Our Summer School started in 2003. Since then we have had 21 gatherings, all in person events held at the hospitable Proitzer Müehle.
During the pandemic our school has undergone quite a few changes, plus to us only being able to meet online: a few of our staff have retired, the teachers’ team has gratefully received some new members, and even our venue Proitzer Müehle has got a new management. We have also revised our name, and our website has subsequently moved. We are currently working on transferring the old content to this new platform.
For now, please have a look at the description and program of our latest event – Summer School 2023.
21st European Sufi Summer School
24 June - 1 July 2023Tawhid:
The Shared Language of Unity,
Spoken and Silent
Personally and globally, we face enormous challenges today. Institutions that previously served us seem to be breaking down. At the same time, the earth’s ecosystems—at least as they are habitable for human beings—are in dire peril. In this light, where can we find security, contentment, and joy? What shared spiritual resources, old and new, can we bring to our path, when each person seems called to forge their own way in life?
As we return in person our 2023 Summer School will explore these current life issues and apply our practice to them. We will embrace various approaches to a deeper sense of unity and shared contentment which is nothing but Unity in and with the nameless Reality itself. Experiencing this affects the way a person perceives and acts in everyday life. The Sufis call this life-changing experience tawhid, from the “Beautiful Name,” Al Wahid. The word implies that there are as many ways to this wordless mystery as there are beings in the seen and unseen worlds.
Just as we have done for the past 20 years, classes will offer periods of teaching, practice, and prayer as well as periods of silence and meditation, sitting and moving together. Shared practice includes Sufi dhikr, walking meditation, and Dances of Universal Peace. The overall effect is a retreat within a supportive community.
Open to all. You are welcome to join us!
If you're new to the Summer School...
We will draw not only from the Sufi lineage of teaching (primarily but not exclusively the Chishti one through Hazrat Inayat Khan) but also from a wider range of the world’s spiritual wisdom in which our teachers have immersed themselves.
Our aim is to nurture a community of seekers–and finders!–from across Europe and the rest of the world.
What you can expect...
We offer a range of classes, all focused toward present-day challenges, personally and globally. These include meditation, chanting including Sufi dhikr (“remembrance”), body prayer and times of silence. The meditative walks of Murshid Samuel Lewis are a virtually untapped treasure about the truth of where each of us is right now, as doorways to Unity. His dances, inspired through vision and dream, offer the possibility to experience meditation in movement, and stillness in motion. Participation in all classes is optional.
Generally, the day begins with an all-school class, this year by our director, and then multiple classes are offered throughout the day. In the evening, we join together again for shared practice, Dances of Universal Peace, meditation, and wisdom stories, usually from the Sufi tradition.
And this year...
We will have a special focus on the Pathways of the Heart, the “beautiful Names” found in the Qur’an, as doorways to Unity, including:
• The most important shared names and practices in the Biblical and Aramaic Jesus traditions. These are the “mothers of the names” in the Qur’an.
• New Dances of Universal Peace based on dozens of these names.
Also in the program:
• Classes on Sufi healing
• Walking meditation
• Rhythmic personal body prayer
• Various forms of contemplative meditation
Our staff for the 2023 Summer School will include Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz (Scotland, director), Alima (Germany), Baraka (Germany), Jelaluddin (Germany), Jean-Pierre Salik (France), Khabir (Germany), Nur Jahan (Scotland, assistant director, webmaster), Raaja Hakim (Germany), Rafia (Germany), Tara and Maboud (USA), Rahmana (Germany, inshallah), Zahira (Germany, manager) and Renate (England, translation team).
You can read about our classes here
