Khankah Samark is situated in the Oberbergisches Land, a rural area East of Cologne, far from the maddening crowd yet in close range to motorway and train, some 45 minutes by car from Cologne and close to the 4 times per hour trainconnection from Wissen to Cologne.

 

The house dates from 1936. We found it in a perfectly and lovingly restored state. With 2 acres of meadow and located in a hamlet of 10 houses, with protected forest all around, it is a haven of silence and repose.

 

We received the name ‘Samark’ in 2003 when we heard the inner call to ‘start a foolish project and be like Noah, who built an ark in the middle of the desert’ (after Rumi).

This inspiration from Rumi, combined with SAM, the acronym of Sufi Ahmed Murad (the Sufi name of Samuel Lewis), gave us the name Samark before we actually did move and found our house in Belgium.

 

After five years of intensive traveling with the Dances and Sufism, late 2008 we again heard the call to move and make serious business of the idea of a khankah in order to deepen our own spiritual path. A khankah (from the Persian Khanegah) is a Sufi house for spiritual study and retreat.

 

Murshid SAM foresaw that spirituality in future would deepen through groups. As students of Murshid SAM and inspired by his ‘Spiritual Brotherhood’, we felt the best deepening would be within a group.

 

So we sold our house in Belgium, and moved to Germany, where we found a house, large enough to invite friends and co-travelers on the path and small enough to be our home rather than a venue for activities.

 

Click below for Murshid SAM’s ideas about a khankah

(from: Spiritual Architecture)

 

The Khankah or Brotherhood Dwelling

 

The Khankah Further Considered