April 7, 1959
Universalist Church of Hollywood
Rev. Leland P. Stewart
Minister
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
772 Clementina Street
San Francisco 5, California
Dear Mr. Lewis:
Thank you kindly for your recent letter and its expression of interest in the work of the World Congress of Faiths in this country. It was good to know of your connection with the founding of the movement.
We have been trying to do the kind of job here in the Hollywood Church which would lead very naturally into such developments as this. Our symbolism, for example, contains the symbols of the six major religions written up in “Life,” all within the circle and the flaming chalice of freedom. I have been involved in a number of similar activities already, such as being vice-chairman of the Festival of Faith held in the Pomona Valley in 1956 before 2500 people. This was patterned after the San Francisco Festival in 1955 at the 10th anniversary of the U.N. It drew about 16,000 people. Perhaps you were involved in that occasion.
In any case, I would like very much to meet you and talk with you about the World Congress potential. Do you contemplate doing something in the Bay area, or could you locate here? The interest is rising in Southern California, though we still do not have too many outstanding scholars and leaders from which to draw. It might be possible to work out some kind of a west coast venture in which we would share speakers from the two areas as often as possible. What thoughts do you have?
Do let me hear from you again soon. This is something that we should be about in the near future. New York has already held its initial meeting for the formation of a chapter, under the direction of a Universalist friend of mine—Roland Gammon. Have you met or heard of him?
Best regards. It is interesting that you have passed our church in the past. We have been here about 2 1/2 years.
Cordially,
Leland P. Stewart
May 15, 1959
Universalist Church of Hollywood
Rev. Leland P. Stewart
Minister
Dear Mr. Lewis:
Thanks very much for your letter, which I received today. I have been anxious to know how things are proceeding, and have hoped that you could come here to our church and become acquainted. It is very good to know that this will soon take place.
May I ask that you definitely plan to be here on a Sunday morning at eleven during your stay, assuming that you can arrange this. I would like to have you say a few words on whatever Sunday you can come, so that people will know you. I met someone recently who has since joined our church who knows you from a time you spoke at the First Universalist Church of Los Angeles; his name is Irving Mandell. He is hoping to help start a forum here.
Hugh Butler is a very good friend of mine. He and I worked together on the Pomona Valley Festival of Faith in 1956, and he has since helped at the church on several occasions. His address, by the way, is 1707 Wright St., Pomona, rather than 1424 Hacienda Pl. The latter is the address of a good friend of his, and I imagine the letter would have been forwarded.
I have also written to Roland Gammon since your letter was sent, and I hope that he will answer soon. However, we do not have to wait until then to form plans, since I have a written account of what they are doing there. When you are here we can go over this in detail. In addition to writing to Roland I also contacted a close friend in Chicago who is tied in as secretary of the Buddhist Church of America and the Vedanta Society. She might well serve as a Chicago coordinator for beginning efforts in that area. There should probably be someone of more prominent position to actually head the organization when it is formed. Much groundwork has already been laid there, though perhaps the Festival of Faith and Pageant of peace put us in the lead.
Please let us know, if possible, what time you will be in L.A. On the 7th of June we are having a talk entitled “Glimpses of India” with slides by John Aroliasamy; this might be an especially good time for you to speak. On the 21st of June we plan to have the 76 United Nations Children from Long Beach as part of an unusual Children’s Day Service. The 14th could be made available to you also to a limited extent.
I appreciate very much the “Symphonia Orienta” record which you mentioned. We’ll look forward to playing it.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Most cordially,
Leland
First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles
December 29, 1964
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
772 Clementina Street
San Francisco 3, California
My dear Mr. Lewis:
Thank you for your very nice letter of December 23rd. I thoroughly enjoyed having it.
I’m glad you enjoyed the Kennedy memorial service and I hope you will visit us again many times.
If you do write a paper, as you suggest in your letter, I wish you would send me a copy of it and we could go on from there, either using it as a basis of a study or inviting you to speak. Don’t feel any pressure on this, but we do have many groups and some of them are asking me for suggestions for speakers from time to time.
Ever sincerely yours,
Stephen H. Fritchman
May 20, 1965
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
772 Clementina
San Francisco, California 94103
Dear Mr. Lewis:
Just as I was leaving for Boston and my vacation, your letter on “On Being A Lafcadio Hearn” came to me. Thank you so much!
I found its contents most interesting and should you be here when I return, I should be most pleased to discuss its contents with you.
But off I must rush and I note that you may be leaving the country, too. If you do, all good luck. If not, I’ll see you on my return.
Cordially,
Howard G. Matson
410 Precita Ave.,
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
August 1969
Blue Mountain Center of Meditation
Box 381,
Berkeley, Calif. 94701
Dear Ram:
Many thanks for your fine brochure, “Ramagiri” and for “The Little Lamp.” It is many years since, on my sixtieth birthday I was introduced by Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj to Prof. S.C. Chatterji of the University of Calcutta. The latter, without waiting, immediately attacks me bitterly for coming from a country that “honored” European professors of “Oriental” Philosophy. Swamiji, unlike the grand “experts” of moral and spiritual (?) outlooks, said, “Wait until you hear his viewpoint before attacking him.”
So I said to the professor, “Which do you want, a discussion of the Chandogya Upanishad without any preparation, or to hear the Flute-of-Krishna.” Swamiji said, “He means exactly what he says.” Professor Chatterji apologized so I did not have to give an impromptu talk on the Chandogya Upanishad. But the great “experts” of Oriental philosophy (????) still hold forth and nobody wants Sri Krishna actually on their side—they verbalize Sri Krishna and go after fame and money just the same, whatever they claim. I am still on bad terms with “European” professors of Oriental philosophy and their disciples.
With most people their sins may be forgiven; my virtues have not. I might meet Prof. S.C. Chatterji as an equal but never his leading disciples in this land and as for the disciples of those people—I am “too small” even to be considered. They still see “Brahm” in the wild elephant but never in the peasant or outcast. It just has not been done.
Well I have met and remet Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj in all kinds of places in the outer (and maybe also in the inner) worlds with accompanying draws. The last is so outstanding that my biography is now being sought and may be financed. I might be able to talk on the Chandogya Upanishad without preparation but my brother and I were unable to find any heir to whom to allot money because each of the preta-groups wanting money for “research” in East-West relations or “yoga” had too high “ideals” to accept a proposal of prowess-recognition, as terms. And rather than admit that this person was a sort of reincarnated Prince Dara Shikoh they have refused money and the money, praise to God, is increasing and no takers! So the man who can speak on the Upanishads without preparation (any more) is regarded as a braggart and bombast, while Prof. “Von Schozzel: who ?graduated” from steen universities as a “professor” in “Oriental” philosophy is honored, and his pupils, etc. And no one takes he Tevigga Sutta seriously, or do they?
The whole life-story is of the same genre. This person is one of the few, perhaps the first in history to have passed all the tests making one an accepted teacher in Sufi mysticism and Zen Buddhism. One does not expect “experts” and PhDeists to accept this, and although the Gita says over and over again that Manas and Ahamkara do not achieve the “kingdom of heaven” one merely has to watch the karma of such dualistic inner positions run their courses (and they are always verbalized as “non-dualism”).
I have just returned from a Summer School that was given carte blanche. Unlike the “non-dualists” there was a complete presentation of all the different types of Buddhist meditation available—from the first Jhanas to the highest Maha Mudra. Of course those only could be outlined but they were and not talks, not emotional homilies that pass for transcendental wisdom. Why even the so-called “Maharshi” has come to respect this person.
But this ties one in with another mountain center of meditation, because this group accepts the historical and mystical backgrounds and prowess. The other groups want, want, want. Indeed the chief wanter, an Englishman, showed up. He has his very private “world government’, in competition with a lot of other very private “world governments’, and one has to watch them pass by. And they would rather relinquish a thousand dollars than accept a person as a spiritual teacher who is recognized by other spiritual teachers as such!
I did not wish it that way. I am for a world Heart-brotherhood, a world Love-Understanding, not personality prowess.
The late Ruth St. Denis was my “fairy god-mother.” From her I learned how to tap akasha—a reality which has been accepted by Dr. Radhakrishnan and Swami Ranganathananda and others. When cards had to be placed on the table at Geneva at a meeting of the top religious leaders of the world, this was done and now the doors are open. One is attracting thousands with spiritual dances, mostly from the “non-sitting” Sufis and Dervishes, but also from Indian sources.
And my newfound allies hope to present dramatically episodes of “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata” which I have studied though my friends the PhDeists, deny this. So we are going to do that. And we are sending a television technical team now to India, etc.
Lama Foundation where I have been has become a success: organic gardens; spiritual rituals; Sufism and Buddhist techniques, etc. And the constant use of mantrams and real work-work-work Karma Yoga which no intellectual PhDeist is able to present. We live and move and have our being in God and no tripe intellectual superflage cum emotionalism passing as Yoga.
Our Sufi prayer says: “Allow us to recognize Thee in all Thy holy names and forms. Let us know Thee as Rama, Krishna, as Siva, as Buddha; as Moses, as Jesus, as Mohammed….” You may regard this as piety. We regard this as actuality. When this Sufi was beseeched for a “Hari Krishna” dance, he taught just that and no emotional superflage passing a “Krishna-conscious.” We even went further than that, but that is for those who have open hearts and open minds.
