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.
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.
What happens to our lives if we release the compulsion, the burden that we may feel around time and place? Can you feel the constant stress or pressure that may arise from making a deadline or striving to get somewhere physically, a stress which derives from our assumptions about reality. If we relax these assumptions and let life “come to us” what do we discover? Is there a context right within our direct experience that upends these assumptions, pointing to an infinite, eternal reality that does not move or age? Well, it depends…. Where do you want to stake the center-post of your life?
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.
Easter presents us with the mystery of divinity entering into the world of form. Jesus taught and lived a radically new human paradigm in which the apparent opposites of life collapse into wholeness. Awakening to this same divinity in ourselves, our core self, we know only wholeness, wisdom and peace. Living from the inside out is the resurrection of divinity in all that we touch, and is the ultimate embrace of the unknown.
Meister Eckhart says “A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don’t know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox’s or bear’s, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.” Munir will speak about what it means to come out of our burrows, peel off our thick hides and face down the shadow with courage and clarity. It’s what’s under the hide that’s important. That’s “The Love that Knows No Other”.
The nondual teacher Adyashanti notes, “The mind has a hard time accepting that life is whole and complete while also being a mess.” If we are disturbed by the apparent messiness of the world we may look for guidance. Guidance points us back to the truth of our being and the remedy within the innate wholeness of life. Here I speak about my journey with spiritual guidance and the truth which requires us to become more and more empty in order to receive it.
A look at the “nafs”, or separate self, its roots in the human psyche, and what its remedy might be. We explore “just noticing” as a powerful doorway to seeing ourselves more clearly and revealing the loving spirit or real self that is always present and available.
Personal efforts to attain, to own, to become, actually take us away from the truth of our being. Challenges are good and help to build character. Understanding the true context and nature of all our experience requires something from us. In the end, the highest purpose is revealed in the unknown with heart open, living for the sake of the whole.