This Virtual Sufi Lodge is a Place for Spiritual Companionship (Sohbet)
In November, after the sale of Casa Paloma where they have lived for 8 years, Camille and Kabir will be moving to Louisville, Kentucky.
They have been warmly and generously invited by a community of people interested in establishing a Mevlevi Tekkye there. This was the first discussion of the move within the local California circle.
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There are intimate relationships among words, sound, meaning, breath and the Divine. True words have an enduring power; false words have no power in the long run. The Word of God as reflected in holy and inspired texts is something very powerful, creative and energetic. It is not merely a conceptual formulation and opinion, but rather something from the Creative Source of existence itself. The Word or The Name helps us to fix our consciousness on Reality, renewing our contact with the Inward Center, stabilizing our communion with Spirit. To have such a tool that fixes our consciousness on Reality is no small thing.
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Having been invited to speak about “World Peace and Harmony,” I ask myself: What is the cause and nature of conflict in today's world? Does religion contribute to conflict as so many people assert? And can the idealistic calls for world peace by religious leaders produce any real effect? How can I speak anything more than truisms, sentimental clichés, and ideas we’ve all heard before? Can the teachings of the world’s great mystics effect any real change on the societal level or are these teachings meant only for personal transformation?
Robert Abdul Hayy Darr speaks on how appearances and the nurturing of appearances often carry the day. He opens with a Mullah Nasreddin story and explores deeply why it is that we are constantly feeding the various and differing personas that we have learned to take on not only as vestments, but also to inhabit so completely that we may not remember who we really are. His hope is that we may inhabit that sacred level of body and heart that makes us fly on the Buraq of love into the Heaven of Divine Love, that it take us on high to the heavens and guide us to our original self.
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A talk by Shaikh Kabir at this year's Baraka Retreat, "Living with the Truth," July 14, 2012, Santa Barbara.
Other talks by Amina Wadud, Camille, Imam Feisal Rauf, and Abdul Hayy Darr will be posted soon.
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A Sohbet with Shaikh Kabir on a passage from Rumi.
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Having just returned from a remarkable trip to Turkey, Sara said, “The effects of this trip are still with me. Something has really changed. I witnessed the beautiful adab of some of these people—how they move so gracefully through events without reacting negatively, always having a beautiful, gentle response to things.” Yes. This is not [...]
A conversation with Kabir Dede on the theme for May: Be an objective witness; see Hu everywhere.
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© Latifa Spiker There are times in life when we are moving forward fulfilling our vision, and then there are other times when we take an account of where we are. We reach a certain point when we must assess what we have accomplished, what we have learned, and what are the results of [...]
تاریخ کے اس نازک موڑ پر ازحد ضروری ہے کہ ہم ایک حقیقی گفت وشنید نہ صرف بحثیت ایک مسلم امریکن بلکہ بحثیت ایک امریکن دیگر امریکنوں سے کریں۔ ہم سمجھتے ہیں کہ اسلام کی حقیقی تعلیمات کو صحیح طور پر سمجھانہیں گیا اور اکثر اوقات اُن کو توڑ مڑور کر پیش کیا گیا ہے۔ آ اگر لفظ اسلام خوفزدگی اور بداعتمادی پیدا کرنے کی علامت سمجھا جاتا ہے تو امریکن مسلمانوں پر نہایت اہم فریضہ عائدہوتا ہے کہ ہم اِن خد شات کو دُور کرنے کی کوشش کریں اوراُجاگر کریں کہ اسلام کیسی اقدار کی تعلیم دیتا ہےتاکہ اُس خیال کو کہ مغربی تہذیب کی بہتریں اوراسلام کی اہم اقدار میں ایک بنیادی تضاد ہےزائل کیا جاسکے۔ ہم یہ ثابت کرنے کی اُمید رکھتے ہیں کہ “تہذیبوں کے ٹکراؤ” کے نظریہ کی تائید اسلام سے کسی بنیادی کشیدگی یا تصادم کی بنیاد پر نہیں کی جاسکتی۔ اسلامی تہذیب جو ساتویں صدی عیسوی میں وحی الٰہی کے ذریعے قرآن کے نزول کے نتیجہ میں پروان چڑھی اپنے سے قبل کی تمام وحی الٰہی کی مُکمل تصدیق کرتی ہے اور کثرتِ وجود ادیان، معاشرتی تضادات اور بنیادی انسانی حقوق اور عقل اور فرد کی آزادئ ضمیر کو تسلیم کرتی ہے