Sufi Summer School Through The Years

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.

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 classes in 2023:

Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz (Scotland)

The Shared Language of Unity, Spoken and in Silence

Seven-day class on shared pathways of the heart and “beautiful names” in the Aramaic of Jesus and Arabic traditions of the Qur’an and the Sufis. Exploring how these doorways to the realisation of Unity address the challenges of today: through chant, meditation, and sacred movement. Neil will also share several one-off sessions of practice during the week focused on issues and questions that arise in conversation with the group.

Rahmana Dziubany (Germany)

Early bird morning session: Elemental breaths, bodywork, wazifa attunement for the day (outside if the weather allows). Plus three Wasifa Art classes in the afternoon.

Wazifa Art 1 – The Art of Becoming 
Based on Pir Vilayat’s quote that in working with wazaif we are attuning to the work of a sculptor forming our personality through a creative art process. Based on the book “Personality the Art of Being and Becoming“ by Hazrat Inayat Khan, we will explore the wazaif through art using our hands and our imagination, working with colors and papers, sound, and breath.

Wazifa Art 2 – Landart
Based on the “Nature Meditations” of Hazrat Inayat Khan, we meet for nature walks and experiences around the Proitzer Mühle, where we bring our Wazifas as friends and companions to sacred spots and leave a visible sign of our souls inspiration in the form of living art pieces. Stones, sand, leaves, flowers–we leave our mandalas of blessing as a gift of gratitude before we return home.

Tara and Maboud Swierkoscz (USA)

Intimacy with the Ground of Being
Unity longs to be known deeply in the ground of our being through our relationship with ourselves, with others, with the earth and all of life. Through the living energy of original wasifa inspired dances, meditations and group sharing, we will journey together to invite healing and deepening  of our tenderness and intimacy with the sacredness of life.

Jelaluddin Hauke Sturm and Baraka Brita von Kügelgen (Germany)

Sufi-Healing for our hearts and our relationships – Healing power for our planet
We will practice healing exercises and healing meditations together from the rich treasure of our Sufi lineage – with music, dances, walks. In the Sufi Soulwork we heal wounded selves and bring ourselves into balance, with the Healing Ritual of Hazrat Inayat Khan we send healing power to others and into the world.

Natalia Nur Jahan (Scotland)

Creation: The Choice We Cannot Avoid
Whether we are conscious of it or totally unaware, relish the process or wish to close our eyes and ears and perhaps even turn around and run away, we all are constantly creating our reality. So what would it take for us to construct the world we truly love living in? We will explore tips, tools, and practices that can help us align our creative ability with our innermost truth.

Rafia Sieglin (Germany)

Experiencing the Message of the Planets through the planetary walks of Murshid Samuel Lewis, along with dances that will deepen our own experience of them. Murshid S.A.M. said that these walking meditations were developed in order to understand ourselves and our own rhythms in life better.

Jean Pierre David (France)

The Path of Al Haqq: “Make God a Reality and God will make you the Truth” – Hazrat Inayat Khan. Practice, prayer, meditation, contemplation, selections from the 99 Beautiful Names, integration into daily life as well as leadership settings.

Alima Stoeckel (Germany)

On the Threshold of Life and Death
“I came to your shore as a stranger, I lived in your house as a guest, I leave your door as a friend, my earth.“ –Rabindranath Tagore. How can we perceive death as a natural part of life? Exploring helpful practices and attunements for dealing with the finiteness of embodied life.

What many of us considered ‘normal’ is no longer so, both due to the pandemic as well as other world events, particularly climate change and now the war in Ukraine. This affects not only our ‘outer life’ but also our ‘inner life’ and the way that we approach it. What resources does the Sufi path bring to the challenges of life right now? What is the “Real That Remains”?

Thursday: Jelaluddin, Baraka, Alima, Rafia

Friday: Rahmana, Michael Ali, Raaja Hakim

Saturday: Natalia, Tara, Maboud, Saadi

All sessions moderated and introduced by Saadi.

