Customer Reviews

Sufi Vision and Initiation: Meetings With Remarkable Beings

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This is a p. xiv: "spiritual autobiography from fragments of diverse papers, articles, & unpublished books" a sequel to "In the Garden."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.

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!