ive coveverage fofor only $1 1 a month. anand the navavarros are p pg less than n $100 a mononth. check k coveredca.a.com toto see your r new, lowerer p. the sosooner you s sign up the more y you save. onlyly at coverered californr. ththis way to o health insnsur. good morning. welcome to mosaic. i am ron swisher. it's always a privilege and joy to have you with us. i especially want to welcome my fairfield community united methodist church who are sure watching. i am thrilled to have the guests here this morning. it's great to have you. >> lovely to see you.

thank you. >> good morning. >> when we hear the name suvism reoriented, what does that mean? >> we will say a little bit about sufism first and then a little bit about reoriented. it is a universal stream spirituality that is at the heart of of every religious tradition. it's been called the path of love, love for god and expression of the love through service to god's creation. it's not a creed. it's not a set of beliefs. it's a living experience of the deepening and unfolding of love, love for god. because of that, it's something which in every generation, in every culture is a living experience. so it has to be refreshed generation after generation in every culture. >> i see.

>> reoriented, it is a contemporary expression of the universal ancient spirituality for contemporary americans. it was founded in 1952 by a spiritual figure from india and it is carried forward by a lineage of of spiritual he appointed to serve as spiritual guides for americans. >> a good picture of him there. >> in the stage of life that we are in, feel the need for spiritual guidance from a living teacher. >> you have been part about 44 years and you about 37 years. how did you get involved? >> we are all on our own spiritual quest, spiritual

path, whether conscious or not conscious. there is inner yearning for truth, meaning, what is this all about? >> right. >> when i was six years old, i grew up in new york city. i was watching a tv show. i thought i had turned on cartoons. instead it was a program that had a picture of manhattan island. i recognized it because i lived there. a person took a marker and circled it and said if this happened that everything inside the circle would poof, dissolve into dust in a second. later i learned it was the h bomb that had been developed. that moment made me realize that i could die at any moment, that everything could disappear. >> at that age. >> at six years old, i was not a happy child. i was trying to figure out what

happens? people around me talk about you are born, you live, you die. they had ideas about maybe life after death or no life after death. i wanted to know. i wanted from personal experience to know why am i alive? what is the purpose of life? that then became my quest that early. i went to college and graduate school studying religion to try to see if anybody really knew from personal experience. >> you have a phd in theology. >> i do. in the middle, i dropped out and during that time i learned about this and the questions i had were all answered on a personal experiential level. then i went back and finished my degree. part of his spiritual teaching for this age is one has to be a productive member of society

and contribute to society. >> that's where service and commitment to love, the universal. >> yes. it is not just up here. it is not just well intentioned. of course that's where it starts. but that one has to actually use one's body to act on what we know, our highest knowing of service. the unity. >> the oneness, yes. terry, tell us about your journey. >> mine is very different because by the time i was born, both my parents learned of sufism reoriented and had become members. my mother had met him when he was visiting the united states. both of my parents were already drawn to this. but members neither teach that to this children nor do they expect their children to follow that path. so i had a very deep

relationship with the spiritual director. when i was a child, i felt open to all the faiths. we often visited with friends on sunday worship they went to. i myself was also interested in buddhism. so i was studying that. my parents hardly supported that, as long as we were truthful. >> where were your parents from? >> my mother was from lebanon and my father also had lebanese heritage but they were living in the united states. my mother was educated in washington, dc and my father in texas. >> we are going to come back to your story and the sufism reoriented. glad you are here, both of you. >> thank you so much. >> please join us.