The spiritual brotherhood will come through mutual recognition. We are, with God’s help and His Grace going ahead.
God bless you.
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Rev. He Kwang, Zen-shi
Holy Order of Mans
August 29, 1969
Mr. Samuel Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, California, 94110
Dear Dr. Sam:
Spiritual Teacher of Naadia
I observed the following when talking with Naadia when she was here, that she is a God-Realized being that is surely so. The one thing that interested me particularly was that instead of the usual blue that exists of one who has gone through the veil, I found the following, that Naadia has the deep purple which is so frequently associated with, and I believe is also the case here, as having one of her missions the sorrows of the world at certain periods to contend with or a missions of bringing not only the welding of the East and the West through woman but will also experience great compassion for all people. I just thought you might be interested in this.
Your Universal Brother,
Master Raul
Jan. 27, 1970
Episcopal Diocese of California
1055 Taylor
San Francisco, Ca.
Dear Sirs:
No doubt a person is rude if he takes advantage of the misfortunes of others. I do not apologize.
For forty years I did research for the World Church Peace Union, and when their leader the late Dr. Henry Atkinson died, they turned down flat all the endeavors. At the other extremes I found The Temple of Understanding, which is seeking “My church shall be a house of prayer for all peoples” actually looking over my notes, and taking the extremely opposite position. Perhaps neither of these policies might be important excepting we are having continuous warfare in the so-called holy land, and doing nothing to stop it.
The other day I was teaching from the Epistle of James to a number of young people and felt the full impact of the teachings of the Scripture, laying down policies absolutely opposite to those in vogue today.
I am not appealing any longer to any church to accept anything from an unknown, but I feel very positive that when churches really become concerned with Biblical teachings, and less concerned with their organization and its preservation, there will be no problem whatsoever about funds, attendance, or anything else.
I may be leaving soon to attend the conference of The Temple of Understanding, and I know when I return the young will listen to me in multitudes. I consider it most unfortunate that many sectors of our culture should be so subjective, so institutionally minded, and so little concerned with “the least of these my creatures”.
I am making no suggestion here, but I think you can easily find an answer to your own problems by turning to a living God, who is all the scriptures and prayer books say about Him and to the spiritual teachings of the scriptures without interposition of ego-centric dialectics in the interpretation or mis-interpretation thereof.
In fairness therefore, I am sending a copy of a letter written to Arthur Hoppe. Fairness is something I demand of myself not from others. Justice is something I demand of myself, not from others. But I do believe such standards would go far to help us to overcome many of the difficulties of the day.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
Feb. 7, 1970
Mr. Howard G. Matson, S.T.B.
First Unitarian Church
1187 Franklin St.
San Francisco. Ca.
Dear Rev. Matson:
As you will observe by the enclosed, I am preparing to leave as soon as convenient to attend a conference of the religious leaders of the world under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding.
This is a New Age in which honesty, objectivity, and culture mean more than personality. You can ascertain this very quickly, if you don’t know it already, from the throngs that are attending the sessions led by my colleague Dr. Richard Alpert -Baba Ram Dass.
It is the same kind of approach which one now finds in the universities, e.g., a class in studies on the problems of Southeast Asia where nearly all of the registered students have already lived in that part of the world and mingled with the populace thereof.
I believe that it is this new, objective, and honest approach which is going to help solve problems.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
March 6, 1970
Diocese of California
1055 Taylor St.
San Francisco, Ca. 94108
Dear Canon Freeman:
You certainly have my indulgence. At least the writer can thank God, and truly, for the excellent health he usually enjoys despite being in his seventies. But I shall ask you to try to arrange an interview either with His Reverence Bishop Myers or with your good self somewhere around the first of May.
I shall be leaving here toward the end of this month for Geneva, to attend a conference with the ambitious program of peace through religion. I have been in this field for many, many, many years without any reports ever being accepted by persons or bodies verbally interested. But now action of some part is necessary. The failure of important persons to study history, or to be aware of what their fellows are doing, is as much an obstacle to peace and understanding as are all the convenient and machinations of the presumably powerful. Beside, it is so easy to blame others.
One has not only to oppose both establishment and anti-establishment, one has still more to deal with those who pretend to be champions of integration while they themselves ignore the facts and factors of life, history, and humanity. A few years ago when the Jewish peoples, however defined, were in many respects the unfortunate victims of intolerance and persecution, a great deal was heard of Boccaccio’s story of the three rings, and the sequel of Nathan the Wise written by the German philosopher Lessing, but now no more. Why?
I hope to present a three-ring approach to the complex of Palestine, but I shall not favor any Resolutions whatsoever. Resolutions are invariably followed by wars and conflicts even worse then those of a previous era. If religion will not accept its own Living God; if religions do not accept the promises of their own Scriptures, we must look either for something new or something destructive.
For the first time, youth, youth and not apologists for youth, is going to be given every opportunity to express itself, and this alone will help toward peace and understanding. But if I add more, I shall be going counter to my own negative attitude toward others. It is the acceptance of God, not the acceptance of words, which will bring peace.
Most Faithfully and sincerely,
Samuel L. Lewis
March 16, 1970
Rabbi Alvin Fine
3330 Jackson
San Francisco, Ca.
Dear Rabbi Fine:
At this writing one is preparing to attend a conference of the faiths of the world, who have chosen as their subject “peace through religion.” This to many may be an interesting subject, but we are no longer in an age where prestige alone counts; we are no longer in an age when the opinions of the high and mighty mean something. Although all the established religions may unite to see that valleys are not exalted nor hills laid low, we are in an age where the young simply will not accept prestige and authority as capable of handling the affairs of the world, or even solving problems.
We new have a general strike in San Francisco. I cannot account for the merits of demerits of any faction, but as all unite in the quest for excitement, and as excitement is our motto, our aim, our goal, like ancient Rome we are willing to give up even prosperity and power for excitement, and excitement being the thing, that is what we are having.
But excitement and peace do not go together. And one is going to have a rather easy time facing the champions of excitement when they plead for peace. They won’t give up the excitement, and today thank God, the young will not accept the old-style sermons, the old-style emotions, the old-style oratory, as functional.
This person has a very powerful weapon, a most powerful weapon—that those in authority, that those who are themselves recognized, will not recognize others; the very moral law places them in a ridiculous position, and no one dares to speak against those in high places. The late Clemenceau said, “War and peace are two things too serious to entrust to diplomats and generals.” Why we would even rather lose the war in Viet Nam than take the power away from the Generals.
(I am neither a Dove nor a Hawk. I am a student of and lover of the Vietnamese people themselves. In recent days I have met quite a few students and lovers of the Vietnamese people themselves, and someday we will get rid of slogans, shibboleths, and mottos, even though rarely, occasionally, and listen to the Vietnamese people themselves or to those of our follow countrymen who have lived in that part of the world, including some eye witnesses of the pseudo-dramas now going on.)
Fortunately there are enough open-minded people in the world, who under scientific influence, believe that eye witnesses and factual participants may, though on rare occurrences, give us valuable information which may promote stability or even peace.
I am not going to argue with anybody. Thank God I am being given a chance elsewhere to plea for international friendship and respect by and through the examination of points of view which orators, “experts’, and editors refuse to examine.
Before God, I rejoice today that not a single Rabbi or Iman has ever answered any letter proposing any kind of meeting between one and another, while one is constantly receiving letters and also meeting common people who wish to sit down with those whom they are being stirred up to hate, with or without cause.
The young simply will not accept the hypocrisy and duplicity of those who quote verbal “Golden Rules.” Every religion of the world, without exception, teaches hearing. And almost every Rabbi, Priest, Minister, Cleric Ecclesiast, monk, of every faith demands that others listen to him. So we have it. While the peace societies self-praise, the youth of the world are meeting other youths and establishing friendships.
Personally, I believe in universal draft, beginning with the people around 100 and moving downward, and I am not fooling. If all people over 30 had to sacrifice 75% to their incomes during wars, and all young people were so exempted, hostilities would end all over the world.
Believing in a Universal God, who can be variously interpreted, one is willing to take a chance at a global convocation where one has to face every sort of opinion and outlook without any damn pretenses of “liberty, democracy, and humanity”.
I am not asking anything from anybody, but I should like to see on rare occasions some cleric stop forward and do something to end both the useful and useless wars of the moment.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
March 16, 1970
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, California 94110
Dear Mr. Lewis:
How nice to have your letter of March 10th. We will be looking for you when you stop over here in New York on Sunday, March 29th, and will reserve two seats for you, though we have a very large church and I doubt that reservations will be needed.
Please do stop after the service to say hello to me.
With all good wishes, I remain,
Yours warmly,
Donald Szantho Harrington
March 23, 1970
Swamiji,
This is a sort of letter of farewell for the time being. One leaves this week and to attend a conference of all the world’s religions to be held in Geneva Switzerland under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding. This is a project in which I have been involved for the greater portion of the life, and heretofore have not been permitted to function partly because I did not have the financial means but even more so because the presence was vetoed by persons of presumable importance who in the end proved not to be “important” at all. I have seen such projects fail so many times. I have seen the refusal to accept “Unless the Lord buildeth a house, they labor in vain who build.” And while I am certainly not demanding that the world or anybody accept a particular scripture, I am hoping to see a day in which devotees accept their own scriptures.
