Spirit Matters March 2023

Contents

3 Editorial

4 Message from the National Representative

5 Hope in Hell by Nuria

26 Can every atom of manifestation be said to have a soul? by Zubin

33 Awakening from a Dream: “Tell Me – Which Way Is Up?” by Karim

36 In Memoriam Gillian Margaret Harris

40 In Search of the Sacred a retreat with Pir Nawab Pasnak

41 National Activities

42 The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan

43 Contacts

Cover.

Door

Raven. Photo by Meg Jerrard on Unsplash

Milk in a glass. Photo by an_vision on Unsplash

Corinthian helmet Denda Staatliche Antikensammlungen. Public Domain

Bubbles in water. Photo by J K on Unsplash

Black swan. Photo by Graham Holtshausen on Unsplash

Walking path on a mountain. Photo by Alexander Milo on Unsplash

St Francis preaching to the birds. Fresco by the Master of St Francis, Assisi. Public Domain

Lensball on a stone wall at the "Saarschleife" in Germany. Photo by Marc Schulte on Unsplash

Dervish. Photo by svklimkin on Unsplash

Whirling dervishes. Photo by svklimkin on Unsplash

Man with tattoos. Photo by Seyi Ariyo on Unsplash

Page from the Gospel of Judas. Gnostic text from the Codex Tchacos. Public Domain

Medieval minature of Shaikh Mu'in al-din Chishti. Bichitr, 1615. Chester Beatty Library. Public Domain

Guler painting showing an imaginary meeting of Sufi saints. Public Domain

Maula Bakhsh, Grandfather of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Born 1833, died 1896 India. Musician, singer and poet. Public Domain

Photo credits:

Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash

to hell inspired by the show Lucifer. 3D render by Maximilian Müller on Unsplash

Editorial

How do you describe the indescribable, grasp what cannot be grasped? The soul is without form and yet people throughout history have attempted to understand the meaning, form and essence of it. In the words of Rumi “body is not veiled from soul, neither soul from body, yet no man hath ever seen a soul.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan explains that “the soul during its journey towards manifestation, and during its stay in any plane, whether in the heaven of the angels, the sphere of the jinn, or the plane of human beings, feels drawn towards its source and goal. Some souls feel more drawn than others; but there is a conscious or unconscious inner attraction felt by every soul. “

He goes on to ask “What then, is the soul? The soul is life, it never touches death. Death is its illusion, its impression; death comes to something which the soul holds, not to the soul itself. “

The Soul is the theme of this newsletter. Nuria has contributed a fascinating article in which she discusses the themes of heaven and hell, the destiny of the soul, and death and the soul.

Zubin has contributed a wonderful article that traces the history of the dargah of Hazrat Inayat Khan.

In a strange quirk of synchronicity Karim has contributed a poem Awakening from a Dream, replete with the imagery of whirling dervishes, unaware that I felt moved to write something to honour the memory of Gillian Harris who taught me, and many others, about the “turning” and the ceremony of the mukabele from the tradition of the whirling dervishes.

The world turns, and as it turns, there is stillness to be experienced at the very centre of all activity in life.

The soul is the point of light that is yearning to return to the source.

In Oneness, Yaqin

Beloved Sisters and Brothers

Autumn 2023

It is fascinating how life unfolds in its own way, yet the outcome is exactly as it should be. I spent most of December looking forward to our cruise on Queen Elizabeth with great anticipation. My first cruise in 2019/2020 was magical. My main concern was that we avoid Covid and actually get on the ship. Our first week was lovely and lots of fun. Dress-ups on gala evenings and Christmas celebrations. I saw the magnificent albatrosses as we got closer to New Zealand. However, I caught Covid just after Christmas, and I had it quite badly; poor Azad got it two days later. We were moved to a quarantine cabin with a balcony so we could have lots of fresh air and given the antivirals very quickly on Medicare. We could not have been in a better place to have Covid – all meals delivered to the door, movies and entertainment on TV and lots of time to sleep, and we could ask for whatever we wanted. But strangely, one of my best experiences was as I was sitting out on the balcony watching the sea and doing my practices. The noise of the waves crashing on the hull was powerful – the Tasman Sea is rough, and the waves move in two directions from the Pacific Ocean and the Bass Straight – crashing into each other. I allowed myself to fall into the sound and the ocean in my mind – the concentration took me to a wonderful place of complete peace. It is a place I can still visit.

We were both Covid negative when we arrived back in Melbourne, but it took us another few weeks to totally get over it. It is strange that I now feel better than before we left – I wonder if the antivirals cured more than Covid. It has taken me quite a long time even to want to go out and mix with people again. So many wonderful friends offered help, but I just wanted to be alone.

It is only now that I feel able to go out and visit again. Our retreat with Nawab in April is ahead, and we are getting into the planning and registrations. I look forward to being with our Sufi family again and to experience a powerful and profound retreat. The topic is one close to my heart. Please come if you can – I realise that we must grab opportunities now as they may never come again.

With love,

Nuria

Hope in Hell

by Nuria

I have been watching a disturbing series on Netflix called The Sandman, which has profoundly affected me, especially the episode known as Hope in Hell. This is my personal feeling and reaction to the tale.

In it, Lucifer Morningstar (ruler of Hell) is pitted against Morpheus (the Sandman), ruler of the dream realm. Morpheus voluntarily visited Hell to retrieve his helm (one of his tools) from a demon. Lucifer is seen as tall, blond, beautiful, and powerful – a fallen angel dressed in black armour with black wings. He is visiting Hell and can leave anytime but must retrieve his helm (a black magical helmet or mask). He cannot leave until he achieves this. As a result, Lucifer and Morpheus have a powerful battle of wits. It is magnificent.

Lucifer manifests all the most terrifying aspects of death, the anti-life, the dark at the end of everything, which Morpheus counters with the universe and everything that is life-embracing. Lucifer brings everything life-destroying against him – even a nova – the end of a star.

Morpheus is almost defeated by despair, but his raven hops up and tells him that the only thing that can survive this is the dreaming of Morpheus himself. Morpheus is not yet fully realised and does not react. He remains unmoved and seems defeated.

The raven tells Morpheus that he (Morpheus) could never leave him (the raven) in Hell like that – the raven had willingly accompanied Morpheus into that horrendous place. The raven does not belong in Hell and has accompanied Morpheus out of love and loyalty. After a while, Morpheus stirs himself and responds to Lucifer with one word - hope.

Hell is a place where hope does not exist - hope has no place in Hell, so Morpheus wins. The faith and optimism of the raven allowed Morpheus to realise hope. As soon as Lucifer is defeated, Lucifer tells the demon to return to Morpheus his helm.

What is Hell? It is not a place, although many religions describe both Heaven and Hell and all that they say and is written is taken literally by the faithful. Heaven abounds in milk and honey for those who live in the desert.

