The Feminine Principle - We are tumbling through a time of chaotic, disorienting change. Even our most powerful decision makers seem unable to turn our global civilization from its self-destructive course. I believe these challenging times carry a special call to women.

Into the Dark Light - To descend, submit and die — the openness to being acted upon — is the very thing being asked for when we come face to face with the Transpersonal. The long periods of sadness, grief, inactivity, and inner suffering which can accompany these times are part of a restorative and creative time in which we have access to previously hidden realizations and wisdom that can bring us into a new life.

Spirit in Action Essays

These essays, which are reflections on the experiences of Rabia's years of pilgrimage, focus on the congruence of inner understanding and outer action. They are an attempt to record what she has learned from bearing witness to cultures, individuals and societies very different from our own.

The Challenge of Fundamentalism - by Rabia Elizabeth Roberts & Elias Amidon. Wherever we travel we find concern about fundamentalism. Europeans are worried about violent outbreaks among immigrants in their home countries and the apparent failure of their attempts at multi-culturalism. Arabs try to assure us...

Crossing Borders - When the pilgrim’s road comes to an end and her goal is reached, she finds she has traveled only from herself to herself, and that the God whom she reached was all the while in her, around her, with her, and beside her. –Anonymous

Integrating Spiritual Life and Social Action - The Heart’s Deepest Desire - Nothing is more important in integrating spirit and action than coming into alignment with one’s life purpose. How do we do this? Where do we look in ourselves? The Sufis locate the root of life’s intentionality...

Kosmos Article: Bearing Witness to Our World - The work of a citizen activist is grounded in intimacy with people and places. I first learned this in 1965 when, at the age of 19, I left university to work in Selma, Alabama for oneand-a-half years with Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement. As I stepped off the bus that first afternoon, I realized I had no clue about the Southern experience—black or white. But over time, I learned it was possible to work for justice without making the ‘other’ into an enemy to hate and blame.

SHOWING UP: Notes on Action in the World - Living a spiritual life has always included for me both an intensely inward, contemplative practice of liberation from my identifications and judgments, as well as the challenging aspect of outward service dedicated to justice in the world. No matter how much my own life over the years has become more serene and fulfilled, the world continues calling me to respond to its suffering.