The failure of devotees to accept their own scriptures has made it impossible for them to convince others. There are plenty of persons and groups who talk glibly about universal religion or “the Truths” behind all religions. Just words; often empty words; usually words which end in nothing because they were conceived in nothing but empty ego. But now there is a New Age. Young people are no longer beguiled by emotional charm. Young people want achievement. Young people are willing to join in the accomplishment of achievements. And while one is not expecting the elderly in age to accept and practice the teachings of their own scriptures, one feels pretty sure that youth is coming to its own in a new way, in a New Age, in a time predicted by many sears, actualizing the Indian doctrines of cosmic evolution.
It is become easy and simple to give instructions on the Upanishads and Gita when these are accomplished by actualizations, by living experiences, and the corresponding awakenings into the vast areas and arenas of truth and love. Any fool can arise and criticize the use or misuse of psychedelics. It requires much more to bring the awakenings associated with the words “expansion of consciousness”.
I think it is wonderful that today a growing multitude of young Americans accept the possibility of expansion of consciousness. The Greeks used to say, “When the Gods arrive, the half-Gods go.” In this sense, the Gods, are arriving, and it is very easy to raise the young above the levels of manas-ahankara, and awaken them to the higher levels invoked by the terms Vijnanavada and Anandavada, or the corresponding terms found in other Upanishads and other Scriptures.
But we are not going to be content any more with empty words. We have to choose between war and terror on the one hand and actualizations on the other. Personally, I am not troubled at all. The young are no longer beguiled. The universities have a growing number of instructors and professors who quite understand the shortcomings of the philosophies and psychologies of the day, and are finding answers in cosmic outlooks, especially as they have been presented to the world by the various saints and sages of India. I differ from some of the best known of these presentations because they exclude. Even when they call themselves “integrative’, they exclude; and often, especially when they call themselves “integrative,” do they exclude. This is nonsense, and in the end it will prove to be totally ineffectual. Jesus Christ has said, “Whatsoever ye do to the least of these my creatures, ye do it unto me.” Exclusions, no matter how embroidered, fail in the end.
We held our Spring Festival last Saturday. About 200 young people joined in the dancing. This number does not include the onlookers, the children, and the technicians who made the television recording. The time may come when what we validly have to offer can no longer be shunned by those who wish to lead rather than demonstrate Divine Wisdom in their daily lives.
I personally performed Ras-Lila and must say this cannot be done without a transformatory experience. It is one thing to recite “Hare Krishna,” it is another thing to awaken the Krishna-consciousness in one’s one own self, and from that to awaken love and joy in others actually- no nonsense, no sermons, no words- direct illuminative experience.
So the time has arrived, as I felt it might, when one has 100 and more disciples; when one has to organize them properly; when one has to instruct them properly; when one is willing to take on responsibilities for their spiritual development.
I shall try to contact you on return. Trusting in God, however he be called, for the success of this venture. To man is given the right to action; the fruits of such action belong to God.
Sincerely and Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
May 8, 1970
Rt. Rev. C. Kilmer Myers,
Bishop
Discuss of California
1055 Taylor St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94108
Your Reverence:
I have before me a note from Canon Freeman dated March 4. A number of events have occurred in my, alas, private life, events which ought to be public. I have returned recently from a convocation of the leaders of the real religions of this world. It was held under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding of Washington, D.C. I went tongue in check, wondering if it would ever be possible that the religious leaders of the world would permit “the valleys to be exalted, the hills laid low, and the crooked places made straight.”
It is wonderful to report that when the leaders have to face each other and have to have knowledge and perhaps wisdom, they did not pour out blatant emotionalisms upon each other. Instead it was wonderful to see the vast majority of the representatives of the world’s faiths practicing their own moral teachings in the presence of each other. When the subject of peace was presented, it was presented, and on the whole I should say there was far more progress in this direction than in any convention of diplomats, newspaperman, sociologists, and these misled and misleading personalities who persist in keeping the world in turmoil.
When the cards were laid on the table I believe they selected as their standing committee the finest personalities of each of the different faiths. No doubt I am slightly prejudiced here, because I already knew some of them, and certainly was won over by the others. Personalities aside, it was marvelous to see the mutual respect and cooperation.
We had 14 prayers given jointly in the cathedral at Geneva, fountainhead of Calvinism! So much good will was engendered we all felt that next year even more progress will be made, though the press may ignore us and our leaders, so steeped in international conflicts, may pay little attention, even to accomplishments.
Missing from the gathering were representatives of the Negroes, especially Africans, and the young. I think this will be corrected. In any event, the writer was given a marvelous reception by the young in London and in Boston, Mass. He has already warned that it elders do not establish “a house of prayer, which will be a House for all peoples,” youth will. I can further advise that it is highly probable a pilot structure may be built and dedicated this summer by the young who want to worship God and worship with each other, and not be separated by orthodoxies or heterodoxies.
One type absent was the European expert on Oriental philosophy. This type was long in control of the lecture platforms in this region, and they still have control over such institutions as the University of Hawaii. But in the presence of the Orientals themselves, only a single European (Dr. Bens) stood out. His profound knowledge and his evident high moral character made him most acceptable to the various Asians.
When I said above that I came tongue in cheek, it was because after 40 years co-operation with the World Church Peace Union, practically every clergyman and institution refused adamantly and absolutely to examine the reports. And because also, with some knowledge of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike, I seek ways toward peace in the Holy Land. The first days were marked by the most profound almost abject apologies, from Jewish and Protestant clerics. Fortunately, excellent personality relations were established, and during the last three days when declared myself to be an incarnation of Lessing’s “Nathan the Wise,” nobody scoffed; quite the contrary.
As to the Roman Catholics; within an hour after my arrival I met Father Masson, personal emissary of His Holiness Pope Paul. It was simple and easy to present my program for Palestine to him. And on the day immediately following the convocation I was sought out by at least two VIPs to work further toward this end. I am not, however, seeking interviews here. Neither am I refusing them. The young have programs afoot to bring Palestinians who are displaced, Arabs who are citizens of Israel, disgruntled Israelis, and Jews who are not Israelis, together along with some representatives of some Christian churches. It is on this subject I hope you will show interest. Regardless of the events of the day I see no reason to depart from Boccaccio or Lessing and even to move one inch from the divine teachings, “Love ye one another.”
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
May 8, 1970
First Unitarian Church
1187 Franklin
San Francisco, Calif.
Dear Sirs:
We have understood that you had some interest in The Temple of Understanding which plans a “house” which shall be a house of prayer for all peoples.
There has been a gathering at Geneva, Switzerland, recently in which much progress has been made, and also you will find a copy of a letter to a local clergyman partly touching on this subject.
My principal, Mr. Samuel Lewis, of this city has returned but is disinclined to give public lectures or try to contact the more sedate and more nature members of the community. There is no question in his mind that it is the young who do not wish to be divided, who ultimately further this project.
The dominant figure at the convention was Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj of the Vedanta Order whom you have already heard. He was a veritable Vivekananda addressing a most learned audience of some of the finest moral and spiritual persons now living in the world.
Faithfully,
Melvin Meyer
Secretary to Samuel L Lewis
May 24, 1970
Rev. Alan S. Miller
Regional Secretary
United Ministries in Higher Education,
330 Ellis St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94102
My dear Rev. Miller:
In Re: Peace in the Near East
This is written under quite different circumstances then when we met a few years ago at a political gathering. It seems almost nonsense to caption a letter “My trust is in Yahweh Who made heavens and earth.” I can assure you it is in the Living God, and no nonsense, and I am not in the least concerned with altering the faiths of men, but rather in strengthening them. There is a sentence in the Bible, “The stone which is rejected has become the cornerstone.”
There is another sentence in the Bible, “In the hour ye think least, the son of man cometh.” I have always been concerned that either Jesus Christ himself or the Divine Spirit might manifest to and through the least likely people. Yes, there have been many sermons on it, but in practice it may be different. However, I am not demanding ethical standards from others, I demand then from myself.
I number of years ago a very horrible creature known as the Secretary General of the United Nations had the effrontery to address a mob: “What we need is a moral and spiritual revolution.” All the cardinals, metropolitans, high-titled clergy of all religions, applauded and yelled. A single Buddhist said, “No, what we need is a revolution within each of us.” Silence.
I looked into the heart of the universe and saw nothing but more and more and more wars, and it has been so. But I also looked into the heart of the universe and received nothing but blessing directed toward The Temple of Understanding, the inspiration of a housewife, not of a dean of encyclopedic commentator, or of an official or diplomat, but from a presumably ordinary person. And I thank God constantly that this seemingly ordinary person is an American, and that we may have a universal temple in this land, whereas theoretically it should have been in the Holy Land.
My own life history has been so tragic it has become comically droll. Rejected here on all side, I visited Asia and met so many holy man and even high officials. I came back and my reports were rejected. I went again and the same thing happened in Asia. I even worked out a peace program for the Near East which all the UN Officials enthusiastically commended. The Israelis liked it, the Saudians, the Egyptians. But between our foreign office and the so-called “peace” groups it was killed, and killed.
