Sufi Encounters


Book Description

An unparalleled exploration of Sufism as it is practised around the world, describing meetings with today's enlightened teachers as well as including wonderfully inspiring translations of the great Sufi masters of the past. Ultimately, this book acts as a guide to the Sufi path and offers wise insight into the meaning and purpose of life. A compelling view of Sufi history together with vivid personal remembrances of living mystics. This is an inspiring and at the same time beautifully subtle book, with light-filled insights on every page." – Saadi Shakur Chishti, author of The Sufi Book of Life The Sufi path described in this book leads the seeker past ordinary states of consciousness towards a new experience of infinitude that is the source of the universe. In this stage there is no duality or otherness, but instead infinitude, the Original Oneness, from which all dualities and attributes emanate. The book is at once an autobiography, a didactic treatise and a literary opus full of wonderful translations of the words of earlier Sufis, as well as the author's own poetry. It describes Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri’s life quest to connect today’s world with classical times, especially through his meetings with enlightened Sufis all over the globe. Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri also addresses profound Sufi teachings concerning the nature of humankind, the cosmos and God, using clear and simple language to address difficult doctrinal issues as only a master who has digested fully such knowledge could do. The book also reveals much about the present-day Islamic world where, despite the tragedies that are to be seen everywhere, tradition and spirituality survive. This is a metaphysical and spiritual guide to the Sufi path that ultimately offers insight into the meaning and purpose of life.




The Garden of Truth


Book Description

The headlines are filled with the politics of Islam, but there is another side to the world's fastest-growing religion. Sufism is the poetry and mysticism of Islam. This mystical movement from the early ninth century rejects worship motivated by the desire for heavenly reward or the fear of punishment, insisting rather on the love of God as the only valid form of adoration. Sufism has made significant contributions to Islamic civilization in music and philosophy, dance and literature. The Sufi poet Rumi is the bestselling poet in America. But in recent centuries Sufism has been a target for some extremist Islamic movements as well as many modernists. The Garden of Truth presents the beliefs and vision of the mystical heart of Islam, along with a history of Sufi saints and schools of thought. In a world threatened by religious wars, depleting natural resources, a crumbling ecosystem, and alienation and isolation, what has happened to our humanity? Who are we and what are we doing here? The Sufi path offers a journey toward truth, to a knowledge that transcends our mundane concerns, selfish desires, and fears. In Sufism we find a wisdom that brings peace and a relationship with God that nurtures the best in us and in others. Noted scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr helps you learn the secret wisdom tradition of Islam and enter what the ancient mystics call the "garden of truth." Here, liberate your mind, experience peace, discover your purpose, fall in love with the Divine, and find your true, best self.




Spiritual Abuse: A Sufi's Perspective


Book Description

No religious or mystical tradition is immune from the presence of spiritual abuse, for wherever there are people who are seeking to become closer to essential truths, purpose, and meaning, there will be individuals seeking to generate counterfeit currency to offer to those who are unaware, or incautious toward the dangers which lie in wait along the spiritual path. Fraudulent teachers might call themselves a guru, shaykh, rimpoche, monk, priest, imam, apostle, avatar, or minister. They might also call themselves educators, revolutionaries, political leaders, and freedom fighters. Whatever they might call themselves, if they seek to gain control over others through techniques of undue influence, then, they are propagators of spiritual abuse. This book is relevant to individuals from all spiritual traditions, but often focuses on the Sufi spiritual tradition.




The Book of Certainty


Book Description

'To express in the language of Sufism, that is, Islamic mysticism, some of the universal truths which lie at the heart of all religions'--this is the book's avowed purpose. It came into being because the author was asked by a friend to set down in writing what he considered to be the most important things that a human being can know. He was also asked to make it very easy, and despite the depth of all that it contains, it has in fact a remarkable simplicity and clarity, due no doubt to the constant use of traditional imagery which awakens and penetrates the imagination.




Love is a Fire


Book Description

Based on live talks and meetings with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, this is an introduction to the passion and wisdom of the Sufi path of love. The call of the heart and how it draws us back to divine union is one of mankind's greatest secrets, and for the Sufi, this love is a fire that burns away all traces of separation. Vaughan-Lee teaches how to live this burning and describes stages of the path of love on the soul's journey home. Love Is a Fire includes descriptions of the "friends of God," early Sufi saints who burned with the fire of divine love, including Rumi, Ibn 'Arabi, and Rabi'a. It also introduces elements of the path and important tools that purify the wayfarer: tauba, the moment of the turning of the heart when the soul remembers its divine origin; dhikr, the central Sufi practice of remembrance of God through repetition of the name of God or a sacred phrase; meditation, a way of drowning thoughts in the fire of love; and dreamwork, a way of listening and attuning to the mystery of what is hidden within us—the stories of our deeper selves. This book is also available as an audio recording, Love is a Fire and I am Wood, published by Sounds True. “... forged in the fire of the heart, this is a book for all those who are looking for the direct way to connection with the Eternal Now. Simply to read this fine expression of a lifetime's longing is to feel aligned with the Divine Ground.” —Anne Baring, coauthor, The Divine Feminine “... a gift to all seekers, whatever path they are on.” —Andrew Harvey, author, Light Upon Light: A Celebration of Rumi




Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils


Book Description

Born in a Jewish family, Maryam Kabeer was led to live in India and Nepal, and in monasteries in Europe, and then guided to embrace Islam at the hands of an ancient Sufi Master a few minutes away from the tomb of the Prophet Abraham. She then was guided to study intensively with Sufi Masters around the world. Her journey to the holy places and people of the earth, led her finally to Africa and the deep truth that all lives are totally interconnected and united with our own. This book is a significant and revealing social commentary, also dispelling many other myths and stereotypes such as the proposition, often fostered by the media, that women are inevitably oppressed in Islam. On the contrary, it is by entering into the heart of Islam that the author was liberated, elevated, empowered, and guided to realize the true purpose of her existence.




Travelling the Path of Love


Book Description

Sufism is a path of love. With the passion and depth of feeling that belong to lovers, Sufi masters through the centuries have described the soul's journey towards union with God. This collection of sayings, dating from the ninth century to the present day, follows the stages of this journey, allowing the masters to beckon us along this ancient path. Speaking with the experience of those who have tasted the mysteries of divine love, their words reach beyond the mind and into the heart. Travelling the Path of Love is offered as an inspiration to all those who are drawn to follow love's call.




Working with Oneness


Book Description

Humanity has been given access to the secrets of oneness, but we need to learn how to work with them. Working with Oneness brings mysticism into the center of the marketplace, into the world of business and technology, and shows how we can work with it in everyday life. The dynamic energy of oneness has the potential to heal the planet and revolutionize life more than we can imagine, but it requires our individual participation and awareness to become fully alive. The energy of oneness is already present but waiting to be lived, and Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee provides a blueprint for working consciously with this energy. As we understand how our consciousness affects the whole fabric of life, the potential for real global change comes alive. Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee stresses the need to change from hierarchical, patriarchal power structures to organic patterns that allow for the free flow of energy and ideas. Through these patterns the dynamic energy of oneness can become part of everyday life. Working with Oneness includes a number of additional important topics, including: the changing energy structure of the planet and how to work with it; the power of individual consciousness; the danger of the desire for spiritual security; the return of joy to everyday life; the awakening of the heart of the world; a new understanding of magic; the use of the imagination; and mystical participation in life with the energy of oneness. Working with Oneness offers guidance on how to work with the energy of oneness, to learn how to participate in life free of the patterns of the past, so that the divine can come alive in every moment of every day. Working with Oneness is mystical activism at its most potent. “There is a growing and eager audience waiting for a vision of unity consciousness... Working with Oneness offers a salutary antidote to worn-out antagonisms. It challenges readers to join other kindred souls in a mystical activism that can bring new hope to humanity.” —Spirituality & Health “A book filled with wonder and the kind of insights that can leap out to your heart and gladden you for having read them. It's words are simple and straightforward—always a blessing—but its message it the most vital and important for the time in which we live. I recommend it.” —David Spangler, author, Blessings: the Art and the Practice




Under the Sufi's Cloak


Book Description




Sufis


Book Description

The Sufis is the best introduction ever written to the philosophical and mystical school traditionally associated with the Islamic world.Powerful, concise, and intensely thought-provoking, it sums up over a thousand years of Eastern thought - the product of some of the greatest minds humanity has ever produced - into a single work, presenting timeless ideas in a fresh and contemporary style.When the book was originally published in 1964, it launched its author, Idries Shah, on to the international stage, attracting the attention of thinkers and writers such as J. D. Salinger, Doris Lessing, Ted Hughes and Robert Graves.It introduced to the Western world concepts which have subsequently become commonly accepted, varying from the psychological importance of attention and humour, to the use of traditional tales as teaching instruments (what Shah termed 'teaching-stories'), and the historical debt owed by the West to the Middle East in matters scientific, literary and philosophical.As a primer for the many dozens of Sufi books that Shah later produced, it is unsurpassed, offering a clear window onto a community whose system of thought and action has long concerned itself with the advancement of the whole of humankind, and whose ideas about individuals and society, their purpose and direction, need to be understood now more than ever before.