Archives Issue #85 – Embodiment

FROM THE EDITORS

ChakraFire-ElenaRay-screenshotISSUE 85 discusses EMBODIMENT: Meditating Bodies, Dancing Bodies, Music Making Bodies, Suffering Bodies, Gendered Bodies, Remembering Bodies.

When religious teaching and practice are predicated on a hierarchical split between body, mind and spirit, the body is often devalued, denied, neglected, or transcended in attempts to reach the truth. When, however, the body is viewed as “the medium through which the divine is experienced and known,” as Rebecca Sachs Norris writes in “A Body Made Holy,” and as our other contributors demonstrate in creative and poetic ways, the body and its experiential reality might be far closer to practical spiritual awakening than the strictures of a religious dogma. As Hyun Kyung Chung points to in this issue’s interview, all of us are embodying God, and through our bodies we all participate in the permeable energy of universal truth. – The Editors of SUFI

 

HIGHLIGHTS – SUMMER 2013 – EMBODIMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

[threecol_one]DISCOURSE
THE ILLUSION OF SELF
by Alireza Nurbakhsh

Discourse_Water_Dance_1

ARTICLES
A BODY MADE HOLY:
Science, Body and Ritual by
Rebecca Sachs Norris
MEDITATION IN MOTION
by Kabir Helminski
TILL DEATH DO US PART:
The Marriage of the Feminine
Sensible to the Masculine
Transcendental in Rumi’s
Masnavi by Safoura
Nourbakhsh
THE DANCER IS IN THE
DANCE: Body Listening
for Heart and Soul | Life and Work of International Storydancer ZULEIKHA
by Susan Skeele

Zuleikha-1
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[threecol_one]INTERVIEW
OUR SKIN IS NOT OUR
BODY: A Conversation with
Robert Thurman and Hyun
Kyung Chung interviewed
by Llewellyn Smith

CULTUREWATCH
SEARCHING FOR THE
MAN OF THE HEART: Sudipto
Chatterjee’s One Man Show
by Sholeh Johnston

CW-ManoftheHeart_1

LETTING THE MOMENT UNFOLD: Ansuman Biswas and the Art of Meditation
by Sholeh Johnston

FILM REVIEW
– THE MYSTICAL CINEMA
of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
by Peter Valentyne

BOOK REVIEWS
RELIGION AND THE BODY: Modern Science and the Construction of Religious Meaning
Edited by David Cave and Rebecca Sachs Norris
Sufi Bodies: Religion and Society in Medieval Islam
Edited by Shahzad Bashir
– Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn Arabi Gender and Sexuality
Edited by Sadiyya Shaikh[/threecol_one]

[threecol_one_last]NARRATIVES
– FINDING BIRDSONG
by Mark Nepo

CONTENTS MAY SHIFT: Instructions for Contemplative Movement
by Asimina Chremos and Dani Kopoulos

POETRY
ONE BREATH by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh
OF THIS I AM CERTAIN by Daniel Skach-Mills
THE DARK CURTAIN by Chris Hoffman
MY CROW by Changming Yuan
CIRCLE DANCE by Eve Powers
DESERT OF EXISTENCE by Roger Loff
NEW LEAF by Raphael Block

Poem_NewLeaf_1

FEATURED POET
– DANIEL SKACH-MILLS

FEATURED ARTISTS
– BRUCE GRANOFSKY (Cover Photo)
NIKOLAY CHIGIREV
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Print and digital subscriptions available. Buy SUFI now.

 

Winter Issue: Sufism

#86MASTERCOVERTOPCROPPEDIssue #86 features CARL ERNST Interview on Sufism, RUMI Beyond Religion, DISCOURSE Spiritual Yearning LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE Adab-Sufi Etiquette, JOHN L. CAUGHEY An American Ethnographer in a Sufi Community,

Spiritual Yearning

#86DISCOURSE-2A Discourse by Alireza Nurbakhsh

In Sufism the state of spiritual yearning (“talab”) is the force that drives an individual on the path towards perfection.

Carl Ernst Interview

INTERVIEW-2Sufism: History, Politics and Culture

Would Rumi feel shocked or amused by the popularity of his writing in the world?

Rumi and “Islam”

RMN212879CEReconsidered – The Light of God Beyond Religion by Jawid Mojaddedi

If one defines the issue as the relationship between Rumi’s teachings and that of the ulama,