May 2021 Message

Beloved Family,

As our Northern Hemisphere days get longer and longer, I am arising earlier every day for morning practice and enjoying the fragrance and quietude of the dawn. My morning practice routine includes Invocation, healing breaths and breathing practice, wazifa and zikr recitation, Raga practice, and meditation.

June 19, I will lead my first in-person day-long retreat since early 2020 in Nevada City. Being vaccinated I feel quite safe but realize there will be unvaccinated people among us who are potentially at risk. We will do our best to learn from the event. Perhaps dancing outside and then sitting for talk inside with open windows, asking those unvaccinated or all to use masks.

For sure it will be educational, not only for what methods of safety protocol to use but to deal with all the feelings that will arise.

Please join us for the virtual URS celebration of my music Guru Pandit Pran Nath b Nov3, 1918 d. June 13, 1996.

Our backyard continues to be a source of beauty, support for birds and wildlife during our drought, and a generous vegetable and flower garden. This month, just after dusk we had a very beautiful and large powerful Bobcat visit our waterfall, picture below.

With the passing of Murshid Aslan and now Murshida Khadija we are all reminded of our temporary lodging in these physical bodies. All the while, our real work is to “Die before Death” “Mutu Kabla anta Mutu”. Following this thread let’s take a pair of wazifas, YA WARITH ~ YA BAITH that connect us with Fana and Baka, deconstructing the notion of a separate self and awakening to our True Nature.

We have had the pleasure this month of photographing an Owl family as they gradually fledged the nest, and mating pairs of Peregrine Falcons and Bald Eagles. Tamam and I have been walking an average of 3 miles a day and it certainly has supported our general well-being. I encourage you all to do something similar according to your situation. Sometimes we walk in the morning before starting work, sometimes at the end of the day after work, and sometimes just before lunch, taking a break from work, almost always in some beautiful nature place.

Sending much love,

Shabda

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Wazifa Practice

Recite 101x

YA WARITH ~ YA BA'ITH

For our next Wazifa Practice let's use a pair that invokes "Die before Death" and "Resurrection" or fully awakening to our True Nature. These are also another way to invoke fana and baqa.

97. Ya Warith (yaa WAA-rith)

Al-Warith expresses the aspect of God that is the inheritor of all. Everything will return to Allah. The Qur'an says, "We (Allah) give life and we give death, but We are the inheritors (warithun)." Al-Warith manifests the divine activity of leaving your limited self behind. From the human standpoint, it means to "die before death." It is a process of letting go of the transient (fana) and identifying with what does not die (baqa).

The physical meaning of the verb warratha is to put out a fire, to stir around the ashes to kill it. Even from the physical point of view, the heat of the fire disappears but the light continues, just as the light of an extinct star continues. Al-Warith shows that Allah is the ultimate inheritor of whatever of value is left behind at death, a legacy of light. It puts a different emphasis on the process of annihilation, for death is not simply a disappearance. That which has been awakened returns to Allah in the end. We recommend that Ya Warith be paired together with its divine opposite, Ya Ba'ith. Together, these Names point to a cosmic process that manifests the great return to the unity of all separated entities.

49. Ya Ba'ith (yaa BAA-'ith)

Al-Ba'ith is the one who fully sends forth the message of God and the messengers of God. It removes all blockages to the divine flow. It is the quickener. It means to throw off death-like sleep or inertia to fully wake up. Al-Ba'ith is the power that resurrects all souls, and it is the power that revives dead hearts so that they can be open. Ba'atha, a form of the same root, means to remove that which restrains you from free action. Another form means to remove the barrier from a stream of water so that the water can flow forth.

The story of Jonah and the whale gives a vivid example of similar physical meaning. "He would certainly have remained inside the stomach of the fish until the day when he was spewed out." Spewed out (sent forth) is yub'athun. It means the day or time for being sent forth. Ya Warith and Ya Ba'ith are divine opposites that are most beneficial when recited as a pair. Their realization enables you to become unstuck in the spiritual process of dying before death and awakening into what is more enduring.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Warith ~ Ya Ba'ith

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Text and Commentary to Study

This next month we begin reading:

Commentary on

Cosmic Language of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan,

by Murshid Samuel Lewis

He considered this one of his best works.

Read Chapters 4 - 6, pages 26-54.

Click to download

Commentary on Cosmic Language

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