Sheikh Abdullah Isa Neil Dougan (1918 - 1987) was a Sufi Sheikh of the Naqshbandi order. Abdullah was born and spent most of his life in New Zealand where he ran open, Westernised groups that merged Naqshbandi (including Gurdjieff) and Chisti teachings along with input from the Buddhist and Hindu teachings. Abdullah was originally initiated as a Sufi Sheikh by Sheikh Abdul Al Khayyum of Kandahar and Sheikh Ibrahim Mujadiddi of Kabul, Afghanistan, in early 1968. In late 1974 he completed a 40 day fast on water alone. He leaves behind him active groups in Auckland and Whangarei, as well as a body of work including several books, around two hundred paintings and screen prints, and a symphony (the Solar Suite). For other uses, see Sheikh (disambiguation). ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Although there is no consensus with regard to Sufi cosmology, one can disentangle various threads that led to the crystallization of more or less coherent cosmological doctrines. ... Naqshbandi (Naqshbandiyya) is one of four major Sufi orders (tariqa) of Islam. ... Naqshbandi (Naqshbandiyya) is one of four major Sufi orders (tariqa) of Islam. ... George Ivanovich Gurdjieff George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (January 13 / January 14, 1866? - October 29, 1949), the Greek-Armenian mystic and teacher of dancing born in Alexandropol, Armenia (then of the Russian Empire, now Gumri, Armenia), traveled to many parts of the world (i. ... The Chishti Order was founded by Khwaja Abu Ishaq Shami (the Syrian) (d. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... For the 2001 movie by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, see Kandahar (film). ... Kabul, Kâbl (locally: کابل), is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan with a population of approximately 3 million people. ... The Auckland Metropolitan Area, or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area in New Zealand. ... Whangarei (the initial consonant is often pronounced F as in fong-a-ray) is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the regional capital of Northland Region. ...

Quotations

"According to the Lord Buddha (Gautama) one of the main reasons for our being on the planet is that we are dominated by our desires and our craving after them. The main yearning we have is for a body and it is this craving which brings us back to the Earth repeatedly. The body is real enough in the third dimension but is illusion in the fifth. The way out of the rounds of lives and deaths is to know we are not the body but the essential self, call it spirit, soul or consciousness." Standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Pakistan, 1st century CE, Musée Guimet. ...

External link

• Books by Abdullah Dougan available from Gnostic Press