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:

• shaykhfadhlallahaeri.com
• zahrapublications.pub

Books mentioned during the interview:

• Son of Karbala: The Spiritual Journey of an Iraqi Muslim
• Sufi Encounters: Sharing the Wisdom of Enlightened Sufis
• Spectrum of Reality: Sufi Insights
• The Garden of Meaning

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Summary and transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded May 1, 2021

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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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:

• The Path Has No Name: Life and Vision of a Sufi Teacher
• Annette Kaiser: 99 Questions to a Spiritual Teacher

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Summary and transcript of this interview

Interview recorded October 19th, 2019.

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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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 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):

• Il cammello sul tetto. Discorsi Sufi. Una guida mistico-pratica alla Via dei Dervisci
• Il derviscio metropolitano. Vivere oggi la tradizione Sufi
• Il sufismo. Mistica, spiritualità e pratica

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.

Summary and transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded July 20, 2019.

YouTube Video Chapters:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
• 00:04:14 – Conveying the Longing for the Divine
• 00:08:18 – Direct Experience of God in Sufism
• 00:13:32 – Understanding Traditions and Becoming Human
• 00:19:04 – The Full Emptiness and the Path to Single-player Mode
• 00:24:44 – The Center of Life Energy
• 00:30:44 – The Importance of Accepting Life as It Is
• 00:35:01 – Life has no end
• 00:38:31 – Higher States of Consciousness and Enlightenment in Sufism
• 00:42:21 – Becoming Humans in a Time of Transformation
• 00:46:22 – Seeking Spirituality from a Young Age
• 00:50:37 – Childhood in the Forest 
• 00:54:22 – Silence in the Himalayas
• 00:58:23 – Seeking Help from a Master Healer
• 01:01:59 – Healing Miracles and Personal Transformation
• 01:05:16 – Functioning in the Real World
• 01:08:48 – Klaus’ Family and Spiritual Upbringing
• 01:12:08 – Encountering Khidr, alayhi salam
• 01:16:12 – Sufism and Cultural Heritage
• 01:20:05 – Meeting J. Krishnamurti and the Power of Silence
• 01:24:16 – Speaking the Truth
• 01:28:10 – Importance of Dreams in Sufism
• 01:31:50 – Rumi and His Importance
• 01:35:38 – Dressing in the Presence of the King
• 01:39:55 – Breaking through the Barrier of Fear
• 01:43:44 – Punishment for Misleading Information from Doctors
• 01:48:16 – The Revolutionary Prophet Sufism
• 01:51:26 – The Power of Thankfulness
• 01:54:55 – Embracing the Good Reasons 
• 01:58:04 – Traveling Around the World
• 02:00:43 – Farewell

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