threshold newsletter header APR 2015

Reflection on March’s theme: This is the work of the heart, not the work of the head. ~Shams

Butterfly-Gratitude-Journal-by-madlyinlove-withlifeWhat is the work of the heart? Wouldn’t I know, if I knew myself better? So I wrote down some of my qualities. As I wrote I saw so many positive things!  I was filling pages with compliments and I found myself being grateful for just being me! I found a place of love and self acceptance within myself. I felt like I was flying. I was becoming my own best friend. Getting to know oneself and loving oneself heals most problems. I felt confident, as if at the start of an amazing adventure. I realised that criticism, guilt, fear, and resentment cause all our problems, so why not choose not to feel them?

If we choose to love we will know Love is the answer. Loving yourself transforms your life. When you love yourself, you love others and you find so much to love in life. I was told once that a “grateful heart is a magnet for miracles,” and I started keeping a gratitude journal. Each night I wrote my thank you’s to God for all that He had given and would give. Initially, I had found it difficult, thinking what is there to be grateful for? That sounds ungrateful now, but at the time, I took so much for granted. It all changed with my journal. I had so much to be grateful for. We all do. From the air we breath, sunshine, flowers, our families, friends, our health, our love. You can fill pages of thank you’s. I’m still working on it, learning to be grateful and seeing good in everything.

I found a “Friend” through my gratitude practice – God. I was praying and saying thank you for our friendship. My Friend lives in my heart and that’s why I trust it and follow it. It’s exciting as I look forward to where this takes me. Al Ghazali wrote, “Dear friend, your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets.”

I want to say I love you and thank you for this moment that you and I have just shared.

This is the work of the heart, not the work of the mind.
The mind constricts, love unbinds.
The mind says, “Don’t let go or overflow.”
Love says, “Be free without formality.”

~ Ashfia Mohammed-Ashrif, Hale Barns

April’s theme is: The natural state of the human being is worship. The human needs God as the garden needs spring.

We welcome your reflections on this theme. Please email thresholdsociety@yahoo.com.

Integral Sufism: Living Tawhid (The Practice of Oneness)

Wanstead April

We only have a few places left, please reserve your place via eventbrite to ensure you do not miss out: thresholdsociety.eventbrite.co.uk

If you have booked a place and can no longer attend, please let us know so we can offer your place to someone else.

Sunday 12th April, 12:30-6pm. Talk begins promptly at 1pm. Tea break at 3pm. End at 6pm.
Christ Church Hall, Wanstead Place, London E11 2SW
Tickets: £25 Adults, £15 Concessions. Pay on the door.

Shaikh Kabir will also be offering an event for a different audience and context (Christian, psychology-oriented, a beginner’s talk on Sufism) at The Meditatio Centre in Islington on Saturday 11th April, but he considers the Wanstead talk a priority for Threshold friends.

The Whirling Dervishes of Kentucky

kentuckyIt’s Thursday night in the Highlands of Louisville, Kentucky. Noisy bands of young people roam the commercial strip of Bardstown Road, anxious to get an early start on the weekend. And the bars are glad to accommodate them, advertising everything from free WiFi to “Thirsty Thursday” drink specials that extend happy hour until 4 am. But a few blocks away, on a street of tall trees and stately old houses, a different sort of gathering is taking place. In the living room of one of the  neighbourhood’s redbrick Victorian homes, about a dozen people sit on couches beneath framed verses from the Koran. Most of them have their eyes closed, breathing silently. The smell of oud incense wafts in the air. After a few moments, Sheikh Kabir and Sheikha Camille Helminski enter the room, taking their place on two identical chairs draped with white sheepskins…

Download the full article from the recent Forbes Magazine (of India) profile of the Louisville community, written by Anna Rohleder.

Discussing Spiritual Bypass

At the recent San Francisco retreat, “The Alchemy of Character,” Dr. Sara Winter  spoke about the tendency to avoid ego development needs and the messier issues of our lives through spiritual bypass, i.e. a state of premature transcendence, trying to circumvent the developmental issues of the self in the name of spirituality. Unresolved emotional issues and wounds can sabotage spiritual practice, interfering with our meditation and zhikr.
Listen to the talks here.

Mevlevi Zhikr recording

Access the full Mevlevi zhikr recited by Shaikh Kabir and Shaikha Camille and support your daily practice. Listen online or download.

[powerpress url=”https://sufism.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Mevlevi-Zhikr-Mono.mp3″]

Events

Apr 4th: Threshold London Monthly Open Group, 7pm. Newcomers to the group are asked to seek a telephone introduction and briefing with the host/facilitator before attending.  Please phone Sadat on 07710 511517, or e-mail Mahmoud on hualone@gmail.com with your phone number so he can call you back — please do this at least two days in advance.

Apr 11th: The Spiritual Psychology of Sufism with Shaikh Kabir Helminski. A day workshop at the The Meditatio Centre, St Mark’s, Myddelton Square, London EC1R 1XX. Booking details here: www.wccmmeditatio.org

Apr 12th: Integral Sufism: Living Tawhid with Shaikh Kabir Helminski. Christ Church Hall, Wanstead Place, London E11 2SW. Please book your place here: thresholdsociety.eventbrite.co.uk

Apr 25th: Family zhikr and meal in Harrow from 7pm hosted by Sania and Amer. For more details and address please contact Sania at saniatmax@hotmail.com.

May 2nd: Threshold London Monthly Open Group, 7pm. Newcomers to the group are asked to seek a telephone introduction and briefing with the host/facilitator before attending.  Please phone Sadat on 07710 511517, or e-mail Mahmoud on hualone@gmail.com with your phone number so he can call you back — please do this at least two days in advance.

May 23rd: Family zhikr and meal in Harrow from 7pm hosted by Sania and Amer. For more details and address please contact Sania at saniatmax@hotmail.com.

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you — a favourite piece from Mevlana, your own poetry, reflections on the path… please do contribute. We learn so much from each other, may this space be an opportunity for community, connection and companionship. Email: thresholdsociety@yahoo.com

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Parables of the Real

I’ve called that Unlimited Beneficence a garden,
because it’s the source of all abundance
and the gathering of all gardens;
and yet, it’s “something no eye has seen”:
how could one ever call it a “garden”?
Yet God called the Light of the Unseen “a lamp.”
Parables are offered so that one who is bewildered
might catch the fragrance of that which is Real.

[Mathnawi III: 3405-3407, The Rumi Daybook]