Advanced Sufi Studies
Stages of Samadhi - Stages of Realization
Workshop with Munir Voss and Malik Hirschberg
(German and Englisch)
Week 1D 23.7. – 28.7.2012
By entering the spiritual path, we embark on a journey towards a goal unknown.
Everything is changing and fleeting. What we think was ours, will be torn from us, and we will receive gifts we could not even dream of.
In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 10 stages of Samadhi are described. Those are stages or states of consciousness and of experience. In the first place they are stages of liberation from illusion, delusion, and attachment, stages of temporary and eventually permanent suspension of the Ego.
In our workshop this year we will have a closer look on those states, or maqams. Do they appear as results of certain practices, or are they rather signs of a state of our spiritual development? We will study the corresponding chapters of the Yoga Sutra, but always in awareness of our own experience: "To see wether this is so or not, look into your own spirit!"
In shared meditations, in face-to-face practices, and in small group sharings, we will approach this core, this motor of spirital transformation - as much as ist possible during one week's work. Through meditation we can build an energy field in which the spiritual teachings become reality, and that may eventually transform our lives and ourselves.
Munir Voss
Munir Voss has studied philosophy, physics, psychology and astrology. He began to meditate in 1970 and has been a disciple of Pir Vilayat since 1980. Since 1981 he has been leading the Heidelberg Sufi Center. For several years now Munir has been one of the main people responsible for the training of retreat guides and leaders in the Sufi Order International. The main focus of his work is the retreat concentration.
Malik Hirschberg
Malik Hirschberg is a retreat guide and a representative in the Sufi Order of Austria. He is responsible for the sufi center in Vienna.