The Sufi Experience, Marcus’s sixth book, shares principles of the Sufi path along with some personal anecdotes of Marcus’s experience meeting her master, M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen.
Marcus identifies the inner contemplation and mystical traditions of her Sufi path as common property to all the major religions, while their goal and destination lie outside them, beyond.
In her five previous books, whether fiction, nonfiction or poetry, Marcus’ passionate devotion to the precepts of Sufism simmers beneath the lyrical writing and explodes commandingly to the surface in her commentaries.
Understanding the experiential nature of that mystical journey to the heart of Islam, seen through the lens of her spiritual master M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, becomes the structure of this new work, The Sufi Experience. A combination of lucid commentary and cheerful anecdote fills the book, especially in the extended chapter “Journey East,” an account of her travels to Dubai, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a critical self-examination to light up the way.
The deliberate thread running through all her books is the search for truth and meaning, for the wisdom to illuminate an open, melting heart, to remember the presence of the divine in the midst of the world.
The pleasures of her finely crafted writing draw us deeply into the mysteries Sharon Marcus examines. She writes clearly, engagingly, with a perspective that does not preach, that is subtle and skilled, purposefully inviting us into a literary conversation as we study the conversion of dross to purity and the prospect of enlightenment.
Toronto based poet and novelist Sharon Marcus has written nine books of poetry, four novels, a collection of short stories, three works of non-fiction and a scattering of miscellaneous pieces, book reviews and the like. For the most part, the poetry is lyrical, ecstatic, searching for revelation, always with a passionate obligation to guard the gates of language, to protect rhythm and preserve substance; each of the four novels investigates a different form, all very lyrical, all incorporating extensive use of verse one way or another, the fourth novel in alternating sections of verse and prose; the non-fictional works, whether political or personal, describe events too odd for fiction.
The Sufi Press
ISBN 9780973753455
$28.95
Date of Publication:
For more information visit: http://www.sufipress.com.
