Director’s Invitation: Rani McLaughlin

Dear Friends,

There is a story that far away in the heavenly abode of the Great God Indra, there is a wonderful Web which stretches out infinitely in all directions. Indra has placed a jewel at every node of the web, an infinite number of radiant jewels. When we look closely at a single jewel, its polished surface reflects all the other jewels in the net, like two mirrors placed opposite each other reflect an image. The reflections are infinite, and a change in one jewel causes a change in every other jewel. This story tells us of the inter-connectedness of all beings, which is the Horizontal dimension of Spiritual Life. Our hearts reach out and reflect each other, to infinity. We resonate together, and Weave Spiritual Community, feeling the tapestry of Love, Harmony, and Beauty in the depth of life.

The Sufi Message brought to the West by Hazrat Inayat Khan is, as he said, not a new message. It is the same message that has always been realized by the mystics. The Message comes in response to the cries of human hearts, in the forms necessary for the time. This is a Message of evolutionary development, and we are now experiencing an important shift in our collective consciousness. We are crying out. Hierarchical structures are changing, and the value of community is emerging anew. Hazrat Inayat Khan called it the Brotherhood ray of the five pointed Star of the Message. Today we might say Brotherhood-Sisterhood, Family, or Kinship. This means reaching out and opening our hearts to each other. This means engaging with each other as teachers and as students. Polishing the jewel. Reflecting the radiant jewels in our web. Feeling our responsibility. Reaching up and reaching out.

Camp will offer many opportunities to reach up through dancing and singing, meditation and prayer. There will be classes in the Dances of Universal Peace, drumming, spiritual walks and practices, mysteries of the natural world, Universal Worship, individual meditation retreat, choir, yoga, writing, and art, as well as classes elucidating the teachings of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan and Murshid Samuel Lewis. Teachers within our community are stepping forward. There will be opportunities for Camper-led classes. We can also reach out to each other, exploring the ways in which our external identities (such as age, stage of life, gender) constrict us. We can polish the jewel by listening deeply to the perspectives of others, by speaking from the heart. The doorway to the Garden, where the Web of Indra is, can be obstructed by our prejudices and opinions.

“Don’t block the doorway.”

Let’s move whatever blocks the doorway so that we can reach up to the Absolute Reality, and reach out to create this resonant connection with each other.

“All will be pulled along. All will go there in the end. All of manifestation is moving toward Awakening.”

May the Message of God reach far and wide.