Sufism: an inquiry - Vol19.3

Be still, be silent, longing heart

None shall listen but the one with that same ecstasy of life.

– Rumi

Publisher: International Association of Sufism a nonprofit corporation.

Editor-in-Chief: Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Ph.D.

Executive Editor: Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

Journal Board: Matthew Davis, Ph.D., Munir Hedges, Elizabeth Miller, Ph.D., Sarah Hastings Mullin, Ph.D., Taher Roybal.

Photography: Susan W. Lambert Steve Uzzell www.SteveUzzell.com

The various articles in SUFISM: an inquiry represent the individual views of their authors.

SUFISM: an inquiry does not imply any gender bias by use of feminine/masculine terms, nouns, pronouns.

SUFISM: an inquiry is a quarterly journal (ISSN: 0898-3380) published by the International Association of Sufism.

Address all correspondence regarding editorials and advertising to: SUFISM, P.O. Box 2382 San Rafael, California 94912

Phone: (415) 472-6959 email ias@ias.org

All material Copyright © 2021 by International Association of Sufism. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication (including art) may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher.

The publication is published by the International Association of Sufism, a California nonprofit corporation. The publication of any article, essay, story, or other material herein constitutes neither an endorsement of, agreement with, or validation of the contents of the author’s views expressed therein.

Although the Publisher has made all reasonable efforts in its editing of such material to verify its accuracy, the Publisher takes no responsibility for any inaccurate or tortious statement by the author set forth therein.

9. A Letter from the Desk of the Editor

Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Ph.D.

17. The Practice of Meditation

Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

19. Essential Practices: Vud (love)

Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

21. Selected Teachings: Wonderment

Hazrat Moulana Shah Maghsoud

hisotry, inquiry & science

27. The Mission of the Holy Qur’an and the Followers of this Teaching

Sarah Hastings Mullin, Ph.D.

29. Neil Douglas-Klotz, Ph.D., in conversation

Sarah Hastings Mullin, Ph.D.

43. The Garden of Light Meditation and Prayer Room: A Place for Every Human Being

Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Ph.D.

49. Beyond Identifications Highlighted Talk: Whole Person Psychology, an excerpt

Glenn Hartelius, Ph.D.

67. Spirituality and Science

Victor Sinow

service & the world

35. Women’s Wisdom in Action Service Grant Sufi Women Organization

37. Living Wisely and Well in This Time

Nancy Roybal

71. United Nations

39. Sufi Women Poets

translated by Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

46. Farid al-Din ‘Attar

translated by Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

55. Selected Poetry

Reverend Canon Charles P. Gibbs

61. New Publication: Manifestations of Thought

Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha

Translated with Commentary by Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

63. New Publication: As-Sal’at

Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Ph.D.

65. New Publication: Forty Mystical Sufi Poems

66.

Saleh Arthur Kane Scott, translated by Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

New Publication: Nirvan

Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha

Translated with Commentary by Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

77. 99 Names: Al-Khabir The Aware

Sarah Hasting Mullin, Ph.D.

Heart

by: Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Ph.D.

Human being is a two-dimensional entity–soul unseen and corporal visible body. Soul, the breath of life, is rooted to the heart of the ever-alive, the Most Gracious, Al-Hayy, and from one direction in eternity, the breath of life is coming to reflect on the seed of a new being. The combination of ovum and sperm have arrived from the other direction of eternity. As they match, this new pair becomes one at the horizon of balance, becoming eligible to receive the reflection of the soul that carries the knowledge of to be and the wisdom of how to be, the blueprint of surviving.

The central point is called the heart, soul, or nafs of human being. Since the center point is in perfect alignment and balance, it will receive the blessing of the soul. In this balance, the body is alive, and when the body is dropped, the soul will continue shining. What is always alive is the radiation of the ever-alive, Al-Hayy, the Most Gracious. What comes from the Most Gracious is a gift

that will last forever. What can receive the gift is the one who honors the gift. The one who honors the gift appreciates the value of the gift. The one who appreciates the value of the gift is the one who cognizes the value as healthy as they are.

The heart of human being can be healthy or sick. To be healthy, the heart must stay away and pure from the side effects of its carrier the corporeal body. Since it is healthy, this heart that stays pure can recognize humanity, think wisely and act peacefully. For this human being, his being, soul and body are merciful. They represent and the divine qualities and characters. Their heart remains in balance, certainty and confidence, remembering the mercy of the soul, the messenger of the divine. The Holy Qur’an 13:28 reads: Those who believe, and whose hearts find comfort in the remembrance of Allah. Is it not with the remembrance of Allah that hearts are satisfied. The heart gets sick when it shifts from its balance

toward the needy and greedy corporal body and mind takes over the wisdom of the heart. Wishes and desires cast a shadow over the beautiful face of the shiny heart. Man develops a new system, a new personality, according to his desires and needs. He develops new morals and new conduct, and finds a new direction for so-called life. But, in fact, his direction is toward death. There is a saying of Moulana Amir al-Momenin Ali in which he says:

There are six conditions for soul and body: Life, death, sickness, health, sleeping, awakening.

Life is knowledge, Death is ignorance, Sickness is doubt and hesitation, Health is certainty and assurance, Sleeping is neglect, Awakening is attention and contemplation.

When the heart is off balance, the heart be -

comes sick. Off balance remains off from the direction of wisdom. As time passes, sickness grows and life will die. The physical senses and brain should be rooted to the source of life, which is heart, continuously and without interruption. Continuously they need the nourishment of the heart that is in balance. Man cannot return to his heart if his mind is in the way. Holy Qur’an 2:10 says:

In their hearts is disease, so Allah has increased their disease; and for them is a painful punishment because they [habitually] used to lie.

The worst sickness is ignorance and to not be aware from the light of the heart.

*This article will continue.

“Whatever is in a state of change shall pass away; and what will remain is only essence of a being, there remains but the face of thy Lord, resplendent with Majesty and Bounty.”

Holy Qur’an 55:26

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The world's longest running journal on Sufism

40 years of service toward cultivating peace and understanding in the world

Since its founding in 1983, the International Association of Sufism has been proud to be a home for Sufis, spiritual seekers, and people of all kinds devoted to uplifting the quality of humanity around the globe. Over the last four decades, the IAS has been blessed with phenomenal growth and has worked hard to be a leader in a wide range of areas. Among the longest running of its traditions of service is our journal, Sufism, An Inquiry, which we first published in 1987. Since that time, Sufism, An Inquiry has been a living reflection of the dynamic energy and growing global community of Sufis and searchers who are deeply engaged in the work of the IAS.

Over 70 volumes, the pages of Sufism, An Inquiry have championed women’s rights and the work of the Sufi Women Organization; published scientific inquiries ranging from the physiology of heart math to the latest findings of astronomers; shared new translations of classic works of Sufi literature previously unavailable in English; offered works by leading psychologists on human development and the spiritual path, reported on human rights and other diplomatic movements ranging from the work of the United Nations to interfaith organizations such as the United Religions Initiative; explored the cultural gifts of world religions diversely embodied around the planet; and provided insight into a wide variety of effective practices for spiritual development. As a whole, the tradition at Sufism, An Inquiry of featuring the work of great teachers, scholars and scientists from a wide variety of global perspectives, historical contexts and fields of specialization runs deep and strong throughout our journal’s history and shall continue to grow far into the future.

Since the time the IAS first began publishing Sufism, An Inquiry, the world has also gone through an amazing transformation full of new opportunities and new challenges. One notable dimension in which the world has changed completely is the world of media under the influence of the internet and high technology. Just as the IAS has been at the forefront of leadership efforts for peace, human rights and equality, religious freedom and international cooperation, critical to meeting the opportunities and challenges of our changing world, today the IAS is proud to announce that it is relaunching Sufism, An Inquiry in a new online, digital format that will make it more dynamic and more accessible than ever to a worldwide population. We look forward to developing video content, mp3 audio files, social interactivity, links to websites with related content, and a beautiful full-color layout. At the same time, we plan to offer the journal, not just online, but in print, in downloadable pdf format, and in other formats readable on e-readers.

To all our readers who have added so much to our community over these many years, we wish to extend our great appreciation for making us part of your life and we extend to you and to all our enthusiastic invitation to journey with us into this new and exciting period of growth for our journal. We hope you will enjoy this, our inaugural issue in our new online, digital format! Let us know what you think in an email to:sufismjournal@gmail.com.

Peace to you and yours, Sufism, An Inquiry Editorial Staff, The International Association of Sufism

The Practice of Meditation

concentration of energies

Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

To get anywhere, one must begin from somewhere: to begin a journey, one must first find one’s point of departure, the place where one’s feet are rooted firmly on the ground. This step, in the realm of the inner journey, commences by withdrawing one’s scattered energies from the outside world and environment and directing them towards the center of one’s being.

This practice is one of the most important basic practices in Sufism. It is fostered through the discipline of meditation. The teacher will commonly instruct the salik to sit in meditation at a particular, regular time every day or night, wearing especially clean clothing that is expressly reserved for that purpose alone, vestments that visibly differ from everyday garments, and so express the purity that the meditation is designed to achieve. Likewise, the place of meditation must be especially devoted to that purpose, quite separate and removed from ordinary uses or their intrusions: of course, it must be kept meticulously clean.

The logic behind these basic rules is that when a person sits at a set time every day, wearing clothing selected only for his meditation, and in a place prepared only for this reason, then he will gradually attract beneficial magnetic energies, since he himself is meditating on a special resonating frequency. He will gradually become a source to attract a selected variety of spiritual energy that will interact in harmony and cooperation with his own. Needless to say, none of this can be accomplished without the help and the guidance of an experienced teacher, as it is the teacher who provides the means for the illumination of the path, through whose light the student will become able to witness the reality within and receive the illumination of the heart. The teacher guides the traveler through the stages of spiritual development and instructs the salik in the proper practices and disciplines so that he may tame his nafs and discover the stable source of his identity behind all the transient manifestations of the material world. In this process, the teacher protects the salik from the

danger attendant upon the path. Discipline guards the salik against the intrusions of the mind and the distractions of the body. Only through the protection of the guide, and that of disciplines, will he arrive safely at the gateway of his spiritual direction.

The actuality consists in the concentration of all the physical, intellectual, and sensual energies in one magnetic point. In Sufism, this point is the inward heart. More specifically, it is the third point within the heart, one of the strongest magnetic centers of the human body (I have discussed this magnetic center of the human body in another book in more detail). In a truthful meditation, when the salik concentrates the inner electromagnetic energies into one stable point, then he develops a strong electromagnetic environment, through which the favorable spiritual waves pass, waves that are in harmony with this environment. Such a concentration will result in receiving inspiration and revelation.

