Ozark Spring 2012 Camp, Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri USA

Suggestion, Impression, Belief • Teachings by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Prepared and Presented by Murshida Stephanie Nuria Sabato

Session 1

· Reading: Sufi Message Volume 11 by Hazrat Inayat Khan, Philosophy, Psychology and Mysticism, Part 2 Psychology Nr. 2 Suggestion

· Essence: From morning till evening we are impressed by suggestions coming to us automatically in different forms. The importance does not lie in receiving suggestions or in rejecting suggestions; it lies in understanding what will benefit us and what will be detrimental. 

· Practice:

o Call to mind a negative impression you hold of someone you do not know personally. For example, a public figure, a religious figure, a historic figure. 

o Ask yourself, “Did I form this opinion based on personal knowledge or public opinion?” 

o Hold the person in the light of your heart and send upon their body, heart, and soul the light of love, understanding, and wisdom.

o Wazifa: Ya Rahman – Ya Rahim

o Repeat this practice for someone you know personally.

o Repeat this practice for yourself.

· Contemplation: “When Divine mercy, compassion, and kindness are expressed through a God-realized personality, then the stains of sins, faults, and mistakes are washed away and the soul becomes clear.” (Nirtan, Hazrat Inayat Khan)

Session 2

· Reading: Sufi Message Volume 11 by Hazrat Inayat Khan, Philosophy, Psychology and Mysticism, Part 2 Psychology Nr. 3a “I Cannot”

· Essence: When a man says, "I cannot," he has made a suggestion to himself, he has weakened his power of accomplishing what he could otherwise have accomplished. To admit to oneself, "I have no force, I have no power, I have no thought, I have no intelligence," only means working against oneself.

· Practice: 

o Think of a situation of accomplishment where you said, “I cannot”. Consider, what was the outcome of this attitude? 

o Erase this impression from you mind by replacing it with the impression of success.

o Ask for Divine Support and Insight in seeing the steps to bringing this impression into a living reality. 

o Wasifa: Ya Alim, Ya Fazal, Ya Wahab

· Meditation:

o (Breath In) Grant me to have all power and wisdom,

o (Breath Out) That I may best fulfill my life's purpose.

Session 3

· Reading: Sufi Message Volume 11 by Hazrat Inayat Khan, Philosophy, Psychology and Mysticism, Part 2 Psychology Nr. 3b The Story of Ayaz

· Essence: The Story of Ayaz is an example of modesty together with suggestion.

· Practice:

o Consider how our personality and ego enslaves us and pulls us down from the exalted position as a child, a seed of God.

o Are we willing to embrace both our humanity and our divine inheritance?

o Wazifa: Dhul Jelal Wal Ikram “Lord of Majesty and Might”

o By struggling with the self one will find nobility, which is a divine heritage. (The Message Papers, The Inner School, Hazrat Inayat Khan)

Session 4

· Reading: Sufi Message Volume 11 by Hazrat Inayat Khan, Philosophy, Psychology and Mysticism, Part 2 Psychology Nr. 3c Hope, Effort, Belief

· Essence: We are able to do anything if we choose to make the effort. The difficulty is that often we do not choose to make an effort. Why not? Because we do not believe. 

· Practice:

o May [my] faith be strengthened (breathing in)

o So that I may see the hidden hand of God in all things. (breathing out), (Blessing of Murshid’s Murshid, Abu Hashim Madani to Hazrat Inayat Khan, “May Your Faith be strengthened”.)