May 2016 Message

Greetings of the Heart from Scotland! I have been in Europe since May 10th.

Just before leaving for Europe, my Tibetan guru, the 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche visited California for the first time in nearly two decades and I had the good fortune to greet him just before leaving the next day.

We had a lovely retreat in the countryside near Berlin where I was able to share teachings on the 99 Beautiful Names of Allah through the translation of our book which came out the week before, picture below!

From there, I traveled back to Berlin and from Wed-Sunday, along with many of our senior Ruhaniat teachers, shared and served at the annual Federation of the Sufi Message Gathering. Almost all of the streams from Hazrat Inayat Khan had a presence, the International Sufi Movement, the Inayati Order (formerly the Sufi Order), Sufi Contact, the Sufi Way and our Sufi Ruhaniat International! We shared Dances and walks, Murshid Saadi and myself made presentations, there was a delightful play that Murshid Nawab wrote. One highlight was the presence of Pir Hidayat Inayat Khan, the 98 year old son of Hazrat Inayat Khan and his wife Aziza.

Tomorrow I begin teaching a retreat with Murshid Saadi at the Allanton Retreat center in Southern Scotland.

Home Monday and then Sat-Sun, June 4-5, in my hometown of San Rafael, I lead a retreat with my favorite woman Sufi teacher, Taj Inayat. There is still time to register if you haven’t already.

Later in June I travel to Asheville, NC and July brings the blessing of the Mendocino Sufi Youth Retreat followed by our 42nd Annual Mendocino Sufi Camp!

Sending all love,

Shabda

Recite 101x Ya Tawwab (yaa tow-WAAB) Ya Wadud (yaa wa-DOOD)

79. Ya Tawwab (yaa tow-WAAB)

At-Tawwab is the forgiveness that enables you to turn away from grudges, and perceived individual defects, toward the perfection of Allah. It comes with the realization that the divine beloved is always turning toward you, continually offering a gaze of deep forgiveness and endless compassion.

At-Tawwab conveys the real meaning of repentance, the turning from the limitations of the false self and toward the perfection of your immortal soul, which is not separate from the divine reality. Realizing at-Tawwab involves giving up the attachment to being right. It means giving up self-righteousness and letting go of the grudge. It is to turn your face toward someone else with forgiveness and compassion. Like Ya Wadud (47), it consciously uses the densest elements of a situation as an inner impetus for transformation, and to turn toward God. Repetition of Ya Tawwab allows you to turn toward the divine face in every face. It is an antidote for clinging to, and identifying with, a wounded sense of self-deficiency.

47. Ya Wadud (yaa wa-DOOD)

Al-Wadud is divine love’s most intimate manifestation. It is the constant embrace of the affectionate, loving universe. The way we learn to love Allah is by learning how to love, and human beings especially learn how to love by learning how to be intimate. Repetition of Ya Wadud is an antidote for all who have difficulty achieving intimacy with others. Al-Wadud includes sexual intimacy. A physical plane meaning from the same root is “tent peg.” The peg of our deepest desire holds down the tent of our existence.

Al-Wadud offers an avenue for seeing divine love in tumultuous relationships and within strong love/hate relationships. It consciously uses the densest elements of a situation as an inner impetus to turn toward God. This transformative quality is also found in Ya Tawwab (79), and these two Names may be paired in repetition to enhance such a process of turning from the lower self toward the one.

See Chapter 6, Love’s Mysteries.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Tawwab ~ Ya Wadud

TEXT and COMMENTARY to STUDY

This month we continue reading Githa Dhyana (On Meditation) by Murshid Samuel Lewis, also known as Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti (One Who is Drawn to God by Grace).

Read Series I: Numbers 7 through 10(A), pages 18-25. Click here to download the document.

1.12thTaiSituRinpoche 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche