March 5 - March 18: Edinburgh, Scotland:
2010 Edinburgh International Festival on Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace (MESP)

Workshops, performances, panels and talks by grassroots peacemakers, artists, storytellers, musicians and others, including Dances of Universal Peace and inter-spiritual meditation for peace. Featured presenters and workshop leaders will include Rabbi Shefa Gold, Dr Geo Trevarthen, Dr. Andrew Powell, Dr. Stephen Wright, Imam Nusrah Cassiem, Professor Ursula King, Alva Group, Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz and many others. There will be the 2010 Middle East Festival One World Peace Concert, 6/2/2010; the MESP 2010 Middle Eastern Film Festival, 12/2 - 22/2/2010; the MESP 2010 Pre Events, 23/2 - 4/3/2010; the MESP 2010 Middle East Youth Festival, 27/2 - 3/3/2010; the MESP 2010 Main Events, 5/3 - 18/3/2010; and the MESP 2010 Exhibitions and Displays, 11/1 - 31/3/2010.

Contact: Neill Walker. For details of the conference and festival, go to www.mesp.org.uk

March 5-6: Edinburgh, Scotland:
Always Coming Home: Healing, Empowerment and Freedom
Through the Christian and Sufi Spiritual Traditions
with Rev Prof Stephen Wright and Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti

Home means many things to many different people. For some of us, it has to do with place, nature and culture. For others, "home is where heart is." For still others, we only know the feeling of home when we're already there. In this two-day "urban retreat," two experienced spiritual directors in the Christian and Sufi traditions will guide us in exploring our longing for the feeling of being at home--in our lives, communities and world. What prevents us from feeling as alive and free to express our purpose in life as we would wish? What healing could occur to dissolve these blocks and renew our sense of both individual empowerment and community? Using spiritual healing tools like deep listening, storytelling, chant, body prayer, breathing awareness and guided meditation, we will work with themes such as forgiveness, grief and bereavement, sense of purpose, past and present impressions of authority, the drag of popular culture and media, idealism and presence, patience, humor and a healthy toleration of paradox. Our aim is to leave feeling more empowered to live life to the fullest, as part of a larger community of creation. This two-day retreat is designed as a single experience and we encourage participants to join us for both days. In absolute necessity, it is possible for someone to attend only the first day; however, for continuity and group experience, no one will be able to attend only the second day.

Venue: Meeting Room, Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh. Time: 9.30am for 10am-4.30pm, both days.

Cost: £40/£30 (Concessions).
For a Registration Form Contact: Neill Walker

March 15: Edinburgh, Scotland:
A Beginner's Guide to Beginner's Mind and Heart:

Interspiritual Meditation in the Sufi, Christian and Buddhist Traditions

with Neil Douglas-Klotz

This day workshop will introduce various approaches to meditation in the Sufi, Christian and Zen Buddhist traditions. In addition to sharing various shorter or longer meditations, we will explore approaches to silence in the "empty" and "full" ways, the use of paradox (in the form of Sufi stories and Zen koans), and the roles of music, chant, breathing and body awareness, compassion, devotion, releasing and forgiveness. Knowing which "flavor" of entering silence suits our temperament can help us to establish a regular practice. At the same time, because we human beings share certain essential characteristics (like breathing, body awareness and capacities for love and wonder), approaches to silence also share key features. Knowing how to extract these keys and benefit from the meditations of other traditions can help us to either begin a practice or deepen and enrich the one we're pursuing. It can also help us share a deeper sense of silence and heart in interspiritual gatherings, including those with no overt spiritual content. Ultimately, being able to find our way more easily into a compassionate, inner silence can help us to attain more understanding and empowerment in daily life, a type of "meditation with open eyes," or as St Paul puts it, "prayer without ceasing." This event is offered as part of the 2010 Edinburgh Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace.

Venue: Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh.

Time: 9.30am for 10am-4.30pm. Cost: £20/£15 (Concessions).

