Meditation in Motion is a phrase describing conscious movement created to strive towards peace, relaxation, refinement, contemplation, and stillness. At the center of this kind of movement is breath, rhythm, concentration, and sound.
This form of meditation in motion was created by Sufi Master Adnan Sarhan. He came to the US from Baghdad, Iraq in the time when Westerners were seeking out practices to find an experience of the spirit through the physical being. Many practices came to the West. Sitting meditation, yoga, tai chi, chi gong and many other methods. Adnan combined many practices together to create a method that involved all human attributes and faculties. Breath, movement, yoga like exercises, drumming, whirling, chanting, dancing, stories, entertainment, and nature, to allow the whole being to experience the deeper states of being and bring the person into the moment.
The moment is so much the center of striving in spirit and key to the healing and evolving. Despite people existing in the moment, people drift between the past and the future which makes them forget and sleep and become the victim of habits and thinking that bring them to a lower state.
To strive towards being in the moment is extremely challenging as many might experience when they begin to practice stopping the mind. Adnan often said, “If you don’t guard your intellect from your intellect, with your intellect, you will be destroyed by the intellect.” Through concentrated movement, with the right mood, the right music, the right breath coming into alignment, the focus can bypass the chatter of the mind and become present in the moment, in unification. The result is you fall into a state of meditation naturally.
Sufism has existed through all of time for human beings. A way of naming the urge in human beings to seek out an experience of reality beyond the senses, beyond material, beyond belief, beyond form. Adnan often said. “Sufism is a developing entity and not a system for reproducing form.” There have been thousands of Sufi masters and teachers whose styles, methods, teachings have reflected the need of the students in their time.
Sufism mean purity. To purify the being, to experience the hidden reality of the spirit. Each human faculty, the mind, the body, the psychic, and the emotions can be inspired to seek spiritual expression in its nature and experience spirit on many levels.
In meditation in motion the focus is to unify the faculties in attention to the breath, the movement and through sound and concentration. It is a beautiful way to experience the moment in a state of peace, presence, stillness, and vibrant awareness.
In this method there is not much talk, rather the focus is to bring the experience of presence to participants and let them be in the state without too much explanation or direction. It is often a refreshing change from the over explaining of exercises that keeps the mind active and focused outwardly. In this life we lead where there are so many distractions and so many things to manage, meditation in motion introduces a great luxury to come into a state where you can just be without rush, force or judgement.
The focus of the practice is the essence. The form is a guide only and is done very gently to allow the body and the mind to gradually yield to the power of the breath. And the breath and the movement connect with the inner being, rather than a system of form. Surrender is a powerful tool in bringing suppleness to what is stiff, flexibility to what is rigid, patience to what is impatient and intolerant. The slow repetitive nature of the movements gradually removes blockages and negative conditions of mind and body.
The benefits of the practices are huge. Under Adnan’s guidance many people gave up bad habits like drinking, drugs, smoking, coffee, and many lose weight and keep it off. Many have positive changes in their relations with others, improved well-being, better focus, and more clarity about life in general. For myself, apart from quitting habits like drinking, smoking and drugs I was able to write books, run a business while travelling in Europe and America, and become stronger physically, emotionally, and mentally. So many positive changes came from doing these practices, most of all feeling very content and able to make better choices in life.
The practical considerations, for this method are simple. To be in a quiet place where you can move and not have anything around you that can distract you. To be dressed comfortably so you can easily move and stretch. To sit on a mat or blanket that gives you a little cushioning from a hard floor. To do the practices on an empty stomach if you can. The less you have in your stomach the deeper you can experience the practices. The methods are very simple, and you don’t need to be prepared in any way to begin. You begin in the state where you are at and develop from there. In this way people can join at any time and return to it any time according to how much they want to do it.
Adnan Sarhan passed in April 2021. Being in his presence was a gift I could never fully acknowledge or describe. I never met someone who could be so strong, so truthful, so open and gentle, so giving and humble, so creative and playful. He showed me, in his actions how life could be beautiful and meaningful. He gave so much and left us with a unique method.
To quote Adnan, “Knowledge has to come in an environment of love.” For me Adnan was a teacher that became everything I needed, to grow in the right direction.
To learn more about Adnan Sarhan you can visit the Sufi Foundation of America website or read “Inside the Time.”