All of our teachers will be reflecting on these questions:

• Which teachings from our lineage have remained most true for you?
• Which practices and meditations have proven to open the most doorways to Reality itself and how to live life most authentically?
• In relation to the quote from Murshid Samuel Lewis below: what has led to the most freedom, enlarged horizons and honesty for you?
• What is the “Real that Remains”—Al Baqi’ ?

“The religion of the future will be a religion of free people, people with enlarged horizons and extended inner vision, with faculties now latent in much fuller operation. This future will not change the relation of humanity to divinity, or divinity to humanity, but it will make this vision and these faculties more common occurrences in human experience.” —Murshid Samuel L. Lewis

A living spiritual lineage relies on “transmission”—a wave of wordless atmosphere passing between one person and another, and between one and One. The ability to open to that stream allows us to navigate the difficult times we face in the world today with peace and equanimity. Each of us has to do it for ourselves – “Only you can do it for you!” as the Rev. Joe Miller used to say. We will offer some practice, chant, meditation, music and poetry to help enhance that connection and build resilience.

“Nature demands, life demands, a certain standard of understanding, of thinking, of living, and this can be learned by putting oneself to that tune and setting oneself to that particular rhythm that makes the music of life. It is by this that the happiness is attained, that happiness which is the seeking of every soul.” —Hazrat Inayat Khan

• Thursday: Healing through Transmission: special guest: Hakim Sauluddin Barodofsky plus Jelaluddin Hauke Sturm, Baraka Brita von Kügelgen, Natalia Nur Jahan and (translator) Petra Salima Rheinwalt.
• Friday: Dancing in the Inner Peace:special guests: the Rev. Tasnim Fernandez (co-founder of the International Dances of Universal Peace network), Tara and Maboud Swierkosz. Plus Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz, Rafia Andrea Sieglin and (translator) Hakim Raaja Fischer.
• Saturday: Blessings of Poetry, Music and Storytelling: Rahmana Dziubany, Alima Silke Stoeckel, Alasdair Waliuddin Taylor, Aziz Edmund Dixon, Fatima Barbara Küng, Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz and (translator-storyteller) Khabir Christian Mayer-Glauninger.

Dear Friends,

Here are the details of our online sessions this year to mark the time we would have spent together at Proitzer Muehle. After some reflection, it seemed best to limit the amount of time we spend online facing screens. Each session will be a maximum of one hour, thirty minutes (1:30).

In the “soul’s time,” every minute is precious, even more so when we centre in the heart and send blessings to our community and beyond. Translation into English or German will be provided. Thanks to all the teachers who are donating their time for this, plus the translators who agreed to serve us online. Ya Shakur!

• July 2: Healing in Times of Outer and Inner Challenges. With Murshida Baraka, Sheikh Jelaluddin, Sheikha Zubin and Sheikha Natalia.
• July 3: Linking Our Hearts, Dancing in Breath. With Murshid Saadi, Sheikha Rahmana, Sheikha Alima, Sheikha Rafia and Sheikha Nurah Majid.
• July 4: Zikr and Sufi Stories with Murshid Tansen, Murshid Saadi, Sheikha Arienne and Khalif Wali.

Featured Teacher and Summer School Director – Murshid Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz (Scotland)

From his recent work, Murshid Saadi will share hidden treasures of the “beautiful names” of life, especially those that lead us toward new ways of dissolving the differences between spiritual and everyday life. What Zen calls “original nature,” our Sufi ancestors call fitrah, from the Beautiful Name Al Fatir – to allow the original seed of humanity planted in us to split open and grow.

Through dance, Walk, zikr, meditation and teaching stories, we will explore the ancient, pre-religious, human roots of our shared Sufi-
Buddhist-universal traditions. This is a deep ecology of the soul.

Murshid Saadi and Murshida Baraka: Sufi-Zen for Guides
Samuel Lewis studied with many teachers throughout his life – Sufi, Zen, Vedanta – some formally in a bayat (pledge) relationship, but most of them informally. In our annual class for guides, we will explore the various ways we can serve individuals and communities, both formally and informally, from the place of Reality, supported by the resources we have received from our lineage teachers in various streams.

