Hope, Activity and Awe (10/16/2014)
Reflections on the theme for October: “The interpretation of a sacred text is true if it stirs you to hope, activity, and awe.”
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The Ladder of Truth (8/7/2014)
There is something precious in a human soul that treasures communion with the Divine. All other riches are a poor imitation. What is real is the Spirit within us. Our being in community reflects Reality from heart to heart. Until our own heart becomes a reflector of Truth. Sometimes we need some help to awaken that reflection. There is help from the other side if we make at least a gesture of human will.
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Embodying Grace (Interview & Meditation with Shaikh Kabir)
This interview is part of the Summer of Peace 2014 Summit, a free online event featuring 70+ of the world’s top peacebuilders, social change leaders, indigenous elders and spiritual mentors offering inspiration, skills training and powerful solutions – to bring inner, interpersonal and collective peace efforts to the next level. The Summer of Peace will continue for another [...]
The Alchemy of Striving (3/7/2014)
The importance of effort and affirming intentions; the struggle between affirmation and denial, and the blessing of presence and the grace of God.
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Developing the Inner Life (6/26/2014)
Individual and group cohesion and its electro-magnetic nature; the reciprocal relationship of God and Man through remembrance; the importance of community and relationship.
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The Body is a Servant (5/1/2014)
Sohbet on this month’s theme: Your Body is your servant; train it with Love. What is our relationship to our body? Are we aware of this relationship? Enlivening the body physically opens us up to spiritual experience. The human body is a transporter of subtle energies. Love and Unity play a role in awakening the higher faculties.
Click for PDF file mentioned in this sohbet.
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Sufi Gnosis (1/16/2014)
Reflecting on the themes of "consciousness aware of itself" and the characteristics of the Sufi perspective.
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Self and Selflessness
In considering how the human being can embody both self and selflessness, let's begin with a metaphysical perspective on the position that human consciousness occupies in cosmic existence. The human consciousness is a presence suspended between the Divine Absolute and a Cosmic-Life-Force that is associated with our intention, thoughts, and feelings. That's a mouthful, I know. It's meaning will become clearer, I hope, through the course of this article.
Monthly Essential Practices of Mevlevi Spirituality for 2014
January: Consciousness aware of Itself is a Divine gift. February: The drop that truly knows itself is aware of the Ocean. March: Every relationship could be Being knowing Itself. April: Your inner being is a sanctuary; cleanse it with the light of compassionate awareness. May: Your body is a servant; train it with love. June: [...]
Nights in Damascus with Asad Ali
The following excerpt is from the forthcoming book, Civilization of Paradise, Revelation Poems (Fons Vitae 2014), by Asad Ali. The book contains 90 poems, each associated with a Surah of the Qur'an, as well as 60 pages of introductory materials, including transcripts of three nights during which Kabir and Mahmoud Mostafa visited Dr. Ali's home in 2005. This long awaited book completes the cycle of 114 Poems that began with Happiness without Death (Threshold Books, 1991), by Asad Ali. Annemarie Schimmel, one of the greatest scholars of Sufism of the 20th Century, wrote of Asad Ali's poetry: "if carefully read as it deserves, it can help Westerners understand the grandeur and power of pristine Islam."