772 Clementina St.
San Francisco 3, Calif.
August 12, 1965
The Temple of Understanding
1420 New York Avenue, N. W.
Washington, D.C. 20005
Mrs. Hollister and Dear Ones:
An event has taken part in the private life which may in time become of significance to you and others. When we are ready to study the real Indian cosmic philosophy we shall know there is a semantic-psychological level of conscious functioning which can be translated into English as “Understanding.” The Sanskrit term is “Vijnana” or “Vijnanavada.” It is not necessary to go into detail. All religions actually teach it in some form, and the only point to bring up is that it is functional and more universally functional than we yet realize.
This was demonstrated in the former report of the meeting, and in a sense, instant recognition to, from and with Hon. Zafrullah Khan. And it was more quickly demonstrated recently at the Buddhist Conference which took place at Asilomar in Monterey County, California which was under the spiritual aegis of Bishop Shinsho Hanayama. He extends to you his greetings and blessings and was very happy over my personal interest also in “The Temple of Understanding.”
The Buddhist conference in essence ends a struggle of years that the Dharma be established in the United States. One religion may or may not be better than another. When we speak of “Judaism” we speak of Judaism; when we speak of “Christianity” we speak of Christianity. But until recently Buddhism involved in our minds not Lord Buddha, not the Buddhist scriptures, not these “five hundred million people” whom Dr. Malalasekera claims to represent—it involved in our minds one of several persons, generally Europeans or Englishmen, or a very astute Japanese linguist whose questionable translations have had to be revised by men who know more about real Buddhism (in any of its various forms) or about the languages in question—Chinese, Sanskrit, etc. It is not that these people—Europeans, Englishman and this Japan scholar have done any “wrong,” they have simply been questionable pioneers. We are passing from them into an ago which is studying Buddhism with the same honesty, the same sincerity as we study the Western religious and the Western sciences.
Prof. Richard Robinson of Wisconsin University has claimed that he ought to be recognized as the top authority on Buddhism in the United States. The metaphysical, the popular people and those with leadership complexes have challenged this claim holding it is based on egoism—it never occurs to them or others that their objections may be based not only on egoism but on ignorance also. Dr. Robinson has long since convinced the Americans who teach Asian subjects in our universities that he might well be the top authority on Buddhism; he has convinced a number of Orientals, and it is only those cultists who do not study Buddhism or Buddhist scriptures but who are permitted to function under our “freedom of religion” that hold out. It happens they have large followings and generally the questionable blessings of the press, radio and TV.
The American public, misled or pioneered by a number of dramatic personalities—none of whom recognize each other—has not only the most bizarre misconceptions of the Orient, it has resulted in a complete misunderstanding of those very lovable but unfortunate people, the Vietnamese. Prof. Robinson has been able to communicate with the Vietnamese also because of his functional ability in “Understanding” as above. If he has not convinced the press and TV he has convinced our university leaders and now also some of the men responsible for training the Peace Corps candidates.
From my point of view he not only knows more of Buddhism and a goodly chunk of what we call “Hinduism” than a lot of people, Europeans and Indians alike, who have their various culture throughout the country. It is not necessary to present any negatives but to know and recognize the power of the positive, especially when the positive is true and the true is positive.
At the lower (is it lower?) we came to a clear “understanding” of the Vietnamese. At the more important, a very clear picture of the “Vijnana” as well as of the “Prajna” Buddhism into which one need not go. As we come to understand the Orient through real communicators we shall come to both Understanding and Peace.
It was my function to introduce Master Seo, head of the Buddhist Churches of Korea, to Dr. Robinson. What may come out of this is indeterminate but a very close mutual bond was established. My own connections with Dr. Robinson are deep as his teacher was my close friend for years and the American rejection of this man has more to cause the turmoil in S.E. Asia than anything else. Americans love the fictional “Ugly American.” A lot of them, the late Prof. Burdick above all, have had nothing to do with those Americans who lived and worked in S.E. Asian and the more successful, the more shunned. It is only now at the tremendous cost of money and lives that someone like Prof. Robinson is recognized.
Just before the conference Master Seo initiated me as the equivalent of “Zen Master.” This has been written out in Chinese. At the request of another Buddhist teacher he gave the ceremonial ordination last Sunday and another scroll. This was recognized at once by the best real Japanese Zennist here, and by Chinese. But my next stop is not in accord with tradition—I am going to cooperate not with separate Zen groups here, I am going to cooperate with our good friend Bishop Hanayama.
When E.G. Browne (A Year Amongst the Persians) came to the tomb of Shah Nimatullah, the guardian said, “Among the Gnostics there is no differentiation in sects.” This is not too different from what is real in Emerson in the West or Rumi in the Near East.
There has been some discussion whether the spiritual experience of Sufis was or was not the same or different from the spiritual experience of the Far East.
This person was long ago initiated and ordained as a Sufi Murshid which is recognized in all parts of the Islamic world, but not by these American universities which have British instructors in Islam (this matter will be taken up shortly here). The rejection by those who have not the “Divine Wisdom” is, of course, of no account. These men in turn have been challenged by other recognized professors who have undergone the Sufic disciplines and had the resulting Sufic experiences.
It is very trite to say “God is One,” “Truth is Universal”; it is another thing to be recognized East and West by the spiritual leaders. This recognition has been universal in every country of Asia visited, and every Asian leader contacted. But it is one thing to be recognized as a truth-seeker and another thing to be validated as having, let us say, direct experience in cosmic fulfillment. One need not go into that here.
The Universe of Heart and the “Heart Sciences” are largely missing from our functional consciousness and there is a far cry from Dr. Sorokin’s excellent books to communing and communication with holy men and peasants where there are language barriers. But it can be done, has been done and God willing, the Temple of Understanding may demonstrate this.
Next week the first steps will be taken in a lawsuit to recover a large family legacy. Any settlement will leave the writer free to go anywhere on earth. All his affairs abroad have been prospering. It is only in America where unfortunately we hide behind false facades that there are frustrations. The diplomats meet and argue; the scientists and children communicate and harmonize. In the universe of God there are no enemies.
Love and blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
772 Clementina St.,
San Francisco 3, Calif.
July 19, 1966
Judith Hollister,
President, the Temple of Understanding,
661 Steamboat Road,
Greenwich, Conn.
Beloved One of God:
With the Newsletter of June before me one comes to what itself may become, and indeed is a great source of misunderstanding—the coining of phrases, aphorisms and mottoes—and the fulfillment by action.
At the moment one is preparing to give a lecture on “Vietnamese Buddhism.” This is to be a lecture on Vietnamese Buddhism and not on the foreign policy of the United States. It will be no more concerned with the politics and complexities of the situation than a lecture on the geology or fauna of the region. But unfortunately the reports of anthropologists and correspondents from the same places do not even agree on methods, not to say logistics and conclusions.
A life-long student of real religions of real people I have long known of the synthetic behavior pattern of Orientals as against the analytical pattern of Occidentals, especially Americans. For instance in the first course we had in Comparative Religion held in this city about 1920 we were told of the “Lotus Society” in China which synthesized the “Five Religions” of the region (we call them five): Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. We say (vide supra): “Test all things, hold fast to that which is good.” We say, the Chinese did and did not bother about saying. And this is the first characteristic also of the Vietnamese who have established selective or eclectic faiths not in conformity with our traditional sectarianism.
And this is mentioned because this Oriental tradition is quite in harmony with most of this “Newsletter” and the remarks of Hon. U Thant.
Indeed my introductory remarks will be largely on the differences between the analytical and synthetic or eclectic approaches. And our whole culture excepting a few universities have refused to examine this approach. So it is “Sarkhan” of Burdick and Lederer all over. And “Sarkhan” being the basis of our politics and policies, it is impossible to take sides between conflicting subjectivisms and one will therefore hold to the actual faiths of actual peoples.
The great thing about “The Temple of Understanding” is that it is being planned in the United States and may become a contribution to the World’s spiritual elevation, following no doubt in the abortive efforts of the Great Moghul Emperor, Akbar, but following without a doubt. And the fact that it is being planned itself will ultimately appeal to these people. While if we persist in analytical approaches we shall not, we cannot win the hearts of the Vietnamese and other Orientals.
In passing tests before real Zen teachers—Sogen Asahina in Japan and Seo Kyung Bo here, remarkably they said the same words: Christ and Buddha Are One. Of course this is true but the religionists don’t want it that way and the young do want it that way and the young are going to get it that way and are getting it that way and we are going to see a sort of “revolution” in which consideration of human beings supplants a hypothetic “compassion” or “karuna” which remains in oratory but not in daily life. That is over.
