January 2024 Message

Beloved Family,

We completed celebrating Murshid Sam’s URS last night where a large group gathered here in the San Francisco Bay Area, home of the Dances. We danced and sang and shared stories about Murshid Sam and Tawwaba shared some history from the making of the just-released biography of Murshid, Sunrise in the West.

Most people in the USA have already received their Special Edition Hardcover of Sunrise in the West and now the book is also available as a softcover on Amazon and bookstores. We are working on getting the book into International markets, which is prohibitive because of shipping and customs. We are still hoping many of you will participate in the Special Edition offering, which goes a long way to helping recoup the enormous expense in manifesting this treasure for posterity.

Like so many of us, my heart is tuned to the world’s turning around so many ways of human suffering. Since it is the season of the URS of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, his words are resonating in my heart; “Love toward All, malice toward none.” I invite us all to rededicate our breath to loving kindness and compassion in action for our fellow human beings, for all that is living, and especially changing our behaviors to manifest deep respect and care for Mother Earth.

If we look deeply into the root of suffering, I would suggest it is our confusion or adaptation to the notion of experiencing ourselves as a separate self. Said another way, our current view may be – we are a drop in the Ocean of Being, all the while our True Nature is Being the Ocean in a drop! So as this year begins let us dedicate ourselves to more and more Realization.

My travel schedule for 2024 begins in a few weeks with a pilgrimage to Mother India, really one of my favorite homes on our planet.

March 3-8 takes me to the Annual Sufi Sesshinin Healdsburg, CA. If you plan on attending, please register soon, as the Bishops Ranch has an early deadline for us to reserve all our rooms. Shortly after that, March 15-18, I have the privilege of teaching in Guadalajara, Mexicoat a camp that has been going on for many years.

Toward the end of April - 25-28, is our Annual Jamiat Aamretreat for all mureeds and devotees, this year in Madison WI, where I will be teaching with Murshid Allaudin Ottinger and Amina Meyer.

For our next wazifa practice let’s recite a pair that relates to our practice of fana and baqa, "Die before Death" and “Resurrection”, deconstructing the notion of a separate self and merging in Union.

Much love,

Shabda

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Wazifa Practice

Recite 101x

YA WARITH~ YA BA'ITH

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 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 a 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 month we begin the beginning of Githas Series 2 on Breath, numbers 1-3 in Ryazat: Esotericism. There are 2 documents, one by Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, page 5-6 and the other includes Murshid Sam's Commentaries, pages 1-16

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Upcoming Events and Teachings

Mother India Pilgrimage Feb1-10

Sufi Sesshin at The Bishops Ranch, CA March 3-8

Sufi Retreat Guadalajara Mexico March 15-18

Jamiat Am in Madison April 25-28

Ongoing Local Monthly Gathering

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PHOTOS

Murshid Sam’s Urs in Marin