To contact the DHO regarding questions, please use this form.
To contact the DHO regarding questions, please use this form.
Hakim Saul-uddin is an original disciple of Murshid Samuel Lewis to whom he was sent by his first teacher, Mother Mary of Mount Shasta. He was initiated into Sufism in 1969 and made Murshid Sam’s Hakim (spiritual healer and jurist) in 1970. He formed and has served as Kafayat of the Dervish Healing Order since 1977 and is a Murshid in the Ruhaniat.
He has been given advanced initiations in both the Sufi Movement and the Sufi Order. His teaching concentration is to transmit the lineage’s baraka through the walks, zikr and wazifa on the tone, the glance, stories, and the absent healing ritual of Hazrat Inayat Khan.
Hakim Saul-uddin traveled the Silk Road for his business from 1978 to 2018. He has been teaching worldwide since 1984 with a special emphasis on the USA, Germany, and Russia.
Hakim Saul-uddin (Saul) was part of the social revolution taking place in the 1960s and the rich array of spiritual activity in the San Francisco Bay area. He was seeking a spiritual teacher and through experiences with friends at Mac Oberman’s cabin on Mount Shasta, was guided to his first teacher, Mother Mary of Mt Shasta City.
Saul studied with Mother Mary for 2 years and she provided him with information that allowed him to identify Murshid Samuel Lewis (Murshid SAM) as his teacher. With both his teachers, Saul practiced “sleuthing the baraka,” sticking very close to his teachers so he wouldn’t miss anything and as a result, has many stories and teachings to share of Mother Mary and Murshid SAM. Mother Mary was Saul’s first teacher, an important influence, and was also the only teacher of whom he heard Murshid SAM say, “I’ll take any of her students, no questions asked.”
Saul was Murshid SAM’s mureed for the 2 years prior to SAM’s passing. In addition to being SAM’s Hakim, he was his factodum (a general assistant having many diverse activities and responsibilities), one of his drivers, and his “yeller’ater” (the person SAM turned to when he needed to blow off steam).
In 1971, Murshid SAM assigned Saul the Healing Service of Hazrat Inayat Khan to do for Moineddin who was in the hospital at the time. Murshid SAM also asked Saul to lead the Healing Service concentration. With some effort, Saul (believing that Transmission is paramount on the Spiritual Path) was able to obtain the transmission for the ritual from Murshida Bhakti Engle, an original disciple of Inayat Khan, who considered herself to be the Protector of the Message and made him swear not to change the words of the formal prayers.
When Murshid SAM passed, Saul was asked to take a leadership role and handle many logistics for the spiritual community during this difficult time. During our union with the Sufi Order, Saul was responsible for the healing work of the combined orders.
After our separation from the Sufi Order in 1977, Saul was asked by the existing Shafayats to take the role of the Kafayat of the newly created Dervish Healing Order. Saul has made a point of bringing the Divine Feminine into the DHO and has introduced camp participants to the Kali Mantra for which he obtained the transmission from a woman who received it from monks in a temple in India. Saul has made the walks of Murshid SAM a major concentration, teaching them at DHO gatherings.
Saul has also expanded upon Murshid SAM’s walks, bringing in the walk of Mother Mary, Hanuman, geometric symbols, and the symbolic walk of the Holy Order of Mans, amongst others. As Kafayat, Saul has held the responsibility of initiating Shafayats and Initiators and has initiated many DHO members and conductors.
He has represented the DHO at Federation of the Sufi Message meetings, the United Nations (UN) Enlightenment Society (the UN spiritual organization). He has guided and nurtured the DHO for over 40 years in annual meetings, regular posts and announcements, meetings with initiates, Healing Rituals, and a multitude of camps and online gatherings. He shares the lineage’s baraka at DHO gatherings by interweaving teachings, stories, practices and dialogue and, in the footsteps of Murshid SAM and Mother Mary, teaching with the energy of his presence.
Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz, Ph.D. is a world-renowned writer and teacher in the field of Native Middle Eastern Mysticism, as well as a student of Murshid Samuel L. Lewis' direct Khalif, Murshid Moineddin Jablonski. Living in Fife, Scotland, he directs the Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning and Abwoon Network (https://abwoon.org) and for many years was co-chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion. In 1982, with the Rev. Tasnim Fernandez, he co-founded the International Network of the Dances of Universal Peace (www.dancesofuniversalpeace.org).
A frequent speaker and workshop leader, he is the author of several books, including Prayers of the Cosmos (1990), The Hidden Gospel (1999), The Genesis Meditations (2003), The Sufi Book of Life (2005), Blessings of the Cosmos (2006), The Tent of Abraham (2006), Desert Wisdom (revised 2010), The Little Book of Sufi Stories (2018), and Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus (2022). He has also produced three audio series of teachings on the Aramaic approach to Jesus, published by Sounds True (see Online Store section of this website).
Saadi led several citizen diplomacy group trips to Russia and the Middle East and in 2004 cofounded the Edinburgh International Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace (www.eicsp.org).
Saadi Neil also offers spiritual retreats combining his work with Native Middle Eastern spirituality with the lineage of Chishti Sufism. He was a long-time student of the Murshid Moineddin Jablonski (d. 2001), the spiritual successor of Sufi Ahmed Murad Chishti (1996-1971). Saadi was recognised as a teacher in the Sufi path in 1981 and a senior teacher or murshid in 1993 in the Chistia Sufi lineage (https://europeansufischool.org).
His teacher Moineddin once wrote:
“The passion play of personal crisis serves to create the human being anew, to move the soul a step closer to its spiritual purpose. Thus it has been, thus will it be. Let us start from our knees for a change, and pray that we become instruments of the divine compassion.”
–Murshid Moineddin Jablonski
Murad was initiated into the Ruhaniat in 1978 and the Dervish Healing Order in 1981. He is a Shafayat (senior teacher) in the DHO and a Murshid (senior teacher) in the Ruhaniat. For more than forty years he has been teaching Sufi healing while exploring ways of integrating its principles and practices with Taoism and Qigong.
Out of this exploration Murad developed Turning Sound Qigong — Qigong with a Sufi influence — and the Healing Zikr — a Sufi practice with a Qigong influence.
Since early 2020, Murad has offered weekly Zoom healing classes and healing rituals, each preceded by an hour of Sufi healing practices. A central element of these gatherings is the “Practice of the Day,” which is also shared by email and has become an important teaching component of his Sufi healing training.
Murad has organized and helped guide DHO camps for many years and created the DHO Classes website as a resource for DHO initiates, both new and experienced. At DHO camps and other retreats he leads zikr, the Healing Zikr, and classes on topics such as developing intuition, cultivating magnetism and the integrity of the energy field, and expanding the capacity of the breath.
He also led an online Healing Ritual Conductor Training series, which is now available online. Contact Murad for more information.
Murad is also a licensed acupuncturist and has maintained a clinical practice for many years, bringing his experience in energetic healing into both his clinical and spiritual work. He currently serves as Hakim Saul-uddin’s acupuncturist and, in recent years, as Hakim Saul-uddin’s secretary.
In addition to his work in energetic healing, Murad is a lifelong musician and enjoys playing alto saxophone in his spare time.
Murad’s exploration of spirituality and healing began in his early twenties in the San Francisco Bay Area. During this time he attended classes at one of Yogi Bhajan’s Sikh ashrams and later discovered Sufism through Dances with Wali Ali and Universal Worship with Moineddin.
While flying home from a stressful trip, Murad experienced disabling back pain. Through a serendipitous connection with David of the Hog Farm community founded by Wavy Gravy, he was directed to receive acupuncture treatments from Yvonne Caranoff. At the time Murad had no knowledge of acupuncture, as it was largely unknown and still illegal in California, though it was beginning to circulate quietly through alternative healing communities. After receiving treatment he experienced tremendous relief of his symptoms. This experience became a turning point, leading to a lifelong interest in energetic healing and acupuncture.
During this same period Murad began to recognize that many of his physical symptoms were a form of inner guidance, prompting dietary and lifestyle changes and marking the beginning of a lifelong practice of developing and following intuition.
Murad then moved to the East Coast to attend the New England School of Acupuncture, the first acupuncture school in the United States, which at the time was in its second year of operation.
After graduating in 1978, Murad moved to Eugene, Oregon, where he joined Ishaq and Mariam’s Smiling Forehead Sufi community. His interest in healing led him to explore the healing dimension of Sufism and to travel to the San Francisco Bay Area to receive initiation into the Dervish Healing Order from Abdul Aziz Bartley. A few years later he returned to the Bay Area to receive initiation as a Healing Conductor.
In 1983 Murad met Saul Barodofsky at a Mendocino Camp, who became his DHO teacher and mentor from that point forward. At the same camp he also met and formed a lifelong friendship with Aslan Scott Sattler.
Murad has been leading the Absent Healing Ritual in Eugene since 1982. He taught classes at the Northwest Sufi Camp regularly from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, and periodically afterward. He has also served as a member, and periodically as chair, of the Eugene Sufi Council since its creation in 1990.
Murad has led zikr since the 1990s and has taught Sufi healing workshops throughout Oregon by request. In 2008 he began developing Turning Sound Qigong — Qigong with a Sufi influence, and in 2014 the Healing Zikr — a Sufi practice with a Qigong influence.
Murad also co-created and led a two-year zikr leader training program for the Eugene Sufi community.
Murad continues to explore the integration of Sufi healing, movement practices, and energetic awareness through teaching, healing work, and ongoing spiritual practice.
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Sarfaraz was initiated into the Ruhaniat and the Dervish Healing Order in 1975. She is a Khalif in the Ruhaniat and serves as a Shafayat in the DHO. She is leader of the Kansas City Healing Circle, where she participates in the mentorship of those leading the Healing Service. Sarfaraz was one of the founders of the Kansas City Sufi community and dance circle in the 1970s.
Although her journey with Sufism began with the Dances of Universal Peace, healing is Sarfaraz’s primary spiritual focus. She sees herself not a container of knowledge but a vessel of listening to the beloved, allowing intuition and knowledge to come through. Her healing interests include attuning to the Divine Feminine (Kuan Yin, Mother Mary, among others), working to embody the breath, light, magnetism, intuition, and inner guidance. She is passionate about spiritual service.
Sarfaraz’s interest in healing began in childhood. Her best friend died of kidney failure and her father dealt with episodes of mental illness. In high school, one of her courses was "World Religions" which made her aware of the ONE truth expressed in many different faiths. After choosing nursing as a career, she graduated in 1974, with a minor in World Religions. On a camping journey she and her future husband, stumbled onto the Dances of Universal Peace, led at Lama Foundation. She knew she had found home. Later that year, she and her husband discovered the Dances of Universal Peace were being offered in Lawrence Kansas, which began over a year of commuting to learn and experience them. She and her husband, Firdousi, went to Mendocino Sufi camp and received initiation into the Ruhaniat with Wali Ali who encouraged them to start the dances in their community in Kansas City. After Mendocino camp they stopped by Saul Barodofsky’s bookstore, The Rainbow Bridge, in San Francisco, where Sarfaraz was initiated into the Dervish Healing Order.
Sarfaraz and her husband at the time, Firdousi, and a close Sufi friend started a kankah in Kansas City called the Shining Heart Sufi Center. The wave of interest in dancing was high with up to 100-200 people attending dances. In 1978, when Sarfaraz and Firdousi decided to move away from Kansas City to spend more time with their family, they shepherded Alauddin Ottinger into the role of leader of the Kansas City Dance Circle. During the 1980s, home found them on a farm outside Tulsa, called the Earth Institute, with several other Sufi friends. This experience led them to be adopted by a Shoshone medicine man, resulting in a wonderful sharing of Sufi and Native American practices. The farm hosted many sweat lodge ceremonies, bringing a deep appreciation of the Elements into Sarfaraz’s life. Dances, Zikr, the Healing Ritual and other classes were offered.
In 1986, as a single mother, Sarfaraz returned to Kansas City where she supervised a birthing center, restarted weekly Healing Services, and became a regular at the annual DHO family gatherings. Her spiritual service work has included planning and managing the biannual Ozark Sufi Camp for over 40 years. At the Ozark Sufi Camp, she offers attunements on various healing topics as part of conducting the healing ritual. Sarfaraz has been part of a Women’s New Moon group that incorporates Murshida Vera Corda’s Light Work as well as Goddess practices and intuitive rituals. Motherhood, supporting the growth and unfolding of her children, has taught her the magnitude of the healing energetic.
In addition to her healing education in the DHO and nursing, Sarfaraz has studied multiple healing modalities. She is certified in Jin Shin Jyutsu, Touch for Healing, Reike, Qigong, and Raphaelite and Raphael Healing (multi-layered healing techniques using attunements to sound, symbols, the Archangels, and touch). Her current interests are exploring vibratory, sound, and Quantum healing.
The connection of the DHO has provided her life’s spiritual calling as well as a wonderful healing family.
Baraka was initiated into the DHO by Saul Baradofsky. She is a senior Shafayat in the DHO and a Murshida in the Ruhaniat. Murshida Mariam Baker has been Baraka’s guide in the SoulWork transmission. Her profession is as a psychological therapist for adults, couples and groups. She brings together spiritual and therapeutic work in her practice as a therapist. As a Sufi teacher, she uses SoulWork and the many tools of the Ruhaniat and DHO lineage, as well as Buddhistic healing methods. She has been teaching for many years in Germany and Europe and in the European Sufi Summer School. Since 2012, she and Jelaluddin, her husband of over 40 years, have lived with Sophia Gita Onnen and other friends in a Khankah in Berlin, which serves as a center for regular dance meetings, Healing Ritual, zikr, meditation, mureed gatherings, and Sufi seminars.
Baraka’s youth was marked by the urge to understand the holocaust. Her family was not religious, so she developed a very personal relationship to God through some mystical experiences. When she was 17 years old, she won a competition in writing and as a reward, she asked for a book about Religions of the World. Later, this seemed to her to be a symbol for her purpose in life.
Baraka studied Sociology and received her degree in Psychology. She was politically engaged in the Berlin movement, worked as a sociologist in Bolivia, and was involved in the project development of primary education in Berlin. She taught at the University, married, and had a son. Drawn to Buddhism, she learned and practiced Vipassana meditation for many years. She was trained to lead meditation groups and later became a Yoga teacher. Baraka and her husband, Jelaluddin, sometimes work together as psychotherapists and lead Sufi gatherings, sometimes alone or with other Sufi friends.
Natalia Nur Jahan is a meditation teacher, a spiritual mentor, and a coach. She is a Shafayat in the DHO and leads regular online classes that include Sufi teachings and practices, guided meditations, energy work and modern psychology.
Natalia began working as a transpersonal psychotherapy practitioner and then as a life-coach in the 90s. She has more than 25 years of experience in Holodynamic therapy, work with the “inner selves,” similar to a technique used in some Sufi orders in the West under the name of Sufi SoulWork. Around the turn of the century, she met her Sufi teacher, and since then has been learning, teaching, and doing healing work through the DHO. In later years, her work has become more and more that of a Sufi guide and a “spiritual coach.” More information about Natalia, her work, and classes is available on her website, intherosegarden.org
Murshid Aslan was initiated into the Dervish Healing Order in 1983 and into the Ruhaniat in 1993. He served as a Shafayat in the DHO and as a Murshid in the Ruhaniat until his passing in January 2021.
