A moving personal history of how Sufism and Zen came to America.... The story of meetings with remarkable beings like Swami Papa Ramdas, Nyogen Senzaki, Mother Krishnabai, and others... A sweeping and prophetic view of the last half - century of international relations with the East...
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Samuel Lewis (October 18, 1896 - January 15, 1971) was an American mystic and dance teacher who founded the Dances of Universal Peace movement. He was also known under his Sufi name Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti and was addressed by his mureeds and others as Murshid. This is an arabic word that means Exalted Teacher. In the popular press he was sometimes known as Sufi Sam. Lewis was born to Jewish parents. Lewis' father Jacob Lewis was a vice president of the Levi Strauss jean manufacturing company. His mother was Harriett Rosenthal, the daughter of Lenore Rothschild of the international banking family. To his parents' dismay Lewis showed a keen interest in religion and spirituality from an early age and later rejected their attempts at as business career for him. Lewis studied mathematics at Columbia University in 1916. In 1919 Lewis entered a Sufi community in Fairfax, California where he met and was influenced by the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan an Indian Sufi teacher and musician . A year later he began Zen study with Sogaku Shaku, a disciple of the Rinzai Zen Buddhist Abbot Shaku Soyen. The twin spiritual influences of Sufism and Zen were to remain central throughout his life. Lewis remained in the Fairfax Sufi community through the early 1920s and achieved deepening mystical experiences. In 1926 he collaborated in the opening of the first official Zendo teaching Zen Buddhism in America in San Francisco. Lewis continued to study Sufism and Zen and added yoga to his studies. He developed an interest in horticulture and promoted seed exchanges across the world. In 1956 he began travelling the world visiting Japan, India, Pakistan and Egypt, seeking the company of other mystics and teachers. In 1967 whilst recovering from a heart attack in a hospital Lewis claimed that he heard the Voice of God speak to him and say, I make you spiritual leader of the hippies. For the remainder of his life Lewis travelled around California developing and teaching the Dances of Universal Peace which draw on all the spiritual traditions he had encountered. The movement he created continues today in a formal way as Sufi Ruhaniat International, as well as informally through the wide adoption of the Dances of Universal Peace by many other Sufi and non-Sufi groups.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Insights into Lewis, a remarkable being--but not much Sufism,
By
This review is from: Sufi Vision and Initiation: Meetings With Remarkable Beings (Paperback)
This is a p. xiv: "spiritual autobiography from fragments of diverse papers, articles, & unpublished books" a sequel to "In the Garden." Mostly they're short SAM (acronym=Sufi Ahmed Murad) excerpts from travels to Egypt, Pakistan, & India. p. xv: "As Samuel Lewis warned, however, whenever a person is idolized to any degree, there is the danger that progress will stop on the part of the idolizers." The book gives more insight into SAM, his politics, & Asian horticultural efforts than Sufism: many meetings with Eastern Sufis but little of Sufi practices (& no glossary), unlike his friend Paul Brunton's books. Rather, strong negative opinions are given of U.S. policy, devolution of Muslims, communists, the press, Muslims who'd starve rather than dirty their hands, intellectuals, metaphysics, Rosicrucians, Roerich, Zionists, & Suzuki. Still, his warmth & sincerity (Myers-Briggs Feeler?--p. 293 addressing 3 types of yoga, ignoring wisdom yoga) shine through the book (~early Hasidic Master R. Zusya), as does naiveté (e.g. the Lost Tribes of Israel went to Pakistan). Narrow views seem private spontaneous/emotional responses to circumstances--not meant to be public (e.g. p. 262: "I must be losing my rationality or something" & p. 295: he "goes native").The title "Sufi Vision..." is misleading considering his Zen, universal religious views, & illuminating explanations: p. 127: "The word sammo which appears in each of the elements of the 8-fold path really means 'highest' (correlated to our `summit') or `universal,' not `right.'" His insights on the religious life cycle: p. 89: "The teacher accepts. Then generations pass. The pupils of that teacher reject...Their `teacher' is always a special case. Then the children of the enlightened keep the world in more darkness than the children of the dark, p. 93: It is very unconvincing that any Eternal God of Justice should stop His revelation at a particular point in time or with any particular people, p. 191: Orthodoxy is needed for the beginners...the educated ones were far from dogmatic & were all universal, & p. 315: Muslim meant one who surrendered to God, it later came to mean mostly those who accepted...{the outward religious rules/practices} finally those who followed openly or blindly...{traditional customs}...nothing whatever to do with revelation." There are scatterings of humor (e.g. p. 305: "you are not a good Muslim if you don't have at least two lawsuits on"). From the sublime (p. 276: "To Sufis, God is both being & The Being") to the boring (most of it) to predictive observations (pp. 196-7: "The establishment of a Christian government on Buddhist people does not go well with those people & p. 239: There is not much difference between the scientific outlook & the spiritual outlook"). This book is not a good source for Sufism.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Travelogue of a Real Live Wire,
By Myron Makewater "redcrosseknight" (Laramie) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sufi Vision and Initiation: Meetings With Remarkable Beings (Paperback)
I love Sufi Sam, and I'd love for the opportunity to arise to make a pilgrimage to his tomb in New Mexico.The value of this collection of his writings, including his records of his travels and some of his spiritual experiences, is not easy to define or quantify, but the writer's sense of humor and his frank insights are genuine and contemporary... ...after all, Sam was trying to broker a peace between the Islamic and the Western granfaloons decades ago, with some success. Because he was recognized early on as a Buddhist master and a Sufi shaykh (and a humble horticulturalist), he represents the universality of the path, and the reality of the path. As Trungpa said--"This is very real, sweethearts." Happy travels!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
