Edinburgh Mevlevi Tekke

  Daud Dede asked me to write something about the early days I visited him in his beautiful oriental carpet shop in Edinburgh. Here is a first attempt... Memories of the Mihrab Gallery It was January 1999. I had just returned to Glasgow University in September, after an earlier false start and a three-year incursion into Buddhism, including highland retreats, life in communal houses and theatrical exploits. Looking for books in the university library on Sufism, which I had begun to explore the previous year, I found Shems Friedlander’s The Whirling Dervishes with its darkly evocative pictures of dervishes in white against black backgrounds, and I found a website – searching the internet was still quite a novel experience back then! - for the Threshold Society in the USA, a sufi organisation connected to the Persian mystic and poet Jelaluddin Rumi. They offered a distance learning introduction to sufi thought and practice called the 99 Day Program, which I wrote off to join, and in...

  Here is a memory of an evening of spiritual conversation, called "sohbet" in Turkish, with Daud Bellak over twenty years ago in his home in the New Town of Edinburgh. It expresses something of his teaching, and a story from his own teacher, Suleyman Hayati Dede... The Conversation It was a pleasant weekend in late Summer 2003. A friend of mine named Lili from Bern in Switzerland was over visiting, and we drove up from Sheffield where I was then living, through the Lake District and on to Scotland, where we spent a couple of nights. The first evening we were invited to dinner with David Bellak, shaikh and whirling dervish in Rumi’s sufi tradition. David lived in a comfortable ground floor flat in Edinburgh’s New Town - which is not new at all, but actually a historic UNESCO heritage district of Georgian and Neo-Classical buildings, constructed from local sandstone. It’s new relative to the medieval Old Town up the hill, famous for the Royal Mile running from the Castle d...

  Daud Dede came down to Manchester from Edinburgh this weekend to lead an evening conversation on Rumi's spiritual tradition and to share zikr. He spoke of many things forming the way: gentleness, humanity, silence, intuition, faith, commitment to a simple practice, community, "higher worlds", and especially Unity. Central to his discourse was a Turkish saying, which translates roughly as "Two mountains cannot come to meet each other, but two human beings can." We hope to invite Dede down to Manchester again in December for Rumi's Sheb-i Arus.

Da'ud Dede would like us to share on this blog his memories and letter from Father Francis, a Catholic priest he met in 1974. This post was originally shared on the Rumi's Circle blog, which has many interesting articles from the community of Kabir Helminski: https://rumiscircle.com/2014/06/22/a-letter-from-father-francis/ Notes on the Letter In the Spring of 1978 my journeys brought me once again from London to Claymont Court in rural West Virginia, USA, a 90-minute drive from Washington DC. Claymont, a school of  inner work  based upon the teachings of GI Gurdjieff and JG Bennett, was where, exactly two years earlier in 1976, I had accompanied my beloved sheikh and  murshid  of the Mevlevi Sufi order, Suleyman Hayati Dede from Konya, Turkey, following an invitation for him to visit Claymont during his European and North American travels introducing the teachings of the Master Jelalud’din Rumi. Suleyman Hayati Dede, New York City, May 1976 In 1972, through a se...

  Fasting   Rumi, Ghazal 1739, translated by Bahreinian & Helminski     There’s sweetness hidden in this empty belly. The human is like a musical instrument, no more no less.   If the belly of a lute were stuffed with food would any melodies, either high or low, be possible?   But when your belly and brain are burning in Ramadan, with every breath a song arises in your chest.   A thousand veils are burned away with every breath and you race up the stairs in front of you, level upon level, effortlessly.   Empty your stomach and in your need cry out like the ney. Empty your stomach and secrets will flow from your pen.   If you’re constantly filling up your stomach, come the Resurrection an idol occupies your Kaaba, a shaytan in place of a mind.   But from fasting, good qualities rush to support you, helpers of all kinds, nourishers, dependable friends.   Fasting is the magical seal of Solomon. Don’t give that seal to a demon, don’...

  This Friday just passed, 19th January, was the annual commemoration of Süleyman Dede, who passed from this world in 1985. Here are his own strikingly fresh words on Divine Rememberance, the sufi practice of zikr: “In order to become human, we need to always be within the Divine Presence – to be aware of God, to hold Him in our hearts. When a human being performs Zikhr, their spirit – their heart starts to open. Their intelligence becomes more refined and more expansive. Their bodies become healthier. A beautiful condition comes about – similar to the one that is brought about by good music. The whole being opens up like a flower, and the Divine Secret – the things you couldn’t understand or know about before – begin to be revealed to you." Süleyman Hayatı Dede, may his Secret abide with God

David Bellak has arranged with the Imam of Annandale St Mosque, Edinburgh, to have Zikr following afternoon Asr prayers about 1440 Friday to pray for all those suffering and lost in the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Inşallah there will be a few people coming.

