Omid Safi – Sufi Heart – Ep. 6 – Practice of Compassion

Omid Safi - Sufi Heart - Ep. 6 - Practice of Compassion

Leslie Langbert joins Omid for a conversation about opening our heart to radical love with the practice of compassion.

A licensed clinical social worker, Leslie Langbert has a background as a psychotherapist working with children, youth and adults, and has held leadership roles in the non-profit sector. Leslie is also a certified yoga instructor and is a mindfulness meditation facilitator. In this episode, Leslie interviews Omid about the translated poetry found in Omid’s most recent book, Radical Love, and the two talk about the practices of love and compassion shared through its poetry. Learn more about Leslie and her offerings at compassioncenter.arizona.edu.

Links from this episode: Illuminated Tours 

Show Notes

Treasures of the Heart (Opening) –  Leslie talks to Omid about how his collection of translated poems, Radical Love, came to be. Omid shares the labor of love that the book began as and reflects on the treasure trove of wisdom left to us by mystics like Kabir and Hafiz.

Our Brokenness (10:20) – We look at the life’s inherent difficulties and the possibility, as suggested by Kabir, for those difficulties to break our hearts open, rather than our hearts simply being broken by grief.

“None of our lives are ever this smooth and peaceful, ocean of bliss. Every ocean has waves, ups and downs and occasional storms. My life has certainly been that way, there have been some very stormy times and brokenness, as well as healing.” – Dr. Omid Safi 

Love, Ever Present (24:10) – Leslie and Omid reflect on the many paths of spirituality that all lead to the same place. They talk about the love that exists in each of us, even when we believe it to be absent.

“In the Torah, The Gospels and the Quran we are told to love the orphan, the widow and the stranger as ourselves. The love of a stranger is also sacred love. Certainly, we as a country are struggling right now, mightily, in terms of how to love a stranger.” – Dr. Omid Safi 

Image via Addie Hirschten