Announcements – Page 12 – JilaniCordelia.com

8/4/2022 | Songs of One Breath | Jilani Cordelia | Sacred Water, Carry our Prayers for all of Life

Songs of One Breath is a weekly online space with Jilani Cordelia Prescott to explore the direct, joyful experience of mysticism through practice. Each Friday she shares chants, mantra, breath practices and body prayer drawn from a range of traditions, offered as grounding, comfort, and a pathway of the heart toward deeper connection and spiritual freedom. You are warmly invited to join live on Zoom (or via Facebook Live) at 2.30pm London time, and it is free. If you enjoy the class or the podcast, and would like to support Jilani’s work, donations are welcome via PayPal.

Only Love is Flowing Here – Leila Be

The Algonquin Water Song expresses loving gratitude for the water and raises the consciousness and connection of women with Mother Nature’s greatest gift. The song is easy to learn, and our hope is that millions of women will sing it, raising their own connection and awareness of the water they interact with daily even in the shower or at the sink. Sing it 4 times, facing each of the 4 Directions. We believe this is a powerful step to change, leading to both a spiritual as well as environmental shift on our planet.
This song was written by Irene Wawatie Jerome for Grandfather William Commanda’s 2002 Circle of All Nations gathering. It is recorded with permission from the Wawatie and Commanda families and the Circle of All Nations Foundation and the Elders in Canada.

Ganga ki Jai Jai, Jumna ki Jai Jai, Sarasvati Trivani ki Jai

“We can learn a lot from water on how to become one human family. We just need to gather like the drops. We need to come together and move and flow as one.” ~ Grandmother Carole

“The water of life, the first medicine of the world, is so precious to every living thing that grows, breathes and lives. The water is the female blood of Mother Earth that brings life. A woman brings children in this world through water of the womb, she then cleans her children with water, cooks and feeds them with water. She plants and waters her gardens. The trees that grow and provide air need water. Water is life and as we say Mni Wiconi — Water of Life! We will continue to stand for the water so that we may live.” — Ta Mak’a Wast’e Win, Her Good Earth Woman, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard

Water is the most life sustaining gift on Mother Earth and is the interconnection among all living beings. Water sustains us, flows between us, within us, and replenishes us. Water is the blood of Mother Earth and, as such, cleanses not only herself, but all living things. Water comes in many forms and all are needed for the health of Mother Earth and for our health. The sacred water element teaches us that we can have great strength to transform even the tallest mountain while being soft, pliable, and flexible. Water gives us the spiritual teaching that we too flow into the Great Ocean at the end of our life journey. Water shapes the land and gives us the great gifts of the rivers, lakes, ice, and oceans. Water is the home of many living things that contribute to the health and well-being of everything not in the water. (Assembly of First Nations)

Women’s Retreat 1-3rd July 2022

Coming together as women do… Women’s Retreat 1-3 July

The non-residential price, including all meals, is £210
You can bring your own bedding and sleep on comfortable bunk beds on a mezzanine above the Dance hall for £230. There are 10 bunks. Some camping is also possible for the same price.

Other accommodation is in very comfortable flats, with kitchens so you can make tea and snacks for yourselves whenever you want. The flats each sleep around 3-6 people. One flat is situated on the ground floor and is wheelchair accessible, as is the hall where we will dance and eat.

In a shared room with 2-3 people in each room the price is £270 (or £250 per person if two of you are happy to share a double bed!).

If you are blessed with abundance and would like to support a woman who would find it hard to afford to come, you can pay a Generosity ‘Paying it Forward’ Price with an additional donation of your choice. Please let me know if you would be willing and able to do this without negative impact on your circumstances, so I can offer this support to someone in need.
If you need financial support to attend, please ask. There may be support from the ‘Paying it Forward’ scheme. Additionally, although the costs of hiring the Westwood Centre are fairly high, once they are covered by the requisite number of bookings I am happy to discuss bursaries.

I am very grateful to my dear friend Hannah Flint for cooking for us all weekend, and providing us with delicious, comforting and nourishing vegetarian meals and snacks. All food and teas etc is included in the price, although you are free to bring any special teas, snacks or food items you might need or want. There are small kitchens with fridges, kettles, cookers and microwaves in the flats, as well as the main kitchen where Hannah will be preparing our food. Please let me know your dietary requirements and we will do our best to accommodate them. Certainly we can provide for gluten free and vegan diets.

Please drop me an email or a message to say you’ve paid!
The balance is due in full by 21 June. If you need to cancel after the end of May, any refund will be discretionary – I will do my best to help. I will need to retain a minimum of £50 to cover administrative costs, and further refunds may depend on managing to fill your place. But please talk to me!

