“The essential insight and consistent point of view of Islam is tawhid: the fundamental Oneness underlying all of existence. From the perspective of tawhid, everything is emerging from God, being sustained by God, and ultimately returning to God. This has profound significance for all of our experience within this existence. All areas of human knowledge are related to this fundamental, unifying Truth. Sufism is the science, the objective knowledge, of the souls relationship to God. This science describes an Origin, a downward arc of manifestation, and an upward arc of return. In the arc of manifestation, everything is coming down from God into successive levels of ever denser realities. In the arc of return, we recognize our Origin and begin the journey back toward its light. This essentially means that we ourselves must become more conscious of the light within ourselves.
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The arc of return calls us to make a journey from darkness and toward the light. The immediate darkness we face around us is the imaginary world created by human ignorance, fear, self-righteousness, and hatred. We must not succumb to the mass heedlessness and self-hypnotism which presents itself to us, mostly through the mass media, as the so-called real world.
It is our responsibility to find and act upon the knowledge that can guide us in that journey. This means establishing the truth of tawhid within our own minds and hearts.
~ Essays and talks by Kabir Helminski/Breathe And Remember”
“Love is the essence of this religion. I pray that we will approach all of our questions and concerns, especially the most difficult and intimate questions, with love, in order to be able more and more to solve our problems with love. The Sufi lives in a compassionate and passionate universe, a universe born from a spark of love. (p. 108)”
Source: Holistic Islam: Sufism, Transformation, & the Challenge of Our Time
“There is a knowledge and a practice of connecting ourselves with cosmic Life. It has nothing to do with belief; it is learned. It is increased by our consciousness of it, by our increasing awareness of the abundance of cosmic energy. Life is infinite, and this infinity can be tapped. The only limitation is one of awareness. (p.13 Soul Work, Reflecting Spirit)”
Source: Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
“The education of the Soul is the Great Work.”
Source: Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
“In our tradition, God says, „The heavens and the earth cannot contain Me.“ We know there are billions of stars and galaxies. Yet the Divine is saying, „No, all of that cannot contain Me. Only the heart of my faithful servant, the knower, is expansive enough to contain Me.“ It‘s a very high truth. (p. 80)”
Source: In the House of Remembering: The Living Tradition of Sufi Teaching
“A drop that knows itself, knows the Ocean. (p. 80)”
Source: In the House of Remembering: The Living Tradition of Sufi Teaching
“Remembrance in its most elementary, tangible form is to chant the names of God. Remembrance is everything. Our destination as spiritually developing human beings is to live our lives in such a way that we are completely within that continual remembrance. That is the world and universe we live in. It surrounds and informs us. It illuminates our perception and softens our hearts. It should also bring us joy and happiness. That is our reality, because looking at life through the distorting eyes of the ego is, at best, a secondhand reality. The word for „remembrance“ in Arabic literally means „to mention,“ yet we translate it as „remembrance.“ When you mention someone, in a way, you‘re remembering the one you are calling to mind. We are remembering our Origin, remembering that we come from God and to God we will return. People sometimes talk about how children have an open channel to the Divine because they just came from God relatively recently. Remembering our Origin is a fundamental truth that we need to call to mind. This is expressed in the hadith „Whoever belongs to God, God will belong to him or her.“ In that sense, if remembrance is deep enough, complete enough, it is the Divine remembering in you. In the state of belonging to God, what you want is not different than what the Divine wants. And „God“ wants what you want; there is then no separate „you“ wanting. There is no duality or personal will pulling in the opposite direction. Rumi calls that being under „the compulsion of love.“(p. 6)”
Source: In the House of Remembering: The Living Tradition of Sufi Teaching
“Silence is not a lack of words. Silence is presence itself. (p. 26)”
Source: In the House of Remembering: The Living Tradition of Sufi Teaching
“All life is one and everything that lives is holy. Holiness is Reality. (p. 80)”
Source: In the House of Remembering: The Living Tradition of Sufi Teaching
“The messenger of God, peace be upon him, said, „If anyone travels a path in search of knowledge, God will conduct him through one of the paths of paradise. The angels will lower their wings, delighted with the one who seeks knowledge. And the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, and the fish in the depths of the water will seek forgiveness for him. The higher station of the gnostic over the worshipper is like the position of the full moon among the stars.“ The hadith is not talking about the sect of Gnostics, but rather the knowers of God. The knowers of God are the heirs of the Prophet. (p. 90)”
Source: In the House of Remembering: The Living Tradition of Sufi Teaching