For anyone wanting to understand Sufism here is a wonderful source:

[Sky Dancer]

For anyone wanting to understand Sufism here is a wonderful source:

Sufism, Sufi - Islamic Sects - ReligionFacts

 

[Sunni Man]

For anyone wanting to understand Sufism here is a wonderful source:

Sufism, Sufi - Islamic Sects - ReligionFacts

Really nice site with great information.

 

[Intense]

Wow! Your Own Thread!

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

American Thinker: Sufi Jihad?

 

[Sunni Man]

Sufi Muslims are generally a very peaceful sect of Islam.

They keep to themselves and rarely get involved in politics or armed struggle.

Even in countries where brutal dictators suppress Islam and muslims.

Sufi's are considered basically harmless and are left alone to do their mystical chanting and dancing in peace.

 

[Sky Dancer]

The Sufi woman I am closest to supervised my counseling practice for three years and served as my mentor. She is a very bright woman, (with two PHDs, one in mathematics, the other in psychology) and has the most open heart I've ever met in anyone. She continues to serve as an inspiration to me of love, compassion, joy and equanimity.

Here is a source about Sufi women:

"As the mystical side of Islam developed, it was a woman, Rabi'a al-Adawiyya (717-801 A.D.), who first expressed the relationship with the divine in a language we have come to recognize as specifically Sufic by referring to God as the Beloved. Rabi'a was the first human being to speak of the realities of Sufism with a language that anyone could understand. Though she experienced many difficulties in her early years, Rabi'a's starting point was neither a fear of hell nor a desire for paradise, but only love. "God is God," she said, "for this I love God... not because of any gifts, but for Itself." Her aim was to melt her being in God. According to her, one could find God by turning within oneself. As Muhammad said, "He who knows himself knows his Lord." Ultimately it is through love that we are brought into the unity of Being."

Within Sufism, the language of the Beloved and the recognition of the feminine helps to balance some of the old cultural stereotypes that were sometimes used in expository writing and which the Western media have chosen to highlight. Rumi often speaks beautifully of the feminine, presenting woman as the most perfect example of God's creative power on earth. As he says in the Mathnawi, "Woman is a ray of God. She is not just the earthly beloved; she is creative, not created."

It is precisely this creativity and capacity for love and relationship that suits women so well for the Sufi way of opening to relationship with the divine. As we come to recognize the magnificence of the benevolent Source of Life, we can come to see ourselves in harmony with it. Each surah (chapter) of the Qur'an begins with Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, which means "In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful." Rahman speaks to the fundamental beneficence inherent in the divine nature, Rahim to the particular mercy that manifests. Both words come from the same root, which is the word for "womb." God's mercy and benevolence is always emphasized as being greater than His wrath; the encompassing generosity and nurturance of the divine is the milieu in which we live.

As women, we come from the womb and carry the womb. We give birth from the womb and can find ourselves born into the womb of Being. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is very much revered in Sufism and Islam as an example of one who continually took refuge with the divine and opened to receive divine inspiration within the womb of her being. As women, we have great capacity for patience, for nurturing, for love. A contemporary male Sufi teacher once described an ideal guide as one who is like a mother -- one who is always there, without demands, willing to instruct and set limits, but also willing to stay up all night to nurse a suffering child.
Women and Sufism, by Camille Adams Helminski

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Sufi Muslims are generally a very peaceful sect of Islam.

They keep to themselves and rarely get involved in politics or armed struggle.

Even in countries where brutal dictators suppress Islam and muslims.

Sufi's are considered basically harmless and are left alone to do their mystical chanting and dancing in peace.

Except, of course, for their persecution by other Muslims.

Twenty-first Century India: The continuing persecution of Sufis in Kashmir by Wahabi/Salafist Sunni Radical Islamic terrorists of Pakistan

 

[High_Gravity]

Pakistan: Sufi Muslim Shrine Attacked – Many Killed :: Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

Iran’s Sufi’s attacked after pledging support for the Green Movement « Democratic Republic of Iran

Dozens injured in clash between Sufi mystics, Iran paramilitary

 

[Sky Dancer]

That figures that the peaceful ones would be attacked. Why does no one support the Sufis, recognize they are peaceful?

Must anti-islamicism extend to hate Sufi's?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

As I have pointed out before, even Buddhist fight wars and acts of terrorism. You want the world to be full of rainbows and unicorns, but it is really full of smoke and dragons. I support individuals who do not do evil, and condemn those who do.

 

[Sky Dancer]

As I have pointed out before, even Buddhist fight wars and acts of terrorism. You want the world to be full of rainbows and unicorns, but it is really full of smoke and dragons. I support individuals who do not do evil, and condemn those who do.

The Buddhists involved in tribal warfare are accumulating serious non-virtue. I do not support their violence. Killing is not a Buddhist virtue. The first mindfulness training or precept in Buddhism is do not kill. "A person should not kill, should not let others kill, and should not support any act of killing in the world, either in one's thinking or in their way of life".



