Practice Assignments for God is Breath Class 10 Beloved Ones of God, May Peace and Blessings be with us all, and with all our relations in the great web of life. May our spiritual practice answer the call of our soul to awake. May we be graced by the continuous remembrance of God's presence within the breath, making an accommodation within the altar of the heart, and revealing the perfection of our immortal nature. May we be grounded in the realization of the fundamentals of Breath practice. Without rhythm, without raising the pitch and the tuning of the heart, without concentrated attention, without constantly remembering Oneness and overcoming apparent separation from the Source of all Being, continuing progress is most difficult. When difficulties arise may we be wise enough to return to these basic things and awaken afresh in the divine presence. We will be considering further aspects of Shaghal this month. They are described in the "Practice Assignment for 5 days per week" at the end of this document. We will focus on these practices during the next time period. Other practices that have been assigned previously should be viewed as optional according to your inner guidance. In many places in the assignments below I have omitted descriptions of practices that have been described previously and are now optional. We will also be continuing our introduction to the awe-ful contemplation practice of Mushahida. Part of our work in preparing the ground for Mushahida practice will be to work with the practice of Mujahida ("The greater holy war"). The Mujahida practice is described in detail in the selection of texts for this month. I plan to go over it in class, but you should also use the description in text from "In the Garden" as a basis for proceeding in the concentration. It is suggested to be done as part of the two periods per week when we are invited to engage in Mushahida and immediately prior to our practice of Mushahida. Please give your attention to the request for next month's final class of this series just below. During that class we will also look at what may lie before us in the future. Love and Blessings, Wali Ali Request for everyone to prepare for next month's class: Give special attention to one particular area of your experience in the course of going through the practices and everything that came long with this class. It could be simply something you really learned, or learned about yourself. Be prepared to share it with us all. It could be in the form of a poem or inspiration or creative project.
Practice Assignment for the 2 days per week that includes Mushahida: 1. Begin with recitation of the Sufi Invocation three times followed by inner reflection in which you connect with the meaning of this prayer. Then clearly establish your own intention and authentic prayer. 2. Contemplations on Pir and Rasul using the prayers given by Hazrat Inayat Khan. These two prayers are included in the text portion of the assignments. What is asked is that we approach these prayers contemplating on them line by line. Breathe in and out the phrase from the prayer and feel a heart connection of love and gratitude to the one to whom you direct your prayer. For example, I might breathe the phrase "consoler of my heart" and be feeling gratitude and loving connection with Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti. Working through these prayers a few phrases a day will help us along the path of uniting with all the illuminated souls. 3. Recite Estaferallah 33 times. Turning one's sense of self away from self-pity and selfcriticism with a loving desire to face God directly and receive the loving forgiveness and acceptance that allows one to experience an inner clearing and purification. 4. Proceed with the Mujahida concentration as described in the text included in this month's study materials. Please study this. In brief, Mujahida is the process of overcoming all the deluding emotions and similarly of disarming all our outer judgements of others. It was called "The Greater Holy War" by Prophet Muhammad. Take about ten minutes for this practice, and then proceed immediately into the next practice below. 5. Recite 33 times the pair of Names: Ya Barr, Allahu Akbar. Ya Barr is a prayer invoking the quality of God's perfect love, which is unconditional, allinclusive, and in harmony with inner and outer conditions. Reciting Ya Barr allows us to prepare the container of the heart to accept all the divine qualities with equanimity. Allahu Akbar reminds us that God is greater than we can ever imagine, the ground of allpossibility. We are invited to experience the great peace from which all power and beauty manifest, as the steady state of the container of our heart. 6. Approaching Mushahida: Engage in Contemplation while looking into the capacity or accommodation of the Heart. No doubt one is wise to begin with one's own home, one's family and one's immediate surroundings. Embrace an area that you can confidently know that your heart cares about. After a while the benefits from this attitude, the applications of Mushahida, bring endless wonder. The practice of Mushahida enables one to feel the atmosphere of a greater and greater area of space or a more intense function within a limited space. As you identify yourself with a larger space accommodation or with more particular purposes within a limited area, your very breath will hold that akasha or accommodation.
