Pir Shabda Kahn – The Mystical Power of Sufi Breathwork, Mantras & Sacred Sounds

Cultivate daily breath, rhythm, and mantra practices to find your true essence of inner light and access your happiness baseline.

In this deeply transformative 7-week journey with Pir Shabda, you’ll discover a beautifully curated array of Sufi breathwork practices, mantras, and sound medicine to help you experience yourself as One with everything…. and cultivate ever-increasing strength, ease, courage, and happiness.

You’ll experience, for example, the sound healing practice of placing a sacred sound on the breath. As you’ll discover, these sacred sounds (mostly in the root languages of Sanskrit, Tibetan, Aramaic, Arabic, and Hebrew) are immensely transformative when chanted with an open heart.

What you’ll learn in The Mystical Power of Sufi Breathwork, Mantras & Sacred Sounds

In The Mystical Power of Sufi Breathwork, Mantras & Sacred Sounds, Pir Shabda will guide you through mystical Sufi breathwork, mantras, and sacred sounds — healing practices to cultivate inner peace and resilience.

The Power of Live Streaming Video

You’ll connect with Pir Shabda and experience his teachings through live streaming video. This connection will be easy to use and will enhance the impact of Pir Shabda’s body of work. Or you can easily connect just via audio if you choose — through your phone, tablet, laptop, or computer.

Module 1: Discovering the Purpose of Life — Find the Compass Point & Skillful Means That Lead to Inner Happiness

We’re surrounded by the myth that if only circumstances were exactly as we’d like, we’d be happy…

The truth is, happiness and freedom come from the process of transforming ourselves…

In this opening session, you’ll explore why breath, sound, and attitude are the greatest transformative tools to help you on your path to limitless freedom.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• Pir Shabda’s musical introduction to ground you as the course begins
• The roots of Sufi mysticism
• How mysticism is based on direct experience, rather than philosophy
• Your compass point and skillful means that lead to inner happiness
• How to deconstruct the notion that we’re separate beings

Module 2: Rhythm, Breath & Motion — A Perfect Marriage for Healing

Breathing is a powerful source of healing, available to us in every moment. In this second class, you’ll dive deep into breathwork as a spiritual practice, and Pir Shabda will guide you to find the rhythm and natural swing of your breath.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn to make a habit of a rhythmic breath
• Understand the unique blessings of both inhalation and exhalation
• Discover refined rhythmic breathing as a source of healing
• Experience how disturbing emotions always interrupt the flow of breath

Module 3: Mysticism of Sound Mantras & Recitation — The Path of Sound

Why are sound and music so appealing to human beings? Indeed, humanity has been given a gift — the mysticism of sound.

In this class, you’ll practice the recitation of sacred phrases… and learn how they can transform your consciousness when coupled with devotion.

By reciting sacred phrases, you can transform your consciousness — and transcend your experience of your inner and outer worlds… even in the midst of turmoil.

In this module, you’ll:

• Discover why sacred sound has profound effects
• Recognize the universality of religious ideals and practice the sacred phrases from many of the world’s greatest mystical traditions
• Understand at a profound level that the soul is music
• Learn how to bring daily mantra practice into your life
• Use the 99 Beautiful Names of God as medicine for your wounds

Module 4: Mysticism of Attitude — Love, Kindness & Compassion and the Practice of Forgiveness

What is your attitude while you’re breathing and chanting?

We’ve been falsely trained to believe that what we do will bring satisfaction and happiness. However, it’s actually how you do things that profoundly opens your heart and allows you to be of great benefit.

During this integration session, you’ll explore how the ability to be in tune with the Infinite can put you on the path to fulfilling your life’s purpose…

In this module, you’ll:

• Recognize how the challenges and struggles of life are really your greatest teachers for transformation
• Explore how to cultivate an inner sense of strength, courage, kindness, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, patience, gratitude, and integrity
• Discover how to release anger, self-loathing, and jealousy by understanding causes and conditions
• Explore the paradox of living with passion and being at ease with whatever arises

Module 5: Deepening Your Breath Practice — Learning to Be Present With Whatever Arises

In this session, you’ll return to and deepen the practice of breath to help you strengthen your capacity to be present with whatever arises. Pir Shabda will guide you as you unite your meditation with the breath.