Your view is that human beings are basically flawed, your world is a hell realm with smoke and dragons.

Mine is that all human beings have buddha nature and the potential for enlightenment. That doesn't mean that suffering is ignored. People committ evil acts. I condemn those acts.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

As I have pointed out before, even Buddhist fight wars and acts of terrorism. You want the world to be full of rainbows and unicorns, but it is really full of smoke and dragons. I support individuals who do not do evil, and condemn those who do.

The Buddhists involved in tribal warfare are accumulating serious non-virtue. I do not support their violence. Killing is not a Buddhist virtue. The first mindfulness training or precept in Buddhism is do not kill. "A person should not kill, should not let others kill, and should not support any act of killing in the world, either in one's thinking or in their way of life".



Your view is that human beings are basically flawed, your world is a hell realm with smoke and dragons.

Mine is that all human beings have buddha nature and the potential for enlightenment. That doesn't mean that suffering is ignored. People committ evil acts. I condemn those acts.

Could I just point out that, if humans were not fundamentally flawed everyone would be awake?

Even Buddhism teaches that we, as humans, are fundamentally flawed. You just believe we can help ourselves, and I think we need help.

 

[Sky Dancer]

As I have pointed out before, even Buddhist fight wars and acts of terrorism. You want the world to be full of rainbows and unicorns, but it is really full of smoke and dragons. I support individuals who do not do evil, and condemn those who do.

The Buddhists involved in tribal warfare are accumulating serious non-virtue. I do not support their violence. Killing is not a Buddhist virtue. The first mindfulness training or precept in Buddhism is do not kill. "A person should not kill, should not let others kill, and should not support any act of killing in the world, either in one's thinking or in their way of life".



Your view is that human beings are basically flawed, your world is a hell realm with smoke and dragons.

Mine is that all human beings have buddha nature and the potential for enlightenment. That doesn't mean that suffering is ignored. People committ evil acts. I condemn those acts.

Could I just point out that, if humans were not fundamentally flawed everyone would be awake?

Even Buddhism teaches that we, as humans, are fundamentally flawed. You just believe we can help ourselves, and I think we need help.

Actually, Buddhism does NOT teach that we are fundamentally flawed. It teaches that we are essentially pure, that we have buddha nature. Our flaws are considered to be adventitious. Just as a diamond encased in rock is not harmed by the rock, and when the rock is refined away the pure diamond is revealed, the same is true for our buddha nature.

The five poisons of the mind; jealousy, ignorance, neurotic clinging, pride and anger/rage become transmuted to their pure form which are the five wisdoms.

You think you need an external savior and I don't. Neither do I believe that hell and heaven are eternal or that any being is wholly evil.

The Buddhist view of the world is that it is essentially dreamlike.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

The Buddhists involved in tribal warfare are accumulating serious non-virtue. I do not support their violence. Killing is not a Buddhist virtue. The first mindfulness training or precept in Buddhism is do not kill. "A person should not kill, should not let others kill, and should not support any act of killing in the world, either in one's thinking or in their way of life".



Your view is that human beings are basically flawed, your world is a hell realm with smoke and dragons.

Mine is that all human beings have buddha nature and the potential for enlightenment. That doesn't mean that suffering is ignored. People committ evil acts. I condemn those acts.

Could I just point out that, if humans were not fundamentally flawed everyone would be awake?

Even Buddhism teaches that we, as humans, are fundamentally flawed. You just believe we can help ourselves, and I think we need help.

Actually, Buddhism does NOT teach that we are fundamentally flawed. It teaches that we are essentially pure, that we have buddha nature. Our flaws are considered to be adventitious. Just as a diamond encased in rock is not harmed by the rock, and when the rock is refined away the pure diamond is revealed, the same is true for our buddha nature.

The five poisons of the mind; jealousy, ignorance, neurotic clinging, pride and anger/rage become transmuted to their pure form which are the five wisdoms.

You think you need an external savior and I don't. Neither do I believe that hell and heaven are eternal or that any being is wholly evil.

The Buddhist view of the world is that it is essentially dreamlike.

Flaws are flaws.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Could I just point out that, if humans were not fundamentally flawed everyone would be awake?

Even Buddhism teaches that we, as humans, are fundamentally flawed. You just believe we can help ourselves, and I think we need help.

Actually, Buddhism does NOT teach that we are fundamentally flawed. It teaches that we are essentially pure, that we have buddha nature. Our flaws are considered to be adventitious. Just as a diamond encased in rock is not harmed by the rock, and when the rock is refined away the pure diamond is revealed, the same is true for our buddha nature.

The five poisons of the mind; jealousy, ignorance, neurotic clinging, pride and anger/rage become transmuted to their pure form which are the five wisdoms.

You think you need an external savior and I don't. Neither do I believe that hell and heaven are eternal or that any being is wholly evil.

The Buddhist view of the world is that it is essentially dreamlike.

Flaws are flaws.

No they're not. You think humans are inherently flawed. I think humans are in essence buddha. The flaws are adventitious. The flaws cannot harm buddha nature.