100th Monkey Books

Islamic-Sufic:
the Dance of Ecstatic Union



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The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar (12th Century)
Translated by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis (1984) 234pages

Attar's great mystical poem opens when all the birds of the world gather together to begin the search of an ideal king. What follows is a marvelous allegorical rendering of Sufism - the secretive and paradoxical form of Islamic mysticism. Like The Canterbury Tales, The Conference of the Birds consists of a group of stories bound together by a pilgrimage. The Way of the Sufi is expounded here in tales that are often riddling and sometimes obscure, but full of incident and suspense, laced with quick character sketches and witty vignettes of everyday life in twelfth-century Persia. Above all, though, the poem puts into words themes of love and the search for divine unity; in conveying these Attar has transformed belief into poetry, much in the same way that Milton or Dante did. (Penguin)



The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation
Kabir Helminski (1999) 285pages

As human beings, we stand on the threshold between two realities: the world of material existence and the world of spiritual Being. The "knowing heart" is the sacred place where these two dimensions meet and are integrated. In Sufi teaching the human heart is not a fanciful metaphor but an objective organ of intuition and perception. It is able to perceive all that is beautiful and meaningful in life - and to reflect those spiritual qualities in the world, for the benefit of others. Every human heart has the capacity and the destiny to bring that world of divine reality into this world of appearances. The Sufis have been educators of the heart for some fourteen centuries. Their teachings and methods are designed to help us awaken and purify the heart, to learn to listen to our deepest knowing. (Shambhala)



Living Presence: A Sufi Way to Mindfulness & the Essential Self
Kabir Edmund Helminski (1992) 180pages

This presence is like a passport to greater life. Presence is our connection to that greater Being to which we belong, but which is often buried beneath mundane concerns, bodily desires, emotional disturbances, and mental distractions. Through knowledge, practice, and understanding, this presence can be awakened. Eventually, we will not be without it - whether in speaking or moving, whether in thinking or feeling. Awakening this presence is the most reliable and direct means of cultivating our essential human qualities, of activating everything that we need to meet the conditions of our lives. Presence is the point of intersection between the world of the senses and the world of the Spirit. May we never cease to discover its beauty and power. - from Presence: An Introduction by Kabir Helminski (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam)



Sufi: Expressions of the Mystic Quest
Laleh Bakhtiar (1976) 120pages

Sufism is the inner dimension of Islam, expressing hidden archetypes in concrete symbols. To the Sufi, both the ritual of the worshipper and the work of the craftsman evoke the life which resides within all things: the preparedness of matter to answer the call of God. The basis of Sufism, as of Islam, lies in the twin doctrines of the Unity of Being ('There is no god but God') and the universal Prototype ['Muhammad is the Prophet of God']. Through the Sufi themes of descending arc of Creation, the formation of the human soul, and its return through the ascending arc of the Quest, Laleh Bakhtiar brings to light the spiritual reality which underlies the forms and rhythms of the Islamic tradition. A title in the Art and Imagination series, with 137 illustrations, 30 in colour. (Thames & Hudson)



Teachings of Rumi
re-created and edited by Andrew Harvey (1999) 172pages

The Teachings of Rumi is divided into four different "movements" and is conceived as a rich interconnected "symphony" of mystical instruction. The four movements follow the development, as Rumi understood it, of the journey of the soul to its Origin and the transmutation of the lover into the Beloved. The first movement, "The Call,"...the second movement "Be A Lover," ...The third movement, "Ordeal,"...the last movement... In Union, the Journey to God has become the Journey in God;...The movement ends with a series of Rumi's holiest meditations on death, on the mystery of inner relationships beyond time and space, and most specifically, on the relationship between the humble loving reader and the work and guidance that stream - and keep streaming - from Rumi's own deathless consciousness. - from the Introduction by Andrew Harvey (Shambhala)


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