Tag: Dr. Alireza Nurbakhsh

Archives Issue #84: Altruism, Healing and Sufism in West Africa

FROM THE EDITORS

In this Issue of SUFI, Dr. Alireza Nurbakhsh tells us altruism is fundamental not only to our spirituality but to our identity as human beings. Examples of this are found in the powerful healing combination of Sufism and shamanism embodied by Shaikh Rahmi Oruç Güvenç and in the ancient Blessing Way chants of Medicine Woman Sheila Goldtooth. Readers will also find in this Issue a fascinating exploration of Sufism in West Africa through the eyes of a contemporary Sufi Shaikh in Senegal.

DISCOURSE, ARTICLES, NARRATIVES AND INTERVIEWS

CARING FOR OTHERS Sufism and Altruism Discourse by Dr Alireza Nurbakhsh | Read entire discourse >

SHAMANIC TRADITIONS AND SUFISM Oruç Güvenç and the Healing Power of Music by Azize Güvenç and Yousef Daoud | Read more >

SUFISM IN WEST AFRICA by Zachary Wright

BLESSING WAY SINGER A Visit with Navajo Medicine Woman Sheila Goldtooth Interviewed by Chara Nelson, Photography by Alex Cowie

SENEGAL, SUFISM & POLITICS A Conversation with Seydou Diop Interviewed by Annie Stopford and Eugene Ulman | Read more >

THE ENORMITY CLUB Narrative by Jan Shoemaker | Read more >

CULTUREWATCH

MERCAN DEDE Turns the Tables on Sufism by Michele Rousseau | Read more >

HELIOFANT PRODUCTIONS I, Pet Goat II by Sholeh Johnston

JESSIKA KENNEY Singing from the Heart by Sholeh Johnston

FILM REVIEW Beasts of the Southern Wild by Peter Valentyne

BOOK REVIEWS by Peter Valentyne
Seven Thousand Ways to Listen (Mark Nepo)
The Divine Flood (Rudiger Seesemann)
Saracen Chivalry (Pir Zia Inayat-khan)
In this Forest of Monks (Daniel Skach-Mills)

POETRY

From Him by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh
Prayer of the White-Tailed Tropical Bird by Eve Powers
Attendant Spirits by Mark Nepo
Silence by Alex Cowie
We are all Born Naked into this World by Robert Sternau
To Love by Roger Loff The Obedience of Iblis, the Devil by David Sulivan

FEATURED POET

MARK NEPO Poet & Philosopher(marknepo.com)

FEATURED ARTIST

YARI OSTOVANY Painter (yariostovany.com)

(front cover artwork: Bear Bull Shaman, Blackfoot Medicine Man by Otto Rapp)

Print and digital subscriptions available. Buy SUFI now.

 

Silence

THE BREATH IS PRECIOUS

 
It was written in beautiful Persian calligraphy and was placed above the door of the old Tehran khaniqah. I first noticed it when I was a child: sokout dam ghanimat ast, “silence: the breath is precious.” 

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Archives Issue #80

FROM THE EDITORS

THE GENDER ISSUE: ART | POETRY | CULTUREWATCH | BOOK REVIEWS | & more…

From Issue #80 on we have shifted the focus of SUFI to how it could best contribute to raising the spiritual consciousness among people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs and experience, and to introduce more diverse interpretations of the Sufi path and other spiritual disciplines in both a contemporary and historical context.  Thus, in this issue our featured articles and narratives present expressions of women’s experience and perspective of the mystical in modern life – an Asian Sufi living in World War Two Europe, an American woman experiencing the mystical dimension on the streets if Istanbul, a Sufi scholar examining gender bias through a foundational Sufi Text, and an interview with a rabbi who overcame religious and gender prejudices to reach her goals.

DISCOURSE, ARTICLES, NARRATIVES AND INTERVIEWS

THE EXPERIENCE OF NOTHINGNESS Discourse by Alireza Nurbakhsh  

DAUGHTER OF SUFISM The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan by Yousef Daoud

WRESTLING WITH GOD A Conversation with Rabbi Tirzah Firestone Interview by Llewellyn Smith and Kelly Thomson

FROM HISTORY TO HER STORY Women in Sufi Discourses by Safoura Nourbakhsh

UNDER THE MINARET Narrative by Jan Shoemaker

CULTUREWATCH

Low Budget Mysticism / Spiritual tourism in India by Sholeh Johnston
Revealing the Truth/A Rapper on Rumi by Sholeh Johnston
Community, Nur Foundation Working for the Needs of the Poor-Spain

BOOK REVIEWS by Robert Landau Ames and Eliza Tasbihi
A Soaring Minaret by Laury Silvers
Sacred Spaces, A Journey with the Sufis of the Indus by Semina Quraesh, Ali S. Asani, Carl W. Ernst and Kamil Khan Mumtaz

POETRY

Whoever Becomes Nothing Becomes God by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh
Friend of God by Jeni Couzyn
The Way Under the Way by Mark Nepo
I Was a Fable by Peter Valentyne

FEATURED POET

JENI COUZYN, Poet

FEATURED ARTIST

MINA MOMENI, Photographer ( www.minamomeni.com)

 

(Front Cover Photo Mina Momeni)

 

Print and digital subscriptions available. Buy SUFI now. 

The Experience of Nothingness

by Alireza Nurbakhsh

“In one of his last interviews, my father said that the goal of Sufism is nothingness, and then added, “because it is only when one is zero that one experiences the infinite.”  To paraphrase what he meant in this context: it is only when we do not experience our own individuality that we experience the divine in ourselves and in others.”

(Original Enso by Kazuaki Tanahashi)

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