Autumn Retreat 2017
with Angela Fischer
“I burnt, and burnt, and burnt”
LIVING IN THE FIRE OF LOVE
October 27 – 31, 2017
If you haven’t
been touched
by love’s burning flame,
how could our hearts
ever really be close?
-Amir Khusraw Dihlawi
In his day, Rumi summed up his life with these words: “And the result is not more than these three words: I burnt, and burnt, and burnt”.
If we could say this at the end of our own lives, we would know that we had really lived! And loved.
For mystics who set off on the inner journey, the fire of love is their constant companion. Here, we are ‘in our element’. “If you are a friend of God, fire is your water” (Rumi).
We sense that what is meant is not the fire at which we warm our hands on cosy autumn evenings – without getting too close. It is far more the all-devouring fire of love into which we cast ourselves completely and without reservation and let ourselves be consumed by it. If we dare to.
Each path is different. And we follow this unique path, which eludes comparison and cannot be copied, when we immerse ourselves in the retreat. We open up the space for the inner journey. At the same time we are together, connected by the longing to live in the fire of love, the experience of burning, and the stories of those who have gone through the fire. We have been travelling in a caravan for centuries now, and still do so.
The individual journey is merged into one great journey, the only one that really exists. And as always, we shall investigate the question of how we can integrate these experiences into an ordinary, utterly normal and at the same time sacred daily life.
