Mehmet Ali Sanlikol in conversation with Sholeh Johnston
CultureWatch: At the turn of the millennium, successful jazz musician Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol embarked on an odyssey of discovery that would profoundly reshape his musical career as a composer and performer.
FROM THE EDITORS In a time when attachment to the world and its wealth seems to many to be out of reasonable control, Winter Issue #88 SUFI explores the many facets of the act of detachment, and how the art of letting go creates a gateway to love. READ MORE
[threecol_one]
DISCOURSE
DETACHMENT
by Alireza Nurbakhsh
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
GUARANTEED FOR LIFE
by Mary Gossy
DARKNESS HAS FALLEN
by Sister Miriam MacGillis
WOMEN ON THE ROOFTOP
by Safoura Nourbakhsh
[/threecol_one][threecol_one]
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
RUMI’S PREFERENCE FOR SCANDALOUS SUFIS
by Jawid Mojaddedi
SUFI PRACTICE & CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOANALYSIS
by Michele Rousseau
NARRATIVE
BOOT CAMP OF COLLAPSING FORMS
by Jan Shoemaker
CULTUREWATCH
THE THEATRE OF PETER BROOK The Invisible Made Visible
by Joe Martin
BOOK REVIEWS
SACRED SEED
Compiled and edited by the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW)
by Rachel Carson
Review by Janet Jones[/threecol_one][threecol_one_last]
POETRY
REMEMBERING YOU
by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh
I THOUGHT I COULD FOLLOW
by John Wolf
AMOR FATI
by André Bjerke, translated by Hossein Kashani
THE BREATH OF THE ZEKR
by Irving Karchmar
CHORDS
by Roger Loff
FEATURED POET
JOHN WOLF
FEATURED ARTIST
PATRIZIA MAÏMOUNA GUERRESI
FEATURED WEBSITE POET
FARRAH A. BOLVARDE
[/threecol_one_last]
Padum, Zanskar[/caption]
At the heart of nearly every spiritual tradition is the figure of the spiritual guide or leader whom seekers turn to for guidance and inspiration and choose to follow as disciples. In this issue of SUFI, various facets of the role of the guide are explored across different spiritual paths, READ MORE
[threecol_one]
DISCOURSE
THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE
by Alireza Nurbakhsh
ARTICLES AND INTERVIEW
TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS IN TIBETAN BUDDHISM
by Jay Valentine
IRADA / DEVOTION: THE SPACE WHERE SUFISM HAPPENS
by H. Talat Halman
THE GUIDE: INTERVIEW WITH A SUFI SHAYKH
interviewed by Safoura Nourbakhsh
[/threecol_one] [threecol_one]
ARTICLES AND ESSAYS
TRANSCENDANT BEING OR FALLIBLE HUMAN?
by Angela Burt
NARRATIVE
CHESHM
by Dani Kopoulos
CULTUREWATCH
AWAKE: THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA
Director Paola Di Florio
interviewed by Sholeh Johnston
THE ECSTACY OF MUSIC
Mehmet Ali Sanlikol in
conversation with Sholeh Johnston
[/threecol_one][threecol_one_last]
CULTUREWATCH
BOOK REVIEWS
Hafez—Translations and,
Interpretations of the Ghazals
translated by Geoffrey Squires
reviewed by David Paquiot
The Principles of Sufism
by A’ishah Al-Ba’uniyyah
reviewed by Terry Graham
POETRY
THE MASTER’S GRACE
by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh
IN GETTING THERE
by Mark Nepo
THE BEYOND WITHIN
by DANIEL SKACH-MILLS
GIVE UP WHAT YOU SEE WITH YOUR EYES
by Kathleen M. Kelley
I LOVE YOU
by Ali Asghar Mazhari
FEATURED POET
BILL WOLAK
LOST AT THE CROSS ROADS
FEATURED ARTIST
MATTHIEU RICARD
[/threecol_one_last]
NOTES
1. Bruce Hood, The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity. (New York: Oxford UP, 2012. PDF e-book), 105.
2. Evan Thompson, Waking, Dreaming, Being. (New York: Columbia UP, 2015), 358.
3. Marya Schechtman, “The Narrative Self,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Self. ed. Shaun Gallagher (Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 2013), 395.
4. Schechtman, “The Narrative Self,” 395.
5. Ibid., 396-397.
6. Ibid., 399. See also, Katherine Nelson, “Narrative and the Emergence of a Consciousness of Self,” in Narrative and Consciousness. eds. Gary D. Fireman, Ted E. McVay, Jr., and Owen J. Flanagan (New York: Oxford UP, 2003). For more on the development of the narrative self, see Robyn Fivush and Catherine A. Haden eds., Autobiographical Memory and the Construction of a Narrative Self: Developmental and Cultural Perspectives, (New York, Psychology Press, 2013).
