Published on 25 May 2016
Asha (Asher Quinn) sings his composition 'O Great Spirit' in concert in the Netherlands, from his album of the same name. Track download & CD available here ~ http://asherquinn.co.uk/ogreatspirit.htm
There are no sweeter words to my ears than 'La ilaha illallah'... 'There is no God but God.' It is an eternal thanksgiving prayer. The 'L's' and the 'Aaaaahs' are the sounds the angels make in my heart... the sweet inner bells of morning prayer. In Hungary, my spiritual home, the word Lila (more 'L's' and 'A's') means 'violet'... the colour vibration of the Christ in the heart. 'La ilaha illallah' is Arabic, and it was through a Sufi initiation into spirit when I was 26 that my heart became sufficiently purified to begin to receive the first warming rays of the living Christ, through the Holy Spirit.
My teacher was a Naqshbandi Sufi from Baghdad, and Hungary, where I live half the time, is an ancient guardian of the Christian mysteries, although it was under Ottoman occupation for many centuries, which may be how the sound 'Lila' entered the language, from the east. I'm not sure of that... it's a hunch. I was born a Jew in suburban London, but I fell in love with Jesus Christ aged 5, after receiving visions, and felt compelled to search for the mystery of the Christ in the Holy Grail... a pilgrimage which took me to the ecstatic way of the Dervish, to the secrets of shamanic healing, and to the visions of Rudolf Steiner and the Christian mysteries in Hungary.
The Sufi tradition itself has many roots in Zoroastrianism, the pagan sun-religion of ancient Persia, and Zoroaster Himself is a spiritual being who informs the Christ consciousness. There is a lineage... Christ and Zoroaster are sun-beings, and it is the human heart that receives the wisdom of the sun for mankind. As long as the sun informs the heart, and the sun-filled heart informs humankind, there is wellness. I have come to realise that all sickness arises from the sun not reaching the heart of humankind because of the deadly sins... like pride, envy and greed. Wellness is a moral condition... so the cure for sickness is a purified morality.
When I was 36, I had a dream wherein a Zoroastrian sun-angel named Asha bestowed her name upon me. That grace took me even deeper into the mysteries... 'Asha' means the 'best truth'; not the absolute truth of the Old Testament, but the best truth of the Christ... which amounts to compassionate love.
My endeavour and fervent intention is to live like that. I fail, but I will never give up! I wrote this song during my Sufi initiation in 1979, though I didn't record it until 2011, when I at last felt an inkling of moral honesty sufficient to honour the purity of the prayer.
When I sing 'La ilaha illallah' I feel the breath of the Holy Spirit upon my neck, and a love-filled communion with Christ. In that Great Spirit I am transported, and I can then sing directly from the forgotten language of the heart, in a tongue known only to me. You would sing it in a tongue known only to you!
I doubt that my Arabic pronunciation of 'La ilaha illallah' is pure, and I hope that does not offend... but actually the living Christ received through the the Holy Spirit... the Great Spirit... is a one-world phenomenon, which unites Judaism, Christianity, Islam and all the healing, God-filled traditions of humankind. The Native American tradition speaks also of 'The Great Spirit'.
I sung this in concert at a venue in Beek, the Netherlands, and my friend Maggie researched suitable library footage to enhance it. It has taken 10 attempts and 18 months of copyright negotiation to manifest this film.
O Great Spirit... I sing for Thee!
There are no sweeter words to my ears than 'La ilaha illallah'... 'There is no God but God.' It is an eternal thanksgiving prayer. The 'L's' and the 'Aaaaahs' are the sounds the angels make in my heart... the sweet inner bells of morning prayer. In Hungary, my spiritual home, the word Lila (more 'L's' and 'A's') means 'violet'... the colour vibration of the Christ in the heart. 'La ilaha illallah' is Arabic, and it was through a Sufi initiation into spirit when I was 26 that my heart became sufficiently purified to begin to receive the first warming rays of the living Christ, through the Holy Spirit.
My teacher was a Naqshbandi Sufi from Baghdad, and Hungary, where I live half the time, is an ancient guardian of the Christian mysteries, although it was under Ottoman occupation for many centuries, which may be how the sound 'Lila' entered the language, from the east. I'm not sure of that... it's a hunch. I was born a Jew in suburban London, but I fell in love with Jesus Christ aged 5, after receiving visions, and felt compelled to search for the mystery of the Christ in the Holy Grail... a pilgrimage which took me to the ecstatic way of the Dervish, to the secrets of shamanic healing, and to the visions of Rudolf Steiner and the Christian mysteries in Hungary.
The Sufi tradition itself has many roots in Zoroastrianism, the pagan sun-religion of ancient Persia, and Zoroaster Himself is a spiritual being who informs the Christ consciousness. There is a lineage... Christ and Zoroaster are sun-beings, and it is the human heart that receives the wisdom of the sun for mankind. As long as the sun informs the heart, and the sun-filled heart informs humankind, there is wellness. I have come to realise that all sickness arises from the sun not reaching the heart of humankind because of the deadly sins... like pride, envy and greed. Wellness is a moral condition... so the cure for sickness is a purified morality.
When I was 36, I had a dream wherein a Zoroastrian sun-angel named Asha bestowed her name upon me. That grace took me even deeper into the mysteries... 'Asha' means the 'best truth'; not the absolute truth of the Old Testament, but the best truth of the Christ... which amounts to compassionate love.
My endeavour and fervent intention is to live like that. I fail, but I will never give up! I wrote this song during my Sufi initiation in 1979, though I didn't record it until 2011, when I at last felt an inkling of moral honesty sufficient to honour the purity of the prayer.
When I sing 'La ilaha illallah' I feel the breath of the Holy Spirit upon my neck, and a love-filled communion with Christ. In that Great Spirit I am transported, and I can then sing directly from the forgotten language of the heart, in a tongue known only to me. You would sing it in a tongue known only to you!
I doubt that my Arabic pronunciation of 'La ilaha illallah' is pure, and I hope that does not offend... but actually the living Christ received through the the Holy Spirit... the Great Spirit... is a one-world phenomenon, which unites Judaism, Christianity, Islam and all the healing, God-filled traditions of humankind. The Native American tradition speaks also of 'The Great Spirit'.
I sung this in concert at a venue in Beek, the Netherlands, and my friend Maggie researched suitable library footage to enhance it. It has taken 10 attempts and 18 months of copyright negotiation to manifest this film.
O Great Spirit... I sing for Thee!
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