In the Christian religion, one is condemned to Hell for serious unrepented ‘sins’ (mortal sins). Being condemned to Hell is forever with no hope of ever being released. But the Sufis perceive Heaven and Hell differently.

The Hūris believed by Muslims to exist in the heavenly realm are the heavenly expressions of beauty that they saw on earth appearing before the eye, which was open while on earth, admiring the divine immanence. ‘God is beautiful, and He loves beauty,’ as it is said in the Hadith. The whole creation was made so that the beauty within the Creator might manifest in His creation and be witnessed. Honey is the essence of all flowers. The essence of the whole being is wisdom. Wisdom is the honey which is found in Heaven. Milk is the pure and essential substance prepared in the breast of the Mother. The essential sustenance of our being is the Spirit which is pure like milk; symbolically, we drink that milk by which our soul is nourished.

‘There is a different Heaven and Hell for each person in accordance with his grade of evolution. What is Heaven to one person may be Hell to another. A poor person might think it Heaven to live in a comfortable house and drive a car, while a king might find it Hell to live in a rich merchant's house.’1

‘Every person creates their own Heaven and Hell. A disciple once asked his Murshid, 'Pray, Murshid, let me see Heaven in a vision.' The Murshid said, 'Go into the next room, child, and sit and close your eyes and you will see Heaven.' The mureed went into the next room and sat in meditation. He saw in his vision a large area but nothing else. There were no rivers of honey and seas of milk, nor bricks of ruby, nor roofs of diamonds. He went to his Murshid and said, 'Thank you, Murshid. Now I have seen Heaven, I should like to see Hell.'

The Murshid said, 'Very well; do the same again.'

1 Hazrat Inayat Khan Vol V Spiritual Liberty P56

The disciple went into the next room and sat in his meditation, and again he saw a large area, but nothing in it, no snakes, no fire, no devils, nor cruel animals, nothing. He went to the Murshid and said, 'I saw an area, but again there was nothing in it.' The Murshid said, 'Child, did you expect that the rivers of honey and the seas of milk would be there, or the snakes or the fire in Hell? No. There is nothing there. You will have to take everything from here. This is the place to gather everything, either the delights of Heaven or the fires of Hell.' 2

'Heaven is the vision of fulfilled desire, and hell the shadow of a soul on fire,' says Omar Khayyam.

‘Our self, in reality, is Heaven if blessed by divine mercy, and it is our self which is Hell if cursed by the divine wrath. The seven gates spoken of in the Quran are the seven openings of our senses, through which gates we experience our Heaven or Hell, and the seven pinnacles mean the seven planes of man's existence, which have each its peculiar Heaven and its peculiar Hell.

God does not reward or punish us, nor is there a place or enclosure called Heaven where the virtuous are allowed to be, and another called Hell in which the sinners are penned. In reality, we experience Heaven and Hell in our everyday life all the time. But here, we experience both dream states and outer physical life. There is always the possibility of change. If we experience Hell now, tomorrow it may be Heaven.

Each person makes their own Heaven and Hell. When a person does an action with which his conscience is not pleased, the impression remains with him, torturing him continually and keeping the agonies that he experiences before his eyes. This life is the place to gather everything that we bring to the next life. Either the delights of Heaven or the fires of Hell.’

So why would Morpheus be willing to enter Hell to get his helm? When I think of the times I have been in Hell, I realise with hindsight, that I learned a lot from these experiences, and what I learned could be used as a tool in later life, even in understanding and realising evil. 2 Ibid p58

Morpheus had gone into Hell to retrieve his magical helm, which a demon had stolen. When he finally found hope, the demon was forced to return the helm and was thrown into the fiery pit to his doom. Morpheus could now leave Hell with his raven. He now had the tool the demon had stolen from him – he had recovered what he came for.

Suffering would have no sting if humans did not dream of escaping it. Desire (attachment) is the root of all suffering. It was the original cause of the imprisonment of Morpheus, when the world slept and did not dream.

The scene showing the battle of wits between Lucifer and Morpheus has imprinted itself on my mind, and I have been grappling with the feelings it has brought out in me ever since. There is so much truth in that particular scene. The essence of life is hope, and when we hope for the better, we shall be better; it cannot be otherwise. Hopelessness is worse than death. It is better to die than to lose hope. 3

What is hope? Hope is a manifestation of what is already in us: we hope or long for ‘something’ – because we unconsciously know what we seek (for we cannot hope for what is totally unknown to us). What we seek is in our very nature, from which we can never be separate. Therefore there is a time of ripening when hope's 'green' longing ripens into the sweetness of certainty. 4

There are two aspects of hope:- a quality that can be dependent on the object of the hope, our beliefs, culture and reasoning, or a quality that is completely independent of what is hoped for. These aspects cause two different natures, the optimistic and the pessimistic.

When the dependent nature is developed, it makes one pessimistic, and when hope stands alone independently, this develops optimism. The optimistic person may seem blind, and he is sometimes blind. But blind people develop a facility to do things without sight, which people with seeing eyes cannot do, so the optimist can accomplish things without knowing how or why. Murshid was once asked if he was an optimist – his answer was, 'Yes, I am an optimist but with eyes open.'

Hope cannot be called sureness or certainty, but it is a feeling that, almost by its own force, may bring sureness and certainty.

3 Hazrat Inayat Khan. Vol XI Philosophy, Psychology and Mysticism. Psychology P 83

4 From an email from Pir Nawab.

Hope dependent upon reason is weak, and the more dependent it is, the weaker it is. Hope, together with reason, is strong, perhaps stronger than hope alone, but in proportion, as reason supports hope, so hope depends on reason, and as so often happens, reason cannot reach the object of hope, then hope sinks. Hope is not dependent on reason.

Hope is strengthened by reason, but it stands on the foundation of patience, for it is possible that despite all reasons, a person may completely give up hope. 5

What is it that we hope for? We are on a journey, both inner and outer, so at an inner level, we may hope that our purpose in life will be fulfilled and that we will find unity, love, harmony, and beauty.

On the outer level, I hoped that my last two books would be published and successful – they are my life's work and a manifestation of my inner life. In the ancient teaching tales, the hero must bring the object of his quest back into the outer world so that his 'father', the emperor, may be healed and all the land with him. Through my writing, I am attempting to bring back the object of my quest – the Light of the Truth that I have found.

I was optimistic that my book would be published. There were many reasons why a publisher would reject it: it did not fit into any category, it would not be a bestseller, it most likely would not have a wide readership, and it was on subjects that people might find strange; mystical and spiritual themes. Despite these reasons, I knew the book was important and needed to be out there. I also felt guided in my writing which felt like my destiny. I had no doubts at all despite almost no encouragement.

Hope is based on faith – the raven had utter faith that Morpheus would not, and could not, leave him in Hell. Faith is 'self-confidence' and 'certainty in expectation.' Faith in no way signifies certainty without expectation nor confidence with evidence.

