his way back to the Grail. And indeed when he returns as a much older man having journeyed through life, he remembers to ask the questions. Well, that's what I mean about the sense of the security of the heart. It's as if the second time Parsifal comes into the Grail Castle, he's not so overwhelmed that he loses the presence to ask the questions. He holds the clarity of consciousness within the depth of the experience.

[01:05]

And that's why in Sufism as a path of the heart one must learn to both open to the depth of all what the heart can experience and feel and at the same time to stand within the security of the heart. And what I'm trying to do is to offer in these sessions different ways in which the heart the practice of the heart that I spoke about yesterday is very internal, can be experienced in relationship with another. And part of it is a sensitivity in the heart with each person that one meets, Of how to approach the other's heart in a way that it can be met.

[02:19]

And I'd like to tell a story about One of the kind of ways that Parsifal is defined and in fact the reason why he's able to he's the one who makes it to the grail is because he's perceived as the innocent or the fool. In that moment where I found myself with those 30 children in the children camp not knowing what to do was a parsifal moment.

[03:24]

Only a fool would have allowed himself to get into that position. But out of that something opens up, a new language to understand how a practice can be shared among children. Some years ago I accompanied and assisted Pirvelayat on a pilgrimage to India. And as India can be, it was an awful and wonderful experience simultaneously. And there were 125 people on the pilgrimage.

[04:33]

And Pirvelayat was ill for much of the pilgrimage. By the end of the pilgrimage, I was profoundly grateful that it was over. It was one of my deepest experiences. And that no one had been hurt and Pirvelayat's health returned and people had a significant time. And I had decided to go to Nepal for a week afterwards just to get away from everybody and everything.

[05:36]

And these friends of mine kept saying to me, look, there's this Buddhist teacher that we'd like you to meet who's in Nepal that we've studied with and we have a letter, a personal invitation for you to have a private audience with him. So I took the note and I was thinking inside, the last thing I want to do is to see another holy man. And when I got to Nepal, my greatest gift in Nepal was I found a restaurant that served chocolate cake. But after several days of being there, I thought, oh, well, I should probably go see this guy, you know.

[06:55]

They brought me a letter of introduction. So I took a taxi from Kathmandu to this town, and they kind of let me off, and there were a series of rather large Tibetan-looking buildings. And I was kind of looking around, wondering, and then I didn't know what to do, and I saw this Western woman dressed in Tibetan robes go by, and I said, excuse me, could you help me? I said, I have this note to meet this person and I don't know where to go. I couldn't even pronounce the man's name, so I gave her the note And the woman said, well, I'll take you there.

[08:13]

But she had this kind of look in her face after I gave her the note that I just was aware of. So she took me up to this very large building into this very large room and introduced me to the man's secretary. And the man said, well, welcome and yes, welcome. You have a meeting arranged with him and he's eating lunch right now. Would you like to sit and wait? So I was sitting there for a while and I could hear all this laughter going on.

[09:19]

And then I noticed behind this kind of silk curtain occasionally somebody would come out but they would walk backwards out of the place and they would be laughing. And they get kind of halfway across the room and then they would do this prostration all the way down to the floor and then get off and leave. And I thought, what have I gotten myself into? So within a few moments, this Western nun, I guess she was, came back and sat down next to me. And I said to her, excuse me, but I know this sounds like a tremendously dumb question, but who is it that I'm about to see? Who is he?

[10:37]

And she said to me, he's the head of one of the four Tibetan orders in the world. And then she pronounced his name. His name is Kensei Rinpoche. Then I really started to feel, wait a minute. And I was looking as each person came out of these incredibly elaborate prostrations they were doing. And so I went to the secretary and I said, look, there is no way that I could attempt to do that and look halfway legitimate within the next 15 minutes. And he said to me, it's okay, don't worry about it.

[12:00]

So when lunch was over, they kind of opened the curtains and the secretary came and got me. And brought me into the room where Kensei Rinpoche was seated. Now, I have this image of Tibetans as being kind of short little people. And there sitting before me, naked from here up, was about a six-foot-three man with piercing blue eyes. And a really big man, I mean quite full, with a smile the likes of which I have never seen in my life.