This year we welcome again as our special guest teacher Pir Shabda Kahn from the USA, an original disciple of Murshid Samuel Lewis and spiritual director of the Sufi Ruhaniat International. Pir Shabda will share a class based on one of the deepest teachings of our lineage, Murshid Samuel L. Lewis’ “201 Suras on Breath.” The experience of the reality of breath, prana, ruh, chi—underlies not only Murshid SAM’s experience of inspired transmission—ruhaniat—but also grounds all of the mystery teachings of humanity. We all breathe, but how to breathe with love and compassion, under all of the circumstances of life?

Many classes will place a special emphasis on this theme. Other offerings will include classes inspired by: Pir Moineddin’s Soulwork and “Illuminating the Shadow,” on Hazrat Inayat Khan’s “The Soul Whence and Whither” and “The Art of Personality,” on healing and “Mental Purification,” on Murshid Samuel Lewis’s teaching on Zikr, on Walks…… and much more.

As before, our annual Summer School features classes for both beginners as well as experienced students on the Sufi path. You can expect: meditation, spiritual practice, Dances of Universal Peace, Sufi zikr, walking meditation, Sufi stories and deep community with seekers from across Europe and the rest of the world.

With: Murshid Tansen, Murshida Sophia, Murshida Baraka, Murshid Saadi, Khalif Jelaluddin, Khalif Wali, Sheikha Arienne, Sheikha Alima, and Sheikha Rahmana.

“Self-consciousness and thought are the two great obstacles to knowledge. Thought may readily precede action, which is a giving out, an evolutionary process, a movement of expansion, nasoul. But learning through the breath is like reading, only instead of looking upon a printed page one has to glance directly upon the Book of Life.” –Murshid Samuel L. Lewis

“It is harmony between breath and breath which brings harmony between people. This comes most easily through music and dancing, through concentrating on a common subject, through personal agreement or through having the same or similar ideals. All these produce consonance of breath and harmony between personalities. Therefore all are employed by the Sufi schools in their spiritual instructions.”

–Murshid Samuel L. Lewis

“There is nothing but Love, and if we feel the brief crucifixions that improve our fana let us keep Allah foremost in our heart-breath. It is all a process, at once enlightened and eternal, and also a gradual awakening according to our innocence, strength, purity and love. But until these latter become entirely of Allah, instead of “ours,” there will be more need for some little pain.”—Murshid Moineddin

This year we are grateful to have as a special guest teacher Murshida Tasnim Fernandez, with whom Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz began the International Dances of Universal Peace Network in 1982.  We will focus this year on ways to revivify our spiritual practice, to return to the sense of joy, purpose, hope and empowerment that we felt when we began the path. This is what the 13th century Sufi Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi calls, the ‘root of the root,’ or the ‘seed of the seed.’

Where are we going, and why? What is our essence as fully human beings? What are our limits? What was the first spark that led you to the path? We will explore all of this through our lineage teachings, including that of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Murshid Samuel Lewis, Murshid Moineddin Jablonski, Mevlana Rumi and all of the prophets, saints and masters of all times, male and female, who inspired them. Dances, Walks, wasifa, meditation at the heart of our transmission. Other offerings will include: Murshid Samuel Lewis’s “The Perfection of Heart” and “Karuna Yoga Gita,” “Cosmic Language and Healing,” “Sadhana, the Way of Accomplishment,” “The Smiling Forehead,” “The Path of Initiation,” “The Inner Life,” and much more.

With: Murshid Tansen, Murshida Sophia, Murshida Baraka, Murshid Saadi, Khalif Jelaluddin, Khalif Wali, Sheikha Arienne, Sheikha Alima, Sheikha Rahmana, Sheikha Natalia.

“The Upanishads say that within the heart is a tiny seed, smaller than the grain within the barley corn, yet larger than the universe. Those who have known the awakening of heart may find that there is something very tiny within the body, which, when touched, is a magic key to everything in the universe.”