For a Registration Form Contact: Neill Walker

March 19-21: Fluehli Ranf, Switzerland:
The Wisdom of the Sufis: Healing, Movement, Meditations of the Heart

During the retreat, we will select healing resources from the rich treasure of the "pathways of the heart" found in the Sufi practice of the 99 Beautiful Names (In German: Die Weisheit der Sufis, Koesel Verlag). We will focus on the many pathways that deal with strength, renewal, releasing, trust, being at home in the body, and increasing clarity in relationship to one's inner healing guidance. Connections will also be made to Neil's related work on the Aramaic words of Jesus. As resources we will use chant, heart meditation, walking meditation, body prayer and other forms of sacred movement and body awareness. The retreat aims to guide participants through a process that promotes freedom, growth and joy along with better understanding of oneself and others. This retreat is open to all, without prior experience. Only an open heart and mind, ready to move and dance with the One, are necessary. In German language. Contact: Barbara  Küng, Tel. 41 (0)41 921 20 41 or Regina Gerber, Email: regina.gerber@bluemail.ch

March 25-28: Wiston Lodge, nr Edinburgh,Scotland:
The Abwoon Interspiritual Leadership Program
Module 6: Sufi Pathways: A Model for Interspiritual Work

Deepening and leadership retreat for those interested in sharing meditation, Dance and spiritual practice related to the Sufi tradition in the context of building interspiritual communities and ministry, as well as retreat work. This includes especially the material articulated in the books The Sufi Book of Life and The Tent of Abraham and emphases on the Service of Elemental Peace, the Elemental Heart Healing Meditations, and leadership of Sufi chant and walking meditation. It also includes deepening for those wanting to establish a personal spiritual practice with this material. The three-year course also includes leadership training in body prayer, contemplation, chant, voice, walking meditation and the Dances of Universal Peace connected to this work. See full description of the program online at www.eial.org. This retreat is open to a limited number of participants who are not enrolled in the entire leadership program. Prior reading and an application form are required. A new 3 year program will begin in Germany in May 2011  (see below).

Contact: Fateah Alice Saunders, Tel. +44 (0)131 664-6206.

March 31-April 4: Finkenwerde, nr Berlin, Germany:
Annual Native Middle Eastern Retreat:

The Resurrection of Life: Easter with the Aramaic Jesus
with Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti and Murshida Gita Onnen

 
Resurrection occurs when we forget the small self, allowing it to fade away "like the dew drop into the shiny sea," and allow ourselves to become channels for blessing and healing. This was Jesus' practice, whose example we will follow through Walk, the Sufi practice of the pathways of the heart, the Aramaic Prayer cycle, and a focus on the blessing meditation Sufis call mushahida (the deeper experiencing of life). We will also share the Elemental Peace ritual and prepare for it progressively through further, advanced meditation on the elements and nature, as vehicles for blessing. Our way of practice will include Dances of Universal Peace, walking meditation, Sufi sound practice and wasaif, guided meditation and Soulwork. No experience is necessary and all are welcome. In German and English.

Contact: Gita Onnen, Tel. 49-(0)30-791-5211 and Anapurna von Kugelgen
Tel. 49-(0)30-313-9163.

April 9-11: Ammerdown Centre, nr Bath, England:
Living Blessing: The Aramaic Lord's Prayer

During this retreat we will focus on a step-by-step journey of the heart through the prayer of Jesus in his original Aramaic language. During this journey we will experience Jesus' original prayer tradition of living creation, a tradition that reminds us that new beginnings happen every moment in the heart of the divine. In this journey to our own center, we will also use contemplative prayer, walking meditation and a cycle of simple circle dances, Dances of Universal Peace. No experience is necessary and all are welcome.

Contact: Ammerdown Centre, Tel: 01761 433709. Fax: 01761 433094.

June  26-July 3: near Hamburg, Germany:
2010 European Summer School of the Sufi Ruhaniat
“Steps on the Path: Travelling a Deeper Way of the Heart.”