Well, I had worked 40 Years at my own expense for the late Dr. Henry Atkinson of world Church Peace Union. I studied all the religions of the world and the histories of all Asian countries. Dr. Henry Atkinson accepted my reports on his deathbed, his successors and most church groups would not even give me an interview—please don’t get angry, the whole thing has become a farce comedy. Now the young are accepting me in great quantities simply because their elders wouldn’t give me an interview.
I still believe in prayer, and though I pray seldom, the batting average is near a thousand, and no nonsense. I had long wished to attend a conference of the world’s religions, but as the Bible teaches, “My time had not yet come.” And whom God, so to speak, lifted my eyes, also the money come.
I still had the program for the Near East. Senators like Charles Percy and Hugh Baker had accepted it. I prayed I might meet the Papal representative and within an hour after arriving at Geneva I walked smack into him, a day before the convocation was to assemble. There was no difficulty whatever. In fact it was remarkably easy. Within two days I received the profound apologies from the leaders of both Jewish and Protestant organizations. Not Only were apologies received, but friendships instituted.
There has been another, to me, quite related matter. I am directing programs which might be labeled roughly, “Spiritual development through music and dancing.” Some of my disciples have a choral group. They are constantly using items from Randal’s “Messiah.” This, to me, marvelous work begins, “Every valley shall be exalted and every hill laid low; the crooked places made straight.” This is something our so-called establishment organizations have forbidden, absolutely forbidden.
For instance, I encountered a so called peace movement in another part of the country organized by our good Presbyterian friends. They had 12 plans for Viet Nam: 10 from Americans, 1 from U Thant, and 1 from a Vietnamese. Where is God? What is democracy? Even today, I am not so concerned with the meta-politics of Cambodia as the hard but simple fact that there are human beings called Cambodians. They may not belong to our “realism” but they certainly fit in with God’s reality. They are even less real to us than the Vietnamese. Most of us, no matter what we think, seem quite unable to apply Shylock’s famous speech to Asians. But I am not concerned here with pointing out our defects. I am concerned here with doing something. And the first thing is to take into consideration that there are other peoples in this world who have hearts and living compassion. There is now a movement right in this city to bring together some Arabs who are citizens of Israel and some Palestinians, some dissident Israelis, some satisfied Israelis, and I wish there would also be present a representative of the Protestant and a representative of the Roman Catholic Church. I may not be present when this takes place, or it may wait until my return in the month of July.
I should like to keep you informed, or even there, as much as you would like to be informed or be there. The United States is now appearing as a monster in the eyes of much of the world and we can overcome this if we can promote real peace and get out of emotional nonsense, out of the poisons which were established in national and international consciousness with the so-called Kellogg-Briand Pact and all the pseudo efforts to “solve” problems by shallow emotionalism. Shallow emotionalisms neither solve problems nor prevent slaughter of God’s children.
I have reason today to believe that things can be done, that there are enough hearts concerned with the actual sufferings of human beings.
I have, in seeking some solution for the complexities in the Near East, researched on desert reclamation, water problems, etc. Seeking pragmatic solutions and contacting many real research technicians whose prowess we could see in promoting peace. I believe if we can keep away from the press, from the diplomats, and from the dialecticians, and keep our hearts firm in the belief of an all-pervading Providence having just those virtues and qualities which our prayers say He has, we can go forward to promote peace and justice without repeating such words as a substitute for the realities connoted by them.
It seems to be in tempo with the times that the young are responding more and more to my personal efforts. I have been sent for to conduct a spiritual summer school for young people which will keep me away for the whole month of June at least.
Last week, at long last, a Rabbi gave me an interview. I do not know who has been the most intransigent, the Israelis or the Arabs, in yelling and yelping they would be glad to sit down with the opposite number, and also in refusing to sit down when the doors were open. The exceedingly gentlemanly behavior of the Rabbis at the summit conference which I had recently attended makes it impossible for me to come to a pseudo-logical conclusion. I have still hope in mankind. Besides that, I have been approached by certain worthies of presumably Jewish origin who have shown absolutely full faith and human consideration, and who have themselves made proposals which I believe can do much toward promoting peace in the Near East, and perhaps everywhere else.
If you are interested you may write to this address, or from your San Rafael address leave a message at 897-5426, which is called the Garden of Inayat in Novato. There may be no hurry for an answer. It needs calmness, consideration, prayer, and meditation.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc: Lowell Ditzen
cc: J. Needleman
cc: University of California
From the desk of
Rev. C. Kilmer Myers
Bishop , Diocese of California
June 3, 1970
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco,
California 94110
Dear Mr. Lewis:
I am sorry this note comes so late but I do want to thank you for your report of the meeting held under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding of Washington, D.C.
It is good to hear of the mutual respect and cooperation you describe as the general tone of the meeting.
With all best wishes.
Faithfully,
C. K. Myers
410 Precita
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
June 8, 1970
The Rt. Rev. C. Kilmer Myers
Diocese of California
1055 Taylor St.
San Francisco 94108
Most Reverend Sir:
I wish to thank you for your letter of June 3rd. I am at the present time conducting a spiritual summer school in the Rocky Mountains in the northern part of the state of New Mexico.
Along with the dramas and melodramas and the excitement news there are some very fundamental changes going on in and with the hearts of the young in this general area.
I enclose copy of my most recent letter to the Temple of Understanding. I do not wish to preach nor even say that the old dictum from Jesus Christ yesterday, today or tomorrow is true or untrue. But there is now a source of multiple confusion altering or trying to alter everything that has been said about him true or untrue. I do not think that emotion can replace devotion or exhortation supplant spirituality. What is more, if one really contacted the young, one would find that many of the young agree with me, that the scribes are still the scribes and the Pharisees still the Pharisees.
Faithfully,
Samuel L Lewis
Lama Foundation,
Box444, San Cristobal
N. M. 87564
June 14, 1970
Rev. Earl Blighton
The Church of Mans
20 Steiner St.
San Francisco 94117
Dear Earl:
There is a strange almost legendary theme of the relation of being on mountains, especially high mountains, and getting great inspirations. Between my family affairs (all seemingly satisfactorily settled) and other complications of life, there was no time to spare before rushing to a spiritual summer school high in the Rockies.
My work in this region has been surprisingly satisfactory. The young are not only in revolt, but they also want love and guidance. It is even possible that I may lead, Pied Pipering so to speak, a gigantic spiritual march to Washington sometime. The word “peace” is not enough. You can war against but you cannot peace against.
I have two themes immediately before me. One is the establishment of a peace in the Near East scholarship at the University of California. God in his graciousness has provided the means. I am getting excellent cooperation today; mostly by and from persons who like myself had achieved but were ignored by the US government, by the press, by the channels of communication. I don’t believe there are any problems except the inability to convince the excitement mongers that probably all problems have been solved. But not even the Christian Science Monitor would accept that, for they like all establishment groups demand that the solutions come from the “right persons’-of course in the name of democracy.
The other is directly in your hands. I am planning to write a commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. This will show that many of the teachings modern generations accept as coming from India are in the Holy Scriptures. It will be something like an Indian philosophical interpretation of Christian writ; this is how I propose, subject to your approval:
I shall give the lectures in your place on Monday afternoons to be tape recorded. Then the tapes will be read back, edited, and manuscripted. This will be not by chapters but by subject matters. I think I have this all in mind and it could become a very important undertaking.
I now have quite a number of the world’s bigwigs interested in my work but the inspiration from this high place has been to begin with this subject and in your establishment. You may have heard also from one of your boys whom I met in Albuquerque.
Love and blessings to all,
Sam
June 25, 1970
Mr. Samuel Lewis
410 Precita
San Francisco, Calif.
Mr. Lewis,
Many courses have been offered by the University of California Extension Program which address themselves to the question of meaning in life. I believe that you have been involved in some of these courses. It seems only natural to me that you could easily appreciate the work and values of the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation. I happen to be just one of fifty who are giving all their energy to the search for meaning under the close guidance of Eknath Easwaran. I would like to tell you a little about the Center and the U.C. extension class that professor Easwaran is offering.
Our type of meditation, which is just one of many paths, is a dynamic discipline which requires focusing the mind at will, free from all other thoughts and feelings, in a state of deep concentration. The concrete results are simple. I noticed my nervous system calming down as I drew my attention away from the million and one petty problems which were consuming my energy, even in sleep. I am finding that I am able to actualize my concern for others now. My own personal problems many times stood in the way of my concern. I find that my hang-ups are falling away not by a frontal attack on my part but almost unnoticed as a result of meditation.
The center, which was founded over ten years ago in Berkeley, is now winning recognition throughout the country. For example, Western Behavioral Science Institute in La Jolla listed us as an organization of people who were trying to do something truly important. For this ten-year period Easwaran has been looking for property in the country on which to establish the Center’s headquarters for training the fifty of us who are committing all our time and energy to meditation. We do not think of ourselves as dropping out of society, but rather as taking a necessary economic and spiritual step which will aid us in our contributing to the larger community. As you may know, a community of meditators is called an ashram in India. Ashrams arose from students coming to live in the home of their teacher finding the close personal association with the teacher to be highly desirable in their inner quest. Also it helps a great deal to have the support and understanding of fellow students.
