Week of February 11, 2018…
Spiritual Care – 2 of 8 Powerful Spiritual Heart Practices of Sufi Meditation
There are many forms of meditation that quiet the mind, open the heart and elevate the soul. The Sufis, like many other disciplines, have a practice of meditation that is as effective as several other meditation forms.
Below, is the Second out of Eight Spiritual Heart Practices of Meditation offered as a facet of the Sufis spiritual discipline. Throughout the next few weeks you will receive additional meditations that together, as a practice, will help you connect your heart self with the Divine.
Enjoy these meditations. They are shared one at a time.
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Sufi Mantra Meditation
One of the most common ways to keep the remembrance of the Beloved, in Sufi orders, is by repeating His name. It’s a type of mantra meditation and similar to what is called contemplative prayer in Christian mysticism. It establishes an inner connection with the divine and results in bliss.
In Sufism, the name for mantra is Zikr (also Jikr or Dhikr), literally meaning remembrance. The essential aspect of this practice is the continual remembrance of God, typically by repeating one of these three words:
- Allah (God)
- Allah ho (God is)
- La illalahu (“God is God”)
- Any other of the 99 names of God
The goal is to inscribe the name of the Divine in your heart. For that, Sufis employ the methods of meditating on His name with the tongue (mantra repetition), gazing at the written word Allah, and writing Allah repeatedly on a paper. Eventually, the name grabs hold of you and illumines all of your being. First you do the zikr and then the zikr does you. — Sufi saying.
The emphasis is always to have the zikr going on all the time in your heart. But there is also time taken for the formal practice of sitting in silence and repeating the zikr. There is no particular posture for Sufi meditation.
Usually, this practice is synchronized with the breath. For instance, on the in-breath one says within one’s heart ‘Aal’ and on the out-breath one says ‘Laah’. Or it is done while focusing on the solar plexus or on the spiritual heart, which takes us to the next practice.
UPLIFT – http://upliftconnect.com/8-powerful-spiritual-heart-practices-of-sufi-meditation/