Sufism is a universal stream that is at the heart of every spiritual. Its the love for god and the expression of that love through service to gods creation. The thing, its not a creed, its not a set of beliefs, its a living experience of the deepening and unfolding of love. Love for god. And because of that, its something which in every generation, in every culture is a living experience, so it has to be refreshed. Generation after generation in every culture. I see. Sufism is a con temp founded in 1952 by a spiritual figure from india, and its carried by a lineage of spiritual teachers that he appointed to serve as spiritual guides for americans who in their point of life picture of him right there. Mmhmm. In the stage of life that were in, feel the need for spiritual guidance for the living teacher. Now, i understand youve been a part about 44 years, and terry about 37 years. Mmhmm. How did you get involved . Well, lets see,s in my case, everybody gets involved we all are on our own spiritual quest, spiritual past, whether conscious or not conscious. Theres that inner yearning for truth and for meaning, like what is this all about . Thats right. And in my case, when i was 6 years old, i grew up in new york city and i have gone watching a tv show. I thought i turned on some cartoons and instead, it was this program that had a picture of manhattan island, which i recognized that i lived there, and the person took a big black marker and circled and it said that if this thing happened, that everything inside that circle would just poof dissolve into dust in a second. And later i learned that it was the h bomb that had just been developed. But that moment made me realize that everything could that i could die at any moment, that everything could just disappear at any moment. At that age . At 6 years old. I was not a happy child. I was trying to figure out, well, what happens then . The people around me talked about that youre born, you live, you die and they had ideas about maybe life after death or no life after death, but i wanted to know. I wanted from personal experience to know why am i alive . What is the purpose of life . And so that then became my quest, that early. And i went to college and graduate school, studying religion to try to see if anybody really knew from personal experience. And you have a ph. D in theology, right . I do. I got a ph. D in theology. But in the middle of getting that, i actually dropped out. It was during the time that i dropped out that i learned about sufism and the questions that i had were all answered on a personal experiencal level and then i went back and finished my degree because part of his teaching, spiritual teaching for this age is that one has to be a productive member of society and contribute to society. And thats where the service and the commitment to love and the universal kind yeah, that its not just up here and its not just well intentioned. Of course thats where it starts, but that one has to actually use ones body to act on what we know, our highest knowing of service and the unity, the unity. The oneness. Oneness, yes. Terry, tell us about your journey. Mine is very different from pascals, because by the time i was born, both my parents had learned of sufism reoriented and had become members. My mother had actually met the leader when he was visiting the united states. So both my parents were already drawn to sufism, but members of sufism reoriented neither teach that to their children, nor do they expect their children to follow that path. So i had a very deep relationship with the spiritual director of sufism at the time and i felt very drawn to well, when i was a child, i felt very drawn to all the faiths. My parents opened the doors for us to attend any church, so we often visited with our friends on sunday worship that they went to. And i myself was very interested in buddhism, so i was studying that and my parents hardly supported that. As long as we were truthful to following our own faith. Where were your parents from . My mother was from lebanon. My father also had lebanese heritage, but they were living in the united states. My mother was educated in washington, dc and my father in texas. Okay. Well, we are going to come back to your story and the sufism reoriented. Thank you. Glad youre here, both of you. Thank you, ron. Please join us. Welcome back to mosaic. We have been talking to terry and pascal about sufism reoriented. Tell us more. Terry, i met you, of course, about a year and a half, two years ago, with this heavenly choir that you direct. Well, one of the ways that sufism reoriented members have found it most lovely to express their love for god is to express it through the arts, so many members of sufism are artists or musicians or actors. And so we do have a choir. Im going to show a few photographs. I was showing you earlier one of our concerts at Mission Dolores basilica in celebration of st. Francis of assisi. All of our concerts are free. This is one such celebration. Our children, childrens choir also joined. That was at st. Marks in orinda, you brought almost the entire choir. It was a glorious time. It was one. It was a pleasure for us. Weve also been invited to perform at union square, which is also such a delight. This is one of hose concerts at union square, where we can share the universal message of love and brotherhood. Its just a lovely forum for us to celebrate god and the unity. I asked you about the colors, the white. Yes, yes. So thats right, because we are costumed. Were dressed in white. And though thats not as you can see, we dont wear white as a uniform, but