July 2017 Message

Beloved Family,

Our Mendocino Sufi Camp starts in a few days and I look forward to being together with so many of you!

Had a lovely time in Russia with our Sufi family, especially the young folks. Special gratitude goes to my host Ilona, my other translator Victoria and Kabir, our master drummer, who kept me connected to the internet! And please welcome three new mureeds, Aija, Elena and Natasha. Aija lives in Sydney, Australia, is from Riga, Latvia and joined us in the Russian Ruhaniat Summer Camp. Elena lives in Moscow and Natasha is a physician and homeopath, who lives part time in the countryside of Russia and part time in St Petersburg.

After camp we had our traditional reunion, dancing in the park in the center of St Petersburg. Afterwards 20 of us shared a meal at an Armenian restaurant. Kabir noticed there were some microphones and music set up and asked if we could use it. Someone fetched our instruments from the trunk of our car and we were joined by the Armenian master violinist who managed the music for the restaurant. We ended up jamming together for over an hour. You can see the video on my Facebook page or YouTube.

Looking forward to being part of the Northwest Sufi Camp in August. Followed by the Dargah Completion Celebration

After over 10 years of concentrating on manifesting Murshid Sam's Dargah structure, it brings great joy along with immense gratitude to be so near completion.

Deep gratitude especially to Malik Braun, who has been my partner and Project Manager and given completely of himself, also to Waduda, along with many others, including Kabir and Abraham and Munira, and, and..... who lead the encouragement to continue to donate to the project until we have raised all the funds.

We are nearly at $800,000 and need approximately another $120,000 to be complete. Our hope is that we all participate, so if you haven’t given yet, there is still time. Naturally large donations go far but even small ones add up and allow you to feel part of the effort. If you have given before but it was several years ago and you have another offering to make this year, we will be so grateful.

At the upcoming Mendocino Sufi Camp I want to concentrate the teachings on several vectors. A famous Hadith of Prophet Muhammad is ‘Whosever knows the self, knows their Lord” and Hazrat Inayat Khan quotes Hazrat Ali “Know thyself and though shalt know God ”and at the same time, we recognize the principal teaching on the Path is fana - the annihilation of the “false self”, the deconstruction of the false notion of a separate self. Also we add to this the saying “Forgiveness is giving up the hope for a better past!” to make Friends with Life or to Make Friends with the Enemy, to be present, “This is how it is right now”, all the while being passionate for the Goal - in Inayat's words “Spiritual Liberty”.

So we can use this month’s Wazifa assignment to get in touch with the wounding we are carrying and gradually transform all into the Friend.

Sending all love,

Shabda

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Wazifa Practice - Recite 101x YA GHAFFAR ~ YA GHAFUR

14. Ya Ghaffar (yaa g̣ḥ̣af-FAAR)

Al-Ghaffar is inexhaustible forgiveness. It is repetitive. Even though you may repeat the same error over and over again, you never come to the end of God’s forgiveness, which is inexhaustible. A form of the root of al-Ghaffar means a substance bees make that the Arabs used to fill in the cracks of a dried out, old leather water skin, so that it no longer leaks. Divine forgiveness repairs human dryness and brittleness in a similar way.

Invocation of Ya Ghaffar offers a healing salve that is an antidote for self-loathing, guilt, and blame. It is especially useful to bring this emanation of divine forgiveness into the places where you have been marked by impressions of self-deficiency that have been reinforced time and again. Al-Ghaffar brings moisture back into the system. An even more complete realization of the nature of divine forgiveness may occur when this Name is paired in repetition with Ya Ghafur (34), which shares the same root. We recommend prayerful recitation of Ya Ghaffar, Ya Ghafur. See also Ya Tawwab (79), Ya 'Afuw (81), and Chapter 8, Divine Forgiveness.

34. Ya Ghafur (yaa ɡ ̣ ḥa-FOOR)

Al-Ghafur is the essence of forgiveness, because it reveals the depth of the divine heart. Al-Ghafur means to forgive all the way into the deepest possible place, all the way to the ground floor. It is the divine forgiveness that penetrates into the most repressed secrets in our hearts. Its presence allows us to accept that there is forgiveness even for the worst crime we have ever committed in our life, or the worst crime ever done to us.

Al-Ghafur is a healing salve for human beings’ deep sense of being wounded that is due to self-identifying with shame and unworthiness. It shares the same root as al-Ghaffar (14). A physical-plane meaning from the same root tells us it is like the substance bees make to repair their hives, which then is rubbed into the dried-out, cracked leather water skin so that it no longer leaks. See Ya Ghaffar (14), with which it is paired in repetition. See also Ya Tawwab (79) and Ya 'Afuw (81), as well as Chapter 8, Divine Forgiveness.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Ghaffar ~ Ya Ghafur

TEXT and COMMENTARY to STUDY

This month we continue reading Murakkabah of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan with commentary by Murshid Samuel Lewis (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti). Read Githa Series 1 Numbers 5 - 7, pages 18-34 Click here to download the document.

1Teachingat RussianCamp Teaching at the 13th annual Russian Ruhaniat Summer Camp