The annual Ruhaniat European Summer School is many things: Classes for those on the Sufi path—beginners, middle and more advanced (including Sufi guides); Guided group retreat process; individual classes on Sufi psychology, Walking meditation, longer Dance cycles and Sufi zikr, Sufi Soulwork, Mysticism of sound and chant, Sufi healing and more; a way to share practice with the main Ruhaniat Sufi guides in Europe. Experience joyous community with seekers from a dozen countries and languages—“eating, dancing and praying together.” Camp director and main teacher: Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti. Staff: Murshida Gita Sophia, Khalif Tansen, Khalifa Baraka, Sheikh Jelaluddin, Sheikha Rahmana, Sheikha Alima and Sheikh(a)s Wali and Arienne. In English and German.
Contact: Edmund Dixon

Registration: Qadima Sabine Brandt, Tel. 49-(0)30-47036782.
See also the Sufi Ruhaniat European website at www.ruhaniateurope.org

September 24-26: Othona Centre, Burton Bradstock, Dorset, England:

The Healing Breath:

the Aramaic Beatitudes and the Spirituality of Jesus

A weekend retreat on the Beatitudes in Matthew, using chant, movement and contemplation. The Beatitudes in Aramaic (their original language) present a subtle psychological process of healing and empowerment. The 'music' of healing that Yeshua (Jesus) plays appears in one form in Matthew, in another in Luke. As well as hearing Neil Douglas-Klotz speak, we will meditate, chant and dance our way through this process of healing, re-experiencing the empowerment that Yeshua offered his original listeners. (The dance involved is the gentlest of movement, accessible to anyone who can stand and walk!)

Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz, scholar, author and musician, is the foremost explorer of what Jesus taught in his mother tongue and of the significantly different Christ – compared with some traditional images – who emerges. His books include Prayers of the Cosmos, The Hidden Gospel and The Genesis Meditations, which proposes common ground for peace between Christians, Jews and Muslims. A Sufi himself, he offers Christians and indeed all spiritual seekers a great treasure, as key passages from the gospels are dusted off and acquire a renewed lustre. Book early, as his 2009 visit to Othona was over-subscribed.

Contact: Othona Centre, mail@othona-bb.org.uk Tel. +44 (0)1308 897130 Website: www.othona-bb.org.uk

October 14-17: nr Edinburgh, Scotland:
The Abwoon Interspiritual Leadership Program: Integrative Retreat

This is the final meeting of the Scottish AILP group and is closed to the public. A new group in Germany is forming for modules beginning May 19, 2011 and ending in spring 2014. See below and for full details and application form, see www.eial.org. The new program will be in German and English.

October 23-24: London, England: London Centre for Spirituality:
The Ancient Spirituality of Creation:

The Original Meditation of the Aramaic Jesus

with Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz

Though too often forgotten, the roots of peace in today’s world can be found in the ancient understandings of the foundational stories and practices of the three Abrahamic faiths. This two-day workshop focuses on a spirituality that unites the three main religions of the Middle East and demonstrates how early mystics, including Jesus, may have meditated. In spite of apparent differences, all three religions originally shared an emphasis on sacred beginnings and a vision of a living caravan of ancestors. These ways of contemplation, which were kept alive by the mystics and mystical traditions of the three traditions, including Meister Eckhart, the Sepher Yitzerah, and the classical Sufis, including Rumi and Ibn Arabi. The basic meditations and practices shared seek to reclaim the life-affirming energy of creation as an ongoing reality.The workshop will use short lectures, meditation, chant, Dances of Universal Peace, and body prayer based on Neil Douglas-Klotz’s books.

Contact: London Centre for Spirituality, Tel. 020 7621 1391, www.spiritualitycentre.org

May 19-22 2011: Institute for Dance and Peace Arts, Golzow nr Berlin, Germany

The Abwoon Interspiritual Leadership Program:

Module 1: The Aramaic Prayer of Yeshua

Deepening and leadership retreat for those interested in sharing the Aramaic Prayer of Jesus in the context of building interspiritual communities and ministry, as well as retreat work. Deepening for those wanting to establish a personal spiritual practice. Leadership training in body prayer, contemplation, chant, voice, walking meditation and the Dances of Universal Peace connected to this work. This is a three and a half year program, with enrollment limited to 25 people. See full description of the program, in German and English, at www.eial.org. Prior reading and an application form are required for the program. The program will be conducted in German and English language.

Information and application: Deutsch  English
or email