The Seven Stages of Love in Sufism: A Journey Into the Divine

The Sufi understanding of love is a profound inner journey—from the first spark of attraction to the complete dissolution of the ego in the Divine. The Seven Stages of Love map this transformation with remarkable clarity. Beginning with hub (attraction) and deepening into ‘ishq (passionate love), the seeker slowly moves from human love to Divine love. Trials cultivate patience and trust, leading to contentment in both presence and absence of the Beloved. Ultimately, the seeker reaches fanā—the disappearance of the self—and baqā, abiding in the Divine. This is the Sufi path of love: intense, purifying, and liberating.

Spinoza and Shankara: When God Became the Universe and the Self Became God

What if the philosopher Spinoza and the sage Shankara had met?
Both, separated by continents and centuries, spoke of one ultimate Reality—an infinite, self-existent essence that manifests as all things. Spinoza called it God or Nature; Shankara called it Brahman. One reasoned his way to unity, the other realized it through inner awakening. In both visions, the world is not separate from the Divine—it is the Divine, appearing in countless forms. To see this is to be free, to live it is to be blissful. The rest—names, forms, selves—are but waves on the same ocean.

Advaita for Dummies

Is happiness really hiding in the next achievement, possession, or relationship—or is it already within you, waiting for the restless mind to pause? In this article, we explore 16 timeless questions through the lens of Advaita Vedānta and other wisdom traditions—questions like: Is desire poison or medicine? Is the waking world any more real than a dream? What does it mean to be in bondage, or free? Drawing from the insights of Vedānta, Buddhism, Taoism, and Stoicism, this guide simplifies profound truths and shows why “you” are not the doer at all—Consciousness alone is.