‘Journey Home’ is a Podcast produced by the University of Spiritual Healing & Sufism. Sign up below to receive new episodes in your inbox the day they air, or you can visit this page to listen and download the day after.
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You may have heard the Surah al Fatihah at the beginning of each episode. It is the opening verse of the Quran, and also what Sufis use to open and close each gathering. Click here for more detailed information.
Episode Three:
This Must Be the Place
05.15.18
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Part One: The Presence
Guest Contributor Dr Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi Al-Rifai
Dr Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi Al-Rifai was born in Baghdad and spent her childhood in Iraq and Lebanon. Her grandmother initiated her into the culture and traditions of the Middle East where belly-dancing played a major part as an expression of the world of the feminine.
Fawzia Al-Rawi has been teaching Sufism for over 20 years. She holds workshops in various countries and works particularly with women. Her teaching draws on a wealth of experience from a bicultural environment which uniquely enables her to build a bridge of understanding between different cultures, open a space where these can meet and thus contribute to peace.
For More information or to connect with Fawzia, click here.
Part Two: The Love
Guest Contributor Kamila Shenmen
Kamila Carolyn Shenmen, Ph.D., L.Ac., Dipl.O.M.(NCCAOM), M.Th. is a graduate and faculty member of the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism. She holds a Doctorate in Computer Science and Molecular Biology and worked for 18 years at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She is also a licensed practitioner of Oriental Medicine, and a former faculty member and Clinic Director of the Maryland Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Her contribution here is a portion from a book ‘A Drop in the Ocean of Love: Ancient Wisdom for Living a Divinely-Guided Life’ which is available on Amazon.com.
For more information or to connect with Kamila, click here.
Episode Two:
The Relation Ship
04.18.18
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Part One: Stop Destroying the Love
Guest contributor Nura Laird
*The quote “Out beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing, there is a field-I’ll take you there” is from a poem by the Sufi poet Rumi.
Nura Laird, M.Ed. is a Dean, a faculty member, and chair of the Department of Peacemaking. Nura has been a student of healing and Sufism since 1977. She has extensive training and experience in community and family mediation and in teaching and counseling children and adults. Since graduating from the Energy Mastery School in 1992, Nura has worked professionally as a spiritual counselor, teacher and seminar leader internationally.
Nura is especially inspired to help restore the real love and peace to families, and to guide her clients and students to bring more love and peace into our world.
To connect with Nura Laird, click here.
Part Two: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
Guest contributor John Abd al-Qadir Davies
John Abd Al Qadir Davies, LL.B., M.Litt., M.S., Ph.D., faculty member at the University of Spiritual Healing & Sufism, is Co-Director of the Partners in Conflict and Partners in Peacebuilding Projects at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland. After practicing law and psychology and teaching meditation in Australia, he moved to the US in 1982. He has led or partnered in conflict transformation and peace building initiatives in over 25 countries. He has trained thousands of professionals in conflict transformation, prevention and multi-track diplomacy, including political leaders and diplomats, UN peacekeepers, police, educators, religious, traditional and civil society leaders. He has conducted extensive research on the impact of spiritual and secular techniques in promoting peace, which has been published widely. He served as consultant to various US departments and international governments and organizations.
He has dedicated his life to empowering people, organizations and communities in all cultural and spiritual traditions to create sustainable peace, wholeness and personal growth.
For more into on the Farm of Peace click here, or click here for more information on his full series “Living Peace” available as a webinar.
Episode One
Talking About God
03.30.18
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Part One: Finding My Voice
Guest contributor Christiane Karam
Christiane is also a founder and leader of the Annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival. She has collaborated and performed with the Assad Brothers, Atlas Soul, Ran Blake, Jamey Haddad, Bobby McFerrin, the Millenium Gospel Choir, the New York Arabic Orchestra, the NY Gypsy All-Stars, Yanka Rupkina, Bassam Saba, Hüsnü Senlendirici, and .WAV, and also with the Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Solo recordings include award-winning EP I’m Alive with producer Angel Angelov and self-produced Songs of the People with ZilZALA. The interview presented here comes from a course “Poetry of the Sufi Mystics” presented by USHS.
For More information on Christiane and her work, visit http://www.christianekaram.com/
Part Two: Metaphors for God
Guest contributor Erica Rifqa Bolliger
Erica (Rifqa) Bolliger is an integrative healer, health educator, Naqib in the Shadhilliya Sufi Order, musician, writer and thinker. She holds a BA in Holistic Health from Oberlin College and is a recent graduate of the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism’s Master of Divinity (Ministry) program, where her practicum focused on helping Westerners become aware of the progressive side of Islam.Formerly an anatomy, physiology and pathology instructor at massage schools on both sides of the country, she excels at communicating the mystery and complexity of being human, in ways the lay public can easily grasp. Her twenty-eight year private practice combines counseling, Somatic Experiencing® trauma recovery, bodywork, holistic and functional nutrition, natural mood support, and spiritual healing, with an emphasis on bridging spirit-body-heart-mind.
Part Three: Dancing About Architecture
Guest contributor Shaikh Kabir Helminski
Kabir Helminski is a translator of the works of Rumi and others, a Shaikh of the Mevlevi Order (which traces back to Jalaluddin Rumi), co-director of The Threshold Society (Sufism.org) and director/founder of the Baraka Institute (barakainstitute.org).In 2009 and subsequent years Kabir was named as one of the “500 Most Influential Muslims in the World” by Georgetown University and the Royal Strategic Studies Center (Jordan). He has toured North America as Shaikh with the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey bringing Sufi culture to more than 100,000 people.
The focus of his work has been developing an “applied spirituality,” based in classical Islamic Sufism, that can meet the needs of our time. The Threshold Society offers spiritual training to small groups throughout North America, the UK, the Netherlands, Poland, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
In March 2017 Holistic Islam: Sufism, Consciousness, and The Needs of Our Time will be published by White Cloud Press.
His books on spirituality, Living Presence and The Knowing Heart, have been published in at least eight languages. In 2017, Living Presence is being published in a commemorative 25th anniversary edition in the Spiritual Cornerstones series by Penguin Books. Among his recent publications are: Love’s Ripening, Rumi on the Heart’s Journey (Shambhala 2010); and The Rumi Daybook (Shambhala 2012). In total, his books have sold about 250,000 copies.
He regularly writes and blogs for The Huffington Post, Tikkun, Patheos.com, and The Times of India. The portion presented here comes from a course “Poetry of the Sufi Mystics” presented by USHS.
For more information on Shaikh Kabir Helminskis work in Sufism, visit https://sufism.org/
If you would like to know more about University of Spiritual Healing & Sufism, please visit http://sufiuniversity.org/
