410 Precita Ave.,
San Francisco, Calif.
February 28, 1968
Reza Arasteh,
7905 Custer Goad,
Bethesda, Md. 20014
Beloved One of Allah;
As salaam aleikhum. I have finished your work on Rumi and have written to a colleague in Lahore, asking him to call on Ashraf. I have lived in Lahore on sundry occasions and purchased heavily but now need more and more books.
The great thing here has been the sudden rise in the interest in my own work. Last year I was stricken for the first time and heard the Divine Voice tell to I was to stay in San Francisco to lead the young. There was nothing but the Divine Voice; nothing else. But now it is happening and the young are having the direct experiences of Love, Joy and Peace. No doctrines and no nonsense, realities. And so it will be very easy now to introduce first your “Rumi” and then your other works.
Spoke to my book-dealings and he has promised to put in a whole stock. For this is the center of the “Hippies” and they are seeking such a program. They are coming here more and more or to my lectures elsewhere more and note.
While this is going on one meets your countrymen and they all seem to favor what might be called a “Progressive Islam.” At the present moment it can be said without contradiction that the Mosque is greater than the Qur’an and the Qur’an is greater than Allah, a situation worsened by the behavior patterns of so-called believers.
Here we demonstrate that Allah is closer than the jugular vein. The “New Islam” is practicing what al-Ghazzali taught: “Tasawwuf Consists of Experiences, Not Premises.” “Old Muslims” are not only preemies, they are and demanding and compelling, compelling, compelling, a certain super-ritual, and if you do not follow this to the smallest iota, you are not a “believer.”
Here we have the disciples chant the “names of God” and one does not even have to translate the terms. They pick the meanings out of the sphere! So no moral injections have to be offered and no special psychological admonitions. For wherever we turn we see the Face of Allah, and this is very “bad Islamics.”
On March 16-17 there is going to be a seminar on “The Living God” which is a counter-movement to an earlier on “God is dead.” A close friend has said, “God is dead, Allah is very much alive.’
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Reverend He Kwang
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
February 13, 1968
Prof. A. Reza Arasteh
7905 Center Road,
Bethesda, Md. 20014
Beloved One of Allah:
As-Salaam Aleikhum. It is with great joy one has received Rumi the Persian which will be read and passed on. Also more copies will be purchased and also it shall be recommended to my friends abroad. I am on very good terms with Ashraf press, too.
There is nothing more horrifying to metaphysical egocentrics than have mystics come out openly on the same bases as scientists do and relate their experiences. Legends, rather successfully too, have arisen, that if man knows he keeps silent. And this has lead to a wholesale acceptance of all sorts of persons who are welcomed socially and sometimes also intellectually and if a man shows any sign to any contrary he is ipse facto excluded. If we did that in the sciences, we should be in the Dark Ages. There is no reason or justice before Allah that silence must be kept to please other than Allah. And when Allah speaks if man obeys he is immediately accused. And until recently barred absolutely, but no longer, alhamdu lillah. This is a New Age and I shall certainly order Final Integration in the Adult Personality.
Although this may or may not be pertinent I am a colleague of Dr. Hossein Nasr of Tehran University who has been officially selected by the Sufi Orders to lead in the re-presentation of Sufis knowledge to the Western world. He has already been to Harvard University but as accepted as personality. So long as a person is accepted qua re personality without any sign of Divine favor or wisdom, we shall remain station but that day is over.
Saturday I told the story of my first Pir-o-Murshid’s Tawajjeh, the glance which has been the life or my life and said, “There are two persons in this audience who knew we before, and they can testify whether one has (or has not) more vitality, élan and mental and physical ability than before.” In the sciences this would be regarded as evidence; in metaphysics it is recorded (by the egocentrics, or course) as egocentricism.
You will see above two titles. Even now one has been accepted by one Zen or Chan Master or Roshi and has plenty or credentials, ignored by the traditions. But who cares? When I was at Kamakura in Japan my guide said, “You are already two grades in Zen above Daisetz Suzuki,” And when we get out of egocentricities and accept testimonials, it will be a better world. Anyhow I am now teaching “Instance Zen—let the poseurs recoil!
I am able to teach “Instance Zen” because I know: Kashf-Prajna, and one keeps on emphasizing the words of Al-Ghazali: “Sufism is based on experiences and not promises.” And the future generations will examine and re-examine the efforts of scholars and metaphysicians to hide. Indeed Prof. Nasr’s colleagues have a sort of alliance with British and European professors who have gone on the path (tarikat) and been rejected by the traditional—and Iranian-language scholars who know nothing about the inner life. As Jesus said, “In an instance all will be changed.” But religionists and metaphysicians cannot accept that and the New age people, the young will have nothing else.
