Beloved Family,

Greetings of the Heart as Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is upon us. Nature is in full bloom here in California and especially our backyard. Breathing with the beauty of Nature is an open portal to the Oneness of Being for me! And yesterday meditating in the early morning outside, I was moved to find 30 different bird species coming through!

"Because when you put God in your breath, and put your breath in God, and express through your being the Divine breath, all differences and distinctions between you and others disappear. And I am talking fact. I am not talking any theory. And I am here to testify." Murshid Sam Lewis

I believe you could still jump on the moving train to join our Lama Mountain Sufi Sesshin June 26-30. This year we are joined by Murshida Darvesha, Sheikh Gayan Long and Sheikh Arjun Jorge Calero. It will be the last chance to be with Arjun in North America this year before he returns to his native Colombia and world travels.

I am also inspired to invite to you join our 50th Anniversary Mendocino Sufi Camp July 14-21. I believe I have attended every single camp except the year our son Solomon was born! We are doing our best to pass on this community treasure for the next generation to nourish and be nourished. This year’s directors are Sadaya Zimmerle and Amina Meyer - Murshid Wali Ali’s youngest daughter.

With an effort to support the continuation of the “Abode of the Message” in upstate New York, I will lead a retreat there August 22-25 supported by an illustrious team of Murshid(a)s Abraham, Halima and Himayat!

For our next wazifa practice let’s invoke YA BARR, the mystery of the Divine perfection of Unconditional Love, coupled with YA TAWWAB, the constant turning Toward the One, which allows us to manifest forgiveness to self and other, to turn to that Divine Love in everything and everyone.

Much love,

Shabda

Wazifa Practice  

Recite 101x 

YA BARR ~ YA TAWWAB

78. Ya Barr (yaa BARR)

Al-Barr announces the mystery of the perfect state. It manifests the quality of unconditional love. Al-Barr is uniquely perfect and complete. A variation of the root of this Name means to be sweet, through and through. There is not even a subtle distinction in it between inner and outer. It is a perfection of love both in its potential and its manifestation. Its perfection transcends good and evil, but al-Barr can be seen as all the possible variations of “the Good” in the Platonic sense of that term.

Realization of al-Barr brings a continuum of action that has a seamlessness of thought, word, and deed, of inner and outer, and of lower self and higher self. Al-Barr radiates perfection of the whole, and is seen in a serenity of soul that is maintained in all conditions of life. Invocation of Ya Barr offers a remedy for feeling broken because of having your ideals shattered in life. 

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. 

To hear the pronunciation:  YA BARR ~ YA TAWWAB

Lama Sufi Sesshin

Mendocino Sufi Camp

Abode of the Message Retreat

June 26-30

July 14-21

August 22-25