July 2023 Message

Beloved Family,

We had a deep and rich retreat at Lama Foundation/ Murshid Sam’s Dargah and in a few days, we return to Mendocino Sufi Camp after a three-year pandemic hiatus. Of the previous 46 Mendocino Camps I have attended 45 of them.

I am learning a dance that Sheikh Latif taught us at the last California Sufi Sesshin which comes from the words of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, which we can all reflect on and use in our daily life:

Everyday, think as you wake up

Today I am fortunate to have woken up

I am alive, I have a precious human life

And I am not going to waste it Oh Oh

Tears naturally arise whenever I tune into the feeling of gratefulness for this incredibly rich life that is still unfolding, with such extraordinary teachers, friends, and community all around the world and the precious Dharma flowing into our efforts to awaken and relieve suffering.

In August more than fifty of us will descend on the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago mostly to share the Dances of Universal Peace and the teachings we have been entrusted with. Having led the Dances for over 50 years regularly, I experience them as a revelation and a revolution. Knowing how much they have spread around the world, they still may be in their infancy or young adulthood. The sense of community and safety, of joy and embodiment, and deep appreciation for the Universality of religious and human ideals, these are all remarkable.

In September I am looking forward to returning to the Southwest Sufi Community, the pristine wilderness we caretake for humanity, and get a chance to visit the newly dedicated shrine/graves of Murshid Wali Ali and Murshida Khadija along with the Pir Moineddin’s gravesite. I always look forward to being with Murshid Allaudin and the community of caretakers of the land.

October, I'll be in Madison WI, November in This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and December in Maui.

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

For our next wazifa practice let call on two wazifas that are there to really help us, especially reaching into wounds and patterns that may be obscured from view.

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 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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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 7, The Control of the Mind, pages 84-115.

Click here to download the document

Mental Purification Commentary

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Upcoming Events and Teachings

Mendocino Sufi Camp

Southwest Sufi Community Sufi Camp

Madison, WI Sufi Retreat

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Maui Sufi Retreat

Mother India Pilgrimage

July 16 - 23