Faith is the power of the mind; without faith, the mind is powerless. When faith leads and reason follows, success is sure, but success is doubtful when reason leads and faith follows. 6

Behind faith is our belief system or structure. As children, we believe what we are told by our family, our culture and our religion.

5 Hazrat Inayat Khan. The Gathas. The Sufi Message volume XIII Hope p 246-247

6 Hazrat Inayat Khan. The Gathas. The Sufi Message volume XIII Faith p 245

‘Belief is a natural tendency to accept knowledge without doubt. Every soul is born with this tendency to accept every knowledge that is given to it, in whatever way or form. Therefore no soul in the world is born an unbeliever. There is a saying of the Prophet, 'Every soul is born a believer, and it is others that make the soul an unbeliever.' This unbelief comes by the conflict of one's knowledge and belief. Belief has two tendencies. One is the tendency of water that runs, and the other is that of water that becomes frozen. Some people who have a belief like to keep it unchanged as a rock and identify their ego with it People of this temperament are steady in their belief, but often lack progress. If they happen to have a right belief, there is no danger of their giving it up. But if it is not right, they are perplexed. Those whose belief is like running water perhaps go from one belief to another, and they may not seem steady in their belief, yet their life is progressive.

The progressive soul can never hold one belief and must change and go on changing until it arrives at the ultimate truth. For a simple person, steadiness of belief is more advantageous than change, for change may lead him astray. But for an intelligent person, it is natural and necessary to go from belief to belief until he arrives at his final convictions.

Belief is of four kinds. The first kind is a belief accepted because all believe it. The second is accepted belief because it is believed by someone the believer trusts. The third belief is the belief that reason helps one to believe. The fourth belief is the conviction of which one is as sure as if one were an eyewitness.

Thomas Kuhn argued that science does not evolve gradually towards truth. Science has a paradigm which remains constant before going through a paradigm shift when current theories can't explain some phenomenon, and someone proposes a new theory.

Kuhn's version of how science develops differed dramatically from the Whig version. Where the standard account saw steady, cumulative "progress", he saw discontinuities – a set of alternating "normal" and "revolutionary" phases in which communities of specialists in particular fields are plunged into periods of turmoil, uncertainty, and angst. These revolutionary phases – for example, the transition from Newtonian mechanics to quantum physics – correspond to great conceptual breakthroughs and lay the basis for a succeeding phase of business as usual. The fact that his version seems unremarkable now is, in a way, the greatest measure of his success. But in 1962 almost everything about it was controversial because of the challenge it posed to powerful, entrenched philosophical assumptions about how science did – and should – work.

Karl Popper believed that scientific knowledge is provisional – the best we can do at the moment. Popper is known for his attempt to refute the classical positivist account of the scientific method, by replacing induction with the falsification principle. The Falsification Principle, proposed by Karl Popper, is a way of demarcating science from non-science. It suggests that for a theory to be considered scientific it must be able to be tested and conceivably proven false.

For example, the hypothesis that "all swans are white," can be falsified by observing a black swan.

For Popper, science should attempt to disprove a theory, rather than attempt to continually support theoretical hypotheses.

Jung’s Christian beliefs made it difficult for him to explore mysticism. He made assumptions based on the church’s dogma, which were in my opinion, suspect. His belief compromised his understanding.

‘The four kinds of belief are held by souls of different grades of evolution in life and different temperaments. There is the knowledge that one can perceive with the senses. There is a knowledge that one can perceive with the mind alone and a knowledge that the soul can realise. And it is for this reason that when a person wishes to touch a thing which can only be perceived, and when a person wishes to feel a thing which can only be realised spiritually, he naturally becomes an unbeliever.’ 7

My own experience as a child was that I could not make any sense of the religion I was taught. I lived in a Catholic area – this was my 'street' where my friends and playmates lived. But being brought up as a Protestant, I had to go to a Protestant school quite far away by bus. I had no friends in school and did not fit in. It was a segregated and gerrymandered society – a form of apartheid. People stared when I went out with my Catholic friend – both of us in different school uniforms. Both sects were supposed to be Christian, but there was nothing Christian about the situation. I could not believe in Christianity. When I was fourteen, I went to the library to read up on religions I could believe in. I decided on Buddhism, but there was no possibility of learning this in Derry. My parents being refugees from the Holocaust had lost their faith. My mother, although spiritual, distrusted priests of any kind but had me baptised as a Protestant because she thought that was the best side to be on. So, at the age of fourteen, my search began. I was lucky – I was open to everything – my belief was fluid. In South Africa, I came across the Spiritualist Church and learned much from them. I discovered Jung and Siddha Yoga in Australia and tried Buddhism and Judaism until finally, I discovered Sufism. I found a teacher I could trust and a path I could follow. I could find my truth.

We make our road in life by our expectations, but destiny plays a great part in this. I have always believed that it was my destiny to write and to teach and later came to believe that Murshid wished me to do this. My way was smoothed over, and so many synchronicities happened like miracles.

7 Hazrat Inayat Khan. The Gathas. The Sufi Message volume XIII Belief p 243

‘A deep study of anything shows the pilgrim that there is a purpose beneath it all. Yet, if one could look beyond every purpose, there would seem to be no purpose. This boundary is called the Wall of Smiles, which means that all purposes of life, which seem at the moment to be so important, fade away as soon as one looks at them from that height called the Wall of Smiles. But as deeply as the purpose of life can be traced, there seems to be one ultimate purpose working through all planes of life and showing itself through all planes of existence. That is as if the Knower, with His knowing faculty, had been in darkness, desiring to know something. And in order to know something, He created all things. Again, it is the desire of the Creator that has been the power which created; and it is the materialised substance of the Spirit, a part of Himself, that has been turned into a creation, yet leaving the Creator behind as the absolute Spirit, constantly knowing and experiencing life through all different channels, some developed, some undeveloped for the purpose.’

This Knower, through His final creation, man, realises and knows more than through any other channel of knowledge, such as bird, beast, worm, germ, plant, or rock. This one Spirit, experiencing through various channels, deludes Himself with the delusion of various beings; this delusion is the individual ego. He experiences, therefore, two things in His delusion: pain and pleasure; pleasure by the experience of a little perfection, and pain by the lack of it. As long as the cover of this delusion keeps His eyes veiled, He knows yet does not know; it is an illusion. He experiences all things, and yet everything is confusion. But as time goes, when this veil becomes thinner, and He begins to see through it, the first thing that comes to Him is bewilderment. But the next is knowledge, culminating in vanity, which is the purpose of life. Vanity here means a natural pride and self-respect which is positive

Note:

The Knower or God in the English language is masculine, which creates difficulty because the Divine One is without gender. In ancient languages such as Aramaic, the name of God is Allah, which has no gender. I have heard scholars refer to God as It to get around this difficulty.