See the whole cosmos before one as one's heart. Find everything within that heart. Explore that heart. Shape that heart, and above all purify that heart and keep it pure. Then one will not be disturbed for whatever the events, one's own innermost peacefulness is more powerful than anything else. By dwelling in the peacefulness, by feeling it expand and become more powerful one benefits the whole world and oneself. It is something like making and using a mirror for a telescope. During the processes of construction one polishes the mirror until it reflects perfectly the light of the stars and perhaps the light of the universe. In Mushahida one looks at the heart and sees into the Heart and in the Heart as if God is the One who is seeing and acting. One can seize what is within one's heart, so to speak, as if it were a lump of clay within, to be shaped and molded as one wills. By remaining established in tranquility and at one with God in whatever form God manifests, one can mold that clay, and can even shape the universe around oneself. Take 10 to 15 minutes with this practice. If agitation occurs in your state it may be good to go to the fikr of Allahu Akbar, remembering God's incomparable greatness and that peace is power, and then just allow your breath to encompass the space within the heart. 7. Kasab Practice: Begin by fully exhaling through the right nostril slowly repeating in thought the phrase "Allah Shafee, Allah Kafee" in rhythm with the breath. Immediately, fully inhale through the left nostril with the same rhythm and thought as above. Then, retain the breath while repeating "Allah Shafee, Allah Kafee, Allah Shafee, Allah Kafee" in the same rhythm as before (takes twice as long). Then exhale left nostril in the same rhythm and speed as the inhalation was. Follow this immediately by inhaling in the right nostril in the same manner. Again, retain the breath taking exactly twice as long as the time of the inhalation. You have completed one cycle of the practice. Continue until you complete five cycles. At the conclusion of the practice, take a few minutes to be fully aware of your breath in both nostrils. Throughout the practice we are connecting in our breath and in our prayer with God's all sufficient power of healing and purification. 8. Periodically check in with your breath throughout the day and mindfully notice its condition. For example, it could be Jalal, Jamal, Kamal, Urooj, Zaval, refined/coarse, powerful/dull, broad/narrow, etc. After checking in, consciously confirm the rhythm in your breath or, when needed, establish a rhythm in your breath. Stay with this awareness of the swing of your breath and allow it to gradually become longer and more refined. Then continue with your activities. Notice any way in which your emotions have been influenced by doing this.
Here are a few additional things not mentioned above that I invite you to become aware of and to journal about. Some of the esoteric papers have invited us to see a connection between our breath and the answer to questions that life gives us in a particular moment. See what if anything you notice in this regard. Also note the presence of different qualities and the appearance of beings in the inner world. And, as suggested above, be particularly attentive to the breath after completing the Shaghal where you cover all the sense organs. 9. 20 Purification Breaths and Healing Prayer There are many different forms in which this practice is done. In this class we are placing our attention throughout on the avenues of purification mentioned in the prayer that follows the breaths. The Purification Breaths: Five times slowly breathe Ya Shafee (O Healer) in through the nose and Ya Kafiyy (O Remedy) out through the nose. Five times slowly breathe Ya Shafee in through the nose and Ya Kafiyy out through Five times slowly breathe Ya Shafee in through the mouth and Ya Kafiyy out through the nose. Five times slowly breath Ya Shafee in through the mouth and Ya Kafiyy out through Follow with the healing prayer Nayaz: Beloved Lord, almighty God, through the rays of the Sun, through the waves of the air, through Thy all-pervading life in space, purify and revivify me, and I pray, heal my body, heart, and soul. To be done at any time: Journaling Continue to write in your journal at least once a week or more. In addition to noting the condition of your breath at different times, and what you learned from it, also give some attention in your journal to the different things that your breath connects with and what it draws from that connection.
