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The Mur­shids’ Circle is an advisory body to the Esoteric School of the Ruhaniat who support Pir Shabda Kahn in overseeing the substantive inner work of our lineage. Specifically, this includes developing programs for the transmission of the teachings, reviewing all higher initiations, and making decisions that affect the spiritual mission and future of the Ruhaniat. The yearly in-person meeting of the Murshids provides the opportunity to deepen collaborations, share and develop practices, implement policies, and further cultivate love, harmony, and beauty in service to the spiritual awakening of humanity.

Together with Pir Shabda Kahn and local Ruhaniat leaders, members of the Murshids' Circle offer many retreats and meetings during the year which carry the transmission of our lineage to seekers far and wide.

Murshids' Circle Annual Meeting, Port Townsend, WA, Oct 2019
Back row from left: Wali Ali Meyer, Abraham Sussman, Rahmat Moore, Shabda Kahn, Khadija Goforth, Aslan Sattler, Saul Barodofsky, Allaudin Ottinger. Front row from left: Fatima Lassar, Halima Sussman, Leilah Be, Darvesha MacDonald, Mariam Baker, Rahimah Sweeney. Not pictured: Baraka von Kügelgen, Sophia Gita Onnen, Tansen O'Donohoe, Himayat Inayati, Jelaluddin Sturm, Rahmana Dziubany

In Loving Memory:
Deceased members of the Murshids' Circle

Fairfax, CA   Website

"We come whirling out of nothingness. The stars make a circle and in the center we dance." Rumi

Mariam Baker, spiritual midwife, energy weaver, mother of five children, grandmother of one precious lion-baby, is a dedicated student of embodied spirituality. She is a treasure hunter for practical tools for personal and planetary growth and healing - a way of mysticism that is interwoven with everyday life.

Initiated in the Inayati Chistia lineage of Sufism through Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan and Hazrat Murshid Samuel Lewis, she is student and friend of the late Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Moineddin Jablonski.

Charlottesville, VA    Website

Saul was born in Cleveland Ohio on January 20, 1939.  He lived in California from 1948 to 1977.  He was an original disciple of Murshid Samuel L. Lewis, to whom he was sent by his first teacher, Mother Mary of Mount Shasta.  He was initiated into Sufism in February of 1969 and made Murshid Sam’s Hakim (spiritual healer and jurist) in 1970.  He formed and has served as director of the Ruhaniat Healing activity, the Dervish Healing Order since 1977.

Haiku, Maui, Hawaii  

Leilah was born in Southern California in December of 1950. As a child, she preferred to spend time a fair amount of time alone, especially time in nature. At 19 she made some changes in her life, becoming a vegetarian, beginning a yoga practice. She began exploring sacred teachings and spiritual teachers with inclusive religious perspectives. These were highlighted by Paramahansa Yogananda and Swami Satchitananda.

In 1975, she was introduced, through the book entitled, Toward the One, to the teachings of Pir O Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, whose message contained the Unity of Religious Ideals, and was an inclusive path of the heart. In the same book, she saw a photograph of Inayat Khan and had a strong experience of Darshan.

Golzow, Germany      Website

“Longing until you belong…“ - Sister Mary Louisa Coutinha “Amma“ (1933-2017)

Rahmana was born 1961 in southwest Germany into a family from paternal side as war refugees coming from Poland and from her mother’s side with unrevealed hidden Jewish roots. She very much feels connected to the Slavic part of her soul, her ancestors line going way back to a rural life as shepherds in Rumania and the traces of Yiddish-ness in her. 

Leicester, North Carolina      Website

Himayat Inayati received the sacred transmission of Murshid Samuel Lewis, through bayat and training with Sheikh Mansur Johnson, and received the initiation of Murshid by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan in 2001, a post re-affirmed by the Ruhaniat Murshids’ Circle January 2020.

Silver City, NM     Schedule     Website

From a very early age Darvesha was concerned about class inequities and wealth distribution; but in high school, as a result of the death of a beloved parent, she developed a sense of the futility of life as it’s normally lived, and urgently wanted to find a way out of the meaningless cycle. She came to feel that nothing was as important as freedom, but understanding what that actually meant took another 20 years.

She went forth, full of questions and looking for answers. After college, she worked as a photojournalist for the San Francisco Chronicle, idealistically believing in the power of witnessing. But she did not find this to be the witnessing that leads to freedom, so she turned away from her career and began looking for answers within.

