Dear Sisters and Brothers:

	Taking a turn sharing in the SSC Webletter gave me an inspiration to say something about how hard it can be to live in a spiritual oriented community of one's sisters and brothers on the path.  On one hand,  many high ideals are being nurtured. On the other hand, the lumps and bumps between personality and personality challenge us daily,  sometimes with a sense of the great gulf between where we are and where we aspire to be.  (Or actually NOT BE in the small "be" sense.)

	Here we are finding ourselves, in a way, married to several people at once.   Wow, that was hard enough with just one partner!  By this I mean we are constantly working on relationships of a fairly intimate nature simultaneously with a number of people.  And within those dimensions such ironies do abound!  Sometimes moving to what seems to be a improved relationship with one member of the community can make our relationship with another member even more challenging.

	It seems that more than a fair number (but certainly not all) of those attracted to spiritually focused communities are at least partial refugees from their biological families.   So, of course the useful and the crippling aspects of our past relationships are dragged forward for us to work on  again.   Some folks, in a large, life-experience connected, community I know of,  like to use rather simple words to describe these things.  They say such things as:  "Wherever you go, there you are." and,  "It is not my worst thinking that got me here, as much as my best thinking that got me to where I am right now."

	So here in community we find ourselves up close with the work of "loving thy neighbor as thyself."   Often not living the ideal, we may have to fall back on concepts, such as being moral, doing the right thing, or just being kind.    As those same friends I mentioned before say, "Fake it until you make it."   Inshallah,  now and then we really do rise above the "distinctions and difference which divide,"  and taste the reality of the Unity of Souls.

	Rather than go on and on even more with this "work in the trenches" theme,  I want to remember to say that I love this community life, and more specifically, love dearly the life adventure I share with my fellow community partners.  It is more than an analogy to say that the process works like the moth being drawn to the flame.   Through the ultimate attraction power of the Ishk, we are drawn home through the fire that burns away all that is limited.   On this journey what good are "would of, should of, could of?"   What is there other than to listen for the quiet still voice, praying only for the guidance of the One?

	Here is an prayer from Inayat Khan that isn't used so much in daily practices, even though it is offered in his writings right along side of Saum, Salat and Khatum.   

Love, Rashad


DOWA

Save me, my Lord, from the earthly passions and the attachments which blind mankind. Save me, my Lord, from the temptations of power, fame, and wealth, which keep man away from Thy Glorious Vision. Save me, my Lord, from the souls who are constantly
occupied in hurting and harming their fellow-man, and who take pleasure in the pain of another. Save me, my Lord, from the evil eye of envy and jealousy, which falleth upon Thy bountiful Gifts.
Save me, my Lord, from falling into the hands of the playful children of earth, lest they might use me in their games; they might play with me and then break me in the end, as children destroy their toys.
Save me, my Lord, from all manner of injury that cometh from the bitterness of my adversaries and from the ignorance of my loving friends.
     Amen.