The HeartStream Pulse Newsletter

August 6, 2007

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Volume 1, Issue 6

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SUFI EVENTS

“It has been said that the highest attainment of Sufism is nothing but good character... The ripened fruit of this kind of understanding and practice is not an abstract and impersonal enlightened person, but the kind of person on would like to sit down and have a cup of tea with.
It is embodied spirituality.
—Kabir Helminiski in the Art of Adab

Welcome to the HeartStream Pulse Newsletter!
The HeartStream Pulse is sent as a service to our HeartStream Sufi Community as a communications forum. The Pulse will include: notices whenever a personal need arises, services to offer, housing available, items for sale, notices about interest/discussion groups, and community-related information to share.
We dedicate the HeartStream Pulse this month to Unveiling the Light of Community. We honor all the traditions and how they support Spiritual Community.

Our next All Community Visioning Circle will be August 14th, 7:00 - 8:30pm.
Please come join us! Refreshments will be served.
Call Laura Bathrick (831) 462-6766

— IN THIS ISSUE OF THE PULSE —

— EVENTS: SOUTH BAY CAMP 2007	— SUFI HERITAGE - ADAB
— THE IMPASSIONED MUSIC OF FANNA-FI-ALLAH	— REFLECTIONS: FIRST HEARTSTREAM VISIONING CIRCLE
— FACES OF THE BELOVED	— POETRY OF THE SUFI MYSTICS
— SHARING BARACA: THE TALKING STICK	— A CALL TO PRAYER
— LINKS TO OTHER SUFI COMMUNITIES	— COMMUNITY WISH LIST
— MARKETPLACE ADS	— CLASSIFIED ADS

Events
Unveiling the Light of Community
South Bay Sufi Camp 2007

August 24th to 26th
in Santa Cruz, California,
at the Happy Valley Conference Center, 2159 Branciforte Drive.

South Bay Sufi Camp 2007 is around the corner, Friday, August. 24th (4pm) to Sun. 26th (2pm).

Register now for South Bay Sufi Camp 2007 by visiting the HeartStream Sufi Community website: www.sufievents.com/Camp.html. Come and experience your own wonderful, loving and supportive Sufi community right here in Santa Cruz.

To view photos of last years South Bay Sufi Camp, click here

For Children’s and Teen’s Camps, call Laura Bathrick (831) 462-6766 to reserve a space by Aug 17th.

Kids Camp at our South Bay Sufi Camp 2007
Hi, my name is Laura Bathrick and I am director of Kid’s Camp in South Bay Sufi Camp 2007. I want to give an up date about kids camp this year and thank those of you who have reached out to us out to make this years kids camp a wonderful experience for all involved. We have inspiring activities for youth of all ages to enjoy:

Creating Dream and Prayer Flags using acrylic paints, markers and fabric.
Vanessa will be offering the following three spiritually focused activities:
- Children's Universal Worship – Children will participate in a ceremony celebrating the world's religions using song, dance and/or story. From the teachings of Murshida Vera Corda.
- Tara Tames the Eight Fears – Children dance and sing their way towards emotional health. For example, they learn short dances on how to deal with the Fire of Anger, the Snake of Jealousy, the Demon of Doubt and the Ocean of Desire. From the teachings of Prema Dasara.
- Children's Guided Meditation with Divine Presence – Children lie down comfortably and are taken on a relaxation/visualization journey, feeling unconditional love, acceptance, safety and Oneness.
There will be a fire circle Saturday night with games and story telling, (not to mention the smores!) and a great play and hangout space to read, draw and play games.

Let people with children know about camp. Donate some time the week before camp to organize and get ready. Share your talents and gifts like drumming, singing, or arts and crafts.

Donate the following items (in good condition): Inspiring games and toys, big pillows and lamps, craft items like paints, colored pencils, drawing paper, fabric, glue, costumes, ribbon that is wide enough to write upon (for a project we are planning). We need inspiring books for all ages and maps of cultures and places (like the ones in National Geographic)

Adult Class descriptions at South Bay Sufi Camp 2007 are now on the website. Click here

…and…ISHQ will be performing on Friday evening.