[13:23]

Now at that moment the depth of my practice came out because I just reached out and embraced him. And the great thing is he really embraced back. Now, I can't speak Tibetan and he couldn't speak English. And he said some things to me which were translated partially of which I remembered. And also I didn't realize you're supposed to bring a scarf which they bless and then they place over you.

[14:26]

So I didn't even have a scarf. So at the end, he took and blessed the scarf and he put it over me and then he embraced me again. Now, one of the things that was going on inside of me the moment I was with him was I kept thinking or feeling This man is the full moon. I've met the full moon.

[15:29]

Ich dachte, ich spürte, dieser Mann ist wie der Vollmond. Ich bin dem Vollmond begegnet. He had a rather round face, but that's not what I meant. It was the quality of the light. Er hatte auch ein recht rundes Gesicht, aber das meine ich nicht. Es war die Qualität des Lichtes, das er ausstrahlte. And also it had to do something with an incredible beauty. So when I came out, the secretary came over to me and I said to him, all I could say was, He's the full moon. He's the full moon. And the secretary started laughing and he said that was the name he was given as a child.

[16:34]

His name means the full moon. So I offer that as an example of what embrace means. Ich gebe das als ein Beispiel, was eine Umarmung bedeuten kann. I met Kensei Rinpoche. Ich bin Kensei Rinpoche begegnet. And I met the full moon. Und ich habe, ich bin dem vollen, dem vollen Mond begegnet. The full moon as the embodiment of the divine in a certain quality. And that to me is what the practice of embrace is about. We have a few moments and I'd like to suggest we do the practice as a form of meditation.

[17:51]

So as we did yesterday, we will just start with a few sighs. And if the image of the sofa was a helpful one, for whatever may be helpful to you, to let the breath draw you deep into the heart, to sink into your heart.

[19:39]

And from that place of a deep, relaxed and open heart, invite someone from the community that already is in your heart To come forward and to be met and to be embraced. Because we carry in our heart our community of heart. And that community journeys with us every moment.

[21:30]

We're not separated by time and space. So invite someone who has been deeply meaningful To be with you at this moment. And first, to just begin by imagining they're standing or sitting across from you. And to feel how they touch your heart. Often in the busyness of life, we don't have the opportunity to really meet the other.

[22:56]

And to be aware of how they touch our heart, What they bring to our heart and what they evoke as a response in our heart. And when the moment feels right to you in the meditation, imagine that you open your arms to reach out to the other and in that moment are opening your heart.

[24:28]

And that the other comes toward you. And enters into your arms. And for the moment, feel what it would be like to hold the other. And then the deeper embrace is to take the other inside one's heart. And there is the second holding, the deeper holding to hold the other in the depths of one's heart.

[25:55]

And when we hold one in the depth of our heart, they unfold like a flower. We feel their being unfold inside of us. The Sufis would say that their soul is revealed in that unfoldment in our heart. And we encounter the secret in the other, that there's a secret within each of us.

[27:31]

And the sharing of that secret is the experience of communion with the divine in the other. But another that now fills us. So in a sense we become the container that holds the other. And the other is not that which is separate from us, it's what fills us.

[28:38]

Now continuing to hold the fullness of the other in one. Surrender yourself into the embrace of this loved one. And in that surrender to give the only gift that we actually have to give, which is to give ourself to the other. And first to have a sense of what it is like to be held by another, to heal the atmosphere of this loved one, the way they, particular way they would hold you.

[30:43]

And feel how this loved one is held by you, holds you, the very special way. And then the deeper embrace to enter into the depth of their heart. And to let your being unfold or flower within the spaciousness and the grace of their heart.

[32:13]

And in the hearts of those we love, when we are embraced there, the secret or the treasure of our own being reveals itself. And we actually discover who we are in the heart of the other. Now if you like to just sigh.

[36:32]

Amen. I struck what Joan said in the story of the man she worked with. who in the depth of approaching death, what he longed for most was to be held. So I would just hope for all of us that if that's what we really long for, That we don't have to wait for the moment of death for it to be fulfilled.

