May 2023 Message

Beloved Family

May greetings of the Heart to you all!

I would like us to reflect on a teaching often given by H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama:

Warmheartedness leads to a healthy mind. Peace of mind allows us to sleep soundly. I’m not talking about the benefits of the next life or of finding God, but of being a peaceful person with a calm mind and a warm heart here and now.

At a recent Buddha’s Birthday Celebration, H.H. the Dalai Lama said:

The more we become acquainted with a concern for the welfare of others, the more we will regard others dearer than ourselves. We will recognize our inter-dependence on each other and will remember that all 8 billion people in the world today are same in wishing to be happy and to avoid suffering. Therefore, on this special occasion, I urge my spiritual brothers and sisters to be warmhearted and lead a meaningful life, to be dedicated to the welfare of others. Warmheartedness is key to peace and harmony in the world.

I invite us to reflect, how would it be if we were more warmhearted when we were alone. We can consider how warmheartedness would improve our relations one on one. Next we can meditate on how we are now when we enter a group, and how bringing more warmheartedness might improve both our own condition and those around us. Lastly, how do we become more skillful on bringing warmheartedness to all beings in all realms.

All of these reflections will point us to the realization that what we give away becomes our true possession. Further, as we become more warmhearted toward self and others our experience of life will deepen, we will be happier, and as H.H. the Dalai Lama suggests there will be more peace and harmony in the world!

Looking forward to sharing Murshid Sam’s Dargah through the June 28 - July 2 Sufi Sesshin at Lama with some of you.

After that we return once again to the Mendocino Sufi Camp July 16-23, having attended 45 of the 46 annual camps!!!! That means I have lived at the Mendocino Woodlands for more than a year of my life!

I will be joining many of us representing the Ruhaniat and the Dances of Universal Peace at the Parliament of World Religions August 13-19, and then September 19-24, I return to the Southwest Sufi Community for their annual retreat.

As a “save the date” notification, with more info to follow, I will be teaching in Madison, WI. Oct 13-15, and return for the first time since the pandemic to Maui for a weekend retreat December 1-3. Lastly In February 1-10, 2024, we are planning to take a group to Mother India and attend HIK 97^th Urs Celebration, visit sufi shrines and holy places. Joining me in guiding the journey will be Murshid Rahmat Moore, his wife and partner, Dr Tasha Pryia Turzo Moore, and Khalifa Waduda Welsh.

For our next wazifa practice let’s recite YA HAKAM ~ YA HAKIM - invoking discerning wisdom and healing wisdom.

Much love,

Shabda

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Wazifa Practice

Recite 101x

YA HAKAM ~ YA HAKIM

28. Ya Hakam (yaa ḤA-kam)

Al-Hakam is discerning wisdom, a wisdom that is utterly pervasive and very precise. Al-Hakam is the one who discerns and who makes wise decisions. This divine quality is described by such words as sagacious, judicious, clear-headed, intelligent, subtle, and discreet. In its deepest sense, it is a seeing from the eye of the heart, by means of the light of God. A hadith says, "Be aware of the penetrating insight (firaasah) of the believer, because such a one sees by the light of God."

The nominative form of H-K-M is al-hikmah, which means both wisely reflecting on the secrets of divine essence (the silent or still wisdom), and living actively in harmony with that reflection. Through this kind of wisdom, you become able to discern between what is real and what is transient. It erases all doubt so that you can focus on the truth amidst the most confusing of conditions.

Invocation of Ya Hakam offers a way out of the feeling of powerlessness in the face of all the raging desires. It is a means of objectifying situations to gain clarity of insight. We recommend it be paired in recitation with its cognate Ya Hakim (46), healing wisdom, which is a more inclusive Name of wisdom.

46. Ya Hakim (yaa ḥa-KEEM)

Al-Hakim is the universal manifestation of healing wisdom. It is the essential wisdom that brings all experience into balance and harmony, and it is the one whose wisdom is manifested everywhere. It is the heart of diamond-like clarity that gives you access to an active spirit of guidance.

Al-Hakim is born of inner certainty and it is manifested as outward calm and determination. The word for bridle is hakama, meaning to rein in. The ability to control unbridled passions, such as anger, requires a wisdom that expresses itself in skillful action, and through the actual practice of all that you know. Realization of this divine quality gives you the ability to determine exactly how wisdom can promote healing in each and every instance.

A most concrete meaning of al-Hakim is a physician, a physician of hearts. Invocation of Ya Hakim provides help for those of us who easily get lost in generalities, and have difficulty translating knowledge into practical wisdom. Al-Hakim is the Name of wisdom that is most inclusive; its universal meaning includes the meaning of its cognate, Ya Hakam (28), discerning wisdom, with which it is paired in repetition.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Hakam ~ Ya Hakim

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Text and Commentary to Study

This month we continue reading Hazrat Inayat Khan's Gatheka on Mental Purification with commentaries by Murshid Samuel Lewis and Murshid Moineddin Jablonski

Read and contemplate Chapter 5 on Mastery, pages 51-69

Click here to download the document

Mental Purification Commentary

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Upcoming Events and Teachings

Lama Sufi Sesshin June 28 – July 2

Mendocino Sufi Camp July 16 - 23

Southwest Sufi Community Sufi Camp September 19 - 24

Save the Date

Madison, WI Sufi Retreat October 13-15

Maui Sufi Retreat December 1-3

Mother India Pilgrimage February 1-10, 2024