The exact sensual location of the inner heart is revealed only to those few students who are realistically capable of undertaking the journey. It is through such concentration that the essence of unity is discovered and the perishable world of multiplicity distinguished: the Face of the Beloved appears in all its grace within the heart of the lover. This gateway of the relatively small, yet stable and concentrated energy of the heart, is the location of the beginning of the spiritual journey.

Jesus once said that it is more difficult for a rich man to pass through the gate of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24). And so it is wise to bear in mind that the practice of concentration and meditation is not as easy as it may superficially appear, especially since most people’s sense of the world meditation ins contaminated by the untruthful practices that claim that name. The salik takes the step from the concentrated being of his existence towards the essential being through his annihilation, and in so doing he discovers for himself the existence of God as actuality.

Essential Teachings Along the Spiritual Path

Vud (love)

Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

Love is that strong magnetic power that connects all the particles of the universe together. The basic principles, the beginning, the end, and the discovery of what is secret, are all found on the pillars of eshgh [love]. Creation and all its creatures are the outcome of love. Love is the bond that binds the book of creation together.

Throughout the world of Sufism, love is an eternal theme which Sufis in all eras have gracefully glorified in delicate poetry. After all, it is love that purifies, concentrates, brings beauty, and makes the pillars of the universe strong. To the Sufi,

God is love, Prophet is love, Religion is love, From the smallest grain of sand to the highest heavens, All are but wrapped in love.

Existence is based on love and as existence has levels and stages, so does love. At every stage and level, love has a different manifestation, each with its own beauty.

Love has a rebellious nature, it will not rest until it robs the lover of his being, unless it receives the guardianship and companionship of the intellect and wisdom. This intellectual power works as an ordering force that directs the spiritual traveler toward a favorable destination. Since the road to knowledge is a long path hedged by many dangers, without the chariot of love no one could find the energy and drive to continue towards such a distant destiny.

A salik cultivates the seed of love in his or her heart through eagerness for knowledge; he or she thus steps into the field of exploration, connecting his life to the magnetic power of love radiating from the heart of the Master, and reflecting the Divine love. The power that gently touches and guides the direction of the salik’s life comes from within the chest of the Master and is a divine manifestation. Through this connection, the salik begins to travel on the path of divinity...

Belief and love both develop in the heart, and the heart is the House of Eternal Knowledge; as the Prophet said: “Consult your heart and hear the secret ordinance of God, discovered by the inward knowledge of heart which is faith and divinity.”

from: (1991) Principles of Sufism. San Rafael: IAS Publications, 68-69.

Wonderment

Hazrat Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha

One thing is certain: Nature’s wisdom and intellect has a long, unmistaken will; and the living destiny of her people and elements are apparent in her actions, reactions and influence.

When I look at a flower beatified by its fragrance and freshness, I ask myself from where does all its elegance, grace and order come from? How do its branches, leaves and interlaced roots cross everywhere through the masses of mud to find living energy of life? They carefully search and extract every portion and particle of the soil in order to find purity and tenderness. This reminds me of the skillful artists who mix colors on their painting board and carefully use their susceptible eyes with constant precision. They overlook their surroundings but are focused on one place, the canvas. They brush slowly and precisely to create and give life to the delicateness of their artistic mind, with such mathematical precision; they let the potential of their thoughts reflect on the canvas; and undo their possible mistakes.

But the destiny of the flower and its life, drawn by the powerful brush of nature, will never stop nor will it make a mistake. It works on its art slowly and precisely until a beautiful flower appears. One can always ask in which part of that harsh, wooden branch or dark interlaced roots was this colorful, delicate, elegant, and fragrant flower hidden? How did it bloom? Or if magnetic and atmospheric rays and waves help this plant to grow, where was this duty appointed and who arranged for it? Why does it still follow its movement in such a hurry and search every portion of the atmosphere to reach its spiritual and or mystical destination? What is it looking for, stretching to the sky? The smell of its fragrance spreads all over the space, and extends almost everywhere. It acts like a newcomer who gracefully flatters and makes everyone appreciate

its beauty and grace.

It desires to expand, to dissolve into infinity, to journey to eternity. From where does this eagerness for eternity and infinity come? And where is that mysterious and secret core that leads this flower to its destiny; the essence that the human mind cannot recognize or perceive? One thing is certain: Nature’s wisdom and intellect has a long, unmistaken will; and the living destiny of her people and elements are apparent in her actions, reactions and influence. It is strange that all living animals, plants, objects, and human beings are like evaporated water under the influence and effect of this authority—they love and are attracted by their eternal destiny and walk to the heavens of their inherent being. Where does the Earth search in its day and night and why is it wandering and restless, traveling so hastily to unknown points, even unknown to itself?

Who is this Attractor and where is Its location; the Absolute that attracts, draws all the galaxies, planets, stars, moons, human beings, animals, plants, and objects to their destiny? The whole existence is attracted to such a powerful, and eternal command according to its own potentiality and aptitude. The most Exalted that draws the Being into this endless attraction; where is this most Glorified if not everywhere,? How does It command, if not from the depth of the Essence, from the depth of the heart of everything that exists? The one who is free from the thoughts of others is the one who discovers and understands the reality of existence.

Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha, Manifestations of Thought, trans. Nahid Angha (San Rafael, California: International Association of Sufism Publications, 2022), 31–33.

The Mission of the Holy Qur’an and the Followers of this Teaching

(All statements in italics are direct teachings from Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar, Shah Nazar Uwaiysi)

by Dr. Sarah Hastings Mullin

There are many ways that you can receive this invitation; it depends if you would like to receive.

The source, the center, the backdrop and forefront, the eternal design, is the purest absolute love and mercy, radiating throughout existence. A reflection of this love is knowledge that illuminates and inspires the law and movement of absolute love within every detail. The pair of love and knowledge builds the design of insan, the blueprint of the human being. An infusion of divine attributes, insan moves along the wave of eternity, a prism reflecting all attributes of the Divine.

Insan and physicality meet at human conception. The potent energy of extremely well-cooked cells arrive to this meeting, capable to hold and reflect the divine attributes. This new mixture, human being, is influenced by gravity, accepting the rules and relative limitations of the physical. Living on earth within this constant struggle, one inspired can discover his birthright–the freedom to transform–and experience the return of essence to its origin, light. During this second conception, the point of love holding abstract and physical together illuminates as a fixed spark of existential certainty. The desire to find this freedom is strong in the human being. He loves to know his reality and to find the point of existential security as its calling, rule and potential are hardwired within his system. This voice calls from the center of every particle, waiting, until it can no longer be denied.

It is out of such a calling that one might approach the Holy Book. One might hear an inner voice, a certain wisdom arising as if another conception, between Book and self. Why do you want to study the Holy Book? Are you prepared and qualified to

receive this knowledge? This connection initiates an awakening, a desire to see the self as a project and location to attain knowledge, supporting selfpurification and self-development.

A major subject is reflection. According to the rule and law of reflection, language is created for a specific subject. Because spirituality and spirit are unknown to the people, they study the book of spirituality through their mind and through knowledge collected outside of the subject. However, the mind cannot translate even one letter of spirituality.

The Prophet became one as he manifested the principle of unity within himself.

A deep and correct connection with the Holy Book furthers understanding that this subject cannot be learned intellectually. This is a knowing attained beyond or independent of mental conceptualization; an person’s senses are not helpful in this inquiry. He better understands that the lived experience and teaching of the Prophets and Teachers is eternally alive, their teaching a step-by-step instruction of how to attain the highest potential of self-knowledge. What might have seemed just a book made from paper, describing teachings from long ago, becomes an invitation to go deeply inward. It is to understand the Book as the knowledge of the abstract, hidden meanings of self.

The wisdom that has put everything together, that ends at this physical body. We cannot separate the wisdom of creation from the creation as it is. This wisdom set at the beginning is the first manifestation of God.

Religion is born with the human being. Without religion you cannot be a human being. You need to discover, and you need right practice. To practice religion means to practice humanity. This is true religion, that has no form, no shape, and no name.

In the Holy Qur’an, in Surah 53, An-Najm, the concurrent actualization of self and reality is described in very specific detail. One is introduced to the fact that he holds this knowledge as a star within himself. The definition of the star remains protected within itself, it is only the direct experience of its manifestation that can accurately convey its identity. This condensed point of light and knowledge is the energy and source at the center of every atom, holding tremendous potential to illuminate ultimate reality within consciousness. Light is knowledge, a new awakening for the practitioner. He stops to consider: how can this happen for me?

God says, I already set the star in your heart, and it is shining. Now, if you don’t practice achieving this awareness, that is your problem. So, you decide your destiny. You continue your life as you choose. You can change it, and in changing you must fulfill your promise. ‘La illaha illa Allah.’ The more you take away from one side, the more you get from the other side. This is not just repeating the verses, it is practicing awareness and awakening the cells, heart and soul.

Like every Surah in the Qur’an, An-Najm acts as a developmental map and guide. It covers every aspect of human psychology, including how the mind can obscure or deny the message that will then affect practice. It emphasizes strong focus and

motivation despite the physical system pulling to follow images, make idols, and be influenced by the various suggestions of ego and body. It constantly reminds the human being that only the divine source is reality; all else is superficial, changing and will not remain with essence after physicality. How will he find and hold onto essence before the body drops? The Surah teaches that the successful practitioner aligns with the profound energy rooted to his center, rooted to eternal center, leading him to eternally remain within the line of life.

You become aware. Now you decide to do something for yourself. Now you have to push yourself to now do it, to make it.

With practice, the practitioner comes closer to this straight line, distractions lessen, and one begins to feel a more certain inner path. He becomes more energized and hopeful, more determined to not deny the promise of his Lord. Yes, he recognizes, this merciful, pure source calling to him is the beginning, the finality, within and without. It is He who began him from a point and moved him into the physical, and then it is He who teaches him to return again through this point to the paradise of absolute stability and balance.

With this experience, you will have opened your eyes that can see the nature of everything as a reflection of God. You are in peace, you are in love, because you have become married with your own self, united with yourself.

The Teacher prepares the practitioner to be capable to connect with and receive this energy. In

his meditation, the practitioner waits in total concentration for the star to appear. He is calling within to know his own eternal position, his point of balance amongst all change–like static on a radio that eventually can be tuned to a very pure song. As he experiences increasing blessings through the guidance and direction of his Teacher and Holy Spirits, he will truly hear and become transformed. In this moment, his hands must go up, he cannot deny this truth and majesty anymore. This alignment organically initiates an inner prostration, a surrendering to inner guidance and closeness to heart. He loves to admit the message.

