The Camel of Love

     This picture, taken on a recent trip I made to Egypt, shows me and my good friend Donna riding the camels we took to the Great Pyramid on the Giza plateau---a memorable ride indeed.

It reminds me of a wonderful poem by the Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi which goes something like this: (I have seen various translations, and this is from memory, so it is not exact, but bear with me.)

My heart has become capable of every form.

It is a pasture for gazelles, 

A shrine for pilgrims,

A temple for image-worshippers,

A monastery for Christian monks,

A mosque for Muslims,

and the pages of the Torah for Jews.

(I would add:  and a Sacred Ceremonial Circle for Original Peoples.)

My religion is Love,

And wherever the Camel of Love takes me,

That is my religion, and that is my faith.

     That poem was a lodestar for me in my journey into interfaith ministry.

My years of training at the All Faiths Seminary in New York City; my experience initiating an Interfaith Institute at Mother's Trust in Ganges, Michigan; my years of teaching and studying world religions;  my friendships with people of other faiths; and the privilege of conducting  interfaith ceremonies, all have been some  of the most deeply rewarding and soul-satisfying experiences of my life.

      I am convinced that one of the most important ways to be a peacemaker in the world today is to do what one can to share an understanding and appreciation of the faith of  millions and millions of people who are adherents of the great religions, or as Huston Smith calls them, the Wisdom Traditions of the world.  (His book on World Religions is one of the best.) I have found that when I am able to relate to someone on the basis of their faith, doors fly open and deep connections are made.  

      A story of an experience in Egypt will serve as an illustration.  On our cruise down the Nile, a young Muslim waiter was assigned to our table.  On the evening of the day of our camel ride to the Great Pyramid,  two of my friends and I were talking about how we had enjoyed chanting  a phrase in Arabic which means "There is only One God"  as we rode our camels. The chant is part of the call to prayer that echoes five times a day from a million minarets all over the world.  Our waiter's eyes lit up as we chanted it for him, and he seemed amazed that three American white women would know such a thing.  He wanted us to teach it to him, and we did.

(He knew the words, of course, but not the tune.)  Then, when the other diners had left the room, we showed him some Sufi whirling while singing the chant.  He loved it!  On the day we were due to leave the boat to go back to Cairo, he told us how he hated to see us leave.  What would he do?  We smiled and started the chant.  He joined in.  "We will always be united in our heart by these sacred words,"  I said to him with a smile.  "Salaam.  Peace."  With a smile and a bow he replied, "Salaam." We could feel the heart connection we had made.

      All this is by way of saying that I would like to start sharing a little of all the riches of the interfaith resources and training I have had by writing a short morning blog, in which I will post a picture of the beauty in which I live, accompanied by a short quote and my reflection on it from a different faith each day:  Sunday: Christian, Monday: Native American, Tuesday: Taoist, Wednesday: Hindu, Thursday: Buddhist, Friday: Muslim/Sufi, Saturday: Jewish.

     My bias will be towards those quotes that come from the Mystical Heart of all these religions:  words that sing in the soul and lodge in the heart. I will be choosing the quotes after spending at least an hour meditating with the sacred music and holy words of the religion on which I am focusing that day.  In this way, I intend to continue to deepen my own interfaith consciousness--or to put it another way, to ride the Camel of Love!

     I hope that  those of you who are following this blog will find the new one enriching and inspiring, and that you will share with others this way of  engaging in the enterprise of peacemaking, through mutual understanding and appreciation of the heritage of Divine Wisdom with which all of us, as earthlings, are entrusted.  In other words, Spread the Wisdom!       And please accept my appreciation for every one of you who cares enough to read what I write, especially when you take it to heart.  "Blessed are the Peace Makers."

      I close with a paraphrase recommended by some Sufi leaders from the Muslim Call to Prayer: "There is no god but God(Allah) and we are all God's prophets."