November 2016 Message

Beloved Family,

It is such a joy to have time at home! My whirlwind travel the last few months took me from Colorado to Maui to Cambridge and the Abode for the annual Murshid Circle retreat, followed by the annual Leaders Retreat and then the Board of Trustees meeting.

And now gradually adjusting to the change of seasons and working hard at home to catch up on administration and our garden.

I can imagine that many of us are reeling from the current election results. My own sense is that if we create disturbing emotions in ourselves because the world doesn’t suit us, we will loose our strength and our peace. That means that even if we have to go into battle, a peaceful, buoyant, relaxed heart is the strongest and most beneficial offering,

So I advise we use one of my favorite mantras “This is how it is right now”, and face the demon, if that is how we experience it, and make friends with it.

In December I travel to Seattle. In January we have our Annual Sufi Sesshin. February brings journeys to Germany and Scotland, March Kauai and Madison for the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.!

And in tune with the Thanksgiving season, lets recite YA KARIM and connect with our generosity, our abundance and being an endless source of blessing!

Since the first letter we read this month from Hazrat Inayat Khan to Rabia Martin has a beautiful practice which he calls Mantram (Darood), let us all join together in reciting 11 times a day.

Allah huma salleh alah Saiyadina Mohammadin wa alah alle Saiyadina Mohammadin wa barik wa Sallim

Much love,

Shabda

Wazifa Practice Recite 101x YA KARIM

42. Ya Karim (yaa ka-REEM)

Al-Karim is fully manifested generosity that reaches everything without exception. It can be found in every particular thing and in everything altogether. Al-Karim bestows endless gifts with full integrity.

It is an inexhaustible, bountiful energy that keeps on giving, like a flowing stream of water from a fathomless well. Those who embody al Karim are generous with whatever they have, whether it actually reaches people or not, or whether others respond or not. Another form of the word is 'ikram, which means incomparably generous. It is found in one of the divine Names: Ya Dhal Jalali wal 'Ikram (84). The common root K-R-M means unconditional giving from the inner intention of love.

A physical form of the root has the meaning of fertile ground. Al-Karim also expresses dignity and integrity. When the angels perceived the quality of God’s fully manifested generosity in Adam, they fully prostrated in sajdah before the mystery of divine manifestation in the human being. Repetition of Ya Karim is a remedy for miserliness in all realms and directly addresses the densest core of the ego.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Karim

TEXT and COMMENTARY to STUDY

This month we continue reading Yours in the Infinite, a series of letters from Hazrat Inayat Khan to Murshida Rabia Martin. Read pages 17-23. Click here to download the document.

Maui Sufi Camp:

1MauiCamp