Aslan traveled extensively in his teaching in the United States, Europe, Mexico, Guatemala and New Zealand. His passions included the integration of Spirituality and Healing, and teaching Universal Sufism through sung spiritual practices.
Aslan led Dances and choir class at DHO gatherings and inspired many who perceived themselves as singers and nonsingers alike to participate in the creation of enthusiastic and joyous group song.
Aslan attended medical school in California. He received his degree in 1973 and after internship, was guided (while hitchhiking) to Humboldt County where he served an unanticipated 8-year stint on the Hoopa Indian Reservation. He then joined a family medical group in Eureka, California and lived there until his passing.
In 1983, at the advice of a friend who had recently experienced the Dances, Aslan attended a Ruhaniat Easter retreat at Sami Mahal Khankah in San Rafael, California and experienced a profound spiritual awakening. This led to his first (of many) Mendocino Sufi Camps where he was drawn to Murshid Saul Barodofsky’s class on the spiritual aspects of healing. This connection proved to be life changing both personally and professionally.
On return to Eureka from that first Mendocino camp, Aslan connected with Arcata’s longstanding Garden of the Heart Sufi community. He became a mentor of the Dances of Universal Peace and founded the Humbolt Sufi Choir. In 1996 Aslan began to teach the DHO’s annual retreat in Schnede, Germany in 1996, and later formed the Schnede Sufi Choir.
The choir requested a CD so they could sing at home, which led to the creation of 3 Echoes of the Heart CD’s and a Humbolt Sufi choir CD, all made freely downloadable on Theechoesproject.org website.
Aslan held the absent healing ritual of Hazrat Inayat Khan in his home from 1985 to the time of his passing. He taught Sufism classes for the department of Religious Studies at Humbolt State University for over 15 years.
Aslan also served on the board of the Federation of the Sufi Message. He was invited by Hidayat Inayat Khan to serve for many years as director for the Sufi Movement’s International Summer School in Katwijk, Netherlands. He loved leading singing practices, bringing groups to Love, Harmony, and Beauty of breath and voice.
Michael was initiated into the DHO in 1978. He serves as a Shafayat and leads a bi-monthly healing ritual. He leads classes at DHO gatherings on topics that include basic practices of sending energy, Sufi practices, and practices related to forgiveness and the generating and sending love.
As a professional jeweler for 40 years, Michael works with how energy and feelings can be held in objects, particularly jewelry, to create powerful touchstones. He assists his clients in clarifying the significance they desire to give to jewelry and understanding the power of the symbolism a piece of jewelry can represent. At DHO gatherings, he has taught classes on infusing objects with intention, energy, and feelings, whether to be used as a gift to convey one’s love or as a touchstone to connect with one’s spirit of guidance, inner guides, or higher self.
Michael’s artistic and creative passions include photography, a hobby he enjoys from his home on the California coast.
In his late teens and early 20s, Michael lived in the San Francisco Bay area where he worked with Michael Beebe, apprenticing under him as a diamond setter. One day Michael Beebe told him, “I got this thing and I’m going to bring it to you,” This thing turned out to be Sufi dancing, where Michael experienced looking in his partner’s eyes as looking at each person as a ray of God. This event was the beginning of a turning point in Michael’s life. Soon afterwards, Michael went to a Mendocino Sufi camp where he met Murshid Saul Barodofsky. Attending Saul’s class at camp was like discovering a secret school. Although Michael at the time wasn’t sure he was understanding everything Saul was saying, he knew that whatever Saul had, he wanted it. Doing the practices, having the healing energy flow through the hands, eyes, Michael knew he had found his family. The healing energy from Sufi practices and the healing ritual flows naturally into his work as a jeweler.
Choosing a design or redesign for a piece of jewelry can be a very personal process. Michael often acts as a counselor, getting to know his clients, who they are and what they’ve gone through. Part of Michael’s work is to remind his clients of what they’re doing, that jewelry is not just decorative, but symbolic. He works with his clients to gain clarity about what they want the jewelry to symbolize and what they mean to reveal by wearing it. If the jewelry is to symbolize success, that’s Ok, but he helps them become aware of it.
Individuals who bring him jewelry from a family member who has recently passed may be experiencing grief and, if the relationship was difficult, painful feelings. Helping these individuals understand the symbolism and power these objects can hold can be transformative and healing. For instance, if a client has a ring of a mother who has recently passed and the relationship was positive, looking at the ring can become a touchstone to the mother’s presence, a way of connecting, finding comfort and revisiting the love. If the relationship was painful, Michael works with clients in transforming the symbolism, finding the gems in the relationship or recognizing how the person is stronger from the challenges they faced. The ring can then become a symbol of triumph, of the phoenix rising from the fire.
Crystals have been used from the beginning of time to connect to the spiritual world and Michael shares his experience using them as a tool for intuition in classes at DHO gatherings. One powerful way of charging an object with energy is to infuse it with love. Michael often leads the I Love You practice and particularly emphasizes forgiveness practices, for both oneself and others, with forgiveness as key to opening the heart.
Azima was initiated into the Sufi Healing Order in the late 1970s and into the Ruhaniat in 1982. Although not currently part of the Ruhaniat, she still serves as a guide to several mureeds from her time there as a Sheikh. She has served in the Dervish Healing Order as a Conductor since the mid-80s.
Azima graduated from the Star King School for the Ministry in 1976, becoming a travelling community minister for Unitarian Universalist Congregations for a number of years. At Star King, dreamwork became a central part of her life while studying with Jeremy Taylor, a well-known dream worker and author. Since that time, she has lived in a world of dreams, both her own and others, and found that dreamwork goes hand in hand with the Sufi path in developing a relationship to the spirit of guidance. She has offered dream study groups at DHO gatherings for many years, helping participants relate to their dreams as a powerful source of healing and connecting with their inner voice.
Prior to attending the Star King School for the ministry, Azima had been seeking a spiritual path, but not finding a good fit. On the summer solstice of 1971, she went to the Unitarian Church in San Francisco and listened to the Sufi Choir, and found tears pouring down her face, realizing “this is my tribe.” Afterwards, she started attending classes in the Mentorgarden with Wali Ali.
Due to various factors, her life took a turn away from Sufism for a time, and she later reconnected with the Ruhaniat in the 1980s. She moved to Sonoma County where she missed singing and was delighted to find a choir directed by Allaudin Mathieu. She was initiated into the DHO a few years later and attended the Healing Ritual offered at the Sami Mahal Sufi Center in San Rafael, California. When the conductor of the circle moved away, Saul initiated her as a conductor and she took over as the conductor of the ritual, which she led for several years.
Azima has over 50 years of experience with dreamwork, and uses oracles, the I Ching and Runes, as a personal practice. When living in Silver City, New Mexico for 20 years, she took turns with several other DHO healing conductors leading a weekly healing ritual and also taught dream work in group and one-on one sessions. She interspersed her dreamwork group classes with one day retreats that included dreamwork, the creation of art and, at times, the use of oracles with dreams. Since leaving Silver City she has taken dream workshops on the road and for several years has been offering dream groups by Zoom. At annual conferences of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, she has offered classes for people who are interested in starting dream groups and has published an e-book for her students, Connecting with Your Dream Power.
