Sema is a term that means remembering in Arabic and Persian. It is used to refer to some of the ceremonies used by various sufi orders and often involves prayer, song, dance, and other ritualistic activities.
Sema dancing is known to Europeans as the dance of the Whirling Dervishes; see "Sufi whirling". It inspired the Dances of Universal Peace.
In the Mevlevi sufi tradition, sema represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to "Perfect." In this journey the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the "Perfect"; then returns from this spiritual journey with greater maturity, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination against beliefs, races, classes and nations.
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