–Murshid Samuel Lewis

“Lovers of God, immersed in love, often do not know how much power is pouring through them. They may be unaware of it and the more unaware, often the greater the power.”

–Murshid Samuel L. Lewis

“There is nothing but Love, and if we feel the brief crucifixions that improve our fana let us keep Allah foremost in our heart-breath. It is all a process, at once enlightened and eternal, and also a gradual awakening according to our innocence, strength, purity and love. But until these latter become entirely of Allah, instead of “ours,” there will be more need for some little pain. Also, the world’s condition is being poured through the kidneys of our hearts. Why should it be otherwise? We asked for this before the beginning of time. Now let us be who we are.”

–Murshid Moineddin Jablonski

Featured Teacher: Murshid Tansen (England)

Burning the Lamp of Dharma: Between the Gateless Gate and the Pathless Path. 

The Vedantic and Buddhist schools focus on what they call the transmission of Dharma which is not exactly definable but essentially it is the direct transmission of light, wisdom and spiritual realization from heart to heart. For Murshid Samuel Lewis spiritual awakening was received and imparted through transmission and direct experience. His Dharma transmission came primarily from zen masters such as Nyogen Sensaki, Sokie-an Sasaki, and the Bhakti yogis Papa Ram Dass and Mother Krishnabai. Through concentration, meditation, chant, dance and walk we will dive into this rich reservoir of such yogic and Buddhist practices given by Murshid SAM and his teachers as well as many others from these streams of blessing.

Many spiritual traditions speak of Way, Light, Path or Purpose—all of which could be translated by the term dharma or the Sufi term din. It is, as Christian mystic Meister Eckhart said, a “way that has no path but is off any travelled path.” How do we follow our own path with joy, but remain feeling connected to all in love?

This year, we will explore the rich way that our tradition explores these themes, especially through the dharma teachings and practices experienced by Murshid Samuel Lewis with his Hindu and Zen teachers. Murshid Moineddin Jablonski also followed a very unique path as Murshid S.A.M.’s successor, and his teachings feature in a new book that will be the subject of another class. Other offerings will include: spiritual ecology, Hazrat Inayat Khan’s “The Purpose of Life,” meditations with sound and music from Murshid Samuel Lewis, Healing, the gift of blessing (baraka), Soulwork  and much more.

With: Murshid Tansen, Murshida Sophia, Murshida Baraka, Murshid Saadi, Khalif Jelaluddin, Khalif Wali, Sheikha Arienne, Sheika Alima, Sheikha Rahmana and Sheikha Nurah.

“Dharma is called duty when one feels it as a weight and becomes harmony when one perceives it as the source of happiness.” –Murshid Samuel L. Lewis

“Many of the lessons we must learn are hard lessons, and many we make hard. Some others may be easier to master, and our own ease makes them so. But all of our lessons, and we are here only to learn them, are given out from the Book of Love authored by the Hand of God.”–Murshid Moineddin

Featured teacher: Murshid Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz (Scotland)

“The work of the senses is to experience, to taste, smell, touch, hear, and see; but besides these senses there is the inner sense which is one sense. It is by experiencing through the different organs of the senses that this one sense becomes many senses…. In fact there is nothing in this world that does not speak. Everything and every being is continually calling out its nature, its character and its secret; and the more the inner sense is open, the more it becomes capable of hearing the voice of all things. In every person this sense exists, but for the most part, hidden, buried; and its being buried gives discomfort, for it is something which is living, the only living being there is. The idea of the ‘lost word’ has its secret in this.” –
Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Dance, Walk, meditation, practice and teaching exploring
the ‘spell of the sensuous’ in our lives, based on writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan (The Soul, Whence and Whither), Murshid Samuel Lewis (201 Suras on Breath) and Murshid Moineddin Jablonski. Plus the return of ‘The Story’.