Most recently, Azima has been guided to adopt a lifestyle of living full-time in a Residential Vehicle (RV) and pursuing a natural ministry as a campground host, providing a welcoming presence and visiting with guests, and when the opportunity presents itself, talking about dreams.
Nasruddin/Eddie was born and bred in lower Manhattan (not Kansas). He subscribes to the old adage: “You can take the kid out of New York City but you can’t take New York City out of the kid.”
He served as a Special Ed public school teacher for 43 years until 2012: 17 years in New York City and 26 years in Seattle. (He’s been living in the Great Pacific NorthWET for 35+ years.) Nasruddin also had a bi-coastal career in stand-up comedy from 1981-2012.The closest he ever came to fame was that he once shared a stage with Eddie Murphy’s props…but not Eddie Murphy.
In 1998 he was initiated into the DHO and met Hakim Saul Barodofsky who became his teacher, friend, brother and Murshid, and was initiated as Saul’s mureed in the SRI. Nasruddin is a Khalif in the SRI and a Shafayat in the DHO.
Nasruddin/Eddie’s spiritual journey began in the early 70s with Transcendental Meditation, and in 1973 he met his first spiritual teacher (a Sufi/Muslim named Hakim) who told him, “Always eat well, go slow, and go to the bathroom.”
Nasruddin also spent many years involved in Siddha Yoga with the great master Swami Muktananda, and attended numerous retreats with Ram Dass in the 80s where he was introduced to the Dances of Universal Peace and Zhikr. He was initiated into the Sufi Islamic Society (aka the Sufi Ruhaniat International) in 1993 through Sheikh Tui Wilschinsky, and became involved with the Puget Sound Ruhaniat community for 30 years under the leadership of the late Murshida Khadija Goforth who became one of his closest spiritual friends.
Soon after he felt a deep calling to the healing ritual of Hazrat Inayat Khan. His early Dervish Healing Order mentors were Abdul Shaffee Ballinger, Aslan Scott Sattler, Shakkisadr Badalucca and Asha Greer.
Nasruddin is so deeply grateful to be blessed in this lifetime with the ability to make people laugh and, Inshallah, to help others heal through humor. His work in this lifetime is to enjoy being “a madman” and to evolve from being merely a fool to becoming a genuine Holy Fool!
“Laughter is an instant vacation.”
—Milton Berle
Jelaluddin was initiated into the DHO in 1994 by Murshid Saul Barodofsky and later into the Ruhaniat by Murshid Saadi Neil-Douglas-Klotz. Jelaluddin is a Shafayat in the DHO and a Murshid in the Ruhaniat. He works together with his wife Baraka of over 40 years in collaborating on offerings on the Sufi path, such as seminars, dances and music. He shares with Baraka not only love and family, but also a deep connection to spirituality.
One of Jelaluddin’s focuses is therapeutic and spiritual work with men and couples and he uses Soulwork as a valuable instrument for this. In 2004, he founded a Sufi choir in Berlin patterned after the joint singing project “The Inayati Quartet” and inspired by the annual DHO meetings in Schnede, where Murshid Saul has taught, and Murshid Aslan Sattler led a singing class. Jelaluddin teaches classes at the European Summer School. Since 2005 Jelaluddin has been leading Sufi groups in Greece, Czech Republic and Germany together with Baraka and other teachers.
Jelaluddin was attracted to painting and art at an early age with a longing for beauty and expanse. Over time, his interest in psychology and his curiosity to better understand human relationships grew. He studied applied arts, and later German language and literature. Book design has been an important part of his life ever since his 1986-1990 training in Gestalt therapy. At the same time, he has worked with people with mental illness in art and literature projects. He also works together with his wife, Baraka, as a psychotherapist.
Jellaluddin’s first encounter with Sufism was with Shamsuddin Juckoff in 1986, and from 1990 onwards, he did regular Buddhist meditation retreats. Since 2012, he and his wife, Baraka, have lived with Sophia Gita Onnen and other friends in a Khankah on the outskirts of Berlin, which serves as a center for regular dance meetings, Healings Ritual, zikr, meditation, mureed gatherings and Sufi seminars.
Jude was initiated into the Ruhaniat in 1978, and into the Dervish Healing Order in 1979 by Saul Barodofsky at the Mendocino Sufi Camp. A few years later she was initiated by Saul as a Healing Conductor, and in 2019, initiated by Saul as a Shafayat in the Dervish Healing Order. The healing order has been her Sufi home and conducting the Healing Ritual of Hazrat Inayat Khan on a weekly basis her primary concentration. One of Jude’s passions is the study of dreams as a spiritual practice, a process that can reveal inner guidance and result in profound insights, shifts of consciousness, and healing.
Jude has participated in and led the healing service at the Mentorgarden (Murshid Samuel Lewis’ former home in San Francisco) on Sunday morning for many years. Since 2019, because of COVID, she facilitates that group practice on Zoom. Jude’s spiritual path has included service work for the DHO since the 1980s, assisting with the organization of the annual DHO camps (US) and in more recent years acting as registrar.
Jude has been working with dreams as a spiritual practice for several decades and as a spiritual group practice for over 5 years, using the projective dreamwork method of Jeremy Taylor. Often dreams uncover parts of the self that need attention and healing and the group process for studying the dream, with empathy and support for the dreamer, can serve as a healing experience itself.
Siddiq was initiated into the Ruhaniat in 1972 and into the Healing Order at about the same time. He serves as a Shafayat in the DHO and is leader of the Santa Fe/Taos Healing Circle, where he participates in the rotating leadership of the Healing Service. Siddiq was a very early resident of Lama Foundation and was at Lama when Murshid SAM visited twice and at the time of Murshid SAM’s burial.
At DHO gatherings, Siddiq has led daily, early morning silent sitting, practices, and, with Sakina, has served Japanese Tea and offered lessons in Tea Ceremony.
Siddiq visited Lama in 1967 and 1968 and lived there from 1969 to 1971, and again from 1973 to 1977. Siddiq has lived with his wife, Sakina, in Santa Fe since 1977. He has a Ph.D. in physics, is a Faculty Emeritus of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, and is a student of both Sufi and Buddhist practices, including both as part of his daily, earlymorning meditation. He is also a student of Japanese Tea, of which Sakina is a teacher in the Urasenke tradition.
Himayat Inayati was initiated by Sheikh Mansur Johnson in the early 1970s. He was a member of the Sufi Order of the West and the Inayati Order from the early seventies until 2020. He was initiated by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan as a Murshid in 2001. He rejoined the Sufi Ruhaniat in 2020 and joined the Murshid’s Circle of the Ruhaniat at that time.
Himayat was the Kafayat of the Inayati Sufi Healing Order for 20 years. As Kafayat, he guided members of the Sufi Healing Order in activating their capacity to become human sources of healing, with a focus on breath and providing a clear vehicle through which the power of the Divine Spirit can heal. Hidayat was a founding member of the Suluk Academy, an Inayati Order school for Sufi studies, and a teacher in the Sufi Order of the West and the Inayati Order esoteric school for several decades. He is the founder of Rafaelite Work, a method of healing and transformational process rooted in Sufism and updated by modern body-centered therapies.
Himayat founded the Light of the Mountains Retreat Center in 1978, which he co-directs with his wife, Shahida Whitney. Initially a Sufi Order International Community, it is now a farm and retreat center dedicated to supporting personal spiritual development.
