Oprah Winfrey Inspired by Islamic and Buddhist Faiths, Admits to Reading Daily Sufi Word
Oprah Winfrey recently shared her morning routine with Harper's Baazar magazine which includes a breakfast of fruit and almond milk, a workout and inspiration from Sufism, or Islamic mysticism.
Winfrey told the publication that she wakes up at around 5:45 a.m. and reads a passage from TheDailyLove.com and The Bowl of Saki, which she describes as "like the Sufi daily word."
Although the 58-year-old media proprietor has been vocal about reading the Bible and being a Christian in the past, she has also spent time speaking about Sufism lately.
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Last August, Winfrey interviewed author and Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee for OWN's "Super Soul Sunday" program. On her network's YouTube page, she labeled a preview to the show as "Oprah's Interest in Sufism" and tweeted about her love for the spiritual belief.
"Love Sufism …'the divinity of the human soul,'" Winfrey tweeted last September. "Within Our spiritual heart there is a direct connection to God."
According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, "Sufism is the esoteric dimension of the Islamic faith, the spiritual path to mystical union with God. It is influenced by other faiths, such as Buddhism, and reached its peak in the 13th century."
While Winfrey recently admitted to an interest and daily reading of a Sufi daily word, she has maintained that she is a practicing Christian. During a broadcast of "Oprah's Lifeclass" program in April, Winfrey spoke about her Christianity while having respect for all faiths.
"I am a Christian, that is my faith. I'm not asking you to be a Christian. If you want to be one I can show you how. But it is not required," she said on the broadcast. "I have respect for all faiths. All faiths. But what I'm talking about is not faith or religion. I'm talking about spirituality."
In the episode about "Spiritual Solutions" which featured new age spiritual leader Deepak Chopra, Winfrey also described her definition of spirituality.
"My definition [of spirituality] is living your life with an open heart, through love... allowing yourself to align with the values of tolerance, acceptance, of harmony, of cooperation and reverence for life," Winfrey said. "There is a force energy consciousness divine thread, I believe, that connects spiritually to all of us, to something greater than ourselves."