Eventually, he is brought to heart, the address of practice. He waits for what is certain. Certainty arrives in its profundity. New eyes open. Within the heart, light over light, essence of human being is revealed, an experience independent of senses.

The manifestation of the star illuminates his fixed connection to the line of life. He is converted into life. He sees his knowledge and potential spread out across the different days of creation, all rooted to origin.

A previously hidden garden explodes into constant production, and he finds himself as both a hidden and apparent paradise. Now manyness only acts as evidence of oneness. Connected to his center, oneness maintains its constant promise at the station of prophecy.

This is new knowledge. You never knew you had this companion, but it has been with you from very beginning. “Be, therefore it is” and then that becomes your companion all along your way.

This experience simultaneously allows the practitioner certainty that he has always been of a pair. His distant memory of this fact is confirmed by the revealing of his ever-present companion, a bright light, illuminating darkness.

He prays to that companion, to that Teacher, to never leave him to himself, recognizing this would be the worst condition. As the pair moves together within the next steps of spiritual development, the star reveals the rule and law of the universe.

A complete transformation gradually converts the practitioner’s corporeal state into the divine state. Ego will vanish. All self-formulated gods are extinguished. He recognizes that before this, his religion and sense of self were illusion. Truth reveals within heart as the eternal oneness that rules forever.

So, when you have the book of the Qur’an in your hand that you can touch and your eyes can touch the words, the soul must touch. In this touching, seeing your Lord will happen. Seeing God is a most big no in most religions, but not according to the Qur’an.

Qur’an encourages everyone that this is the promise of God that you can see Me. Now you will understand that the Book you have is really a Holy Book by heart. You will know it is a Holy Book not just because you heard that it was.

SELECTED IAS PUBLICATIONS

Inspiration: Light of Stillness

Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Shah Nazar Uwaiysi

Compiled by Saleh Arthur Scott

Sufi Wisdom: The Collected Words of Sufi Master Nahid Angha

Compiled by Arife Ellen Hammerle, Ph.D.

Caravan: Biographies from the Sufism Symposia 1994-2014

Introduction by Nahid Angha, Ph.D.

Illumination of the Names: Meditation by Sufi Masters on the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God

Introduction from the Teachings of Sufi Master Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar

Compiled by Glenn Pascall

Seasons of the Soul: The Spoken Wisdom of Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar

Compiled by Glenn Pascall & Saana Joy Carey, Ph.D.

Inspirations on The Holy Qur’an

Introduction by Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar

Seasons of Transformation

Compiled by Saleh Arthur Scott

Human Self Volume 1: Body by Shah

Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, et.al.

Reflections by Arife Ellen Hammerle, Ph.D.

The Book of Self by Sarah

Hastings Mullin, Ph.D.

Show Us the Straight Way: the intimate act of talking to God in Prayer by Halima Joann Haymaker

Sufism: Self, Path and Guide by Amineh Amelia Pryor,

Ph.D.

W H F S

Sufi Gatherings, Uwaiysi Tariqat

*Bi-monthly, Novato, CA or

on Zoom

PRACTICE AND MEDITATION GROUPS (Pacific Times)

SQur’an Class with Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar

Monthly on Sunday, 3:00-4:00 pm

On Zoom

Register: https://ias.org/ias-events/

40 Days Meditation & Book Reading

Sundays, bi-monthly, 9:00am

On Zoom

Call in advance: Dr. Arife Hammerle, (415) 382-7834

TSufism Reading Group

Third Tuesdays, 7:00-8:00 pm

On Zoom

Contact Dr. Amineh Pryor, (415) 382-7834

Illumination of the Names Monthly Discussion Group

Monthly on Wednesday, 7:00-8:00 pm

On Zoom

Contact Dr. Leili First, (415) 382-7834

Peace and Love Dialogue

Monthly on Thursday, 7:30-8:30 pm

On Zoom

Contact Dr. Sarah Hastings Mullin (415) 382-7834

Introduction to Sufism

Fridays, monthly, 6:30-7:30 pm

On Zoom

Contact Sheikh Jamal Granick, Ph.D. (415) 382-7834

Purification Group

Fridays monthly, 7:30-8:30 pm

On Zoom

Contact Dr. Sarah Hastings Mullin (415) 382-7834

Awareness of Breath and Movement

Weekly practice group, Saturdays 8:00-9:00 am

On Zoom

Contact Sheikh Jalal Heery, (415) 382-7834

READING AND STUDY GROUPS

Amir al-Momenin Imam Ali Reading Group

First Sundays, monthly, 11:00 am (Pacific)

On Zoom

Contact Sheikh Salman Baruti, (415) 382-7834

Sufi Psychology Reading and Study Group

Third Friday of the month, 9:00-10:00 am

On Zoom

Contact Amineh Pryor, Ph.D., (415) 382-7834

Neil Douglas-Klotz (Saadi Shakur Chishti)

exploring language, spirituality and heart

Neil Douglas-Klotz (Saadi Shakur Chishti) is an internationally known scholar in the fields connecting religious studies (with specifci focus in comparative Semitic hermeneutics) and psychology, as well as a poet and musician. He is the author of Prayers of the Cosmos, Desert Wisdom, The Hidden Gospel, and The Genesis Meditations and coauthor of The Tent of Abraham with Sr. Joan Chittister, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow. He is the past chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion and is active in various international colloquia and conferences dedicated to peace and spirituality. His most recent book is Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus. He is a student of Hazrat Pir Moineddin Jablonski Chishti, who was the student and successor of Hazrat Pir Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti (Samuel

L. Lewis), who was the student of Hazrat Pir-oMurshid Hazrat Inayat Khan Chishti. The Chishtia lineage, one of the oldest Sufi families, uses music, art, poetry, and sacred movement as practices to help ‘remember’ our original relationship to the Source and Ground of all Being. Neil DouglasKlotz grew up in a multicultural family. His grandparents (on both sides) were refugees from Europe with German, Jewish, Russian, and Polish blood in their veins. He was raised by Christian parents who were both devout and free-thinking. They brought into his early life the impulse to worship and praise, as well as to question everything that constricted and opposed the injunction “love your neighbor as yourself.” Since 1994, he has lived in the UK, and since 1999 he has resided in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dr. Saadi (Neil Douglas-Klotz) and Dr. Sarah Mullin

An Unfolding Path and Inspiration

Dr. Mullin: Dr. Angha asked me if I would review your book right in the first couple days of Ramadan, and it was a real honor because Dr. Kianfar has been offering classes on the Holy books and highlighting that the literal word and language cannot convey the essence, and it’s up to the practitioner to find what that word can open up in them, like a seed. It was nice to read your book and see the connection there.What was the inspiration for you to write Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus: The Hidden Teachings on Life & Death?

Dr. Saadi: My father was one of the early chiropractors in Illinois, so in my family we were involved with what is now called holistic health, and, in addition, my parents were very much engaged with the organic farming and gardening movement, and with Rachel Carson and the early ecological movement in the U.S. And if that weren’t unusual enough for a small town in Illinois, my parents were very much engaged with Edgar Cayce, who called himself a spiritual channel. He not only brought through holistic remedies from, you could say, the other side, but he also had a different view of spirituality than what was being taught generally, and in the churches particularly.

Since my father lived in a small town in Illinois, my whole family had a more conventional upbringing, so I went to a Lutheran elementary school and high school. I learned very well the whole outer side of Christianity. I learned by heart Luther’s whole Small Catechism, and large parts of the King James Bible, and many other things.

Long story short, I had this sort of inner-outer exchange going on from the earliest times. The outer was what we were presenting and gleaning from what was around us, and the inner being the inner family culture, which included things like feeling deeply inside of yourself what your body wants–this is something we were taught–what feels true to you. Let the words sink into you and don’t necessarily believe what people tell you because it isn’t necessarily true.

So with that as a background, when I reached university, I went as far as I could from Christianity. I went way far away and became more secular and sort of an existentialist. Then after university, I trained and worked as an investigative journalist in my early twenties in New York City. This is all before the internet, at a time when one actually had to learn

how to do investigation. This includes things like having to cultivate sources in the government if you wanted them to tell you things, and learning how to research in government journals and reports and things like that to determine “what was really going on.” So that was my early training. I guess I was trained to have a suspicious mind, and I took that as far as one could go. Later I worked in Colorado as an investigative reporter, often working 60 or more hours a week.

Then I ran into a survey of Americans that indicated clearly that people don’t make decisions based on “facts.” I had to look within myself and ask, well Neil, do you really make decisions based on facts? Don’t you actually have to make major decisions in your life–like where to live, and whom to live with–based on insufficient information? How do you really make decisions? What is it that really causes you to do things in the way that you do them? Remember, I was still quite young.

Asking these questions took me first into a sort of deep depression, and then on what we would now call a spiritual search. This brought me to California, and to the Sufis who were in California, in the mid-70s. This then was the time in my life I came to Sufism, although I didn’t meet Dr. Angha and Dr. Kianfar until I think it was 1986 or so, right before the founding of the international Sufi Symposia they began. I was involved with the Chishti Sufis in California, who were still quite widespread, and the Inayat Khan Sufis. But even joining them, I was quite suspicious. Since I had a literary and journalistic background and had edited a few books already, when I came to the Sufis, they put me in charge of the writings of Sufi Ahmed Murad Chishti (Samuel L. Lewis), who had died in 1971 and was one of Inayat Khan’s students. I was told, “Go into this office, and here are all these papers and all of this material, mostly not organized.’”That was like a field day for me! I discovered two things. One has to do with my Aramaic Jesus search, and the other has to do with Sufism such as it is.

One thing Samuel Lewis said he wanted to do before he died was to learn how to pray Jesus’s prayer in Aramaic. And he never did this. At least there is no record of him doing this. There is no recording, and he never wrote about it again. So that struck me very, very deeply. And being the suspicious person that I am, honestly, in my nafs, I began to follow this up. I wanted to understand

what Aramaic is, and how is it related to Arabic? I thought, who knows anything about this? Who can help me? Who can teach me? I ran into a friend of Samuel Lewis’s who was a Jewish rabbi named Rabbi Zalman Schacher. He knew some Aramaic and put me on the right course, and I began to chant and intone the words of Jesus in Aramaic, the best way that I knew how knowing the little bit of Arabic that I knew. That led me to some very, very deep experiences late in 1981, some 40 years ago. These experiences in 1981 led me to learn Aramaic better in the mid-80s, and then, encouraged by Matthew Fox, this led me to do the book Prayers of the Cosmos, the initial offering of that work. Matthew wrote the introduction for this book, which he alludes to in the forward to my new book. I thought this first book was the end of things and I would just go back to whatever I was doing; it turned out to be the beginning of a much longer life journey than I had expected. But each time I asked if I should still follow this, I got the voice saying, yes, keep following, keep going; and so I did.

