This blog will offer some thoughts and inspiring quotations of Hazrat Inayat Khan. There is an opportunity here for you to reflect on them, and to comment or ask a question. Murshida Rani will respond to your comments. The Universal Sufism which Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan founded in the West is a teaching of understanding, tolerance, and acceptance, and we can benefit from hearing it. We will also look at the spiritual practices which can help us all realize the Divine Light in our souls.
These breathing practices were given by Hazrat Inayat Khan to purify our breath. In doing this we can also understand that we are purifying the atmosphere around us. This is important during this time that the coronavirus is carried in the air. The air is shared by every being on this planet that breathes – […]
Breathing in different patterns can purify your breath. I will give instructions for these basic breath patterns here. In a later post I will describe more of the details. These breathing practices can purify the air and atmosphere around and within you, so they are very helpful in bringing balance and ease to your breathing. […]
Recently, I learned that Pope Francis declared (in a 2016 decree) that Mary Magdalene will be honored by having her own major feast day, June 22. In doing this, he acknowledges the woman who in the New Testament is the first to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus. For centuries only the male apostles, whom she […]
The desire of all nations and in principle free,A child, but wide-awake, blessed America be.Thy heart is open to all, to friend and foe alike;A high note of brotherhood, indeed, thou dost strike.Thou hast inherited the sense of nations all,And thou bestowest the same on those who on thee call.Ideal of nations, in thee we […]
El Fadl goes on to say that there is much beauty in the traditional methodologies of Islamic knowledge, but that they must be reinvigorated now towards an unrelenting exploration of this core value – beauty. (p. xviii) At the core of morality we find beauty. The core and center of Islam, he says, is the […]
If you are looking here because you read the post on Facebook, you know that I have come across this thoughtful, reflective collections of essays on “Beauty in Islam”. He imagines that the books of Muslim scholars and mystics create an atmosphere in the night, in which their voices come alive in his study in […]
Mysticism is not a faith or belief or principle or dogma. It is not an idea or a code of behavior. It is not a concept that we can point out or define. This makes it difficult to talk about. So we will look at some of the things that a mystic does. A mystic […]
I have just returned from the International Headquarters meetings and the Summer School in Katwijk, Netherlands, where Sufis from many countries gather, to work together in the spreading of the Sufi Message throughout the world. It was a dynamic and difficult time, as we try to work through our differences; always keeping in mind Murshid’s […]
As we go on day by day, we may wonder, “What is the purpose of my life?” When I was in my twenties, and teaching Religious Studies at Lewis and Clark College, I was asked to teach “Introduction to Religion.” But this was a boring course. And it was the 1970s. So many spiritual teachings, […]
“And what is life? Life is an opportunity. To the optimistic person the opportunity is a promise, and for the pessimistic person this opportunity is lost. It is not that the Creator makes one lose it, but it is the person who withdraws him or herself from the possibility of seizing the opportunity.” These are […]