Hidayat is a deep and experienced student of Sufi mysticism. He offers classes that explore spiritual topics in a manner that clarifies and deepens personal practice while nurturing resilience to address the burdens of life. He has presented the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan in 14 different countries and offers an online training series, Keys to the Divine Treasury, on the teachings of the ancient Sufi Masters. The series makes accessible the essence of 1000s of pages of texts to students. Hidayat’s classes provide written lessons and audiotapes of practices, and periodic Zoom sangha (spiritual community) sessions, with an optional international 3-day Zoom retreat. Students from around the room attend Hidayat’s classes, forming an online spiritual community with a worldwide audience. More information on his classes can be found on his website, universal-awakening.org
Habiba was initiated in to the DHO in 2006 and initiated as a conductor the following year. She was initiated into the Ruhaniat shortly afterwards. Noel, her husband, who passed in 2018, became a DHO and Ruhaniat initiate around the same time. Habiba and Noel together led the Healing Service in Potter Valley, California for 12 years, with Habiba conducting and Noel assisting.
Habiba has a deep attunement to Hanuman and the Hindu deities of the Ramayana from her 21-year marriage to Noel. Noel’s attunement to Hanuman came through his training and ordination as minister in the church of Hanuman and was his main spiritual practice. Noel led the Hanuman walk at Saul’s request at camps. Habiba and Noel offered a class on the Ramayana twice at DHO camps.
Habiba is also a certified leader of the Dances of Universal Peace and an ordained Cherag in the Ruhaniat. She and Noel in 2003 founded and led a dance circle in Potter Valley for 12 years. She became a certified Death Midwife/Educator mentored by Jerrigrace Lyons of Final Passages in 2012. Murshida Vera Corda lived with her and Noel the last year and a half of her life and they became caregivers for her. Habiba has done years of volunteer hospice work and respite work for caregivers, as well as taking the position of Hospice chaplain for a year with a local hospice. Stepping away from Hospice volunteering, Habiba took training in Grief Recovery work which she offered in her community as well as death/end of life education. She co-hosted a monthly Death Café for 4 years in which people drink tea, eat cake and discuss death with the goal of increasing awareness of death to help them make the most of the (finite) lives. Habiba retired from this work to care for Noel as his health began to decline. Habiba currently continues to learn as a member of a book club that alternates between reading books on aging, end of life, and the afterlife, very inspiring and exciting topics for her.
Habiba’s attunement to Hanuman started with Noel. Noel was a sculptor and sculpted Hanuman and other Hindu deities and spiritual teachers, including Hazrat Inayat Khan. He loved to read the Ramayana and part of their 21 years together was reading and discussing it with each other. The last year of his life, Habiba read from the Ramayana to Noel every night as a bedtime story. Habiba also has an affinity with Sita, and introduced the walk of Sita at a DHO camp.
Noel had a special relationship with Hanuman, saw visions of him and modelled his life after Hanuman’s qualities of being a true friend, open and kind to everyone, and still loving to have fun. When something difficult needs to be done, Hanuman steps up and takes care of it. Noel placed himself in situations intentionally in an attempt to diffuse them with his presence and open heart. He considered the world his congregation from the local bar to anyone he met who was seeking guidance, love, and support.
Habiba is very grateful to have been blessed with the love and magnificence of life with her Beloved Noel and carrying forward the blessing to share with others in the time remaining to her life.
Hassan Raven Wolf was initiated into the DHO in 2018 by Hakim Saul-uddin Barodofsky, and as a Healing Conductor in 2019 by Sar’faraz Catherine Knight. He was first initiated into the Ruhaniat, by Mursid Khabir Kitz in 2014 and entered Bayat: sacred initiation, with Murshid Mariam Baker in 2019. He was ordained as Cherag, and Light Barer by Murshid Mariam Baker and initiated at the 9th Level.
Hassan’s interest in the DHO Healing Ritual began in 2016 under the guidance of Ana Fereshteh Grace Schactman. In 2020, Hassan began conducting the weekly Healing Ritual, at his home in Rock Hill, Missouri and began co- hosting Healing Ritual meetings with Karuna Susan Sweet. As a Conductor, Hassan shares many healing practices using wazifa, breath, healing sounds and sacred readings prior to each Healing Ritual. These practices help to prepare each participant’s Heart, Body, Mind, Spirit, and Soul, to be used as a channel for the Divine Healing Power of the Shafia.
Hassan has always been attracted to universalism in his spirituality. He has a deep attunement to Native American spirituality from his wife, Linda, who passed in 2007. Hassan is also a Reiki Master in two disciplines.
Hassan has been a musician since the age of 4 when he started playing the flute. In 1990, he began playing the saxophone. In 2006, he began offering his “Magical, Mystical, Meditation Concerts,” at various venues in Missouri. At his first concert, the “Healing Sounds,” which he has entitled “Spiritual Jazz,” was birthed. These “Healing Sounds” allow the Tones, Rhythms, and Resonance(s), of the Divine Breath, to channel through him.
After 4 different people, including Hakima Tommy Greentree, came up to him at concerts at different times telling him he should check out the Ozark Sufi Camp, he decided if it happened again, it would be a sign. Ed Francis said to Hassan, “when you get to camp, get in touch with Habib Dick Levison, and tell him you want to join the music circle.” When the 5 th person, Ben Moore, mentioned the camp, Hassan knew it was time. In 2012, when he arrived, the only person around was Habib, which was, and is, very unusual to ever happen at the camp.
When Habib started explaining all these protocols for first-time musicians “You have to come to these meetings first,” and so on, Hassan thought maybe I should just go home. He said, “Ed Frances mentioned that I should come here, meet you, and ask if I might join the musicians circle. I’ve done that, so I’m going home. Nice meeting you,” and turned to walk away. Habib said, “Do you have your horns?” Hassan said “Yes,” and Habib said, “You can sit next to me in the zikr hall,” and they went together to the hall.
As the zikr began, and after hearing the first strum of the music, Hassan realized that he had never before heard something with such a high vibration. In 2013, Hassan returned to play and in 2014, Habib asked him, “Why don’t you dance?” Hassan said, “I did not know that I was allowed” … and so, after a few dances, Hassan joined in. While dancing, he began to have a profound spiritual experience that revealed to him that the Sufi path was his home. From then on, he attended the biannual camps. These experiences motivated Hassan to seek initiation.
Hassan’s “Magical, Mystical, Meditation Concerts,” often shared on the street(s), have been the foundation of his spiritual ministry. As people pass by, Rev. Hassan Raven Wolf Jennings II, Cherag, and Light Barer, through divine grace tunes into their “energy” and “inner-chi.” Using the principle of one tuning fork influencing another, Hassan entrains, nourishes, and modifies the energy around him creating a joyful experience. Through his spiritual ministry, Hassan shares frequencies of Peace, Love, and Joy, with the intent of truly Healing the World one heart at a time, starting with his own. Hassan has his own recording label and numerous CDs available on his website, pugdogrecords.com
Being present in the body.
Healing breaths. Why to be present in the body. Dissociation. Two simple ways to ensure we are in our body. Expanded awareness during the healing ritual vs feeling the peace&unity of the whole of creation. What is grounding? Grounding meditation. Approaching the Names. Ya Haqq Ya Muqsit.
*Please bear in mind that the grounding exercise offered is an energy tool. With practice it can help with many issues, however for the discharge of electricity from your *physical* body you still need to physically go outside barefoot! 🙂
Boundaries.
Why your boundary issues are *really* not your fault. What is your boundary between?.. The first Sufi practice to master, for anyone. Why it is all about *you.* A practice for an (excessive) giver. The importance of *feeling* anger. Meditation for being comfortable in one’s own space. Ya Basit Ya Qabid.