welcome back to mosaic. we have been talking to terry and pascal about sufism reoriented. tell us more. terry i met you about a year and a half, two years ago with this heavenly choir you direct. >> one of the ways sufism reoriented members have found it most lovely to express their

love for god is to express it through the arts. many members of sufism are artists, musicians, or actors. so we have a choir. i will show a few photographs. i was showing you earlier one of our concerts in celebration of st. francis of assisi. a free concert, all of our concerts have been free. this is one such celebration. our children joined, our children's choir joined. >> that was st. marks, you brought almost the entire choir. >> it was a pleasure for us. >> you did all the music. it was wonderful. >> we have also been invited to perform at union square which is also a delight. this is one of the concerts at union square where we can share the universal message of love

and brotherhood. it's a lovely forum for us to celebrate god and the unity. >> i asked you about the colors, the white. >> yes. that's right. we are costumed, dressed in white. as you can see, we don't wear white as a uniform but white does have a special meaning for us as it does for many, many spiritual traditions. white is the color that is made up of all the other colors. rainbow colors. it's most inclusive of all colors. so it's symbolic of that kind of universal inclusion, oneness of all of creation, of all of life. one of the things about the chorus and reason so many members participate in the

chorus, not just singers but on the technical and so forth is as i said before, sufism isn't about teachings and learning creeds. it is about love for god and then celebrating that love which is something that's beyond up here, you know. it has to do with the heart and what can express love and gratitude more than beautiful music. >> your emphasis and expressions, one is in walnut creek. i think many people say can i come and join? how can i be in touch with you? you had interesting thoughts around that. you don't actually just come join and be a part. >> well a distinction needs to be made between a church like yours, which is a community church, where people can sort of drop in. you have members who come regularly. >> right. >> but then others come as they can. >> i want them to drop in more

often. >> i would hope that they will. with the shows you do, they should. but there are other kinds of spiritual organizations known as spiritual orders. catholicism has spiritual orders, buddhism. islam, there are orders of spiritual groups in islam, same in hinduism. all have spiritual orders where there is a level of commitment where it is progressive, where one participates in an environment where it is a life commitment to be a member of a spiritual community and to unfold one's self with the members of the community. >> so it takes about a year of orientation and classes. >> for those people interested in joining sufism reoriented, we have a program like other spiritual orders do where one

learns about it. there is an orientation. so at the end of the year, it's not just for us to say is this person somebody who belongs here, each person has to decide, is this my spiritual home? one of the things that drew me when i was young, i didn't want to belong to a group. i was very independent, not wanting to belong to a group. when i learned that the thing about sufism reoriented is it's not about achieving something. it's whether one is or not. it's a matter of recognizing where one spiritual home is. each of us has a spiritual home somewhere. for those searching, the search is for where is my spiritual home. >> i remember that the walnut creek opened the doors for you to build there. can you share with us that

incredible facility that you have there? i was really struck by that. >> absolutely. we broke ground last may and so construction has begun. >> i understand it's about 10 million or more. >> yes. the construction costs, we have to get the bids and so forth. the important part is what we were committed to doing, we knew when we purchased our current center also in walnut creek, just a block from where we have broken ground for the new sanctuary. it was too small for us and we needed more space. we don't have a rehearsal hall. yet we have a 70 member choir. so people are doing sectionals in people's homes. >> i see. >> we have been saving and

working toward having a sanctuary that can house our programs. the thing about it, what we wanted to do was create a sanctuary that in its symbolism, in its physical structure represented the principles of unity that we try to carry into the world in our daily lives. it's a physical representation. it's circular. circle is a symbol of unity. >> oneness. >> yes, and oneness. it's going to be clad in some light colored marble so that again, the idea of white as a representation of unity. >> when you talk about love and service, it definitely means commitment. most traditional conventional kind of expressions of religion, we ask for offerings,

a major remodeling we have done in our particular church in fairfield, so we are asking to give back. we have fund raisers and ask people to give. how do you go about making that commitment of funds? >> well it's very individual, because everybody's financial situations are individual. first of all, the spiritual director of su fism reoriented, dr. conner at this time, they don't know, part of their relationship with the members of sufism isn't at all related to our financial contribution towards sufism. each person individually knows how much it costs to run the various programs we have. there are many things we are very committed to which we have

had as longterm projects. the school in lafayette. >> i want to come back to that. >> sure. >> we'll take a break. but i want you to tell us about what you do in those schools. >> okay. >> please join us.

