If responsibilities and routines of everyday life leave you feeling hungry for spiritual connection, consider this opportunity to satisfy that hunger. Jan. 24 through Jan. 27 is the Ninth Annual Sufi Retreat with the theme: “Awakening through mastery — Life
If responsibilities and routines of everyday life leave you feeling hungry for spiritual connection, consider this opportunity to satisfy that hunger. Jan. 24 through Jan. 27 is the Ninth Annual Sufi Retreat with the theme: “Awakening through mastery — Life as the teacher.”
Led by Pir Shabda Kahn, the appointed spiritual director of the Sufi Ruhaniat International, the retreat revolves around Sufi teachings and practices.
Shabda Kahn travels throughout the world spreading the Sufi message of love, harmony and beauty. He brings warmth, humor and clarity in his efforts to help seekers on their path to awakening.
The Thursday night program of the “Dances of Universal Peace” can be attended on its own or as part of the retreat Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
All of the events are in Kapa‘a. The dances of universal peace bring people together holding hands in a circle while singing and dancing to learn words and movements.
For the experienced practition-er or novice, the program shall utilize Sufi spiritual practices like zikr, dances of universal peace, walking practice, wazifa, meditation and teachings to deepen concentration, expand awareness, open hearts, relax and renew and connect with the divine.
A press release states that in an interview with the Pacific Sun of California, Shabda said, “Sufism is a mystic path … based on the awakened human heart recognizing its unity with the divine. The signs of this experience are the emergence of love, tolerance, compassion, and courage. The Sufi attempts to be in the world but not of it, where one’s inner condition is not based on circumstance.”
Sufism does not exclude anyone who claims a particular religion. People of all religious affiliations are welcome to the retreat.
Shabda Kahn lives in San Rafael, Calif., and has been a disciple of Sufism since 1969. He is a direct disciple of Murshid Samuel Lewis (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti) and worked closely with the great American mystic Joe Miller.
Shabda Kahn is the director of the Chisti Sabri School of Music as well as a disciple of the illustrious Tibetan Buddhist master, the 12th Tai Situpa Rinpoche.
Since 1972 he has been developing as a vocalist under the living guidance of the late Pandit Pran Nath, the Master North Indian classical vocalist, who planted the 800-year-old oral transmission of Chisti Sufi Vocal music in the Western world.
Shabda has appeared in concerts ranging from “Visions for a Perfect World” at New York’s St. John the Divine Cathedral for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, New Music America in Chicago, at Delhi University Music School and the Shivaratri Festival in New Delhi.
For more information about Shabda and The Sufi Path go to marinsufis.com. For more information about the retreat, contact Joan Levy at 822-5488 or joan@joanlevy.com.