The Rose meditation comes from Jeffrey Allen (iamjeffreyallen.com)
Note: Upon review, I can see that there were a few moments where I wasn’t very clear in my language, sometimes not choosing the right word. By “not thinking” about the issue when doing walks I meant not analysing. Walks help to achieve change even if we don’t analyse our problems (although both together are sometimes even better) – Peter Kingsley’s quotation is about “our” (perceived) reality. The metafor of a mountain was about The Reality. – When feeling our aura, feel one inch from your skin. Estaghferallah!
Truth.
Purification (healing) breaths, as Inayat Khan gave them. Ya Haqq. Yes and no. Learning to immediately distinguish between a truth and a lie. The ultimate difference – let’s really feel it. The world of binding we live in. How we do our practices. How we perform a real healing ritual. Ya Haqq – how is it felt now? Where and how do you feel zikr? Going back and forth, learning to remember.
Some practices used come from, and ispired by, Christie Marie Sheldon, https://christiesheldon.com
Note: While the exercises we did in this session are subtle they are not difficult to master. One can get into the habit of noticing small energy fluctuations pretty quickly and develop a habit. When exploring where the phrases are felt, look not for the sensation of the sound in you, but sense where *the meaning of it resonates* in your body.
Magnetism, part I.
Bismillahir RahmanirRahim. What is magnetism? The importance of order and alignment. Rhythm. Earth practice. Walks that help. Ya Hayy. Ya Djawaunah. The role of silence. Concentration practice.* The way our everyday life can help building up our magnetism. Zikr. We can all access any skill that exists.
*For the practice of visual concentration please see the next video.
Magnetism, part II.
Allah Hayy Allah Haqq. Brief recup of part I. Djawaunah (more explanation.) Personal magnetism, what it is and how to build it. What does criticism of others do to ourselves. Alhamdulillah. Love for beauty, and how it shows us a road to Love. Adding ether to the elements practice, and its uses.* Spiritual magnetism. The main way we lose magnetism (of any kind.) The use of Darood. Zikr of Ishk.
*It is done in this form for the purpose of the ease of practice. The point of it is to learn to add ether to whatever state one finds oneself, in the real-life situations.
Mind purification.
Inner volume (life-hack for help with concentration) Healing breaths.* Mujahida. About your “why.” Silence on the Bridge technique (life-hack for stopping the inner dialogue.)** Elemental Fikr. Gratefulness.
*Fire element comes with inbreath through the mouth, outbreath through the nose. Apologies for misspeaking.
**This life-hack came from/through Suzanne Giesemann, https://suzannegiesemann.com
Healing Ritual Why-s and How-s (Recording of the class on 28 January 2023)
This session is for those well acquainted with the Healing Ritual, either conductors or DHO initiates.
Healing table. Group. Three attunements. Breathing for the names. Frequency. Names on the list, requests. HR early years. Reading names. Healing prayers. Known&unknown phase. Healing without HR. Khatum and HIK prayers’ words. Gratitude.
These classes also teach you how to extend the finger chakras into etheric light fingers and add sacred healing phrases - wazifa or mantra, so that different qualities can be projected.
These qualities can be sent to other people, places, or ourselves, and also to places where traumatic events have occurred, even back in time to when those events occurred.
One should precede these practices with heart opening practices to be open, attuned and clear. It is helpful to also be grounded as well as clear in the other chakras. See the Practices of the Centers/Chakras section for heart opening, grounding and chakra clearing practices.
From Hakim Saul-uddin: I am calling together all of our DHO initiates – world wide – to hold our hands and hearts together,
united in prayer for the alleviation of human suffering, and the healing of our planet.
For this gathering, I would like to focus our attention on our Elders, and God-parents, and their messages of Love, Loyalty, and Selfless Service.
I am hopeful that we can, once again, have a gathering of our initiatic family;
to hold the world in our heart’s arms, as we invoke the blessings of our lineage,
with special emphasis on our inner guides (especially Quan Yin).
We shall do practices directly given, or inspired by our Elders,
as well as an Absent Healing Ritual for our extended spiritual family, and for our Mother Earth.
Inshallah! Ananda will join us for some sung Zikr.
The introductory and full breath practices enable us to use more of our lungs, strengthening them and adding oxygen to our cells, assisting in healing and improving function in our bodies.
Further subsections include the adding of sound (wazifa) to the breath, breath practices for slowing down and assimilating over stimulation, practices for moving the breath and Healing Breath practices with prayers.
Breath practices for slowing down and assimilating over-stimulation can be found in the section: Practices for Slowing Down, Relaxing, & Regaining Equilibrium
Practices for clearing impressions and letting go of what we no longer need
Practices for cutting cords, separating ourselves psychically from energetic connections that are no longer wanted or appropriate
Practices for filtering or blocking unwanted energies or influences
Self-protection, part I (24 February 2023)
Elemental breaths. Ya Dafi. What do we protect? From what do we want protection? Blessing and protection using a symbol.* Allaho Akbar/Allah Hu/pillars of light. Why our vibration is the key issue here.
*Bless yourself! Bless your water, bless your food, bless your sleep, bless your body, bless your day! Keep giving yourself blessings!!! That will make this practice real for you faster than anything else.
The DHO website contains healing resources, information on the DHO's mission, Godparents, and the DHO 's relationship to the Ruhaniat.
This week's practice combines 2 practices - healing breaths and full lung breathing. It also combines a Sufi and a Taoist perspective on the elements.
In addition to the traditional 4 elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air) and Ether, we add Tree and Mountain. Tree and Mountain can be viewed as parts of Earth, but with an addition. Tree brings in an expansive quality and Mountain brings in strength and stability. We contact the elements in a new, personal manner to bring the life force aspect of each element into us.
To enhance the vitality, we use a 2 part breath - breathing into the abdomen to use the lower part of the lungs and the chest to use the middle of the lungs.
When we interact with another person, psychic cords connect from one of our chakras to one of their chakras. An example is when trying to understand what someone is saying, a cord will connect between the 3rd eye (6th chakra) of each person. Cords also connect us to our loved ones.
In an appropriate interaction, the cord disappears as soon as the interaction is over. In situations of neediness or when a relationship has ended, the cord can continue to exist and transmits energy from one person to the other. Most of the time, this is inappropriate and can drain one of the people.
Cord cutting is a useful method to disconnect these cords. We follow this with sealing auric holes and filling with life and light.
Drawing the healing strength of the earth into our vitality center to:
- enable healing
- help us manifest our purpose
- let in more love and light
This is a merger of my acupuncture/Chinese Medicine/Qigong world with Sufi Healing. We learn 2 unique neck stretches that help heal the neck and correct posture.
Below is a print-out of the practice without the addition of wazifa. Please listen to the recording for that and for the transmission.
First, we connect to the earth through our foot chakras. Then, we bring light and light mirrors into our heart, hands and fingers.
As the culmination, we send life and light to the earth through our hearts and hands.
This practices teaches us:
- How to charge the hands and fingers with life and light
- How to bring the life of the earth and the divine healing light into our hearts and hands
- To send the life of the earth and the divine healing light to the earth and all beings on the earth
These practices come from the Healing Zikr.
They include practices to ask for and receive divine guidance and connect with one’s teacher and other teachers, guides, or illuminated souls.
When we lack connection with the earth, we often become out of balance and can fall sick. This section contains practices for various seasonal changes.
Murad also developed a Posture Qigong method to correct posture, relieve pain, and increase mobility and relaxation.
Murad offers self-paced online video training for each at a nominal cost
They are usually about 10-15 minutes of video.
These practices are organized by content on this Classes page. They are organized by date in this section, as an additional resource.
Video of the central practices of each hour of Sunday meetings are listed by date and topic on the website acu-current.com/dhoclasses
The audio classes are from the 2014 and 2016 DHO gatherings. The video classes are from DHO gatherings, beginning in 2020.
