Category Archives: Blog

Today in Beirut, a number of policemen biked past me on my daily stroll on the sea. To help improve their image and visibility, the Internal Security Forces in Lebanon have started implementing various outreach initiatives (like biking on the Corniche) as part of The Policing Pilot Project–funded by the American and British embassies…

Human beings constantly fall into the net of selfish desires, so clarity of perseverance in the Tao becomes difficult. If the ebb and flow of the Utmost Mercy’s uplifting the awareness comes to be seen in them, and if the affairs and tasks of the hidden and the manifest are purified in their heart, then only does the taste of the Tao begin to overcome the taste of the bodily mandate. Laborious toil is eased, and the subtle realm becomes manifest. Selfish intention is removed, and a song of joy arises…

— Displaying the Concealment of the Real Realm

Even Bob Dylan considered himself a Sufi singer. He said in an interview with Rolling Stone:
“Yeah, [Sufi singing] that’s where my singing really comes from.” Dylan also states his favourite singer is the Egyptian Sufi singer Om Kalthoum, “the voice of [the] Arabs.”

— Youth

The video above was taken at this year’s World Sufi Spirit Festival in Jodhpur, which brings together Sufi musicians from around the world. To read an interview with two musicians who performed there this year–Killing Joke bassist Youth and Karen Ruimy–please click here…

Come into my house, beloved—a short while…
That the light of love will shine from Konya
To Samarkand and Bukhara…

— Rumi

In 1944, more than 200,000 Crimean Tatars were forcibly deported from the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Republic to Central Asia–mostly to Uzbekistan. Here is an article about what life is like for Crimean Tatars in Uzbekistan today…

When the aspiring traveler clings to retreat and the remembrance of God’s name, when he empties his heart of reflective thoughts, and when he sits in poverty at the door of his Lord with nothing, then God will bestow upon him and give him something of knowledge of Him, the divine mysteries, and the lordly sciences…

— Ibn Arabi

Today in Beirut, my students and I compared the philosophies of three great medieval thinkers: Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, and al-Ghazali (who left his prestigious teaching post in Baghdad to embark on a spiritual retreat in Damascus)…

If you read or study knowledge, your knowledge must improve your heart and purge your ego–just as if you learned that your life would only last another week, inevitably you would not spend it in learning about law, ethics, jurisprudence, scholastic theology and suchlike, because you would know that these sciences would be inadequate for you. Instead, you would occupy yourself with inspecting your heart, discerning the features of your personality, giving worldly attachments a wide berth, purging yourself of ugly traits, and you would occupy yourself in adoring God the Exalted, worshipping Him, and acquiring good qualities…

— al Ghazali

书山有路勤为径，学海无涯苦作舟。
(There is no royal road to learning.)

— Chinese proverb

One of the great things about learning Chinese in Beirut is that much of the vocabulary we learn is directly related to the Middle East. For example, one of the most popular Chinese words in our class (my own personal favorite) is the word for Arabic: 阿拉伯语 (Ālābóyǔ). Maybe I’m biased, but it’s just so fun to say. Give it a try: A-laa-boy-yuu.

Here’s another song by the McIntosh County Shouters…

Since a Lebanese man was recently kidnapped near Baalbek by armed assailants, I guess I won’t be taking my students on a field-trip this semester to explore the breathtaking ruins of Baalbek…

During tai chi class tonight in Beirut, our teacher reminded us to relax and practice the movements with “le visage de Buddha”–the face of Buddha. From the outside, tai chi looks simple and graceful, but practicing this meditative art in (slow) motion is no easy feat. After class ended, a Lebanese DJ offered to give me a ride home–since it was on his way to a gig nearby. While we were cruising on the Corniche along the sea, he flipped through his music collection, and landed on a song performed by the McIntosh County Shouters–celebrated ring shouters from Georgia–who are helping to preserve a musical tradition from slavery thought to have died out in the early 20th century…

While teaching at Harvard, I traveled to Iran to give an academic talk and meet with Iranian colleagues–in the spirit of intellectual collaboration and mutual understanding. Back then, my friends in America were convinced that I’d be sent straight to Gitmo upon my return–but now it seems times have (somewhat) changed. Today, on the occasion of Persian New Year, the U.S. treasury officially authorized select academic exchanges with Iran. When I met with Iranian students in Tehran, many of them told me that I was the first American they had ever met–and they were longing to meet many more. Hopefully, today’s authorization of “certain academic exchanges” will open up many opportunities between Iran and the United States for academic partnerships and intercultural dialogue in the years to come…

Now that it’s finally spring, the seaside cafes in Beirut are filled again with customers…pretty soon, I’ll be returning to the sea to swim with the turtles…