Tag: Mark Nepo

Archives Issue #80

FROM THE EDITORS

THE GENDER ISSUE: ART | POETRY | CULTUREWATCH | BOOK REVIEWS | & more…

From Issue #80 on we have shifted the focus of SUFI to how it could best contribute to raising the spiritual consciousness among people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs and experience, and to introduce more diverse interpretations of the Sufi path and other spiritual disciplines in both a contemporary and historical context.  Thus, in this issue our featured articles and narratives present expressions of women’s experience and perspective of the mystical in modern life – an Asian Sufi living in World War Two Europe, an American woman experiencing the mystical dimension on the streets if Istanbul, a Sufi scholar examining gender bias through a foundational Sufi Text, and an interview with a rabbi who overcame religious and gender prejudices to reach her goals.

DISCOURSE, ARTICLES, NARRATIVES AND INTERVIEWS

THE EXPERIENCE OF NOTHINGNESS Discourse by Alireza Nurbakhsh  

DAUGHTER OF SUFISM The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan by Yousef Daoud

WRESTLING WITH GOD A Conversation with Rabbi Tirzah Firestone Interview by Llewellyn Smith and Kelly Thomson

FROM HISTORY TO HER STORY Women in Sufi Discourses by Safoura Nourbakhsh

UNDER THE MINARET Narrative by Jan Shoemaker

CULTUREWATCH

Low Budget Mysticism / Spiritual tourism in India by Sholeh Johnston
Revealing the Truth/A Rapper on Rumi by Sholeh Johnston
Community, Nur Foundation Working for the Needs of the Poor-Spain

BOOK REVIEWS by Robert Landau Ames and Eliza Tasbihi
A Soaring Minaret by Laury Silvers
Sacred Spaces, A Journey with the Sufis of the Indus by Semina Quraesh, Ali S. Asani, Carl W. Ernst and Kamil Khan Mumtaz

POETRY

Whoever Becomes Nothing Becomes God by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh
Friend of God by Jeni Couzyn
The Way Under the Way by Mark Nepo
I Was a Fable by Peter Valentyne

FEATURED POET

JENI COUZYN, Poet

FEATURED ARTIST

MINA MOMENI, Photographer ( www.minamomeni.com)

 

(Front Cover Photo Mina Momeni)

 

Print and digital subscriptions available. Buy SUFI now. 

Featured Poet: Mark Nepo

Mark Nepo is a poet and philosopher who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for over thirty-five years. A New York Times #1 bestselling author, he has published thirteen books and recorded eight audio projects. Recent work includes his next book of spiritual inquiry, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen (Simon & Schuster, with audio book, Fall 2012).   www.marknepo.com

THE WAY
UNDER THE WAY

For all that has been written,
for all that has been read, we
are led to this instant where one
of us will speak and one of us will
listen, as if no one has ever placed
an oar into that water.

It doesn’t matter how we come
to this. We may jump to it or be
worn to it. Because of great pain.
Or a sudden raw feeling that this
is all very real. It may happen in a
parking lot when we break the eggs
in the rain. Or watching each other
in our grief.

But here we will come.  With very
little left in the way.

When we meet like this, I may not
have the words, so let me say it now:
Nothing compares to the sensation
of being alive in the company of
another. It is God breathing on
the embers of our soul.

 

(Photo by Jim Kosinski.)

 

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Archives Issue #79

THIS ISSUE IS PART OF AN EARLIER SET OF ISSUES #1 – #79

THE MASTER-DISCIPLE RELATIONSHIP REVISITED – Discourse by Alireza Nurbakhsh

SUBSTITUTIONARY PRAYER AND THE STIGMATA OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI by Dorothy Buck

STUDENT-SELF AND TEACHER-SOUL by Mark Nepo

THE QUESTION OF SHIBLI’S INSANITY by Kenneth Avery

SPEAKER, VOICE AND AUDITION IN THE KORAN AND MATHNAWI by Ahmet Karamustafa

WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO PONDER – A CONVERSATION WITH PROFESSOR JOHN MCGUCKIN Interview by Llewellyn Smith and Christine Herbes

POETRY from Dr Javad Nurbakhsh, Joy Ladin, Jeni Couzyn, Shamshad Khan, Elizabeth Peacock, Hafiz, and Peter Valentyne

ARTWORK Featured cover photo Detail of wood caring, Jameh mosque, Yazd, Iran, 12th Century ©iStockphoto.com/syagci

BOOK REVIEWS An Emerald Earth: Cultivating a Natural Spirituality and Serving Creative Beauty in Our World by Felicia Norton and Charles Smith

Print and digital subscriptions available. Buy SUFI now.