I
arrived home in Kuching in one piece last night after having done my chores in
KL immediately after our retreat in P Besar, Malacca.
I
consider myself most fortunate in that:
1. I
have finally found a true life Sufi Sheikh that I have been searching for for
the past 23 years of my life, and so, found the Path to walk on with confidence
and hpefully dedication, Insha'Allah.
2. I
have found for myself new brothers and sisters who have walked on the Path who
can give me support/guidance when needed and to whom I can also give support
perhaps, Insha'Allah.
3.
And most of all, I have finally been able to be a member of a privileged and
special breed of people like you guys for which I feel honored.
Many
thanks for being nice, warm, friendly and compassionate which qualities I shall
have to work on with the muraqabah in order to generate them within myself.
Keep
well. Was salam
On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 2:01 PM, A Manap Ahmad
wrote:
Salam Bros and sisters and greeting! My apologies for not replying some of your emails and the sms from sister Citi on time.I had been quite tied up with some urgent things and Alhamdulillah I have handled them all in the desired manner.
I wish to state here that it was quite an extraordinary experience for me at Pulau Besar not only spiritually, which was awesome, but also socially.
The first evening's (May 10) meditation session after our Maghrib solat was one of a kind. I have learned how to do structured meditation many years before and I practiced it on and off over the years. My experience during meditation would usually go like this: 10 to 15 minutes into the session, I would feel an almost physical connection to my inner-self or higher self. But this connection would not last for long as the connection would usually break as soon as mind started to wander and parts of my body would tense up as a result. Then I would become aware of this disconnection and I would work once again on resuming the connection. And this will go on and on into the session until after about 30 to 40 minutes, the connection would start to last slightly longer and longer.
But during that session with the good Shaykh on May 10, I felt the connection very soon into the session and the connection just kept going on and on until I changed my sitting position due to some pain in my right knee which was about 40 minutes into the session. Masha'Allah.
In my one-on-one session with the good Shaykh, I mentioned this to him which generated a pleasant smile on his face.
The subsequent meditation sessions were not as profound as that first one. But this does not mean that they were not good experience. It simply means that I got used to the higher level of experience and the impact was no more a novelty.
Another thing that struck me was how everyone quickly became most cordial to each other. I have attended numerous group corporate training sessions before both as a participant as well as a program organizer/leader/facilitator and I noticed that it took quite a while for participants to warm up to each other and even then it was never as cordial as what we got at our retreat. I suppose this is because we all went there with the sole objective of achieving the Sufi aspiration of becoming the highly evolved human, the perfect human. Of course, the most important factor was the Barakah emanating from the good Shaykh.
I feel blessed by Allah (swt) and privileged to have joined you all in the Mujaddidi Order under our good Shaykh.
I guess I owe it to Allah (swt) thru our sister Citi who was my first point of contact about two and a half months ago when i emailed the address of the Malaysian School of Sufi Teaching. Subsequent to the email, I had the opportunity to chat with Citi on the phone during which she invited me to fly over to KL to join her in a session on a Sunday at her house. It turned out to be quite a good session for me and I returned to Kuching with the first two lessons she gave me, determined to go into it seriously.
And, like they say, the rest is history.
Thank you.
Was salam
--Keep well.Manap
Salam Bros and sisters and greeting! My apologies for not replying some of your emails and the sms from sister Citi on time.I had been quite tied up with some urgent things and Alhamdulillah I have handled them all in the desired manner.
I wish to state here that it was quite an extraordinary experience for me at Pulau Besar not only spiritually, which was awesome, but also socially.
The first evening's (May 10) meditation session after our Maghrib solat was one of a kind. I have learned how to do structured meditation many years before and I practiced it on and off over the years. My experience during meditation would usually go like this: 10 to 15 minutes into the session, I would feel an almost physical connection to my inner-self or higher self. But this connection would not last for long as the connection would usually break as soon as mind started to wander and parts of my body would tense up as a result. Then I would become aware of this disconnection and I would work once again on resuming the connection. And this will go on and on into the session until after about 30 to 40 minutes, the connection would start to last slightly longer and longer.
But during that session with the good Shaykh on May 10, I felt the connection very soon into the session and the connection just kept going on and on until I changed my sitting position due to some pain in my right knee which was about 40 minutes into the session. Masha'Allah.
In my one-on-one session with the good Shaykh, I mentioned this to him which generated a pleasant smile on his face.
The subsequent meditation sessions were not as profound as that first one. But this does not mean that they were not good experience. It simply means that I got used to the higher level of experience and the impact was no more a novelty.
Another thing that struck me was how everyone quickly became most cordial to each other. I have attended numerous group corporate training sessions before both as a participant as well as a program organizer/leader/facilitator and I noticed that it took quite a while for participants to warm up to each other and even then it was never as cordial as what we got at our retreat. I suppose this is because we all went there with the sole objective of achieving the Sufi aspiration of becoming the highly evolved human, the perfect human. Of course, the most important factor was the Barakah emanating from the good Shaykh.
I feel blessed by Allah (swt) and privileged to have joined you all in the Mujaddidi Order under our good Shaykh.
I guess I owe it to Allah (swt) thru our sister Citi who was my first point of contact about two and a half months ago when i emailed the address of the Malaysian School of Sufi Teaching. Subsequent to the email, I had the opportunity to chat with Citi on the phone during which she invited me to fly over to KL to join her in a session on a Sunday at her house. It turned out to be quite a good session for me and I returned to Kuching with the first two lessons she gave me, determined to go into it seriously.
And, like they say, the rest is history.
Thank you.
Was salam
--Keep well.Manap
On May 20, 2013, at 2:32 PM, Abu Noohu wrote:
ReplyDeleteSalam Bro Manap,
Great stuff bro and well said. I also like to add the one on one session with Shaykh was a magical experience.
Just like you, i too have been going around seeking some divine aspirations. My journey took me to many different schools and different teachings and each claiming to be able to reach the transcendence level of inner peace and calmness. With all these methodologies i sometime feel very heavy during my muraqaba session. But that changed after meeting Shaykh. I feel very much lighter, a serene state of clamminess surrounding me. I now look forward to practice everyday. Secondly i decided not to search anymore, when all the answers are here. I just have to receive when i am ready to accept them. The only way to do it is thru regular practice.
Thanks for sharing bro.
wassalam
Rgds
Abu
Wa'alaykum Salam Bro Abu
DeleteGreat detailing of a great experience, man.
I have always lived by the philosophy that everything that we undertake to do can be mastered based on the 3 rules:
Rule no. 1: Practice
Rule no. 2: More Practice
Rule no. 3: More & more Practice
So based on what the great Shaykh taught us by examples at the retreat, we are all on the right track, man. Alhamdulillah.
May Allah the Almighty grant you success as a traveler on the Path
Was salam
Manap
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