During our outing today we walked to the Selimiye Mosque and were able to stand in the back during prayers.
Garden of the Mevlani (Rumi) Museum
Side of the Mevlani Museum
Selimiye Mosque (1567BCE) where we attended prayers right next to the Mevlani Museum
Side of the Mevlani Museum with its iconic green tower
We returned to our hotel in time to welcome Ozkan, our new Sufi friend. We talked for 3 hours which flew. We had many questions, analogies, phrases found in both the Quaran and Bible. It was a wonderful time. Mystics of all the major religions meet at the point of Oneness. Like most religions, Sufism has its divisions too about how to practice but the basic teachings are universal truths held in common by many of the Oneness of God, the primacy of love, the journey through suffering to happiness. Ozkan graciously spoke English and occasionally we would have a good laugh over a word new to him or our misunderstanding of his pronunciation.
Dinner after at a favorite restaurant from our last visit.
Norbert's Turkish pizza and coffee
My veggie salad and bowl of Turkish stew with lamb, eggplant, wonderful gravy
Watching election coverage on BBC but it is almost midnight here and polls in CA don't close for several more hours.
This sound like a fabulous time, Janis. The mystic in you has joined the mystic in him...
ReplyDeleteGreat photos as well.
Thank you :-)
Claire - You would have loved it. We were clearly coming from different cultures and at times had difficulty explaining our responses but without ID I think it would have been hard to figure what tradition each of us was from. I have enough questions now that I wish I had another hour with him. Anyway the real value of the experience was seeing how much we had in common even in the language.
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful, Janis!
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