Living From the Heart

My exploration of – and walking on – the mystical path known as the Sufi Way continues this evening with my sharing of Living from the Heart: Universalist Sufism in America (2020), a 46-minute documentary film by Chuck Davis and Netanel Miles-Yépez.

In introducing this film on its YouTube page, the Inayati-Maimuni Order notes the following.

Living from the Heart offers an introduction to the mystical path of Sufism as expressed in the universalist Sufi teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan by contemporary Sufi teachers in America. [Note: “Hazrat” is an Arabic and Turkish honorific title used to show respect to a righteous person, prophet, and/or teacher. It is commonly used in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. The word literally translates to “presence, appearance.”]

The film contextualizes Sufism as a spiritual path of the heart, addressing the distinction between Islamic Sufism and Universalist Sufism, and introduces viewers to Sufi teachings on Love, Beauty, Music, God, and the Sufi practices of Zikr (remembrance) and Pilgrimage.

Locations in the film include: The Abode of the Message, New Lebanon, New York; The Boulder Dushanbe Tea House, Boulder, Colorado; Lama Foundation, Questa, New Mexico; Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon; Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado; The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, California; and Precita Park, San Francisco, California.

Living from the Heart features interviews with: Taj Inayat, Senior Teacher, Inayati Order; Shabda Kahn, Pir of the Sufi Ruhaniat Order; Satya Inayat Khan, Inayati Order; Zia Inayat-Khan, Pir of the Inayati Order; Netanel Miles-Yépez, Pir of the Inayati-Maimuni Order; Deepa Gulrukh Patel, Teacher, Inayati Order; and Jennifer Alia Wittman, Executive Director, Inayati Order. Also featured are: Sukhawat Ali Khan, Traditional Qawwali Singer; Amir Peter O’Laughlin, Sufi Musician; Lucas Kestrel Sego, Coordinator, Lama Foundation; and Aziz Isaiah Abbatiello, Traditional Mevlevi Whirler.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Sufi Way
• Sufism: Way of Love, Tradition of Enlightenment, and Antidote to Fanaticism
• Sufism: A Call to Awaken
• Sufism: A Living Twenty-First Century Tradition
• Doris Lessing on the Sufi Way
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Doris Lessing
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Kabir Helminski
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Inayat Khan
• Inayat Khan and the Heart of Sufism
• Inayat Khan and the Sufi Message
• Inayat Khan on the Art of Selflessness
• Inayat Khan: “There Must Be Balance”
• Inayat Khan on Mysticism
• Inayat Khan and the Fountain of Happiness Within
• Inayat Khan and the Alchemy of Happiness
• A Light That Will Always Shine
• A Living Light
• A Perpetual Fire Within
• One Wisdom
• Awakening and Turning
• As the Last Walls Dissolve . . . Everything is Possible
• Clarity, Hope, and Courage
• “Joined at the Heart”: Robert Thompson on Christianity and Sufism
• The Mystic Jesus: “A Name for the Unalterable Love That All of Us Share”
• The Soul’s Beloved
• The Gorgeous One
• Resting in the Presence of the Beloved
• You Are My Goal, Beloved One
• Be In My Mind, Beloved One
• Finding Balance in the Presence of the Beloved
• Your Peace Is With Me, Beloved One
• I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
• New Horizons
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan and the Winged Heart
• Held in the Presence of God
• The Act of Surrender
• The Journey Home