In this deeply moving episode of Beyond Names, Dr. Habib Boerger is joined by Abdullah Pat Aylward—board chair of the Shadhiliyya Sufi Communities and founding leader of the Sufi Center Minnesota—for a wide-ranging and heartfelt conversation about spiritual seeking, transformation, and embodied love.

Pat shares his remarkable spiritual journey, beginning with a Catholic childhood and early yearning for meaning, through decades of study and practice across traditions including Vedanta, Hinduism, Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, mystical Christianity, and ultimately Sufism. Along the way, he reflects on the teachers and saints who shaped him—Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi, Dr. Usharbudh Arya, Dr. Ibrahim Jaffe, and Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal—and the ways presence, not concepts, became his true guide.

At the heart of this episode is Pat’s honest account of “breaking the tomb”: a profound period of personal collapse that stripped away identity, image, and certainty, and opened him to a deeper integration of love, humility, and compassion. From this breaking emerged a seamlessness between inner spiritual life and outer engagement in the world—work, relationships, leadership, and service.

Together, Dr. Habib and Pat explore:

• What it means to love ourselves without needing to fix or perfect ourselves
• How spiritual practice becomes real in everyday life
• The deep unity of spirituality and social justice
• Why compassion, inclusion, and joy are not ideals, but lived realities
• How suffering can become a doorway into freedom and belonging

This episode is an invitation to rest in the truth that there is only one heart, one life, and one love—expressing itself through us all.

Support the show

To make an appointment with Dr. Habib, visit https://www.habibboerger.com/.

In this deeply moving conversation, Dr. Habīb Boerger is joined by spiritual healer and artist Michele Hamida Rabinowitz for a rich exploration of spirituality lived through the body, creativity, and presence.

Michele shares her life story as a series of sacred doorways—birth trauma, dance, motherhood, bodywork, loss, healing, movement, and art—each one drawing her closer to God and to her true self. From myofascial release and spiritual healing to expressive movement and intuitive painting, Michele reflects on how the body remembers, how creativity heals, and how art becomes a spiritual practice of unveiling.

Together, Dr. Habīb and Michele explore embodiment as a path to the Divine, the role of joy and curiosity in spiritual life, the courage to say “yes” to transformation, and what it means to become “everything but nothing.” This episode invites listeners to consider how creativity—whether through art, movement, prayer, or simple presence—can dissolve the masks we wear and return us to the light within.

A tender, expansive dialogue for anyone longing to integrate spirituality with the lived realities of body, emotion, creativity, and everyday life.

Support the show

To make an appointment with Dr. Habib, visit https://www.habibboerger.com/.

In this deeply moving episode of Beyond Names, Dr. Habib Boerger is joined by Dr. Sabrina N’Diaye—therapist, teacher, author, peacebuilder, and founder of the HeartNest Center for Peace and Healing—for a wide-ranging conversation on spirituality, trauma, transformation, and the lifelong work of love.

Dr. Sabrina shares her spiritual journey from Catholic childhood to Sufism, reflecting on identity, ritual, motherhood, caregiving, and the call to become a bridge between worlds. She speaks tenderly about being named Saarah by her teacher, about patience (sabr), and about embracing the sacred assignment of caring for elders, clients, and communities with compassion and presence.

Together, Dr. Habib and Dr. Sabrina explore spiritual memoir as a healing practice, the power of storytelling circles, forgiveness as a daily discipline, and why only a heart that can break can truly let the light in. Drawing on Qur’anic wisdom, interspiritual teachings, psychotherapy, and ancestral memory, Dr. Sabrina invites us to see our lives through a wider lens—where trauma rests in one hand and transformation in the other.

This episode is a soulful offering for anyone longing to heal, to remember who they are, and to consciously participate in growing their light.

Support the show

To make an appointment with Dr. Habib, visit https://www.habibboerger.com/.