There is a quote by J Krishnamurthi that has been coming to my mind frequently. He says something to the effect that it is no sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society. I wont go so far as to say that our society is sick on a whole as I…
What is balanced living? From the point of a spiritual search, why is balance important? by Dr. Stewart Bitkoff To a person who is “balanced” this is not a question at all. We do not question the air we breathe, the food we eat, the way we go about our daily lives until something stops…
Sheikh Roger Frager’s latest book Sufi Talks: Teaching of an American Sufi Sheikh is a beautifully woven tapestry that illustrates how the threads of both the spiritual aspects of life and the practical reality of our day-to-day struggles can intricately come together in a living spiritual tradition. This book is a collection of formal talks…
Talk with Dr. Yannis Toussulis Author of Sufism and the Way of Blame: Hidden Sources of a Sacred Psychology. By David Paquiot & Dr. Yannis Toussulis (Read Part 1) _____________________ Dr. Toussulis, You said “During the Rumi craze the premises of Sufism were almost completely reversed in the interest of spiritual consumerism.” What is spiritual consumerism?…
This was published originally by The New Yorker Magazine May 2011 by Elizabeth Minkel When the book was handed to me, I didn’t know where to begin. Its two hundred oversized, glossy pages were filled with beautiful but impossibly foreign illustrations, men and women from a time and place I couldn’t really pinpoint. It cast a…
Dr. Yannis Toussulis and I ‘sat down’ Spring 2011 for this following interview. I would like to take a moment to thank him firstly for taking time from his daily affairs to do this, and more importantly for the painstaking effort he has taken to write Sufism and the Way of Blame. I’m not alone…
