The Sufi Path of Annihilation

The Sufi Path of Annihilation PDF Author: Nevit O. Ergin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620552752
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
An exploration of the profound Sufi practice of Itlak Yolu • Examines the three main facets of this practice: zikr or breathing exercises, fasting, and mental suffering • Shares new Sufi parables, the sayings of Sufi master Hasan Lutfi Shushud, and Rumi’s philosophy on annihilation of the Self • Reveals how once the Self is annihilated higher levels of perception are reached In this exploration of the profound spiritual practice of Itlak Yolu, the Sufi path of annihilation, Nevit Ergin examines the three main facets of this path: zikr or breathing exercises, fasting, and mental suffering. Sharing experiences and discussions with Hasan Lutfi Shushud, renowned Sufi saint and final guide of Gurdjieff’s disciple J. G. Bennett, the author illustrates how suffering--“the searing fire of contrition”--is the most effective instrument of spiritual progress, for it is suffering that burns the Self. He explains how faithful practice of zikr and fasting will bring on this kind of suffering when the student is ready and will make the suffering tolerable. He shows how once the Self is annihilated higher levels of perception take hold and one finds oneself on the path to sainthood and immortality. Interwoven throughout with sayings by Shushud, Sufi parables, and poems by Rumi, Ergin shares the unique Itlak perspective on the major questions of every seeker: the true nature of love and religion, life and death, and other major spiritual questions. The book also includes an essay on annihilation and absence in Rumi’s philosophy and biographical portraits of Hasan Lufti Shushud by other aspirants who met with him.

The Sufi Path of Annihilation

The Sufi Path of Annihilation PDF Author: Nevit O. Ergin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620552752
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Get Book Here

Book Description
An exploration of the profound Sufi practice of Itlak Yolu • Examines the three main facets of this practice: zikr or breathing exercises, fasting, and mental suffering • Shares new Sufi parables, the sayings of Sufi master Hasan Lutfi Shushud, and Rumi’s philosophy on annihilation of the Self • Reveals how once the Self is annihilated higher levels of perception are reached In this exploration of the profound spiritual practice of Itlak Yolu, the Sufi path of annihilation, Nevit Ergin examines the three main facets of this path: zikr or breathing exercises, fasting, and mental suffering. Sharing experiences and discussions with Hasan Lutfi Shushud, renowned Sufi saint and final guide of Gurdjieff’s disciple J. G. Bennett, the author illustrates how suffering--“the searing fire of contrition”--is the most effective instrument of spiritual progress, for it is suffering that burns the Self. He explains how faithful practice of zikr and fasting will bring on this kind of suffering when the student is ready and will make the suffering tolerable. He shows how once the Self is annihilated higher levels of perception take hold and one finds oneself on the path to sainthood and immortality. Interwoven throughout with sayings by Shushud, Sufi parables, and poems by Rumi, Ergin shares the unique Itlak perspective on the major questions of every seeker: the true nature of love and religion, life and death, and other major spiritual questions. The book also includes an essay on annihilation and absence in Rumi’s philosophy and biographical portraits of Hasan Lufti Shushud by other aspirants who met with him.

The Sufi Path of Knowledge

The Sufi Path of Knowledge PDF Author: William C. Chittick
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791498980
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 507

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Book Description
Ibn al-'Arabi is still known as "the Great Sheik" among the surviving Sufi orders. Born in Muslim Spain, he has become famous in the West as the greatest mystical thinker of Islamic civilization. He was a great philosopher, theologian, and poet. William Chittick takes a major step toward exposing the breadth and depth of Ibn al-'Arabi's vision. The book offers his view of spiritual perfection and explains his theology, ontology, epistemology, hermeneutics, and soteriology. The clear language, unencumbered by methodological jargon, makes it accessible to those familiar with other spiritual traditions, while its scholarly precision will appeal to specialists. Beginning with a survey of Ibn al-'Arabi's major teachings, the book gradually introduces the most important facets of his thought, devoting attention to definitions of his basic terminology. His teachings are illustrated with many translated passages introducing readers to fascinating byways of spiritual life that would not ordinarily be encountered in an account of a thinker's ideas. Ibn al-'Arabi is allowed to describe in detail the visionary world from which his knowledge derives and to express his teachings in his own words. More than 600 passages from his major work, al-Futuhat al-Makkivva, are translated here, practically for the first time. These alone provide twice the text of the Fusus al-hikam. The exhaustive indexes make the work an invaluable reference tool for research in Sufism and Islamic thought in general.

