597. Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

Posted on May 6, 2021 by Rick Archer

Sufi mystic and visionary Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri is an enlightened spiritual master. His life and works serve as a reminder that spirituality is a science and an art vitally relevant to our times. Shaykh Fadhlalla grew up in an environment where religious scholars, as well as Sufi and mystics, were part of his formative experience. His love and understanding of the universality of the Qur’anic message have imbued him with respect for other religions and spiritual paths.

Websites:

Books mentioned during the interview:

Some points discussed in this interview:

Shaykh Fadhlalla’s childhood:
- His curiosity and interest in science.
- Seeing the underlying sameness in different cultures and religions.
- Not being satisfied with earthly comforts.
Integrating individuality with universality, inner with outer, physicality with spirituality.
Luck and good fortune vs. divine orchestration.
Life as preparation for infinite life.
Nature provides the most amazing flow of guidance, but we are not attuned to it anymore, and our material fears and anxieties consume everything.
Calibration between the physical reality and the ‘quantum field’ makes a “huge difference in the quality of life and the ease of flow”.
Different kinds of ‘mind’: Low, Normal, Super, and Supra.
Shaykh Fadhlalla’s shift from occasional to abiding awakening.
Awakenings can be dramatic (abrupt) or subtle (gradual). In any case, refinement is ongoing. Life’s challenges may still touch you, but won’t overwhelm you.
We are moving very rapidly to greater universality, acceptance, tolerance, and respect.
The benefits of contemplating the vastness of the universe.
Shaykh Fadhlalla’s two highly spiritual fathers – his biological one and his guru, Swami Chinmayananda.
The 3-day limit for grieving in the Muslim tradition.
All religions come from the same light.
“The arc of the rising consciousness is clear.”
Love of nature as a spiritual path.
“You are essentially a cosmic being on a short journey on this earth.”
Suffering can be an incentive to see God.
Karma and reincarnation in Islam and Sufism.
Spiritual and other forms of leadership is shifting from male to female. Female saints in Islamic history.
Liberation within limitations.
Some quotes:
- “The ultimate treasure, without measure, is your own soul”
- “Every home needs its own inner ashram.”
- “Within every human being, there is sacred light. If I don’t interfere too much, if I put my shadow away then the light will lead me.”
- “The master within, my own soul, the divine presence.”

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded May 1, 2021

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview
00:03:45 – The Curiosity of a Child
00:07:51 – The Dichotomy of Earthly and Spiritual Desires
00:11:57 – The Inner and Outer Self
00:15:55 – Preparation for Infinite Life
00:19:44 – The Filter of the Brain
00:23:28 – The Shift into a Higher Consciousness
00:27:16 – The Progress of Consciousness
00:30:58 – The Influence of Consciousness on Animals
00:34:36 – Awakening to the Higher Within
00:38:38 – Reverencing the Divine Light within us
00:42:15 – Learning from a Spiritual Teacher
00:46:01 – Celebration of the Soul’s Journey Beyond
00:49:57 – The Decline of Fundamentalism and the Rise of Universal Spirituality
00:53:48 – The Emergence of Spirituality and Technology
00:57:27 – The State of the Garden Within Me
01:01:22 – Losing the small self
01:05:07 – Living a Full Life without Denial
01:08:58 – The Cosmic Justification for Suffering
01:12:31 – Wealth Distribution and the Future
01:15:53 – The Value of Suffering
01:19:12 – The story of the scorpion and the saint
01:22:48 – Liberation and Freedom
01:26:42 – Inner Freedom and Liberation
01:30:22 – Inner Freedom and Reconciliation
01:34:04 – Creating a Community in Messina, Texas
01:37:35 – Books and Connections with Shaykh
01:41:19 – Trusting the Cloud and the Aversion to Institutionalizing Things
01:44:43 – The Essence Within Us
01:48:06 – The Outer and Inner Self
01:51:48 – Awakening to the High Treasure

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522. Annette Kaiser

Posted on November 4, 2019 by Rick Archer

Annette Kaiser was born in Zürich, Switzerland in 1948. She is a spiritual teacher, founder and spiritual director of the retreat center Villa Unspunnen in Switzerland. Under her guidance, this place has become a gem of peace and light, that inspires many people in their spiritual work. She is a visionary of a Universal Spirituality and has written more than ten books. After completing her studies in economics and sociology at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), she worked for many years in the field of development cooperation. Her special fields were the women`s cause and intercultural dialog. During 17 years, she was a student of Irina Tweedie, an Anglo-Russian Sufi-teacher (author of Daughter of Fire: A Diary of a Spiritual Training with a Sufi Master). In the late 1980s, Annette Kaiser opened her Tai Ji DO-School, training teachers for over 30 years. Since 1998, she is authorized by Mrs. Tweedie to continue the Naqshbandiyya Mujaddidiyya Sufilineage, guiding human beings on the path of love. In the year 2000, she developed the „DO-path“, which she continues to develop and which enhances a deep transformation of the heart as a way of living in a non-dual, cosomocentric understanding. In 2017 she started teaching the art of spiritual dreamwork.

She is particularly devoted to transconfessional and transcultural evolutionary spirituality, which implies an open aware state of being as the natural expression of an integral way of living in a very deep sense. This way leads to Universal Spirituality and Universal Cooperation as Not-Two. In both areas, Annette Kaiser initiates and participates in many ways (retreats, workshops, conferences, audio-conferences, etc.) with different groups, centers and human beings in Europe and worldwide. She sees the 21st Century as a call for humanity to recognize itself as inseparably One, co-creating a new culture in collective wisdom and love of One Heart.

In addition, she engages herself also on a very practical level, always in the spirit of what Universal Spirituality means for her – ONE World – ONE Humanity – ONE Consciousness – locally and globally: e.g. recently by initiating the Co-creating Europe movement, or supporting the project of “Lebensraum Belmont” next door. And for over 30 years she is president of the not-for-profit association “Open Hands” that supports projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Furthermore, projects like “The path of Love – A Meditation path” and the meditation “The Golden Thread – for ONE WORLD” have been inspired by her.

She is married, mother of two adult children and grandmother.

Website: goldenerwind.ch

Books:

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded October 19th, 2019.

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
00:05:14 – Early Devotion and Interest in Spirituality
00:09:12 – The Quest for Understanding Reality
00:13:44 – The Journey of Finding Spiritual Guides
00:17:19 – The Miracle of Life
00:21:42 – The Life of Mrs. Tweedy
00:26:00 – Inviting Her to Switzerland
00:28:59 – Studying in Hochschule St. Gallen and the Movement of Gestalt Therapy
00:32:08 – Falling into Nothingness
00:36:08 – Awakening with Responsibility
00:40:11 – The Practice of Zikr and its Benefits
00:43:26 – The Possibility of Heaven on Earth
00:48:06 – The Awakening of Consciousness and the Calamity we Face
00:52:47 – The Transformation Process of the Butterfly
00:56:51 – Gems of Humanity in Iran
01:01:09 – The Immigrant Crisis and the Spiritual Perspective
01:06:16 – The State of Mind of All People
01:10:58 – The Miracle of the Body and Understanding Sexuality
01:16:28 – Unity of Soul, Body, and Spirit
01:20:53 – The Three Faces of God and the Shadow Part
01:25:03 – Embracing Different Perspectives
01:29:29 – The Journey of Spiritual Development
01:32:14 – Finding Divinity in the Ordinary
01:35:54 – Interview with Damian Eccles
01:39:26 – Exclusion from the Community
01:43:35 – The Importance of Self-Reflection in the Collective Field
01:47:38 – The Power of Spiritual Dream Work
01:52:24 – The Beauty of Switzerland and Engagements
01:55:41 – The State of Europe and its Challenges
02:00:34 – The Emergence of the New Culture
02:04:23 – Signing Up for Notifications

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510. Shaykh Burhanuddin Herrmann

Posted on July 29, 2019 by Rick Archer

Shaykh Burhanuddin Herrmann is a contemporary mystic of the ancient Sufi tradition, called to the path at a tender age.

He went through the classic dervish training, which involved an intense daily practice of meditation and prayers under the direct guidance of the Master, accepting his instructions for inner and outer life (including raising a family), extreme solitary spiritual retreats, pilgrimages, and regular challenging tests in daily life.

He received direct transmission of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, one of the most ancient and authoritative of the forty existing Sufi Orders, known variously through the ages as the ‘School of the Masters of Wisdom’, the ‘Way of the Scientists of the Soul’, and the ‘Path of Love’.

When Shaykh Burhanuddin was 18 years old, he invited to his hometown in Germany the Grand Master and world guide of the Naqshbandi order, Maulana Shaykh Nazim al Haqqani ar Rabbani, may his secret be sanctified. When he saw him the first time he fainted in the middle of the street. Meeting a Master, a saint who has gone beyond fears and who lives in the freedom of love is an unforgettable and life-changing experience.

Henceforth he was constantly at his beloved Master’s side for thirty-five years, accompanying him around the world spreading the Sufi touch of grace and love.

As a radical lover of the Divine, Shaykh Burhanuddin has an innate capability to convey that longing; he is able to read the souls of people, helping them to remember their own origin, destination, and their task on this Earth.

As an appointed shaykh (spiritual guide), he was trained to develop an eye to detect the expressions of Beauty in Life, whatever shape they may take. He was taught that in order to become human beings we are called to practice love and respect towards the Creator through the Creation and His creatures.

He was taught gratitude for everything that he had and that he had not. Maulana replaced in him the feeling of the need to strife in life, with an unshakable joyful faith that everything, good or bad is coming from the same Loving Source, and that it carries a message and a teaching for your own evolution.

He finally provided Shaykh Burhanuddin with the means and the drive to present a life-changing self-realization Method, the Uwaysi System, in a modern and universal key, beyond any belief or requirements.

For 30 years Shaykh Burhanuddin Herrmann has been leading spiritual growth meetings and retreats all over the world, in service of people’s spiritual needs. His simple and revolutionary method, the Uwaysi System, aims to awaken people to the real meaning and purpose of their lives, to remind them their highest origin and destination, and to help them to live a life of the heart, in peace, happiness, creativity and gratitude whatever their life circumstances may be.

Shaykh Burhanuddin is the author of three books (all in Italian):

Website: sufiway.eu

He is also a musician and the founder of the Dervish Orchestra.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded July 20, 2019.

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.