Practice Assignments for the remaining 5 days of the week 1. Begin with recitation of the Sufi Invocation three times followed by inner reflection in which you connect with the meaning of this prayer. Then clearly establish your own intention and authentic prayer. 2. Do 33 vocal repetitions of the threesome: Ya Wahhab, Ya Razzaq, Ya Fattah. This recitation brings a quickening in our lives to flow with these divine qualities and allows us to open up to the continuous movement of success and accomplishment, generous blessings and awakened initiative in all our concentrations. 3. Follow that with a 20 to 30 minute daily meditation: Allow yourself to breathe naturally. Notice the rhythm of this breath and consciously maintain this rhythm. Gradually allow the breath to become longer and more refined. Leave space for the small natural pause at the top and bottom of the breath and bring your awareness into that kamal point. Place your attention on the magnetism (prana) that is carried by the breath. You are drawing from the all-pervading life in space. Center your awareness in the heart (middle of the chest) and consciously bring this livingness into the heart as you inhale, and radiate it as you exhale. Your whole physical body becomes charged with life. Feel this as a palpable energetic presence that continually fills your atmosphere with life-magnetism and power. Recognize this energy as a living embodiment of love and consciously embrace it as such. Enhance the awareness of this loving magnetism by beginning to silently intone "Bismillah ar-rahman ar-rahim." Bring this phrase into harmony with the rhythm that has been established in your breath. Stay attentive to the breath's regular swing--long, refined, rhythmical--and through the breath begin to seek loving connection with the divine perfections and feel the container of your heart grounded in unconditional love and peace. Begin with the qualities that naturally arise and that you find most beautiful. Then reach out in prayer and attract in your breath those qualities that you most need in your life. Continue in this mode for a while. Then feel your heart connecting and merging with one of the illuminated souls. Breathe bringing your heart and your vision into empathetic oneness with the illuminated soul that you are drawn towards. You naturally begin to experience life through those eyes, ears, condition of heart, and perspective on the world. At the same time, be alive to the lover's longing for completion in the Beloved. Let remembrance of the perfect One naturally fill your breath, and constantly flow with the joy of your life in Allah. 4. Kasab Practice Begin by fully exhaling through the right nostril slowly repeating in thought the phrase "Allah Shafee, Allah Kafee" in rhythm with the breath. Immediately, fully inhale through the left nostril with the same rhythm and thought as above.
Then, retain the breath while repeating "Allah Shafee, Allah Kafee, Allah Shafee, Allah Kafee" in the same rhythm as before (takes twice as long). Then exhale left nostril in the same rhythm and speed as the inhalation was. Follow this immediately by inhaling in the right nostril in the same manner. Again, retain the breath taking exactly twice as long as the time of the inhalation. You have completed one cycle of the practice. Continue until you complete five cycles. At the conclusion of the practice, take a few minutes to be fully aware of your breath in both nostrils. Throughout the practice we are connecting in our breath and in our prayer with God's all sufficient power of healing and purification. 5. Shaghal Practice: See the general description of Shaghal given in the first portion of text given to you elsewhere. Use that, as I will attempt to do in class, to enter into a proper inner state to open up the reality the practice directs us towards. The next two Shaghals given in the text excerpts, using just the eyes and just the ears, should be done for several days of the week according to feeling. Do 5 repetitions of each of these during your practice period. Retain the breath for as long as you are comfortable, and gently release when you first have an impulse to breathe. The last Shaghal described in the text combines all the senses and should be done on the other days. Five breaths daily is recommended, and as described above, retain the breath for as long as you are comfortable. 6. Contemplations on Pir and Rasul using the prayers given by Hazrat Inayat Khan. These two prayers are included in the text portion of the assignments. What is asked is that we approach these prayers contemplating on them line by line. Breathe in and out the phrase from the prayer and feel a heart connection of love and gratitude to the one to whom you direct your prayer. For example, I might breathe the phrase "consoler of my heart" and be feeling gratitude and loving connection with Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti. Working through these prayers a few phrases a day will help us along the path of uniting with all the illuminated souls. 7. Periodically check in with your breath throughout the day and mindfully notice its condition. For example, it could be Jalal, Jamal, Kamal, Urooj, Zaval, refined/coarse, powerful/dull, broad/narrow, etc. After checking in, consciously confirm the rhythm in your breath or, when needed, establish a rhythm in your breath. Stay with this awareness of the swing of your breath and allow it to gradually become longer and more refined. Then continue with your activities. Notice any way in which your emotions have been influenced by doing this.
8. 20 Purification Breaths and Healing Prayer There are many different forms in which this practice is done. In this class we are placing our attention throughout on the avenues of purification mentioned in the prayer that follows the breaths. The Purification Breaths: Five times slowly breathe Ya Shafee (O Healer) in through the nose and Ya Kafiyy (O Remedy) out through the nose. Five times slowly breathe Ya Shafee in through the nose and Ya Kafiyy out through Five times slowly breathe Ya Shafee in through the mouth and Ya Kafiyy out through the nose. Five times slowly breath Ya Shafee in through the mouth and Ya Kafiyy out through Follow with the healing prayer Nayaz: Beloved Lord, almighty God, through the rays of the Sun, through the waves of the air, through Thy all-pervading life in space, purify and revivify me, and I pray, heal my body, heart, and soul. To be done at any time: Journaling Continue to write in your journal at least once a week or more. In addition to noting the condition of your breath at different times, and what you learned from it, also give some attention in your journal to the different things that your breath connects with and what it draws from that connection.