‘Life, which is omnipresent and all-pervading, divides itself as it proceeds towards manifestation in the same way that light divides itself when it projects its rays.

The outcome of the whole of manifestation seems to be its knowledge. Therefore, knowledge alone can be called the purpose of the whole creation. It is not the knowledge of why and where that can be the purpose of life. It is the knowledge that gives complete satisfaction. There remains no part of one's being that is hungry. There is a feeling of everlasting satisfaction in knowing something that the knower can never put into words.

It is this knowledge that mystics call self-realisation, and that is recognised by some religious-minded people as God consciousness and by philosophical minds as cosmic consciousness. It is a knowledge which is self-sufficient, and in the moments that a soul holds this knowledge before its view, no pain, suffering, weakness, sorrow, or death can touch it. The whole world was created for this knowledge, and with this knowledge, the soul's purpose on earth is fulfilled.’ 8 Our destiny is the path to self-realisation.

8 Hazrat Inayat Khan vol V Spiritual Liberty. The Destiny of the Soul. Self-realisation. P250

THE SOUL

The word 'soul' is used by different people in different senses. But the manner of its connection with the body proves it to be divine. Therefore, the Sufi conception of the soul is that it is the divine part of humans. Jung calls this the Self (higher Self with a capital). The small self is the ego. When the soul qualities arise in the heart and show themselves, this proves that it is the divine part in the human that rises, like the flame in the fire.

Soul is in all objects, both things and beings, but when it is recognised as soul, it becomes a soul. A Persian Sufi has said of the soul, 'God slept in the mineral kingdom, dreamed in the vegetable kingdom, awoke in the animal kingdom, and became self-conscious in man.' It is the description of the soul, starting in manifestation as one and manifested in variety.

One cannot see the soul because it is the soul that sees all things, and the soul has to become two to see itself, which can never be. The soul is the seer. As consciousness is realised by being conscious of something, and as the knowledge of things realises intelligence, so the existence of the soul can be proved by one's very existence. That part which exists in one or makes one existent, that part which sees, conceives, perceives, and is conscious of all things and yet above all things is the soul. It is the I in I am. As we say in the external zikr:-

This is not my body this is the Temple of God. This is not my mind this is the thought of God.

THE DESTINY OF THE SOUL

The destiny of the soul with the mind and the body is a momentary experience compared with the soul's everlasting life The soul with the mind and body are like three persons traveling together. The life of the body depends on mind and soul. The life of the mind depends on the body. However, the soul does not depend on mind or body for its life.

That is why the spiritual person, who realises being not as body and mind alone but as a soul, independent of body and mind, attains everlasting life. But for the external life experience, the soul depends upon the mind, and the mind depends upon the body.

There is no object or being that has no soul, but the word 'soul' is used in ordinary language only for that entity that is conscious of its individual being. The soul is the light, the mind is the furniture, and the body is the room. The furniture could be anywhere, and the room is a fitting place for it. But without light, neither room nor furniture is of any use, nor would life exist without soul.

The soul creates the mind, yet the soul is independent of the mind. Just as the body is created by the mind, but the mind is independent of the body for its life. It is the life of the body, which we call life on earth, and it is the life of the mind, which we call the hereafter. It is the life of the soul that we call life everlasting. Who lives with the body dies with the body. Who lives with the mind will live long with the mind and will die with the death of the mind; but who lives with the soul will live and live forever. Who lives with his individual self will live so long as his individual self lives, here and hereafter, and who lives with God will live the everlasting life of God. There is a saying of Nanak that, as a grain is saved from being ground in the mill by being in the centre, so the worshipper who lives with God is saved from mortality.

The soul is the originator and producer of the mind, and the mind is also the originator and producer of the body. The soul produces the mind out of its own self. Yet the mind is constructed fully after the formation of the body, and the soul becomes a spirit after the formation of the mind. The mind grows and evolves from birth but abstract thinking ‘comes in’ around fifteen years of age. This is when the adolescent mind expands and explores the world it sees. The soul holds the mind, and the mind clings to the soul, as the mind holds the body, and the body clings to the mind. The soul holds the mind as long as its activity is constructive, in other words, the soul holds the mind as long as it is engaged in the creative purpose. The spirit is the active principle (Jelal) and the soul is the receptive creative principle (Jemal).

When the activity of the soul takes another direction, it withdraws itself from the mind. As long as the mind has power, it still clings to it, though it becomes exhausted as there is no hold on the part of the soul. This can be seen when the aged and ill begin to lose their memory and become uninterested in thinking, speaking, or hearing.

In the same way, the mind works with the body. When the mind withdraws its activity for some reason or other, the body becomes disconnected from it, for it loses its hold of the mind. But if the body is still strong and healthy it clings to the mind; soon however it becomes exhausted, and this causes death and disease. Death is mostly caused by the withdrawal of the soul and the mind. It seldom happens that it is caused by the body, its weakness, or disorder. When the activity of the soul and the mind is constructive and drawn within, the body with a disease or a disorder continues to live. The cases where people lie for years with disease and pain are proof of this.

Certainly, no living creature can feel man's magnetism as much as man, yet even animals and birds are attracted to a person sometimes more than to their own element. This magnetism of man is not necessarily of his physical body.

It is his soul. The great mystic St Frances of Assisi had this magnetism and is always depicted with birds and animals. He is associated with the patronage of animals and the environment and has just been recognised by Pope Frances.

It is the same as what we call radiance or brightness. It is a light that is quite apart from the physical body. No illness, weakness, or age can take away this brightness. However, it must be understood that illness is always caused by the soul's withdrawal from the body, or by the body's incapacity to hold the light of the soul. Sometimes by stretching one's hands and body, one feels renewed strength, and brightness comes to one's mind and body. Sometimes, without reason, one feels depression, pain, and laziness, for which no one can suggest a cause except that the Light of the soul closes and discloses itself. When disclosed, brightness, freshness, and strength come. But when closed, depression, darkness, and weakness come. By knowing this, we can realise that those who have sacrificed every pleasure, wealth, comfort, or power in their pursuit of the soul are justified, for a loss in pursuit of a greater gain is not necessarily a loss. Those who become independent of the physical body by meditation experience the state of the highest bliss and attain everlasting life.

Man's heart is like a globe over the light of the soul. When the globe is dusty, naturally, the light is dim. When it is cleaned, the light increases. The light is always the same. It is the fault of the globe when it is not clear. When this radiance shines out, it shows itself not only through the countenance and expression of a person but even in a person’s atmosphere. The soul-power, so to speak, freely projects outward, and the surroundings feel it. The radiance of the soul is not only a power, but it is an inspiration too. A man understands better; there is less confusion, and if he is absorbed in the contemplation of something, be it art, science, music, poetry, or philosophy, he can get inspiration clearly, and the secret of life and nature is revealed to him.

