Beloved Family,
New years Blessings to each of you, your families, friends and all who are in your sphere!
We had a deep Sufi Sesshin retreat, albeit in the midst of one of the strongest storms to hit the Bay Area in the past several decades! Some 80 strong, including mureeds who came from South Africa, UK, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, and across the US.
In between the rain at home, joined by some laborers, we just put seven yards of organic compost all over our yard, vegetable and fruit tree beds, and did all the winter pruning before I leave for three weeks of travel.
First stop Berlin and a retreat in the countryside near Berlin. The following three-day weekend I teach alongside Murshid Saadi; our dear Sheikha Maris Warrior will host the Scotland retreat.
Then a surprise to me just arose~ Our Universal Sufi Conference is making a Pilgrimage to Delhi to Hazrat Inayat Khan, Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia and Hazrat Khwaja Moineddin Chishti’s Dargahs starting Feb 14th! So I will fly from Scotland to Delhi!
We will be joined by dignitaries and spiritual leaders from all over the world. The main mission of Council is to promote Human Values and for all religions to recognize this is at the core of the Message of their founders - as a way to shift the balance from the extreme discord between religions.
When I return from Mother India, a week later I head to Kauai for our retreat there!
In the pictures below, there is a series with a Red Tail Hawk. It was just before New Years and we were walking with Maurgana and Francis, friends from Maui, at our usual bird sanctuary and saw the hawk in a tree. Francis said I should look down to the left and there was a gopher walking straight toward me! I kicked some dust in its face to stop its progress but it kept coming. I felt like it was coming to be a student! Then the hawk also saw it, swooped downed caught it. In the last picture of the hawk in the tree, look to its claws and you can see the gopher! A National Geographic moment!
This month lets recite YA HAFIZ, the center of the wazifa family for protection, to support the world, outer and inner, during this particularly turbulent transitional time.
Much love,
Shabda
Wazifa Practice - Recite 101x YA HAFIZ
38. Ya Hafiz (yaa ḥa-FEEḌḤ)
Al-Hafiz means that everything in the heavens and earth, down to the smallest particle, is within the protection of Allah. For human beings, it involves becoming mindful, considerate, respectful, and cherishing deeply in your heart. This makes it exactly parallel with dhikr (zikr), which means “to remember.”
It is in this sense that God says in the Qur'an, “Remember me, and I will remember you.”
Al-Hafiz is protecting and remembering everyone. To realize al-Hafiz is to be conscious of the greatest of secrets, to know the secret, and to keep it. The order, sequence, and timing of the universe are preserved through this quality.
Invocation of Ya Hafiz is useful for all who need protection from fear, despair, and hopelessness. Al-Hafiz is a matrix for the whole family of the divine Names of protection because it contains within itself all the specific qualities they each evoke.
To hear the pronunciation: Ya Hafiz
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 29-29. Spend some time with Hazrat Inayat Khan's Sufi Prayer for Peace on page 39.
Click here to download the document.
California Sufi Sesshin 2017
Dancing at the Sesshin:
Local Red Tailed Hawk on the Hunt:
Local Turkey Vulture
Local Great Egret
Local House Wren
Upcoming Events and Teachings
See Shabda's calendar for more information.