Beloved Mureeds,
As Spring Equinox approaches, it is raining here, I know the folks on the North-East have severe snowstorms, our Australian family is coming to the end of their summer, and the light is increasing everyday for our family in Russia and the Baltics!
This year’s Sufi Sesshin, though smaller in numbers, was very deep and tuned our hearts. Next year we will return to our regular dates, the first Friday of the year for 8 days - Jan 3-11, 2019.
In a time when hypocrisy is so rampant in my country, when fake news is replacing real news and integrity amongst our elected officials is at an all time low, I would like to remind us that our assignment is still the same - to awaken to Limitless Freedom- Spiritual Liberty for the benefit of all beings in all realms.
As Hazrat Inayat Khan says: “The work of the sufi has nothing to do with any particular religion, race or creed, but just this simple thing, to be able to keep ones rhythm throughout life’s conditions and to be in tune with the Infinite!”
Naturally we will each have the unique ways in which we serve, but no matter the conditions, the aspiration is to be at “ease” and Intune!
I leave next Saturday for a weeklong “Ruhaniat Sufi Youth Jam and Sufi Training”, open to all, at Ecovilliage Atlantida in the foothills of Colombia.
April 13-15 I am pleased to be offering a more local retreat in Nevada City, hope to see many of you who live in our area. Later in April is the Annual Jamiat Aam in Portland. On that Sunday afternoon April 29, I am offering a Raga Concert at the same location.
In May I teach in Southern France for the first time, followed by the Annual Federation of the Sufi Message Harmony Gathering, this year at Hazrat Inayat Khan’s family home Fazl Manzil, in a suburb of Paris.
In late June our Peace Pledge Pilgrimage - please sign the Peace Pledge <http://peacepledgeproject.org> - will journey from Greenland to Asissi with many distinguished spiritual, business, political and education leaders.
From there I will be the guest teacher at the annual Ruhaniat Summer School in Northern Germany.
I’ll have less than a week home before attending the 44th Annual Mendocino Sufi Camp.
Instead of starting a new text this month, I am suggesting we each daily recite, memorize and contemplate the recitation of the Prayers of Inayat: PIR~NABI and RASSOUL.
Sending all love,
Shabda
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Wazifa Practice
Recite 101x YA AZALIYY ~ YA ABADIYY
These are two Names of Allah beyond the 99 Names.
YA AZALIYY, the eternity, before time begins, free from the limit of a beginning, stops the mind that is unable to conceive a time without a beginning, which allows us to liberate from time, prior to mind. From the root 'to straighten.' To relieve being pressed for time.
YA ABADIYY, the Eternity, which is everlasting beyond the manifestation, which allows us to liberate from space, to liberate from objects. From the root dwelling in a place permanently, abiding continuously. To liberate from objects.
As a pair, it helps us break the limitation of time and space, since time and space are necessary to consolidate a 'self image,' allows us to liberate the self image, helps expand time and space. The invocation Ya Azaliyy, Ya Abadiyy can be an antidote for the way our lives are stuck by the pressures of time and space.
TEXT and COMMENTARY to STUDY
Instead of starting a new text this month, I am suggesting we each daily recite, memorize and contemplate the recitation of the Prayers of Inayat: PIR~NABI and RASSOUL. Click here to download the document.
Sesshin with the lights of the galaxy above
Group shot from the last afternoon after many people had left
Brigitte van Baren, director of our Peace Pledge Pilgrimage Council, and His Holiness the 12th Kenting Tai Situpa Rinpoche at Rinpoche’s monastery in Northern India holding up the Peace Pledge
Black–necked Stilt
Red-winged Blackbird
Female and Male Cinnamon Teal Ducks
Black-crowned Night Heron:
Northern Shoveler
Non-breeding American Avocets
Breeding American Avocets
Greater Yellow Legs
Killdeer
Female Downy Woodpecker
Mockingbird
Adult male Northern Harrier
Red-shoulderd Hawk
For upcoming Events and Teachings, see Shabda's calendar for more information.