Boston Nimatullahi Sufi Blog

New Website

2007-06-05T12:43:00.000-04:00

Please visit our new website at:

www.SufiHouse.org

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Ya Haqq (Oh Truth)

Kevin

Serving Others

2007-02-19T17:56:00.000-05:00

Abu Sa'id Abi'l-Khayr anecdote:

One day in addressing the assembly of Sufis in his khanaqah in the city of Nashipur, the master said, “The length and breadth of the khanaqah is strewn with gems. Why don’t you pick any up?” Everyone looked around to see if the floor was covered with jewels. Not seeing any precious stones lying around they turned back to the master with puzzled looks.
“O Master,” they cried, “where are these gems which we do not see?”
“Service!”, cried the master, “Service!”

~Selected from Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh's discourse "Serving Others" [Sufi Journal 43]

Love and Life

2007-01-22T15:27:00.000-05:00

"If you haven't ransomed your heart for the love of a moon-faced beauty,
Consider your life as a total waste.
-----The key to eternal life lies in the palm of Love's hand."

By Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh (Sufi Journal 61)

Rumi Translations

2007-01-12T13:56:00.000-05:00

A friend recently mentioned that her and her family loves the Rumi translations by Shahriar Shahriari, which captures the meaning and melody of the original Persian.

Check out:

www.rumionfire.com

The website has selected stories from the Mathnawi and 60 poems from the Divan-i Shams.

Ya Haqq!

Sufi Politics

2007-01-09T09:40:00.000-05:00

With the hand of yearning, the foundation of the palace
~~~of Loving-kindness was built,
While joyously we demolished the edifice
~~~of "I and we."

We passed beyond the discerning mind
~~~of religion and nationality,
And with Love dispelled quantity and quality
~~~from the kingdom of the heart.

By remembrance of the Friend, we became liberated
~~~from the dangers of multiplicity
And carried our banner from the ocean of "no God"
~~~to the shore of "but God."

Divani Nurbakhsh

My New Year... Is You

2007-01-01T11:53:00.000-05:00

My New Year is You: my festival
You, the delight of my soul.

You are my Beloved, my only Love,
my only Soul!

~Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh in Sufi Journal (54).

(See other poems by the Nimatullahi Sufi Order Master at www.nimatullahi.net)

First Lesson of Sufism

2006-12-30T09:30:00.000-05:00

"The first lesson of Sufism is to love God's creatures and respect their views. Therefore, a Sufi should, in principle, refrain from interfering in others' affairs or condemning their way of thinking. Anyone who condemns other people's religious convictions or manner of worship--which are ways of attracting God's favor and moving closer to Him--not only is not a Sufi, but is, in fact, an enemy of the Sufis, for objecting to others' religious views in any way is a form of arrogance and self-centeredness, constituting the greatest offense in Sufism.

Together, we must free Sufism from dogmatism and pretension and work on protecting the basis of Sufi spirituality from hypocrisy. We should be especially mindful of the fact that Sufism is the school of humanity. Without emphasis on inward spirituality and purity, once cannot, properly speaking, develop into a true human being, truly love all humanity, or serve others with heart and soul without any thought of reward."

~Selection from "Who is a Sufi?" in Discourses by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh

Sufi Christmas : Excerpt

2006-12-29T09:18:00.000-05:00

On Christmas Eve, the Nimatullahi Sufis of Boston united to celebrate the life, teaching and spirit of Jesus. Like any family, they gathered around a warm meal, spreading smiles and gratitude, thanks and blessings, sharing silence in the spirit of Jesus. Here is a portion from Jesus in the eyes of the Sufis, read on Christmas Eve at the Boston Nimatullahi Sufi House:

Attar relates:

A dog lay dead by the wayside,
Jaws open, on the earth outstretched.
A foul odor filled the air.
As Jesus passed by, he cried,
"How reverend this creature is!
What beauty in the whiteness of his teeth!"
Blind to odor, to ugliness,
He viewed only beauty.

If you're a seer of reality,
A true bondsman of Divinity,
Profess pureheartedness;
Look on all as one
Hue, color and sum.
Practice goodness and charity,
Kindness and fidelity;
God's gifts with gratitude
Repay like a devotee.
If you've any gnosis of Him,
Be indentured in God's service.
Reveiving His gifts always
With gratitude.

Year in and year out
You thrive on His bounty,
Yet neglect to acknowledge
His graces with your gratitude.

~Jesus in the eyes of the Sufis is available at www.nimatullahi.net

Happy Holidays!

Celebrating a Sufi Christmas

2006-12-22T14:46:00.000-05:00

Please join us in celebrating the life of Jesus on Sunday, December 24th (6:30pm) at the Boston Sufi House.