Several months ago we were able to begin the actualization of Easwaran’s desire for a country ashram where we could intensify our training. By pooling all our resources we were able to put together the money for a down payment on a ranch which was formerly used as a small Catholic seminary. We have received a great deal of help of various kinds from outside the Center which has supplemented the work of our own members. However, we are in real need now as you can see by looking over the last page of the “Ramagiri.” Needless to say, we would certainly appreciate your support in any form you feel like giving it. We are desirous of establishing a base of support in the community. This desire has led in part to Easwaran’s teaching a class for U.C. Extension on the “Theory and Practice of Meditation.” The class is in addition to the public classes held in Oakland three times a week. The extension class is every Saturday at 11 a.m. at our ashram near Tomales. A good way to learn more about the center is to attend the class.
Please feel free to write us with any questions you have regarding the Center or the class. If you want to take the class this summer quarter, you should contract the extension office now.
Thank you,
Paul Weaver
July 4, 1970
Mr. Red Weaver
Blue Mountain Center for Meditation
Berkeley, Calif.
Dear Ram:
After acknowledging the receipt of pamphlets sent, I found your letter of June 25.
As I began my studies of Oriental philosophy in 1916, I certainly do have years on my side if not wisdom. My whole life has been dedicated since early childhood toward East-West mutual understanding. One writes sometimes seriously, sometimes in mockery, concerning efforts and pseudo-efforts to transcend misunderstanding. In addition to what I have written in the letter. I have experienced, let us say, certain Yogic accomplishments also. These were under the tutelage of the late Swami Ram Das of Anandashram in southern India. I have no intention of insisting on any recognition from anybody.
But I have the right to lay down as a principle the refusal to contribute any longer to any group that withholds all forms of recognition in cultural and spiritual achievements. The world is now filled with so-called “integrative” movements which integrate nothing but bank accounts. The history of such groups will follow that of the belated Roerich Museum in New York which set up the prowess only of certain specified individuals and does not see Brahm in all of His creation.
As you can presume by the remarks already written, we are in an age of honest objective acceptance of honest objective achievements. When the metaphysicians discard, as they usually do, the noble impersonal standards of the modern scientist they can hardly be expected to achieve anything morally or spiritually.
No doubt we do not follow the standards of most groups -that is to expect others to recognize our prowess while we positively will not even look at theirs. Mysticism is like science in that it depends upon human experience and not on dictums or dogmas. I have been in India and traveled in India under an assumption that all Gurus represented Divinity in some respects. Under separate cover we shall send you copy of “The Rejected Avatar.” This is one way of measuring another person’s mystical prowess. But now having met during my lifetime actual spiritual leaders, whom I can name and place, of all faiths, I feel this is something more than the most excellent plans of the most noble planners.
I do not know how much is communicated here. It is not clear to me what you are planning to accomplish. But if it is in the direction of spiritual enfranchisement and liberation than most certainly I am more than interested.
Love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita
San Francisco 94110
California
July 22, 1970
Dr. Ezra Spicehandler
Hebrew Union College
13 King David Street
Jerusalem, Israel
My dear Roshi Spicehandler:
I am writing to you what to me is a very serious matter but to you it may not be so serious and have no right to demand any answer, but I am inwardly so disturbed by the present world turmoil that I am getting my opinions on paper, whether they are in the ultimate sense just or otherwise. And from one point of view, it is exceedingly easy to carp at the "Judeo-Christian ethic," but when one looks closer alternatives actually seem to be entirely missing despite excellent literature and momentous appeals of wonderful orators.
I must appreciate the fact that today very surely both Protestant and Jewish divines are apologizing. But the fact still remains that I did 40 years research into the religions of the world and not only retain that knowledge but I am still studying. I have known about Vietnam from eye-witnesses over since 1947 and have been given the dubious choice of watching two imperialistic groups of gangsters genociding Buddhist infants, with no way out.
I was drawn into the Near East conflicts for somewhat different reasons but what even those reasons may have been—and they cover a long history—I am at the moment facing two series of facts, both related to the conflicts in the Near East. Everyone seems to be horrified by the genocide of their own peoples and totally callous about the sufferings of others. At the same time I am living in a district which is receiving more and more persons who are refugees from the Near East, belonging to quite different groups. This very situation gives one the opportunity to look for means of possible peace feelers.
In previous years I had worked out possible program for the Near East which was hailed by one U.N. official after another as the greatest proposal they had ever heard. It was accepted by Israelis, Egyptians and even Saudi Arabians. It was smashed by the foreign office of the United States and by all the very best known so-called peace groups. I am not going into that again. But I was also excoriated by the foreign office of the United States government for even attempting to work for a peace feeler between Indian and Pakistan. Then these two countries in despair turned to Kosygin at Kashkend.
Barred from the floor by nearly all the so-called international study groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, I did succeed in breaking up a meeting by passing out a picture of Her Serene Highness Princess Poon Diskul with His Holiness Pope Paul. No one asked how I got this picture, but I am about now to have pictures taken of former or present day Arabs, Israelis, "Jews" of all kinds and "Palestinians" of all kinds. I am not the least concerned whom it horrifies.
But this is not a horror letter at all.
Some of us believe in a Living God, and not only that we believe He has exactly the qualities and merits which the various prayer-books proclaim. I am not going into that. But immediately after the conference we spent some time's with Norman Lurie and everything has happened exactly as we discussed with him but we have not heard from him. It sometimes makes us wonder how far promoting establishments really believe in themselves. But this is not going to stop as.
The next news was the death of my brother, leaving me in very good financial circumstances. But since my return the attendance of my meetings in various parts of the country has gone up and this is also a potential source of further income. We have had not the slightest difficulty in convincing young people about the merits of The Temple of Understanding.
And to further this trend Bob Kauffman, the youngest male at the Geneva gathering is with us here, is observing what we are doing and we have an interview coming up. He is thoroughly convinced that there is a living God and that the young people will accept a God while their elders will accept the institutions relating to this same God but will not always accept this God themselves.
There is a series of what they call Holy Men's Jamborees and there is an increasing number of appeals to me to attend. I rather ignored them until last week when I attended a Hasid gathering in San Francisco and was asked by a former Israeli of all people why hadn't I attended them. But my present plan is either to go to the next one or send deputies to make position pleas for The Temple of Understanding.
The next item is like a fairy story. A rather wealthy publisher has been looking for Sufis. Excepting in the single case of our good friend, Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Sufism is absolutely excluded from our culture by a strange negative alliance of former Germans and pro-Zionists, mostly quite irreligious man of British extraction. Whatever be the case this wealthy man has met Pir Vilayat Khan and now intends to support fully all movements based on the existence of the living God and the operations of Love in human behavior. He is now in Europe contacting some very great spiritual leaders more closely allied with scholastics than with religious groups.
These and other events are directing us toward bringing peacefully minded people, especially those of Arab or Jewish extraction together with enough Christian leaders who profoundly respect the existence of God, the need for peace on earth, and the restoration of the Holy Land as a Holy Land regardless of politics.
I now have my own summer school in the state of New Mexico. It is a spiritual commune. It and the neighboring communes absolutely and unequivocally refute the recent remarks of the well-known Margaret Mead on this subject. But we haven't a chance against Margaret Mead any more than we have a chance against self-important persons of any or all camps through one extreme to the other.
We had a great deal of spiritual singing, and outstanding among the chorals was one based on "Every man shall sit beneath his own vine and fig tree and there will not be war any more." Despite Margaret Mead, despite the emotional outbursts of nearly all writers, there are signs that this is coming.
Now I am reporting rather than seeking. I certainly do not intend to put you or anybody else in an awkward spot, but I am living in a district where an ever-growing number of young people of Jewish extraction are supporting (of all things) Palestinian Liberation Movements; it is very awkward.
Last week I attended a Hasid gathering based on the assumption that God is and not only is but is exactly what the prayer books say. The place was absolutely packed and I humorously remarked, "I never saw so many goyim in my life." But next day I went to a Christian mystical gathering and that place was also packed. On top of that I am compelled to start two more classes on "Dances of Universal Peace." I am no longer interested in whether older persons or organizations answer my mail, but I have just been approached by the Presbyterian Seminary in this district and have other of equal import to contact when there is time. I have not had a single say off since returning from Geneva.
Now the young Arabs and the young Israelis are being armed to the teeth and taught to hate. Nietzsche taught, "A just war hallows any cause." It seems that those in power believe in this. But I will join with my friends in chanting from the Prophets and at this writing there is every sign that multitudes of young Americans will support the same program. When I went to the woods in New Mexico hundreds of young people sought me out, but now that I am in more populous areas the number is increasing.
I have no hope in the press of America excepting Father Haughey. Nor is there any need regardless of their presumable camps of surrealism. I have nothing but loathing far all those religious groups which have repudiated the book of the Prophet Malachi. But at the same time there is also compassion. We also did call on a rabbi in San Francisco; he did not want to see us, but regardless of my personal emotions God created all of us and he loves all of us and the meeting turned out marvelously. Indeed, he has expressed a willingness to interview any Arab we might bring to him.
No doubt this letter is filled with emotion and I am probably guilty of the same tendencies which one condemns in others. But at least I hope I am working toward the termination of hostilities and misunderstandings. I see endless possibilities for The Temple of Understanding. God Bless you.