One need not go into the contents of The Encyclopedia of Buddhism. I can assure you—I repeat I can assure you, that the great majority of both institutions and persons recognized as “Buddhists” have only the vaguest connection therewith. Practically none of Lord Buddha’s teachings are offered in the most popular meeting houses of the important Buddhist groups. But the same is true for the religions of the day. It makes one agree here with the late Meher Baba who said, “I have come to abolish religion. I have come to abolish religion and bring God.”
I have no such attention but whatever the teachers are, the first obstacle one meets and these is no question that one’s very use of the word Dharma goes not too lightly with those who say Dhamma, etc.
It has been remarkable—why should it be remarkable at all?—that one has been given interviews by so many new professors on the campuses or through correspondence. This did not happen at all before. We are coming out of an era where Asiatica was taught (???) by important (?) graduates of British and European institutions. Some are still must important in this country and I can point with pride that all but one of them has given this person vetoes, a whole string of vetoes over the years. And what British and European professors of Asiatica have to do with the cultures and wisdoms of the Orient I have never been able to learn. Certainly they are not devotees either, and when a non-American, non-Asian, non-devotee is paraded as an expert, we can only see the operation of moral laws to human dissatisfaction.
The new type of professor is honest, impersonal scientific and objective. One meets more and more of them. In the field of Buddhism along there is now a grand effort to bring actual teachings and not empty ritual and endless speculation by self-important people. Oh, that will continue, but it is fading. Youth wants truth.
In my next letter I all send some extracts from the late L. Adams Beck who reached the heights despite of her biological backgrounds. One hears of many cases of spiritual awakening even among Western persons. But unless they lead in some particular direction (and so divide humanity) they are under-stressed. E pluribus unum.
Love and blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
772 Clementina St.
San Francisco 94103 Calif.
October 27, 1966
Mrs. Judith Hollister
Temple of Understanding,
Steamboat Road,
Greenwich, Conn.
My dear Judith:
I am very glad to have relations established with your office in Washington. The whole life has been devoted to the study of the depths of all religions, and now I am seeing come true what appears in one of my poems on “The dream of Akbar.”
There are some oddities in this life between being almost constantly rejected by Americans and equally accepted by Asians. On the other hand there have been the instructions in Love, Patience and Brotherhood and any resemblance between these words and the ordinary emotional use is coincidental.
I have been called for my memories by my present superior in the Dharma, Rev. Seo, who is now at Temple University in Philadelphia; and also by one PhD, Dr. Kelley here who teaches “The Philosophy of Religion.” He has already accepted my Kamakura experiences which are generally rejected—excepting by the actual Masters. We are so dedicated to names and intellect that we do not conceive the values of Love and Devotion.
I must tell you now even if it be off the record, that the recent deaths of Blythe and Daisetz Suzuki will do much to clarify the haze around what has passed for Zen Buddhism. The theory of Zen is that enlightenment matters, not doctrine.
But I am also seeing the Enlightenment occur right near here where a Christian has been able to take men from the gutter and transform them into saints in a short while. It is miraculous. Both Master Seo above and Roshi Asahina in Kamakura taught: “Christ and Buddha are One” and they meant this from the depths.
On the personal side I have had the doubtful “E. Phillips Oppenheim” career that whenever there is a crisis in Asia, my personality is involved. But if we want solutions these will come not by counter-personality efforts but by prayer, love and devotion; therefore I look upon The Temple of Understanding as the peace movement.
God bless you,
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
He Kwang, Zen-shi
772 Clementina St.
San Francisco 3, Calif.
January 13, 1967
Mrs. Dickermann Hollister
The Temple of Understanding
Greenwich. Conn.
My dear Judith:
And he shall turn the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi LV, 6.
Thus endeth the Hebrew Testament and some day, please God, it will be permissible to accept Scriptures.
There will be another meeting of “Society for the Scientific Study of Religion” in this region. The scientists study Religion, the clergy concentrate on pleasing their congregations and each other. And I am indeed sending copies of this to the Episcopalian Dioceses and also to Rev. James Pike because they are concerned with your efforts and I believe, most seriously.
When the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion met in Berkeley a few years ago, before the proceedings a most beautiful young woman sat next to me. She was a Sister (Nun). Soon we were laughing and chatting like two children. The mother Superior was astonished and eaves-dropped. She was even more astonished to find we were discussing the Crucifixion and Resurrection as realities in our lives. In the Sister’s case that was part of religion, in my case it means exclusion from “religion,” or rather from the church structures. And I am thankful that there are groups like the Scientific Study or Religion, and more, that take seriously cosmic experiences in man, through man.
I have arisen from the sick bed and had my fourth, in this life, experiences in Crucifixion and Resurrection. I was first astounded by the power and magnetism that came to the Voice and yesterday, despite my age, the ease with which heavy plants were carried in the Greenhouse. But while evidences are of concern to scientists, they are of even more concern to the young who take their fling at the Hippy Movement to seek the Divine Experience which is not only excluded by many churches, but one can often expect hostility and anything but the morals of Jesus Christ.
I am going to “resurrect” my poetry which long foretold the events of the day, and pretty exactly. The Hebrew poem, was, of course, rejected by the synagogues. Then one was directed to write a Christ-poem (1942). It portrayed the events of 1945-167 pretty exactly and, of course, was rejected by all the clergy who received copies. Each fears for his individual separated institution. They often do not conceive the integration and unitive outlooks which destroy nothing. But some are concerned with The Temple of Understanding and it is not only that one sends copies to Rev. Pike and the Cathedral here but one may send copies of the poetry to the Seminary of the Protestant Episcopalians in Berkeley where they have the cosmic outlook.
But whereas the rejected poems portrayed the events of the day pretty exactly I was able to reach Mrs. McTaggart, Director of the World Federalists in this city and give her a blow-by-blow account, because I had full information from the UN officials who had to patrol the Gaza strip. From the scientific point of view this is the most valid form of information, but from the Madison-Avenue dominant structure, Scribes-Pharisees structure called “civilization” this is the worst source of material for “channels of communication.”
Our present culture would rather die than by honest. Only it cannot compete with its rivals in dishonesty. Point by point the enemies of the United States are separately sitting on teachings of Marx and Lenin on one side and of Prophet Mohammed on the other. We could do nothing because we have long ago surrendered to the dialectical approach—that is, one portion of our culture has. The scientists have not. They want “truth” even if means just plain, simple facts. This “truth” may or may not be “exiting” and in the end it will win. The triumph of “science” over “religion” has nothing to do with science and religion but with objectivity over subjectivity and with pragmatism (which we have destroyed) over dialectics.
During this period I had the personal satisfaction of winning over one of the real Muslims in the United States. This has nothing whatsoever to do with what passes for “Islamic Culture” in our universities, which is in the hands of non-American, non-Muslims, dominated by a wealthy Englishman who, through financial contribution heads the “research” at Harvard university and, although neither American nor Muslim, dominates the degrees and teachings in this land and almost “only in America.” We have never given the Arabs the opportunity to present their culture and sometimes, in our efforts at quasi-fairness we have therefore restricted Jewish culture—but the non-America, non-Asians are still in the saddle.
So we see now that the Peace Corps is leaving more lessons, a sorrow lot for a group that was considered infallible to begin with. We have, Judith, three kinds of Love in our structure; Madison-Ave.-Love (?) which is all dominating; Hippy-Love which is a revolt against Madison-Ave.-Love and Christ-Love which still holds in certain hearts but not enough in lips.
The continued policy of listening to everybody and anybody but eye-witnesses (vide “Sarkhan”) is going to keep our country, and the world, in ignorance and confusion. I have therefore addressed myself to the President of India. The Indians never accepted the “Only in America” policy of having Germans control the chairs of “Oriental Philosophy” in this land and gradually the Germans are being displaced and replaced by Americans and Indians who work together. This is as it should be. But in the Near East?????
One can only call attention to the names of those Muslims who have acceded to The Temple of Understanding and compare them with the list of “professors” of “Islamic” culture in this land.
Beginning with the late Henry Atkinson in 1928 I have devoted all my life to the subject of “peace through religion” and hope, some day, please God, to get to the ears of a few clergymen, any faiths. Locally the Muslim leader is no different from his Hebrew and Christian colleagues. Anything but the “truth, whether eye-witness of heart-witness.
All religion, we are taught by Anthropologists, veers between Ritual and Vision. The Holy Book may say, and we love to repeat Scriptures, “the people without vision perish,” but we are not going to the Vision, yet. Everyone has to have its own separative Ritual or else?
The Hippies start out with Vision. They find, however, the Vision is limited, they want the unlimited Vision which Tim Leary and Alan Ginsberg cannot give them. Leary does not know but Alan knows there is also an Unlimited Vision. All the Hippies accepted Prof. Huston Smith at MIT and I have no more trouble with Huston than with you—the heart and ears are open—both ways. This is not, of course, present day “religion” but I believe it will be the religion of the future. I do not know any scripture which does not proclaim Hearing, I know of practically no religious institution today which does.