An Introduction to the Sufi Path

An Introduction to the Sufi Path PDF Author: Anab Whitehouse
Publisher: Bilquees Press
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
By the Grace of God, my spiritual guide knew far, far more than what I have heard him say on any given occasion. Unfortunately, I have forgotten far, far more than what I remember of what has been related to me by him. Moreover, I have written far less than what I remember of what he taught me. The result of this funneling process is the present book – An Introduction to the Sufi Path. Everything that is good and correct in this book comes, by the Grace of God, through my shaykh or spiritual teacher who was willing to accept me as a reclamation project. Everything that is incorrect in An Introduction to the Sufi Path comes from my own shortcomings and ignorance. The material contained within An Introduction to the Sufi Path is intended to stimulate reflection concerning a variety of themes that are important to spiritual life in the midst of everyday life. God willing, the content given expression through the different chapters constitutes -- both individually as well as collectively -- a Sufi perspective. However, one does not have to be on the Sufi path or inclined to that path in order to engage the material in this book. Anyone with an interest in spirituality and mysticism will find, God willing, an abundance of themes within the boundaries of this work that are able to form the seeds of contemplative reflection for any faith background.

Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia

Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia PDF Author: Hasan Lutfi Shushud
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620553627
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Reveals the secret teachings of the Khwajagan, the Masters of Wisdom of Turkish Sufism • Provides biographies for the entire lineage of teachers in the Naqshbandi order, such as Yusuf Hamdani, the first recognized Khwajagan, and Baha’ al-Din Naqshband, from whom the Naqshbandi order of Sufis took its name • Shows that this spiritual path focuses on expanding awareness of the heart to reach God-consciousness • An essential guide for understanding Itlak Yolu, the Sufi path of Absolute Liberation, and fana’, Annihilation in God Almost one thousand years ago a new and powerful nexus of spiritual transmission emerged in Central Asia and lasted for five centuries, reaching its culmination in the work of the Khwajagan, or “Masters of Wisdom.” Like the much earlier Rishi Pantha of India, these masters of Turkish Sufism were not renunciates but advocated maintaining an active connection with the world, including raising a family or running a business. They exerted a remarkable influence on the destiny of Central Asia, yet their chief significance lies in their almost unparalleled depth of spiritual perfection. Based on primary Persian and Turkish sources, the same texts used by the Sufi authority Idries Shah in his many books, Masters of Wisdom of Central Asia explores the entire lineage of teachers from this golden age of Islamic Sufism. Author Hasan Shushud provides brief biographies of each teacher, such as Yusuf Hamdani, the first recognized Khwajagan; Ahmad al-Yasavi, the father of Turkish Sufism; and Baha’ al-Din Naqshband, from whom the Naqshbandi order of Sufis took its name. He examines their spiritual journeys, their writings and teachings, and their most famous sayings, incorporating occasional parables to illustrate their wisdom. Shushud reveals how this spiritual path focuses on expanding awareness of the heart and how heart awareness is a prerequisite for divine contemplation and God-consciousness, for the heart is the manuscript within the body on which the infinite mysteries of the Godhead are recorded. An essential guide for understanding Itlak Yolu, the Sufi path of Absolute Liberation, and fana’ fi-llah, Annihilation in God, this book is an indispensable work for anyone interested in Sufism or the spiritual history of Central Asia.

The Sufi Path of Love

The Sufi Path of Love PDF Author: William C. Chittick
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791498999
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
This is the most accessible work in English on the greatest mystical poet of Islam, providing a survey of the basic Sufi and Islamic doctrines concerning God and the world, the role of man in the cosmos, the need for religion, man's ultimate becoming, the states and stations of the mystical ascent to God, and the means whereby literature employs symbols to express "unseen" realities. William Chittick translates into English for the first time certain aspects of Rumi's work. He selects and rearranges Rumi's poetry and prose in order to leave aside unnecessary complications characteristic of other English translations and to present Rumi's ideas in an orderly fashion, yet in his own words. Thorough, nontechnical introductions to each chapter, and selections that gradually present a greater variety of terms and images, make this work easily accessible to those interested in the spirituality of any tradition.

