What are the Stations of the Heart?
Your heart is the spiritual center of your being. Your heart is also a doorway to the Divine Reality. The Sufis teach that the heart has seven stations. Each of these stations is associated with one of the spiritual stages of the Sufi Path. In Sufism, walking through these stations is an essential part of how we deepen our connection with the Divine. Walking through these stations helps us to open the heart to knowing the Real Love. In order to continue to walk from one station to the next, we must purify our heart. When we purify our heart, we find a deeper connection with the Divine Reality inside of us. When our heart is purified of the lower emotions, then we are free to experience true peace and lasting happiness in our lives. When we know how to clean the mirror of our heart, then we are able to return again and again back to a state of love and unity.
As we learn to walk through these spiritual stations, often there is an experience of tremendous love, joy, peace, and expansion. These special teachings can help you to open to the joyful Divine nature of your heart and your soul. Your spiritual heart actually has an “eye” that can witness the Divine Reality. The heart’s eye must become free of its witnessing and attachment to the outer world in order to truly enter into the Divine Reality. In Sidi’s book, The Music of the Soul, Sidi has outlined the steps that can help us to walk quickly through each of the heart’s stations.
One of the best ways to receive a direct transmission of Sidi’s teachings is to write them. What I mean by that is to literally copy word for word what Sidi has written in his books. Start by saying a prayer stating your intention – you intend to write these words in order to receive the deep meaning behind them. Write a sentence or two and then just sit with the words for a minute before proceeding. Make this a daily practice. Sidi says you should write all of his books. What I recommend you start with is by writing The Stations of the Way and The Wazifa. Both of these passages were taken from Music of the Soul by Shaykh Muhammad Sa’id al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i as-Shadhuli. The Wazifa al-Mashishiyya is called by Sidi, “A Deep Prayer for Opening the Soul”. It is written in both the transliteration of the original Arabic and in English. I would suggest writing them both. If you’d like to read the prayer in Arabic, go to Sufimaster.org or read it in Music of the Soul, along with a very detailed explanation of each line in the Wazifa.
Here are the links to the books you will be asked to write in your homework assignments:
Station in He Who Knows Himself