January 2012
11 posts
1 tag
“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a...”
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This Path
I am not with the capable, nor the exemplary I am with my brothers, who like me are destitute, morally exhausted sick of it all, our own mediocrity and the endless treadmill of anxiety of how we appear. To dismiss us would be a loss. Under this mud of anonymity lies a secret that permits all things to stand out and all things are magnificent, delightful, intoxicating. - Shaykh Ebrahim Schuitema
...
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Conquering the Internal Villain
So many mountains before me. Waiting in the distance to be conquered. Such excitement in my soul in anticipation of reaching the summit. After all, in the act of moving mountains one is able to see what we’re really made of.
However, along the path there are many wise trees that guide us with their wisdom and knowledge. We must listen and meditate on their whispers. In their silence, they...
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The Earth is Our Spiritual Body
When I’m reading the book of nature I’m reading it through my soul. - Satish Kumar
As humans our villain is the mind. It conforms to the illusions and lies of society and is based on fear when compared to our natural authentic self.
Nature is our shadow.
Our soul, which is always seeking the journey rather than fulfilling the desires of the flesh finds tranquility in the mundane....
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Life's Illusion's
Be humble.
Only fools take pride in their station here, trapped in
a cage of dust, moisture, heat and air.
No need to complain of calamities,
this illusion of a life lasts but a moment.
- Shaikh Abū-Sa’īd Abul-Khayr
December 2011
16 posts
6 tags
Cheikh Bamba's Alchemy of the Heart
Image credit
A Muslim visionary and spiritual leader, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba dedicated his life to writing poetry on meditation, rituals, and Qur’anic study. His teachings emphasized the virtues of pacifism and the importance of hard work.
He taught his followers that salvation comes through submission to Allah, hard work and being of service to others - a departure from conventional...
“Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the...”
– Chuang Tzu (via light-essence)
“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”
– Maya Angelou (via inhaletherain)
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Exploring the Philosophy of Africa's Muslim Gandhi
The following is a brief background on Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba. In the coming weeks, I hope to continue a series of posts exploring his philosophy of non-violence and culture of peace. May his story and light be illuminating to you.
Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba is an African Muslim Sufi master, born in 1853 in Senegal (West Africa), during French colonization, just after the official abolition of slavery in...
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“Salik (traveler) achieves greatness from four things: Less eating, Less talking,...”
– - Sheikh Nizamuddin
Ncwala Festival
beautiful-afrique:
The Ncwala or iNcwala, also known as ‘Festival of the First Fruits,’ is an important religious ritual that takes place in the latter half of December, and continues into January of the successive year. It is an annual ceremony lasting three weeks that unites the inhabitants of Swaziland in order to gain blessings from ancestors. This important event also serves the purpose...
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December’s Lunar Eclipse: Are You Ready for A... →
“I was pursuing the inner path at the expense of the rest of my being and the rest of the world,” Satish Kumar
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The Struggle for My Freedom
I pay a price for this revolution
I hold these truths which governs my adventures
In the senate of my house
I pay a price for this revolution
To think for myself
Not only up against the system
But also the wounds of my past, plus my elders past
And the past of those before them
I pay a price
Cause the healing doesn’t start with my wounds
See I have generations and generations of luggage...
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“To attain spirituality is to realize that the whole universe is one symphony in...”
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“No matter how you look at it, the real dance of life is always a solo...”
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Secrets of “Hu wa Hu” →
We perfume ourselves and beautify the outside to mask the fact that our inner core is rotten, but in reality, true and lasting beauty comes from connecting the soul to its Divine source. That is why Saints have a beautiful appearance and a beautiful and loving character. They have achieved a station of everlasting beauty by purifying their hearts from material desires.
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“The power of our bodies is unleashed in occupying a space. Bodies that dance,...”
– “These Bodies” (via kawlture)
November 2011
6 posts
3 tags
Surrender Yourself
searchforfuel:
“The more you struggle to live, the less you live. Give up the notion that you must be sure of what you are doing. Instead, surrender to what is real within you, for that alone is sure.. you are above everything distressing.”
—
Spinoza (via funeral)
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“For a day, just for one day,
Talk about that which disturbs no one
And bring...”
– Hafiz (via thelittlephilosopher)
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Boomerang Prayer
On January 25, Egyptians broke down the fear barrier. Now, they’re stomping on that fear barrier as protestors in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and Ismailia continue their standoff with remnants of the Mubarak regime in their bid to tie up loose ends.
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of its people,” says Ramy. “That’s what we’re...
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The Beloveds of God
The following is a wonderful excerpt from Sidi Shaykh Muhammad al-Jamal’s ‘Conversations in the Zawiyah’. Although it specifically references our significant other it can also be applied to one’s relationship to the self and one’s relationship to our fellow brothers and sisters in the world, animals and nature itself.
After you have walked in the way and lifted...
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Soulful Journey
Inna lillahi, wa inna ilaihir rajiun. Indeed we are Allah’s and to Allah is our final journey.