Samuel l. Lewis
July 28, 1970
The Rt. Rev. C. Kilmer Myers
Diocese of California
1055 Taylor St.
San Francisco, Ca. 94108
Dear Reverend Sir:
I am at this time asking if it would be possible for us to have an appointment together. I have had some very cordial letters from both you and your staff, but have hesitated asking for an appointment. My experience with churches has made me very sarcastic about their “Judeo-Christian ethic.” When I was at Geneva early this year at the conference of the real religions of this real world, a good deal of the early proceedings were marked with profound apologies and repentances from both Rabbis and Protestant Ministers. These were more than ritualistic and have resulted in the establishment of some pretty solid friendships. The conference itself was followed by a series of incidents marking such a change in outer behavior and attitude that I began to refer to myself in letters to Art Hoppe of the Chronicle as Mr. Timon of San Francisco, only this is a Timon in reverse.
For forty years I gave up all my spare time and energy to study religions of the world at the request of the late Dr. Atkinson of the World Church Peace Union. His successors absolutely refused to accept any report. And I am the only person I think on earth who has spoken from the pulpits of at least five of the world’s great religions and feel myself quite at home with the devotees at worship. But in my hometown particularly I have been insulted, a little by clergyman, far more by an “only in America” type of expert which has great social standing and no intellectual nor moral background. Ways have been blocked that I can neither have interview nor floor time. But this is not a complaint. There is a totally new type of human being, young people who consider me as a folk hero without evidence other than such negative reports. And I am writing to you, not for sympathy or even encouragement, but to tell you what I am doing.
At Geneva I put on a little show that I was an incarnation of Lessing’s “Nathan the Wise.” Nathan the Wise was a grand hero during the rise of Hitlerism. But today nobody refers to him. This has not changed my attitude. I have written three epic poems the themes of which are respectively the Jewish, Christian and Islamic aspects of Palestine. They were are shunned by the different religionists, but recently have evoked such wonderful emotional responses that I can see that today there are persons and forces who really are concerned with peace and morality without regard to whether the peace and/or morality are connected with or opposed to “establishments.”
I have begun my commentary lectures on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. I speak on Saturday mornings, and this time the commentaries are being tape recorded. They will be copied and taken to Washington to some very important people, and it is only a question of whether they will be placed in the hands of these people or published first.
These commentaries are based on the existence of three bodies-sarkikos, psychikos, and pneumatikos. Even my most learned friend Dr. Huston Smith of M.I.T. was surprised when I told him these three bodies correspond to the three bodies mentioned in Hindu metaphysics. He had never given it any consideration although he is regarded, especially in Asia, as the greatest Western authority on Oriental Philosophies.
When Dr. Huston Smith asked me how I know I told him “through inner development; through mystical experience.”
I am not concerned her with the solid but simple fact that anyone who hasn’t had mystical experience may write on it, while actual mystics have been ignored until the more recent Holy Man’s Jamborees. The fact is that I have been accepted by the mystics of all faiths, and it is only in this region that I have been snubbed. But I am not asking for any sort of apology or contrition. It is evident to me that whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, but this doesn’t matter; this does not diminish one’s knowledge. Today I am getting further and further and easier and easier with more Professors, both at our local Universities and elsewhere.
Now the blindness of religion and philosophy in ignoring or rejecting the existence of psychic and spiritual bodies, in our culture has resulted in strangeness both to those who have psychic experience, and those who have not. As I said at the Psychedelic Conference some time ago—there they let me speak—”An hallucination is an unusual experience which someone else has had and I have not.” It is interesting that the only group that accepted this was the psychiatrists.
At that time Dr. Huston Smith had taken the first steps to go beyond the psychic body to the spiritual body. He has been followed more or less by his colleagues, excepting Tim Leary who is stuck on the psychic plane.
I am hoping that the Christians of the world will show some interest in their own Scriptures and find some semantic method of research for both the psychic and spiritual bodies. I say this openly because the semanticists have already thrown out Alan Watts, the “only in America” great authority on? Asian? philosophies. But Dr. Oliver Reiser who has been both a semanticist and humanist, has come to the conclusion that the psychic world is real.
I accept this. But I accept even more, that all the experiences and philosophies of St. Paul were real, are real, and could be of infinite benefit to this world if we only dropped a little “humility” and adopted a little curiosity.
And I believe that the teachings of St. Paul, properly explained, could revitalize our traditional cultures and, without offending the Hare Krishna people and others, find a supreme real semantic foundation for our religion and traditions.
The second theme is Peace. I have had to be an ear-witness-just a little bit an eye-witness-of what is going on in Viet Nam. We will have to take into consideration the remarks of Dr. Malalasekera at the UN, “How can we trust a nation that does not trust its own citizens” (directed at the U.S.). We are spending billions of dollars and may have to spend billions more because neither the State Department nor the press is in the slightest interested in the actual people of foreign lands, and even less in what common citizens report of them. Nicol Smith was a top intelligence official. He wrote Burma Road. Then he wrote a book of warnings on Tibet which was rejected absolutely, and the Chinese marched in.
I am not going to write more about Southeast Asia. I am more particularly concerned with the Holy Land, and my presumable theatrical efforts to function as a “Nathan the Wise”.
At Geneva, where I was presuming to be a “Nathan the Wise,” some of the top leaders of the real world, said I looked and acted just like Walt Whitman. This was wonderful and surprising, because in my conceit, I believe I am an incarnation of his “Song of the Answerer.” And now I am going to put this into operation without regard to the reactions of anybody.
I am first of all a spiritual teacher of Sufism, which may be regarded as Islamic mysticism. This has been absolutely rejected by Stanford, University of the Pacific, San Jose State, and the complex of Colleges around Claremont, but when I went to India at a time nobody was making appointments, I saw immediately Dr. Radhakrishnan, Swami Maharaj Ranganathananda, and Pir-O-Murshid Hasan Sani Nizami.
Some time ago a young man thought he would see a battle royal by introducing me to Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. We took one look at each other and there was a love-embrace. I have had such love-embraces from a Greek Metropolitan, Franciscan Fathers, a Vietnamese Thien, some Chinese Buddhist Masters, etc., and innumerable Muslims and Hindus. I am no longer considering the rejection of hard facts by subjectivists whom we have permitted to act as interpreters.
I began this letter because I am planning to meet a man who wishes to have joint programs for the Chassid Rabbi Shlomo and myself. This of course is impossible-all the “experts” and authorities know that! But we are going ahead anyhow, and I have been very successful off the record in getting Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs to fraternize!
On the very first day at Geneva I met the Papal Representative and told him that it was very necessary to have Christian represented in the peaceful settlement of Holy lands. I never met the late Thomas Merton but was told by two friends of his that he was on his way here to San Francisco to meet me when he died. I hadn’t heard from either of those men for some time and recently received letters asking what I was doing to help establish real peace in the real Holy Land. Believe me your Reverence, I am doing, though the unusual is never news, never.
My fairy-godmother, so to speak, was the late Miss Ruth St.-Denis. She approved of all my plans, and before she left the world I had begun my “Dances of Universal Peace.” I started out with Dervish Dances, and then Indian ones. Now I am all ready to restore or start Christian mystical dances. The greatest obstacle has come not from opposition, but from the realization that it is almost impossible to get the materialists of all camps to accept the first words of “The Messiah”-”Every valley shall be exalted and every hill laid low, and the crooked places made straight.” The words of “The Messiah” have greatly inspired my colleagues and disciples, not only in their singing and chanting, but in establishing the morality of their daily lives. In other words, Truth Is Truth and we cannot escape it.
I only hope you will be interested enough to grant me an appointment at your convenience, or at mutual convenience. God Bless You.
Samuel L. Lewis
The Foundation of Revelation
59 Scott Street
San Francisco, California
4th Year Siva Kalpa
August 6, 1970
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Samuel L. Lewis
110 Precita
San Francisco, California
Dear Sam,
With great joy I recall the beginning of your letter to Mrs. Dickerman Hollister of August 21, 2nd year Siva Kalpa (1968) which reads, “Everything is like in a “fairy story” and perhaps it is the revelation of God in His own way.” The last line of the second paragraph of the same letter says, “The young are in revolt against bombast, pretense, and PhD-ism which lauds names and solves no problems.” We agree with you in the above statements. This foundation is breaking down the fictions of lauding decorations of all brands of limitations. The enclosed release of The Foundation of Revelation is the thread around which lots of events are being strung like pearls. Hope it will merit your interest.
Best to you and would enjoy news of your recent trip to Llama in New Mexico where I too once visited.
Shotsy
.
Aug. 8, 1970
Miss Shotsy Wallace
The Foundation of Revelation
59 Scott St.
San Francisco, Calif.
Beloved One of God:
One appreciates your letter of August 6th. Once Sam was in the Himalaya mountains, the real mountains, with a Holy Man. The Holy Man said, “I am greater than you in everything; I am taller than you. I am stronger than you. I am of more noble birth than you. I have far greater psychic powers. I have far greater spiritual powers. I am greater than you in everything.” Sam who was a dirty conniving nuisance said, “You are greater than me in everything but one.” The saint repeated. Sam repeated. The saint then asked (what none of the spiritual teachers of the age seem to be able to do), “In what way are you greater than I am?” Sam said, “I am a greater pupil than you are. I can listen better than you can.” The saint, who was not a SadGuru or a Maharishi, or anything like that, accepted. Why he even listened to Sam a little after than, something which the Maharishis and the Avatars and the SadGurus seem quite incapable of doing.
