my lived experience. A part of me, that had perhaps fallen into slumber, feels reawakened by the fragrance of something new yet eternal and also evolving…  

The first words to land expansively in my heart were Dede’s description of the breath as our “transcendent spiritual companion.” Like so many teachings they may have said it many times, but this time I heard it differently. More of me suddenly awoke and took note. It seemed like an extraordinary relationship with breath to aspire to. I immediately wanted to know more and my capacity for attention expanded. He then talked of the dual function of breath: firstly to keep us biologically alive, as we’re most familiar with, and secondly, and perhaps more profoundly, to keep us spiritually alive.  

This brought to heart one single year in my life, 2012, where I had a taste of experiencing breath in this way. The year opened with the arrival of the following verse in Dede’s Hadith e-course:

The Prophet said, “In these days
the breathings of God prevail:
Keep your ear and mind attentive
to these spiritual influences;
catch these breaths.”
The Divine breathing came,
beheld you, and departed:
it gave life to whom it would, and left.
Another breathing has arrived.
Pay attention, friend,
don’t miss this one, too.
[Mathnawi I: 1951–53, The Rumi Daybook]

These words had a profound effect on me and the inspiration came to breathe Ya Rahman, Ya Rahim; to try to live my moments and my life more bismillah. The year then proceeded to unravel as one of the most intense years of my life. It was at once miraculous and yet came with challenge and trauma, some of the effects of which still reside in me. The following year Dede visited our circle and asked us, “What is the state of your soul?” I didn’t speak but these words came to my heart: “My body is broken, my psyche is torn to shreds, but my soul? My soul is immersed in the One…”

I had never felt like that before; that clarity of seeing these three aspects of my existence, and experiencing my soul at the centre—in its intactness—despite how fragmented and shattered other parts had become. I could feel how it came from the Divine and will return to it. The clay of our bodies and minds is finite, conditioned by our circumstances: health, relationships, culture, environment, era, etc. It’s the part that experiences the trials of life along with its wonders. It’s the medium through which the soul and thereby God, can have this earthly experience of Life. God’s saying “I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known…” is the premise on which we base the meaning of life on this path. Without this premise, this secure foundation, the challenges of earthly existence can easily seem to outweigh its wonders for human beings. And so we have an existential need to know our souls.

Dede talked about “building soul,” building our capacity to “live from the soul.” To have its latent qualities awaken and infuse the clay of our earthly existence, so that they might be felt by us and experienced by those around us. So that we might bring more of God into our own awakened consciousness as well as out into the collective consciousness of our time. Dede encouraged us to engage with this task of “living from our souls” by cultivating our “true consciousness” and, through this, discerning which qualities and intentions, such as gratitude and love, we might add to our breath.

The breathing of Ya Rahman, Ya Rahim carried me through difficult times, like a tightening of the hand-hold with God. But what happens at other times? When less turbulence has me turning less towards that hand-hold? At these times I realise it is the work on my awareness, on all the veils over my soul, that needs to come to the forefront. If “trust in God” is the work of the breath, the work of refining awareness might be the “tying of our camels” as Mevlana teaches.

This year, one of the veils that came into clearer focus for me was the nature of the thoughts that live in the background of my conscious awareness. Those subconscious messages that unknowingly affect the ecology of my mind-body. They had created a dense background noise I had to pass through, usually with considerable difficulty, as I awaken in the mornings. In finally acknowledging these thoughts, head on, with an open heart, I realised the effect they had been having on my emotions, nervous system, possibly my entire physiology, and ultimately my relationship to Life itself. Since this moment of recognition and acknowledgment, including grief and compassion, their grip has loosened and more often they’re not present. Which could in time allow more space for what the soul wants to express…

Various therapy models and meditation techniques have taught me how to navigate this territory in their own unique and similar ways. Yet I see something important about locating this piece in the mystical, holistic context that Dede and Ana invite us into. It seems clearer how all the pieces of the jigsaw fit together and how each has its part to play in Life. From the secure foundation that is possible to build if we can develop our relationship with soul and God, the work on refining our awareness might become a little easier. Or if not easier, perhaps at least a little less lonely. Inshallah.


~ Shabana is a member of Threshold London, a clinical psychologist with a love for the arts and nature.

In The Knowing Heart, Kabir Helminski presents the Sufi way as a practical spirituality suitable for all cultures and times—and offers insights that are especially valuable for our life in today's world. In cultivating a knowing heart, we learn to experience a new sense of self, transform our relationships, and enhance our creative capacities. Most important, we learn how to meet the spiritual challenge of our time: to realize our sacred humanness.

This classic text is now available as an audiobook through Kindle, narrated by Daliah Merzaban.

Listen now:   Amazon US    Amazon UK

An immersive exhibition blending art, poetry, and music with uzma taj
6pm Nov 5th, London Meditatio Centre

Debut exhibition by emerging artist, uzma taj.

“Created in awe of the She in me. My knowing, my courage, my creative…
Created in awe of the He in me. My wisdom, my movement, my container…”

This first collection of art and poetry is inspired by uzma’s conversation with Nature and Spirituality and is named after verse 53:17 of the Quran, The eye did not waver… These particular lines inspire the desire to remain present in merging worlds; a possibility born from weaving in the wide steps taken from her Sufi path with Rumi, through indigenous wisdom, and encompassing myriad Guides and Ancestors that walk in the Seen and Unseen worlds.

Free entry and cake by Heron's Nest for all who cross the threshold. Prints available for sale.

More details.

Follow our Medium publication, Awakening with Rumi.

The Threshold Society, rooted within the traditions of Sufism and inspired by the life and work of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi, is a non-profit educational foundation with the purpose of facilitating the experience of Divine Unity, Love, and Truth in the world. Sufism is a living tradition of human transformation through love and higher consciousness. Our fundamental framework is classical Sufism and the Qur’an as it has been understood over the centuries by the great Sufis. The Society is affiliated with the Mevlevi Order, and offers training programs, seminars and retreats around the world.

Each month we intend to highlight an article about our lineage and its principles. This month we offer: Suggestions for Practice Within the Threshold Society & The Mevlevi Tradition

Most people who come to Sufism have preconceptions as well as questions about what Sufism is. What does the practice consist of and how will I learn and develop? Is there a detailed curriculum? Or hidden knowledge? What should I expect of my shaikh and what kind of relationship is possible? Some people might imagine that the shaikh has a detailed, objective technical knowledge of various inner states, spiritual energies, planes of reality, spiritual powers, etc. While there is some truth in this, it has been our experience that among the best teachers these subjects are seldom emphasized or talked about directly. An emphasis on secret, privileged knowledge, or encouraging a mystique or building a cult of personality, or intimations of end-time scenarios, have proven time and time again to be counter-indicators of spirituality. In other words, the more such tendencies surround a teaching, the less likely it is that the teaching will be balanced and authentic. If we look to the Qur'an and the example of the Prophet Muhammad, we see a sane and balanced presentation of the Way. Our approach, therefore, places a strong emphasis on developing our capacities for presence, remembrance, service, and humility.

[Read more…]

We’d love to hear from you — get in touch at eyeoftheheart@sufism.org

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