Dearest Family,

Equinox Blessings! Feeling the hopefulness of the advent of Spring!

We have been busy in our garden, relining our vegetable beds with gopher wire and beginning planting spring vegetables. The birds have been busy in their mating season, preparing nests for the soon to come newborns. “Michelle and Barak”, our regular yearly visiting mallards are once again visiting our backyard.

Here is what I shared last Spring, which seems just as relevant and important today:

As we feel the insanity of our US politics and politics around the world, of the many wars raging with so much suffering, all the mind created divisions of nationality, religion, gender, income inequality, it    feels all the more important to share with the world what is second nature to our family, the “Universality of human ideals”!

Here is a short text by Hazrat Inayat Khan, which is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it:

The Message is Not for One Nation

The Sufi message is a reminder to humanity--not to any one nation, but to all; not to one, but to every creed--of the truth taught by all the great teachers of humanity. God, truth, and religion are one; duality is only a delusion of human nature. Think then what a great service lies before this message. At this time, nation is against nation, race against race; the followers of one religion are constantly  working against the followers of another religion; class works against class. Competition, hate, and prejudice prevail everywhere. What will be the outcome? What can poison produce? Not nectar, only poison.         

The message is not for one nation, race, or community; it is for the whole of humanity. Its one and only object is to bring about a better understanding between the divided sections of humanity by awakening consciousness to the fact that humanity is one family. If one person in the family be ill or unhappy, certainly he must cause unhappiness to the whole family. Even this is not the most appropriate simile. Humanity is one body, the whole of life being one in its source and in its goal and in its beginning and its end. No scientist can deny this! If part of the body is in pain, sooner or later the whole body is affected. If your finger aches, your body is not free from pain.

 No nation, race, or section can be considered a separate part of humanity. Today education, politics, and all directions in life seem to work from an individualistic view, but where must such a tendency   end and where will it lead humanity? If each says, "I must get the better of another," where will be the harmony and peace for which all are longing, no matter what race or religion they belong to?

I’m looking forward to once again visiting Ecovillage Atlantida in April for the Annual weeklong Retreat, and the Jamiat Aam, teaching with Baqia, Maitreya and Arjun at Lama Foundation at the end of June. Three weeks later is our 51st Annual Mendocino Sufi Camp,

For our next wazifa practice lets recite YA NUR - the Primordial Light which naturally is the same as Primordial Love, sometimes referred to as Nuri Muhammed or the Light of Christ and combine it with YA JABBAR which has as its root the doctor who puts broken bones back in alignment, said in another way “the Healer of Fractured Existence”.

Much love,

Shabda

Wazifa Practice  

Recite 101x

YA NUR ~ YA JABBAR

93. Ya Nur (yaa NOOR) 

An-Nur is the essence of light, luminosity itself. A Qur'anic verse says, "Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth." An-Nur is the light of every soul and an inherent characteristic in every pore of your body. Munawwir is a form of the same root and means the one who illuminates. It is interesting that the word for "hell" in Arabic is naar, which has the same root as Nur. What makes it hell is that the burning heat there is lacking in light. That kind of burning heat is our inner condition if we don't embody God's loving mercy and compassion (rahma) and instead become full of rage.

Whatever way we may turn, we see the all-pervading light of An-Nur. Even the darkness shines from within it. All the various forms of wisdom and guidance are expressions of An-Nur. For example, Nur-ul-Haqeeqah is the light of truth and guidance on the path. What continues to live on in God when we die is also a legacy of light.

9. Ya Jabbar (yaa jab-BAAR)

Al-Jabbar is an expression of divine power that allows you to accomplish things or to act in the world. It is a healing strength. It carries the root meaning of setting a broken bone to heal it. Al-Jabbar means the strength to continuously heal all things all the time, the strength to heal brokenness. It is compelling, but only in the sense of stabilizing you in a consistent direction of movement.

When recited, Ya Jabbar empowers the sincere practitioner with an enduring strength so that nothing can shake you. Through embodying this quality your existence becomes unified. It is the mender of our fractured existence.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Nur ~ Ya Jabbar

Text and Commentary to Study

This month we finish studying Perfection of the Heart, by Murshid Samuel Lewis. Read pages 23-32.

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Perfection of the Heart