In conversation with Kabir Helminski on Sufism and Transformation of the Heart

Kabir Helminski’s books, Living Presence, The Knowing Heart and Holisitic Islam brings an education of the heart based on teachings and methods that have been alive for some fourteen centuries and are intended to help us awaken to listen to our deepest knowing. How did Kabir, of the world’s most recognised teachers of Sufism discover it? and how can we draw down from ancient spiritual wisdom and modern phycological knowledge and meditation and contemplation to discover more meaning in daily life?

To answer these questions, watch Kabir’s full conversation here: 

Interview timeline:

00.00- 6.13 Who is Kabir? How did he end up becoming a Sufi teacher of Rumi? What was it about the Mevlevi Sufi path that felt like home? 

6.13- 09.03 How can we renew our sense of purpose, contact and experience a different way of being with the suffering caused by increased connectivity, social media and a more shallow, consumerism led culture. 

09.03- 12.01How can sufism help us discern true and real values from false and egoic values? What are we directing our heart energy to? 

12.01- 20.14 What is Presence? How is Rumi waking us up to and what can transform for us when we choose to cultivate a deeper state of Presence? The workings of Divine Intelligence for our own spiritual education 

20.14- 23.20 How can we learn from the saints who are surrendered to God? How can we trust that everything is for the betterment of our soul? What brings happiness and a greater sense of wellbeing? 

23.20- 26.20 "Not the heavens, nor earth can contain me. Only the hearts of my humble servant can know me." Hadith Qudsi how does the curriculum of the heart as offered by Sufism transform our experience as Spirit traversing on the planet in these bodies? 

26.20- 36.32 How does modern mindfulness, the multitude of different forms of meditation, the growth in modern personal development stack up against ancient spiritual wisdom? "What Rumi expects us to understand is awesome!" Kabir. "Don't be a candle, be a moth." Rumi 

36.34- 43.39 How do we manage conflicts and disagreements with other personalities? How can we transform our own distortions of life?..... "Be the kind of person when you walk into the room, good luck or blessing goes to the person who needs it." Rumi "Will we ever be in an undisturbed state?" 

43.49- 51.52 How can we discern between a religion of fear and one of love? How can Islam deepen the religion of love? 

51.52- 52.47 Where do we find true agency and power? What are the spiritual laws for relating to the totality of Reality? 

52.47-59.13 What can transform through attending one of Kabir and Camille's retreats?

59.13- 62.06 What does it mean to be a spiritual warrior? "Not the heavens, nor earth can contain me. Only the hearts of my humble servant can know me." Hadith Qudsi how does the curriculum of the heart as offered by Sufism transform our experience as Spirit traversing on the planet in these bodies? 

In 2008, I met sufi teachers Kabir & Camille Adams Helminski. Meeting them, came at a time when a traumatic event cracked open my heart to search for God and a longing to find something that will satisfy a deeper yearning for meaning, beauty and love. My own experience up until then with Islam hadn’t fulfilled this search and had brought up more questions than answers whilst my experience of love was difficult and riddled with complexities, ,mainly due to imbalances with the feminine energies around me as well as deep generational wounds that required deep healing.

 It was a small retreat in Naarden, Netherlands and it was my first introduction to Rumi. I recall hearing, a saying of the tradition which felt mysterious yet carried an inner knowing: 

“Deep in the remembrance of God, the heart finds satisfaction.”

- Quran -

 God up until then, had always been perceived to be outside of myself and as an abstract “other.” I  remember the retreat was my first experience of stillness and presence as described by Kabir Helminski in his book Living Presence, where he shares, 

“presence is the state of heartful awareness that allows us to open to ever more subtle experiences of meaning, inspiration, and beauty. It is the key to self-knowledge and transformation, It is through presence that we can connect with the Divine, and the Divine can live through us.” 

 I then heard what later remained one of my favourite Rumi quotes, 

“That which God said to the rose,

and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,

He said to my heart,

and made it a hundred times more beautiful.”

- Rumi -

 I recall wondering, What does this mean? What was the condition of my heart? How is it possible to have a more beautiful heart?

When I returned from that retreat, the heart had experienced what sufi poet Hafiz writes,  

“awake, awake awhile

be kind to your sleeping heart,

let it out into the field of light

and let it breathe..”

- Hafiz -

So, today, in a world of increased connectivity, consumerism and a culture of building identities and self-image, what are we giving our heart to? How do we move towards a less distorted experience of life? How do we navigate difference and manage the ego which is rubbing up against another’s? How do we live in truth, justice and a deeper vibration of Love? How can 12th-Century Iranian poet Jalaluddin Rumi’s work help us transform within and hence experience a different reality when in these bodies?

“Our pure hearts roam across the world.

We get bewildered by all the idols we see,

Yet what we’re trying to understand

In everything is what we already are.”

- Rumi-

To learn more about their work visit www.sufism.org.

To experience Rumi’s Urs and the whirling dervishes from Threshold Society why not pop down to St John’s Waterloo, London on 14th December 2019?

Perhaps these beautiful expressed teachings about human possibilities may support your journey of transformation too?

So are you ready to awaken your heart and ripen?

“The tart and hearty grapes, destined to ripen,

Will at last become one in heart

By the breath of the masters of heart.

They will grow steadily to grapehood,

Shedding duality and malice and strife.

Till in maturity, they rend their skins,

And become the mellow wine of union. “

Rumi