May
13
2019
Dear Companions on the Path,
I hope this finds you very well. I am now back in Richmond following two visits to Europe.
The first visit was to Germany for the annual Easter Retreat in Gersfeld, in the Rhön Valley. Before the retreat began, my kind host Margarethe Hubauer took me to the childhood home of the Brothers Grimm in Steinau, which is now a museum. I am fascinated by the mystical themes in the tales collected and retold by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and even more fascinated by the elaboration of certain of these themes by Pirzadi-Shahida Noor. The subject of the retreat was “Inner Body, Inner Universe.” It concluded, as always, with a Universal Worship humming with ecstatic melodies.
My second visit was to Holland, to offer the funeral prayers for Murshid Karimbakhsh Witteveen, who passed away in mediation on April 23 at the age of 97. Murshid Karimbakhsh was a rare soul who achieved remarkable accomplishm
ents in the world while maintaining a deep inner life. Murshid Karimbakhsh’s books opened the eyes of many to Sufism, and his sermons were potent dispensations of wisdom. Murshid Karimbakhsh was, moreover, instrumental in creating the Dargah of Hazrat Inayat Khan as it exists today. An account of his highly influential professional life may be found here. I will always treasure my friendship with Murshid Karimbakhsh, and will never forget the mystical emotion I witnessed in his eyes.
On returning from Holland I was able to take part in the retreat of the Federation of the Sufi Message in Charlottesville, a good-spirited gathering of followers of the Sufi path from various lineages. Pir Shabda and Tamam Kahn, who were there, afterward came to the Astana and we had a lovely suhbat.
Ramadan has now begun. May this month of “hot stones and cleansing rains” bring with it many blessings.
Yours ever,
Bawa
Join us for Season of the Rose, June 26-July 1, 2019
in Portland, Oregon – Register Today!
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Scholarships Available!
Art of Personality: An Online Course w/ Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
Original Webcasts May 9, 16, 23 & 30
Then Available Online Anytime
It’s not too late to join! Register today for the full four part series or for any one of the classes by itself. Priced on a sliding scale to accommodate any budget.
Registration Now Open
New Inayati Multimedia!
Soundcloud
Find free sermons and talks by Pir Zia and hopefully other teachers over time. Share the link with your mobile device and also with others. soundcloud.com/inayatiorder
Documentaries
Find two documentaries previously available on DVD now digitized for purchase or rent. The Way of the Heart: The Life and Legacy of Hazrat Inayat Khan and Four Brothers are both available on our website under Digital Media or on Vimeo.
Knightly Notes Notebook
Hazrat Inayat Khan has given us a wonderful method by which we can learn and transform ourselves in such a way: The Iron, Copper, Silver and Golden Rules. Rumi, the Persian poet and mystic wrote: “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” The 40 principles written down in this notebook help detect and overcome those barriers.
This notebook is part of the final project of the 2011-2013 (Parvana) class of Suluk Academy for Sufi Studies Europe. Proceeds benefit the Suluk Scholarship fund.
Vadan Commentary
Music of the Spheres: Gamaka Commentaries, Vadan
“I am resigned to the past, attentive to the present, and hopeful for the future.”
What is done is done. The universal chain of causation has done its work, steered by destiny. To lament fate is to reject the unfolding disclosure of the Perfect Being implicit in the story of the universe in all of its varying episodes. Wisdom gently urges acquiescence to the perpetual flow of existence. Continued
See the full commentary on the Inayati Order website.
One of Pir-o-Murshid’s closest murids, Nekbakht Sakina Furnée, began the Nekbakht Foundation to care for Murshid’s archives and to encourage the creation of publications from his teachings. Every quarter the Nekbakht Foundation publishes a newsletter and we are sharing the spring edition with you here. You may find additional information on the Nekbakht Foundation at www.nekbakhtfoundation.org.
Our Worldwide Calendar
NORTH AMERICA
The Art of Personality Online Series
Richmond, Virginia & Online Worldwide
Thursdays, May 9, 16, 23 & 30, 2019
Season of the Rose: Essentials of the Sufi Path
Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon
26 June – 1 July 2019
Alone with the Alone: A Silent Retreat w/ Pir Zia Inayat-Khan
The Abode of the Message, New Lebanon, New York
Labor Day Weekend, 30 August – 2 September 2019
EUROPE
Sufi Summer School
Kars, Turkey
12-18 July 2019
Zenith Institute Summer Camp
Olivone, Switzerland
22 July – 17 August 2019
Pir Zia Seminar in The Netherlands
Katwijk aan Zee, The Netherlands
23-25 August 2019
Pir Zia Seminar in Paris
Paris, France
22-24 November 2019
Suluk Academy will soon accept applications for Suluk Europe’s new class to begin January 2020, and then this fall for North America’s new class to begin September 2020. Sign up for updates. For a worldwide calendar featuring many Inayati Order teachers and programs, please visit our Inayati Worldwide Programs Calendar.