You might think that the urgent challenges facing humanity would have united us. Yet in many ways the political and social upheavals we are in and the environmental crises we are hurtling toward seem to be dividing us further. What are we to do?

There are no easy answers, but there is an approach which may offer constructive ways forward. Inspired by Pir Elias Amidon’s recent essay, "Beloved Community,"* we shared that vision in 2021’s Living Sufism. In 2022 we’ll take another step, exploring the practicalities of unity, compassion and positive agency in Reaching Out ~ Reaching In.

This experiential program is led by a team of senior teachers and guides, reflecting a diversity of perspectives, yet joined in the understanding that to reach out to the world effectively we must be grounded, to the best of our ability, in truth, not opinion.

 

Some say that climate change is the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced. But what of the separation of self from the natural world, from each other and from our true selves?

How can we heal these divisions? Is love the key? Not idealized love but the fully alive connection we experience when reaching out is also reaching in. 

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As before, the main body of the program will be held on first Sundays, January through June, 2022 with an optional “enhancement track” on another day/evening in the month. Sunday sessions are held at noon EST on Zoom and last for about 75 minutes.

"Action on behalf of life transforms.
Because the relationship between self and the world

is reciprocal, it is not a question of getting enlightened and then acting. As we work to heal the earth,
the earth heals us."
~Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding sweetgrass

Trace Farrel

Some folks drill down, deep, singling out a teacher or tradition. That’s one way. You can also drill across, or up—spin or bounce or dissolve and reconstitute—root through multiple voices, vocabularies, forms—and that’s deep too. I’ve been exploring non-dualistic deeps for several decades, including Dzogchen and Mahayana Buddhist studies; Taoism and Chan; phenomenological and creative processes; mountain and movement and various off-trail attractions—and, since 2014, the Sufi Way’s heart-in-flames project of natural realization, embodied mysticism, feminine and indeed whole-earth dharma. In Zen they say: “Step by step in the dark, if your foot’s not wet, you’ve found the stone.” What I say: Splash!

 

Isha Francis

Isha first met Murshid Fazal Inayat-Khan in 1972. He lived and worked with Murshid Fazal in the U.S, Europe and India. With Murshid Fazal's passing, Isha has continued his work with Murshida Sitara Brutnell and now with the current Pir of the Sufi Way, Murshid Elias Amidon.

 

 

Suzanne  Inayat-Khan 

This beautiful stream of universal Sufism, through the Sufi Way and Open Path, has been at the heart of my life since 1974, when I bought a book about the mysticism of music by Inayat Khan. Since then I have followed longings and dreams, studied and developed some skills, let go of some competencies and ideas of what should be, experienced heartaches, confusions, rage and despair - and yet here I still am, somehow smiling at the memories!  It really all does pass!   I have had a variety of roles through life, the ones which remain now include being an inter-faith minister and funeral celebrant, a Sound Practitioner, a Sufi Way and open Path supporter and a political activist in my town in the UK. My husband Omar and I share regular Sama (Sufi Way musical meditations) – currently streamed, we look forward to being face to face once circumstances allow.  And of course, most importantly, I am a doting grandmother and I hope, a good friend and encourager.

 

 

Elmer Koole

Elmer is a teacher within the Sufi Way and has facilitated a variety of programmes related to Sufism. His relation with the Sufi Way goes back to the seventies. He has completed several trainings as a Vision Quest guide and has facilitated outdoor quests. He has done a MSC in Ecology and his professional life has been dedicated to conservation issues and international cooperation 

 

 

Angelika Macarthur 

Born into a musical family I made my body my own instrument, becoming a classical ballet dancer in 1972. This was my first 'stairway to heaven'. My second stairway was through the deep exploration of  mind and consciousness through my clinical psychology and psychotherapeutic work with people that started in 1982 and continues currently. I met the Sufi Way in 2007 in Bristol and being initiated by Pir Elias Amidon in 2015 at the  Universel Murad Hassil  was a surrender to the call of spirit and community that had  been preceded by several years of studying, dancing, centre directing and serving  in a Fourth Way Gurdieff Ouspensky school in London and California. I continue to follow the mysterious call of my open path, within this precious living Sufi community, and love to pursue creative improvisational movement and voice work practices in SW England as part of this journey. I have raised my twin daughters to live from their hearts, whilst remembering to nourish their roots. 

 

 

Gabriel Leslie Mezei
The tragedies of the Holocaust (described in A Tapestry of Survival) and the untimely death of my first wife led me on a spiritual journey since 1975. I was initiated into the Inayatiyya Sufi Order in 1985 and ordained a Cherag in 1995. Initiated into the Sufi Way by Puran Lucas Perez in 2015, I am appreciating its emphasis on pure awareness and creativity. I learned to play on my Ney all the Sufi Way Zikrs from Omar Inayat Khan, the carrier of his family’s centuries tradition as musicians. I learned to become a poet from our monthly Cloud Salon meetings, especially from Jeanne Rana. For several years, I had been a facilitator of the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream symposiums of the Pachamama Alliance. I have been a Professor of Computer Graphics, and a personal financial planner. At the age of 90, together with my wife Kathy, I enjoy our five children, ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

 

 

Puran Lucas Perez

Puran has been learning, teaching, guiding on the  Sufi path in Europe and North America for almost 50 years. His focus in this continues to be the development of transformational awareness through creativity and the refinement of consciousness in everyday life. Honored by the title of Murshid in the Chisti lineage of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Puran is a direct initiate of Fazal Inayat-Khan, the founder of The Sufi Way and Hazrat Inayat’s grandson.

 

Basheera Ritchie

I studied with the Ruhaniat for over thirty years, first becoming a cheraga, or minister, while also studying the healing and ziraat rituals. (Both The Sufi Way and the Ruhaniat are Western Sufi orders which branched from the original mystic and visionary, Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan.) At the same time I became a semazen and later a sheikha in the Mevlevi Order of America, a Sufi order originating in Turkey with Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi. I was initiated as a teacher in the Ruhaniat, led many workshops, retreats, camp class series, rituals and events. I regularly led zikrs (in the Ruhaniat and Mevlevi styles) and was later initiated as sheikha in the Ruhaniat. In 2007 I directed the Ruhaniat’s NorthWest Sufi Camp where I invited Elias and Rabia to be featured teachers. There, I took initiation in the Sufi Way, after which I studied intensively with Elias for about five years until unforeseen circumstances forced a hiatus. Recently I’m happy to be able to partake again in Sufi Way/Open Path offerings while at the same time co-founding a social and environmental justice "Ray" in the Ruhaniat. I live in Portland, Oregon, in the Northwest of the United States and I love gardening, long walks, flower arranging, amateur herbalism, and pondering deep subjects. 

 

Binah Taylor

Binah met Murshid Fazal Inayat-Khan in 1975 and was initiated into Sufism while living at Four Winds. Her intense work with Murshid Fazal right up to his passing continues undimmed, fed by the radiant stream of Living Sufism and community of friendship whose intimacy is undiluted by distance. She is forever grateful for all this, and the courage it has given her to take on challenges and journey deeply into the unknown.  Binah continues to practice as a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, and trainer, dividing her time mainly between Spain and the UK. In between, she writes and reads, sea swims, practices tai chi, immerses herself either in art or nature – or simply dreams, her breath mingling with the breeze that enters through the open shutters.

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Please address any questions to Carol@sufiway.org or Puran@sufiway.org