Zen and Islamic Etiquette at Unitarian Engagement Group


From Zang:

I was invited today by the Leicester Unitarian Gathering, one of the two Unitarian communities in Leicester, to facililtate a workshop in the spirit of our Great Heart Circle gatherings. Most of the participants had been to a workshop the day before on the Dances of Universal Peace, and have an interest in Sufism- so the theme I brought along was "Zen Meditation and the Sufi practice of 'Adab' ". We did some guided meditation together, including loving-kindness practice, and held a short checking-in talking circle. Then I introduced the four training principles we used to use in the Manchester weekly group, which are an attempt to bring the Turkish Sufi spirit of "adab"- beautiful behaviour/manners, to our regular training. These are 1) Come to the training house without expectations 2) Come in a spirit of generosity 2) Respect the intimate relationship between you and everyone/everything in the training house, and finally 4) Welcome and feed the guest. We talked about the origins of adab in Islam and Arabic culture too.

After a short break we then introduced formal Zazen meditation practice, looking at how those 4 principles of adab could be applied and understood within actual meditation too. We read a short passage on Mevlevi Turning by Sheikh Suleyman Hayati Dede, and a passage on Adab by Sheikh Kabir Helminski. Finally we did a short session of zazen, ending with a poem by Rumi.

When you turn...
by the late Sulyeman Hayati Dede, Konya Sheikh of the Whirling Dervishes

If you are quiet and in a state of prayer when you turn, offering everything of yourself to God, then when your body is spinning, there is a completely still point in the centre...

The heavens respond and all the invisible kingdoms join in the dance. But the world does not understand. they think we turn in order to go into some sort of trance. It is true that sometimes we do go into that state you call ecstasy, but that is only when we know and experience at the same time.

We do not urn for ourselves. We turn around the way we do so that the Light of God may descend upon the earth. As you act as a conduit in the Turn, the light comes through the righ hand, and the left hand brings it into this world...

We turn for God and for the world, and it is the most beautiful thing you can imagine.

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