The Nature of the Sufi Path

The Nature of the Sufi Path PDF Author: Anab Whitehouse
Publisher: Bilquees Press
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
The material in The Nature of the Sufi Path consists of 70 commentaries on a book entitled Sufism: A Short Introduction by Professor William C. Chittick. Many, if not most, of the paragraphs that comprise the 163 pages (preface plus text) of Professor Chittick’s book contain problems, errors, misleading statements, and/or incorrect understandings concerning Islam, in general, and the Sufi path, in particular. This is both surprising and disturbing since the author is someone who, apparently, enjoys a considerable reputation in North America -- and, perhaps, elsewhere in the world -- as an expert on, and scholar of, the Sufi mystical tradition. I do not claim that what I say in this book is a definitive, exhaustive, ‘incapable-of-being-improved-upon’ treatment of the Sufi path. Rather, my hope is that the present book might move a person closer to the truth concerning the nature of that path than Professor Chittick’s aforementioned introduction to Sufism does and, as such, would represent an improvement over his work.

Nobility and Annihilation in Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls

Nobility and Annihilation in Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls PDF Author: Joanne Maguire Robinson
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791490696
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
This first book-length study of Marguerite Porete's important mystical text, The Mirror of Simple Souls, examines Porete's esoteric and optimistic doctrine of annihilation—the complete transformative union of the soul into God—in its philosophical and historical contexts. Porete was burned at the stake as a relapsed heretic in 1310. Her theological treatise survived the flames, but it circulated anonymously or under male pseudonyms until 1946, and her message endures as testament to a distinctive form of medieval spirituality. Robinson begins by focusing on traditional speculations regarding the origin, nature, limitations, and destiny of humankind. She then examines Porete's work in its more immediate historical and literary contexts, focusing on the ways in which Porete conceptualizes and expresses her radical doctrine of annihilation through contemporary metaphors of lineage and nobility.

Teachings of Rumi

Teachings of Rumi PDF Author: Andrew Harvey
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834826801
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
A profound, in-depth collection of Rumi's prose and poetry—from his most celebrated works to his more obscure teachings Jelalludin Rumi (1207-1273) led the quiet life of an Islamic teacher in the central Anatolia (modern Turkey) until the age of thirty-seven, when he met a wandering dervish named Shams Tabriz—through whom he encountered the Divine Presence in a way that utterly transformed him. The result of this epiphany was the greatest body of mystical poetry the world has ever seen, and the establishment of a spiritual movement that would eventually stretch from Africa to China, enduring to our own day. This collection of versions of Rumi by Andrew Harvey contains some of the master's most luminous verse, along with selections from his lesser-read prose works, with the aim of presenting a balanced view of his teaching that includes both the high-flying love of God and the rigorous path of discipline essential for those who seek it.

Travelling the Path of Love

Travelling the Path of Love PDF Author: Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Publisher: The Golden Sufi Center
ISBN: 096345742X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Sufism is a path of love. With the passion and depth of feeling that belong to lovers, Sufi masters through the centuries have described the soul's journey towards union with God. This collection of sayings, dating from the ninth century to the present day, follows the stages of this journey, allowing the masters to beckon us along this ancient path. Speaking with the experience of those who have tasted the mysteries of divine love, their words reach beyond the mind and into the heart. Travelling the Path of Love is offered as an inspiration to all those who are drawn to follow love's call.

Love is a Fire

Love is a Fire PDF Author: Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Publisher: The Golden Sufi Center
ISBN: 1890350036
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Based on live talks and meetings with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, this is an introduction to the passion and wisdom of the Sufi path of love. The call of the heart and how it draws us back to divine union is one of mankind's greatest secrets, and for the Sufi, this love is a fire that burns away all traces of separation. Vaughan-Lee teaches how to live this burning and describes stages of the path of love on the soul's journey home. Love Is a Fire includes descriptions of the "friends of God," early Sufi saints who burned with the fire of divine love, including Rumi, Ibn 'Arabi, and Rabi'a. It also introduces elements of the path and important tools that purify the wayfarer: tauba, the moment of the turning of the heart when the soul remembers its divine origin; dhikr, the central Sufi practice of remembrance of God through repetition of the name of God or a sacred phrase; meditation, a way of drowning thoughts in the fire of love; and dreamwork, a way of listening and attuning to the mystery of what is hidden within us—the stories of our deeper selves. This book is also available as an audio recording, Love is a Fire and I am Wood, published by Sounds True. “... forged in the fire of the heart, this is a book for all those who are looking for the direct way to connection with the Eternal Now. Simply to read this fine expression of a lifetime's longing is to feel aligned with the Divine Ground.” —Anne Baring, coauthor, The Divine Feminine “... a gift to all seekers, whatever path they are on.” —Andrew Harvey, author, Light Upon Light: A Celebration of Rumi