The Circle of Love

Front Cover
The Golden Sufi Center, Mar 18, 1999 - Religion - 224 pages

The circle of divine love is always present within the heart. The journey of the mystic is to retrace this circle and so experience the oneness that is hidden within us.

In The Circle of Love, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee continues his work of providing a contemporary understanding of Sufism, drawing us into this mystery of the soul. He describes the way of mystical prayer and of listening with the heart. He offers valuable insight into power and the spiritual life: how to use one's power to break free of restrictions and live the joy of one's divine nature. He explores the primordial question of why we so easily forget our origin in God. Finally, The Circle of Love takes us deep into the mystical secret of being lost in God, to the center of the circle where the lover merges into the Beloved and the heart's deepest truth is revealed.

“... Vaughan-Lee calls us back to the circle of love where nothing is excluded.” —Spirituality & Practice

 

Selected pages

Contents

Common terms and phrases

abandonment abyss accept allow answer appears attention attributes awakened become begin belong Beloved bring carry circle close collective comes confront consciousness darkness deepest depths desire difficulties direction divine dream emptiness energy eternal everything existence experience face feel forget freedom give given grace hear heart hidden human inner instinctual journey knowledge light limited listening live longer look lost lover master meaning merging mind Mystical nature never one’s ourself outer pain path patterns person practice pray prayer presence qualities Quoted realize relationship remain remembrance responsibility reveals secret sense separation servant shadow sheikh Sometimes soul speaks spiritual stage step story strength struggle Sufi surrender teacher thing thought trans true trust turn unconscious understand veils wait walk wayfarer whole witness wonder

Popular passages

Page 39 - Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?‎
Appears in 532 books from 1992-2008
Page 39 - We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.‎
Appears in 351 books from 1992-2008
Page 58 - MAKE ME ALWAYS READY to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. SO WHEN LIFE FADES, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.‎
Appears in 85 books from 1976-2008
Page 83 - The way of love is not a subtle argument. The door there is devastation.‎
Appears in 20 books from 1993-2007
Page 144 - Then, after he has not been, he is where he had been (before creation). He is himself, after he has not been truly himself. He is existent in himself and existent in God after having been existent in God and non-existent in himself. This is because he has left the drunkenness of God's overwhelming and come to the clarity of sobriety, and contemplation is once more restored to him, so that he can put everything in its right place...‎
Appears in 8 books from 1954-2008
Page 77 - I was a hidden Treasure and I yearned to be known. Then I created creatures in order to be known by them." God becomes a mirror in which the spiritual man contemplates his own reality, and man in turn becomes the mirror in which God contemplates his names and qualities.‎
Appears in 9 books from 1975-2008
Page 142 - I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I : We are two spirits dwelling in one body. If thou seest me, thou seest Him, And if thou seest Him, thou seest us both.‎
Appears in 144 books from 1843-2007
Page 8 - With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.‎
Appears in 154 books from 1892-2008
Page 107 - ... of a lion. The deer becomes another glazed expression on the face of the lion. These are rough metaphors for what happens to the lover. There's no one more openly irreverent than a lover. He, or she, jumps up on the scale opposite eternity and claims to balance it. And no one more secretly reverent. A grammar lesson: "The lover died." "Lover" is subject and agent, but that can't be! The "lover‎
Appears in 5 books from 1987-2005
Page 73 - What have I to do with the window? When I am before you I close my eyes to everything else. I have not come to stare about.‎
Appears in 5 books from 1985-2005

About the author (1999)

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Ph.D., was born in London in 1953 and has followed the Sufi path since he was nineteen. In 1991 he moved with his family to Northern California and founded The Golden Sufi Center (www.goldensufi.org). Author of several books, he has specialized in the area of dreamwork, integrating the ancient Sufi approach to dreams with the insights of modern psychology. Since 2000 the focus of his writing and teaching has been on spiritual responsibility in our present time of transition, an awakening global consciousness of oneness, and spiritual ecology (www.workingwithoneness.org). He has been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on Super Soul Sunday, and featured on the Global Spirit series shown on PBS.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Circle of Love
AuthorLlewellyn Vaughan-Lee
PublisherThe Golden Sufi Center, 1999
ISBN1890350028, 9781890350024
Length224 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Body, Mind & Spirit / Mysticism
Religion / Islam / Sufi
Religion / Mysticism
  
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