The doors of India being the widest open (vide Walt Whitman), these can be used as a prop. My next step is the Arab Leader here who had to take refuge from the mob. As in politics there are no major premises and only series of emotions backed by pseudo-logic, one takes Refuge in the Refuge which ultimately means so far as I am concerned Divinity as exemplified by The Temple of Understanding.
Going to the scientist and industrialists I have been as successful in promoting my Project: The Garden of Allah as stymied by the press, foreign office, churches and “sociologists.” I shall continue. It is possible to unite people through heart—and practical efforts. science will win over “religion” simply because scientists have ears and religieuses do not. But Science will have to recognize the Universal God and here I find even my friend, Mrs. Ruth Fuller Sasaki is not so far, let us say, from His Holiness the Pope.
I have written about Princess Poon Diskul, President of the World Buddhist Federation. She challenged me to a debate and I thought I had lost. She then said—something “experts” never, never do: “Now let me hear your point of view.” I expressed about the same view as The Temple of Understanding. She said: “No more debate. That is my point of view also.”
Love and blessings.
Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
April 22, 1968
The Temple of Understanding. Inc.
1826 R. St., NW
Washington D.C. 20009
Beloved Ones of God:
A few days ago I received a beautiful letter from your Mr. Dunne. To me in an ego sense it is very ingratiating that a person accepts the objective experiences and objective reports from let us say, an unknown. This is the curse of our land, that ideas, suggestions, etc, must come from prominent people and at the same time we verbally insist on democracy and then go out and fight for it. This has produced dismay in so many lands, among so many people.
There is one name omitted from the list submitted and that is Lama Anagarika Govinda. It was presumed that he was coming to the United States next month (May). Now we are told he will not come until September. And I am glad arrangements are being made so that he will not become a show-piece.
But the home of the Lama is in Darjeeling itself and presumably arrangements can be made for his attending any preliminaries, if not the conference itself.
We are also going to have Dr. Huston Smith coming here who is a prominent authority on many religions and is one of the few actual universal men—many use this term but hardly demonstrate it.
At the time I met Dr. Smith my slogan was “Joy without Drugs.” This slogan has now drawn a constant growing stream of young people—the old and self-satisfied never come for which one is grateful. It also includes some of Huston Smith’s top pupils.
This stream includes some young people who have achieved success or wealth and I am hoping to prepare a disciple to act for me this Fall. I have proposed she make a survey for spiritual woman while in India. This will include both Judith and one Julie Medlock, perhaps the worst treated of all the “Sarkhanians,” to adopt a term from the late Prof. Burdick. I believe with my whole heart that mankind will be meeting with mankind beyond any boundaries, narrow or otherwise, and the young are demonstrating it
God bless you,
Samuel L. Lewis
[To Temple of Understanding? Page 1 is missing]
Dr. Ryder was for years the Department of Asian Studies on the Berkeley campus. If I received a free meal from Armenians. I received an abject apology in India from savants. I challenged their whole educational system on the point of their ignorance of their own folk-lore and offered them every cent I had if they could point out a single problem of the day which did not have its solution in “Pancha Tantra” or correlative literature. And I regret to say—although it is natural—that there are instructors on the Berkeley campus that know very little of their predecessors, and so there is not always a continuum where such continuum would be very valuable.
This is mentioned because I have failed to find even in the greatest of enthusiasts a full appreciation of achievements first of the Berkeley Campus and then of the whole Multiversity structure. And this may give you some ideas for your broadcast. This becomes more important to some of us because the University has been brought into the wrong arenas of public discussion—discussion yes, but the arenas should be selected, as in dueling, by the challenged!
Asian Affairs. It is mentioned above that I have been a guest of honor here, there and there. The list is as long as it has been unheralded. When a book on “History of Thailand” was published, the official historian was Prof. David Wilson of UCLA and he included a chapter on “Problems.” I wrote him that every problem mentioned in the book had been met, even solved by colleagues on their campuses. He sent for me, I named the people and place and this has lead into a great complex which concerns both international affairs and my own will, leaving manuscripts to UCLA which are even now of great value (only recently the possibilities of their being published).
Personal Affairs have improved greatly and give signs of improving more. Publishers have accepted these manuscripts, largely of great real Zen and Ch’an Masters, etc., etc. Only there has had been no secretariat. I am glad to say his has now been provided.
Food Problems of Asia. Lord Snow’s “The Two Cultures” seem to hold and I have long advocated the “grill systems” where professors of dinner subjects a covering the same area, meet occasionally and exchange, knowledge.
There was a great conference on this subject at UCSF a few years back and I was appalled at the lack of knowledge by some of the Multiversity’s greatest representatives of achievements of lesser lights on the various campuses. But nobody is to be blamed. It takes six months to two years to get out brochures and the only “solution” would be to have more inter-campus exchanges.
As I personally am enjoying being a perpetual enrollee at the U.C. Extension and will appear on the Berkeley campus only in this connection, the possibilities for my resumption of inter-campus hopping are small. But I think it should be done.
Asian Understanding. Recently I was summoned to present suggestions of personalities which might result in better understandings with Asian peoples. I am not going to say more of the self, but after meeting Prof. Orr at UCLA, at the end of a long string of very successful interviews with scientists from the various computers who had been in Asia, the whole program has been too vast. Prof. Orr has been in charge of the Mekong River Development, and he is not the only UC man to be called into a position of importance. But he did ask me not to advertise it at that time.
Food Problems of Asia. More U.C. men have been involved in high level operations than we realize and I have agreed with the staff at Alumni House to keep a very careful record next time I go abroad, of all the alumni who are functioning and often at the highest levels.
Frank Tedesco above has had an interview with Prof. Brynner of the Department of Near East Languages and there is a possibility of his being sent on scholarship to either the American University at Beirut or that at Cairo. (I have visited each of these.) If this goes through I hope to have him properly briefed to contact Alumni members especially in U.A.R. Therefore copy of this goes to Prof. Paul Keim in Engineering.
In other words I have two areas of contact, one an interest in promoting Folk-Lore research and the other in promoting the status and stature of the University of California, in both a particular and universal sense.
Local Folk Lore. I shall not be enrolled in the Summer session; going to Seattle, to the University of Washington and to Vancouver, B.C. to stay with an aged uncle. His father, my grandfather, played an important part in the history of California. He was full of folk stories and unbelieved. After his death I verified everything. Now I shall try to get materiel from my uncle who is about 90, maybe more and in good mental health and will be glad to take notes and reports to you in full.
Faithfully
Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif.
July 13, 1968
The Temple of Understanding
1826 R St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20009
Beloved Ones of God,
This is like a book of myths and it will become a “myth” in the real sense. For no other purpose was I born, and for no other purposes do I live and die. And now the wheel-of-the-law turns, and even the “good karma” operates and this is written with as much joy and optimism as one has ever had.
It is significant that the scrolls should arrive just as I was giving instructions to Dara. Dara received this name on account of the Moghul Prince martyr, Dara Shikoh. And it is going to compel real humility upon all the pretenders and charlatans of “universal religion” who worship with nobody. At least this person has worshipped in temple and church, in synagogue and shrine and has taught from the podiums and rostrums of each, a requirement not demanded from the intellectuals and poseurs who have long led and misled the public. It is not necessary to remind them that there is a moral law.
Dara’s principles and associates are very wealthy. He and another disciple, Sheila, have been prepared to go to India first for The Temple of Understanding and then to see the by-passed by all “good universal religionists” of President Zukair Hussein; then to call on Julie Medlock, bringing with them such things as she wants. And despite all the “experts” most fortunately one of the top collectors of customs is a friend of mine, etc., etc.
It was Mr. Paul Reps who first requested me to contact Judith who presented the idea of a school for spiritual teachers of all faiths, actually, not poseur and PhDists to whom God is an after-thought if a thought at all. And I ran around and saying, “Unless the Lord buildeth the house they labor in vain who build. But if the Lord do build….”
Then Sam went to the place and gave the spiritual dedication. Then Sufi Pir Vilayat Khan offered his services and dedicated International School of Meditation which is not based on privileged me-s and thee-s but on the actual schools of Meditation. I believe Reps, Pir Vilayat and myself have been initiated into every school of Meditation, and now the good Lord is providing the means, praise to Him and these means will not necessarily be accessible to the intellectuals who put mind above God, and who insist, despite Lord Krishna, on manas and ahankara. That day is done.
The Three Wise Men of the West are millionaires and wish to devote their loves and assets to spiritual causes. Unlike the “free speech” people Sam was permitted the floor and his spiritual credentials were accepted as they are not by the “moral and spiritual” verbalists.
It has taken forty years to have Vilayat meet this person face to face and he found more love, spirituality and brotherhood than he found anywhere else. The New Race, predicted by Sri Aurobindo, but not yet accepted by the followers of Sri Aurobindo, is here. They are all for The Temple of Understanding and with hearts, minds, members and money, God willing we are on our way.