Love is the best means of making the heart capable of reflecting the soul-power –love in the sense of pain rather than as a pleasure. Every blow, it seems, opens a door in the heart whence the soul-power comes forth. This reminds me of Leonard Cohen’s anthem: -

‘Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.’

It also reminds me that Pir Nawab once told me that my heart had to break (open) for me to see the light.

The concrete manifestations of soul-power can be witnessed in the depth of the voice, the choice of words, the form of a sentence or phrase, in every movement, pose, gesture, and especially in the expression of the man. Even the atmosphere speaks, though it is difficult for everyone to hear.

The heart may be likened to soil. Soil may be fertile or a barren desert, but it is the soil which is fertile that bears fruit. It is that which living beings choose to dwell in, although many are lost in the soil of the desert and lead in it a life of grief and loneliness. Man has both in him, for he is the final manifestation. He may let his heart be a desert where everyone abides hungry and thirsty, or he may make it a fertile and fruitful land where food is provided for hungry souls, the children of the earth, strong or weak, rich or poor, who always hunger for love and sympathy. 9 Jung understands the collective unconscious as a system of inherited psychic functioning from primaeval times. It is wrong to regard the unconscious as a derivative of consciousness. I believe that the collective unconscious is divine – the soul – I used to believe that the collective unconscious was God's consciousness deep within us.

This idea finds wonderful expression in Wordsworth’s ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, hath elsewhere its setting, and comes from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home.

Soul has a special relationship with death, for when we die (body and mind), the soul returns to the source – to the Divine One.

In its deepest reaches, Jung believes that the psyche (soul) participates in a form of existence beyond space and time. Thus, it partakes of what is inadequately and symbolically described as ‘eternity’.

9 Hazrat Inayat Khan. The Sufi Message Vol V. Spiritual Liberty. P252 - 256

The One exists beyond time and space – everything is contained in this unity, and the One contains everything – the whole Universe. But as a unity, the Divine cannot know itself. So the One created the manifestation out of itself. The one became two. Time and space are part of the manifestation, as is everything in it. It is a duality, and everything in it contains its own opposite. There is good in the bad and bad in the good. We cannot say that the Divine is all good, for it contains everything. Thus, through the manifestation – us- the Divine can know itself. It sees through our eyes and perceives through us. Everything that we know and is known by us is contained in the collective unconscious or soul. It exists forever. So it is our purpose to become aware – to realise the soul. We want only the best in us to continue. We want to become fully realised.

DEATH AND THE SOUL

Our purpose is unveiling the soul, which often begins with an initiation of sorts –we must die before we die. There is a mystery in all initiations and every rite of passage. The end of a previous form of existence is felt like death. Initiation is a powerful experience – we leave behind the person we were and tread a new path, a new beginning, a new life – we are given a new name. Initiation has an equal effect on the initiator where some form of transmission occurs. I will never forget my initiations – there was always a profound change – a moving on –Towards the One!

My first initiation, bayat, took place after a long search and a dream. In the dream, I was running along a forest path with my Irish Wolfhound Jupiter (who was no longer alive, sadly). I felt free and happy. Then I came to a huge grapefruit tree –just like the one I had planted in my garden many years ago. The tree bore much fruit, and the grapefruit were huge – I needed two hands to hold even one. I picked some with joy and the following day, at a retreat, asked my teacher to initiate me. I was ready, and the fruit was ripe! Latifa insists that I was surrounded by light afterwards and took a photograph to prove it. I still have this image to remind me, and I have put it behind my picture of Pir-o-Murshid Hidayat.

I remember well an initiation with Pir-o-Murshid Hidayat many years ago. After the initiation, which was very moving, he asked me to give a sacred reading at the Summer School. I was terrified, totally unused to public speaking, introverted, quiet, shy, and with a soft voice. Hamida took me in hand and drilled me on how to

speak and project my voice to the heart and wings outside the temple and read slowly with meaning. I wanted to run away – I knew I would get no help from anyone there. In the chapel beforehand, I fervently asked Hazrat Inayat Khan to help me - I felt that I could put myself aside and leave everything to him.

I remember standing rooted to a spot on the stage, shaking so much that my knees were knocking. All the senior Sufi were in the front row. Hamida motioned me from the back to move towards the microphone – I could not move. I remember nothing of the talk itself – I was not there. Afterwards, Murshid Hidayat came up to me, taking my hands in his and looking into my eyes; he said I gave the talk just like his mother had given it. He had tears in his eyes - that I will never forget. But I only now realise that this was part of my initiation. My quiet, timid self was gone; it was dead. From then on, I have been able to speak publicly – it is like I am in another realm, but I still do not always remember what I say, but I have learned to trust it.

In a recent series of lectures by Dr David Tacey on the Unveiling of the Soul, initiation was discussed relating to the high suicide rate amongst young people, especially Aboriginal boys.

Not much is written or known about initiation rites for women: in ancient tales, there is an indication of the process, as we have seen in the story of Cenerentola. 10

Given that the soul is feminine, the initiation practices for women are quite different. Hazrat Inayat Khan, when asked if it is true that people in the East believe that woman possesses no soul, replied ‘Yes it is true, they have every reason for it, for they know that woman is soul itself.’ 11

In Indigenous society, there is ‘secret men's business and ‘secret women's business. The following only concerns the young male experience as told to Dr Tracey. Adolescence lasts for many years in our culture as a time between childhood and maturity. An Aboriginal elder told Dr Tacey that: -

‘For us, adolescence lasts five days – the length of the initiation. Before initiation, he is a child; after initiation, he is an adult’. (Personal communication, June 2003)

10 Nuria Daly. The Witch as Teacher in Fairy Tales. Balboa Press. 2017

11 Biography of Pir O Murshid Inayat Khan. East-West Publications, London and the Hague. Anecdotes, p268

In his study of youth culture and its ‘irreverent’ styles of spirituality, Tom Beaudoin writes:

‘Like its related trend, tattooing, the permanent cut of body piercing is more than just teen folly. To pierce one’s body is to leave a permanent mark of intense physical experience, whether pleasurable or painful. The mark of indelible experience is … proof that something marked me, something happened. Contemporary youth are willing to have experience, to be profoundly marked, even cut, when religious institutions have not given them those opportunities.’ 12

Joseph Chilton Pearce argues that young people instinctively know that there is more to life than what secular society presents. They eagerly await something big to happen:

A poignant and passionate idealism arises in early puberty, followed by an equally passionate expectation in the mid-teens that ‘something tremendous is supposed to happen’ and finally by the teenager’s boundless, exuberant belief in ‘the hidden greatness within me’. A teenager often gestures toward his or her heart when speaking of these sensibilities, for the heart is involved in what should take place. 13

With regard to suicide ideation in students and young people, Mircea Eliade suggests that:

‘In modern nonreligious societies initiation no longer exists as a religious act. But the patterns of initiation still survive, although markedly desacralised, in the modern world’. 14

In a meeting with Charles Ilyatjari, a ngankari or spirit doctor of the Pitjantjatjara people, Dr. Tacey asked about the high rate of suicide in his community, especially among adolescent boys.