white does have a special meaning for us, as it does for many, many spiritual traditions, because white is the color that is made up of all the other colors. Right. The rainbow colors. So its most inclusive of all colors. So its symbolic of that kind of universal inclusion, the oneness of all of creation, of all of life, and one of the things about the chorus and the reason that so many of our members participate in the chorus, not just the singers, but on the technical crew and so forth, is just as i said before. Sufism isnt about teachings and learning creeds. Its about love for god and then celebrating that love, which is something thats beyond, you know, up here. It has to do with the heart. And what can express love and gratitude more than beautiful music . One of your emphasis and expressions is in walnut creek. Many people will say, can i come and join . How can i be in touch with you . And had you some interesting thoughts around that. That you dont actually just come and join and be a part. Well, a distinction needs to be may not between a church like yours, which is a community church, where people can drop in. You have regular members who come regularly, but then others come as they can. I want them to drop in more often yes, you do [ laughter ] hope that they will, right [ laughter ] the shows you do, they should. But there are other kinds of spiritual organizations that are known as spiritual orders. Came tholism, buddhism, islam has spiritual orders, orders of spiritual groups in islam. It is progressive, where one participates in an environment where its really a life commitment to be a part of a Spiritual Community and to unfold ones self along with the other members of that community. So it takes about a year of orientation . Yes, so for those people who are interested in joining sufism reoriented, we have a program like other spiritual orders do, but one learns about it and theres an orientation so that at the end of the year, one can its not just for us to say is this person somebody who, you know, belongs here. Its for each person has to decide, is this my spiritual home . And one of the things that drew me when i was young, i didnt want to belong to a group. I was very independent, not wanting to belong to a group. And when i learned that the thing about sufism reoriented is one cannot become a sufi. Its not about achieving something. Its whether one is a sufi or not and its a matter of recognizing where one spiritual home is. Each of us has a spiritual home somewhere and for those who are searching, the search is for where is my spiritual home. Now, when i was in orinda, i remember that the walnut creek had opened the doors for you to build there. Can you share with us that incredible facility that you have there that i was really struck by that . We broke ground last may and so construction has begun. I understand theres about 10 million or more . Yeah, its you know, the Construction Costs are still they go up and change. With the bids and so forth. Yes. The important part is what we were committed to doing, we knew when we purchased our current center, also in walnut creek just a block away from where weve Broken Ground from the new sanctuary, that it was too smawrl for us and that we needed to have more space. We dont have a rehearsal hall and yet we have a 70member choir. We needed. Weve been saving and weve been working toward having a sanctuary that could house our programs. The thing about it is that what we wanted to do was to create a sanctuary that in its symbolism, in its physical structure, represented the principles of unity that we try to carry into the world in our daily lives. So its a physical representation. Its circular, which circle is a symbol of unity and oneness and its clad, going to be clad in some lightcolored marble so that, again, that white, the idea of idea as a representation of unity. When you talk about love and service, it definitely means commitment. And most traditional, conventional kind of expressions of religion, we tithe or we ask for offerings. Were in a major remodeling that weve done in our particular church in fairfield, so we asked to give back. So we have fund raisers and ask people to give. How do you go about making that commitment of funds . Well, its very individual because everybodys financial situations are individual. Theres not first of all, the spiritual director of sufism reoriented, who is dr. Carol connor at this time, and is they dont know, they dont part of their relationship with the members of sufism isnt at all related to our financial contribution towards sufism. Each person individually knows how much it costs to run the various programs we have. There are many things we are very committed to, which weve had as longterm projects. The mayhurst schools which is in lafayette i want to do back to that. Oh, sure. Well take a break and when we come back, tell us about those schools and what you do in those schools. Thank you. Please join us. Welcome back to mosaic. Weve been talking about sufism reoriented. Weve been talking about schools and what Terry Johnson and others have done in the schools. Tell us more about that. One of the projects we were mentioning that is a more public service, expression of our devotion to serving god through service to his creation has been through the mayhurst schools and its preschool. We are very happy the preschool in the past two years has been identified as the best it won awards. Okay. Children come from as far as benicia and berkeley, so its very affordable. We try to keep the costs as low as we can. And all of the teachers are dedicated