7. Khenpo Tsewang Gyatso, “Definition of Ego,” in The Healthy Mind Interviews. ed. Henry Vyner vol. 2 (Kathmandu, Nepal: Vajra Publications, 2004), 46-47.
8. Gyatso, “Definition of Ego,” The Healthy Mind Interviews, 50. Here Vyner is explaining how the mind works according to Gyatso.
9. Ibid., 63.
10. Ibid., 116,135.
11. Lopon Tegchoke, “Knowing the Emptiness of Thoughts,” The Healthy Mind Interviews. ed. Henry Vyner vol.3 (Kathmandu, Nepal: Vajra Publications, 2004), 66-70.
12. Tegchoke, “Emptiness,” Interviews, 90.
13. Wendy Hasenkamp, et. al., “Mind Wandering and Attention during Focused Meditation: A Fine-Gained Temporal Analysis of Fluctuating Cognitive States,” (Neuroimage 59, 2012), 750-760. quoted in Thompson, Waking, 351-352. For more on Focused Attention (FA) and Open Monitoring (OM) meditation techniques, see Antoine Lutz, Heleen A. Slagter, […], and Richard J. Davidson, “Attention Regulation and Monitoring in Meditation,” Trends in Cognitive Science, (April 19, 2007): PMC U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health, accessed April 17, 2015, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2693206/.
14. Norman A. S. Farb et. al., “Attending to the Present: Mindfulness Meditation Reveals Distinct Neural Modes of Self-Reference, Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience 2 (2007), 313-322. quoted in Thompson. Waking, 354-355.
15. Ibid., 355.
16. Baime, Michael, “Your Brain on Mindfulness,” Shambala Sun. (July 2007): 84, accessed April 17, 2015, https://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~britta/SUN_July11_Baime.pdf.
17. Lopon Tenzin Namdak, “The Trechko Interview,” The Healthy Mind Interviews. ed. Henry Vyner vol. 4 (Kathmandu, Nepal: Vajra Publications, 2004), 107-109; 120-123.
18. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “The Dalai Lama Interview,” The Healthy Mind Interviews. ed. Henry Vyner vol. 4 (Kathmandu, Nepal: Vajra Publications, 2004), 66.
19. Javad Nurbakhsh, The Psychology of Sufism, (London: Nimatullahi Publications), 11.
20. Javad Nurbakhsh, Divan-E Nurbakhsh: Poems of a Sufi Master ed. Danny Kopoulos and Paul Weber (New York: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications, 2014), “Glossary,” Divan, viii.
21. Ibid., viii.
22. Javad Nurbakhsh, The Path, (London: Nimatullahi Press, 2003), 174.
23. Javad Nurbakhsh, Divan-E Nurbakhsh, 280.
24. Javad Nurbakhsh, The Path, 34.
25. Ibid., 175.
26. Javad Nurbakhsh, Quatrains, Divan, 324.
27. Ibid., Divan, 357.
28. Ibid., 326.
29. Nurbakhsh, “Words Accomplish Nothing,” Divan, 16.
30. Nurbakhsh, “Words Accomplish Nothing,” Divan, 16.
31. Nurbakhsh, “He is the Truth,” Divan, 9.
32. Ibid., 150.
33. Ibid., 126.
34. Ibid., 9.
35. Ibid., 233.
36. Ibid., 45.
37. Ibid., 106.
38. Ibid., 104.
39. Ibid., 182.
FARRAH A. BOLVARDE
is a Computer Engineer who lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
SAMA
With souls engulfed and hidden
in Your love, this is our Sama
We are ruined; what separation,
or union!? this is our Sama
Dead to our desires, drenched
in blood and far from all, this is our Sama
The twists and turns of this
world are nothing to us, this is our Sama
Clinging to Your wings with hearts soaring
in your love, this is our Sama
Mesmerized by Your beauty, with
only half a glance at the lifeless self, this is our Sama
Wrapped in Your remembrance
with our every particle dancing in ecstasy, this is our Sama
FARRAH A. BOLVARDE
PATRIZIA MAïMOUNA GUERRESI
is an Italian-born multimedia artist working with photography, sculpture, video and installation, who lives between Verona, Milan and Dakar. In the early 1990s, Guerresi traveled to Africa, where she encountered Muslim culture, and eventually joined the Senegal Muridiyya Sufi order. Over the last two decades, her art has focused on empowering women and exhibiting a context of universal human values and conditions that is situated beyond psychological, cultural, and political borders. Maïmouna
has been extensively exhibited in solo and curated shows all over Europe, America, India, and the Middle East. maimounaguerresi.com.
Issue 88 Front Cover Artwork