[38:07]

And that's part of the way we can serve each other. Some people like the Polish embrace very full-bodied. Some people like the English embrace very formally. Some people like the Americans embrace with lots of pizzazz. The Americans embrace with a lot of flair. So, as Joan and Richard both suggested at the end of their practices, there are certain ways we can meet each other. And what I would just offer, there are different ways in which we can embrace while we're here.

[39:09]

And sometimes it's just a matter of looking at each other and you can just do this. And the embrace is inside the heart. And sometimes it has a wonderful deliciousness to actually feel the other person. So we'll see each other this evening. In a few moments maybe we could do some singing. This particular melody comes from the Jewish tradition, but it will have a lot to do with the theme we'll be exploring today.

[40:32]

And I think quite a few of you already know it. So the words are, O Lord, O Lord, come into my heart. And today we'll be looking at what Lord means in relationship to God. But I recognize for some people, especially for some women, the word Lord can feel rather alienating. So use whatever word is meaningful to you. So the words are, O Lord, O Lord, come into my heart. Build there your shrine and never depart.

[41:50]

So I'll just start the melody and then I ask if you would just let me sing it a couple of times. And then the other thing I ask, as you come in, this is not a choir piece. So we're not concerned with sounding nice as a group. If we do, that's lovely. But it has more to do with letting the song unfold in you and sing itself in you. O Lord, O Lord, come into my heart.

[43:20]

Build there your shrine and never depart. O Lord, come into my heart. Build there your shrine and never depart. So we'll just start it. And it's an inviting into the heart like the embrace is. Oh Lord, oh Lord, come into my heart. He'll bear your shrine and never depart.

[44:51]

O Lord, O Lord, come into my heart. To bear your shrine And never depart Yet I, yet I Yet I, yet I Yet I, yet I Oh Lord, O Lord, come into my heart, build there your shrine, and never depart.

[46:28]

La lai, la lai, la [...] and never depart. Lalai, yadadai, yadadiram daidi, yadadai, yadadai, yadadiram daidi. Don't be afraid to make it your own.

[47:59]

Let the harmonies come out. You can change the words. You can change the melody. You can change the words or the melody. You can create different harmonies. You can create different harmonies. Yedidai, yadadidam hari. Yedidai, yadadidam hari. Yadam Yadadidai Tadim Yadadam Yadadidai Yadadidai Tadim

[49:04]

Just make it your own. Don't worry about how you sing it. Ja, die... Macht es euch zu eigen, egal wie das klingen mag. Ja, die... [...] Yadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadad

[50:28]

You hold me, you hold me [...] ¶¶ Now just hum it.

[51:34]

Yeah, I know. Yadai, Yadai, Yadadai, Yadadai, Yadadai, la [...]

[52:39]

Now very gradually move the melody and the humming inside the heart. So you're listening to your heart, singing it within your heart. You listen with your heart as you are in the heart. And now, it's called the secret of a practice in Sufism, is you've left the words behind and now you even leave the melody behind and you hear it in the feeling which is behind the melody.

[54:41]

And now what is called the secret of the exercise. First you leave the words behind and then the melody and feel the mood behind it. Then one realizes the very melody itself. It's in the melody that the Lord that one's inviting comes in.

[55:51]

But then another level of the practice is that the melody is simply a reminder It's a way of remembering what's already there and what's... And if you would like to sigh, please feel free to sigh. I'd like to start with probably what is the essential prayer that arises out of the work of a very great Sufi called Ibn Arabi.

[57:34]

Because it will shed light on one aspect of working with God as a spiritual practice. And the phrase is, become through us what thou hast eternally desired to be. Become through us what thou has eternally desired to be. And I start with that phrase because it helps us to enter into the kind of language and world of Sufism.

[58:52]

And it, as I said earlier, is a world of relatedness, a relationship between God and the person. And this morning I will use the language of Sufism and then try for those for whom it is new to attempt to make it more accessible. And I will use the word God in a number of different ways this morning. And And we've been working with the sai, and a lot of Ibn Arabi's work speaks about the divine sai.