Human beings have a great many things to learn from our family members. And when I speak of family members I don’t mean the one that society has limited our minds to.
Once the earthly veils have been lifted then we become realized. That our body is like clothes for the soul in that one...
October 2011
1 post
7 tags
Beautiful Afrique: African History: October 19... →
beautiful-afrique:
The British government announces that it is to send troops to Kenya to help the fight against the Mau Mau on Octoberr 19 1952.
The Mau Mau Uprising (also known as Mau Mau Revolt, Mau Mau Rebellion and the Kenya Emergency) was a military conflict that took place in Kenya between 1952 and…
September 2011
2 posts
8 tags
“If you treat other lives as your own life and live within the resonance of...”
– Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
may Allah protect and sanctify his Soul
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Confessions: From Autobiographical Essays of...
Inayat Khan, may God sanctify his soul secret, was a brilliant spiritual teacher and is credited for bringing Sufism to the West for the first time back in early 1900s. Many western as well as eastern seekers who came to the Path, came through the direct or indirect influence of this great personality who left behind volumes of his inspired writings and teachings that helped bridge east and west...
August 2011
5 posts
19 tags
Observing a Mental Fast During Ramadan
Photo property of: creativesam
Reading and talking about Oneness of God is one thing,
But to enliven it is another matter all together.
There are many for whom Oneness is just a spiritual theorization,
For the friends it is Seeing the Friend’s Face in every direction.
O Beloved One, help us walk in your friends’ footsteps,
For towards...
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“For those who truly love God and His ways,
all the people of the world are...”
– Yunus Emre
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Rhythm is Life Disguised in Motion
Sufis, in order to awaken in man that emotional nature which is generally asleep, have a rhythmic practice which sets the whole mechanism of body and mind in rhythm.
All labour and toil, however hard and difficult, is made easy by the power of rhythm in some way or other. This idea opens to the thinker a still deeper scope for the study of life. Rhythm in every guise, be it called game, play,...
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The Art of Peace
searchforfuel:
“Now and again, it is necessary to seclude yourself among deep mountains and hidden valleys to restore your link to the source of life. Sit comfortably and first contemplate the manifest realm of existence. This realm is concerned with externals, the physical form of things. Then fill your body with ki and sense the manner in which the universe functions- its shape, its color, and...
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Senegal's Mourides: Islam's mystical entrepreneurs →
A constant stream of people come to the mosque to pay homage at the tomb of Amadou Bamba - a Sufi mystic and founder of the Mouride Brotherhood.
For true believers, says Mr Sene, the path laid down by Bamba is nothing short of “the real practice of Islam”. It is also a path of which many other Muslims in the world strongly disapprove.
“They think we are nothing,” says...
May 2011
4 posts
12 tags
Changing Waters
The following is a tale by Sayed Sabir Ali-Shah, a Sufi saint of the Chishti Order, who died in 1818.
I would like to offer this food for thought because it invokes questions about the need for human beings to either fall victim to the silent majority syndrome, which is when many are aware of the numerous ills of the world or society chose to ignore reality for fear of being excluded from the...
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The Middle Path
Photo property of : Leo Reynolds
This is just a simple rant that I wanted to get off my chest about the need for the civilized world to categorized existence according gender.
As an ignorant person I would first like to say pardon me for my stupidity. Names, clothes, planets, objects - be it cars, toys, cigarettes or even words - as well as professions come with gender labels attached.
...
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Sufi Comics: Why doesn’t God do something?
“Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition” – Quran (13:11)
Have We not given him two eyes, And a tongue and two lips, And pointed out to him the two conspicuous ways? But he would not attempt the uphill road, And what will make you comprehend what the uphill road is? (It is) the setting free of a slave, Or the giving of food in a day of hunger To...
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April 2011
4 posts
10 tags
Photography is my life
I had the pleasure of being apart of a workshop in 2006 at the International Center of Photography with renowned documentary photographer Joseph Rodriguez.
Stumbling upon a recent interview with Rodriguez in the BBC, and his candid exposure of his troubled youth reminded me of my own entrance into the world of multimedia storytelling.
He managed to turn his life around by becoming a...
“There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other...”
– George Bernard (via oceanofmind)
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“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain which grows flowers, not thunder.”
– Rumi (via elige)
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Sufi festival has spirits in a whirl →
Of all the great traditions of spiritual music, Sufi music is the least known and yet, in many ways, the most approachable. Open, cultured and non-violent, Sufism is the mystical arm of Islam, for whose adherents music, dance, chant and song become the means of achieving the abandonment of the self in the ecstasy of being part of creation. All across North Africa, right through the Middle East and...
February 2011
7 posts
8 tags
Abandonment
While walking in the sand near the Red sea I stumbled upon this empty abandoned bucket.
I decided to capture this image because it expressed my own feelings of abandonment, loneliness and emptiness.
The downside of traits like loneliness and emptiness can lead one into a path of destruction. However, an empty cup free of desires and pre-conceived stereotypes allows for constant renewal as...