There are moments of oneness with the Beloved, absolute ecstasy and bliss. That is nothingness. And this nothingness loves you, responds to you, fulfills you utterly and yet there is nothing there. You flow out like a river, without diminishing. This is the great mystical experience, the great ecstasy.

Daughter of Fire - Irina Tweedie

Irina Tweedie was born in Russia in 1907, and educated in Vienna and Paris. Following World War II, she married an English naval officer, whose death in 1954 led her on a spiritual quest. With a background in Theosophy, she traveled to India in 1959, at the age of fifty-two, where she met a Hindu Sufi Master; Bhai Sahib of the Naqshbandiyya-Mujadiddiya tradition and set her upon a journey to the `heart of hearts, ` the Sufi path of realization.

During her training, her teacher did not give her any specific spiritual practice, as he believed that while men required this kind of discipline, such things were not necessary for women to develop spiritually. The few years she spent near him consisted largely of sitting in his courtyard or house, observing his interaction with other disciples and family, with occasional terse conversations with him.

Bhai Sahib?s first request of her was to keep a complete diary of her spiritual training—everything, all the difficult parts, and even all the doubts. He predicted that one day it would become a book and would benefit people around the world. This diary spans five years, making up an amazing record of spiritual transformation… the agonies, the resistance, the long and frightening bouts with the purifying fires of Kundalini, the perseverance, the movements towards surrender, the longing, and finally the all consuming love.

Her teacher described his method of instruction in the following way:

“… We do not teach but quicken. I am stronger than you so your currents adjust themselves to mine” thus causing “the stronger magnetic field to affect, quicken the weaker”

After his Master?s death in 1966, she returned to England and brought his teachings to the West. Her diary became the book, Daughter of Fire. Mrs. Tweedie is the first Western woman to be trained in this ancient yogic lineage. Her story and experience testify that this teaching system can still be powerfully transformative today in our modern world.

She has lectured throughout Europe and the United States. Irina Tweedie died in London August 1999. Her work is being continued through The Golden Sufi Center in California.

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