If Sam had been born in India he would be working there to see that the starving people are fed and that Hindus and Muslims would not be practicing their various abilities in violent non-violence. But Sam was born in the United States and he is under a sort of delusion that God wishes him to work here. So he is working here.
If he had been an Indian he would be working for the welfare of “unskilled laborers, bidi binders, smugglers, thieves, prostitutes and drunkards.” In fact, he is under the delusions that Shankaracharya was right, and that Brahm is in all people. He does not believe that Lou Gottlieb is a chosen vehicle of God. He believes in some forms of morality. He believes that all religions are correct, but he has no intention of trying to change the beliefs of anybody.
We do not believe in our superiority. We believe the Divine Light is in everybody. Which means everybody. Which means everybody. If one had been born an Indian one would be working to lessen starvation in one’s own country. One has been born an American and is therefore working one hopes to lessen the spiritual ignorance of the Americans. One does not praise oneself for one’s work. One works, works with the heart, with the mind, and with the dirty fingers.
Yes, one believes that the Sanatana Dharma also presents the truth. But one is not moved by emotions, no matter how glorious the emotions may seem. Emotions do not feed the starving. Emotions do not remove the pains of others. And who are the others? One can accept that others are one’s self in another form. One agrees with the Upanishads about grades and states of Ananda. One sees nothing but tyrannies in words. It is the active love that flows from the heart that can produce joy and good will, and perhaps even more than joy and good will, in others. One does not accept that people who have not experienced the many grades of consciousness can know the Divine Wisdom. One does not believe that self-satisfaction is Divine Wisdom. One does not care at all about personal approvals. One only hopes you can learn to grow and appreciate others, even if only on rare occasions.
We do not accept that upstart Americans are Saints and super-Saints. We believe there is a moral order. We believe there is a cosmic order. But we do not believe it is necessary for others to accept our points of view.
God bless you.
Samuel L. Lewis
Aug. 10, 1970
Rabbi Alvin Fine
3330 Jackson
San Francisco, Calif.
In re: Peace in the Near East and the “Judeo-Christian ethic’
Dear Rabbi Fine:
A number of years ago I was among those who applauded your receiving a peace award by The World Federalists. I have also applauded other recipients of peace awards. I am unable to understand how you and your colleagues can profess to believe in an omnipotent deity, etc., and defend your silence at times when real troubles face the human race.
There is a saying in the Bible—though I do not expect the followers of the “Judeo-Christian ethic” to accept it—that every valley shall be exalted and every hill laid low. In our judicial system we depend upon eyewitnesses and the decision of either a judge or a jury. In international field it is very different. If there is an eyewitness he must not only explain what he has seen, but why he was there. In international affairs our whole culture accepts the opinions of the “right persons” against the testimonies of eyewitnesses.
Last year I was enrolled in a course on Southeast Asia. Practically everybody in the class had lived in one or more of the countries of Southeast Asia. Not a single person in the class had ever had any papers written by himself accepted by any channel of communication of any type. We got along beautifully with each other, but we were as far from so-called “realism” as you can imagine.
Circumstances in my life compelled me to make a rapid decision whether to try to help bring peace in Southeast Asia or in the Near East. Fortunately, one of my closest friends has been one of the very top persons in Southeast Asia so I am turning the other direction.
Realists, including practically all the peace groups and fourth estate, are not particularly interested in eye-witnesses. This year I attended an international conference under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding of Washington, D.C. There we met the real leaders of the real religions. I had the audacity, the presumption, the unmitigated gall, to present myself as an incarnation of “Nathan the Wise.” At the end of the conference this was accepted very seriously by all and sundry-no newspaperman, no State department officials, etc. Indeed the first days were marked chiefly by apologies from the top Protestant and Jewish representatives, and some of them are now my very best friends. Some day indeed I may publish my letters from Mrs. Hollister and Mr. Dunne of The Temple of Understanding.
“Nathan the Wise” was all right when there were pogroms. It was fine then. Now I have had the impertinence to arrange meetings between Muslims and Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, Israelis, etc. Not only have these meetings been successful, but they have encouraged certain upstarts to begin to raise funds so that human beings can meet with human beings, regardless of politics and encouraged hatreds.
This year I have not only met a large number of very important people—elsewhere of course—but also my income has increased to the point I can travel anywhere.
It is noteworthy that when real people got together such socially important people as Sir Zafrullah Khan never had a chance. It is quite evident that peace does not come, is not coming, from plaudits given to personalities who may have achieved fame or notoriety, but have not the knowledge and humanity to effect peaceful relations. Indeed the conference was marked by disputes between Muslims, and the very clever, not indeed high minded activities of the Rabbis who were there. These Rabbis/if/were extremely apologetic to this person for the failure of their colleagues to even answer letters in the last four years.
I am not going to ask you to answer this letter. We would be pleased if you showed any interest in attending any form of Jewish-Islamic or Israeli-Arab conference. But we are now going to publish our letters to all those famous people, including yourself, who fail to act in time of world needs. It is so easy to receive the plaudits of audiences. It is so hard to prevent man from murdering man in the name of “peace with justice.”
It seems that all murderers, tyrants, genocides favor some kind of “peace with justice.” We are studying the Book of the Prophet Malachi. We are getting Jews, Christians, and Muslims to study this Book. We have no time for peace awards or the plaudits of elegant audiences while those in power and authority defy Holy writ, even their own Scriptures.
In both my private and public life I am working for and with The Temple of Understanding of Washington. As it is said in the Scriptures, “My house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples.” The young are ready to return to any church, synagogue, mosque or temple where the leaders practice their own teachings; where the leaders lead and stop this nonsense of self-praise in the Name of God.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
August 14, 1970
Mr. Donald E. Rafolla
c/o Student International Meditation Society
Humboldt State College
Arcata, California
Dear Ram:
There is much interest in your letter from the Student International Meditation Society. The same mail also brought a publication from the new Zen Center in Oakland, California. All of this shows a growth of interest in Zen and in meditation.
This person has been ordained as a Zen master by Asians, just by Asians. There is something about Americans that they wish support, commendation, and approval but they themselves are not masters in such outlooks. In fact, here, love and compassion are stressed even more than meditation. Saint Paul taught that without love our endeavors may be futile.
A letter has just been written to Pondicherry in India where they also claim to be building a new civilization. We do not understand how there can be so many new civilizations and all ignore each other. From our point of view, God ignores nobody, no matter how unimportant.
One does not like to hold adverse views. Jesus Christ had long hair; Krishna is generally pictured with long hair. My own blessed guru, the late Swami Ramdas used to say that what you needed was not shaved heads, but shaved minds.
We shall naturally be interested in the progress of your undertakings, but are too busy with our own to do anything more now than maintain them.
Love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
August 19, 1970
Rev. Alan S. Miller
Regional Secretary
United Ministries in Higher Education
330 Ellis St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94102
My Dear Rev. Miller:
Refer to letter sent you May 24, 1970.
We are today wondering how far and how long can present religious institutions operate if they fail to follow their own teachings. We are in a quandary, finding that the scriptures can and do hold up, but that those who preach about the scriptures are concerned far more with the maintenance of their position and prowess, than with the truth of these scriptures. Morality seems be what we expect of others.
Since writing you last May, we are doing. For instance, one of my latest ventures is the commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. It is based on “The Three Body constitution of Man.” I received many complaints concerning young people running around emotionally unstable yelling “Hare Krishna,” but we have totally surrendered the doctrine of the three-body constitution of man, presented centuries ago by St. Paul and for the most part ignored. Then when people, especially young people, hear it as an Indian teaching they accept Krishna rather than Christ. Whose fault is it?
But I am not going around complaining; I am going around teaching. At this writing I have the strange complaint, if you want to call it that, of a lack of secretarial help. God, in whom we absolutely believe, has seen to it recently that my unemployed or underpaid secretaries get excellent jobs. And I personally feel under such grand inspirations such as this these of the three-body constitution of man as presented by St. Paul, that I have neither time nor energy even to face my own difficulties otherwise.
The three-body constitution of man as presented by St. Paul can and does explain all the peculiar habits of the day. In this universe there is room for every sort of emotionalism, whether these emotionalisms arise from the so-called “gift of tongues’, of the dramatic dis-equilibriums of the Hare Krishna people, and any and all phenomena connected in any and every way with psychedelics. It is so easy to explain all psychedelic behavior and mis-behavior if we accept the cosmic metaphysics of St. Paul. And my only difficulty at the moment is the lack of time and secretarial help to get this literature ready for the world.
Nor do I have to go around complaining because of rejections by the “moral” people. The explanations of St. Paul’s teachings will either go to Rev. Lowell Ditzen of the Presbyterian Cathedral in Washington or to a wealthy man who wishes to publish my writings, or to both. The inspirations and state of consciousness during this work is far higher than anything anyone has ever reported under any class of psychedelics.
This all comes to the dramatic climax in the words of St. Paul: “We have the mind of Christ.” That is it.