Sufi Heritage – Adab, The Sufi Art of Conscious Relationship
by Tofah Eileen and Kabir Helminski

Sufism has been described by some as the science of the perfection of the heart. The most significant aspect of this path is also often considered to be the development of ‘ADAB’ – the quality of kindness, respect and cultured treatment of one another – a foundation upon which individuals and community may grow and flourish. The following article was written by Sheikh Kabir Helminski and describes well the fundamental tenants of Adab.
– Tofah Eileen

Adab: The Sufi Art of Conscious Relationship
by Kabir Helminski
      Some years ago, a group of American spiritual teachers, all of whom were representatives of traditional Sufi lineages, were gathered in a home in San Francisco. Someone proposed a question: Of all that this tradition has taught us, what stands out as most important and valuable? Now Sufism is a path that comprises not only personal practice, but a whole way of life, and a vast culture as well. We were, moreover, all trained in different orders, and from cultures as different as Turkey, North Africa, Iran and South Asia. I think we were all startled by how quickly we arrived at a consensus that "adab," a difficult to define concept, stood out as the most uniquely valuable teaching we had received.
      Neither our American culture nor the times we lived in had put much emphasis on "manners." We had been a rough and tumble generation that had passed through a period of rebellion toward what we saw as the hypocrisies of our society. Informality was viewed as real and authentic behavior. Manners or etiquette would have been, at best, a quaint and irrelevant concept. What then, would account for the magnetic power of adab?
      From what I remember of our conversation that day, we seemed to think that adab had enabled a certain quality of relationship among ourselves, across the boundaries of our orders, and in the teaching situation within our own communities. It had softened our egos and introduced a quality of refinement in our relationships. On the path of Sufism my own idea of spiritual attainment had been transformed from a notion of some austere and impersonal enlightenment, to an embodied humility. This is not to say that any of us felt we had attained this ideal, but we held an image of it in our hearts, an image that had been formed by contact with certain of our teachers who were, for the most part, quite good examples of humility, sincerity, sensitivity, respect, courtesy – in short, adab.
To read this article in its entirety click here.
To visit the Threshold Society website click here.

Other Local Sufi-Related Events: The Impassioned Music of Fanna-Fi-Allah
- from the Qawwali tradition

Recently returning from their third pilgrimage to Pakistan, Fanna-Fi-Allah is in Santa Cruz again to share their love of the ancient Qawwali tradition. Don’t miss this fabulous evening of impassioned music.
When: Thursday, August 23rd at 8pm, $15 admission
Directions: Ashoka's house is at 420 Happy Valley Rd.
From Town, taking Market street (east), Market street turns into Branciforte Rd. as you pass under Hwy 1. Continue east on Branciforte (into mountains) for approx. 3+ miles from Hwy 1 until you see Happy Valley Rd, which only goes to the right. 420 Happy Valley is on the right about 1 mile in.
From Hwy 17, take Mount Hermon Rd to Granite Creek South to Branciforte. Make a left on Branciforte and head about a mile to Happy Valley Rd.

Reflections of the First HeartStream Community Visioning Circle
by Laura Bathrick

My deepest appreciation to all those who shared their presence at the HeartStream’s first and on-going visioning circle. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know each other a little better and share some of our ideas of what we would like to see more of in our community. Three things stood out from the group: Creating a more solid structure for caring for each other in times of need, getting to know each other better and the desire for group projects like group outings, hiking, & art. At this time, we are focusing on getting to know each other and gathering and sharing the dreams that are closest to our hearts. At some point soon we will choose a subject form our list that we collectively want to focus in on.
Our next All Community Visioning Circle will be August 14th, 7:00 - 8:30pm. Please come join us! Refreshments will be served. Call Laura Bathrick (831) 462-6766

Faces Of The Beloved:
HeartStream Sufi Community Joyously Honors Wayne Hoff
by Jay Dravich

      Wayne Hoff came to Sufism as one often comes to a calling, not knowingly. As a young man living across from Golden Gate Park, he occasionally watched "this wild character" (Joe Miller) leading walks through the park. Later, in Colorado he intended one evening to go to a restaurant, but walked in the wrong door and wound up at a Sufi dance. Eventually he moved to Santa Cruz and began dancing with Nancy Norris.
      In 1998, Wayne attended his first Sufi camp led by Shabda Khan and participated in a Zhikr. "I was blown away" he says.
Along with Lisa Sweringen, Wayne started building Full Moon bonfires on the beach where people came to do Zhikr. To keep people informed of the bonfires, Wayne constructed an email list.
      Wayne studied the ‘Mevlevi Turn’ and traveled to Turkey with Postneshin Jelaleddin Loras in 1999. He was initiated as a Mevlevi semazen at Shebi Aruz in the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium that year. The next year, along with Ibraham Garmard, Wayne began facilitating monthly meetings of the Mevlevi Order, and more names were added to his email list.
      He then constructed a monthly calendar of Sufi events that he emailed to his ever-expanding database. Soon the calendar became too cumbersome and he built a web site (www.sufievents.com) to help keep the community informed of activities taking place in the Santa Cruz and South Bay area. All of this he personally financed.
      Today, Wayne maintains two separate email lists: a Spiritual Events list and a Sufi Events list. Between the two lists Wayne mails out ten to fifteen event notices each month to more than two hundred and thirty people. When he isn't doing his healing work or on his computer, Wayne, who lives at the khanka, is busy helping to maintain The Garden Sanctuary grounds and to facilitate the many classes and people who come through it.
      By his untiring efforts, Wayne Hoff has not only been able to link people to events, he has linked many of us together in community as well.
      Wayne will be honored and recognized for his many contributions at the South Bay Sufi Camp, August 24-26th. We’ll see you there.

Poetry of the Sufi Mystics

Your Image
Once Your image settled into our hearts,
we found ourselves sitting in Paradise .
All our worries of Apocalypse and Armageddon
each turned into the face of a houri
and the charm of a Chinese beauty.
All that men and women fear to look at,
all that stalks them, now became close companions.
The skies became a rose garden and earth a buried treasure;
yet, what sort of "thing" are You
that all existence became this way because of You?
Since we saw Him we have been prospering day after day;
the thistle that happened to find Him
became a flower bed of certainty.
The unripe grapes turned ripe by the Sun and became sugary;
likewise, dark rock turned into a gem.
Many an earth was transfigured by His charisma;
the sinister turned felicitous out of His hand of fortune.
The darkness of the heart, became an opening of the heart;
the waylayer of faith is now a mentor and a leader.
The dark well of suffering which was a prison to Joseph,
became a strong rope for him to climb out.
Every particle is, like the army of Allah,
under Divine command,
to the faithful servant a guarantee and to the denier an ambush.
Keep silent, these words are like the Nile :
One, a Copt, will drown in this blood;
another, a blessed Israelite, will be buoyed along.
Keep silent. These words are ripened figs,
but not every bird of the air
will come to discover them.

- Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi
Translated by Rezwani and Helminski

For a daily Rumi poem, send an email to:
sunlight-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Sharing Baraca: The Talking Stick
Sharing Baraca/The Talking Stick – (with your story title and name here – yes!) Do you know someone in our community who is up to something spiritual? We want to hear what inspires you, fills your heart, opens your eyes, elicits your passion, and makes you go Ahhhhhla. Please submit your story or idea for a story for an upcoming issue to Tofah Eileen at tofaheileen@cruzio.com.

A Call To Prayer
by Hafiza Vanessa Ragan

In every religion, prayer is one of the most powerful forms of worship, of communion with the divine. Some pray as a matter of course, woven into our daily schedules, upon waking or before we go to sleep. We go to houses of worship to pray with each other; we pray silently, we pray dancing and singing; we pray in solitude and we pray on the streets. We may pray for relief when calamity strikes, for forgiveness at having caused harm, in gratitude when our prayer has been answered, as a plea for the healing of another, or at having averted something undesirable.
It doesn’t matter if we pray in devotion to a deity, to guides, ancestors and angels, directly to the Great Spirit, or to the deep wellspring of higher wisdom within—every time we pray, we are acknowledging Oneness in all Its beautiful forms. When prayers are offered with full emotion and power, with vision and conviction, our energy field can actually change, and can open the way for miracles, large and small. When said in communion with others, the impact is even greater. Prayer Treatments are prayers that are spoken aloud, often for another, infusing the quantum field with their energy and intention. Hazrat Inayat Khan sets forth Five Aspects of Prayer in The Unity of Religious Ideals:
“The first aspect of prayer is giving thanks to God for all the numberless blessings that are bestowed upon us at every moment of the day or night, and of which we are mostly unconscious…
The second aspect of prayer is laying our shortcomings before the unlimited perfection of the divine Being, and asking His forgiveness. This makes man conscious of his smallness, of his limitation, and therefore makes him humble before his God...
The third aspect of prayer is to tell God one's difficulties and troubles, and to ask Him for what one needs and wants…
The fourth aspect of prayer is like the call of the lover to the beloved. There is love of the mate, of parents of friends, of children, but in the love of God all is found combined. Therefore its joy is perfect. The love of God is living and everlasting and is the love of the true Beloved…
The fifth aspect of prayer is to know God, and in this way to draw nearer to God. This is the real meaning of the expression at-one-ment, which means complete union.”

Inayat Khan describes prayer as expression: “Expression is the nature of life. When every part of man's mind and body expresses his feeling, his thought, his aspiration, then it produces its full effect. And there is no doubt that the fact of meeting together for prayer makes the effect still greater. The blessing that one can receive through prayer is multiplied a thousand fold when received by a few united in the same thought and praying together. And as to the psychological effect, the world can be described as a dome in which every word that is uttered resounds. Through the resonance in this dome, an echo is produced, and what comes, comes as the answer of God.” It appears that Inayat Khan was hip to the power of the Law of Attraction (i.e. The Secret) nearly a hundred years before it was fashionable!

Here are the Five Aspects in an active Prayer Treatment: Thank You, Father Mother God Great Spirit for every moment I am alive, for breath itself! Thank you for my challenges, which only help to dust off my heart. Please cleanse me of my impurities, anything that obscures my relationship with Thee. I know that all is forgiven, taken from me and transformed! Thank you for helping me to reveal my light to myself, and to everyone I meet, as that is my greatest desire: to be my authentic self in service of the One! I feel and see it happening everywhere I go! Oh the Joy! I speak with confidence, warmth and grace, always from a deeper knowing and a calm connection with Thee. I see people’s expressions, eased by my presence, knowing that my sincerity and beingness is a valuable gift, bestowed by You! Dearest Beloved God, my love for You is the deepest yearning, the most tender of all embraces, and the most solid connection I have! I know that You are in all things at all times, and that I am part of You and You are part of me, nearer to me than my own heart! I am so very grateful to You, Great Master, the indescribable Power which is You, is me, is One! I lay my small self before You, offering all I am and all I have to be transformed for my highest good, for the benefit of All! I release this call to You, the Power of the Universe, and So It IS!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are in need of a prayer treatment, do not hesitate to call Hafiza Vanessa who offers them by phone: (831) 425-4550

Links to Other Communities
Are you interested in some of the other active Sufi groups in the Greater Bay Area? Just visit our links page. Click here.

— Community Wish List —

Someone with Accounting and PR Skills:
The Heartstream Pulse newsletter is looking for someone who has accounting and PR skills. Any amount of time is a great blessing and will be fun!! Call Tofah at 831-479-9278 or write to tofaheileen@cruzio.com

Picture Framer Needed:
We have a sacred item that needs to be beautifully framed. Contact Laura at 831-251-1808.

Digital projector and screen:
We can use or purchase for use at the South Bay Camp to show images of past camps. Call Tofah at 831-479-9278 or write to tofaheileen@cruzio.com

— HEARTSTREAM PULSE CLASSIFIED ADS —

Mother’s Helper/Babysitter needed:

We live near 17th and Portola. We will pay $5 an hour for a mother’s helper, or $10 an hour for a babysitter. Call Lisa at 465-1123. Then we can set up a time for you to meet the kids!

Seeking Short-Term Home in Trade for Work or Therapy - ASAP:
Want an aromatherapy massage or custom sewing, alterations, kitchen organizing, or gourmet meals? I'm a single, responsible, professional hypnotherapist, aromatherapist, personal chef, and seamstress, with 4 delightful cats. I desire a safe place to live short term, in trade for work or therapy, while I find a long-term home and rebuild my practice. I don't smoke, drink, do drugs or loud parties. Desire studio/cottage w/yard for my cats, kitchen w/gas stove, sink, and fridge, bathroom w/shower (tub a plus). Would consider rm in a home w/1 other quiet woman (spiritually aware, clean lifestyle), no other pets, no TV! Needed today (Aug. 2) or ASAP! Prefer Aptos/RDM; will consider other location (not downtown, Felton or BL). Your life will be blessed! References. Call Caitlin (831) 688-5153

Your Ad Here:

Do you have a need, something to sell, or something to share? The cost of running your Classified Ad in the HeartStream Pulse is $5 per month. Please keep your Ad to about 100 words or less so we can fit it into the newsletter, thanks. And let us know if you want your Ad run for another month – monthly rate applies. If you are interested, just contact Tofah Eileen at 831-479-9278 or tofaheileen@cruzio.com.