I immediately took Dara to have one scroll framed and it shall go on the wall here, here where spiritual teacher after spiritual teacher will come. For no sooner had Vilayat Khan gone then Grand master Seo came, and today my closest friend has gone off to meet Roshi Soen Nakagawa the great Zen Master (who also accepts the credentials of this person). All this in line with reports from and about dr. Radhakrishnan, etc.
We are losing no time excepting that Pir Vilayat rather suggested they take a different route from that proposed by your good selves. But still I should like copy of it. These people at least have the monetary assets. They have already started on this trail.
Fortunately I am able to put into practice what other schools do not: teacher and pupil are one, a fundamental of Sufism and a point of departure from many other schools. We practice this oneness, first introduced by the great Zen master Shaku Soyen whose records I personally have.
I wish to get these people of as soon as possible—naturally there will be delays. But I want them to be assured of accommodations at Darjeeling, etc.
In the meanwhile Lama Anagarika Govinda is coming—date uncertain. And I am also awaiting, as advised before, Dr. Huston Smith of MIT, the one outstanding scholar who has accepted the reports of this person. It is new age, an age without pretense, and age of Heart, and age of Love.
On Christmas day we merged into Lord Jesus and when Sufi Vilayat was here into Lord Krishna. Some day we shall accept the spiritual teachings objectively and impersonally and that will mean the end of wars and this nonsensical “excitement” which rules and ruins.
I am not here to talk, but to do; not to promise, but to act. I have so far not asked for any material help for this ego, but first God, for God in the form of The Temple of Understanding.
Dara and I also called at the office of retired Bishop Hanayama. He is in Japan. As soon as he returns I hope to see him on this matter.
With all Love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif.
December 23, 1968
P. Dunne, Jr.
The Temple of Understanding
1826 R St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20009
My dear Peter:
On the eve of a very important spiritual holiday your gracious latter of the 18th is being answered. I also take this opportunity to move in a new direction to bring the real religions of the real world together and in this it would appear that there is the good egocentric dialectics, excellent in their day but no longer part of general culture.
I understand you have not been well. My missions and duties require attention to disciples who are unwell and some others. We just had an occasion to listening to another pompous big man who is paraded as a Superman and was excused by his entourage for being too weak to meet thus. This is an old game. The “Bigs are always privileged and the “Littles” are always blamed. And it was with some delight I heard a Christmas Message from an outcaste Christmas, “The last shall be first and the first shall he last,” something which dialectical metaphysicians reject even more than the Orthodox.
I am taking this opportunity to make a carbon for our good friend, Swami Ranganathananda. I suppose I have my private reasons for recognizing or regarding him as a superman. For he and his colleagues operate both as the first and last and their very manifest activities as the last will ultimately put to shame the real or pretending leaders of the day who are totally unable to wash poor peasant’s feet or clean outhouses. (I am talking actually and not symbolically. The metaphysical people only speak symbolically, They are unfit to do outcaste’s work.)
We heard Dara Howell’s reports and it will be taken seriously by the young. We are doing, not prating. The young here are organizing and not always destructively. You hear about campus revolts (mostly fomented by older outsiders) but you do not hear of the constructive work of the young. They now have some very successful constructive publications and we hope to get the editors to take seriously—and I mean seriously—both The Temple of Understanding and Auroville. Elders will walk and young will do; elders will plead for others, always others to make sacrifices; the young will “do it themselves.” This is an element of the “generation gap” never reported.
I have just been rather successful in getting a leader of one of the quasi-metaphysical groups adept at praising, poor in doing, to recognize that there is nothing particularly noble in editorials and sermons. This is a hard job. The “big” people must lead even if they have no followers. With them the first shall be first and the last last.
In my early days as a Sufi and as a scholar of all the real religions of the real world I was included in all conferences dealing with universality. As I grew in knowledge and what should be called “wisdom” I became excluded. Our good friend, Dr. Huston Smith was willing to accept that this person has solved koa-ans (in which he failed), but in the public meetings it seems that famous persons who have never submitted to real Zen disciplines are always called upon to speak. This took a climax when The Humanist had three very famous professors write on Zen which obviously none had really “studied” and the editor accepted my quite objective response based on facts, experience and data, such as one uses in the scientific field. Among the dialecticians and metaphysicians this is always call bombast and egotism and one is rejected because of bombast and eroticism.
You can understand why it is necessary to appeal to the young not to follow their elders who base all their efforts on dialectics and so seldom on “The Meaning of God in Human Experience.” There are more Sufi devotees than all other mystics combined but this does not work in with the schemes of so many private individuals each appealing for funds to support their very exclusive “universal religion.” And it is these private “universal religions” which stand today as road-blocks to The Temple of Understanding. I do not know any advocate of so-called “universal religion” who has worshiped in the edifices of the faiths he claims or they claim to follow and this person has not only worshipped but pulpitted.
The Dances of Universal Peace are progressing so rapidly that it may be necessary for one to come to Washington some time. The successor in this field of the late Ruth St. Denis (ignored by almost every organization dedicated to “universal religion.” One is turning out both Dervish (based on objective elements) Dances and Yoga dances (based on art-forms and spiritual experience), and has now a whole group of symbolic and Tantric forms. They will be given to the young. They are being accepted by the young and more and more.
Your letter will be read Novato. We expect not only Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj, but also Pir Vilayat Khan. We are doing.
The Humanist which does not make verbal claims is accepting my objective work in Zen. Real Zen. Last night I sent to Novato the ceramics used in the Tea Ceremony by the late Nyogen Senzaki. There is a whole history here, too. The Humanists do not make claims and include; the various “universal religion” groups make claims and exclude. No one has permitted anything on Emperor Akbar—this shows the very low “moral and spiritual outlook” of those making verbal claims.
The years ends tomorrow night when we shall celebrate Christ (not Christmas) by a Darshan or whatever name we may call it with a manifest experience of transmutation if not transfiguration. The Sufis practices fana, self-effacement and in the state of fana-fi-Rassoul, effaces himself and actually effaces himself in the divine ideal. Beginning with Mohammed one is now the instrument for Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Buddha, Moses and Jesus as well. The great Ramakrishna could see “God” better than he could see his fellow-man. This one has not reached that stage but he is able to practice and demonstrate self-effacement and bring blessings.
While “superman” has the privilege of becoming fatigued, this man gives practices to his disciples to overcome weaknesses, not dualistic sermons; even leas dualistic sermons called “Advaitic” but calling on the Names of God in such a way as to bring the Attribute of God needed to help the suffering disciple or non-disciple overcome the immediate cause of anguish of pain. This is done, it is not preached.
In these cases of fana and Darshan one becomes the living instrument of the divine qualities which manifested in each of these Perfect Men, maybe only momentarily but really real. So one has been writing “When the Gods arrive, the half-gods go.” One welcomes the dialecticians and metaphysicians but the corresponding practice is not observed. Now the young know it.
A very simple example is this:
Stand as the Five Pointed Star. This represents the Birth of Christ, the Star of Bethlehem.
Stand as the Cross. This represents the Crucifixion. Then the devotee makes an almost gymnastic dance step: “Christ is born and Christ is risen.”
We have a whole gamut of Dervish and Yoga dancing; ceremonials of several traditional religions and a lot more and more coming, God willing. This is all inclusive from above, and with the youth all inclusive from below. Some of these will be performed for Pir Vilayat Khan (all if he wishes), some for Swamiji (all if he wishes), but it means an open conflict with people whom I should like to have as friends. So far they will have none of these things, and they even ignore the historicity of Emperor Akbar and Prince Dara Shikoh.
With the Darshan there is the actual outpouring of Love, Magnetism, Healing Power, Tenderness, Compassion, Strength, and Atmosphere. This is my Bethlehem and I am hoping others will join in benefiting from its blessings.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Rev. He Kwang
410 Precita
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
February 8, 1969
The Temple of Understanding
1826 R Street NW
Washington D.C. 20009
Attention: Finley Dunne Jr.
My dear Peter:
There has been no news from you this year. Personally I am not troubled. There is certainly here in California a New Age, in which honesty, objectivity and facts are far more important than the personal prestige of the speaker. Indeed, it is on this point, and perhaps on no other, that the so-called “generation gap” is founded.
Saturday mornings I am attending a class on the influence of the traditional religions of Asia on modern political movements. Dr. Noronha, who opened up the seminar, is the first professor who has come out with the historicity of Emperor Akbar. The various Englishmen, Germans, their American successors and prejudiced Indians have kept us in total ignorance of so much of the real history of the real Indian and the real Orient that it is appalling, but the New Are is here.