Most Sufis, I have to say, were not very interested in Jesus. Many had been traumatized in their childhood by the way they had learned Christianity, and, as a result, had come to all sorts of notions about who Jesus was. There are many people who are Jesus-phobic within the Sufi tradition. They don’t know the Qur’an very well, which features Isa–Prophet Jesus–in many ayat.

Role of the Heart

Dr. Mullin: So, can I ask you, this issue of the journal is focused on the heart. Based on your deep experience of Prophet Jesus’s teachings, what would be your comments around the role of the heart?

Dr. Saadi: For Jesus, and for the ancients, the heart was everything. Jesus mentions leba frequently throughout the Gospels, which is an earlier form of what we have in Qur’anic Arabic, qalb. The ancient Semitic languages don’t have a word for mind or body; these are mistranslations of words that are there. They do have a word for heart. The heart was everything. The heart was the center from which we acted, from which our passion was channeled. So, at the time of Jesus, there was no distinction between what we call in Arabic qalb and sadar. Qur’anic Arabic articulates the inner heart, the qalb, which can be fluid and which turn toward the soul (ruh), or

the small self (nafs). The outer heart, sadar, is more the way we meet the world and the impressions we receive from it.

Jesus talks about, for instance, in the Beatitudes, those who are pure in heart–”Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” The Aramaic says, “Blessed are those completely, fully, in their heart,” because they are one, they see one, they are illuminated by one. One views one. And how? Through the heart. Jesus has, and this relates to heart, an equivalent term for nafs, which is naphsha, very much linguistically the same term–the small self, or the individual sense we have of our self. And he has a term very equivalent to the Arabic rūh, which is the Aramaic ruha. These terms are used in a very similar way in the Aramaic of the Gospels to what we find in the Qur’an. So, you have the heart that mediates between naphsa and ruha. It’s able to turn, if our heart is not too rigid, between soul and self, or we could call it between ruha and napsha, in Jesus’s terms, between the eternal soul and self. It’s simplest I find to translate ruha as alwayseverywhere breath, the eternal soul, and naphsha, as the individual self, the indrawn breath which is in me in this body in time and space now.

These sounds also relate to how early humans perceived reality for millennia before the time of the prophets. The ruha breath that is free-flowing and connects us to all and everything, from before our birth to after our death, and the naphsha breath that is right here and right now in this so-called body.

In the Beatitudes, in the Aramaic, it says, “Blessed are those who in their inner wombs birth mercy”: Tubwayhun lamrahmane dalayhun nehwun rahme. I’m sure you can hear very easily that this is the earlier form of the word that becomes Rahman and Rahim in Arabic. In Aramaic it’s one word, deriving from the word that means “womb” in the ancient Hebrew and the ancient Semitic languages in general. It refers us to that deep source of darkness from which birth comes, from which light, warmth, heat, love, compassion, and mercy comes.

So, there’s leba, heart, in Aramaic, and rahm, connected in this sense. The sensation of the lower depths of the heart goes down into the darkness, into the rahm. This is where unconditional love and compassion comes from, mercy and compassion.

Heart and Practice

Dr. Mullin: If someone reads your book and feels

a calling, but maybe doesn’t know how to move into one’s heart, what practice would that person benefit from?

Dr. Saadi: The first thing they would benefit from is simply breathing and feeling their heart, feeling that they have an “inside.” You see people walking down the street totally focused on what is “out there,” as if that were the only and truest reality. So first, realize that there’s more than what appears to you; there’s more than what you see; there’s more than the material reality. Breathe, feel your heart, feel what’s there. Go into the darkness inside of you. Feel all of your senses. Then let the senses fold back into your heart. Let go. Do that. I have many body prayers or contemplations in the new book focused on this. They’re just little hints about how to do that.

Second, if something in this book engages them, anything in it engages them, and they get hooked (and this is not everybody because there are different ways for people), then there is a practice I have in one of the appendices, which is to do the body prayer with the Aramaic prayer, which is my slowing down of a traditional Syriac Aramaic body prayer, which is very similar to the Arabic salat. The essential movements are standing, bowing, going down, and placing one’s forehead on the earth. And you can correlate these movements with the different lines of Jesus’s prayer, which Christians normally call the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a way, and it’s been very valuable for many people to center in their hearts all the time.

With this form of body prayer, which predates even Jesus and goes back to the ancient Semitic nomads, you experience the body awareness of tracking the sun from before dawn, as it rises, up to its height, and then going down again. The prayer follows that shape, that arc, and then into the night. And the same with my life, I’m reminded, okay, I’m standing now in my day here and the day is half over–or more or less–and then I’m going down and I’m heading toward the earth and then toward the night. It is the shape of our day, as well as of our lives.

As I said, this ancient, ancient nomadic form of prayer predates organized religion. It’s also about our lifespan. We rose at some point–we were born from our mother’s womb, and when we’re young feel like everything’s possible. Then we reach midlife, and we’re going down and reflecting more about life. If we’re honest, we come to realize that, yes, I’m not going to be here in this life and in this form forever. So we ask, what’s it all about? What was before this form? What comes after? The prayer builds this type of reflection

For Jesus, and for the ancients, the heart was everything. Jesus mentions leba frequently throughout the Gospels, which is an earlier form of what we have in Qur’anic Arabic, qalb. The ancient Semitic languages don’t have a word for mind or body; these are mistranslations of words that are there. They do have a word for heart. The heart was everything.

into us. It doesn’t matter which version of it you use. The movements themselves build this awareness into you. Along with devotion, with sincere intention–the most valuable thing in the world.

Heart and a Spiritual Teacher

Dr. Mullin: How would you speak to the connection between the heart and a spiritual teacher?

Dr. Saadi: Ah, yes, the heart and a spiritual teacher….The Qur’an tells Prophet Muhammad you’re only a warner, you’re not responsible for people’s din, you can’t change their transaction with life (which is a better translation of din than religion frankly). You’re only a warner, you can be a helper, but you’re not responsible for other people. So, the best way to use a teacher is for the student to sit and to breathe with them, and to feel their heart and to feel their rhythm of breath. End of story. That’s how I learned from multiple people, including Dr. Angha and Dr. Kianfar. That’s how Jesus encourages his students to learn from him. And that’s the only way to learn because what you can teach in words is only the surface of things. Back to where we started: It’s up to each of us to internalize those words, feel them, breathe with them, and then feel what arises in you from what is ultimately Real. Be honest with yourself and feel what arises from what is Real.

Dr. Mullin: Thank you so much.

Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus

Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus: The Hidden Teachings on Life and Death

by Neil Douglas-Klotz

Perhaps at some point on the practitioner’s path one becomes aware that the deep meanings within the teachings of the Prophets and Teachers cannot be understood superficially, but that one must develop oneself to be capable to understand their richness. Neil Douglas-Klotz has studied Aramaic and other related languages over the course of many years, as well as the history of that time and culture, supporting the reader to transcend previous understandings of Jesus’s teachings into a richer and more personally relevant experience.

This book not only makes the point that spiritual teaching must be understood directly but more specifically unfolds deep meanings hidden within the words and letters of the language Jesus was speaking while teaching. Detailing the linguistics and the relevant cultural aspects of the teachings illuminate angles of Jesus’s teaching, showing how they consistently point to unity. Douglas-Klotz positions the reader to understand based on inner yearning instead of idealization or exoteric rules not rooted in heart connection.

“‘You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free’ (John 8:32)... Through Aramaic we can hear this saying tell us: ‘If you find a light emanating from the heart, it will lead you in the right direction. You’ll know what to hold on to and what to release.’”

(From the introduction to Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus)

“Jesus’s teachings have been used historically to fuel what became modern Western culture, with all its pluses and minuses. At the same time, viewed through his native language, the same teachings provide a solution to our culture’s greatest challenges, pointing the way toward a proper use of our human individuality and will.”

The Women’s Wisdom: Women in Action program launched its Annual Service Appreciation Grants in 2019 by awarding two grants to women and women-led organizations who provide direct service to their communities towards improving the quality of life for women, reducing poverty among women, improving gender equality, or promoting women’s and girls’ rights to access education. Sufi Women Organization was gratified to receive their reports of successful efforts, from women planting, harvesting and selling maize; establishing sewing workshops for women and their children; providing mindfulness-based stress reduction training to vulnerable women and girls; and developing skills and flexibility to respond to the needs of women in refugee camps.

Service Appreciation Grant women action

Nominations for candidates for the grant will be solicited and invited solely by the Women in Action program. All candidates must be nominated by a colleague(s) or by an individual(s) who has come to understand the work of the woman or women-led organization. Nominations are open and accepted in the fall of each calendar years. Winners will be announced annually. A diverse panel of volunteers review nominations. The awardees receive $500-$1,000 from the program as a grant.

Some of the 2023 Grant Recipients include: Solange Aquino from Portugal (left) in support of her work to provide services for African immigrant families and children, including supporting mothers to attend literacy classes and attend classes for parenting, therapy and conflict resolution with the THEATRE Project. Umayma (center) leads efforts at Migrant Women Association Malta (MWAM), an organization that provides social support for asylum-seeking and refugee women and their families in Malta and promotes their personal empowerment and health. Peace Mothers (right) is a group of women in Sierra Leone in West Africa who are leading their communities to peace and seeking to heal the wounds of a decade-long civil war and to generate new growth and development–person by person and village by village. The SWO WWWA grant is supporting Peace Mother groups in Benduma village in Bagruwa Chiefdom Moyamba district to scale up farming initiatives and ensure food access and community health.

Celebrating women making a difference in community, and inspiring new solutions to critical challenges, particularly in rural areas.

Women’s Wisdom: Women in Action

Living Wisely and Well in This Time

by Nancy Roybal

In November 2022, the Sufi Women Organization’s Women’s Wisdom: Women in Action program sponsored an event in its ongoing women’s health and wise living series, featuring speakers Kahontakwas Diane Longboat and Belvie Rooks, longtime humanitarian activists and friends.