[60:05]

And first there is the sigh of God, which is the sigh of longing, the sigh of nostalgia, the sigh of sadness. And that's the sigh of the revealed God to return to the state of unrevealedness. So if I were to make a reference to the language that Richard used yesterday, it would be the longing to return to the state of samadhi. The longing to return to the state of God or the aspect of God, which is consciousness not conscious of anything, but consciousness turned in upon itself.

[61:24]

So let us say that would be one dimension of God. And we participate in that sigh, we experience that sigh when we long to turn inward and return to that state of unity. So if one were to use kind of Sufi language for the state of samadhi, one would speak of The return, God returning to the unity of God's being, to the solitude of his oneness or her oneness. And so there is, that's the divine inhalation that we experience. And from the Sufi perspective, or arising out of the practice of the heart, there is a longing that leads us there.

[62:48]

And that longing arises from the divine within us to return to that state of unity. So that Ibn Arabi speaks of as the sigh of divine nostalgia, the sigh of divine sadness. And in part we experience that in our life when as wonderful as life can be, as glorious as it can be, there are certain moments where we have a kind of we feel evoked in us a kind of sadness, a kind of longing for solitude. And when we experience that kind of longing, that is the sigh calling us back, shall we say,

[63:54]

Now, Ibn Arabi also speaks of the divine exhalation as the sigh of divine compassion. So that, and here, The Sufis use poetry, romantic poetry in a certain sense, to describe these states. So if it's a language that's new to you, the best way to enter into it is through the feeling of the heart. So there are kind of two schools of Sufism.

[65:11]

One says that God looked within. I'll say the Sufi poetry first and then try to unwrap it. There are two schools of Sufism. One perspective says that God looks within and I describe it first in the poetic language and then try to unravel it. that God looked within the solitude of God's being, let's say in that state of samadhi, and saw there the potentialities within the divine potentialities of divine beingness. and was so moved by the beauty of the latent potentialities which are us and the trees and the world and the planets, that out of love for that potential beauty within God,

[66:17]

God entered into the creation, entered into limited forms of consciousness. Out of love for God's being as each of us. And out of a sense of awe for the divine beauty in each of us. Now there's another branch of Sufism that says that their accent more, it was not out of the response of love, but it was out of the desire to be known. That the creation comes out of the longing of God to know God's self. Not as potentiality, but as a lived out reality.

[67:58]

So from that perspective in Sufism all of the creation as life proceeds to unfold and unfold and unfold is the divine sigh of exhalation, the divine sigh of compassion. So all of life as it proceeds is perceived as the expression of divine compassion. Because God pours oneself... God pours God's self... into the limited forms of the creation, out of compassion and out of love for the beauty that's longing to be lived. Now,

[69:06]

I also would just say I realize that this doesn't make any sense at all unless you're in a certain state of consciousness. And it's something that has to be felt with the heart. Now, this creates something which I think is, at least in my experience, somewhat unique to Sufism in that it speaks of, there is a union, a sympathetic union between the individual and God. I just all of a sudden had this thought that from kind of American psychology today we would say that God and the individual has a co-dependent relationship.

[70:20]

In this case I much more like the language of sympathetic union. Now, this is where the sense of personal God in Sufism becomes deeply important. And in the language of Ibn Arbi, this is where a distinction is made between Allah as God and one's Lord. And as I said earlier, I recognize that for some people, especially for some women, the word Lord is quite off-putting.

[71:24]

So I find one has to find the word that matches the inner reality. You don't just have to accept the word that's been used historically. And as I have already indicated, it is clear to me that the word Lord appears not particularly adequate for some people, especially for women. And then it is important to find a word that is true to the inner reality, and one does not have to stick to historical terms. The relationship of sympathetic union is based upon God's needing to be manifested through us. And here we move into God not as representing the state of consciousness in samadhi, but God as representing

[72:33]

the archetypal reality. So that this dimension has to do with for God to be realized, the divine qualities which in Sufism are the archetypal nature of God must be lived out. So Sufism says something which from traditional religious viewpoint is quite paradoxical, is that God's fulfillment is dependent upon us. And our fulfillment is dependent upon God. So in this sense, for the divine qualities to be fulfilled, to be actualized, we each must find, using Ibn Arabi's language, the Lord of our being.