The instructor this morning will be Dr. Nottingham from Long Island. I have long admired her from distance. I was as much delighted with her as with my good friend Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj, and this is saying a lot, an awful lot. Indeed, she is using “Lotus in a Sea of Fire,” for Vietnam. This is the first time practically; we shall have the opportunity to listen to an American professor who listens to Asians for information and knowledge. This is not a step; it is the indirection, not right direction. I am so pleased over this after a life battling that I am going forward to the young with glorious optimism and have been received by the young with glorious response.
My dervish dancing, dedicated to The Temple of Understanding is beginning to receive public response. Indeed last night, for the first time, I not only presented dervish dances but a Hare Krishna dance.
I am having my chief secretary, Mansur Otis Johnson, going over previous notes on “Spiritual Architecture.” I am not worried about form. The day has at last come when mystics are being permitted to speak on mysticism and Gnostics are no longer barred from public platforms.
My classes in Sufism and Dharma are definitely reaching more people. The class in Christian mysticism, based on the bible and not on book reviews, is not only growing in attendance, but one finds in the audience an increasing number of young people who have had real Christ experiences. There is also an overtone here that I may be asked to speak soon at one the most important theological seminaries in this area.
Tomorrow I expect to have a Jewish Sunday school class listen to a talk on Sufism. I am not worried about that. I am worried whether they will accept the validity of their own prayers.
At this writing both the so-called synagogue and the so-called mosque are so overlaid with politics, I prefer humanists and skeptics. While it seems that most of the world accept the word “God” as gimmick, to a Sufi this is not a reality, this is the reality.
I am also working on a manuscript “Introduction to Spiritual Development in the New Age.” It accepts Bulwer Lytton, Marie Corelli, H.G. Wells. Sri Aurobindo, the Roadha-somis etc. etc. The mystic has a universal view, which is all-inclusive and not just selective.
Sooner or later I hope to see the fulfillment: My house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples.
Love and blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
Temple of Understanding
1826 R Street NW
Wash. DC 20009
Feb. 13, 1969
Dear Friend Sam:
It is after hours. The young women who do all the work around here have departed, and I have a few minutes to kill before starting for home myself. What a chance, says I, to dash off a few words to Br’er Lewis, who is so faithful and interesting a correspondent. I probably won’t finish this tonight, but it will be waiting for me in my typewriter tomorrow morning. You may, ‘tis true, see me in two moods in one letter, but I should think that would seem perfectly normal to any real devotee of Zen, not to mention Sufism. The pluralism of life is not only around us on every side, it is in us. Each of us is part Jekyll and part Hyde, a Yin and a Yang, angel and devil and often many-faced like so many of the Gods.
If we would only recognize that we are plural within ourselves, we would be less troubled by what is called the generation gap nowadays. The gap is not really between people under/over thirty. The gap is between our hopes and promises and what we have been able to achieve. It is between our morality and our performance. For instance, our moral tradition tells us to be kind, but daily living often forces us to be cruel or at least thoughtless. Morality says we ought to serve mankind; life insists that we make money, and does not ask how much service we have given in the process. (I hasten to insert here that I have never made very much, but it has been more a matter of not caring than any revulsion against the $$). So our children look at us and cry out that we are hypocrites, preaching one set of values, and pursuing quite another. Hypocrisy seems to them the worst of evils. They shout that we ought to “tell it like it is.” But when it comes down to deciding what is, they don’t know any more than we do, and as for being true to their morality, they are not doing any better in that area than we do. Look at them any day, preaching love and practicing violent cruelty. What they need most is the same thing all the rest of us need: an understanding of their own inner dichotomy, and of the fact that their supposed sincerity and commitment is just the same as ours, no better and no worse, because to be split between opposing forces of good and evil, of kindness and cruelty, of courage and cowardice, of beauty and ugliness, is precisely the human condition.
Now it is another day, dawning bright, windy and cold, which is just like me except that I am not cold. The argument above still seems valid. The great mistake some young people are making today—the ones at least who are getting the most publicity—is in assuming that they know better than their elders. This assumption is mistaken and arrogant, and really demonstrates nothing except their immaturity. Their arrogance shows itself most markedly in their apparent willingness to subvert the carefully constructed processes of democracy, the rules, imperfect as all rules are bound to be, which make it possible for issues, needs and demands to be rationally discussed among equals in a free society. It is true that at times those in the seats of power have used these rules to head off reforms that were needed. This does not mean that the system is wrong, it means that human beings are wrong; every generation should charge itself with the duty of mending the moral bases of conduct so that the system will not be too grossly misused. The mistake is to assume that the system we call democracy is what is at fault. Some of them would replace it by the only real alternative, which is some form of non-freedom. Perhaps they think that if, under democracy, people are wicked, they would be less wicked in a communist or socialist state. This is simply not so, as a glance at Russia should demonstrate to everyone’s satisfaction.
What is needed is less rebellion for its own sake, and more efforts to change the wickedness of people, by means that have a reasonable chance of succeeding. You cannot change people by imprisoning deans, shouting unacceptable words childishly or befuddling your mind and poisoning your body with drugs. The real solution is in the area of love. We need to recapture the joy of religion, the humility and human kindness that come from self-knowledge in communion with the Infinite. We saw this in a striking way in Calcutta. I enclose a message that embodies some of that feeling.
Let me hear from you one of these days. I want very much to know what you are doing, where your yoga is taking you. Also, what is happening to the Novato people. The last I heard, they were being carted off to the dungeons as narcotics law violators—how sad!
Best regards
Peter Dunne
PS. This is not quite fully responsive to your good letter of Dec. 23. In that, you remarked that elders talk and young do. What do they do? Protest against wrongs? OK, I’m for that, up to a point, and the point is when they offer something better. It must be better, not merely different. The idea that blacks should study Swahili, for example, when what they need, for heaven’s sake, is to learn English!
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif.
February 17, 1969
Finley P. Dunne Jr.
Temple of Understanding,
1826 B. St., N. W.
Washington, D. C.
My dear Peter:
Your letter of the 13th has just arrived and along with it other mail. The complete break in the last few days shows to me that there is a definite trend in the universe. Finding myself speak in rapid suggestions to the young Hippies, finding Dr. Nottingham thoroughly honest end objective regarding the conditions in Buddhists countries today, being invited by Vietnamese to speak on Zen, and having my name mentioned in Playboy, coming in on an already full program means the cancellation of some speaking dates this week and of others next week. There is no time to breathe but there are few real obstacles contrasted with the life of the past.
Although not mentioned in Playboy, the death of Meher Baba and the withdrawal of Krishnamurti from this scene may open more doors. I am particularly interested in the news from Paul Reps who tells me the rise of Joy movements. As we do not study Buddhism, excepting superficially, we do not realize the importance of Joy in this religion. Among the books which we do not study are “Psalms of the Early Buddhist Monks and Nuns.” The theme is Joy. And in my talks before the young Christians the theme is Joy. And they are getting Joy (the beatitudes) and not so much “sin” which has been ground into them through the centuries.
All my themes are in the Scriptures, most definitely so and the basic theme, “Joy without Dugs” is attracting the young—the old know too much. They judge by externals.
Actually it is not a generation gap at all. It is a gap between the manusha and gandharva written in our terms which do not fulfill the situation at all. In class the other day I said Americans are completely unable to listen to Asians. In the discussion which followed the young in the class said that American are completely unable to listen. Of course there is a kind of generation gap here, of a different kind. And my work now is to show the difference between manusha and gandharva, of the mental state and super-mental state (Sri Aurobindo) and of the intellectual end the Jinn-genius (Hazrat Inayat Khan.) But as the intellectuals control the culture, we find the gandharvas among the young protesting.
I wish to make it clear that I have been an eye-witness of a number of the so-called “campus revolts.” The press, the TV, the publications, never interview students, do not tell what is going on in the classrooms, in the laboratories, in the studios. There are few campus revolts actually. I was in a campus revolt once at San Francisco State. It never got into the press. It was not led by dissident non-students, there were no outsiders, no news reporters, nothing. We won. We wanted equal rights for the Negroes and they got the equal rights and it was hush-hushed. Now they want special privileges and there are professional agitators. They telephone the press, the TV and radio and do their stunts. They are not campus revolts at all.
The other day when I tried to tell an audience that all the “demands” of the Negroes (led by off-campus persons) have already been met, that these courses are given at UCSB and UCLA, the whole audience, “liberals” and “conservatives” joined in ignoring it. None of the emotional people want facts. I have just had a sort of acknowledgment from Time on another issue to the same point; facts are not wanted, just explanations of why there is disturbance, and it is the people outside who are being disturbed. I am still enrolled at the University.
The difference is that Sam Lewis is doing, all the time. Love is neither doting or being negative; it is wise guidance. This morning we went over my pictures. Some pictures are of places where no outsider has ever gone, such as before the ashes of Lord Buddha in Japan; on top of the real sacred mountain, etc. I did not take pictures when I was guest at the Imperial Palace either in Japan or Thailand but the “important people” said I was lying and they were believed.