My next theme, immediately after writing this letter is the preparation of disciples and my god-son to go on a world tour to take pictures of holy man and shrines and to incorporate than in projects started by me personally called “Dances of Universal Peace.” We have been very successful so far in raising funds, etc. Personally, I think a culture is mad if it can spend billions of dollars to fight what is called “Communism,” and yet extend cultural exchange and recognition to that “communism” and still ignore the very much greater non-communist culture of the world, especially those which are spiritual.
As soon as these young man have departed we shall he giving a series of dinners here. The first of which will be by those more or less connected with Jewish religions for Christians and Muslims, and then by local Arabs for Jews and Christians, your name will be placed with then so you can have proper knowledge and invitations and of course your may bring anybody you like to such affairs, only notify those who are preparing the meals.
Although all my projects in life are in some way connected with The Temple of Understanding in Washington, it was not I personally but the young people involved, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, who wish to keep in close contact with The Temple of Understanding. The only thing they are not asking from the Temple is money. My young people differ from all their elders in their faith that God will provide the funds for any worthy undertaking, and they feel they can do everything for and not beg from. The young people are sick and tired of the older generation crying and wailing and yelping, “It is more blessed to give than receive” while they are demanding funds. The young people, spiritual rather than religious, believe that the Living God will bless and assist all those working for “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
I personally am opposed to every form of Christianity which contradicts Jesus Christ and his teachings, but I also know that Jesus and God, or Jesus-God, have Love and Compassion, Consideration and Forgiveness, beyond my own capacity.
We are not asking anything from anybody but hope a few people will be interested in “Peace on Earth, Good will to Man.”
Love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
Holy Order of Mans
August 31, 1970
To: Dr. Samuel Lewis
From: Esoteric Council, Holy Order of Mans
Dear Dr. Sam:
This is to notify you that our next council meeting will be held this Friday, September 4, at 8:00 A.M. These usually end about noon, but vary according to business. This will be the regular time for council meetings in the future, and we will keep you informed on a weekly basis and let you know of any changes.
Yours in Christ,
Rev. William Canright
Aug. 31, 1970
Rabbi Irving Lehrman
First Vice-President
Synagogue Council of America
Temple Emanu-El
1701 Washington Avenue
Miami Beach, Florida 33139
My dear Rabbi Lehrman:
I must apologize if I start a letter off by assuming I have to convert you to your own prayers. The deepest prayers of all religions are Universal, and perhaps behind that universality, divine Truth. It may have looked like an audacious game when I pretended to be an incarnation of “Nathan-the-Wise” at Geneva. It is no longer a game, and to me it is a manifestation of yisagadol etc.
For years I have been working for peace in Palestine. Not the diabolical verbal peace with justice which every Hitler and Tamerlaine has pronounced. But that peace which is not different from the peace you pronounce in your own prayers. And evidently the Divine Being is with us, certainly from the events of the past week.
My disciples and friends have already successfully programmed joint Israeli Arab dinners. There were no “experts” or newsmen present. We have even been successful in getting young Jewish people to recite the Kalama and Arabs to recite the Shema! As I do not believe in any ethnocentric religion, and as I absolutely believe in Theo centrism (and I think Moses did too), I see no reason why we cannot put into practice, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” There are a lot of young Jewish people here, including Israelis, who have not entirely cast Moses into limbo. And there are some Arabs who prefer Mohammed to “Islam.”
Now these young audacious people, without even asking my approval or consent, have won, are winning, the respects of radio and television centers and others who may be able to control the nerves of the public.
I am absolutely tied up every minute, seven days in the week, with 90% of one’s affairs, including the financial aspects, favorable. I am not one of those who gives lectures on the merits of the young. I am one of those who lets the young express themselves. I even believe in spiritual evolution—that there are more advanced beings on earth. And I am standing by my philosophy by letting them speak for themselves, or even for the whole human race. In any event, I find that almost everything they are trying to do, or are doing, better that I could have done; sometimes better than I could have conceived.
Only three men ever listened to my plan for the Near East. One of them is a retired government official formerly connected with the American Friends of the Middle East. Another, a reclamation engineer connected with the University of California, my alma mater. The third: Gunnar Jarring. Well Gunner Jarring felt and expressed himself that I had the best program he had ever heard of; the American Friends of the Middle East, the Carnegie Foundation, the World Church Peace Union, and all the “good” people of the land dissented, and expressed their humanity and democracy by showing me the door. But there is a statement in the Bible; I hope you can accept the Bible. “The stone that is rejected is become the cornerstone.”
Today I received such a wonderful letter from Rabbi Ezra Spicehandler I am having it copied. It is possible, if it has not already happened, that one of my chief disciples may be now in Jerusalem calling on the Rabbi.
You see our “Dances of Universal Peace” are attracting attention. What started out as their filming grew into a national and now international project. It is noteworthy that the “Dances of Universal Peace” growing out of conversations between the late Ruth St. Denis and myself, are not only expanding but are even attracting money. They were rejected or ignored by most of the so-called peace societies and those groups pretending universal brotherhood, which did not dare send representatives to Geneva because in the end they are seeking only power and money, whatever their verbal claims.
I have not the time now to copy my plans, which were accepted by Gunner Jarring. The young Bob Kaufman, who worked his way all the way from Geneva to this city, was asked to copy my research noted, but he has to leave to go to New York. I am seeking somebody else to take over, and it is even possible we may get some financial support. But I am also putting up a thousand dollars of my own for a peace scholarship at the University of California in Berkeley and am jolting a few prominent citizens.
I have had three days off this year, and in the face of human suffering, often unnecessary, cannot enjoy what the world calls “enjoyment.” But despite my years both body and mind are in excellent fettle and perhaps God Himself it so.
I am asking you for nothing but interest in our projects.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
September 15, 1970
Rabbi Irving Lehrman
Temple Emanu-El
1701 Washington Ave.
Miami Beach, Fla. 33139
My dear Rabbi Lehrman:
One appreciates your letter of September 10. It may be fanciful, or it may be real, that God-Allah-Brahm seems to have shown favor on our efforts. Circumstances, both favorable and unfavorable, have increased the income very slowly, but very definitely every month since the conference at Geneva. Mansur and one other secretary now have good paying jobs arising out of our joint efforts.
The main joint-effort is that toward establishing real cultural exchange with real Asians; and second, peace in the Near East on totally different approaches. It may have been all right to have pretended to be an incarnation of “Nathan the Wise” at Geneva, but there is now in formation a Three Ring group, not the three rings of the circus but of Boccaccio and Lessing. It is entirely in the hands of young people who are successfully bringing together Israelis and Arabs and Christians.
In general my work is the haven of a lot of people who would have been called “Jews” by Hitler, who are of mixed heritage, or sometimes the scions of those of Semitic ancestry who became Christians. In any event, last night, we had an unusually large meeting in which three kinds of Hitlerian “Jews” mixed ancestry, non-attached, and Zionists, participated, listening to lectures on true mysticism, which is based on love and brotherhood and not on metaphysical speculations.
However, I did have one barb: I told one Israeli there was too much Torah and not enough Simohas. However I am a sort of un-heretic, for I still believe in Moses, if not in Judaism. In fact I have no economic or sociological theories at all, but God has certainly blessed my vine and fig tree this year, although the fact that I am a horticulturalist and soil scientist may have helped.
I not only have had a very beautiful letter from Rabbi Spicehandler, be most cordially greeted my representative, one Phillip Davenport. We have teams out taking motion pictures of holy places. Both these people, and those interested in the Three Rings approach to Palestine, are very much for the Temple of Understanding. If the next session can be in the United States we can easily send a full caravan.
I except to leave for the East coast shortly. I might even try to see Gunnar Jarring. He gave me four hours; “good people” previously would not even give me four minutes, but that is over, praise God, Allah, and Brahm.
(My plan for Palestine proposes psychological and cultural concessions by Israel, but not necessarily territorial surrender. AND more deliberate psychological and cultural surrender, and I mean surrender, by the United States. We have cultural exchange with Russia, and are spending billions of dollars to prevent other nations from having cultural exchange with Russia. We have no cultural exchange with the Arab world, which has given far more literature. And in the year 1959 the Arab world gave about 10 times as many contributions to scientific discovery as the Russian did. My own research.)
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
C/O Lonnie Less
27 West 71st St.
New York, N.Y.
October 11, 1970
Rabbi Louis I Newman
Temple Rodeph Sholom
7 West 83rd St.
New York, N.Y.
Dear Rabbi Newman:
The other day I re-contacted my old friend and schoolmaster, Jerome Bayer, born as I was in San Francisco and in the course of conversation he said you were still functioning here.
This morning I read the synopsis of one of your sermons as published in the New York Times.
Now in Saturday’s mail we received a letter with a clipping from the Oakland Tribune with a big headline: “Youths Promote Peace in Middle East.” The gist of the article is that a group of young people, following the theme of Boccaccio, which later developed into Lessing’s celebrated “Nathan the Wise,” have gone ahead and formed a group calling itself, “Hallelujah of the Three Rings.”
To their own amazement it seems that Arabs, Israelis, Jews (by birth) not in sympathy with Israel and Christians have all united in eating (first) then dancing and praying together.
It is quite possible that the youth of the day may workout “solutions” to many of our pressing problems but by methods and approaches, which their seniors (by age) can hardly conceive.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis