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Pir Shabda Kahn

/May 2024 Message

Beloved Family,

The fruit trees are swelling with new fruit, the tomatoes plants are in the ground, the roses and star jasmine are blooming, the birds visiting every day, YA SHAKUR, YA SHAKUR, YA SHAKUR! June 24 will mark 40 years complete in our home in San Rafael, California!

I appreciate how the recent solar storm brought the whole world together marveling at the Aurora Borealis! May we all realize our shared environment and shared humanity, beyond human assigned borders and prejudices. Certainly, the impending peril to our shared ecosystem has the potential of also bringing us together.

I have always appreciated the advice I received from H. H. the 14th Dalai Lama. He was giving a talk on our “Universal Responsibility.” Naturally, it is to manifest Loving Kindness and Compassion in all directions. What he pointed out is the place where we have the most leverage to bring blessing is with those people and places that are closest to us. Our family, friends, and neighborhood are the most immediate opportunity for us to serve.

After a deep and lovely time teaching at the Jamiat Ahm in Madison with Amina Meyer and Murshids Allaudin and Rahmat, my next travel is to Lama mountain and Murshid Sam’s Dargah for the annual Lama Sufi Sesshin June 26-30th, teaching along with Murshida Darvesha, Sheik Gayan Long, our rhythm master, and Arjun Calero, the inspirer of the Beyond Initiative --bringing the dances all around the world.

Mid July I will serve the 50th Annual Mendocino Sufi Camp. August 22-25 I will lead a retreat at the Abode of the Message in New Lebanon, NY, supported by Murshid(a)s Halima, Abraham and Himayat!

For our next wazifa practice let us recite a pair that helps us learn to take the obstacles as the Path, Ya Mu'izz Ya Mudhill (mu-DTHILL.) Allah is the ONE who lifts us up and knocks us down. As the Tibetan Drikung Kagyu prayer says:

All mother sentient beings, especially those enemies who hate me, obstructors who harm me and those who create obstacles on my path to liberation and enlightenment; may they experience happiness and be liberated from suffering; and I aspire to quickly establish them in a state of complete and precious Buddhahood

From Tibetan master Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche:

So, if one is attached to agreeable feelings and therefore preoccupied with trying to create pleasant states of mind and stop unpleasant, that will interfere with practicing mahāmudrā genuinely. Why? Because it is not possible in the first place to stop all unpleasant states and only experience pleasant and, in addition to that, one’s preoccupation with the feeling will prevent the mind from resting naturally relaxed in its natural space. But there is no reason one should continue chasing after agreeable emotional states in an attempt to solidify them and running away from those that are disagreeable in an attempt to avoid them. Since the essence of happy and miserable feelings is the same clear light, if one rests naturally relaxed in the natural space of this luminosity-emptiness, the feeling-related thought will be self-liberated, like waves dissolving back into the ocean.

For our next text we can study Akibayyat, Murshid Sam’s commentary on Hazrat Inayat Khan’s text, Akibat-Life After Death.

Much love,

Shabda

Wazifa Practice

Recite 101x

YA MU'IZZ ~ YA MUDHILL

24. Ya Mu'izz (yaa mu-‘IZZ)

Al-Mu'izz is the one who gives the gift of self-esteem. It brings true dignity. Al-Mu'izz has the same root as al-'Aziz (8), the strength that flows from a knowledge of essential worth or inner value. Its root means “sweetness,” as well as “special” and “rare,” like an eagle among birds. Al-Mu'izz is the one who can take us to the state of al-'Aziz. Repetition of Ya Mu'izz is an antidote for attachment to reputation and a remedy for the habit of self-aggrandizement. We recommend that it be paired with its opposite Name, al-Mudhill.

In reciting Ya Mu'izz, Ya Mudhill, you are invoking the one who is both the ultimate cause of your being honored and of your being brought to shame. The Names balance each other. There is an inner dynamic. When you truly reach a depth of anguish of the soul, then the truth that your soul is created in the divine image is of necessity remembered and honored, and the quality of al-Mu'izz naturally arises. There is a similar dynamic that occurs when egotistical pride evokes the need to be dishonored.

25. Ya Mudhill (yaa mu-DHILL)

Al-Mudhill is the one who leads you to the domain where you see yourself as the lowest of the low. This domain is where the original disconnected and isolated ego identity has been constructed. Al-Mudhill’s root means to seek or yearn for the object of a long cherished wish. This divine quality empowers you to face your lower self, to bow low before God and to engage the lowest regions of the self. Until you reach this place, you cannot begin to dissolve the false self.

Al-Mudhill brings us, willingly or not, to our knees with our head on the ground. For someone who is stuck in a place of shame, humiliation, or shadow, this sacred Name can actually be a powerful antidote. However, we recommend that it should rarely be recited alone. It is best repeated in combination with Ya Mu’izz.

To hear the pronunciation: YA MU'IZZ ~ YA MUDHILL