Kahontakwas Diane Longboat is a ceremonial leader, educator, spiritual activist, and traditional teacher from the Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan from Six Nations Territory, Canada. She is the leader of Soul of the Mother, a dedicated team of spiritual leaders and healers who travel among First Nations and globally to carry the sacred fire for transformational healing of self, community, and Earth, seeking unity of the human family and building peace.

Belvie Rooks is a writer, educator, film producer, and social and environmental justice activist. Her pioneering work weaves social justice and healing, community building and environmental restoration. Belvie and her husband, the poet and activist Dedan Gills, founded Growing a Global Heart, with a vision to plant a million trees along the Transatlantic Slave Route in West Africa and Underground Railroad in the United States and Canada in ceremonial plantings intended to bring people together across divides for social and ecological healing.

Diane opened the conversation with an invocation, inviting the presence of natural forces and ancestors into the circle with all those who gathered. She shared that we don’t walk this life alone, nor do we don’t transition alone; we always have helpers. She noted that all faith traditions recognize the unity of love, and that our differences can join us together more than divide us if we learn how to understand in this way. According to Diane, as we stay connected to our own spiritual capacity, and to the wisdom we accrue from our elders, we can pass that wisdom along to the next generations. In this way, there is a through-line of continuity and hope for our world that moves across time.

Belvie spoke about the profound impact of meeting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when she was a teenager and he was 29 years old. Belvie was inspired by Dr. King’s message that truth, righteousness, and love will win out, and his clarity about the redemptive power of love and the personal responsibility each of us has to make a difference in creating a more loving world. King’s words and convictions have reverberated and inspired Belvie throughout her life. She also shared poems from her husband, the poet Dedan Gills from their book I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart: A Poetic Memoir, and reflected on working with Apollo astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell. She reflected on the connection between Mitchell’s “epiphany” of oneness upon seeing the Earth from space on his return flight from the moon and teachings from wisdom traditions that emphasize the interconnectivity Mitchell experienced. Belvie also highlighted the way Mitchell’s experience of connection and the woven nature of the universe was reflected by and understood through the teachings of indigenous peoples in particular.

In the conversation with each other, and in response to audience questions, both speakers highlighted the importance of “doing our own work.” They emphasized that our own authenticity will be seen and valued, while preaching words that we don’t embody will not be heard or helpful. When we practice to listen to, embody and speak our hope and wisdom, we each have the capacity to impact hundreds of others, sending forward ripples of learning and peace. The conversation also focused on finding hope in a world where the pull of hopelessness can be rampant. Both Diane and Belvie have focused much of their work investing in young people, as they are living into a future that adults cannot imagine. They’ve also sought to empower and uplift the voices of women, including Diane’s work to found and lead Soul of the Mother.

The Sufi Women Organization, founded by Dr. Nahid Angha and with the efforts and contributions of Sufi women from around the globe, was established in 1993 under the auspices of the International Association of Sufism, a United Nations NGO and recipient of UNESCO’s Ambassador of Peace Award. As a forum for all women, SWO has a long history of supporting and gathering together women from diverse cultural backgrounds who share a dedication to the goal of a peaceful global society, especially with respect to human dignity and the protection and advancement of human rights. SWO’s primary humanitarian goals include women’s rights, equitable access to education and healthcare, and increased understanding and peace between people, regardless of faith, gender, race, or social conditions. Learn more about SWO and becoming a member at: http://ias.org/swo/swo-membership/.

Oh I wish my body knew the pain of my heart

Oh I wish my heart knew the suffering of my body Oh I wish I could escape from you in peace

Pity, where can I escape from your love except to you.

Oh how I wish that you, too, fall in love Fall in love with an unmerciful beloved Then you know the pain, the longing, the waiting The powerless enduring of the separation.

Rabia Balkhi was a tenth century Persian female poet who wrote her poems in both Persian and Arabic, and is recognized as the first female poet who composed in Persian. She had strong admiration for Sufism but was not a Sufi per se. Her poems were saturated with mystical imagery and metaphors that over time they were translated into the language of mysticism by poets such as Attar (Persian poet, d. 1221) and Jami (Persian poet, d. 1492) who had great regards for her. Her shrines in located in Balkh.

From the forthcoming book: Forty Mystical Poems from Female Poets

Translated by Dr. Nahid Angha

Compiled by Professor Saleh Arthur Scott

V ICES FOR JUSTICE

A Department of the International Association of Sufism

Voices for Justice, a youth organization with a multi-religious multi-cultural unified voice to advocate for children’s human rights, was established in 2006. A group of youth leaders advocating for the rights of children by providing a forum for public awareness through: education, community service, events and programs so that every child and every young adult has the opportunity to fulfill his or her highest potential.

2022 Campaign in Support of SB1221

Expanded Learning Enhances Student Success California Department of Education Initiative

Take Action and help VFJ reduce the “nutrition gap” in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area!

Millions of children in California qualify for a reduced price lunch or a free lunch meal, however about 4 of 5 children are missing out on meals. Voices for Justice will be donating collections received to a local school that provides services to low income communities. Help Voices for Justice to keep children learning and growing by supporting meal programs. Voices for Justice (VFJ) is a department of the International Association of Sufism, a non-profit, United Nations, NGO-DPI.

Donate your contribution of $50; $100; $250; $500; any amount $ to IAS: Voices for Justice:

Checks payable to “Voices for Justice”

or pay via Credit Card - Number:_______________________________ Expiration date:________________

Your name:______________________________________________________________________________

Your address:____________________________________________________________________________

Phone number:_______________________________ Email:______________________________________

Mail to: IAS/Voices for Justice: 14 Commercial Blvd., Ste. 101, Novato, California, 94949, USA

International Association of Sufism is a non profit 501 (3), and your contribution is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

The Garden of Light Meditation & Prayer Room

In 2013, the International Association of Sufism began construction on the Garden of Light Praying and Meditation Room in Napa, California, as a service to humanity and a place of welcome. This space stands at the end of the road, as a place where people of any religion, and any nationality, whether rich or poor, whoever they are, can come and find refuge and sanctuary

Reflections from Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar

The inspiration of Seyyedeh Dr. Nahid Angha and Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar, this project has been under their vision and guidance every step of its creation, staying true to its intended purpose. Dr. Kianfar describes, “This place is a great place for awareness and awakening to the value of life. This value for sure cannot be limited to any special religion, or nation,

“absolute purity and unity is the substance of praying.”

time and place. It is rooted to the divine, that means absolute unity and purity. That absolute unity and purity is the substance of praying, so the International Association of Sufism dedicated this place just under one name: Praying Room. This is a place for remembering your own divine value and humanity, to just pray and appreciate this moment of life.”

Oriented toward the qibla, with running water for ablution and a walkway accessible to all, every part of the structure of the Praying and Meditation Room is intended to enable all to easily access the building and enter for contemplation, meditation, prayer, and remembrance of loved ones. Dr. Kianfar emphasizes again: “This place represents the religion of the divine directly, which is with every human being, born with every human being; without any shape, without any form, without any color or name, beyond all language and culture.”

On the dome of interior walls of the Praying and Meditation Room, calligraphy reflects teachings of peace and unity, including the names of many of the prophets in the monotheistic traditions, as well as several of the 99 Beautiful Names of Allah, qualities of Creation, wrapped also within the human being, and toward which a human being inwardly can align and strive. The ceiling also displays a verse of the Qur’an that focuses the human being back to the subject of unity, establishing that this space is not a mausoleum or affiliated structure intended to advance an agenda or particular tradition; it was created in the absence of any ego. The Praying and Meditation Room stands alone in invitation to all who come to find solitude with their own heart and the reality of divinity as they may discover it for themselves. All are welcome to contribute to ongoing development and care of this space.

Farid al-Din Attar

(d. 1221)

Attar was a Persian Sufi poet and theologian, whose famous book Mantiq al-tayr (The Conference of the Birds) has received global recognition.

Love is like fire, consuming the lover Happiness is found in the consuming fire

Love erases the images of belief and infidelity

Leading you to become dust, free from both doubt and infidelity

Everyone is content with the promise of tomorrow

Except the lover, who seeks only the present time

Find love if you are a seeker

Find love if you are free from illusion and images

Let your living heart lead your way

Giving up a thousand days in every breath.

Included in Forty Mystical Sufi Poems

Compiled by Saleh Arthur Kane Scott

Translated by Dr. Nahid Angha

San Rafael, CA: International Association of Sufism, 2022, page 29.

Beyond Identifications

BEYONDIDENTIFICATIONS

Heart-Based Psychotherapy

the INTERPLAY of PSYCHOLOGY & SPIRITUALITY

a conference by IAS

Beyond Identifications II:

Heart-Based Treatment of Trauma

Celebrating the 2022 Conference

Featured Presenters

Joseph Bobrow, Ph.D.

Turning Ghosts Into Ancestors: The Transformative Power of the Beloved Community

Hamaseh Kianfar, Ed.D.

The Role of Forgiveness in Healing Trauma

Glenn Hartelius, Ph.D.

Heart-Located Presence as a Measurable Cognitive Process: Evidence and Implications for Therapeutic Relationship

Jorina Elbers, Ph.D.

The Resilient Heart: Trauma-Sensitive Approaches to Using HeartMath with Your Client

The Beyond Identifications Team

Hamaseh Kianfar, Ed.D.

Leili First, Ph.D.

Jamal Granick, Ph.D., LMFT

Mary Granick, M.S., LMFT

Arife Hammerle, Ph.D., LMFT

Elizabeth Miller, Ph.D.

Katherine Preston, M.A., LMFT

Amineh Pryor, Ph.D., LMFT

Whole Person Psychology Beyond Identifications Program Highlight with

Dr. Glenn Hartelius

The following text and practices are excerpted from a talk Dr. Glenn Hartelius, an internationally known scholar in transpersonal psychology, shared at the Beyond Identifications Conference. Dr. Hartelius works on whole person psychology and provides individual coaching and public workshops worldwide, offering step-by-step processes for how to awaken untapped capacities for greater impact, resilience and authentic personal experience. His topic for this talk was heartlocated presence as a measurable cognitive process, with evidence and implications for therapeutic relationships.