In watching the Negroes (off the campus) and Dr. Hayakawa (on the campus) on television one could see all were below what the Hindus call “manusha”; all showed the sub-human level, no calmness, no consideration. Dr. Hayakawa is an atheist and apse facto he rejected all reference to any religious persons whomsoever. He published articles on what he called “Zen” writer by Alan Watts end the late Aldous Huxley. Then he broke with these men on the question of psychedelics, a priori rejecting, which is his wont.
Now as to the actual young. Please. If you sew the TV programs before S.F. State you would have recognized that it was not the young people that lead them. Twice men told me they were going to the campus and start trouble; both told me they were leaders of the social revolutionary problem end both got on TV. How many actual students have been on TV? And during the Berkeley revolt a few year s back, not a single member of the Student Body was ever on the air or in the press, and the only professors those in revolt.
I have humorously suggested leading a delegation of Jewish students to Howard demanding courses in Yiddish, and that they should make Sammy Davis a PhD.
The Upanishads teach that each grade of evolution shows a stupendous increase in the capacity for Joy. We not only give the text, we give the techniques. My spiritual poetry, rejected in the past, is being read before the young. They swallow it big and want more. I got tired with rejection slips. One poem, “The Rejected Avatar” has been published. If you want copies of my rejected poetry—all epics, you would find the penetration into the deepest recesses of the cosmos, and nearly all the predictions coming true.
Alan Watts called me publicly and privately a liar and was believed. When I came to Kyoto, Mrs. Sasaki asked my companion: “How did you find me?” He said to her, “He (pointing to me) find me.” My dear Zen brother had seen the Prajna in operation, not talkie talk. Then she said, “What did Sokei-an teach you?”
“I cannot tell you. Nothing secret. Nothing esoteric. Nothing like that but if I began talking I doubt if I could stop in ten thousand years, actually. I will tell you one thing. After each lecture he permitted six and only six questions. In answer to a single question I saw the rise and fall of Mussolini and Hitler, the Second World War, the peace that followed; just from the answer to a single question. How can I tell you all the answers to all the questions in one night? And does this tell of what he imparted in either his lectures or mediations? All I know is that when I left him I understood all the scriptures of the world.”
“I believe you.”
Well some of these things are still on record and I think I’ll have my Jewish epic sent you and then the Christian one. This for a start. I am not dwelling in a remote portion of the universe, but neither am I stuck with the subjectivities we call “realism.” The revolts could be stopped overnight by the simple device of not putting them in the papers and TV. We want excitement, nothing but excitement. Ideas are not wanted. Sarcastically I say that years ago only a million dollars cold make suggestions; now only a million votes.
Now as to Novato. Sheila McKendrick and Don McCoy are receiving their fruits. Both are in trouble, constant trouble. With Dara Buzz Rowell, it is the opposite. He has gone to Ohio. He has had the illumination experience and so telephoned me. He is beginning to understand through Samma Drishthi.
This week I must stay in San Francisco but next week more in Marin. I expect to give another Darshan. In the Playboy article the writer, otherwise the usually sophisticated newsboy outlook, says Sam put on a look like the Buddha at Gumps. I cannot see myself but I know how one feels.
I am teaching the Walks of the Messengers of God. Some are very difficult. They inculcate the same virtues. Last night the walks of Avalokita and Kwan Yin. And it produced those qualities—Mercy end Compassion. Tonight I do this by Bismillah Er-Rahman Er-Rahim.
Also by the Sufi methods, quoting the desired Name of Allah we awaken those virtues. The young respond; how they respond. Their elders sneer and refuse to come. What can one do? One does, and it may be “freely give, freely receive”.
Daisetz Suzuki and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan both proclaimed the supremacy of Prajna. But the former showed no signs of having and the latter all signs. It means the immediate grasping of a situation in its fullness with cause, movement and effect together, and the seeing of every event as a cosmos and every cosmos as an event. It pierces time and space and conditioned existence. In “The Day of the Lord Cometh” you have deep kabbalistic explanation, drawn from the Sepher Ha-Zohar and not from commentaries, mostly from non-Jews, and entirely from people who do not know the Kabbalah at its depths.
To help Novato God came to my assistance in finding I had a copy of some of my “prophetic” research. All my writings were seized from me by “good” and “important” persons who kept most of them until a few years ago. I was a social outcaste in every way and they, the “good” people tried to destroy me. At the darkest moment my father, for the first time in my life, came to my assistance and it has all been uphill since.
Or, as I “insulted” some of my friends who asked me to send them some money so I could meet the great ones of the word: “You are asking a mean who has been guest of honor at the Imperial Palaces of Japan and Thailand and had tea in the Presidential mansions of Pakistan and India to send you money; what for?”
It took me five days to become a guest of honor in UAR. Six days in Japan. The Japanese government sent me a Rolls, the Egyptian a Buick. Was I gaining or slipping?
After the poetry I think I’ll send you copies of some of my pictures. I work every day all the time but also teach and practice spiritual walks. Young girls, coming a few times, are able to climb mountains. When I tell this to older people they are furious. But then when the Cayce people came and told them that many ills could be cured by jogging, they applauded vociferously, but did they jog Peter? It is more than a generation gap, it is the gap between asura and manusha and gandharva of every age.
Finally I begin giving instructions in Mushahida, dearly contemplation, having performed it. It means complete vision of the whole world, over time and space; in the past it also meant complete rejection of the personality by friend and foe alike. So I have returned to “my knitting.”
Love and blessings,
Sam
Feb. 18, 1969
Mr. Finley P. Dunne
Temple of Understanding
1826 R Street
Washington, D.C. 20009
Dear Peter:
Last night after having written you at length I had a strange dream. On the psychic side it resembled Lord Tennyson’s “Dream of Akbar” but it had no negatives in it excepting that sooner or later the men who have set themselves and others up as “experts” on Asia and who exclude all references to Emperor Akbar will sooner or later have to face the consequences before the world. It is bad enough to lack moral integrity but it is far more objectionable not to have worldly knowledge.
An “expert” on Asia does not have to have much knowledge. The general requirement has been that of language. Being able to speak Russian does not make one an expert on Russia. Being able to speak Persian or Hindu or Thai makes one an expert on their cultures; still being able to speak Japanese does not necessarily make one an expert on the culture of that country. I think Ruth Benedict understood the Japanese people. I do not know whether she knew the language.
We have absolutely no standards and we are trying to measure the world without standards.
In the dream I was told to offer you good cheer. It may not be that God is in the heaven and all’s right with the world. It may be that God is. You do not have to accept this to be a delegate to a conference on Asia or on Asian studies. Sooner or later the fact that Playboy has recognized me as a Sufi outweighs a multitude of rejections by what I call “Professor Von Plotz” a compendium of University graduates chiefly but not necessarily of European professors, and of their American chelas who having studied under than lid not require Asian mentors.
There is much confusion today about the young. The long-haired, the partakers of psychedelics, and the campus-revolters are lumped together without evidence. I am old enough to have experienced Hyde Parks in both New York City and San Francisco which existed before the days?? of liberty democracy and freedom! The radicals were then permitted to blow off steam in public places.
Now the United States has accepted the Marxist verbiage of left, center, and right, and of class. These words are used without reference to anything by whomsoever along with a number of doubtful sociological terms which I neither understand nor accept. This sets one up against the whole culture. Added to that I have been practically debarred from nearly all East-West conferences in this land and equally welcomed elsewhere. I am not going to protest. The young accept the facts that I have not only studied the religions of the world but have preached in temple and synagogue, church and mosque. Nothing has been more offensive to our “experts” in Asian culture and I can name them. Leadership and darkness.
I must it clear for the last time that the revolutionaries hampered by our abolition of Hyde Parks invade campuses and will continue to invade campuses. This has practically nothing to do with the affairs of the enrolled students.
In your report one finds neither Prof. Nasr of Tehran nor Dr. Radhakrishnan present at the Calcutta proceedings. Here are two men who I can face eye to eye and heart to heart. But I can equally be debarred by the students of their students, and have been. This is the end of my negative report.
Both Dr. Nasr and Prof. Radhakrishnan accept the God-experience as the most vital thing in existence, as the very purpose of our being. Both have been welcomed by Indian Sufis as among the great ones of the day. But publicity alone does not mean greatness. I must call now attention to those I consider my real colleagues who accept and experience God and who are trying to do something about it in this world. I am sending Mr. Clive Ross, Pates Manor, Hatton Road, Bedfont, Middlesex a subscription for you for Studies in Comparative Religion. I shall make this retroactive so you may have the complete files. Among the chief contributors to this publication are Marco Pallis, Frithjof Schuon, Titus Burckhardt, and René Guénon.