[74:11]

And that would be the particular archetypal configuration that would be the root of our soul. And in our discovering that and in our longing to live that out, God is fulfilled. And in our discovering of the Lord of our being, or the archetypal blueprint of our being, we discover And this is how Ibn Arabi uses self. Self can be used in many different ways, just as God can. But for him, the self is

[75:28]

this archetypal divine configuration that is at the root of each person's soul. And our self-fulfillment and self-realization comes in the living out of that, in the realizing of that. So on the one hand Sufism says God-realization leads to self-realization. If I realize the Lord at the source of my being which is one form of God-realization, then that enables me in the journey of my life to experience self-realization in the deepest sense of the word self.

[76:41]

And at the same time, self-realization leads to God-realization. Because how do I find that root Lord within me, that archetypal expression of the Divine? I look inside myself. And I see where the deepest longing calls me inside of myself. And I also discover myself in where I am drawn in terms of the deep experience of the sacred in others or in the creation.

[78:01]

And they are the signs that show me of the signs of self that lead me of self-realization that lead to the experience of God-realization. Does this make some sense? And once again, to say that where the heart becomes central in Sufism is this only has a reality when one is in the heart. But let us say it has a reality, but one's only living in that reality when one is in the heart. And it's also the heart that guides one in Sufism. The heart is the great teacher, the great guide.

[79:18]

So we say in Sufism, the purpose of the outer teacher or the physical teacher is simply to awaken the reality of the inner teacher. And through the relationship with the outer teacher, one learns how to relate to the inner teacher, which is one's heart. And in Sufism, two of the ways that the heart guides one is through longing and desire. Now, because if you remember the phrase I said the other day, God is a hidden treasure longing to be found. That the depth of the longing within my heart, the deepest longing, is not just my longing.

[80:39]

It is God's longing leading me. so that that treasure may be found. And the same is true with desire. But here I speak about desire in a particular way. Hazar Dhanakan speaks of the depth of desire as being the divine impulse. It's once again the divine calling one, moving one, revealing itself through the desire. Because the desire leads one to union. Now, obviously in working with the heart and longing and desire one has to learn the sense of discernment because desire may have many forms and many levels.

[82:15]

So part of the work, part of the practice is to discern what is the deeper impulse or the deepest impulse within one's desires. And so here it has a lot to do with what Sufism speaks about, to find that which transpires behind that which appears. So what lies behind the various desires I may have? So in that sense desire is worked with as a process of discerning its levels. So that's a kind of introduction to the teaching of Ibn Arabi.

[83:45]

What I'd like to do now is to have a meditation in which we can attempt to assimilate some of what this may mean to us personally. Find a place that's a meditation position that's comfortable for you. And the theme of this meditation will have

[84:50]

Or shall we say, another way of saying it would be the kind of archetypal expression of the divine that is the very blueprint of one's being. And in the meditation we'll be doing that by looking at how that is revealed in our self and in what has been our life. So we'll start first of all just by sighing. And once again, let the sigh be the doorway or the gateway into the heart.

[86:34]

And the sigh itself as a practice becomes the passage through many doorways into the depth of the heart. Now Richard, with such clarity and such insight spoke yesterday about our different histories. And from the practice of the heart we have different histories too. We have the history of what factually has happened to us in our life. And we have the history of what we are conscious of experiencing in our life.

[87:55]

And there's the history of the heart. which is much fuller than what we are conscious of in our life. Because from the Sufi perspective, the heart experiences and has entered into it the atmosphere of every being it encounters, and the atmosphere of every place it has ever experienced. So our heart has lived our life with an infinite fullness compared to what we are conscious of.

[88:57]

And so here we're entering into the heart to ask the heart to reveal to us what our life has been from its experience. Which may or may not be quite different from what we think our life has been. And here we're asking the heart to reveal to us its experience, its journey. And so there comes in the meditation the heart reflecting upon itself.

[90:12]

And then to remember, which as I've mentioned before is a central spiritual practice in Sufism in different forms. To let the heart remember What has been our journey of life? And feel that journey from the heart. through the heart.

[91:57]

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