September theme: In order to become human, we need to always be within the Divine Presence—to be aware of God, to hold Him in our hearts.

~Suleyman Dede

We welcome your reflections on this theme.

“For how long will these clean and pure hearts remain patiently in the earth?

Go all together, jump up, explode, exit the tombs.

A favor of forces comes to you as help.”

These letters from Celaleddin B. Çelebi Efendi were written in 1991 to Kabir and Camille Helminski, offered here, with gratitude and love.

The letters include Çelebi Efendi’s reflections on the inner essence of Sema, the importance of preserving its beauty, maturity, and adab, and his blessing for men and women to offer Sema together on 30 September and 17 December.

“Turning of the Heavens” — a time-lapse photograph of the stars, centered around the North Star, taken by Matthew Helminski, age 15.

~

Wherever you turn, there is the Face of God.
Surah Baqara 2:115

Come, come O Darling, You who are the Soul of the soul of the soul of Sema.

Come, O Darling! A swaying cypress, You stroll in the garden of Sema.

Come, O Darling! The fountain of the sun is under Your shadow.

Thousands of Venuses You possess in the sky of Sema.

Together we burn in the sky of Sema…

Forthcoming in October, Inshallah

Those who have faith 
and who have turned away 
from the negative aspects of self 
and who strive hard in the Way of God 
with their wealth and the breath of their lives 
have the highest rank in God’s sight, 
and it is they who shall attain!
Their Sustainer gives them the glad tiding
of the Compassionate Grace [Rahmat] 
that flows from Him, 
and of His abundant pleasure and acceptance [ridwan], 
and of the gardens which await them [jannati], 
of enduring bliss [na‘eemum muqeem]— 
there to dwell forever. 
Truly, in God’s Presence is a mighty recompense! 
[Inna Allaha ‘indaHu ajrun ‘azeem.]

[Surah at-Tawbah 9:19-22]

October 9 - 11, 2026
Holy Wisdom Monastery, Middleton, Wisconsin

A weekend of reflection on the transformation of love and loss. We will focus on Surah Al-‘Asr and Rumi as our guides. Through sohbet, meditation, zikr, music and time in nature, we will strive to attune our hearts and deepen our capacity to listen.

See more about the venue at holywisdommonastery.org

Spiritual conversation (sohbet) with Shaikh Kabir and Camille Helminski on 10/24/13 

~

“There are lots of ways we could define submission, and, by the way, these are not meant to be dogmatic assertions as much as suggestive phrasings of how we could understand these different principles. Submission: allowing the Divine to be the center of our reality. The effective result of this submission is both self-transcendence and a capacity for sacrifice. Submission proceeds from the conditioned to the unconditioned, the compulsive self to the essential self, the finite to the infinite. I tend to pack a lot into a few words. There’s experience behind this, there’s metaphysics behind this, and there’s an intention behind it. So, true submission is when we know that the Divine Reality is the master truth of existence and we yearn, we desire, we’re committed to keep it at the center of our consciousness. It doesn’t mean that it precludes all the other things that we have to do. Everything else is taking place around that center and within that context. The human being who is in that constant state of submission is aware moment by moment, on some level, not making it a kind of explicit activity of thought but a sense of the heart that we are living with the Divine, we depend on the Divine, we can trust the Divine and we wish to align ourself with the goodness, the beauty, the generosity, the creativity, the intelligence of the Divine. And, little by little, our lives begin to take shape around that master truth. It doesn’t happen like that (clicks his fingers)—submission is not just like, ‘I think I’ll submit right now.’ or something really challenging happens and we say, ‘Please God, if you let me get through this, I promise I’ll submit to you.’ No, it’s a process of ripening, a process of maturing, it’s a process of deepening love as well. 

So, submission is both an initial step—in some ways it is one of the first steps, but it also has depth to it, it has levels to it. We actually say there are three levels and some of you know these already. The three in Arabic, the three words would be islam, which is the preliminary submission, which is like, ‘Ok, I am going to try, I’m going to attempt to be in alignment with the Divine.’ Then, iman, which would be translated as ‘faith’ or ‘faithfulness,’ which is, ‘I’m really going to be faithful to this truth.’ It is a higher state than just the preliminary submission. And then finally, there is ihsan, which is the state of beautification, the state in which the beauty and goodness of the Divine takes a person over so much that they naturally and spontaneously are doing what is appropriate, what is right, what is good, what is beautiful, as if they saw God in front of them every moment and knew that they were, shall we say, within the consciousness of the Divine. That’s the highest state. So, submission is both a first preliminary step and it is also in some sense a final step, based on the idea of allowing the Divine to be the center of our reality.” 