Madison, WI and Santa Cruz, CA

Murshid Rahmat was born in Springfield, Massachusetts January 1, 1963 as Andrew D Moore. He grew up in the Rosicrucian tradition and started formal practice at age 14. He felt called from an early age to serve others and was admitted to a 7-year medical program out of high school. He graduated Brown University Program in Medicine in 1988 as a Medical Doctor. He completed 3 years of training in family medicine and was in practice for 7 years. His love of psychotherapy and being in loving presence with others led him to complete training as a psychiatrist. He studied psychotherapy with his mentor Dr. James Gustafson for many years even after his formal residency training. He taught Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for clients with depression and anxiety at the University of Wisconsin for 9 years. He currently practices in a residential treatment program for clients with severe depression.

Hazelbury Bryan, United Kingdom     Schedule     Website

Tansen was born in Cheshire, England in 1950. Professionally for many years he was a librarian in the university sector.  His first excursion into eastern spirituality was his early 20's through the book Zen Flesh Zen Bones, a strange coincidence perhaps. A few years later the practice of Kung Fu ironically led him to the path of Yoga, one that he walked and taught for some years especially exploring Hatha Yoga, Nada Yoga, Mantra Yoga and meditation practices.

Berlin, Germany     Website

Sophia Gita is a senior teacher in the Ruhaniat. She was born in Germany and now lives in Berlin with her partner and five other Sufi friends in the Sufi Khankah Pankow. For a long time she worked as a Gestalt psychotherapist, subsequent to teaching art in school. During this time, she also raised her daughter Tanja.

Kansas City, KS

Allaudin was born in Kansas City, Missouri. A lifelong dedication to music, gathering people together and pursuit of the miraculous, led him to a study of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky. This in turn led him to find "Sufi Dancing" in the college town of Lawrence, Kansas circa 1976. More experiences in Sufism followed, which led to a deep darshan with Murshid Moineddin Jablonski in the spring of 1978. Later that summer he again had the experience of darshan with Murshid Moineddin at the Mendocino camp. At this camp Allaudin met many of the mureeds of Murshid SAM and one of his music mentors, Hamza El Din.

Berlin, Germany

Born in Germany in 1951, Jelaluddin was attracted to painting and art at an early age with a longing for beauty and expanse. In addition, his interest in psychology and his curiosity to better understand human relationships grew.

He studied applied arts, later German language and literature, and became a father early in his first marriage. Book design has been an important part of his life ever since his 1986-1990 training in Gestalt therapy. At the same time, he worked with mentally ill people in art and literature projects.

Cambridge, MA     Schedule     Website

Murshid Abraham Sussman was born in October, 1945, just after WW II ended.  A child of the 60’s, he was a seeker and wanderer when he first met Samuel Lewis in San Francisco in 1969.  Abraham had read many books about spirituality, and had had some visionary experiences of the inner life, but it was only in his becoming receptive to the transmission, in person, of a God-realized teacher that the journey of awakened consciousness began to be real for him.  He took Bayat with Murshid Sam in early 1970, and was in awe (and still is) of the beauty and power of the community that had grown around Murshid Sam.

Cambridge, MA     Schedule     Website

Halima grew up on the east coast of the US, born to a family with strong Norwegian roots. This family cultural legacy seeded a respect for socially responsible action and a deep love for art, music, science, and nature.
    
In 1969, she moved to San Francisco to go to art school, and by grace, soon found herself at a Sufi Dance meeting with Murshid SAM in Marin County, CA. This encounter changed her life - the transmissional spark of that time still illuminates her way. The Dances and Walks, along with their embedded wisdom teachings, have been the foundational practice of her spiritual journey.

Kansas City, MO  

Rahimah began life in southern California in 1947. One of five children, she was the only girl. Her father died at the age of 40 before the last child was born. She was six. Each member of the family was affected by his death.

Rahimah's mystical life began a year later, when she had a vision of her father in which he conveyed to her that her life would be good and there was nothing to worry about. It was a gift that helped her to remain confident as she moved through life.

Berlin, Germany

Born in the south of Germany during the last phase of World War II her youth was marked by the urge of understanding the Holocaust. Her family was not religious, so she got a very personal relationship to God with some mystical experiences.

When she was 17 years old she won a competition in writing essays and as a reward she asked for a book about the Religions of the World. Later this seemed to her as being a symbol regarding her purpose in life. But it took some steps till she came in contact with the Universal Sufism.