The Westwood Centre is in a beautiful location, and there are big windows looking out over the valley which the sun streams through into the spacious and airy dance space. There is a very well-equipped kitchen, and there is disabled access. It’s rural, but on a bus route from Huddersfield. It is also walkable from Slaithwaite train station (1 mile uphill, or a £5 taxi). There are direct trains from Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly. If you need to come by car, we encourage you to share lifts, and we can help facilitate that.

Please do get back to me if you have any questions or concerns. I hope you will be able to be part of this warm and loving group!

Feel free to pass this information on to other likeminded women who might be interested.

Songs of One Breath | 25 March 2022 | ‘Let me tell you of the luminous path’ | Jilani Cordelia

Let me tell you of the luminous path.

I am beyond measure. I cannot be calculated.
I am beyond space and time.
I am beyond ancient and beyond the future.
There are no directions to me.

I am always here.
I am the embrace
Of your most intimate experience.

Though I am beyond the intellect,
I am not beyond your daring.

I am the nourishing state of fullness
That is the essence of soul.
You belong to me, and I am yours.
(Lorin Roche: The Radiance Sutras)

There is a sun-star rising outside form.
I am lost in that other. It’s sweet not

to look at two worlds, to melt in meaning
as Honey melts in milk. No one tires of

following the soul. I don’t recall now what
happens on the manifest plane. I stroll

with those I have always wanted to know,
fresh and graceful as the waterlily, or a rose.
(Rumi: Coleman Barks)

The clear bead at the centre
changes everything. There are

no edges to my loving now.
You’ve heard it said there’s

a window that opens from one
mind to another, but if there’s

no wall, there’s no need for
fitting the window, or the latch.
(Rumi: Coleman Barks)

28 January 2022 | Songs of One Breath | Jilani | Honouring the life and teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh

Songs of One Breath | 18 March 2022 | Planting Peace with Every Step

4/3/22 | Songs of One Breath | The Peace of Wild Things | Jilani Cordelia

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry, from New Collected Poems

‘I believe the very fact that we see what’s happening, that we bear witness together even though we can’t do anything to affect the situation outwardly, is a radical form of activism. We are connecting with and deepening the evolving soul of the world. We are sensitizing the conscience of humanity. Though it may seem insignificant, our dismay with bombs dropping on Ukrainian cities is a powerful action. Without it, without our caring, the human spirit would be diminished.
Even though it hurts to bear witness like this, even though we want to turn away, our anonymous solidarity with those who are suffering, wherever they are and whoever they may be, ennobles the vast soul of the world and makes possible the coming of peace.’
Pir Elias Amidon

‘The renowned Czech humanist Vaclav Havel once said that morality means taking responsibility, not only of your life, but for the life of the world. From a Buddhist perspective, it means seeing the roots of violence in our country and in ourselves, and finally understanding that we are not separate from all beings and things and must act accordingly or further violence will spread as the Coronavirus has spread.
Buddhism has since its very beginning guided its practitioners to realize the most radical form of inclusivity, the realization that all beings in all realms, no matter how depraved and deluded, can be free of suffering and delusion, and to also see that we are not separate from any other being, whether Putin or Hitler, or His Holiness the Dalai Lama or Malala.
It is not necessarily so easy to realize this. Many of us have not allowed ourselves to look deeper than our personality and our opinions to see and touch who we really are. Yet, Buddhists and contemplatives of many traditions have long been guided to go within to discover not only the interconnectedness of all things, including the natural world, but also the peace that surpasses understanding, knowing, ideas, conceptions, and opinions, the peace that is basic to all beings when they have come home to a state of non-alienation, and also the peace that nourishes courageous and liberating action in the world, knowing that this peace is not complacent, nor is it restless.’
By Roshi Joan Halifax (read the rest of her article here: https://www.upaya.org/2022/02/ukraine-in-the-heart/)

The Radiant Heart – Dances in Huddersfield – 14th May 2022

I’m taking bookings now for this day event which Salik and I are offering on 14 May. It’s in a stunning new (to us) venue, which we are very excited to share with you. The Westwood Centre is in a beautiful location, and there are big windows looking out over the valley which the sun streams through into the spacious and airy dance space. There is a very well-equipped kitchen, and there is disabled access. It’s rural, but on a bus route from Huddersfield. It is also walkable from Slaithwaite train station (1 mile uphill, or a £5 taxi). There are direct trains from Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly. If you need to come by car, we encourage you to share lifts, and we can help facilitate that.