Featured Teacher: Pir Shabda Kahn (USA)

Life as the Teacher: Integrating Spiritual Liberty with the Impermanence of Everyday Live

In the words of Hazrat Inayat Khan : “….the soul is an undivided portion of the all-pervading consciousness. It is undivided because it is the Absolute Being; it is completely filled with the whole Existence. The portion of it that is reflected by a certain name or form, becomes comparatively more conscious of the object reflected in it.”

So we live in the paradox of essentially being the whole Universe and feeling limited in our apparent sense of an impermanent separate self. Transforming our limiting notion of being a separate self into the direct experience of the All in All is the heart of the spiritual path. As we awaken to this wholesome reality our ability to serve becomes more and more profound!

Featured Teacher and Summer School Director: Murshid Tansen Philip O’Donohoe (England)

Cultivating Inner Spaciousness: Centering in Serenity

The all-school class will be based on the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra, an ancient tantric text of the Shaiva tradition, which presents 112 ways to open the invisible door of consciousness. It offers an incredible variety of spiritual practices and ways of discovering pure consciousness. No realm of human experience is excluded from the field of spiritual realization. Unless we remain in the present moment our awareness cannot enter into the realm of timelessness. It is in the realm of timeless eternity that the real Self is experienced.

Featured Teacher and Summer School Director: Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisti (Scotland):

Light of Beauty: The Dance of Re-creating Ourselves

The all-school class will be based on the unpublished “Spiritual Dancing” writings of Murshid Samuel Lewis,
“Art of Personality” by Hazrat Inayat Khan and “Kitab al-Futuwwah” of al-Sulami. Hazrat Inayat Khan and Murshid Samuel Lewis both emphasize using the arts as tools for the constant alchemical refinement of the self. The deeper side of creativity is not producing “objects,” “works,” or “compositions,” but re-creating ourselves. Including stories, practices, Walk, spiritual movement and meditation.
Initiators Class: “The breath is enough, the heart is enough, the eye is enough, the atmosphere is enough”—Pir Moineddin Jablonski

Murshid Saadi will also co-lead a class with Murshida Fatima for Sufi initiators and others by permission, continuting the lessons from last year on tassawuri, attunement, and extending them to tawajjeh (breath-energy communion), and the practice of darshan as done by Murshid Samuel L. Lewis.

Featured Teacher and Summer School Director: Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Scotland):

Big Mind, Healthy Heart: Healing Life on the Sufi Way (Sources: “Healing” and “Mental Purification” of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Murshid Samuel Lewis and Murshid Moineddin Jablonski (all-school class)

Healing is central to the Sufi Path. As we follow the inner way of love and self-knowledge, we have the precious opportunity to use make the best use of the time we have in these bodies. The all-camp class will share practices, Walk, chant, zikr, meditation, Sufi stories and teachings from the main teachers of our lineage on developing a healing attitude towards life. Murshid Saadi will lead a class for Sufi initiators and others by permission, this year on tassawuri, attunement, tawajjeh (breath-energy communion), and the psychic realm in relation to working with mureeds.

Health and healing affects our lives in so many ways—not only physical healing but also the challenge of finding greater balance in heart, mind and soul. On the Sufi path, we have many resources for taking a “big mind” view of our human journey, and many tools for creating the “healthy heart” we need to live life joyfully and with purpose.

During this year’s summer school, we will draw from the rich lineage of our teachers, including classes on music and healing, balance and healing in everyday life, healing Walks, stories as healing, Soulwork, the “invisible worlds,” extended zikr (remembrance practice) and meditation.

Hazrat Pir Moineddin Jablonski (1942-2001) dedicated his life to healing in all of its forms, and this year we celebrate the tenth anniversary of his passing.  Our teachers will include the main Ruhaniat Sufi guides and initiators in Europe:  Murshida Sophia, Khalif Tansen, Khalifa Baraka, Sheikh Jelaluddin, Sheikha Rahmana, Sheikha Alima and Khalif Wali and Sheikha Arienne and Murshid Saadi (director).