In this module, you’ll:

• Experience a right and left nostril breathing practice to help you make meaning of your condition
• Explore the lunar and solar aspects of the left and right nostril
• Learn why your right nostril’s breath is hot (sun breath) and generates body heat, raises metabolism, and accelerates bodily activities
• Discover the ways that your left nostril’s cool breath (moon breath) lowers the temperature of your body, slows your metabolism, and inhibits bodily activities
• Enhance your decision-making capacity by learning to read the breath

Module 6: Deepening Your Sound Practice — Healing Through Ancient Sounds From Spiritual Lineages

As this class opens, Pir Shabda will guide you in a dance for universal peace, as you put spiritual practice in motion.

Drawing on the sacred phrases, scripture, and poetry of the many spiritual traditions of the earth, the dance for universal peace combines chant, music, and evocative movement — creating a living experience of unity, peace, and integration.

This taste of your true nature will unlock the possibility of the deep spiritual revolution that can take place within you…

In this module, you’ll:

• Dive deeper into the 99 Beautiful Names of God as medicine for your life
• Access ancient sound technologies in integrity with experiential spiritual lineages
• How the spiritual lineages you explore can help you understand the infinite nature of God —and discover the divine potential in every soul
• Learn sacred phrases from Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Aramaic, and Greek

Module 7: Marrying the Dual & Non-Dual — How to Make Sense of Your Human Experience

The goal of spiritual practice is to merge yourself with the Oneness of all things. The path toward this Oneness is called surrender because we relinquish the concept of separateness so that we can become the Whole Universe… where everything is interconnected.

In this final class, you’ll explore how to deconstruct the notion of a separate self — of the “I.” You’ll learn to embrace your inner world — your home — as you navigate your outer life experience. And, you’ll discover that honoring mundane tasks of life is equal to peak spiritual moments.

In this module, you’ll:

• Discover what it means to adopt the consciousness that God is everywhere — “La Illaha, Il Allah”
• Learn to practice the path of the lover and the Beloved
• Practice negotiating the gap between your ideals and your current experience as you receive permission to embody the path of the love

About Pir Shabda Kahn

Pir Shabda Kahn has been a disciple of Sufism since 1969. He is a direct disciple of Murshid Samuel L. Lewis (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti), and he worked closely with the great American mystic Joe Miller. Pir Shabda is currently the Pir (spiritual director) of the Sufi Ruhaniat International and the director of the Chisti Sabri School of Music.

After living in a community with Baba Ram Dass on the East Coast, Pir Shabda met Murshid Sam and moved to San Francisco in 1969. In the fall of 1970, Pir Shabda had the good fortune to travel with Murshid Sam for five weeks as his personal assistant on the East Coast, which helped deepen his relationship with his teacher and the Path. He received his spiritual name from Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan in 1971, after Murshid Sam’s passing.

In 1972, Pir Shabda was initiated by Pandit Pran Nath, the Master North Indian classical vocalist, and began the daily practice of Raga singing in the Kirana style. Pandit Pran Nath, a Sufi mystic, requested that Pir Shabda carry on the 800-year-old oral transmission under the name of the Chisti Sabri School of Music, now an umbrella for teaching vocal music and performing Raga.

In 1984, Pir Shabda became a disciple of the illustrious 12th Tai Situpa Rinpoche, a venerated Tibetan Buddhist incarnate lama of the Kagyu Lineage.

Pir Shabda has appeared as a musician in concerts, including Visions for a Perfect World at New York’s St. John the Divine Cathedral. He has also performed for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for New Music America in Chicago, at Delhi University Music School, and at Shivaratri Festival in New Delhi. He is one of a handful of Americans who have dedicated themselves to carrying on the legacy of the treasure of North Indian classical vocal music.

Pir Shabda married his wife Tamam in 1976, and they made their home in San Rafael, California. They have a son and daughter-in-law, two young granddaughters, and many godchildren.

As Pir of the Sufi Ruhaniat International, Pir Shabda directs the Jamiat Khas (the Ruhaniat leader circle), directs the SRI Board of Trustees, and is the spiritual director for the Dances of Universal Peace worldwide. He has a regular zikr meeting in Marin County, California, and travels the world throughout the year spreading the Sufi Message of love, harmony, and beauty. He brings warmth, humor, and clarity in his efforts to help seekers on their path to awakening.

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