Our grasp of reality is certainly under a lot of pressure in 2026, especially around the significance of “Me” and “You”. Drawing from the great Sufi poet Rumi, Munir pulls back the assumed veil separating us and explores the purifying influence that brings us home to remembrance of our essential unity. Spoiler alert: Rumi says, “I, you, he, she, we… In the garden of mystic lovers these are not true distinctions.”
Munir explores presence as the light of the world. What to the mind seems “dark” – our innermost being – actually blazes with the light of a thousand suns, as when Lord Krishna reveals his vast being to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. Presence, as the felt sense of silence and stillness in the body, shines as the emanation of that radiance of pure being. Our commitment to be present means embodiment of the same force that created the universe and the human body, able to meet every condition and situation. Being present is the only true refuge, and stands as the greatest gift we can give the world or ourselves.
The great Hindu sage Nisargadatta said “Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two, my life flows.” What if spiritual maturity means simply being natural? What does it mean to be natural and how do we recover that? Munir speaks about Nisargadatta’s teaching on the “I Am” and two great pathways to our real self found in all of the spiritual traditions – the path of subtraction, or effacement of the ego; and the path of inclusion, or love. As these paths converge they reveal a great truth about what we eternally are which intimately meets every situation with compassion and understanding. We become natural by completely being what we really are.
A question that may be on many minds is, “How can I keep a loving and compassionate attitude in the face of so much chaos and injustice all around?” Munir will approach this by first helping us remember common illusions in how we view ourselves and the world. Our longing for harmony is actually a reminder or echo of what we already are. When love and truth come together in our direct experience in the heart, which we could call the “rose garden of love”, we may catch “glimpses” of the eternal and infinite wholeness that we already are. A mere glimpse may suddenly reveal the entire vista. From this understanding comes the strength to live a Fierce Love, loving “what is” in the face of all appearances and resistances.
Deep Peace
A Traditional Celtic Blessing – click on the bold title above to listen to the recording
Deep Peace (lyrics)
Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the silent stars
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth
May peace fill your soul
Let peace make you whole
What is a Sufi?
by Munir, for Mureeds Retreat 2022
Is a Sufi someone who wears a funny hat, dances to Middle Eastern melodies, and needs to hug as many friends as possible? Perhaps some of the time but not all the time. –More–
Our habit of gift giving and consumption at Christmastime could be interpreted as one massive, collective attempt to say to someone we love, “I see you and I love you”. Why do we do it this way? How could we come out of the fears and seeming limitations that keep us in patterns of isolation, superficiality and materialism? The great sage Jiddu Krishnamurti said that we discover who we really are through the all-important fact of relationship. No one evolves in isolation. He further said that seeing from the intelligence that recognizes that “the observer is the observed” releases tremendous energy for our capacity to be available in the way for which our loved ones and the society are hungering.
Our answer to this fascinating question points directly to our openness to life. How open are we? Being truly open means open in mind, heart and gut to what is revealed within the innate, loving intelligence that we already are. Munir speaks about the open awareness that unwinds all contraction into a revolution of apparent reality, the reawakening of our essential self in being.
Munir will speak about purpose from the Sufi perspective. The Sufi poet Sa’di says, “Every soul is created for a certain purpose and the light of that purpose has been kindled in that soul.” This may sound reassuring to the mind, but how do we uncover this? Regardless of appearances, we’re actually being lived by something tremendous – Life itself. Our willingness to question assumptions and let go leads to a change in orientation and context, beginning an adventure into unknown possibilities of increasing fulfillment and happiness. This talk explores this shift and Hazrat Inayat Khan’s five innate longings that lead us to our deepest purpose.
In January 2016 Munir led a week-long retreat of Dances of Universal Peace and Zikr at the Mana Retreat Center, Coromandel, New Zealand. This Youtube playlist recorded and compiled by Rashid Andrew Hall contains 132 dances. Enjoy!