On September 8, 2007, after a long struggle with kidney failure, a successful transplant, and ultimately, a negative reaction to immuno-suppressive drugs, Isa passed on to continue his journey in the higher spheres. We met serendipitously in February 1984 at a Pir Vilayat retreat/seminar in Austin, Texas when our eyes met one another’s across the room and a little voice went off inside me saying, “That’s your husband!” And how appropriate that as he took his last breath, Isa and I were enveloped in the beauty of the light of our shared glance.
Many people were touched by his gentle, wise and playful spirit and felt that he was truly present for them. He shared a deep bond and covenant with the sacredness of the earth. His favorite place to be was in the garden, tending the beehives, composting and “making” soil, cultivating, planting and harvesting. He extended this gift throughout his life and knew how to help people grow and flourish. A devoted and loving teacher of the visually impaired, autistic, abused and neglected children, he traveled great distances each day to work with them and their families.
For me, he was the embodiment of the living message, a true spiritual seeker and humble servant. What blessing that he was my devoted, loving husband and co-creator of love, harmony, beauty and other well-known breakfast cereals for 23 years. How to begin to express my gratitude for your presence in my life?
~Only love, Sura
Comment:
I remember Isa as a sweet, loving imp of a guy who always had a smile and a good word for everyone. His embodiment of the Message is always an inspiration to me as I slog my may through the transformative process. His genuine caring and loving kindness to all he met is a testament to his devotion to the tenets of Love, Harmony and Beauty.
If ever there was an embodiment of a good and faithful leprechaun, Isa was it!
I am blessed by his prominence in the memories of my life, and I extend to Sura my deepest love and support!
Mikail Davenport
9/2007
I’ll never forget how generous, polite and forgiving Isa was when I brought the cake for his 40th birthday party. It was a large and beautiful cake specially ordered by Sura – it was a muddly and rainy day and as I carried the cake into the house, to my horror, I slipped and dropped it! It flattened. Sura put candles in it and presented it to Isa as we sang Happy Birthday. He obviously saw the mess that the cake was but said nothing and continued to fully enjoy the moment anyway. I always appreciated his kindness in this and in all my interactions with Isa.
Isa was a special gem, and to see him with his beloved Sura would make anyone a believer in true and ever lasting love. I didn’t know Isa well but remember him as a real gentleman.
A Memory of Isa written 9/13/07 for Isa’s Celebration of Life at the Abode of the Message:
I’ve known Isa for about thirty years, since our days together in the Sufi Order in Austin. Isa is one of the deepest and most sensitive people I have ever known, which is why, for me, Sura and he make such a beautiful couple.
When I first met Isa, his eyes told me a lot about him. They were of the purest blue, full of kindness and humor, but there was something in them that strongly suggested that he wasn’t interested in trivialities. I grew more and more aware of the depth of his knowledge of spiritual matters, and I sometimes would approach him for information and counsel. In fact, one night I asked him for his help on a non-physical plane. It went like this:
I was having a lucid dream of immense, life-directing importance for me. Isa was present in the dream. He gazed penetratingly into my being. His eyes glowed with a beautiful, sapphire-blue intensity. I took him to one side to have a word with him in private , and a rather humorous exchange followed.
“Look,” I said, I know this is all a dream, but I want to communicate with you when we are awake. I want us to agree upon a signal that you can give me, to somehow validate all this.”
But then I realized that there was a problem with the idea. “But wait,” I said, “that won’t work, because this is MY dream, not yours.”
Isa nodded thoughtfully.
So Isa came up with the plan that I would call him at his home in New Lebanon the following day and ask him to give me a word from the “Foundation Trilogy,” having something to do with a special mechanical device of importance in the story. We agreed upon the plan. In my waking life, I had not read the Foundation, and I didn’t know whether Isa had read it, either.
The following evening, I called Isa and explained the situation to him. It turned out that he HAD read the books, some twenty years before, and immediately had the answer to my question. The mechanical device was known as a Visi-Sonor, which was a sort of musical instrument that emitted both light and sound, and had a hypnotic and hallucinogenic effect on its hearers. It was owned and played, Isa said, by a character known as “the Mule.”
The next day, I used a random process to do a divination about what I had experienced in connection with the dream and my friend Isa. The divination made oracular use of the Sabian symbols in astrology. I received the fifteenth degree of Gemini in answer to my query. In his footnote to his interpretation of this symbol in his “Astrological Mandala,: Dane Rudhyar wrote:
…All discoveries must be checked and their validity tested. In old tribal cultures a man’s “great dreams” were accepted as valid and acted upon only if another tribesman also had a similar dream. The need for OBJECTIVITY has to be met; and this implies the confirmation of any subjective realization by some similar experience…
Based on Isa’s immediate recall of the mechanical device-after twenty years!-and the response from the divination, I considered the dream and the surrounding process to have been validated.
By the way, I have since read the Foundation and I loved it!
I miss Isa’s presence on the physical plane, as we all do, but I will continue to enjoy his spiritual presence and his good counsel from a higher place. I rejoice with him that his pain is now over, but can feel in the depths of my soul how much it must have hurt him to be leaving Sura.
Please know that as this celebration is taking place I am in prayer and meditation with you. I wish you grace and peace.
Love,
Ma’abud Charles McClelland