Viladat Inayat
Viladat means nativity or birth, and in the Sufi Movement the 5th of July is called Viladat Day, the birthday of Hazrat Inayat Khan – he was born on this Continue Reading →
Category: Letters to mureeds
Letters to mureeds on the Sufi path
Contentment
All around the world, people find novelty and complexity to be intoxicating – this is true of experiences, of goods and possessions, and of people, whether we tag them as Continue Reading →
Where is wisdom?
Life in the world can be confusing. We are constantly forced to choose between conflicting options; what appeared to be reliable proves to be illusory; the unexpected tests us in Continue Reading →
A journey of a thousand miles
There is an often quoted saying, perhaps from China, that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step: even something that seems impossible can be conquered if Continue Reading →
The wine of exaltation
The subject of our conversation was this saying from Vadan, Chalas: Sensation and exaltation are two things: pleasure comes from sensation, happiness from exaltation. In the course of our talk, Continue Reading →
‘Forgive’
When we think about the story that Hazrat Inayat Khan recounted here, of Moses on his way to Mt. Sinai to converse with the Almighty, we can recognise that, regardless Continue Reading →
Giving up
“What are we expected to give to others? Is there a limit?” This question has come up in several recent conversations about the spiritual path, and it betrays a certain Continue Reading →
Longing and ripeness
Around a thousand years ago, Sufis in the middle east began to write poetry about the spiritual journey using the language of love. To the unwary reader, the poems might Continue Reading →
Adaptable reasoning
Sufi stories, especially those involving Mullah Nasruddin, are often like one of those unusually shaped stones we find sometimes at the beach. The stone attracts our attention, and when we Continue Reading →
To whom do we speak?
“Pour upon us Thy love and Thy light…” How do we say these words? As Mevlana Rumi said, there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground, so Continue Reading →