to serving the children through living the highest principles we can of love for god, kindness, the things that are at the heart of sufism. And so but the children never hear that. They know they are getting a high quality education. Their parents do also. Were a fully accredited wosc school and receive sixyear accreditation, but we integrate decree richly into the curriculum, the arts. So theres a lot of music and drama and fine arts so that the children are free to express the Broad Spectrum of learning and stay infused with the love for learning. Thats exciting. What about the st. Francis shall. One of the things ill say is that we dont teach anything about sufism reoriented. As with everything else, its the way in which we live and the kind of the energy that we share. So its not a Parochial School in that sense. Its just a small private school. Its not that small. Weve got 300 families. Okay. But then the francis and the Schools Program, which you are the director of. Why dont you Say Something about that. You asked about projects and whether or not we tithe. We do not. But sometimes when we have special projects that we want to offer to the city, we invite people if they would like to, to contribute towards it. So based on how much we have in our little bank for that project, then we can offer it as richly as we can afford. Pictures of the choir is where you have some of those no, those programs are all free. Those are free programs. We dont charge anything to those. The chorus members donate their time. Its very often the churches open their doors very generously. Thats right. Why dont you talk about the francis program. The francis in the Schools Program was started in 2010. It was founded by connor, who has a deep love for San Francisco and devotion to the city and feels very strongly that in its namesake, st. Francis of assisi, there is Great Potential for healing. And so we identify children in the neighborhoods that come from the most, the most underserved, the children whose neighborhoods the neighborhoods are mostly plagued by crime, poverty and neglect. The first two years or so, it was about 1300. Now by the end of may, more than 2000. Thats fantastic, fantastic. What it is, it starts, we bring the children at no cost to see a musical play that celebrates the life of st. Francis of assisi and they get to see an interactive play. The actors come around and chat and the children are part of the action. Tell us more about that in the next segment. Okay. Because time goes so fast. Were enjoying it. Okay . Sure. I hope youll please join us in our last segment with terry. W. Before we go back to st. Francis of the schools, you have a symbol over there. I do. So this is a symbol of, that is mayor bab as symbol that he designed that, as you can see, is circular, which represents the unity. But then within the circle are the symbols of the the major world religions. I noticed that. When we talked about sufism reoriented and siewf sufism, this is a representation. Thank you for sharing that. Lets go back to the schools in the last few minutes. Thats also at the heart of the st. Francis of the Schools Program, because as you well know, given just one school in San Francisco, there are sometimes nine languages. Thats right. And such diversity. Even more. So they dont know. The children dont know that sufism theres no reason that they should know that sufism reoriented is sponsoring that. They only know they are hosts of st. Francis of assisi, the namesake of the city, who loves them and whose life and message about brotherhood and kindness and love for one another and unity, that just the core values are celebrated and we all in that moment just enjoy one another and the beautiful nature. Is that year round . Well, it happens when were able to afford it. Often its been in the fall and in the spring, especially, when we can after we show the children the play, we perform a play in the National Shrine of st. Francis in north beach. And then after they see the play, we take them to one of the neighborhood city parks that we transform into a renaissance fair. Youre talking over 2000 . Well, 300 at a time. Okay. Then overall, with the number program, it comes up more. Okay. We have just a minute or so. Anything last that we need to say . You know, only thing i would say is the kind of program that youre hosting where you bring representatives from different spiritual traditions to speak with you every week is such an example of what, you know, sufism reoriented is about. We thank you for that. Thank you. We have the Jewish Community represented, the catholic community, sometimes the muslim community, and Protestant Community represents this segment. We are glad that you have come. Thank you. Thank you for coming, terry, pascal. Thank you. It is wonderful. Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment . He said love your neighbor as yourself. This is an expression of that. Sufism reoriented has demonstrated their actions over the years and their deeds. We are glad they were with us this morning. I know youve been inspired. Im ron swisher. Join us next month. Hugh should be back with us. Thank you for being with us. Our pitch. If you have a idea. We would love to from you. Go to facebook dot com hi everyone. Welcome to bay sunday. We begin with our weekly deal. Lets get started or shall i say show time is now. The new season is upon us and what better way to kick it off than with funny girl. Rags to riches stories. Believe it or not it was brought to broadway 50 years ago. You can see it now. Were happy to have their director with us this morning