Shahabuddin David Less
Shahabuddin David Less is a global spiritual teacher of meditation and a practitioner of a universal spirituality focusing on harmony and understanding among the different religions and spiritual paths.
He has a number of different roles in world spirituality. He is the worldwide Dean of the Universal Worship, a ceremony that celebrates all the world’s religions simultaneously on the same altar and finds commonality in practice and scripture.
He is also the founder and spiritual guide of The Abrahamic Reunion, a movement of spiritual leaders of the four faiths of the Holy Land who are dedicated to creating healing among the religions. The Abrahamic Reunion meets once a month in different towns and villages in Israel and hosts a meal, joint prayers, and a walk through the local markets attended by 100 people and more per event as a living example of peace and commonality.
Additionally, he is the founder and guide of Rising Tide International, a spiritual community in Sarasota, Florida, which offers spiritual training and a wide variety of programs in an interfaith and interspiritual tradition.
He is also a senior teacher in the Sufi Order International, a pathway of universal sufism.
He is both the founder and senior teacher of Universal Meditations, a program for quieting the mind.
He is a founder and supporter of The Hope Project in India, a project that supports the education, health, and social welfare of women and children in one of the poorest slums of New Delhi.
Spiritual Biography Shahabuddin David Less traveled globally for many years as a young man seeking teachers and guides of many traditions and paths. He studied with and received blessing from many of the world’s great spiritual teachers. Among them were Mother Krishnabai of Anandashram (India); Wallace Black Elk (visionary leader of the Lakota people); Suleiman Dede who gave him the experience of Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi (Konya, Turkey); Swami Sundaranand with whom he still studies after 30 years (India); Pir Zahoormian (India); Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi; Beautiful Painted Arrow (Joseph Rael); Pir Rashid (Hyderabad, India); Rabia Heller (Ann Williams-Heller); Murshida Vera Corda; Shamsher Bryn Beorse; Joe and Gwen Miller; Rabbi Menachim Froman (Tekoa); Prof. Abdul Aziz Said (Director Emeritus, Center of Global Peace at American University, Washington, D.C.); Elias Jabbour (Palestinian Christian of Sh’far Am, Israel); Jamyong Singye; and many others. In Turkey he studied with teachers of the different sufi paths, and in Israel he studied with kabbalists of various schools.
In 1968 he was initiated as a Sufi by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, son and successor of Pir-O- Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan (India), and was a close student and friend of his for 37 years until his death in 2004. In 1970 he was also initiated by Murshid Samuel Lewis of San Francisco. He received initiation from Mother Krishnabai of Anandashram in 1978.
References Universal Meditations: Recipes for a Peaceful Mind, 2009 Universal Meditations: A Program for Quieting the Mind, 2013
External Links
[Tide International] [Meditations] Universal Worship [Abrahamic Reunion] Sufi Order International