Our summer school is dedicated to the service of peace and for the benefit of all living beings. Murshid Samuel L. Lewis (1896–1971) was a mystic schooled in both Zen and Sufism, recognized as a teacher in both traditions, who felt that spirituality should be a matter of living experience, not division and conflict. His spiritual successor, Moineddin Jablonski (1942–2001) believed that spirituality was not fully realized until fully embodied, with all elements of the personality – light and dark – included in a life of joy and compassion. Both lived and taught in the tradition of Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927), who brought a tradition of universal Sufism to the west. On this path we recognize equally all the different spiritual traditions of the world and honor them as an expression of the Holy.

Featured Teacher and Summer School director: Murshid Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz (Scotland)

Life often presents us with many challenges, to which we feel the need to respond immediately, with as much grace and wisdom as we can manage at the moment. At the same time, once we enter the spirirtual path, much of what we experience is not driven by outside affairs, but by the inner impulse of our hearts to expand. In essence, life conspires to help us grow, and grow towards more love and life.
In this regard, the spiritual path is not only about mastering tools to “fix” life, a sort of first-aid approach, but also about taking a wider heart-view of where we are in life, and where we’re going. The teachers of the Ruhaniat lineage have reflected on these “steps on the path,” and offered spiritual practice to help us see with the eyes of the heart.
These are some of the themes we will be exploring in 2010 at our Ruhaniat Summer School in Europe Since the school’s beginning eight years ago, we have focused increasingly on providing advanced training for Sufi mureeds and those ready to explore more deeply the Sufi teachings.

This year we are fine-tuning the format even more. In addition to classes on healing, sound, psychology and breath, there will also be classes for beginning mureeds, those on the path for awhile, and initiators and leaders. Murshid Saadi will be directing the summer school again and will offer classes for the whole school on “steps on the path, meeting life’s challenges with patience,” based on the teachings contained in the papers on “Fana-fi-Sheikh” and “The Inner Life.” Other teachers will include the main Ruhaniat Sufi guides and initiators in Europe: Murshida Gita Sophia, Khalif Tansen, Khalifa Baraka, Sheikh Jelaluddin, Sheikha Rahmana, Sheikha Alima and Sheikh(a)s Wali and Arienne.

Special Guest Teacher this year:

Pir Shabda Kahn (USA), Spiritual Director of the Sufi Ruhaniat International, direct disciple of Murshid Samuel L. Lewis:

Awakening Not Based on Outer Conditions, on ”201 Suras on Breath“ by Murshid Samuel Lewis, in addition to advanced Walks, Wazifa, Sufi Sesshin.

Special Guest Teacher this year:

Murshid Wali Ali Meyer (USA), head of the Esoteric branch of the Ruhaniat, original student of Murshid Samuel Lewis:

Dissolving the limited self in the Real: Fana and Baqa on the path of Sufism.

Special Guest Teachers this year:

Murshid Saul Barodofsky (USA), head of the Dervish Healing Order (DHO), original student of Murshid Samuel Lewis:  Healing Practices, Walks of Embodiement, Tassawuri Attunement, Wazaif; Sufi Stories

Murshida Mariam Baker (USA), original student of Pir Moineddin Jablonski: Embodied spirituality, breath and
body practices, Soulwork

Special Guest Teacher this year:

Murshid Wali Ali Meyer (USA), Head of the Esoteric School of the Sufi Ruhaniat International; original student of and esoteric secretary to Murshid Samuel L. Lewis; Dance, Walk and Breath; Path of Initiation and Discipleship.

Spiritual practice provides, first and foremost, tools for life: our work, relationships and self-understanding. 