What Are We Doing in Psychology?

durability and historicity, we call it reliable knowledge. And when we have something that has to do with bodily intuition, relational felt sense, inward qualities, or things that are situated, metaphorical and symbolic, we call the anthropologists. If we’re going to look at this, we have to acknowledge that what we have in the West is a psychology, but most often it’s one that eliminates a number of aspects of human perception and experience, so it doesn’t really relate to us as all of who we are.

by Katherine Preston

When we hear the phrase “measurable cognitive process,” some of us may go, “Oh, no, he’s going to take this wonderful human experience, this spiritual process, and try to reduce it into something measurable.” I want to address that concern a little bit, and also consider the question, what are we doing in psychology anyway? Really this is a very human thing. Every culture has designated people in certain kinds of processes to address the challenges and afflictions of the heart and mind, as well as the illnesses of the body. It’s what we do in human society.

If we go back 500 years, the European approach was an Indigenous approach, just like everywhere else. It was a culturally situated approach–one among many throughout the world. And yet, with a shift to secular society, psychology took on a role that formerly had been held by religious and spiritual traditions. As it exists today, psychology is still a culturally situated, and also somewhat gender-biased discipline, that addresses these types of human challenges. And unfortunately, it’s also one that feels empowered to be the objective authority for all of humanity.

In the process of moving from a Western cultural approach to a Western scientific approach, the scientific approach became treated as real and the other approaches became treated as culture and superstition. As a result, when we have intellectual thinking, objective visual data, or something that has to do with quantity,

If we look at the things that, from our perspective, are more culturally situated, some of these are more of a whole person approach, but they’re not a psychology. And if we’re going to have a psychology that addresses the whole person, and persons from all kinds of cultural perspectives, we have to acknowledge that both of these approaches are cultural–they’re both cultural perspectives, and both of them deserve respect and participation. That means not taking a scientific view and looking down on the ways that other cultures seek to understand humanity, but coming with curiosity, interest and respect. It also means not having a sort of anti-intellectual or anti-science stance on the other side, which is itself also a particular cultural tradition.

Considering the Heart

We’ll shift from here to the heart. To begin we can ask, “Which heart?” If we look at the heart as an organ, we can say that the heart is an organ in the chest. But the felt heart, the emotional heart–what we experience as warmth in the heart–is a process that happens primarily in the brain; not only, but primarily. The heart that is associated with emotion-related sensations is different from the biological heart; though, we use the same term and often think about them in the same breath. And actually, this is good news. And it’s good news because voluntary control of brain activity is a lot easier than voluntary control of the heart. No question people who’ve been meditating for decades can sometimes slow their heart and stop it and all these sorts of things, but it takes a very long time to

develop. And it would be nice if we could use these skills, so let’s take a look at why we would want to develop voluntary control of our inner activity. Let’s take, for example, loving kindness meditation as something that has to do with activating the felt heart. There is evidence from studies now that loving kindness meditation increases positive emotions. It is also seen to increase a sense of social connectedness and prosocial behavior, so that we’re more considerate of each other. It’s also seen to decrease the physiological impacts of stress.

We might then ask, how is it that shifting of something in the brain creates a sense of warmth and compassion in the chest, which of course can be so powerful in a relational context. One way is to think of someone you love or something that you’re grateful for, and as you hold that thought, feel how your heart opens, or we can say feel how your heart warms, and how there’s a shift you also experience in your chest. This is a practice you can try: take a moment to think of someone that you love, or something that you are grateful for, and particularly attend to how that shifts your felt experience. Allow it to translate into body sensation. Then notice, what was the impact? How did that feel? What shifted or changed? What impact did it have on your feeling state when you thought about someone you love or something that you’re grateful for?

What we then can look at is a direct way to activate and open the emotional heart, and then how or how to maintain an open emotional heart in relationship and interaction with others. The process that we’re using is something called Attention Strategies, which I developed together with Michaela Aizer. We’ve taught this in numerous places around the world, and what I’m presenting to you today is just a small piece that’s relevant to this experience in the heart. We’re going to look at how to find the seat of your attention. By the seat of your attention, I mean something different than what your attention is on or directed toward; I mean how to focus your attention. This includes how to move your attention to your heart–to what feels like the center of the chest. Then it becomes possible to look at how to bring that presence and quality of presence to another person, and how to maintain your presence with another person.

Attention and Attention Strategies

In terms of attention and attention strategies, we need to ask, what is attention? We have a psychological definition: attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment, while ignoring other things. But let’s ask a different question. Let’s ask, where is your attention? In conventional terms, attention is that concentration of awareness on some part of the environment. But notice that attention always also comes from somewhere in the body. In Western culture, we just kind of assume that attention comes from the head. If we are reading a cartoon, the thought bubbles usually come out of the head because that’s where I am. That’s where the ‘me’ is who’s thinking; it’s where the intention is experienced as coming from. And in

everyday life, a lot of times we have the experience of a kind of little person inside our own head who seems to be that source of awareness, like a little person who’s making the decisions, or a little person who’s looking through our eyes. This little person, this experience, seems to be in the head. If we move that process, that person, into the body, it has an immediate and direct effect on our state of consciousness. However, to move our attention, we first have to find it and focus it.

We can explore this with a little exercise. The first thing that I’m going to ask you to do is to take one finger and touch lightly on the top of your head, just very lightly. And then take your finger away. After you take your finger away, see if there is a sensation that’s still there. For most of us, there probably will still be just a hint of sensation that is there after we lift our finger. If it dies away, don’t hesitate, go ahead and touch the top of your head again and just see if you can hold the sensation present for yourself. See if you can keep the sensation in your awareness. Even if the sensation becomes very faint, just use your attention and imagination to hold it there.

Next, imagine that this sensation you have on the top of your head is also like a bright point of light, and that this point of light is going to sink down slowly into the center of your head and rest behind your eyes. As the point of light lands in the middle of your head, imagine that you are at this point of light. Imagine that the images coming through your eyes are coming to this point of light, and the sounds that you’re receiving through your ears are coming to this point of light.

We can explore this a second way as well. This time, take your hands and kind of touch very lightly on your face. Then touch the sides of your head, the back of your head and the top of the head, creating sensation all over your head so that you can feel the shape of your head. Imagine that this shape of your head, that you can feel now even when your hands are away, shrinks down just slightly so that instead of being the size of your head, it’s the size of a big grapefruit. Then imagine that it shrinks again to about the size of an orange. And then it shrinks again to about the size of a plum. And then to the size of a walnut. And then to a grape. And, finally, to a bright point of light right in the center of your head. Imagine the sounds that you hear–any sounds that you may have around you like cars, birds, or whatever it may be–you can receive by that point of light in the center. Notice for yourself, what does it feel like when your attention is focused? Where is your attention coming from? If your attention is focused in the center of your head, do you feel more fuzzy or a little more clear? More noisy internally or more quiet?

I’d like to make the point that with meditative processes, it’s often thought that we have to meditate for a long time to get a place of quiet mind. Actually, we did this process in less than five minutes, and I’m

Self-Regulation Study

For extended information on new researchW from Glenn Hartelius and colleagues, see Glenn Hartileus, Lora T. Likova, and Christopher W. Tyler, “Self-Regulation of Seat of Attention Into Various Attentional Stances Facilitates Access to Cognitive and Emotional Resources: An EEG Study” Front Psychol. 2022 Feb 24;13:810780. doi: 10.3389/ fpsyg.2022.810780. PMID: 35282214; PMCID: PMC8912941.

This study provides evidence supporting the operation of a novel cognitive process of a somatic seat of attention, or ego-center, whose somatic location is under voluntary control and that provides access to differential emotional resources.

Love and Destiny

a map for developing and discovering inner wisdom

Love and Destiny, two of the major principles of life, were the focus of the annual 40 Days: Alchemy of Tranquility retreat in January, 2023. Participants from around the world gathered for a weekend, as the Santa Sabina Center, in San Rafael, California, that was focused on deepening an awareness of Love and Destiny, as a map for developing and discovering inner wisdom. Original music from Taneen, poetry from renowned teachers, storytelling from ancient traditions, movement for breath and awareness, demonstrations and guided meditations enhanced the fascinating and inspiring presentations throughout the weekend.

The retreat was led by Sufi Masters Seyyedeh Dr. Nahid Angha and Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar assisted by a team of experienced psychotherapists and educators to offer an opportunity for reflection on the mystery of being and the physiological, psychological and spiritual principles that constitute our totality. Scientific evidence was shared in support of the spiritual significance that gravitational force and attraction has brought each of us from the abstract at the beginning of the universe to receive the form in which we find ourselves currently. Human beings arise from eternity and have the potential to continue our journey in eternity. In every moment, we are both the cause and effect of own destinies. Therefore, we recognized the imperative to practice correctly for self awareness and to discover the secret to secure one’s destiny within eternity. The 40 Days Alchemy of Tranquility program was designed to support those who wish to begin a sustained practice for pursuing and discovering this great treasure within.

“The instruction was truly transformative and answered lifelong questions”

- Retreat Participant

Our focus should remain on the importance of the self -it is both a gift and a huge responsibility. The more someone practices for self-improvement, the more they will be of benefit to themselves and their community.

– Dr. Kianfar

“It is not common to find a group of people where you feel you can be your real self. With this level of comfort, during past retreats I have increased my self-awareness and also pushed myself to change things about myself that I have wanted for a long time.”

- Retreat Participant

“The 40 Days Alchemy of Tranquility program helps me to strengthen my connection to the practices and knowledge that awaken my body, mind and spirit.”

- Retreat Participant

January 26-28, 2024

A Transformed Tomorrow

As all around us suffering sisters and brothers, from infants to elders of all species, drench the Earth we are despoiling with tears of anguish and rage, and old forms like parched plants wither away, or hover at the edge of surrender, caterpillars entrusting all to an intuited chrysalis, or rage with the destructive fury of a galaxy of exploding stars –humanity inhabits a present suspended between promise and menace, echoing an urgent cry –

Come, you who would be the womb to guard and grow a transformed tomorrow.

The hour is late; shadows lengthen –

Come, you lost and forgotten! Come, you lonely and careworn!

Come, you whose hearts are breaking!

Come, you secure-seeming in vaults of power!

Come, you who embody compassion! Come, you who sail seas of change!

Come, you who awaken with the sun!

Come, you from all faiths and you from none!

Come, elders and infants!

Come, wise women and humble men!

Come, red, yellow, black, brown, white!

Come from the east!

Come from the south!

Come from the west! Come from the north!

Led by fire, light and love, we are the kindled spark, called to conceive, in co-creative goodness, the already-emerging future.

Yes, the gestation will be long and often terrifying, but also overflowing with joy; so, trust what grows in the nurturing dark.

