As material reality gets more uncertain and alarming, I have found that using spiritual practices to find my way forward is really helpful. I’ve been exploring Sufi teachings for over 20 years, and want to share a couple of processes which have helped me.
So what do I mean by Sufi? It’s an elusive idea: there’s no creed or text to define it. Here’s one summary I like: a Sufi is one who takes a heart-centred approach, seeing the divine unity in all forms of life. I’ll share examples of how I put this into practice.
If we’re looking for a gift in the problems of the climate crisis and other current challenges, it might be a call to a change in consciousness: seeing divinity in all forms of life, including humans and the rest of Nature. A key Sufi belief can help with this, summed up in an Arabic phrase: la illaha ill’allah. Which could be interpreted: there is no reality except divine unity, which includes all life, and is beyond our conceptions of it.
Try a Wazifa practice
Many Sufis use wazifas: typically a sound mantra which evokes an aspect or quality of divine unity. The sound of certain languages has particular power, and Arabic mantras are often used by Sufis. This sequence of four wazifas is one that I find especially effective in handling feelings of overwhelm around climate change, and discerning a bigger picture.
If you want to try this, read the whole section, and give yourself some quiet space and clear time. The best way to work with wazifas is to speak the sounds out loud, and repeat each one quite a few times, e.g. 33. The sound ya before each wazifa helps to call in or invoke the quality. I find it’s best to do this walking or standing, and using the hand gestures for each wazifa described below. You could try walking slowly and repeating the whole sequence numerous times, or repeating each wazifa on its own for a while, and then moving on to the next.
These four wazifas are all named in one Sura or chapter of the Koran, 103, to help individuals and communities to find a sense of purpose and coherence in life.
Ya haqq (pronounced hukk): starting where you’re at, recognising the truth of the situation, the ground you stand on. For climate change, this probably means letting in and feeling the alarming scale of the crisis. Feel your link to the Earth element, keeping yourself grounded and centred. Hand movement: both hands at hip height, palms facing the earth, to help you connect with the ground of the situation.
Ya sabur (pronounced sahbour): this invokes patience, stepping back to see the situation in perspective, and give time for insights and responses to evolve. A useful antidote to understandable panic. Feel your connection to the Water element, in its still and reflective qualities. Hand movement: hold your hands cupped together, palms facing upwards, on the lower abdomen, to help you connect with the quality of waiting patiently.
Ya iman (pronounced immahn): this wazifa is linguistically akin to the word amen used to affirm prayers. Both invoke trust, opening for support from divine power and wisdom, and also grounding, a reconnection with the support of the Earth. Connect with the element of Fire, let it warm your heart and shine a light to guide you beyond any sense of freezing under stress. Hand movement: both hands on your heart, to help you relax into the quality of trust.
Ya salik (pronounced salleek): here, we’re opening to the greater good we can find in a situation, and in particular to how our own life purpose can flow through us to serve in this. Expand with the element of Air, and feel it as a link with the breath and spirit of all life. Hand movement: repeatedly open your hands out from the heart into an expansive gesture, ending with the arms spread wide.
In many Middle Eastern spiritual traditions, what we might call prayer took quite active and embodied forms, so part of the power in the practice above is that it has been done for centuries, by many people. Speaking or chanting the wazifas out loud, using them as a walking meditation, and using the hand movements, helps us feel the full meaning of each one in the body.
Sweep out the chamber of your heart
Another helpful Sufi approach is unlearning, emptying, as a key to opening to the divine. This is beautifully explained by one of my favourite Persian poets, Mahmud Shabistari, speaking to us from the thirteenth century:
The chamber of your heart
Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
When you depart out,
He will enter it.
In you,
void of yourself,
will He display His beauties.
The tavern-haunter wanders alone in a desolate place,
seeing the whole world as a mirage.
The tavern-haunter is a seeker of Unity,
a soul freed from the shackles of himself.
Though the chamber of the heart is small,
it’s large enough for the Lord of both worlds
to gladly make His home there.
Transforming your viewpoint
A feature of many Sufi teachings is to seek entirely different viewpoints to illuminate a situation. One of these is seeing all of Nature – trees, mountains, as well as animals – as having sentience and intelligence, a view shared by Thomas Berry and others. Sufi poets like Rumi, Hafiz and Shabistari can help us to play with reality and discern it more clearly. An example is Rumi’s famous poem, A Chickpea Leaps, or his poem, Whoever brought me here, excerpt below:
All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.
Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.
While life in general, as well as climate change, gets more challenging, I find that the fellowship and support of groups gets even more valuable. Sufi gatherings are part of this, and I like their inclusiveness: they are usually open to people of any spiritual belief, and draw on practices from a range of traditions. A good place to explore this in the UK is www.inayatiyya.org.uk.
NOTE: The interpretations of the wazifas above are based on the work of Neil Douglas Klotz, including his book The Sufi Book of Life, which is a good introduction to the topic.