Beyond US vs THEM By ALIREZA NURBAKHSH Tribalism is on the rise. Across the United States and Europe, people are becoming more divided along party lines.  Humane immigration policies, democratic values and the future of the planet (due to the threat of climate change) are all at stake, and there sometimes seems to be no prospect of people becoming receptive to opposing views or making any compromise. Tribalism operates at several levels: at the level of the nation, promoting nationalistic ideology; at the level of political party, promoting either right, left or center ideology; at the l ..read more

ARTWORK © FARAH MAHBUB I am drunk from head to toe ALIREZA NURBAKHSH To read this poem in full, you must Buy Digital Subscription, or log in if you are a subscriber. The post 98 I am drunk from head to toe appeared first on ..read more

Montage: KHOSHDESIGN Photo © Bert Hoferichter/Alamy.COM The Bees of the Invisible WALLY SWIST To read this poem in full, you must Buy Digital Subscription, or log in if you are a subscriber. The post 98 The Bees of the Invisible appeared first on ..read more

The World Is As You See It By IGOR KUFAYEV When one sees from the Heart, one’s vision is said to be adjusted… When the Earth shakes, the tremor is being felt right at the heart, before any cognition has taken place. At that very instant, before any sensory experience kicks in, we feel the gripping sensation at the very core of our being… A split second after, the immediacy of the event is being “assessed” by the cognitive responses, and we act in accord with the inborn reflexes, or the way we’ve mastered the instincts. ARTWORK © ELENA RAY To read this article in full, you must Buy Digital Subs ..read more

by Jawid Mojaddedi Hosayn ebn Mansur al-Hallaj (d. 922), most familiar simply by the name “Hallaj,” is probably still today the most widely discussed Sufi from his generation. Celebrated by later Sufis for the theopathic outburst “I am The Truth/God” (ana l-Haqq) and for legends about his lack of fear and indeed total embrace of his own execution at the gallows in Baghdad, he was the most important inspiration for prominent Sufis of later times, such as Ebn Khafif, Ruzbehan Baqli and Farid al-Din Attar, and has been celebrated by countless others, including Rumi. To watch this interview, you m ..read more

EDITORS’ NOTE That is the purpose of reaching beyond what we know to encounter the unknown? Whether it be through travel or an encounter with someone with very different perspectives to our own, going beyond our comfort and subjective perception is what brings us opportunities to understand ourselves and the nature of reality more deeply, to truly wrestle with the ego’s limits, and develop our capacity for divine love and selfless compassion.. READ MORE DISCOURSE BEYOND US VERSUS THEM by Alireza Nurbakhsh ARTICLES AND ESSAYS WHEN A SUFI CHOOSES TO TRAVEL Two South Asian Pilgrimages by John L ..read more