Abdullah Isa Neil Dougan

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, and recounted his experiences of the fast in his book "40 Days: An Account of a Discipline". He leaves behind him active groups in New Zealand, as well as a body of work including several books, around two hundred paintings and screen prints, and a symphony (the Solar Suite). In the mid 1980's Abdullah established the Gnostic Society of New Zealand as a charitable trust, which continues to operate.

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."

External links

* [http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~gnosticpress Books by Abdullah Dougan available from Gnostic Press]
* [http://www.patrickkellytaiji.com/TEACHERS/abdullahdougan.html Website of Patrick Kelly] (One of Abdullah's Pupils)