She has functioned for 40 years as the head of the Religious Activities in the extended International Sufi communities and has directed a training program that ordains ministers in the Universal Worship founded by Hazrat Inayat Khan. She educates students in the study of the religious scriptures of the world, mysticism, and ethics. The study program has continued for over four decades preparing hundreds of students in interfaith studies as well as counseling modalities that support their progression into chaplaincy positions, prison reform, and social programs that assist those in marginalized conditions. She has studied with master Sufi teachers: Sheikh Muzaffer al-Jerrahi, Sheikh Nur al Jerrahi-Lex Hixon, Javad Nurbaksh-Nimatullahi, Murshid Moineddin Jablonski, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Pir Hidayat Inayat Khan. She has also had the privilege to work with Master amanuensis Reverend Frida Waterhouse, Dr. Rina Sircar, Sufi Irini Tweedie, and Father Matthew Fox. May Peace and Blessings be upon them all.
She holds degrees in both areas of Psychology & Spirituality and Philosophy & Religion. In academic responsibilities, she was a faculty member in the East-West Psychology Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. She has functioned as Vice-President and Associate Academic Dean at the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California. She has been the Academic Chair of the Global Ph.D. Program at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now called Sofia University) in Palo Alto, California. She served as a faculty member at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and Oakland campus for 11 years and lectured at the University of California-Berkeley, Stanford University, San Diego State University, John F. Kennedy University, and Sonoma State University in California.
She specializes in subjects such as World Religions, Sufi Mysticism, Buddhism, and Buddhist Abhidhamma offering original translations from the Pali language. She teaches courses in Sufi Mysticism, Ethics, Eastern and Western Philosophy, Women Saints and Masters, Fourth Wave Feminine Principles, Jungian Psychology, Psycho-spiritual synthesis, and Culture & Consciousness Studies. She continues to mentor Ph.D. students in research methodologies for their doctoral dissertations.
Professionally she has worked as the Director of the Prison Library Project that networked with wardens in the local prisons to bring greater contemplative and spiritual education into the prison libraries and also provided counseling to those on the inside as well as their families. She served as a start-up member of the San Francisco AIDS Hospice program. Serving with the Mission of Charities in San Francisco, she met and worked with Mother Teresa who invited her to come to India. She then organized a pilgrimage of 28 people to visit and work at the Kalighat in Calcutta for the homeless. She was the Coordinating Director of the Emergency Relief Fund International, an NGO that helped transport food and medicines to areas in Somalia and Ethiopia during periods of severe famine.
Publications:
1998, Causation, Correlation, and Liberation in the Abhidhamma, with original translations from Pali. UFI Publications, Washington, D.C.
1998, Sufi Women-Journey to the Beloved. (Contributor). International Association of Sufism. San Rafael, California.
1999, Commentary on Meister Eckhart’s Notion of Emptiness. Toward the One Magazine, Edmonton, Canada.
2001, The Cosmic World-How We Participate in Thee, Thou, and Us. A Journal of Consciousness and Transformational Quarterly-ReVision Vol. 23, Number 3 Transformation Quarterly, Heldref Publications, Washington, D.C.
2003, Women’s Prophetic Contribution to Sufism. Italian International Sufi Journal, Verona, Italy.
2008, Originally Blessed-Love of the Mother of the World. Creation Spirituality Community, Golden, Colorado.
2010, A Feminist Approach to Three Holy Women’s Intuitive Process: Exploring Aspects of Transcendental Phenomenology and Hermeneutics through a Correlation of the Researcher’s Experience. ReVision Magazine, San Francisco, California.
2015, Peace with All-Akbar, the First Interfaith Mogul King. Sufi Movement USA, Berkeley, California.
2017, The Bearers of Light:Cherag Stories, Vol. I, Sufi Universal Fraternal Institute Publications, Orinda, California
2020, Farming the Heart: Ziraat Symbology, Sufi Universal Fraternal Institute Publications, Orinda, California
2021, Sweet Reign-Fourth Wave Feminine Principles, Sufi Universal Fraternal Institute Publications, Orinda, California
2022, Three Rings and Swords-The Bushido Code and Stories of the Samurai. Sufi Universal Fraternal Institute Publications. Orinda, California
Aadya Murshida other interests and expertise extends to phenomenological and hermeneutic research methods, ancient languages, yoga, and martial arts. She holds a black belt in Shorin Ryu Karate and studied with Sensai Jack Saito, and Sensai Richard Kim from the Zen Bei Botokukai in San Francisco. She also studied Kendo and Iaido at the Buddhist Temple in New York City with Reverend Shunshin Kan. She holds a degree in Medicine & Herbalism from Dominican College in Vancouver, Canada.
