January 2020 Message

Beloved Family,

We had a deep and rich Sufi Seeeshin with nearly 100 folks passing through our Meditation and Zikr Temple! Keep an eye out for Shafee publishing the records of the talks that were given throughout the week, a short Raga Offering I made accompanied by Murshid Rahmat- vocals and Tambours, and new friend and extraordinary musician, Johnathan Kay on Esaraj.

Over 100 people joined us in celebrating Murshid Sam's URs on January 15th at Dominican University in San Rafael, CA. Pictures below.

Six more days until I fly to Mother India and join a group of pilgrims to the URS Celebrations for Hazrat Inayat Khan. And a month later another group of pilgrims will travel to Morocco. In each case, as a group of (mostly) American Sufi Pilgrims, we will do our best to be ambassadors of Loving Kindness and Compassion. Another delight is that we are always like a flash mob, I can begin any of 50 zikr and mantra melodies and everyone will be able to chime in!

If you are considering joining our Moroccan Pilgrimage, please do so ASAP!

From India- February- to Morocco- March to Colombiawhere I will be teaching in April. And the end of April is the Jamiat Am in North Carolina.

The Mendocino Sufi Camp flyers are out. We look forward to being with many of you this summer.

During the middle of winter (for most of us) lets practice a Wazifa pair that supports us healing and brings relief to our deepest wounds. Said another way, it opens us to the Love which surrounds us and is the fabric of our Being.

Much love,
Shabda

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Upcoming Events and Teachings

Feb 1-10 India Pilgrimage to Hazrat Inayat Khan's Urs

Mar 11-20 Sufi Pilgrimage in Morocco

April 5-12 Ecovillage Atlantida Retreat in Colombia

Apr 30-May 3 Jamiat Am in North Carolina

July 19-26 Mendocino Sufi Camp

See Shabda's calendar for more information.

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Wazifa Practice

Recite 101x YA RA'UF ~ YA RAHIM

Ya Ra'uf (yaa ra-ʻOOF) is a quiet, gentle in-dwelling love that nevertheless actively penetrates to the deepest and most profound place. It goes right to the essence of being human, and it helps to heal the crucial problem of our narcissistic self-identification with our perceived deficiencies and shortcomings.

Ya Rahim (yaa ra-ḤEEM) is the inner element of divine love, which penetrates into the depth of all beings and all things.

Ya Raʼuf is an invocation of quiet, gentle, profound love. One of the ways to understand ar-Raʼuf is to compare it to ar-Rahim, with which it is close in meaning. Nine of the 11 times that ar-Raʼuf occurs in the Qurʼan, it is paired with ar-Rahim to describe Allah. These divine names are close in meaning, but the sound-code embedded in the Arabic language helps to distinguish them. The sound-code makes ar-Rahim omnipresent; it spreads into every particular thing without exception. It has a very immanent quality. The sound-code for ar- Raʼuf reveals it to be a kind of love that emphasizes a deep, deep penetration into the core of being, into essence.

So Ya Ra'uf touches the deepest wounds there are. It goes to the place within you where there are sensitive hurts and wounds that you have lived your whole life defending from being touched. But this simple love can reach it. It is so quiet that it can penetrate the armor. It is even subtler than what we generally understand by compassion. It is a gentle perfume.

Ya Rahim is an antidote for beings who feel abandoned by God and who badly need to feel the healing activity of divine love reaching them deeply within.

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Ya Rahim (yaa ra-ḤEEM)

Ar-Rahim is the embodiment of loving mercy, and it brings the gentle touch of divine mercy. Nothing other than ar-Rahim possesses the mercy that pours forth freely and fully reaches all beings and all things, without exception. It is an all-pervading infinite presence that is manifesting into a boundless number of finite things.

Its root meaning, like that of Ya Rahman, comes from the Arabic word for womb, rahm. It carries an inner feeling that is naturally connected with childhood. Ar-Rahim actively brings divine love into human relationships. It enables each and every being to more fully manifest loving mercy. Recitation of Ya Rahim is an antidote for all who feel abandoned by God and who need to experience the healing activity of divine love reaching deeply within them. See Ya Rahman, with which it is paired in repetition.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Ra'uf ~ Ya Rahim

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TEXT and COMMENTARY to STUDY

This month we begin reading an original Sangitha by Murshid Samuel Lewis, Fana-fi-Rassoul

Read and contemplate numbers 1-36 (pages 1-11)

Click to download

Fana-fi-Rassoul

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Murshida Leilah Be teaching at the Sufi SeeshinRaga Offering at the Sufi Seeshin