These and other writers are concerned with the spiritual awakening of themselves and others, and not with dialectic and analytical reviews and comments by persons who have not had such experiences. A book reviewer is not a creative writer. He adds nothing to our culture and only too often has been successful in establishing harmful barriers.
This Spring the University of California will have a seminar on Mystical Experience. This time I do not think they will debar Samuel L. Lewis, SAM, Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti, venerable He Kwang. I began with reference to Tennyson’s “Akbar’s Dream.” I live in, for, and with that dream. I am now imparting spiritual and mystical teachings through walking and dancing which though referred too glibly by Playboy were referred to and not a priori rejected. This following the invitation to speak on Zen Buddhism by the Vietnamese shows that the universal outlook cannot be smothered forever.
I am no longer going to try to attend conference unless welcomed. Universal love does not mean to condone ignorance. One prays for the awakening of those dialecticians, prelates, and philosophers who have so for successfully dominated and prevented cordial East-West relations. Heart is universal. The young will accept Whitman, the young will accept Christ, the young will accept Buddha, and horrors through this person will also accept Mohammed.
I would tell you more Peter that if you were to establish a chapter in California it would be the young who would flock to The Temple of Understanding. With the seniors it is words, with the juniors it is love and understanding. It may be strange that a Sufi should be championing the cause of the late Sri Aurobindo but a mystic does not submit to boundaries, divisions, and wall-distinctions.
With all love and blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco 94110
February 26, 1969
The Temple of Understanding
1826 R Street, NW
Washington D.C. 20009
My dear Peter and staff:
This in a sense is a surprise letter. Yesterday I visited the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Being a member of the class of 1918, I am rather on a bound to give a gift of $50 or more. The details need not concern you here, but to my surprise one of the officials felt that such a gift would accomplish more if donated to The Temple of Understanding.
I am unable at this writing to vouch any exact sum due to income tax obligations on the one hand and further family litigation. However, the ides of February indicate, inshallah, the joint possibilities of a lesser tax payment on the one hand and an increment of estate allotment on the other. Naturally, I intend to share this.
The university officials, having witnessed the joyful reunion with Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj, now realize that I have at no time been bluffing. They would accept, as the staff of the Indian consulate proclaims, that “Mr. Lewis knows more about India than any other American.” This is vehemently denied by the various “experts” on Asian culture who regard university honoraria as superior to spiritual attainment or travel adventure.
My whole life has been concerned with the promotion of better American Asian relations. I am not going here to refer to previous history and attainments. It is very unfortunate that “experts” simply will not accept facts on any level. I was left with the awkward decision concerning the merit of these “experts,” whether they should be recognized by the universities. My judgment compels me to issue a negative. It is tiresome and ironic to be recognized by the Asian teachers (if any) of the “experts” and to be belittled by their pupils. The only weapon has been patience and now the harvest is on the horizon. Every day new doors open, even in the last two. I should like to have shared with some of these scholars. Some have been quite willing to accept my research papers and my money and let it go at that. But now with the decision making in my hands, I can no longer permit any vetoes on the historicity of Fatehpur Sikri or President Z. Hussein, etc. etc. etc. The world cannot remain half free and half dialectic.
The officials are interested in my proposal to restore Fatehpur Sikri. Why not?
Korea. I have been asked by Master Seo Kyung Seo to see if I can get an affiliation for him with the university. He is a master in both Zen and Ch’an—all schools. He is also my Roshi. I have ceased to look for any consideration from private bodies or organizations, but there is a good possibility that the university of California may be receptive.
Vietnam. On the one hand I have been asked to lecture on Vietnamese Buddhism
at the
Monterey School of Languages. On the other hand I have obtained the address of
Lieutenant General Edward Lansdale, a former associate, who, next to General
Westmoreland, has been our chief army commander in Vietnam. At least the fact
is accepted by those who accept the facts, and I think the sky will be cleared
of much of the nonsense that the opinions of important people who were not
there must always preponderate over the experiences of unimportant people who
were. This country, this world, cannot remain half free, half dialectic.
Although this is prior to the forthcoming seminar on mystical experience from which, this time, I shall not be barred. This, the above items and much more, will enable me to support publicly The Temple of Understanding (much more here means much more and prevents me from writing a longer letter).
Love and Blessing,
Sam
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif.
April 8, 1969
Finley P. Dunne Jr.
The Temple of Understanding, Inc.
1346 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
My dear Peter:
Thank you very much for your reports, sent to an old address. I have been living at this place for nearly two years and also now have a Sufi Khankah at 910 Railroad Ave., Novato, Calif. 94917
The dream of a Temple of Understanding is most marvelous. To cast a negative note might be unfortunate, but “unless the Lord buildeth the house they labor in vain who build.” Dreams may be long lasting, they may come from the ego and again they may come from the divine spirit. I believe, but cannot prove, that there is something in the universe. “My house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples.”
I am glad you have gotten on the track of the World Congress of Faiths of many years back. It was an effort to bring representatives of religions together in some way. In America, and especially in America of all lands, there has been a substitution of calling in famous or select people instead of the representatives of these religions and have conferences of note-worthies which have accomplished little or nothing.
In 1928 I met the late Dr. Henry Atkinson who also had a similar dream, for the sake of world peace. It was called “World Conference for International peace Through Religion.” It failed in its purpose but did have the merit of calling in representatives of religions and not famous people. Emotional appeals are not divine visions: emotional appeals touch the surface and when non-devotees are called in—and this has now been done—to support an effort to have the in—and this has now been done—to support an effort to have the peoples of the world join in prayer and devotion, obstacles are automatically set in the path.
Today I am being permitted to repeat Azan at the University of California. True this is a call to prayer of a particular religion, but it is a call to prayer and when you accept as important persons who do not believe in prayer or call to prayer to support The Temple of Understanding, there is in the inner worlds a negative note. We cannot both have “God” and not-God at the same time and achieve an aim. There must be the utmost devotion, concentration and consideration.
I am receiving today considerable literature calling attention to the feet that there is a new, more evolved type of humanity coming into manifestation, and perhaps more than just coming into manifestation. This brings to the focus the possibility that the divine vision may appear in many. Only it is yet that those who have done this one step ahead—and recognize the existence of those with vision, are still paying too much attention to “Not-God”—worldly and political institutions, and there representatives and headers who have been adept in keep people apart, not in unity.
The efforts for “Universal Peace Through Religion” failed and this group was reabsorbed into its parent body, “The World Church Peace Union.” Much of this failure was due to the rise of a rival institution which began with the theme of restoration of the World Congress of Religions and it also had its headquarter in Chicago. But they called in non-devotees (as most unfortunately you are now doing) and it ended in a series of brawls and nothing more.
A little later came “The Banner of Peace” movement from the Roerich Museum in New York. They held a real world conference in which famous people and politicians dominated. The result was not only the demise for “The Banner of Peace” but the destruction of all efforts of Nicholas Roerich.
There is no greater dream than The Temple of Understanding but when God is not put first and famous men are paraded, especially men who have no particular beliefs and who are off in strange tangents, where is the divine visions?
Divine vision in this direction is presented in the bible in several books and in “Saddharma Pundarika Sutra.” The acceptance of all religions may or may not be fundamental, but the pushing of personalities representing no particular religion, only themselves, can lead again to the same failures as above.
I have before me World Union from Pondicherry. It advocates and I think rightly, that there are more evolved souls in manifestation. Yes, there are, Peter. And right here one runs up against a hard dilemma. The Jewish religion, in their prayer book, calls for the restoration of the Oracle. There is a so-called “homeland” now in Palestine, but no temple and much less an oracle. Man plays with things, even the things of God.
There has just been a lot of to-do about potential earthquakes here in California. These “warnings” come from important people; the fact that they are not substantiated or substitutable does not change the tendency to react to important people. One of my next steps here, and if as a people we were honest which unfortunately we are not yet, is to gather the young people with vision and help them and listen to them, a faculty seldom found in mature Americans, i.e. listening.
This week may appear The Oracle and in it both one of my actually “prophetic” visions, and not trivia. There were a number of these visions, all rejected and all manifested. In a few generations the hard, substantiable facts will be considered alongside verbal emotional appeals. The Bible may say. “A people without vision perisheth.” We love to quote; the “generation gap” wants facts, not quotations. Or as a Sufi has said, “Exploration is the habit of the wise; quotation of the ignorant.”
“The Dance of Universal Peace,” first a concept and then a heritage from the celebrated Ruth St. Denis is proceeding apace. We now have series of dances either based on actual Dervish dances, or on the sacred phrases of Islam. This was followed by Mantric dances, using phrases from Indian religions. This has been followed by a compendium of dance and ceremonies not only from various religions, but involve a restoration of old “pagan” rites. But all are based on the existence of God (or the equivalent) end the repetition of sacred phrases.
