June 2023 Message

Beloved Family,

Greetings from a very cool spring where I live!

As I begin another adventure to Lama and Murshid Sam’s Dargah for our Sufi Sesshin, I can feel how much the isolation of the pandemic has changed our habits and comforts. Unlike most of you, I have been traveling all around the globe for a year already, but I can certainly feel humanity's need to stretch and re-train our preferences around in-person community closeness and affection.

As I travel, I feel the great privilege and opportunity to spread what we all know to be true - as Hazrat Inayat Khan has written: "All the disharmony of the world caused by religious differences is the result of humankind’s failure to understand that religion is One, truth is One, and God is One; how can there be two religions?” How can we become skillful in sharing this clear Truth - the Universality of Religious Ideals. And further, that religion is a vehicle to connect humans and the Divine - it is not the Destination, which is One.

Expanding from Universality is the realization that all humanity, all living things, all Nature, all universes are made of the same shared fabric - Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. This brings us to reflect on impermanence, inseparability, insubstantiality and interdependence, all enormously deep and complex marvels.

A few weeks after Lama, hopefully you can join us for the 49th Mendocino Sufi Camp. In August I travel to Chicago to present at the Parliment of Worked Religions. September takes me to the Southwest Sufi Community to lead a retreat with my dear friend and colleague, Murshid Allaudin Ottinger.

October 13-15 takes me to Madison WI for a This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., November 10-12 to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and December 1-3 to Maui HI.

In 2024 we will once again be taking a group to Mother India February 1-10, connected to the Celebration of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s 97th URS.

For our next wazifa practice let us recite YA WAHHAB ~ YA RAZZAQ ~ YA FATTAH, the same practice those of us teaching at the Mendocino Camp have been asked to hold in heart as we prepare to resume this precious yearly event that has been on pause since 2019.

For our local family, would love to see you at Zikr this Thursday, June 15th.

Much love,

Shabda

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Wazifa Practice

Recite 101x

YA WAHHAB ~ YA RAZZAQ ~ YA FATTAH

16. Ya Wahhab (yaa wah-HAAB)
Al-Wahhab gives divine blessings continually and universally. It is a flow that is without disruption and which is freely given without any expectation of return. It is the one who constantly refreshes. There is no restraint based on scarcity, as its source is super-abundant. A form from the same root, mawhibah, is a cloud that rains freely on everything. Another form, mawhoob, is a child or any blessing given to you by God.

By invoking Ya Wahhab you become identified with a stream flowing continuously from the divine source, and everything you need in life is already fully present and flowing in that stream. It is closely related to Ya Razzaq (17) and Ya Fattah (18). In the sound code of the Arabic language, all three share a form that conveys continuous activity.

There is a developmental aspect in considering these three Names together. Al-Wahhab is the free rain that is given to all. Ar-Razzaq is the water that flows into irrigation ditches. Al-Fattah is all the fruit you harvest from all the trees you've irrigated. In other words, Al-Wahhab is a free gift; ar-Razzaq offers the means for achieving abundance; al-Fattah is the continuing action of all that will be accomplished.

17. Ya Razzaq (yaa raz-ZAAḲ)
Ar-Razzaq is the one who continuously provides the means for each of us to get what we need for our daily sustenance, our bread and butter. The noun rizq, formed from its root, means a gift of blessing from which all can benefit. The adage "The bounty of the dates can be seen at the bottom of the well" illustrates the meaning of ar-Razzaq. If you make use of the water of the well and draw it up and irrigate your palm trees every day, you will get the dates.

There are endless opportunities to benefit from the divine gifts that are offered by ar-Razzaq, and endless ways to make them available to others. Ar-Razzaq is also seen in a person's openness to receive divine provenance. The word al-arzaaq means "endless gifts." The truly endless gifts are the gifts of rahma: compassion, mercy, and love. The one who always gives these gifts has an infinite supply in treasure houses of infinite love.

18. Ya Fattah (yaa fat-TAAḤ)
Al-Fattah means both to begin and to open. Through it you begin to open your heart to the infinite possibilities of the divine presence. With al-Fattah, the opening is continuous. It is an enlightenment that keeps happening. Al-Fattah brings great power to clear the way of obstacles and open the path of your life for success. It is the one who opens the heart to love and ecstasy.

Al-Fattah means to open something with something else, a key. It is the key to opening the heart to Allah, the key to finding the God within. Reciting Ya Fattah is a very powerful practice because, even in the midst of despair, it brings the possibility of awakening to love and ecstasy. Its activity in us is opening up the veils of darkness over the heart to uncover the light within. Al-Fattah is the continuous action of all that will be accomplished. Invocation of Ya Fattah sets up the dynamic of going deeper and deeper in the process of opening.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Wahhab ~ Ya Razzaq ~ Ya Fattah

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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 6, The Control of the Body, pages 70-83

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

Madison, WI Sufi Retreat October 13 - 15

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. November 10 - 12

Maui Sufi Retreat December 1 - 3

Mother India Pilgrimage February 1 -10, 2024