Because we have visitors from many different lands are our gathering, it is not possible for us to use the esoteric lessons of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Hazrat Samuel Lewis or Hazrat Moineddin Jablonski in their traditional way. Instead, each class will illustrate the substance of these teachings with spiritual practice such as meditation, sacred movement, spiritual walk, and Dances of Universal Peace. “Sufism is based on experiences and not on premises.” –Murshid Samuel L. Lewis

Special Guest Teachers this year:

• Pir Shabda Kahn, Spiritual Director of the Sufi Ruhaniat International; original student of Murshid Samuel L. Lewis: morning Raga sessions, all-camp classes, Spiritual Music.
• Sheikha Asha Lela, Laws of the Universe: The Work of Ziraat (Spiritual Ecology) Seen Through New Eyes
• Murshida Mariam Baker, Leader of the Soulwork Spiritual Psychology transmission of Murshid Moineddin Jablonski; author of Women as Divine. Individual Soulwork sessions.

Spiritual practice provides, first and foremost, tools for life: our work, relationships and self-understanding. This year we are reorganizing our annual camp into a school in order to work comprehensively, year-by-year, with the full range of teachings and practices that we have inherited from our silsila and which are being renewed and revisioned today. This is the first attempt within the Ruhaniat to do this. We feel this necessary, because the need of both the world and individuals demands a more in-depth approach adapted to life today, rather than as it was 25, 50 or 150 years ago.

Because we have visitors from many different lands are our gathering, it is not possible for us to use the esoteric lessons of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Hazrat Samuel Lewis or Hazrat Moineddin Jablonski in their traditional way. Instead, each class will illustrate the substance of these teachings with spiritual practice such as meditation, sacred movement, spiritual walk, and Dances of Universal Peace. “Sufism is based on experiences and not on premises.” –Murshid Samuel L. Lewis

Special Guest Teacher this year:

Murshid Wali Ali Meyer (USA), Head of the Esoteric School of the Sufi Ruhaniat International; original student of and esoteric secretary to Murshid Samuel L. Lewis; Dance, Walk and Breath.

LOVE THE DARKNESS

Love the darkness.

Daylight eyes

are no good to you

when the gate of night

swings open, here

where stars

are but footprints

of your trackless soul.

This living transmission of spirituality focuses on expansion and depth of heart in service to all beings.  It builds on techniques of classical Sufism using practical means like breathwork, walking meditation, music, art, creative visualization and group movement. Samuel Lewis may be best known for his work starting the Dances of Universal Peace, a term he chose in order to emphasize that the real peace is not words, programs or plans, but is the creative potential that all mystics have felt to be the ground of Being. Moineddin Jablonski is best known for his transmissions of spiritual psychology, called Soulwork, as well as of Walk, Breath and Spiritual Glance.

With Guest Teachers including: 

• Pir Shabda Kahn (Spiritual Director, Sufi Ruhaniat International: Zikr and Spiritual Music)
• Hakim Saul Barodofsky (Director, Dervish Healing Order)
• Murshida Fatima Lassar (Original Student of Murshid Samuel Lewis: Spiritual Art and Walks)
• Murshida Mariam Baker (Leader of the Soulwork: Spiritual Psychology work)
• Murshida Kamae A Miller (Spiritual Walk and Movement, author of Wisdom Comes Dancing)
• Murshid Saadi Klotz (Camp Director)

Plus: Sheikha Gita Onnen (Germany), Khalif Annapurna von Kuegelgen (Germany), Khalif Tansen O’Donohoe (England), Sheikha Ayesha Foot (England)  and others.

Samuel Lewis (1896-1971) was a mystic schooled in both Zen and Sufism, recognized as a teacher in both traditions, who felt that spirituality should be a matter of living experience not division and conflict.  About him, his successor, Moineddin Jablonski, wrote: 

His broken shoes traveled

India, Japan, Chinatown,

the Haight. Everywhere

he went he said “These

are my people.”

This living transmission of spirituality, built on the work of his own teachers, focuses on expansion and depth of heart in service to all beings.  It builds on techniques of classical Sufism and Buddhism using practical means like breathwork, walking meditation, music, art, creative visualization and group movement. Samuel Lewis may be best known for this work starting the Dances of Universal Peace, a term he chose in order to emphasize that the real peace is not words, programs or plans, but is beyond thought, the creative potential that all mystics have felt to be the ground of being.