~

~ Stuart Kemp [Scotland]

Love is the nature of our essential self, that self that remains when all that can be removed from our sense of self has been removed.

As daunting as that task seems, we don’t actually have to remove that which is superfluous to our essential self, we simply need to withdraw our attention from it. Fortunately, this is not an academic challenge requiring a lifetime of study; we need only acquire a level of knowledge that brings us to the point of understanding that allows us to surrender our identification as the content of our minds.

We withdraw our attention from the mind, which is typically tangled in sense perceptions, beliefs, opinions, and that incessant stream of thought that we are all so familiar with. In doing so, we eventually come to rest not merely in the essential self, but as it.

I’m sure many of us on our path have asked to be shown the Unity of Being, but it is impossible through the activity of the mind. Rooted in subject/object perception, the mind can only experience a divided world—a dualistic lens that inherently veils the oneness of being.

It is only through the eyes of the heart that the Unity of Being is experienced. As Ibn Al Arabi tells us:

I have created perception in you only to be the object of My perception.
If then you perceive Me, you perceive yourself, but you cannot perceive me through yourself.
It is through My eyes that you see Me and see yourself, through your eyes you cannot see Me.
Dearly beloved!
I have called you so often and you have not heard Me.
I have shown Myself to you so often and you have not seen Me.
I have made Myself fragrance so often and you have not smelled Me.
Savorous food and you have not tasted Me.
Why can you not reach Me through the object you touch?

[Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-Arabi, Kitab al-Tajalliyyat (The Book of Theophanies), Chapter 81]

Clearly, we cannot experience the Unity of Being through the faculties of mind. It is only when the mind surrenders and our attention sinks into the Heart that the experience of true knowing occurs, the knowing heart that Kabir Dede has written so extensively about.

Things are “seen as they truly are” – self-modulating expressions of the One Reality in Itself, to Itself as itself, fulfilling the Hadith Qudsi:

I was like a hidden treasure and loved to be known
so I created the worlds that I might be known.

We move from the intellectual mind to the knowing heart, in the process shifting our sense of identity from the imaginary self of the mind to the essential self of the heart.

This knowing of the One Reality within ourselves is experienced as peace and joy, a peace “that passeth all understanding”; when perceived out in the world through the knowing heart it is experienced as love and beauty. When our essential being is realised, love and beauty, peace and happiness are revealed as what we truly are. Through that awakening, the unconditioned beauty of the human being spontaneously shines forth.

~ After more than forty years devoted to the transformation of the heart, Stuart took hand with Shaikh Kabir in 2022—yet still experiences the work as perpetually at its beginning.

September 6th

Join us for a monthly online meditation and sohbet with Shaikh Kabir 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.

To view in YouTube without interrupting ads, use the Brave browser.

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.

You can find our core articles here. We encourage our community to read and reread these regularly.

Each month we intend to highlight an article about our lineage and its principles. This month we offer the Responsibilities of Dervishhood

This paper is intended both for people who are considering an affiliation with The Threshold Society, as well as for those who are already committed to this path. To be a Mevlevi dervish is to enter into a web of relationships designed to maximize spiritual possibilities through creating an atmosphere of solidarity, loyalty, service, trust, and affection. It involves “taking hand” with a shaikh and committing oneself to the program of training and service offered by the Mevlevi spiritual community. Some of the details of this relationship and its adab are described both online and in The Knowing Heart. If people aren’t clear about the principles of these relationships, it weakens the bonds with the shaikh and with the community as a whole.

Traditionally there have been two categories of people participating in tariqah activities: Muhibs (associates, or friends of the order) and Dervishes (those engaged in the initiatic journey under the guidance of the Tradition). The intention of being a dervish is different from the intention of being a muhib. The latter, for any number of reasons, chooses to associate with the tariqah on a somewhat limited basis, but without all the responsibilities and privileges of dervishhood.

[Read more...]

Friday October 9 to Sunday 11th: retreat, Madison, Wisconsin, led by Khadim Chishti, more details

We’d love to hear from you: eyeoftheheart@sufism.org
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