Sufi Symposium Brings Sufis from all Over the World to Marin

One of the benefits of living in Marin County is the vast amount of resources available in all disciplines. An example of this is the Annual Sufism Symposium presented by the International Association of Sufism (IAS) in cooperation with the Humanities Department at Dominican University.
 
According to Hamed Ross, marketing coordinator for IAS, this is the 18th year the event has been held, bringing Sufis and leaders of many faiths from around the world for a weekend of conversation on spiritual psychology and the connections between mind and heart, as well as Sufi music and poetry reading.
 
Sufism is described as the “inner mystical dimension of Islam” with an objective of the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God.
 
Registration will be available at the door for $75.
 
The event will feature the Taneen Sufi Music Ensemble and Riffat Sultana on that Saturday at 5 p.m. Taneen sings of love and poetry with music that fuses Middle Eastern and Western influences. They have performed all over the world including the Parliament of World Religions conference in Spain. Sultana is the first woman from her family’s musical lineage to publicly perform in the west. Her father was recognized as one of the finest Pakistani classical singers of his time. Ticket for just the musical presentation will be $15 at the door.
 
Two of the noted presenters include: Seyedeh Nahid Angha, co-director and co-founder of the IAS and her husband Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, both of San Rafael. Kianfar has taught Sufism and Islamic philosophy for more than 40 years and has spoken to the United Nations and UNESCO and the author of several books and editor-in-chief of Sufism: An Inquiry. Angha is the main representative of the IAS to the United Nations and the first Muslim woman inducted into the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame. She is president of the board of directors of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio.
 
Licensed psychologist and author David Lukoff of Petaluma will lead the keynote address of how spirituality and psychology can achieve a balance and work together.  Lukoff has served on many faculties including Harvard, UCLA and Oxnard College. He is co-president of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology and a founding board member of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology. He is the co-author of a new mental health category for religious or spiritual problem used in diagnosis.
 
There will also be a keynote address by Olga Louchakova-Schwartz, MD, director of the Neurophenomenology Research Center, on “The Logos of Unity: Philosophy and Spiritual Practice in the Sufi Way of Life.”
 
Other topics will include: Sufism and ecology, Sufi practice, transformation through imagination, the beauty of submission in love, the responsive heart and more.