O confused heart, the way to the Beloved is through your soul.
O one who has lost his way, there is a road to the Beloved
which is both known and unknown.
Don’t worry if your way is blocked from all six directions.
There is a way right from the bottom of your heart.
Rubailer (2016), Rubai #, page 109. #3
The request is for “a reply”. But what can I say? I was a student of JGB at Coombe Springs in the 60s, and remain deeply grateful to him and Elizabeth for their kindness and patience. I encountered Hasan Shushud by chance in 1972/3, when a visit to my friends David and Patricia Schreiber in Kensington coincided with his. It was a warm London evening, and he spoke with us for an hour… most compellingly. I was a friend of Robert and Beryl Graves, and of Amina Shah. My friend Francisco living in Granada gave me a copy of the Way of Annihilation, which I started rereading a few minutes ago on an impulse. I have a special devotion to Our Lady of Medjugorje (where I lived for a year), whose first apparition in 1982 I am told Hasan Shushud predicted some 2 or 3 years previously. I am at present in Belgrade, where I have taught English Literature at universities there (as well as literary translation in Barcelona). I write and publish poems. I am unmarried, with 4 children, and always in love. I am at some kind of crossroads, and would be grateful for your prayers. A thankyou for your Rumi link – I always have the Nicholson translation by the bed-side.
It sounds like you have had quite a wide variety of interesting experiences. Perhaps we will meet some day. Please do continue to share any questions you may have!