'The moon appears for night travellers - be watchful when the moon is full' - Rumi We come together to awaken, help keep each other awake. Just for a little while even, leaving our ordinary worlds & reference points, creating a brief vision of the extraordinary world of wakefulness. In time that gains magnitude, our ordinary subjective world gradually gives way to seeing the Real. David Bellak

  "The purpose of a story is not to hold your attention, but to put you back doing your work, inner and outer." Shams of Tabriz photo: Suleyman Dede in his house in Konya, early 1970s. By David J Bellak

We held a gathering this afternoon in Leeds for Rumi's 'Wedding Night'. David Bellak Dede led Mevlevi zikr, explaining its gentleness and straightforwardness... how compared with very strenuous zikrs in some traditions, the Mevlevi approach is natural and unforced. Dede wore a wonderful white felt dervish cap from Konya while sharing zikr, it really suited him! The venue was a beautiful retreat space built almost like a tree house at the edge of a wooded ridge overlooking a river, with wooden floors and walls and an oriental carpet...

  Shaikh David Bellak, the oldest surviving student and successor of the late Süleyman Hayatı Dede of Konya, will be sharing spiritual conversation and zikr for the Shebi Arusi of Hazreti Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi on Sunday 18th December from 11am-5pm in Leeds, England. David Dede is 81 years old and lives in Edinburgh, so we're very honoured for him to travel down to the North of England to share in the celebration of Rumi with us. If you'd like to attend, please reply to me here, or email our coordinator/host Steve Hart at leeds.mindfulness@gmail.com

    “I come to plant Mevlana’s message of universal love in this soil. The way of Mevlana, of Rumi, will grow in the West in its own way.” Suleyman Hayati Dede Suleyman Hayati Dede was the Mevlevi Shaikh of Konya until his passing in 1985. "Hayati", meaning "Divinely Alive", was his sufi name. He was born Suleyman Lorasulam around 1904 in Konya, Turkey, the old Roman city of Iconium which rose to prominence as the seat of the Seljuk Sultans of Rum a thousand years ago. The young Suleyman Lorasulam was fascinated by the Whirling Dervishes - the Mevlevi Sufi Order, created by followers of the great poet and mystic Jelaluddin Rumi to continue their teacher's spiritual influence after his death in 1273. Rumi was known by his students as Mevlana, meaning "Our Master", and so the sufi lineage stemming from him was called Mevlevi. Rumi was buried in Konya and his sufi descendants had their central training centre, or "tekke", beside his tomb. Suleym...

Fakir-ul Mevlevi Postneshin Shaikh David Bellak "Dervish Davut Dede"  

Shaikh David Bellak from the Mevlevi Sufi tradition of Jelaluddin Rumi has asked us to begin a new training group here in Manchester. We will get together regularly to practice sufi meditation - zikr'ullah, the recitation of the Divine Names in Arabic - and reflective conversation on Rumi's writings. We may also train in a simple form of the sacred whirling. If you are interested, please reply to this message by emailing Chris at willowtreeblues@gmail.com Shaikh David, now in his 80s and living in Edinburgh, was the closest Western student of the late Suleyman Hayati Loras - the last of the line of shaikhs of Rumi's tradition who trained in the Mevlevi sufi dergah in Konya before it was closed in 1925. Suleyman Loras brought Rumi's tradition to Europe and America in the 1970s and 80s. Shaikh David will offer guidance to our gathering in Manchester and support anyone coming along to understand and train in Rumi's way. Rumi's path is the path of Unity. Rooted in I...

David Dede shared this wonderful article recently on the power of cooking to bring refugees together for healing and celebration of life. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/sep/20/i-miss-my-hometown-friend-and-mums-delicious-food-the-cookbook-made-by-refugees

Dearest Friends, This coming Wednesday is the Urs, or commemoration of the passing of Süleyman Hayati Dede into the presence of the Beloved in 1985. You are welcome to join me in the evening here in Edinburgh if you are near, for a simple remembrance of one who devoted his life to bringing Mevlana and the fragrance of the rose to so many. If we unable to come together, please keep him in your hearts and prayers . With thanks, Eyvallah Hu, Hakk Dost. RSVP D. Bellak (Derviş Davut Dede) Fukir-ul Mevlevi Edinburgh ("Dağ dağ kavuşmaz İnsan insan kavuşur) (a mountain cannot meet a mountain, (however) a human being can meet a another"

There is no cave into which I can withdraw - my cave is where I am at the moment. That inner voice brings the message. I cannot hide. There is only here. David Bellak, Journal entry Konya 1976

  February 12th is the Urs of Muzaffer Ozak, late Shaikh of the Helveti-Jerrahi Sufi Order in Istanbul. David Bellak visited Shaikh Muzaffer many times during the 1970s, sitting patiently in his bookshop in the old market of Istanbul and joining zikr ceremonies in the Jerrahi tekke, or sufi lodge. Shaikh David was initiated by Muzaffer Effendi into the Helveti-Jerrahi Order, and sometimes a sense of this comes through in David Dede's own teaching and leading of zikr. Suleyman Hayati Dede was welcomed to the Jerrahi tekke, as seen in the photo below, and Jerrahis and other branches of the Helveti often include a semazen in their ceremonies. Shaikh Muzaffer was a person of great depth and spiritual authority, and also one filled with joy and energy and song. He wrote many poems and hymns under his pen-name "Ashki", which means something like "filled with divine love and yearning". The Eye of Love Since I gave my heart to beauty, I can't tell right from left, S...