Warm greetings, everyone. Pir Zia led a three day leaders retreat last weekend, entitled “The Alchemical Spiral.” He led the three mornings, with the afternoons taught by other teachers. Maybe 300 people attended, with most though not all from Europe and America. Here are my impressions, certainly not meant to be a summary.
The whole retreat focused on his spiral approach to the seven lataif, the subtle centers within the human body, similar to the chakras in yoga. Usually people have thought of the lataif being more or less in a line going from bottom to top. In a common Sufi approach, that we use in the Inayatiyya, three of them are in the area of the heart, at the left breast, right breast, and center of the chest, and so they are not completely in a vertical line.
What distinguishes the alchemical model…is its emphasis on the integration of form and formlessness, rather than a one-sided and precipitous flight from matter to spirit. This distinction has important implications for our world, a world that now more than ever stands in need of balance, healing, and wholeness. - from the announcement of the retreat.
I’m not going to try to explain Bawa’s teaching, so I’ll take some quotes from the descriptions of this retreat and of the upcoming series of classes he will be giving. He has been approaching the subtle centers as a spiral, reaching towards the heart in the center.
Moving through the centers in spiral fashion – in tune with the whorl of a fingerprint, a flower, or a galaxy – harmonizes the polarities inherent in our constitution and strengthens the central heart (sirr). - from the announcement of the upcoming classes.
He calls this spiral of the centers the “Sophic Whorl,” sophic referring to wisdom, and the spiral very much focuses the energy on the heart. The traditional approaches to these centers usually aim to bring energy to the top, the crown center, and sometimes, back down.
Throughout the weekend we contemplated the nature of these centers. Each one is associated with a color, using the four colors of the elements plus gray, black and white. Each of them is associated with one of the elements. Each is associated with a “planet,” as they’re traditionally referred to, in the symbolic sense, like Mars or Venus, Sun or Moon. Each has various Names of God, to help awaken them. And “each step reflect[s] the spiritual task of the station at hand.”
Bawa announced a series of 7 weekly classes, starting on Sunday, Feb. 27, called “Entering the Sophic Whorl,” and is planning more classes in the fall. The course is announced on the home page of Inayatiyya.org, with intriguing information about the approach. Here’s what it says about the first two stations:
Station One: Standing Strong
If one lacks the knowledge of the battle of life one lacks the most important knowledge of all.
How do we navigate the unprecedented social and ecological context in which we live with integrity and resilience?
Station Two: Letting Go
The true emptiness is filled by the Divine light.
What does it mean to face one’s shadows and, ultimately, the great unfathomable mystery that can never be quantified or grasped?
The last session was combined with a public class Bawa gives with Sheikh-ul-Masheik Mamood Khan every two months. I was especially moved by Bawa’s recounting of an incident from when he was about 18. Pir Vilayat showed him a collection of Sufi books of teachings given by the sheikhs in our Chishti lineage, and asked Bawa to learn Persian to be able to study them. This led to Bawa going to the Univ. of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
I had to think of Bawa now taking this task to a whole new level, in an overhaul of his father’s approach to the retreat process, and can feel Pir Vilayat being overjoyed. The video can be found from the Inayatiyya web site, by looking for Digital ~ Vimeo ~ Dutch Session of 1/30/22.
I’ve been reminiscing about Pir Vilayat’s introduction to the Alchemical Retreat, in six stages. In the Woodstock camp of 1975, he led 4 mornings of retreat, with the first morning spent on the full zikr, the second on the second zikr, and so on. If he mentioned an alchemical process or six stages I certainly didn’t notice it. The next year the Abode was ready to host the camp, and we went through the whole alchemical process, with its goal of transformation, which has been a major focus of our retreats since then. Until now, at least.
In doing the practice on my own afterwards, the spiral pattern has a wonderful effect on keeping the whole practice heart-centered. And I was struck how attention to each center has become so rich and enriching, not only as the energy center we are so familiar with, but also with its association with a color, a planet, a wazifa, and a whole station dealing with life issues.
Bawa asked us not to teach these new practices to others, until we have worked with them ourselves for a year.
With love and blessings to you all,
Jami Klein
Washington, DC