Self-protection, part II (24 March 2023)
Choosing our life. Details of the practice of writing the name of Allah. Ya Nur Ya Munawir, light as a superior way of self-protection. Gratefulness as the best way of raising ourselves from the denseness of day-to-day life. The prayer Nazar. Protection of a lineage. Protection given to us by a self-chosen goal. Towards the One. La Hawla wa la Quwata illa b'llah – creating our world.
Aadya Murshida is President of the Sufi Universal Fraternal Institute which is dedicated to spreading the Sufi Message brought to the West by Hazrat Inayat Khan. She is an ordained minister in the Sufi Movement and the Creation Spirituality Community representing Universal Sufism and Deep Ecumenism.
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.
As we move close to the summer solstice, things feel like they are moving faster and getting hotter. To keep balance, it is helpful to Ground/connect with the earth and to remember to slow ourselves down.
Enclosed is a 2 part practice that gets us connected to our feet and foot chakras and then uses body movement and phrases on the breath to slow ourselves down. For those who are familiar with the astrological and element walks, this could be a combination of Saturn and Air.
Part 1 of this practice begins with charging the palm chakras and finger chakras with life. We then extend the finger chakras into etheric light fingers and charge them with life.
Part 2 adds additional wazaif for clearing and healing.
In part 3, we use the charged palm chakras, finger chakras and light fingers to heal ourselves or heal another person or send healing to a place.
One should precede these practices with heart opening practices to be open, attuned and clear. It is helpful to also be grounded, as well as clear in our other chakras.
When we send healing, we open ourselves to channeling divine healing energy (not our own energy). Before sending healing to a person, we ask permission.
This includes a standing practice of rocking from the heel to ball of foot to improve posture.
Slow-Soft Breath is a practice to help us slow down from our busy lives.
Chakra Light Mirrors gives us a cushion of light in front of the chakras and in back of them. This helps block out excessive “noise” input of energy coming into us.
This week, we are working with 3 practices.
This week, we are working with Asking a Question of Inner Guidance. This is a 3 part practice.
First, we work with Inner Vision with Nuri (light), Basir (seeing), Hakim (wisdom). As with other Healing Zikr practices, this incorporates sound with toning or singing and feeling the vibration of the sound with either tapping or holding the area on our body.
Next, we work with Inner Hearing with Nuri, Sami (hearing), Hakim.
Last, we add Inner Guidance with Ya Hadi (guidance) focused on the eyes/3rd eye, ears and solar plexus/3rd chakra.
This week, we are working with Grounding and Charging the Vitality Center with wazifa. This is a 2 part practice.
First we focus on charging the foot chakras and connecting to the earth with the wazifa -ya hayy (life, with a focus on the life of the earth). As with other Healing Zikr practices, this incorporates sound with toning or singing and feeling the vibration of the sound with either tapping or holding the area on our body.
Grounding is a fundamental practice that re-establishes our connection to the earth. This is especially important around seasonal changes including the solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter days (mid-points between solstices and equinoxes). As the planet moves from season to season, it is important for us to do that also. If we don’t, we fall out of balance with the earth and are more prone to imbalances that lead to physical or emotional issues. Grounding is also a good practice to balance feeling of being spacey, not connected, or when we go through stressful situations. It can be done daily.
Charging the Vitality Center takes the grounding energy and focuses it in our lower abdomen (the vitality center, lower dan t’ien, hara). This is the center of our physical energy that gives our bodies the strength to heal and to accomplish things. We use the wazaif -hayy, jabbar. Jabbar can be thought of as “mending strength”.
Hakim Saul-uddin - Evening Part I (6/30/24)
Invocation, Zikr of HIK, Bufis, Saul as Yeller-Atter, Camp theme of focusing on Godparents and manifesting peace, Zuleka’s song
Hakim Saul-uddin - Evening Class Part II (6/30/24)
Ram Nam, Murshid SAM and Papa Ram Das stories, difference between the spiritual path and a cult, Murshid SAM’s spoken versus written Sufi’s, Ram Nam, homework, Kwan Zeon zikr
Hakim Saul-uddin - Walks Part I (7/1/24)
La Ilaha zikr, (6:40) Hazrat Inayat Khan, (8:10) Murshid SAM, (9:46) The Centers, Hara, (11:55) Heart, (14:00) Third Eye, (15:25) Crown - sitting practice, (17:00) The Elements, Earth, (19:15) Water, (20:39) Fire, Air, (24:00) Heart with Wings, (27: 55) 6-Pointed Star – Star of David, Seal of Solomon (7/1/24)
Hakim Saul-uddin - Walks Part II (7/1/24)
Sun, Moon, (4:00) SAM taking walks class to metaphysical book store, (7:25) Sun, add Earth, Moon, add Earth, (11:00) Murshid SAM leading another by the hand in the walks, demonstration of this, (12:28) Water, add Sun, (14:05) Moon, add Water, (15:20) Astrological Walks, Mars, (18:45) Mars, add Sun, Sun add Mars, (19:55) Hu used with walks, (21:10) story of Saul in Turkey and use of Hu, (26:00) story of Saul as school bus driver, (27:00) Saul doing Allah walk with Murshid SAM in grocery store, (28:30) SAM as member of Theosophical Society (7/1/24)
Hakim Saul-uddin - Evening Class (7/1/24)
Ram Nam, Sufi Invocation on tone with smiling forehead, story of Mother Mary and the police, (9:50) Murshid SAM on manifesting peace, (12:02) story of Mother Mary and the casino, Mother Mary and her purse, (17:06) Mother Mary and Saul and the Hopis, (21:13) story of Saul on a trail at Lama, (22:27) breath practice - Toward the One, United with All, Ya Ahad, (27:35) surrender and letting go, “What do I know?” (7/1/24)
Hakim Saul-uddin - Morning Class (7/1/24)
Allah zikr, Invocation, meaning of Allah, Murshid SAM story - Sufi Barkat Ali, (10:35) Allah Nuri, Allah Hu, (16:35) Ya Salaam, (21:55) Kwan Zeon Bosai (7/1/24)
Ananda was initiated into the Ruhaniat by Moineddin in 1978 and into the Dervish Healing Order by Hakim Saul-uddin Barodofsky the same year. She serves as a Shafayat in the DHO and a Sheikh in the Ruhaniat. She and Saul have hosted a healing zikr in their homes for over 40 years and, during Saul’s frequent travels, she serves as conductor of the Ritual.
After Moineddin gave his blessing, she spent over 20 years studying Buddhism in the Tibetan Bon tradition, under Rinpoche of the Serenity Ridge sangha, where she served for 20 years as an attendant to the lamas. She feels a strong alignment with the Bon’s indigenous belief system and shamanistic roots, attention to ritual, acknowledgement of spirits and the elements around us, and the practice of spiritual etiquette when interacting with the world.
Ananda’s spiritual meditations have led her to a deep attunement to the Mother Goddess, the Divine Feminine, and the earth as a source of cleansing and healing. She believes the last 2000 years of religious teachings have contributed to the disconnection from our bodies and Mother Earth. When people are out of touch with the Divine Feminine, they can treat the earth with disrespect. Many of Ananda’s classes have to do with reawakening this connection.
Ananda was living in Richmond Virginia, when a friend invited her to a Sufi Camp in Mendicino, California. There she met Moinuddin whose Darshan changed her life. Upon returning to Richmond her social and academic world dissolved. She moved and began working at Sun Bow with Saul in Charlottesville.
Ananda’s life opened and transformed as she worked with beautiful handmade indigenous rugs, traveled internationally with Saul, participated in the weekly Healing Ritual, and learned spiritual practices. After 7 years at Sun Bow, and after experiencing a friend’s death from cancer, Ananda felt called to obtain training as a nurse and Nurse Practitioner, working as a nurse for 25 years.
Ananda deeply appreciates the enormous breadth of expansive acceptance, the nature of reality behind forms and ceremonies in Hazrat Inayat Khan’s teachings. She is deeply grateful for how Sufism has confirmed, deepened, and expanded her spiritual consciousness. Her primary practice is manifesting teachings in her being, through her presence and in this way, influencing the turmoil in the world through the manifestation of stability, kindness, respect, and peace.
Hakim Saul-uddin - Morning Class (7/2/24)
Bowl of Saki reading, (5:08) Ya Salam zikr – Ananda, (12:09) story of Saul asking elders advice during divorce, (15:04) Joe Miller’s First Ray Invocation, (19:28) Kali mantra and story, (26:19) Nataraja Guru story, (33:45) Zuleika’s song - Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti, (39:00) Ya Qalbi
Hakim Saul-uddin - Walks Part I (7/2/24)
Movements for healing of individual in center of circle, Toward the One – United with All, Toward the One with Heart, with Hara, with Third Eye, add United with All, (5:50) Hazrat Inayat Khan with Smiling Forehead, (8:18) Murshid SAM, Hara, (9:55) Torus Vortex part I - Ananda, (19:30) Astrological Walks continued, Mercury, (21:35) story of Saul’s Venus walk, Venus, Venus with Sun, with Moon, with Mercury (26:40) Jupiter, Juno, with combinations Moon, Sun, Venus, (32:50) Uranus, (35:45) Neptune, (37:50) Pluto
Hakim Saul-uddin - Walks Part II (7/2/24)
Heart with Wings, (6:58) story – Mother Mary telling Saul how to find his teacher, Mother Mary’s trip to India, story of Saul’s first lesson in loyalty from Murshid SAM, (14:05) Mother Mary walk
Hakim Saul-uddin - Evening Class (7/2/24)
La Ilaha zikr, Allah zikr, (8:55) form versus essence, (11:45) Murshid SAM and mureeds at Holy Order of MANS Easter service, Mother Mary and her purse, (13:48) DHO Classes website and Aadya’s Sweet Reign book, (21:13) story of Saul walking on a trail at Lama, (19:35)
Hakim Saul-uddin Morning Class (7/3/24)
Invocation, (2:30) Irfan and heat of the heart, (3:52) Intuition –the Om stream, Ya Basir Ya Sami, asking a question, (11:00) manifesting and holding hope, the influence of holding positive thoughts, (14:40) practice to devour negativity, Kali mantra, Prajnaparamita mantra reminder
Hakim Saul-uddin - Evening Class Part I (7/3/24)
Ram Nam, Invocation, (3:30) Mother Mary robe stories, Murshid SAM’s robes, (7:10) what Murshid SAM said and what he wrote, (9:06) symbolism of robes, (12:16) Saul and Murshid SAM story of sending healing energy to Hassan
Hakim Saul-uddin - Walks Part I (7/3/24)
Hazrat Inayat Khan, Murshid SAM (4:30) Mother Mary, (8:02) Murshid SAM’s surrender practice, (13:10) Sifaat-u-Allah walks, Rahman, Rahim (15:33) Ya Quddus (17:49) Subhan Allah, Alhamdulillah, Allah Ho Akbar, (26:50) Ya Aziz, (27:40) Dhul Jalali wal ‘ikram story, walk.
Hakim Saul-uddin - Walks Part II (7/3/24)
Story – we have the same teacher (3:12) Torus Vortex walk part II- Ananda
Hakim Saul-uddin - Evening Class Part II (7/3/24)
La Ilaha Ilallah Hu zikr, (3:55) Invocation, (5:10) Hu Chalice for remembrance of beloveds who have passed
Hakim Saul-uddin - Morning Class Part I (7/4/24)
La Ilaha zikr, (2:38) Story of Aadya’s initiation as a shafayat, (5:25) duties of kafayat (7:00) the ego and self-laughter, story of Saul’s white apartment, (10:05) story of Saul and soldiers during coup in Turkey, (12:56) Ram Nam – Murshid SAM and Moineddin’spractice
Hakim Saul-uddin - Walks, Part I (7/4/24)
4th of July comments, Manly Palmer Hall, (8:17) Walks Part I: Quan Yin, (10:58) Ram, (13:18) Krishna, (14:53) Shiva, (17: 31) Buddha, (20:20) Abraham, (23:10) Moses, (25:50) Solomon, (28:36) Zarathustra, (31:50) Jesus, (36:20) Mohammad
Hakim Saul-uddin - Walks, Part II (7/4/24)
Walk of Hazrat Inayat Khan, ( 3:17) Story of Hidayat coming to Saul to make the peace, federation stories
Hakim Saul-uddin - Walks, Part III (7/4/24)
Torus Vortex walkPart III– Ananda, (10:21), using walks in everyday life
Hakim Saul-uddin - Morning Class Part I (7/5/24)
Zikr of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Camp thanks, (8:43) story of Nicholas Roerich, (12:21) a dream as an open door to go deeper, (13:32) Ya Ali broader meaning, Ya Ali practice, (15:44) Allah hu, (20:14) Jelal and Jemal energy, Allah Ho Akbar done 3 different ways, Jelali, less Jelali, and Jemali, all with same energy, (27:14) asking the Divine will to move through me, (29:26) Hazrat Inayat Khan’s dot practice, (32:01) will versus ego, (34:16) koan for the year
Hakim Saul-uddin - Morning Class Part II (7/5/24)
Allah Ho Akbar call to class, zikr of peace – Ananda, being versus doing, your impact on the world, Ya Salamo dear Inayat
Sarfaraz Cathy Knight - Healing Ritual (7/5/24)
Healing ritual beginning, (10:13) Healing ritual ending, (15:53) Inayat Khan’s Birthday, Ya Salamo Dear Inayat song
Hakim Saul-uddin - Evening Class (7/4/24)
Murshid SAM stories, lessons in loyalty, (5:00) Joe Miller stories, (8:15) Ya Shakur, (11:00) Mt Shasta and Mother Mary stories
Fadhilla was initiated into the DHO in 1976 by Saul and shortly thereafter into the Ruhaniat by Wali Ali. She is a Shafayat in the DHO and has attended or conducted the Healing Ritual since the 1970s. Now living in a senior living community, Piedmont Gardens, she has initiated two people into the DHO and the ritual continues. She is traveling less but attends DHO and Ruhaniat activities by Zoom. She feels a deep resonance to the teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan. She was a registered nurse for forty years working mostly in the US but also in Europe and Africa.
Fadhilla has practiced universal spirituality all her life. Along the way she started a commune in Berkeley in the 1970’s. A house was bought, meals, and house duties were shared and weekly meetings were held to share in each others’ lives and work out difficulties. This helped her later when she bought property in Berkeley and was a landlady for 32 years. She sponsored Tibetan Buddhist monks in Dharamsala where she stays when she is in India. She was also active in the San Francisco Bay area Tibetan Resettlement project. Tibetan immigrants stayed with her until they could be independent. They now have a thriving Tibetan center nearby.
All of the teachings and experiences Fadilla has been privileged to learn from have helped her to continue to practice concern and compassion in her life at Piedmont Gardens.
Hakim Saul-uddin - Evening Class, Part II (7/4/24)
Stories: Saul's third lesson in loyalty from Murshid SAM, Rainbow Bridge bookstore stories