Yes, the hour is late and the shadows lengthen; yes, the labor will be long and the pain fierce; but on the far side of advancing night; the sun will rise, new life will emerge –

perhaps, in the dawning light, withered fields and forests will revive, new species will be born, the hoop of the nations healed, the circle of life restored to a new wholeness. Perhaps.

May we awaken and, in fire, light and love, labor as one until this dawn of promise is delivered.

Poetry: Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs

The essence of the human being, regardless of gender or color, time or place, has been regarded as reverent, dignified, and respectful by teachers of humanity. Such magnificence is the gift of Being to humankind, the art of recognizing such magnificence is learned. The foundation of civilization is based on teachings and learning, and the first teacher of any human being, male or female, from any social position or illumination, is a mother. To direct the civilization to a favorable station, one has to rely on the power of a mother, providing that she knows the value of her position. A mother, in fact, is the teacher of all. Underestimating such power and strength, overlooking such magnificence is most unfortunate.

The Search

We are children of the universe and as we travel through the mystery of ourselves we have paused here but a moment on this flower that has blossomed in the darkness of cosmic space.

– Dedan Gills

Susan W. Lambert photography

Poetry: Dedan Gills

Manifestations of Thought Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha

The more the eye of the heart sees and becomes conscious the more a human being is able to admit to his limitation before the knowledge of the existence; and this is the first step that any knowledgeable human being should take towards understanding.

The most learned human being is one whose character is in harmony with the essence of nature, even though his or her identity with nature may appear as something mystical.

There is nothing for which a human being cannot find a complete example of it in his or her own being. One of the reasons that we may not realize our own eminent position in the universe of being is our sense distraction, and sense distraction is nothing but the limitation and boundaries of sense perceptions. If a human being purifies his own self (nafs) from whatever is not the reality of the self, he will understand the importance of his own being, he will learn his name in the design of being, his magnificence that is the presentation of the Real in the world of multiplicity. He is the reality of the “great name” (ism-i-a’zam), his humanity, his representation of the sacred that is hidden behind the veils of nature.

Abul-Abass Amuli (Persian mystic, 11th century), one of the great Sufis of his time, was asked to perform a miracle. He replied, “What miracle is greater and more important than my own life? I was a business man spending my days with business; but once the Divine light illuminated my heart, great mystics like Kharaqani (Persian Sufi master, 11th century) and Abul-Khayr (Persian Sufi master, 11th century) come to visit me and ask my teachings.” The virtue that Abul-Abass Amuli is talking about is not gathered through adapted knowledge and information, but the illumination of heart. When he stops replying on the appearances and confinements, his inner eye (heart) opens to understand the depths of the sacred Absolute. His virtue came from meaning not through forms and figures. He eliminated the superfluous from his being until he arrived at the point of unification seeing the Sacred Absolute wherever he looked.

Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha, Manifestations of Thought, p. 34.

Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha (1916-1980) was a preeminent Iranian Sufi master, poet, scholar and a prominent Sufi philosopher of the Muslim world. His doctrines address the questions of creation, of the universe, of infinite/ finite, of ethics and morality, of existence, of essence and quiddity, and the relationship of human beings with the greater universe and cosmic energies.

In his Padidihay-i fikr, Shah Maghsoud refers to the cosmic electromagnetic energies, emergence of the earth in its orbit to begin to nurture life, the Earth’s centers of electromagnetic energies and their cooperation with all known and unknown cosmic energies, and suggests that a human being is, indeed, a concentrated electromagnetic force capable of understanding his own very reality through directing his energies toward a center-point of reference, where the two worlds of finite and the realm of infinite meet.

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Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar

from the introduction

The teachers of humanity tell us about our essence and potentiality. They lead us toward knowledge and awareness–where prejudice and ignorance have no ground to manifest themselves. The way and the path of the prophets is the path of cognition and discovery. Through their teachings, one can ascend to the level of a true human being, away from the animal level, which is bound to the limitations of sense information only. Such a knowledgeable human being will pass through the gate of change and find his way to salvation and eternal life. He knows the difference between divine guidance and the influence that leads a human being toward illusion and superstition. Such a knowledgeable human being is victorious. Jesus says:

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

(Matthew 7:13-14)

Yet, the way, the knowledge and the books of such teachers have been replaced by meaningless ceremonies and customs. Those who pass through and leave this city of change will continue their spiritual traveling into celestial realms. They are knowledgeable of the path they have taken and able to distinguish between fact and fiction, between truth and superficiality, and between knowing and not knowing. So it is those devotees who are settling down in the highest level of creation.

The essence of knowledge and the capability to unveil it lies within us. Existence, by its own will, has given us the knowledge and realization of it. We are capable of developing to the highest, most delicate stages of existence. Yet, at the same time, our physical bodies are bound by the rules of nature and thus to the rules of change.

Life deserves more thoughtful attention. We have this mysterious essence called life, yet we are careless and lose ourselves in superficial and shortlasting desires. We are to truly respect this inherent knowledge and to seek to understand who we really are. This is how we can discover and understand our true nature. There is a saying related to Amir AlMuminin ‘Ali (Fourth Caliph and First Imam of the Shi’a sect of Islam, d. 661): “You, the human being, think you are just this small body, but I tell you that the whole universe is wrapped within you.”

Throughout the ages, great thinkers have been studying the human mystery. Researchers have spent lifetimes in their laboratories, applying their intellect to discover the truth of human existence. Yet, a human being may only understand and unveil his or her own reality, away from the vagaries of the outside world, and thus to know ones’ self, in order to understand the ultimate Self, remains the highest stage of human pursuit.

(excerpted from As-Sal’at, pgs. 3-6)

As-Sal’at (ritual prayers) and Zikr (a meditative practice) aim toward remembering and calling upon the most beautiful names of Allah; since remembering the most beautiful sacred names illuminates the heart and frees the human being from the calamities that darken the heart.

The human mind remains an instrument to observe the mysteries of being; and the heart becomes the instrument to witness, realize and unveil the Absoluteness of being.

And thus to “remember” the Absolute Sacred becomes the key to unveil the hidden treasure within. In As-Sal’at, Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar offers an in-depth explanation on both the ritual prayer of salat and the meditative practice of the zikr.

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Forty Mystical Sufi Poems

Compiled with Commentary

by Saleh Arthur Kane Scott

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“Offering my heart and my life to Your Beauty,Offering my entire being to the road ending at Your house Offering my heart because you are the owner of my heart, Offering my life because you are the core of my being Setting my heart free from You is an impossible task, Giving up my life to Your footsteps is a simple act.”

Forty Mystical Sufi Poems : A Review

Forty Mystical Sufi Poems is an elegant collaboration between Dr. Nahid Angha and Saleh Arthur Kane Scott describing the healing mystery and transformative energy of Sufi poetry. Dr. Angha, the founder of International Association of Sufism, and celebrated scholar, author and translator, likewise, has brought the poetics and wisdom of her father, Moulana Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha, to the West.

Professor Scott has been a practicing Sufi for two decades studying under the direction of Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar, co-founder of International Association of Sufism, who through the example of Dr. Angha became enraptured by the spiritual nuances of Sufi poetics. As he declares, Forty Mystical Sufi Poems “is itself a meditation which takes you deeper into yourself thereby releasing you from the busyness of time/space.”

Forty Mystical Sufi Poems introduces the reader to the beauty, poetics, and metaphors of forty Sufis, from Bayazid Bastami to Hallaj, Khayyam to Rumi, and Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha to Rumi, along with their brief biographies. The number 40 was chosen because it is a sacred number pointing to the inner transformation that the seeker must undergo to return

to the heart, the fountainhead of divine wisdom. What makes this book so rich is that it explores the deep metaphors and vocabulary of the Sufis: Drunkenness is code for falling into a deep rapture, Garden points to the beauty of Paradise, Tulip points to the ascending heart. Dr. Angha says it best when she writes, “Every color holds a meaning, every song presents a divine melody, and every word is a key to open treasure box of the heart.” These Sufi themes are beautifully expressed in the cover which portrays a mystical garden filled with exotic birds, trees, flowers pointing to the ethereal.

In conclusion, Forty Mystical Sufi Poems is a must read rich in insights about identity in a world on fire. It calls the world to surrender to the Divine Feminine, to the warm embrace of the Garden of love, to the realization that what we seek was always within as beautifully express by Bayazid Bastami in these lines:

“Then I looked and saw that lover and beloved are one.”

What a gift!

– Hatif Isfahani, (Forty Mystical Sufi Poems, pg. 38)

Nirvan

Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha

Translated with Commentary by Nahid Angha

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“...this journey is the journey of the Self/self from itself, within itself, and toward itself: the formless manifesting itself in form, through its names, through its attributes, through its words; and the formless Absolute remains as it has always been: eternal and infinite...The story of Nirvan is the story of that mystical journey.”

– Nahid Angha (Commentary on Nirvan, pg. 17)

Nirvan

Nirvan is an allegorical story of the celestial child, who has journeyed from the timelessness of the Absolute, to manifest in form, and claims an identity; and when the time comes he returns to his essence, in a circular journey, and will be dissolved in the Absoluteness from which he is originated.

Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha wrote Nirvan (Tehran, 1960) as a response to Ghurbat al-gharbiyya (The Recital of the Occidental Exile) written by Sheikh Shihab ad-Din Suhrawardi (d. 1191). Nirvan is one of Shah Maghsoud’s most complex works. It includes allegories with precise meanings and is saturated with alchemical, metaphysical, and cosmological terms and numerological references.

Nahid Angha offers a new translation and additional commentaries in this edition. Her first translation and commentary of Nirvan was published in 1992.

From the Prologue:

Imam Sadiq says that the image of the human being is the greatest evidence (hujajt) of His creation as it is a book created by the divine wisdom, inclusive of two worlds of the seen and the unseen, a straight path toward all goodness, and a bridge between heaven and hell.

You are the universe, Yet unaware of your being A treasure found without hardship Is a human being.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious and Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, who created humanity in His own image and illuminated the hearts of the knowledgable with the light of knowledge; peace and blessings be upon the finest of humankind, Muhammad, the messenger of Allah, his people, and his family.

