This chapter, from my new book, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, speaks to the slow conversation that takes place over time between the spirit and the body. For me, that conversation goes back almost twenty-five years to the heart of my cancer journey.
Category: SUFI Journal
Featured Artist: Bruce Granofsky
Bruce Granofsky started photography about four years ago after buying a Nikon D700 and has since started shooting with Leica and Hasselblad cameras. He says, “Having come from a background in illustration and animation, photography seemed like the next thing to try out. Photography and the people of India have been an ongoing passion of mine.”
Front Cover Photo © Bruce Granofsky
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Featured Artist: Nikolay Chigirev

—chigirev.com
Featured Video / Robert Thurman–Selflessness
The Mystical Cinema of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
by Peter Valentyne
The cinematic tattoo “Written, Produced & Directed by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell” preceded some of the most unique and visionary films of the forties.
Letting the Moment Unfold / Ansuman Biswas and the Art of Meditation
by Sholeh Johnston
“All my work is essentially the same thing, and every piece relates in some way to my meditation practice …
Jessika Kenney: Singing from the Heart
Archives Issue #84: Altruism, Healing and Sufism in West Africa
FROM THE EDITORS
In this Issue of SUFI, Dr. Alireza Nurbakhsh tells us altruism is fundamental not only to our spirituality but to our identity as human beings. Examples of this are found in the powerful healing combination of Sufism and shamanism embodied by Shaikh Rahmi Oruç Güvenç and in the ancient Blessing Way chants of Medicine Woman Sheila Goldtooth. Readers will also find in this Issue a fascinating exploration of Sufism in West Africa through the eyes of a contemporary Sufi Shaikh in Senegal.
DISCOURSE, ARTICLES, NARRATIVES AND INTERVIEWS
CARING FOR OTHERS Sufism and Altruism Discourse by Dr Alireza Nurbakhsh | Read entire discourse >
SHAMANIC TRADITIONS AND SUFISM Oruç Güvenç and the Healing Power of Music by Azize Güvenç and Yousef Daoud | Read more >
SUFISM IN WEST AFRICA by Zachary Wright
BLESSING WAY SINGER A Visit with Navajo Medicine Woman Sheila Goldtooth Interviewed by Chara Nelson, Photography by Alex Cowie
SENEGAL, SUFISM & POLITICS A Conversation with Seydou Diop Interviewed by Annie Stopford and Eugene Ulman | Read more >
THE ENORMITY CLUB Narrative by Jan Shoemaker | Read more >
CULTUREWATCH
MERCAN DEDE Turns the Tables on Sufism by Michele Rousseau | Read more >
HELIOFANT PRODUCTIONS I, Pet Goat II by Sholeh Johnston
JESSIKA KENNEY Singing from the Heart by Sholeh Johnston
FILM REVIEW Beasts of the Southern Wild by Peter Valentyne
BOOK REVIEWS by Peter Valentyne
Seven Thousand Ways to Listen (Mark Nepo)
The Divine Flood (Rudiger Seesemann)
Saracen Chivalry (Pir Zia Inayat-khan)
In this Forest of Monks (Daniel Skach-Mills)
POETRY
From Him by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh
Prayer of the White-Tailed Tropical Bird by Eve Powers
Attendant Spirits by Mark Nepo
Silence by Alex Cowie
We are all Born Naked into this World by Robert Sternau
To Love by Roger Loff The Obedience of Iblis, the Devil by David Sulivan
FEATURED POET
MARK NEPO Poet & Philosopher(marknepo.com)
FEATURED ARTIST
YARI OSTOVANY Painter (yariostovany.com)
(front cover artwork: Bear Bull Shaman, Blackfoot Medicine Man by Otto Rapp)
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