Contemplative Session: The Four Elements

Mawlana Rumi said, “Earth, water, fire and air are God’s servants. To us they seem lifeless but to God they are living.” The four elements are known in Sufism as shahid al-wujud, “witnesses of being.” In this session we will practice a time-honored Sufi method of inner purification involving the attunement of the body and mind to earth, water, fire, and air successively. Passing through the dense, fluid, igneous, and gaseous states, our contemplation will culminate in the intuition of the primal formlessness underlying all physical and mental form.