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welcome back. we have been talking about sufism reoriented and we have been talking about schools and what terry johnson and others have done in the schools. tell us more about that. >> one of the projects we were mentioning that is a more public service, expression of our devotion to serving god through service to his creation has been through the meher schools. we are very happy that the preschool in the past two years

has been identified as the best, won awards as the best. >> that's in lafayette? >> yes. children come from as far as berkeley and benicia. it's very affordable. we try to keep the cost as low as we can. all the teachers are dedicated to serving the children through living highest principals we can of love for god, kindness, things that are at the heart of sufism. but the children never hear that. they know we are getting the education, their parents do too. we integrate very richly into the curriculum, the arts. there is a lot of music, drama, fine arts. >> that's great. >> the children are free to

express the broad spectrum of learning. >> exciting. what about st. francis. >> we don't teach anything about meher baba or sufism reoriented. it's the way in which we live and the energy we share. so it is not a parochial school in that sense. it's just a small private school. it's not that small. we've got 300 families. >> you were asking about projects and whether or not we tie. we do not. sometimes when we have special projects that we want to offer to the city, we invite people if they would like to contribute towards it. based on how much we have in our bank for that project, then we can offer it as richly as we

can afford. >> the pictures of the choir is where you have some of those. >> those programs are free. those are just free programs. we don't charge for those programs. the course members donate their time. often, the churches open their doors generously. >> that's right. >> the francis and schools program was started in 2010. conner has a deep love for san francisco, devotion to the city and feels very strongly that in its name sake, st. francis of assisi, there is potential for great healing. we identify children in the neighborhoods that come from the most under served, children whose neighborhoods are plagued. >> how many might that be?

>> neighborhood have poverty, crime, neglect. the first two years or so, it was about 1,300. by the end of may, more than 2,300. >> fantastic. >> we bring the children at no cost to see a musical play that celebrates life of st. francis of assisi. they see an interactive play. the actors chat with them and the children are part of the action. >> tell us more about that in the next segment. >> okay. >> time goes so fast when we are enjoying things like this. i hope you have been with us. please join us in our last segment.

before we go back to st. francis and the schools, you have a symbol over there. >> i do. this is a symbol that is meher baba's symbol he designed. you see it is circular which again represents the unity. within the circles are symbols of major world religions. >> i noticed that. >> again when we talked about sufism reoriented and sufism being universal stream of spirituality that underlies all the religious traditions, this is the representation. >> that's what really drew you. >> it did indeed, yes. >> thank you for sharing that. >> thank you. >> let's go back to the schools. >> that's also at the heart of the st. francis and schools program. as you well know given even just one school in san

francisco, there are sometimes nine languages and so diversity. >> right or even more. >> the children don't know sufism. there is no reason tender know sufism reoriented is sponsoring that. they only know they're hosts of st. francis of assisi, the name sake, who loves them and whose life and message about brotherhood and kindness and love for one another, unity, just the core values are celebrated. we all in that moment just enjoy one another. >> is it year round? >> it happens when we are able to afford it. often it's the fall and spring especially. after we show the children the play, we perform a play in national shrine of st. francis in north beach, and then after they see the play we take them to one of the neighborhood city parks that we transform into a

renaissance fair. >> you are talking about over 2,000? >> 300 at a time and over all the number is seven to nine programs. >> we have a minute or so. anything last that we need to say? >> the kind of program you are hosting where you need representatives from different traditionals to speak with you is such an example of what sufism is about. >> we thank you for that. >> thank you very much. >> we have a jewish representative, catholic, sometimes a muslim community. we protestant community have this segment. we are glad that you have come. thank you. it is wonderful. >> thank you. >> thank you for joining us. jesus was asked what's the

greatest commandment? love your neighbor as yourself. this is an expression, sufism reoriented has demonstrated that in their actions over the years and in their deeds. we are glad they were with us and i know you have been inspired. i am ron swisher. join us next month. thank you for being with us. watch cbs in bay area with the kpix 5 news app.

life from the cbs base studios, this is kpix 5 news. rescue workers are searching for any signs of life as a safety review begins. a deadly police chief in southern california and with the women did in her own home. a false start for small business owners as a bay area reopens. the dilemma has forced many to take dramatic action. >> we were open seven days a week pre-pandemic and now we e