21 December 2023 Dear Companions on the Path, It’s drizzling today here in Richmond. It’s Maulana Rumi’s Urs – God bless and keep him. An hour ago we gathered for a Sunday Sama with Maestro Anupriya Deotale. Pure ecstasy. Afterward I navigated to CNN. These words appeared at the top of the headline news feed: “Approximately […]
Rockets are flying between Tel Aviv and Gaza. Apartment buildings are thundering to the ground. Parents and children cannot find each other. The grief is immeasurable. As this crisis worsens on a daily basis Pir Zia has invited us to pray for all those in harm’s way, intoning Amaan (which means Sanctuary) 101, 301, or […]
15 November 2023 Dear Companions on the Path, For years now I have been writing to you every month through the channel of this Zephyr newsletter. During this time, our community has grown and expanded significantly. I have recently been feeling that the time has come to diversify the voice of the Zephyr, so that […]
14 November 2023 Dear Friends, Over the next week the Inayatiyya will be asking you very big questions. Questions about you, questions about us, questions about how we can work together toward the unfoldment of our souls. We want to know what you experience, feel and think! Every day for the next five days, we […]
12 October 2023 Dear Companions on the Path, As I write, rockets are flying between Tel Aviv and Gaza. Apartment buildings are thundering to the ground. Parents and children cannot find each other. The grief is immeasurable. How did we get to this point? How did the Holy Land become a Hell on Earth? Arabs […]
6 September 2023 Dear Companions on the Path, May these lines find you very well. It has been an eventful month. After the Alps Camp I was able to spend some quiet time at Fazal Manzil working on my manuscript Tears from the Mother of the Sun. It’s a prosimetrum, a work of mixed prose and […]
16 August 2023 Dear Companions on the Path, There is something numinous about a place of striking natural beauty. The visitor is transported from the mundane world to the Earth of Visions. The Zenith Sufi Summer Camp in Ticino, Switzerland, is such a place. Amidst the brays of donkeys and the screeches of kites, white tents […]
1 July 2023 Dear Companions on the Path, Summer greetings! In the past I’ve had the pleasure of recommending books that captured my imagination. This time I would like to recommend a movie. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) by Werner Herzog is an enthralling exploration of the Paleolithic art that adorns the walls of the […]
17 June 2023 Dear Companions on the Path, Urs Mubarak! Today marks the nineteenth anniversary of my father Pir Vilayat’s death – or as he would always describe it in anticipation, his journey to the galaxies. For those who had the good fortune to know Pir Vilayat in life, it’s a day of remembrance. For those […]
17 May 2023 Dear Companions on the Path, May these lines find you well. I am now back in Richmond, where classes have resumed at the Astana and angelica is cheerfully multiplying in the backyard of our little cottage. My recent stay in Europe culminated with the Spring Retreat that convenes each year at Easter in the […]
Inayatiyya
Inayatiyya
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astana@inayatiyya.org
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