12 Joseph Chilton Pearce, The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit (Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 2002), p. 53.

13 Eckersley, op. cit., p. 176-77.

14 Eliade, op. cit., p. 188.

He asked what could be done to prevent suicide in his community. His response shocked him when he said:

‘There’s too much worry about preventing suicide and not enough worry about showing these boys how to die in ceremony. If we show them how to die in ceremony, their living takes care of itself’. (Personal communication, June 1997)

In the same spirit, Mircea Eliade wrote: ‘In initiatory death … men die to something that was not essential; men die to the profane life.’ 15

David Mowaljarlai expressed his concern about the young men in the Kimberley who had succumbed to petrol or glue sniffing or ‘chroming’. Mowaljarlai visited a hospital which had a whole ward full of young men who had damaged their brains from chroming. He explained the situation in this way:

‘All these boys, you see, lack ceremony. They haven’t died in initiation. If you take away the sacred law, you take away their lives.’ (Personal communication, November 1996)

An ancient reflection from the early Christian tradition from the Gospel of Thomas from around CE 140, a Gnostic text which was found only recently in the papyruses of Nag Hamadi confirms this:

‘If you bring forth that within yourselves, that which you have will save you. If you do not have that within yourselves, that which you do not have within you will kill you.’

Initiation is a powerful process that continues in our practice and in dreams; In big dreams or meditation, death occurs. Sometimes these experiences act as an initiation experience.

An examination of failed suicide attempts has shown that some survivors have had ‘near-death experiences’ which have profoundly affected their future lives – for the better. Afterwards was no fear of death or of life – they understood their purpose and made something good out of their lives.

Thus we must ‘die before we die’ or be ‘born again’ as Christ has said. The Prophet Mohamed and Jung have related profound near-death experiences.

I wonder if these were initiatory.

It is through these ‘initiations’ and experiences that the soul is unveiled. In the Sandman series, many have found the experience of death and being faced with our darkness. Sandman has a dreamlike or nightmare imaginary – the ‘hero’ is Morpheus, after all. Jung has heavily influenced the writer Neil Gaiman, so the series works on a deep archetypal level which hooks into the psyche. It has the effect of a dream that profoundly affects people. It has had this effect on me. I think that watching this sort of thing could have an initiatory effect on people and change their lives.

Perhaps it is through graphic novels and similar series that young people face the issues and rites they must face. Sandman certainly shows these facets of humanity from Death, what happens when we do not follow our dream, to serious evil and its resolution, and true friendship.

Can every atom of manifestation be said to have a soul?

by Zubin

The soul is the spirit of God, it can be likened to a ray of the sun. Divine intelligence has projected itself, has manifested, has become captive, and desires to return. It is trying to break out, in volcanic eruptions, through floods, lightning, stars and planets. The soul’s chance of raising itself is in human life, through the perfection of love harmony and beauty. However, the divine intelligence manifests through more than individuals. It reveals itself through families, through communities and through nations! There is nothing outside of its creative remit, it is continuously revealing its omniscient wisdom. Lets consider how the ray of the Chishti Sufi tradition arrived in India, with a peek into a hundred year period over 900 years ago, for an insight into how a ray of divine intelligence may manifest through generations.

Firstly, Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (1142–1236) was a Sufi preacher from Sistan in Persia, who promulgated the famous Chishtiyya order in the Indian subcontinent in the early 13th-century. He settled in Ajmer to preach the principles of Sufism to all who wished to learn them. Every year, his death anniversary is celebrated at his tomb when thousands of believers gather to pay respect to this great Sufi saint.

Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki (1173-1235) was the disciple of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and became his spiritual successor. He developed the traditional ideas of unity and charity within the Chishti order, and is credited with establishing the order of Chishti Sufi mysticism in Delhi.

Baba Farid (1173-1265) Farīduddīn Ganjshakar was a Punjabi Muslim preacher and mystic whose poetry and verses became a big part of both Sufi and Sikh literature. He was a great disciple of Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, and was deeply respected in Delhi, and surrounded by a large number of people whenever he visited Delhi. His outlook was broad and humane. Baba Farid raised the Chishti order of the Sufis to the status of an all-India organisation.

Nizamuddin Auliya (1238 - 1325) was the chief successor of Baba Farid, and undoubtedly the most famous Chishti saint. He lived and worked in Delhi for fifty years and survived repeated changes of dynasties and rulers by staying away from politics. Nizamuddin Auliya, like his predecessors, stressed love as a means of realizing God. For him his love of God implied a love of humanity. His tomb is visited by thousands every week.

Six hundred years later:

Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882 - 1927) was an Indian professor of musicology, singer, exponent of the saraswati vina, poet, and philosopher. He sought a sufi teacher, Murshid Madani, who suggested it was his purpose to take the Sufi message from the East, to the West. In 1910 he embarked on this mission with his brothers and later his wife, supporting him through all that met them. In 1927, Hazrat Inayat Khan was laid to rest in Delhi perhaps only two hundred metres from the tomb of Nizamuddin Auliya.

Each year the death of all of these saints is commemorated. In the east, such ceremonies, known as the ‘Urs’, are part of the belief that death is the ‘wedding with God’, and are conducted with meditation, joy and uplifting music.

This year, in addition to the commemoration, the Urs of Hazrat Inayat Khan in Delhi gave the opportunity to observe the developments at that site over almost one hundred years.

In the 1930s Hazrat Inayat Khan’s grave was covered by a small mazar, and standing under a peepal tree, both of which can be seen to the right and rear of the drawing on the left. From a stone memorial under a tree in the 1930s, to a courtyard, tomb and small apartment and kitchen with a few retreat rooms in the 1960s.

The Hazrat Inayat Khan Memorial Trust developed the music hall in the 1980s and library in the 1990s. A new twelve room retreat house was added in 2017, and a lift, roof top teacher’s house and paving have recently been completed as shown in the photo on the right. Over the ensuing decades the trust has quietly grown. It employs music teachers, administrators, gatekeepers, cooks, cleaners, gardeners, and librarians from the local community. The total number of people employed is currently around fourteen, and it also provides opportunities for a women’s sewing group and engages a wider group for commemorative occasions.

‘Nothing moves without God’s will.’

Hazrat Inayat Khan was a musician of considerable renown, as was his grandfather Maula Bakhsh. Musicians consider it an honour to play at the Dargah of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and particularly to be invited to play to commemorate his Urs. To them, it is not a ‘concert’ but an opportunity for their own communing with the divine. (Hindustani music is developed from ragas, each is associated with the time of the day, and/or the season and are very evocative of the emotional life.)

This year shrines to Hazrat Inayat Khan’s teacher Sayyid Abu Hashim and to his daughter Pirzadi Noor Inayat Khan, were consecrated in beautiful ceremonies at the centre.

On the final evening of the Urs celebration Pandit Abhay Rustrum Sopori gave a tribute to his father who was a frequent performer at the Dargah of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Pandit Bhajan Sopori (1948-2022) hailed from Sopore in Kashmir Valley and traced his lineage to ancient santoor experts, his family had played santoor for over six generations. He belonged to the Sufiana Gharana of Indian classical music. His first public performance was at a conference organised by the University of Allahabad when he was ten years old.

Pandit Abhay Rustrum Sopori is currently doing his PhD on the history of the Kashmiri santoor. From that perspective he could tell how his father had taken the santoor from one and a half to five octaves in a few decades, whereas most Indian musical instruments had taken centuries to develop. In his presentation he went from honouring his father, to exploring the raga on his santoor, to musically conversing with each of the other maestros present, initially with tabla, and then with the pakhawaj drum, and then inspiring them to their best and fastest as a trio. It was a moving and sensational performance by all three. We were blessed to see the evolution of soul in the instrument, the family and the Sufiana Gharana, among other inspirations.

In this example Pandit Abhay is accompanied by the same maestros who accompanied him at this Dargah concert. Click the blue text below to listen to it:

Shri Abhay Rustum Sopori playing the santoor at the Saptak Annual Festival 2019

While considering the soul, as a ray of the divine sun, I would like to mention Hazrat Inayat Khan’s unique inspiration, in the hope of awakening people to the Unity of Religious Ideals and the Truth behind all religions. In London in May 1921, Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan sought the help of those present to create an altar through which he introduced them to the first Universal Worship. The Universal Worship exists to spread the mystical understanding of the Unity of Religious Ideals, and to channel the light of wisdom which the Spirit of Guidance has bestowed on humanity at all times, and which all the great teachers have held aloft.

This is the altar used during the commemoration of the Urs.

In the Universal Worship a candle to Truth is lit and candles and readings of representative scriptures, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and to the Sikh tradition on this occasion, and to all those known and unknown that have held aloft the Light of Truth.

Indeed, the very essence of the divine light is invoked. A reading from the Sufi message, and a short talk on the Sufi message, focused on 5th February 2023 on how we can seek to improve our qualities of goodness, forgiveness, tolerance, peace and ability to act in accord with the divine intelligence in our own hearts.

The Universal Worship reminds us that all the prophets from Adam to Muhammad, have revealed to us, that truth has manifested itself in various names and different forms to attain its glorious end. The prophets lived and breathed and had their being in God, and the truth they brought to the communities they spoke to was in the form that they could understand and wanted to hear. As the Bible declares, 'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' Truth is untouched by death and disease; it is everlasting, omnipresent, and omnipotent. Truth, indeed, was Adam, Moses, and Christ, and Muhammad.

In all religions there are outstanding leaders who are the source of inspiration in their own communities and beyond. They spread the universal message of ‘love for the Divine Ideal, service to humanity and respect for the unity of religious ideals’. For some, their mystical understanding radiates through their work while others demonstrate their devotion to the community in times of crises. They live and speak to the oneness of humanity, the importance of the cultivation of the heart, compassion, caring for each other and for the mother earth which sustains us, microfinance to encourage sustainable communities, and to the rights of children to education, health services and safe environments. Many of these leaders have heard of, and indeed quote Hazrat Inayat Khan’s teachings, that the spirit of God lives within the shrine of the heart.

The shrine of the human heart is where each soul bridges the world between individual conscience and infinite consciousness. There lies an opportunity to navigate the trials of human life. And how do we do this?

Hazrat Inayat Khan’s suggestion is to ask one’s conscience, 'My friend, all my happiness depends on you, and my unhappiness also. If you are pleased, I am happy. Now tell me truly if what I like and what I do not is in accordance with your approval.' 'Look what I have done. Maybe it is wrong, maybe it is right; but you know it, you have your share of it; its influence on you and your condition is my condition, your realization is my realization. If you are happy, only then can I be happy. Now I want to make you happy; how can I do it?'

At once a voice of guidance will come from the conscience, 'You should do this, and not that; say this and not that. In this way you should act, and not in that way.' And conscience can give you better guidance than any teacher or book. It is a living teacher awakened in oneself, one's own conscience.’

The teachers, the gurus, the murshids, their way is to awaken the conscience in the pupil; to make clear what has become unclear, confused.

Every plan that a person makes and their desire to accomplish that plan are often an outcome of their personal will, and when their will is helped by every other will that they come in contact with in the path of the attainment of a certain object, then they are helped by God, as every will goes in the direction of God’s will and often a person accomplishes something which perhaps a thousand people would not have been able to accomplish.

Maula Bakhsh, Grandfather of Hazrat Inayat Khan. 1833-1896. Musician, singer and poet.

Awakening from a Dream: “Tell Me – Which Way Is Up?”

by Karim

I stand, alone, on the shoreline of Eternity

Lit by a fiery-halo of stars beyond number.*

Slowly at first, the dervish turns Moving anti-clockwise, head tilted

Beneath his tombstone hat, listening, As if listening – for what?

Is it this sound, this rushing, this hissing, Stars rubbing against each other in the immensity of space

Creating fire; fire upon fire, “Light upon Light” Across the aeons of time

His right hand, slightly cupped, to catch this light His left hand turned down, drawing this power, this energy

Down, down through his body, lost in the turning, Creating form upon form as it pours forth from his heart-space, down, down

A libation poured out to the parched earth below, blessing this world in its passing. Which way is up? Which down? This turning, Is it anti-clockwise? Or is it clockwise? Can you see Its face?

The heart is a mirror revealing and concealing Depending on one’s place of perspective.

Enter that place, and tell me, Which way is up, which down?

Time slows, at this centre point, it stops. Ever renewing, ever the same.

Then, tell me, which way is backwards? Which forwards? Which past, and which present?

Imagine, open your inner eyes and look! The “Hour-Glass” of time must be turned.

This way only, yesterday becomes today, Tomorrow only a dream yet to be realised.

We? We sit at the centre where these Sands that trickle down (or up) pass,

Hissing slightly as they do so. Which way is past? Which future?

Look! Open your eyes, and look. where you stand, infinity passes And you don’t even know it.

Like a “Mobius Strip”, this time capsule Illuminates the Way to Eternity!

Which way does the dervish “turn”?

Is it clockwise or is it anti-clockwise?

Let your heart take you there, To this place,

For Knowing is not a game for sightseers. One must join the inner and the outer to make this trip. Only then…do lover and Beloved Become timeless

And Eternity awaits Those who travel this Way.

I stand, no longer alone, on the shoreline of Eternity For “she” awaits me there.

Tears of recognition well in our eyes

As he/she stretch-out their hands in welcome.

The falcon must heed the Falconer’s call Else … “ …Thing’s fall apart, the centre cannot hold… mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…”*

So listen…listen for the call.

*(My apologies to those other lovers of W B Yeats and especially for my abridged version of this fragment of his “The Second Coming”)

In Memoriam

Gillian Margaret Harris

9th December 1941 – 24th December 2022

Gillian passed away on Christmas Eve last year.

I remember Gillian with much fondness as she taught me the discipline of the whirling dervishes known as the “turning” and the ceremony of the mukabele, which means ‘coming face to face”.

The process of learning the “turning” was a gruelling one. I remember there were weeks of early morning training, turning for what seemed like an eternity with our arms held up high, until it felt like the weight was almost too much to bear. I remember that Gillian was quite demanding, pushing us further and further in our training. I can still hear her voice urging us on, “Keep turning! I didn’t say you could stop!” and yet it was done with much kindness and love.

I remember going to work after the training sessions and a strong sensation of floating above the ground as I walked along the street.

Initially we learnt to turn on the spot, and then we learnt to turn and move as a group around the room.

The parallels with zikr are very strong and it induces a meditative state in which, as you turn, the heart opens and the mind becomes still. It is such an exquisite feeling at the conclusion of the ceremony when the music ends and the turners stop moving around in a circle. There is a period of silence as each turner revolves in one spot. It feels like such a deep silence, akin to the deepness at the end of zikr. It feels like a focus of stillness, as if the whole world stops, while each participant turns around their own heart centre, at one with the Infinite.

I feel such gratitude towards Gillian for passing on to us the Sufi wisdom of the dervishes and the beautiful poetry of Rumi. Gillian was the first person to bring the “turning” to New Zealand in 1982, along with her husband Michael, having learnt it from a teacher from Istanbul while they were living in London.

At Gillian’s memorial service the words of Resuhi Baykara were recited:

“When you turn, you do not turn for yourself, but for God. We turn around in the way that we do so that the light of God may descend upon the earth. As you act as a channel in the turn, light comes through the right hand and the left hand brings it into the world. We turn for God and for the world. And it is the most beautiful thing that you can imagine. If you are quiet and in a state of prayer when you turn, offering everything of yourself to God, then when your body is spinning there is a completely still point in the centre. In the knowledge that there is only Him you can experience the universe turn around that still point. The heavens respond and all the invisible kingdoms join in the dance. You must be like a compass, one foot firmly fixed in the centre of your faith or religion, the other makes a circle of the whole world, taking and learning from the best of everything and every other faith.”

I wasn’t able to attend Gillian’s memorial service but recently I watched a recording of it. As Michael, Gillian’s husband said in the service, Gillian had “so much heart, so much giving, so much humour.” Her daughter Juliet spoke about how she was headstrong, independent and resourceful. Michael spoke about how she loved to support and bring people together. She was quick in mind and wit. She also had distinctive laugh and a wicked sense of fun. Michael related how, three weeks before she passed away, there was a planning meeting to talk about her funeral and she said “I do hope I die, you’ve all gone to so much trouble!”

She worked as an actor and toured in Europe for a while in her twenties and joined a local repertory theatre group when she returned to New Zealand. Gillian trained as a counsellor later in life. She also worked as a marriage celebrant.

Michael estimated that she performed the role of marriage celebrant at over fifty weddings and donated all the money that she earned to a charity that she and Michael were involved in.

In addition to teaching the “turning” she was deeply involved in the practice of meditation and the non-dualistic Advaita tradition of Shankaracharya and was a pivotal member of the Wellington Meditation Centre, formally known as the Wellington Study Group.

I will remember her with much fondness, gratitude and love.

Yaqin

Remembering Gillian

by Arif

Gillian Harris was a distant cousin I felt close to, through our mutual movement in Sufi circles. Separated by the Tasman Sea, we met only a handful of times, but she made a profound impression on me, which continues to ramify.

We last met when I attended a philosophy conference in Wellington in 2018, giving a paper on my interpretation of quantum physics. After explaining my theory to Gillian at a family gathering, she captured the essence of it beautifully in a single phrase: “ever expanding circles”.

She also sent me a verse from Shakespeare that so poetically captured an aspect of my theory that I used the quote to open my latest paper, which was published online this week. She said in her email:

I said I would let you know the quote which came to mind when you described the quantum work you are doing. Ever expanding circles

The quote is from Henry VI Part 1: Joan la Pucelle (St Joan) describes how it will be when she has rid France of England’s Henry VI:

Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceases to enlarge itself, Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.

Despite the context the quote has been with me since I read it many years ago and I gave it to the stained glass window designer. I asked that she made circles turning to the left.

(That is the way we move with the Dervish turn).

Gillian included in her email a photo of this stained-glass window that features prominently in a door of her house.

In my version of quantum theory, a photon, a single quantum of light, “ever expands” from its source as a spherical wave, until it is about to “disperse to nought”, at which point it does not disappear, but suddenly localises, then resumes its expansion. This process repeats, until it is absorbed, making an impact on matter, which itself is an expanding wave, and this process continues “for ever”.

In a similar fashion, I trust that the spiritual light that Gillian channelled from the Source, through her turning, and even more through her living, will not “disperse to nought”, but continue to make an impression, however faintly, on all of us, in ever expanding circles of influence.

National Activities

On the first Sunday of each month Zubin hosts a Cherag Circle via Zoom. All are welcome. Enquiries: zubin.shore@sufimovement.org

Cherag - Farsi chirāgh, charāgh: lamp, light; guide, director. The term cherag is also used to refer to one who is ordained in the work of the Universal Worship of the Sufi Movement.

The Sufi Movement in Australia holds a Zoom Spiritual Healing Circle every week on Wednesday evening from 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm AEST and a monthly Zoom Healing Study Group on the 3rd Monday of each month, also at 7:308:30 pm AEST. If you would like further information please contact Shakti via email: shakti.genn@sufimovement.org

Nuria’s Melbourne Group meets online every Thursday at 7:30 pm via Zoom. If you would like to join our weekly gatherings please contact Nuria via email: irenenuriadaly@hotmail.com

Nuria is the National Representative and can be contacted for further information about the work of the Sufi Movement in Australia. Further contact details for other representatives are on the back page of this newsletter.

Nauroz leads daily morning prayers via Zoom Peace Prayer Zoom Group 7.30 - 7.45 am AEDT

If you are interested in participating in the daily prayers please click the blue text below:

Daily Prayers for Peace Zoom Group

Meeting ID: 870 2180 7154 Passcode: 597215

The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan

The fourteen volumes of the Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan are becoming harder to source, but they are available on Amazon and other works can be purchased on Book Depository.

They can also be accessed in an online version on Wahiduddin’s excellent website.

If you would like to borrow a book on the Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan or other other associated Sufi teachings please contact the centre representative in your state or email the National Representative of the Sufi Movement in Australia. The contact details are on the last page of this newsletter.