by Matthew Wright

What is the path of dervishhood?  One definition could be “the cultivation of our essential humanness.”  Latent within each human being are capacities for sensing and expressing realities such as beauty, gentleness, relationship, unity, truth, and love.  To live from and manifest these possibilities is both the potential and the high calling of being human.  Dervishhood is a path, rooted in daily life in the world, that seeks to bring that calling, in all of its holy ordinariness, to its fullest fruition.

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by Shaikh Kabir Helminski

(An excerpt from Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self)

Sufism is a way of life in which a deeper identity is discovered and lived. This deeper identity, beyond the already known personality, is in harmony with all that exists. This deeper identity, or essential self, has abilities of awareness, action, creativity and love that are far beyond the abilities of the superficial personality. Eventually it is understood that these abilities belong to a greater life and being which we individualize in our own unique way while never being separate from it.

Sufism is less a doctrine or a belief system than an experience and way of life. It is a tradition of enlightenment that carries the essential truth forward through time. Tradition, however, must be conceived in a vital and dynamic sense. Its expression must not remain limited to the religious and cultural forms of the past. The truth of Sufism requires reformulation and fresh expression in every age.

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by Matthew Wright

Image credit: The Ta-Sin of Self-Awareness in Tawhid II, Amar Dawod, 2013

Sufism is rooted in the vision, language, and practices of Islam.  Within the Mevlevi Order, however, one does not have to become a Muslim in the outer, sociological sense (“converting” from one religion to another) in order to practice Sufism.  That said, we do encourage familiarity with the Islamic tradition—its story, Prophet, teachings, and Scripture.  This post is intended as a brief introduction to Islam as I’ve come to know and love it within the framework of the Threshold Society.

For those who don’t know the story, in the year 610 a prophet began preaching in the Arabian city of Mecca.  His language, metaphors, and stories placed him firmly in the biblical lineage of prophecy; he spoke of Jesus and David and Moses before him; of justice and mercy and the oneness of God.  His name was Muhammad.

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