14 January 2022 | Songs of One Breath | Honouring Murshid SAM at his 51st Urs

‘Those who love, and loving, pour forth radiance;
These are the Sons and Daughters of God-‘
(Murshid Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti)

Excerpts from Githas on Dhyana: Meditation by Murshid Samuel L. Lewis
One going to one’s meditation feeling, “God is my Teacher, I have something to learn, I will listen attentively,” will be rewarded with the greatest blessing, receiving in the Silence and Meditation that which they are capable of understanding, and by this gradually their purpose of life will be unfolded. [Series I, Number 4 (A)]

One can never meditate too much. This does not mean going into one’s closet, but it means keeping the heart fixed on God, to keep the mind fixed on the invocation, every moment day and night, so the very breath will keep on calling, “Towards the One.” Then the hour will arrive some time when the Talib will realize their true being. And what is that true being? It is God, the Only Being. [Series I, Number 5 (A)]

Spiritual practices that purify the breath make it possible for the breath also to be used as a vehicle of the soul…. the more the breath is purified, the easier it is for the heart to illuminate the mind.
One physical aspect of this is that the whole being is in rhythm in meditation. The body is at rest, the flow of the breath and blood is rhythmical, the mind vibrations become quiet, and gradually through long practice, all the functions of the mind such as thought, reason, memory, I- ness, become dormant. Sitting at ease or in posture, holding a divine thought, the heart gradually controls the mind and the inner light becomes visible, so to speak, before the naked eye. [Series III, number 1]

Allah is beyond all Attributes and Qualities, being All Essence. Understanding this, every breath can become a meditation wherein one puts full dependence upon Allah and there will be no moment which will not be a meditation, no moment of separateness from God. [Series II, number 3(A)]

Yet there is always need to enter into the silence above sound, and find the peace which is all-inclusive….As a person enters the silence, so does the silence enter into him or her. As one unites with the universe, so does the universe manifest in them. This is true, no matter what be one’s path or training. Ultimately one arrives at this destination. [Series II, number 7]

7/7/22 | Songs of One Breath | Bismillah

Bismillah!
‘…Take a moment to breathe, and begin what you are about to do wholeheartedly.’

Let’s begin the New Year together in the conscious awareness of the web of Life, in Unity, in the One Love, the breathing Life of All. Breath and Heartbeat creating a clear and spacious place inside – connecting our heart to the Heart of the Cosmos. ‘God is your lover, not your jailer!’

‘We begin by remembering
the sound and feeling of the One Being,
the wellspring of love.
We affirm that the next thing we experience
shimmers with the light of the whole universe.’
(Quotations from ‘The Sufi Book of Life’ by Neil Douglas-Klotz)

Radiance Sutras 1
Beloved, your questions require the answers that come
Through direct living experience.

The way of experience begins with a breath,
Such as the breath you are breathing now.
Awakening into luminous reality
May dawn in the momentary throb
Between any two breaths.

Exhaling, breath is released and flows out.
There is a pulse as it turns to flow in.
In that turn you are empty.
Enter that emptiness as the source of all life.

Inhaling, breath flows in, filling, nourishing.
Just as it turns to flow out,
There is a flash of pure joy –
Life is renewed.

Bismillah of the Dome
Breathing Bismillah
Bismillah Ya Shakur
Angelic Bismillah

Tending the Flame – Dances in Wales! 12-13th March 2022

Dear Friends,

Greetings of Peace to you all! I want to share with you some of the projects I am working on at the moment, in the hope that you may be interested, and maybe even join me.

I am very excited to be travelling to Wales in March with Salik, to lead dances in three different venues. We do hope that if you live near enough you might be able to join us for one or more of these events. It’s the first time we’ve been able to travel to share dances in a live public circle since before the pandemic.

On Friday 11 March I will lead an evening of Zikr in the village of St Dogmaels, followed by a day of Dances in Cilgerran, both in West Wales. Details, including how to book are on the flyer below. I’m grateful to my friends Jane and Dilwara for their support with making this happen in these uncertain times. I have often been to West Wales over the years, and led many Dance events in the area. The local community of friends and dancers, as well as the beautiful land there, are very important and precious to me. I would so love for you to meet me there if you can!

We will also be leading a short session on Sunday afternoon in Bangor, at the Friends Meeting House from 3.30-6.30 pm. This is specifically in support of my mentee, Dance Leader in Training Ruth Christine, who is establishing a Dance circle in Bangor. We hope that we can encourage a vibrant circle to develop! Do come and support us in that venture if you are able to.

As the possibility of travel seems to open up, I am hoping to be in the Czech Republic in July, and in Spain in August, teaching at camps. I am hoping to offer a Women’s Retreat in early summer, and I am beginning to dream a trip to the USA in the autumn (or fall!). Please get in touch with me if you’d like to know more, or to support me in making these trips happen, perhaps with a dance or Sufi retreat in your area. And watch this space for more information as things unfold over the next few months.