-Readings from the Gospels and Jesus in the Eyes of the Sufis
-Meditation at 8:oopm

"The hermitage of Jesus
Is the Sufi's table spread;
Take heed. O sick one,
Never forsake this doorway."
- Rumi (M III: 298)
qtd. Jesus in the Eyes of the Sufis by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh

On Becoming

2006-12-10T08:55:00.000-05:00

The master of the Nimatullahi Order, Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, constantly reiterates that the experience of Sufism is totally beyond words:

"Sufism is a school of spiritual states, not discourse, and a sufi is something to become, not something to merely read about. Since spiritual states cannot be expressed in words, sufi shaikhs [teachers] have declared, 'Whatever can be expressed in words is not Sufism'" (Nurbakhsh, The Path p. 29).

Often the response to such definitions is: 'If the Truth is beyond words...Then why all the discourses and books? Why are the sufi masters some of the most prolific writers and poets?'

As Rumi explains in his discourses, he himself has a disdain for poetry: "I care nothing for poetry, and there is nothing worse in my eyes than that. It has become incumbent upon me."

He continues: "Where are the people of action and the seekers of action, so that I may show them action? Now you seek after words, and have cocked your ears to hear something. If I do not speak, you become upset. Become a seeker of action, so that I may show you action!" (Arberry, Discourses of Rumi pp. 85-86).

Ya Haqq (Oh Truth!)

Sufism and Laziness

2006-12-09T13:38:00.000-05:00

One of the greatest dangers for the wayfarer is laziness or leisure, as long as he has not yet reached his goal, it would be better for him to occupy himself with seemingly useless things, like diggin one pit after the other (N 156, 90), than to spend a moment in leisure, for "leisure (faragh) is an affliction" (N 90).

-Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (114)

N = Narahat al-uns. Jami

LECTURE EVENT: The Challenge of Muslim-Christian Dialogue

2006-11-28T19:59:00.000-05:00

"The Lay Committee on Contemporary Spiritual-and-Public Concerns at St. Paul Parish in Cambridge will host a presentation by Dorothy C. Buck, Ph.D., Friday, December 8, at 7:30 p.m. in DiGiovanni Hall. Dr. Buck, who leads the Boston area Badaliya prayer group for reconciliation in the Holy Land among all religious faith traditions, is the author of Dialogues With Saints and Mystics: In the Spirit of Louis Massignon. Copies of her book will be available at the lecture, which will take place on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Our Lady is honored in the Muslim tradition, giving a common reference point to our two Abrahamic faiths. All are welcome to attend this most timely presentation.\n

Please visit the Saint Paul Church website for directions and further information.

Location: 29 Mount Auburn StreetCambridge, MA 02138 United States

MFA Exhibit

2006-11-15T14:30:00.000-05:00

Marbling and Music: Performing Sufism at a Turkish Tekke

Within the world of Islam there are many different attitudes toward the arts. For sufis, those Muslims who follow a mystical path, creating art is itself a form of religious practice. The visual and musical traditions taught and performed at the Özbekler Tekke, a religious complex for sufi orders near Istanbul, embody this idea. Seven generations of masters in ebrû, the art of paper marbling, have been trained at the Özbekler Tekke, founded by the Uzbek religious leader Sheikh Sadik Efendi in the early nineteenth century. From him a continuous teacher-student lineage has passed the tradition.Music is another sufi art taught and performed at the Özbekler Tekke. Every Friday a group that often includes Turkey's best musicians meets at the Tekke to sing ilahis, sufi devotional songs. Most often the ilahis are accompanied by the rhythm of tambourines (bender) and kettle drums (kumdum), while the melodic line is echoed and improvised upon by a ney, an end-blown reed flute. The ney has been closely associated with sufism ever since the thirteenth-century mystic poet Rumi used it as a metaphor for humanity.

See www.mfa.org for more information

Burning with God : The Fire of Rumi

2006-10-30T14:58:00.000-05:00

"I am *burning*: does anyone want tinder?
Let him set his rubbish ablaze with fire from me!"

*Note: burning (with love of God)

(Mathnawi I 1721)

Drunken Sufis and Wine Worship -- Spiritual Intoxication

2006-10-20T11:19:00.000-04:00

Saqi

Serve the wine, Saqi, that burns my soul.
That burns away all regret
for this and that.

Give me a fire that melts me down,
Then carries away the water and annihilates my existence.

Give me a wine that makes me lost to self
That i might break the jug and return to the vat

Give me a wine that sets my
soul aflame,
That burns
away my heart and soul and takes away all thought.

Give me a wine that makes me so
drunk
That i am set free from the darkness of my existence

Give me a wine that drives me
mad,
That turns me into a stranger to all creation.

Give me a wine that relieves me of self
That i might reside securely at the corner of the tavern.

Let the Tavern of Unity become my abode,
So that my heart desires and beholds
nothing but God.

"Saqi" -- Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh (Sufi Journal no. 41)

Voices of Abrahamic Witness : Boston Interfaith Event

2006-10-15T07:15:00.000-04:00

Voices of Abrahamic Witness

"Jews, Muslims, Christians, and anyone called
to raise prayerful voices for peace and remembrance
of God
are invited to an afternoon of interfaith worship held
at Harvard Divinity School."

SATURDAY OCT 21, 2006
2:00 - 5:00 PM
@ Andover Chapel
45 Francis Ave
Cambridge, MA

Contact Sohrob: snabatian@hds.harvard.edu
or call: 857-544-3136

Spiritual Practice: Sufi Music

2006-10-11T10:53:00.000-04:00

The minstrels play music from within;
whole oceans of passion foam
on the crest of their waves.
- Rumi

Essential to the Sufi Path is the Sufi spiritual concert, sama, which literally means "hearing". In the terminogy of Sufism, it is listening with the ear of the heart to music in the most profound sense--poetry melodies, tunes and rhythimic harmonies--while being in a special state so deeply plunged in love that there is no taint of self left with in awareness.

For Sufism in Boston, the Nimatullahi Sufis practice sama on Thursday and Sunday evenings.

--See Boston Sufi website for full schedule--

Hujwiri on Knowledge

2006-10-10T14:12:00.000-04:00

"You must know enough to know that you do not know." -Al Hujwiri

qtd from Kashf Al-Mahjub - The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism.

Random Acts of Kindness

2006-10-09T20:05:00.000-04:00

Check out the random acts of kindness website, especially their newsletter. Heart-warming stories and inspiration for all.

http://www.actsofkindness.org/

Heroes

2006-10-04T06:31:00.000-04:00

You need good habits to become a hero.

In my holocaust class last semester we examined the profiles of people who rescued victims (Jews, Christians, anti-fascists, gypsies, etc.) during WWII. We found that not a single religion, political group or nationality holds claim to having more heroes or being more or less moral than another. In every community there was both the good and the bad.

So what characteristics did these heroes have?
1. “The power to care” – individuals were brought up to believe in helping other people. They saw victims simply as human beings.
2. “Habit of righteousness” – individuals were educated with moral sensibilities and brought up with the habit of giving.
3. No egotism– individuals would think of others before themselves.

The heroes of the day often were people who had good thoughts and habits concerning morality. They practiced their goodness on a daily basis and considered the needs of others.

This evidence shows that we should practice giving at every moment and every opportunity. Every act of Love counts, such as holding a door, giving to charity, offering a smile or a helping hand, listening. So when the time comes that we find someone truly in need, we can be heroes. We can be saints.

-kevin

Rumi on falling in Love

2006-10-02T21:02:00.000-04:00

The Lovers
will drink wine night and day.
They will drink until they can
tear away the veils of intellect and
melt away the layers of shame and modesty.
When in Love,
body, mind, heart and soul don't even exist.
Become this,
fall in Love,
and you will not be separated again.

-Selection from Hush: Don't say anything about God by Shahram Shiva

Serving the Guest: A Sufi Website

2006-09-27T09:47:00.000-04:00

http://www.superluminal.com/cookbook/

This website speaks for itself. A wonderful resource and insight into the lives and manners of the Sufis, which includes recipes, parables and prayers.

Ya Haqq!

The Wall III

2006-09-20T13:07:00.000-04:00

The Wall III: Hafez on devotion

"Stain your prayer rug with wine
if the Master of the holy fire
so commands."

~Hafez

Bon Voyage

2006-09-14T09:11:00.000-04:00

A few sufis will be leaving Boston to England on Friday to visit their Sufi Master, Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, and pick up magazines (Sufi Journal). Let us all give them blessings for happy travels and a safe trip.

Dante's Inferno: Beatrice's spiritual beginnings

2006-09-09T17:48:00.000-04:00

The essence of starting a spiritual journey is expressed beautifully by the character Beatrice in Canto II of the Inferno:

Italian:
Amore mi mosse

English:
Love has moved me

When I ask Sufis how they have come to Sufism, they often answer that it was through God's love or Grace, and by no doing of their own. The Sufi, Maghrebi, says:

No one can journey towards God on his own feet;
To arrive at God's district, one must go with God's feet.

The Wall II

2006-09-04T20:48:00.000-04:00

The Wall II: Ibn Abbad

"Our whole occupation and only practice should be to consider God's kindness toward us, and to think that our might and power is nothing, and to attach ourselves to God in a feeling of intense need for Him, asking Him to grant us gratitude."

~Ibn Abbad

One Breath

2006-08-28T09:31:00.000-04:00

A selection from Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh's poem, One Breath.

Treasure this breath,
--this moment you now enjoy.
Spend it in happiness: there is
--no time for sorrow.

Once this moment has passed,
--it is gone forever.
Your time is less
--than the very least you can imagine.

If you spend this moment laughing,
--the world will be all laughter.
But if you fall into depression,
--the world will be all sorrow.

Qtd. from Sufi Journal (v. 46)

Abu Sa'id: A Devotional Verse

2006-08-25T15:25:00.001-04:00

Abu Sa'id , a great Sufi Master born in 967 AD, was famous for teaching by poetry and his emphasis on music and dance (Sama') as a spiritual practice.

Here is a devotional verse concerning communion with God:

Without You, O Soul,
I have no rest;
Your goodness towards me
can never be reckoned.
Though each hair on my body
Were turned to a toungue,
A thousand part of due thanks
To You could not be said.

Quoted from Terry Graham's article, "Abu Sa'id Abe'l-Khayr" in Sufi Journal (v. 17)

For more information about Sufi Journal see:

www.nimatullahi.net
www.sufijournal.com

Or, visit your local Nimatullahi Khaniqah : )
..........

Ya Haqq!

Rumi, Sufism, and Red Sox

2006-08-24T10:47:00.000-04:00

A spiritual lesson from Rumi

To: The Red Sox Fans of Boston
From: The Boston Sufis

"Be the ball, not the bat."

~Jelaludin Rumi, Mathnawi I

The Wall: Part I

2006-08-23T20:30:00.000-04:00

The Boston khaniqah (House of Sufism) has many inspirational quotes and artwork framed and scattered on almost every wall of the house. These sayings and images serve to remind the sufis of their purpose and their path. We sufis of Boston would like to share our remembrance with our blog readers in a new section called: The Wall. We hope you enjoy this insight into our community.

The Wall I: Abu Sa'id on Sufism.

"Sufism is the heart standing with God, with nothing in between."

Ya Haqq. (Oh Truth!)

Shah Ni'matullah: Unity of Being

2006-08-20T13:08:00.000-04:00

--According to our faith, lover and Beloved are one;
------To us, what is desire?
-----------The desirer and the Desired are one.

--They tell me, seek Him in his essence.
------But how should I seek?
-----------Seeker and sought are one.

~Quoted from Masters of the Path by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh

Kharaqani: Bringing Joy

2006-08-18T19:40:00.000-04:00

Quoted from a speech by Dr Javad Nurbaksh, Master of the Nimatullahi Sufi Order:

As Abul-Hasan Kharaqani put it: “One who is wise, rises early in the quest to increase one’s knowledge. While one who is ascetic, is concerned with increasing one’s asceticism. Hopefully, Abul-Hasan is involved in bringing joy to the heart of a brother.”

Abul-Hasan Kharaqani was an illiterate Sufi from Khorasan who lived in the 10th century (4th cent. Hijri)

Ya Haqq

Jami Quote

2006-08-16T15:13:00.000-04:00

A beautiful quote from the 15th century poet, Jami:

"It is better to be like lightning -- bright.
As long as you live, be happy and laughing.
To bring a smile to a drooping heart
Is better than giving away sweets."

~Tales from the Land of the Sufis by Mojdeh Bayat and Ali Jamnia

Sufi Tea change

2006-07-23T15:36:00.000-04:00

Sufi Tea will now begin at 7PM, one hour before meditation at 8PM. All are welcome to stay for meditation.

NH Trip Postponed

2006-06-24T10:43:00.000-04:00

Due to God and inclament weather, the NH trip will be postponed until July 15th.

New Hampshire Trip!

2006-06-06T11:36:00.001-04:00

On June 24th the Nimatullahi Sufis of Boston are planning a trip to one of our darvish's house in New Hampshire. Friends and family are welcome. Please contact nimatullahisufiorder@gmail.com for more information on travel time and directions.

Ya Haqq,

kevin

New Hampshire Trip!

2006-06-06T11:36:00.000-04:00

Sufi Tea every Sunday (Open House event)

2006-05-18T13:11:00.001-04:00

The Sufis of the Nimatullahi Order invite sincere spiritual seekers to join them for tea on Sunday afternoons from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. These informal teas provide an opportunity for people who experience a heart-felt attraction to the path of loving-kindness to meet with the Sufis and learn about their rich spiritual tradition. The Sufi center is located at 84 Pembroke St. in Boston. It is not necessary to make an appointment. Call 617-536-0076 or email NimatullahiSufiOrder@gmail.com for more information.

Invocation

2006-05-18T12:53:00.000-04:00

Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem