Kabir Helminski is a Shaikh in the lineage of Rumi, and co-director of The Threshold Society. His translations of Rumi and books on spirituality, Living Presence and The Knowing Heart, have been published in at least eight languages. In 2009 and subsequent years Kabir was named as one of the “500 Most Influential Muslims in the World” by the Royal Strategic Studies Center (Jordan). He has toured North America as Shaikh with the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey bringing Sufi culture to more than 100,000 people. His latest book is Holistic Islam: Sufism, Transformation, and the Needs of Our Time.

Other books:

• Love’s Ripening: Rumi on the Heart’s Journey
• The Rumi Daybook: 365 Poems and Teachings from the Beloved Sufi Master

Discussion of this interview in the Batgap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded November 28, 2017.

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

YouTube Video Chapters:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
• 00:04:11 – Inspiration and Exploration in the 60s
• 00:10:06 – Working with Contemplative Teachers
• 00:15:31 – Sufism and Islam: Distinguishing Between the Two
• 00:20:47 – Sufism and its Practices
• 00:25:49 – The Prophet Muhammad’s Revelation and the Quranic Language
• 00:31:26 – Sufism and the Value of a Teacher
• 00:36:17 – Embodiment of Non-Dual Reality
• 00:41:05 – The Growing Awareness of Embodied Enlightenment
• 00:44:32 – The Knowing Heart and Spiritual Development
• 00:48:16 – Transformation through Love and Acceptance
• 00:51:50 – The Healing Power of Whirling
• 00:55:46 – The Whirling Dervishes: A Profound Spiritual Practice
• 00:59:24 – The Power of Spiritual Energies
• 01:03:03 – The Whirling Ceremony and the Revelation in the Sufi Tradition
• 01:06:58 – Self-awareness and servanthood
• 01:14:09 – The Stupidity of Spending a Year Doing Worthless Things
• 01:17:34 – Finding Mercy in Pain and Suffering
• 01:25:17 – The Assimilation of Deeper Reality
• 01:29:03 – The Essential Self and the Personality Self
• 01:33:01 – Plugging into the Divine Energy
• 01:36:21 – The Qualitative Development of the Human Being
• 01:39:50 – The Beauty of the Ritual
• 01:43:02 – Disorganizing Higher Energies
• 01:46:39 – The Beauty of Islam’s Rejection of Idols
• 01:50:14 – The Love and Strictness of a Parent
• 01:53:37 – The Presence Within Us
• 01:57:16 – The Nearness to God
• 02:00:19 – Concluding Remarks and Farewell

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Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee Ph.D. is a Sufi teacher and author. Born in London he moved to Northern California in 1991 and founded the Golden Sufi Center, (goldensufi.org). In recent years the focus of his writing and teaching has been on spiritual responsibility in our present time of global crisis, and an awakening global consciousness of oneness (workingwithoneness.org) (Working with Oneness). More recently he has written about the feminine (The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul), and the emerging subject of Spiritual Ecology (emergencemagazine.org) He has been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on Super Soul Sunday and featured on the Global Spirit Series shown on PBS. His most recent book is Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth. Much of this interview focused on the topic of that book.

Other books:

• Darkening of the Light: Witnessing the End of an Era
• Fragments of a Love Story: Reflections on the Life of a Mystic
• Prayer of the Heart in Christian and Sufi Mysticism
• Sufism: The Transformation of the Heart
• Alchemy of Light: Working with the Primal Energies of Life
• Love Is a Fire: The Sufi’s Mystical Journey Home
• Catching the Thread: Sufism, Dreamwork, and Jungian Psychology
• Spiritual Power: How It Works
• The Signs of God
• The Face Before I Was Born: A Spiritual Autobiography
• The Bond with the Beloved: The Inner Relationship of the Lover and the Beloved
• Travelling the Path of Love: Sayings of Sufi Masters

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded 11/10/2013

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

YouTube Video Chapters:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction to Llewellyn Vaughan- Lee and his work
• 00:02:23 – The Key to a Different World
• 00:04:57 – The Beginning of My Spiritual Journey
• 00:07:04 – The beginning of my spiritual journey above Mrs. Tweedie
• 00:08:53 – The Decision to Go to America
• 00:10:37 – Spiritual Freedom in California
• 00:12:37 – Learning from a Spiritual Teacher
• 00:14:52 – A State of Pure Light and Bliss
• 00:16:32 – Oneness and Shattered Ego
• 00:18:48 – Reconstituting the ego around a different center of consciousness
• 00:20:58 – “Abiding after Passing Away”
• 00:23:44 – The Compilation of Essays
• 00:26:47 – Our Responsibility Towards Creation
• 00:29:41 – Becoming Responsible spiritual citizens of the world
• 00:32:09 – The Next Step: Servanthood
• 00:34:18 – The Contribution of Spiritual People
• 00:36:25 – The Listening of the Heart
• 00:38:13 – The Forgotten Spiritual Body of the Earth
• 00:40:23 – Sustainability and the Responsibility to Creation
• 00:42:48 – The Great Chain of Being and the Ecological Crisis
• 00:45:13 – The Quest for the Grail
• 00:48:19 – The Awakening and Service to the Whole
• 00:48:41 – Keeping Integrity Amidst Commercialization
• 00:50:50 – Embracing the responsibility of awakening
• 00:53:00 – Connecting through the Web of Light
• 00:55:11 – Beneficial and Less Beneficial Forces in the World
• 00:57:22 – Censored from an Awareness of Inner Beings
• 00:59:29 – The Inclusiveness of Oneness
• 01:01:32 – Prayer for the Earth and Spiritual Intimacy
• 01:03:55 – A Connection between People and the World
• 01:06:10 – Music

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Puran and Susanna are successors to Hazrat Inayat Khan and Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan in the lineage of Universal Sufism: the mysticism independent of any religious tradition and the essence of all. They are one of the few married couples who teach together in the field of personal development and social change.

IAM is celebrating its 22nd year! In the last four years, Puran and Susanna have led 30 to 40 seminars a year, reaching thousands of people a year. They are frequent presenters at conferences on the heart, sound, subtle energy, healing, psychology, relationships, business development and sustainable futures. They have been teaching for 35 years and have directly influenced tens of thousands, who have in turn gone on to spread the techniques and principles of the heart to many more.

IAM began in 1988 when Pir Vilayat Khan asked Puran and Susanna to start a new school to bring the message of the heart to the public through a professional and scientific approach. This message, as taught by Hazrat Inayat Khan, includes the unity of all religious ideals, the one single family of humankind, the divinity of the human being, the unending progress toward perfection, and the fulfillment of every person’s unique purpose. The message of the heart integrates the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of self; the heart is the regulator of the body, the seat of emotions and the temple of the soul.

Website

Books:

• Living From The Heart
• Energize Your Heart
• Follow Your Heart

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded 6/22/2013

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

YouTube Video Chapters:

• 00:00:00 – Levels of Understanding and Spiritual Growth
• 00:05:11 – The Path to Peace: Emptiness and Wholeness
• 00:09:28 – Progress on the Path of the Heart
• 00:13:55 – Sustaining ourselves on light
• 00:18:00 – Experiencing the Divine Within
• 00:22:31 – The Method of Samadhi and the Heart’s Role
• 00:26:48 – The Awakening Process: Steps to Stay Grounded
• 00:31:21 – Finding and Pursuing What You Love
• 00:34:53 – The Awakening of Collective Consciousness
• 00:38:43 – Reason for Optimism and the Exciting Shift in the World
• 00:42:53 – Exploring Different Perspectives
• 00:46:35 – Nourishing Different Expressions of Spirituality
• 00:50:30 – Leading by Example
• 00:54:39 – Recognizing Steps on the Path of Life
• 00:59:17 – The Three Stages of Behavior and Connection
• 01:03:32 – The Cleveland Experiment and Crime Reduction
• 01:07:09 – The Mind-Body Connection
• 01:10:57 – The Effects of Meditation on Crime Rates in Cleveland
• 01:15:53 – The Power of the Heart in Shifting Behaviors
• 01:19:59 – Searching for Something More in Life
• 01:24:05 – The Nine Steps of Spiritual Development
• 01:28:16 – The Five Steps of Self-Development and the Power of the Heart
• 01:32:51 – The Dark Night of the Soul and the Power of the Heart
• 01:37:24 – Themes of Alien Encounters
• 01:41:50 – Chasing the High and the Temptation to Meditate
• 01:46:25 – Communication with the Universe
• 01:50:10 – Making Light for Those in Need
• 01:53:55 – The Nine Steps of Service
• 01:58:05 – Becoming an Instrument for a Larger Purpose
• 02:02:28 – Developing Health Relationships and Accomplishments
• 02:06:33 – Thank You for Your Work

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