I presented the theme, “Joy without Drugs” to the Psychology Conference here some time back. The egocentric people in charge had to look to Prof. Huston Smith of MIT because they had nowhere else to look. Metapsychics and metaphysics can take us just so far. But now one is thoroughly successful in leading the young on the pathway of “Joy without Drugs” because one has the inner and other knowledge of all the religions of the world. One has met saints and masters of all faiths and all have greeted one as either equal, or better, as the same.
As one Sufi put it, “Perception is the role of the wise and quotation of the ignorant,” It is easy to quote, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” In these rooms, this is a teaching which does not have to be taught, as “heart speaks to heart and soul to soul.” And it is the marvelous spiritual progress of one’s two goddaughter, one in Pakistan and one here which shall remain as living testimonials against all egocentric metaphysicians and experience and not on premises.”
In 1931 one came upon “Lives of the Adepts,” a French translation of Efleki. It was most difficult. One had already had nearly all the same experiences and nobody to talk to. Indeed every effort to get this knowledge down to an impersonal and objective level. And you will find not only Efleki but other materials in the White Memorial Collection, Cleveland Public Library.
You can imagine how astounded on has been to be admitted immediately into one Zen temple after another on a small scale; and to be welcomed by Pirs, Sheikhs, Madzubs and other Sufis on a large scale as an equal as the same.
When one returned from his second journey in 1962 a friend gave a copy of “The Whirling Ecstasy” which concerns Shams-i-Tabriz. It was bootlegged published in English in Mexico, limited edition. I can have this copied and sent to you. I asked the person, “How did you know? How do you know whether I am, or not Shams-i-Tabriz?” This, of course, is metaphorical. But to dare to be like that was to be rejected and rejected before. Not now, my friend, not now! Allaho Akbar.
One is somewhat of an imp. In a revisit to the tomb of another Shams-i-Tabriz at Multan in Pakistan one was with Americans whom one dearly loves to shock, especially when they rejected one’s credentials. (One has some colleagues who do the same, there is no other recourse.) There was a Saint there. “Why are you here? “I came to teach you.” “What?” “Ishk, Ilm, Shahud.” All right, teach.” (It is easy to teach in Asia, but until recently not a chance! Why, one is not even permitted to attend conferences if one is discovered beforehand!) I have the pictures of this Saint and myself, but no evidence can touch metaphysical egocentrics.
But it is this Ishk which the American young need and it is going to work havoc even with psycho-analysts and psychiatrists to find there is an easy, simple method by which the soul of man is aroused and can come to “sanity.” Anyhow one who has had the strangest experiences with Musts and Madzubs (impossible, of course, according to our metaphysical egocentrics) these young people are very easy. And heart seeks Ishk and soul is soul.
One of my colleagues (rejected and ejected) hosted Sidi Al-Alawi some time back. This colleague announced himself as a Mevlevi disciple. The audience asked the Saint to establish a Khankah here. “No, it is not necessary.” “Why not? “You have somebody in this audience who has the Baraka.” I am thankful to say nobody accepted this but the crypto-Mevlevi. So I do not have the older, metaphysical people but the young, the alive, the God-seekers and more and more every week. This Mevlevi is also a Buddhist Master!
Then one thing more: As one was visiting the tomb of Amir Khusrau at the Nizam-ud-din Auliya in New Delhi in company with Pir-o-Murshid Hasan Sani Nizami, the poet appeared—open daylight Mushahida—put a robe around one and said: “I appoint you successor to Mohammed Iqbal in the school of Jelal-ud-din Rumi.” When I reached Pakistan that same robe was ready and is now with me. And as to cosmic poetry, it is already written and some day, inshallah, shall be published.
In the class room now a mystic is permitted to speak and accepted. And the metaphysical people are hard put to task with their quotations. Indeed just as one was rejected before without reason one is accepted today with very little reason. Balance is an element of Nature.
I have a good deal of Rumi Literature from Arberry and other sources. Arberry and his friends never answer letters, which is just as well. We are in opposite camps.
The mission given to me was to bring scholastics and mystics together. The followers of my first Pir-o-Murshid are divided into two factions, or what is more characteristic, two legal entities both with claims. I do not know what legal entities have to do with God-Realization, or as you have put it, “Final Integration.” Thus there is no room for Grace.
I am here going lightly over your other books. You may have some suggestions and they will be welcomed.
I guess I am the first person in history to have been validated as Master or Teacher in Zen, Sufism and Yoga. But I also have backgrounds, intellectual and mystical in the other faiths, including even Confucianism.
All of these are secondary to Iskh, Ilm, Shahud. I have the complete Ryazat or esotericism of Hazrat Inayat Khan plus a good collation of Ryazat from other sources. These are meant for the world, not for rival, confliction legal corporations which pose as “Sufis.” Later on it may be necessary to write on Shahud (Mushahida) for the Western world.
One is open to any sort of comments of suggestions.
Love and blessings.
Sufi Ahmed Murad-Chisti