And so I, a devoted servant of the Most Gracious, seeking mercy and generosity (rahmat) from the One and Only, the established and firm (quwati), possessor of strength (matin), honoring the friendship of the Friends of Allah (awlia Allah)... seeking help from haqq (absolute reality), thought that I should write Nirvan, another treatise to explore those allegories that lead us toward understanding those hidden treasures witnessed by this great master. May Allah grant me success in this endeavor.” (Nirvan, pgs. 3-4)

Science and Spirituality

Victor Sinow

Throughout the writings and teaching of great Sufi masters, the metaphor of the lamp is often used to help students conceptualize the inner journey of purification and practice. In a letter called “An Address To The Reader,” 12th century Sufi master Hadrat ‘Abdul-Qadir Al-Jilani writes:

If only the lamp of divine secrets is kindled in your inner self, the rest will come, either all at once or little by little. Some you already know, some we will tell you here. Read, listen, try to understand. The dark skies of unconsciousness will be lit by divine presence and the peace and beauty of the full moon, which will rise from the horizon shedding

Light upon Light (Nur, 35) ever rising in the sky, passing through its appointed stage as Allah has ordained for it stages, till it (Ya Sin, 39) shines in glory in the center of the sky, dispersing the darkness of heedlessness.

As taught by Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar, the lamp of divine secrets is in fact the heart of a human being. In order for the lamp of the heart to kindle and shine forth with the light of Knowledge and Wisdom, it must be purified through intention, right action, and disciplined practice. To bring this point more into focus for his students, during a recent class on Surah 53 of the Holy Qur’an, Dr. Kianfar spoke of electricity entering a light bulb. He said, “immediately when you turn on a light switch and release the power of electricity into the bulb, the bulb reacts, because it is ready to receive. This is how the true Knowledge, not knowledge of the senses, but the divine Knowledge, enters into the heart. The heart must be ready.”

First, a primer on some scientific basics. When we refer to electricity, really, we speak of the flow of electrons. Electrons are sub-atomic particles

that carry a negative charge. Much like water confined and flowing in a river from a mountain lake to the sea, electrons flow through conductors, commonly wires made from metal, from a source of high potential energy to one of low potential energy. Keeping in mind water, the greater the difference in altitude between a mountain lake and the ocean, the more swiftly, on average, water in the river that connects them will flow. In terms of physics, the water in the mountain lake has high potential energy, and the water in the ocean has low potential energy. This energy gradient totally defines the system of motion in the river. Once the water reaches the ocean, evaporation, cloud formation, and then finally rain will impart high potential energy back to the water as it replenishes the mountain lake. In this way, we can see that the flow of water in the river is not a oneway trip, but rather a complete cycle from positive energy to negative energy, and then back again.

The same concepts are true for the flow of electrons as well. The plug in our wall is like the mountain lake, a giant store of electrons with high potential energy. The literal ground of the Earth is the like the ocean, a vast repository of electrons with low potential energy. When we plug something into a wall socket, we create the river where electrons can flow from the wall socket back to the Earth. Once in the Earth, power generating stations impart energy back to those electrons and push them out onto the electrical grid, completing the cycle from positive to negative and back again.

Now, regarding the lamp, when we flip on a light switch, we are using the light bulb in the lamp itself as a conduit for electrons to flow down the energy gradient. The filament in the light bulb has been meticulously crafted and refined over the last century to harness energy from the electrons flowing through it and emit light. This filament is an agent of transformation. The physical energy of the river of electrons is concentrated by the

material properties of the filament and transformed into light. With just the slightest alteration to the construction of the filament, light would disappear, and the flow of electrons would simply wash through the filament, leaving no trace of their passage.

The energy and flow of life operates on these very same principles. Our physical bodies are the conduits through which life itself flows. We are the river between the mountain and the sea. We are the filament between power and ground. We are awash in the eternal flow of Wisdom and Knowledge from the divine, and by the Mercy of Allah, these corporeal forms which life inhabits and we call “body” have the potential to resonate with the motion of eternity. Just as the filament concentrates and transforms the flow of electrons in the light bulb, so does the heart concentrate and transform the flow of life. And just as the filament must be constructed precisely, following the instructions of those scientists and engineers responsible for its creation, so must the heart be precisely prepared and balanced in a manner prescribed by the spiritual masters who have themselves unlocked their own potential.

To those on the Sufi path, the core of that prescription is purification through meditation and right action. Those are the means by which we ready our hearts to intercept the flow of life and radiate the light of Knowledge. If we ignore the teachings of the masters, and simply let the energy of life wash through us, then the lamp of divine secrets will remain unlit and our beings will stay shrouded in the darkness of heedlessness, to use the words of Al-Jilani. It is important to acknowledge that too soon our bodies will lose the ability to capture and hold onto life. We are only travelers upon this Earth for a short time before our physical bodies return to dust. Thus, while life itself flows in an eternal cycle of transformation and rebirth, as human beings, we have but this one window to align the filament of our hearts with Allah and radiate the light of Ar-Rahman.

A journey of spiritual awakening awaits in Charles P. Gibbs’s insightful new collection of poems, Light Reading.

Always on a pilgrimage of remembrance, even during the brief time in which he tried to run away from his own understanding of God, Gibbs has learned to embrace and thrive in his spiritual understanding. Whether you are a seasoned pilgrim, have just set off on a spiritual journey of your own, or merely possess a vague feeling that something significant is missing in your life, Light Reading will support and challenge you on your own sojourn into the heart.

Charles P. Gibbs is an internationally respected spiritual leader, interfaith activist, speaker, and writer who has committed his life to serving the world through interreligious and intercultural engagement. An Episcopal priest, he served for seventeen years as the founding executive director of the United Religions Initiative, a global network of people from diverse religious and spiritual traditions united in service to the Earth community. He recently became senior partner and poet-in-residence for Catalyst for Peace.

A prolific writer, Gibbs’s published works include coauthoring Birth of a Global Community; contributing a chapter to Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding; “Opening the Dream: Beyond the Limits of Otherness,” an essay publishd in Deepening the American Dream. Charles cherishes and is inspired by his family. He is blessed with dear friends and colleagues of diverse faiths from around the world.

We are a traditional Japanese martial arts school. We have a comprehensive approach to teaching open handed, sword and staff techniques. We practice to develop balance, strength, flexibility and power by unifying our body and mind. We explore the way of reconciling conflict by encouraging balance and harmony. This is why Aikido is often called ‘The Art of Peace’.

Instructor: Jalal Brian Heery, PhD

Fifth Degree Black Belt

The International Association of Sufism is a non-profit organization, and a NGO/ DGC associated with the United Nations. As an active human rights advocate, IAS disseminates information focused on Human Rights, Social Justice, Education, Women’s Rights offered and organized by the United Nations. For the most up to date information visit:

http://ias.org/service/unitednations/

Empowering All Women and Girls

Department of Public Information

Non-Governmental Organizations

New York City — The 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67)— the UN’s largest annual gathering on gender equality, the empowerment of all women and girls and their human rights—successfully closed its two-week long session today (6 to 17 March) with the acknowledgment of the critical role of technology and innovation in achieving gender equality. The agreed conclusions adopted by Member States provide a blueprint for all stakeholders, including governments, the private sector, civil society and youth to promote the full and equal participation and leadership of women and girls in the design, transformation and integration of digital technologies and innovation processes that fulfill the human rights and needs of women and girls.

CSW67 reaffirmed the importance of women and girls’ full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership in science, technology and innovation, and expressed concern on the limited progress in closing the gender gap in access to and use of technologies, connectivity, digital literacy and education. It also expressed grave concern about the continuity and interrelation between offline and online violence, harassment and discrimination against women and girls and condemned the increase of such acts.

International Women’s Day

This International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023, the UN Women and the United Nations celebrated under the theme DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality. Research shows:

• Women make up only 22% of artificial intelligence workers globally.

• A global analysis of 133 AI systems across industries found that 44.2% demonstrate gender bias.

• A survey of women journalists from 125 countries found that 73 per cent had suffered online violence in the course of their work.

In many areas affected by water stress, women & girls have the responsibility of fetching water. They should not carry the burden of the water crisis.

In many communities, girls are tasked with collecting water for their families, which can interfere with their education & even prevent them from attending school.

Commission on the Status of Women

The UN 2023 Water Conference was hosted March 22-24, 2023 in New York as a key opportunity to bring world leaders together to accelerate action for water. “Water is fundamental to all aspects of life. It is essential for human health and well-being, energy and food production, healthy ecosystems, climate adaptation, gender equality and health, and more. Water is at the core of sustainable development. Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is a human right – fundamental to everyone’s health, dignity, and prosperity. Yet, billions of people around the world lack safely managed drinking water. Demand for water is also rapidly rising due to population growth, urbanization and increasing pressures from the agriculture and energy sector.”

According to the UN: “Water is a dealmaker for the Sustainable Development Goals, and for the health and prosperity of people and planet. But our progress on water related goals and targets remains alarmingly off track, jeopardizing the entire sustainable development agenda.”

From the Vision statement UN 2023 Water Conference: Today, a quarter of the global population – 2 billion people – use unsafe drinking water sources. Half of humanity – 3.6 billion people – live without safely managed sanitation. And 1 in 3 people – 2.3 billion – lack basic handwashing facilities at home.1 Over 80% of wastewater is released to the environment without being treated or reused.2 And, droughts could be the next pandemic. Almost three quarters of all recent disasters are water related, having caused economic damage of almost US$700 billion in the past 20 years.4

However, water does not only present us with challenges. It also presents us with a great opportunity. If we understand the complex relations and interlinkages, value water holistically, and manage water inclusively at all levels and across all interests, then water can be the dealmaker, the leverage point for a green economy, climate resilience and a more sustainable and inclusive world. Water – because of its many interlinkages – can bring together all stakeholders (individual, institutional, informal) to forge coalitions, strengthen capacities and provide solutions to be replicated and scaled.

The Aware Al- Khabir:

Allah sees by insight. The discerning One to whom all distinctions are clear. The perceptive One from whom no content is concealed. The Incisive One who anticipates the deepest inner occurrences even in things not yet actualized. Allah knows when an atom is set in motion or stilled and when a breath is disturbed or silenced.

As the deer pants for water, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

– Psalms 42

A deer pants for water, I for thirst.

We look from the sides in this field we graze to find the seed of magic.

I lay down the torn apart, it blooms again, and again. Undershoots and overshoots overlap and run themselves within the wild.

His power, from underneath, arrives in the roots, explodes to sky. The warm herd trembles and signs to dart, into the never turning back. This field and body were never mine. I ask for Your gracious release. Blood runs through the veins of this raging animal, and the seed must burst–into the face of flower.

prepared from the teachings of Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Ph.D. by Sarah Hastings Mullin, Ph.D.

Illumination of the Names: Meditation by Sufi Masters on the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God. Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar (2011) . San Rafael, CA: International Association of Sufism Publications.