The Sufi Latifa Prayer

When I was an undergraduate at Rutgers, I had a course in religion and literature that really changed how I viewed both topics. The professor (Thank you, Dr. Ellen Weaver!) had us read many books of fiction and non-fiction. One of those books was The Wisdom of the Sufis. I learned about things that were totally new to me - prayers and legends of the Sufi mystic, the dervish, and how this mysticism grew out of medieval orthodox Islam. Like most of my classmates at that time five decades ago, I knew essentially nothing about Islam.

Just recently I came across a post about the Latifa, an ancient Sufi prayer meant to connect us with the essence of our being. It is a simple prayer accompanied by hand movements. The words are connected with a specific body part.

Non-Sufi believers now use the prayer as a guided meditation and I have seen yoga centers that use this much like the chakras in Indian spirituality.

The Latifa prayer was once a secret prayer only for initiated disciples, but the prayer is out there now. I'm not sure this pleases the Sufi followers or if they are gladdened to see their practices being more widely understood.

The prayer is a succession of seven themes:

I exist

I desire

I hope

I trust

I release

I love

I am prepared

But then, there are the movements... When you say, "I exist," you place your right hand on your left hip with the help of your left hand while thinking about why you exist.

With your left hand, place your right hand on your right hip and say to yourself: “I desire.” What are the things you desire and how do they influence your life. 

"I hope" is connected to your right hand on your left lung with your left hand. Think about what you are hopeful about and how that feels.

Right hand to your right lung and “I believe and trust.” Trust comes out of hope and trust makes you stronger.

Now, your right hand goes to your neck as you say “I release.” Think about what you need to let go of - maybe sadness or anger.

Move that right hand to the center of your chest and tell yourself “I love.” Think of love strong and pure. Is it in you? Does it come from outside? Can you feel love radiate from your being or from others?

To finish the prayer, your right hand goes above your navel, and you place your left hand on top of it. Now, say “I am prepared.” You should feel better prepared to face the world and to know your own voice within.

You can probably tell that the Latifa prayer is for inner peace and self-affirmation. You don't need to follow Islam or any religion to use it. It doesn't seem very religious in a traditional sense, and it is an experience for yourself. That is not something we usually associate with prayer, except that many of us actually do pray for things. We pray for the material things we want, things we want to happen or not happen, things we want to change. This prayer is about finding things more in yourself, not outside.

  

No One Laughs At God

"Laughing With" written and performed by Regina Spektor is a song that never fails to get to me. I started to write this post and when I tagged it "Regina Spektor", I realised that over the past few years I had already written about it twice.

It haunts me.

It doesn't matter if you are religious or spiritual or with what version or with what group you associate. You could be an atheist who just respects others right to believe and I still think this song might catch in your throat.

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

If you've had that conversation with a doctor or had a loved one in that situation...

No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests

No kid and every parent knows exactly what is shot into your brain when...

No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet

I haven't been in any of these four situations - and I don't want to ever be - but I can imagine the feeling of...

No one laughs at God
When their airplane start to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love, hand in hand with someone else
And they hope that they’re mistaken
No one laughs at God
When the cops knock on their door
And they say we got some bad news, sir
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine or fire or flood

So who is laughing?  I've been hearing God and religion jokes my whole life. I was supposed to feel guilty about that (so the nuns told me in Sunday School) but I got over that. I am sure God has a sense of humor. Have you looked around at this world?

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or when the crazies say He hates us, and they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke

And when I am confronted with zealots on any side of this - religious, fundamental, atheist - then God can be funny

When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

Parents praying for their 9 year old to get a hit in baseball. Praying for a winning lottery ticket.

My father, who was in the Navy in World War II, said that there were no atheist in foxholes. It made sense to me, even though I never sat in a foxhole on Omaha Beach on D-Day like he did with two dead guys staring at him for a few hours.

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
That the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes

Yeah, no one’s laughing at God. We’re all laughing with God





Here's the official music video version of the song (worth listening to again)

The Oprah and Dan Brown Effects

Oprah likes a book. People buy the book. Simple economics.

But it's not just Oprah.

There's also a Dan Brown effect.

Dan Brown's books - Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code, The Lost Symbol - often boost other authors' sales.

In The Lost Symbol, he mentioned The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World and sales on it have risen steadily since his book's release.

“…human consciousness, as Noetic author Lynne McTaggart described it, was a substance outside the confines of the body. A highly ordered energy capable of changing the physical world. Katherine (Solomon) had been fascinated by McTaggart’s book ‘The Intention Experiment’, and her global, Web-based study – theintentionexperiment.com - aimed at discovering how human intention could affect the world.”

Anyone can learn to do effective intention in their life, but it does require some learned techniques.

To find out how to ‘do intention’, Lynne McTaggart interviewed many intention masters – Qigong masters, Buddhist monks, master healers – as well as scientists.

She extrapolated this program from the common practices of all these diverse healers, plus scientific evidence describing circumstances that created the most positive results in mind-over-matter laboratory experiences.

From this research she offers a blueprint for using intention effectively in your own life through a program she calls Powering Up.

Oh yeah, it's controversial. Religious groups are opposed to people praying without Praying.

I'm just saying - there's a Dan Brown effect.

Of course, if you want to make me your Intention of the Week, I could use the good karma, vibrations or whatever goodness comes my way.