Inviting the Opening
Aug 17, 2024 7:30 pm
Hi there,
This world is loud and noisy. Every minute of the day we are bombarded by a cacophony of planes, trains, and automobiles joined by a chorus of cell phones, radios, TVs, blenders, hairdryers, vacuum cleaners, and the ever-present hum of lights, computers, and all things electric.
Is that the dishwasher, refrigerator, or the bluejay chirping for a peanut?
What about all the people vying for our attention -- partners, parents, politicians, bosses, children, and advertisers flooding our ears and thoughts with emails, texts, and videos? It is such a sensory overload that we often respond with muscular, mental, and physical shields to protect ourselves.
Shutting down and shutting out like this may feel necessary to preserve our sanity, but it may also block the very things we need most -- love, joy, inspiration, and spirit.
Are you wondering how to stay open while still protecting your nervous system from assault?
Spirit is the answer.
Through spiritual practices, we develop our capacity to shut off the noise without shutting down. We take a break, rest, and revitalize.
How do we get there? How, do we stop the worst cacophony of all – the eternal interior critic, the negative voice in our head who is sabotaging our meditation?
A meditator! Who do you think you are? Gandi? You have things to do, places to go, commitments to keep, blah, blah, blah . . .
You may discover you can’t stop these thoughts for even ten seconds. You may feel hopeless and defeated. What you need is an opening.
If you are in the habit of shutting down to protect yourself from the noises of life, you will need to develop a new habit -- of releasing and letting go. You cannot force spirit. Like getting into a cold shower or a hot tub, you must ease in and allow your body to adjust.
Every Sufi exercise guides you toward releasing. You breathe, you stretch, you gently let go without forcing. In the release, you find the opening.
Chanting is another Sufi exercise for creating an opening. In my Sufi Zoom class, we do many chants, all evoking attributes of the divine, -- chants that mean merciful, brilliant, divine love, contentment, guidance, healing, wisdom, and more.
There is one chant that can help you create the opening. The chant is Fah Tih. It is the first two syllables of Fatihah.
Al Fatihah is one of the chapters of the Quran and translates as The Opening. It is the prayer used at the beginning of every prayer sequence. It is the prayer you would want to say when someone dies. It is the prayer to chant when giving birth. It helps create the opening, the portal to the moment, to the new world. It is a request for help from spirit, the divine, the universe, or whoever is listening, to guide us on the straight path.
You might want to learn this Quran Chapter. It is best said in the original Arabic because Arabic is an ancient language, with unfamiliar sounds that invoke the intended meaning. Because the words are foreign to most of us, the focus is on the sound, not the thought or meaning. Repeating the words is like saying an incantation or invocation. You cast a spell -- on yourself and the world which makes an opening in the fabric of daily life to allow spirit entry.
If you come to summer camp in New Mexico you will get a chance to learn it. For now, Fah Tih, this chapter's first 2 syllables, will help you create an opening.
By inhaling Fah, you welcome all that is life-giving, vibrant, and nourishing. Exhaling Tih releases all that is used up, empty, dead, or negative. In essence, it creates the opening by breathing in life and releasing not-life.
The “ah” sound in Fah is a vocalization we all make when sitting in a warm bath or on a comfortable chair or when taking a hot sip of tea after a cold walk. It is welcoming and receiving with gratitude.
The Tih syllable, (the “I” sounds like the I in If) is voiced on the exhale. It expels what is finished, used up, and empty. Tih sound jettisons the finished stuff away from you with the force of the “t” created by the tongue flicking off the roof of the mouth. The heh sound elongates the effect with the h at the end. Try the sound with an exhale and notice how it feels in your mouth and on your breath. Imagine throwing something out with this sound. You could chase a cat away with “Tih.”
Together, Fah Tih, creates the opening, the space, and nourishment for your spirit to grow.
You can do this chant anytime to release negative thinking and shift into the present moment. You can say it internally with the same result.
To learn more about how chanting can help create an opening in your sound-saturated life, join me on Sunday, August 18, at 8:30 am PDT and Tuesday, August 20, at 10:30 am PDT.
Use the LINK below:
SUNDAY-
Class 1 hosted by Michelle
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88050735178?pwd=zkrVoc4Mtg0pSXtAAWmoCrHWQb2qb1.1
8:00 am- San Francisco
11:00 am - New York (EST)
16:00 – Limerick
17:00 - Madrid (CET)
TUESDAY – hosted by Michelle
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88050735178?pwd=zkrVoc4Mtg0pSXtAAWmoCrHWQb2qb1.1
10:30 am – San Francisco
1:30 pm - New York (EST)
18:30 – Limerick
19:30 - Vienna, Madrid (CET)
Don’t forget to use the password SUFI all in caps if you are asked for the password.
Be brilliant,
Dr. Michelle
Life Transformation Coach
Empowering Women to Reinvent Their Life After Loss
Secrets of Life and Death
