Last week I shared the effects of the practices I use in my weekly moving meditation classes. There is only so much you can achieve in 90 minutes or 2 hours. If you want to go further in the spiritual work, you need longer workshops, particularly those at the Sufi Foundation summer camp in New Mexico.

At camp, you are introduced to additional practices, like drumming, singing, fasting, whirling, and chanting powerful prayers. Each practice has its unique flavor and effect. Some will take you into a very deep trance, others maintain your state and others will allow you to expand. The Sufi teacher combines these techniques to develop your spiritual capacity and intelligence. 

There is a rhythm of contraction and expansion to the selection of these practices that is played out over a week or summer. It is through this rhythm that spiritual development takes place.

It's a tightrope. If students stay too long in the state of contraction they can become argumentative, have accidents, or leave the work entirely. If they do not stay long enough, nothing happens.

Each student has his or her level of capacity which develops over time by doing the work. The teacher must intuitively navigate the different capacities and individual needs of workshop participants to serve the whole group.

At every workshop he taught, Adnan always took time before he began, to quietly observe each student. New students sometimes complained about the delay in starting. But his quiet observation was essential to the rhythm of the work. The workshop that unfolded was always informed by the evolving state of the students through the various exercises. 

This sort of student assessment is not easily achieved on Zoom where students frequently turn off their videos. That’s why I allow 10-15 minutes of dialogue at the beginning of the class to find out how everyone is doing. This assessment is less critical than in longer workshops because of its one-off nature. Nevertheless, it is a good practice to take the pulse of the students like Adnan did.

At a recent Sunday class, I learned that two of my participants were recovering from the flu. I decided to include a healing chant and one of Adnan’s drumming tapes to support them. Both provide healing energy that can help recovery.

After my very first summer camp almost 40 years ago, Adnan invited me to stay for the workshop extension in September. As there were over 100 students at the camp that summer, I was surprised that he even noticed me. I happily agreed to stay as I had nothing planned beyond camp other than returning to my family home and finding a job. My marriage had dissolved the previous fall and I was uncertain about my future. 

Once the extension workshops began, he told me not to attend them because I had had enough of the work and it would only make me negative. Every day, I sat on his front porch with another student basking in the sun and enjoying conversations about the Sufi community.

You might think I had been tricked into staying. But it was the best thing I could do after that intense first summer. I was changing on so many levels and this time enabled me to assimilate the work by keeping me in the pressure cooker without roasting me to a crisp.

As a bonus, I enjoyed extra time with Adnan who asked me to help him compile a book of student reports about their experience of the work. I spent hours in his home immersed in these astonishing stories of his students. I learned firsthand that one of the most important tools in Adnan’s toolkit was his evolved energy. Being in his energy while working on the book was like being in his workshop. It helped me develop my spiritual capacity and my own energy.

Spiritual capacity is developed over time through regular practice and the contraction/expansion immersion of the longer workshops.

Want to try it out or receive a maintenance boost? I am teaching Sufi Moving Meditation class this Friday and Sunday. Friday, January 19 at 9 am PST and Sunday, January 21st at 8 am PST. Move into the moment and enjoy your breath, the music, and the meditation of this powerful work.

The Zoom link is the same for both classes.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89999494833?pwd=V2pOS28yYUdXM3hkaW1rVWIvSjBUdz09

Meeting ID: 899 9949 4833

Passcode: SUFI

Here's a time converter link to check the time in your location.

Be peaceful.

Michelle

Dr. Michelle Peticolas

Life Transformation Coach

Empowering Women to Reinvent Their Life After Loss

Secrets of Life and Death

https://www.facebook.com/secretsoflifeanddeath.com