The theme has also involved the experience of Exaltation and Joy and it is totally different from traditional religion and metaphysics in its conscious affects on the persons participating. The idea of “Joy without Dugs” offered some year back is now penetrating the consciousness of the young. My following is as yet small, but every single week this year the totality of audiences greater than the week before. And I am being called in to give lectures on the mysticisms and spiritual experiences of the real religions of the real world, which involves the real humanity and not just the thoughts or ideas of some important people.
This forthcoming Saturday and the next there will be a seminar at the University of California, or at least it is programmed on cosmic consciousness. At the moment one faces the question, “Are we going to have book-learning or the experiences of individuals?” As my friend, Princess Poon Diskul Pismai says: “All Americans know is books, books, books, nothing but books.” Her Serene Highness is a top Buddhist; I am a presumable Sufi. Our purport debate stopped abruptly when I spoke and she said, “I agree with you entirely.” Unfortunately you are now heralding a person who does not accept any such approach at all and if we are going to have a Temple of Understanding, I think we must emphasize both Temple and Understanding and not repeat the same mistake of emotional appear from some famous person who accepts neither Temple nor Understanding.
Sunday there was a picnic of the Hindu students. Not present were the “experts’” on India, the important men and women called in for all public affairs (but never when the Indian Foreign Office has anything to say). It was a surprise to find that none of these people are fellows of the Royal Asiatic Society. They have not passed; they do not have to submit to realists.
I have at the moment a class on “The Gospel of St. Thomas.” This reaffirms the theme, “A little child hall lead them.” At the present time American psychologics is so operative that it is possible for a lamb and lion to lie down together, but never for a little child to lead them.
You were right in asking the young at Calcutta to submit ideas. Unfortunately they do this only in their own gatherings. They are not reconciled. I might find a dozen young seers and seeresses, but they are all afraid to express themselves to seniors.
It was months before I could elicit a report from Mrs. Sheila McKendrick on her trip. But now we are preparing another disciple, a young girl dancer and I believe she can take the message of “Dance of Universal Peace” both to President Hussein and to Pondicherry, to say the least.
The idea of the Temple without the Divine Vision may not or may come to manifestation. The world is today filled with groups claiming “universality” and the “integrational approach,” ignoring each other. This is because they are still under the control of people who rely on individualism and analysis.
A meaning is not “spiritual” because it uses this word. A meeting becomes spiritual when there is spiritual realization among those in attendance.
This is no doubt a firm letter. One has failed when one has presented views or even reports without firmness. And one has seen innumerable failure. If we can stick to God and leave out the “famous people” we are going to have this Temple. But if we are repeating the same old programs of calling in “famous people” with strong but limited emotion appeals, it means a delay of bringing the people of the world together. Non-Americans are not always enamored by our particular heroes and heroines.
As my spiritual brother, let us say, said: “Religion must be the cause of unity of the entirely race, or else it is not worth the name.” Please follow this and not the divisive, emotional call of important persons who divide and help keep the world divided.
God bless you,
Sam
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
May 2, 1969
Finley P. Dunne.
Temple of Understanding
Washington, D.C.
My dear Peter:
There has been an article in the paper about one of the Shankaracharyas of India protested against the termination of caste. As we do not study Sankara we do not realize that this great sage taught an almost absolute Monism which our culture as yet does not accept. Nor am I going into this, for it will still take some time before honesty and impersonality will prevail in the region of non-sciences.
After a long time The Oracle, a local paper, will appear. This is being published by New Age types—not so-called “New Age” types dominated by their elders and social superiors, but by the young themselves. As matters have progressed practically all of them have come at least partially under my tutelage. It is even possible that The Oracle will become an “Oracle.”
As American culture (and others) are still dominated (excepting in the laboratory sciences) by éclat, noblesse oblige, and social importance, we have already given some attention to the totally false perditions of Edgar Cayce and Meher Baba. Emotionalists will do proclaim Nostradamus and Blake whose works I am unable to evaluate as they worked with symbols. But my own predictions have invariably come true and when one is a seer, actually, he has to face almost every kind of ignominy.
Recently a book appeared on Chinese Buddhists. It is a good book, but it mentions that one Dr. Trebitsch-Lincoln disappeared for a number of years and “nobody” knew where he was. Well, this person did, although my records have long since been destroyed by fire. I do know that this “unworthy” made a number of predictions all of which came into manifestation. And until we become more impersonal and direct we are going to remain in confusing. Science leads because laboratory discipline demands objectivity and honesty; in other lines these are not so demanded.
There is already a sort of “revolution” in another field—the displacement of “famous” Englishmen and Europeans as mentors and “experts” in “Oriental Philosophy.” Two of your closest colleagues who told me their stories are not going to be happy if you retain this type of person as associate and advisor especially when this type of person does not accept the moral standards of the religion (or religions) upon which he lectures.
I am now able to go to the local universities and colleagues, have interviews, exchange ideas and give literature to them. This was not possible a few years back. But I still hold valuable documents, mostly Buddhists which have been rejected and we are now seriously considering going into the publishing field. We do not wish this but when famous-A and famous-B and Infamous-C can easily get their writings published and the actually commentaries of great sages are rejected, what are we do to?
Hazrat Inayat Khan left detailed instructions on his plan to build a temple where all religions could unite. His disciples refused absolutely and adamantly to accept that he gave these instructions to this person. This is the way of “selfless” and applying Sankara’s teaching that Brahm is in all of us, if indeed is not all of us.
Seven of us came together with the purpose of establishing a spiritual commune called Khankah (a Sufi term). We agreed to meet again in ten days to see how we could raise money. We did not meet again: in ten days this whole was purchased and is clear. We depended on “God” and spiritual insight which is called Prajna in Sanskrit. I am not going to explain Prajna which all the Asian professors of Oriental philosophy proclaim and hardly any English or European “experts” on any Asian philosophy until the recent alliance between Schon, Burchard, Pallis and others. Or as lord Buddha (but not “Buddhists”) proclaimed: “All men have perfect wisdom and enlightenment but do not know it; I must go and show them.”
Now this your we have had the strange career that the total audience each week has increased and also the financial returns have slowly mounted. There could be a lesson in this for those who believe they are connected with spiritual movements. The successes have aroused the dormant real “Oracles” to come out, for there is this type of personality. And many are there who exemplify the predictions of Sri Aurobindo but the followers of Sir Aurobindo not only want to lead them—who may be more advanced spiritually but in turn they are looking to the U.N. and other quasi-political bodies for encouragement, and not to “Supermind.”
All of this has been on paper but one received calls from two different Western States and is considering going to New Mexico where a group of young people have established a commune and are opening doors to the spiritual practices of all religions and no nonsense.
I now have a goodly following of about a hundred, not all disciples but all who join in the Dervish and Mantric dances and real mystical exercises. Sunday we are going to have a combination May Day and Wesak and wish to restore some of the purer traditional rituals. For it is also our intention to restore All-Saints day and get rid of this horrible blackmailing by little children with their “game” and no more Saints.
Indications are that there may be as many as 200 people coming and there are the proper dances and rituals, all of which have grown out of the original intention to have “Dance of Universal Peace.”
Much may seem to depend on the sale of The Oracle but if there is any success I hope to get them to publish something about The Temple of Understanding and I am now in an excellent position to lecture on this publicly. But one looks for no encouragement from the established churches excepting that some of them are facing crises.
The first uses of the hall donated by the San Francisco Theological Seminary have brought a substantially larger attendance and it may thus be possible to have them accept a lecture on The Temple of Understanding. The Protestant Episcopalian Church is rent, not by poor attendance but by factionalism and this has affected its social work. But here again halls and class rooms may be offered free and after June I expect to accept them.
It is only now that the young, wishing to rid themselves of the egocentric and sectarian leadership of elders have begun their own organizations. It is tragedy that we are misled by words and news. “Environment” is now the devil but no-one can explain what they mean. A very large section of my present following is made up of runaways from well-to-do families and there are possibilities of inheritances and even donations from these parents when they find where their “drop out” offspring are finding themselves. But elders, the press and TV will continue to blame “environment.”
The sad thing, Peter, is that parents, and particularly mothers are sadly lacking in love and compassion. As they control votes and purse-strings, few dare to bring this out. My oldest and best friend is here and she was amazed by the mutual love and compassion and by the eagerness with which the young grasp spiritual teachings. This was illustrated in our last lesson not only by dances but by walks along the lines of Rama, Krishna, Moses and Jesus, among others. Our whole theme is “My House shall be a House of Prayer for all peoples.”
I am sorry that so many well intended people and movements still have faith in traditional institutions rather than in a Living and Loving God, and in the psychologies of power rather than Insight and Wisdom. Too many of the campus revolts are merely efforts to exchange Power, not to introduce Wisdom. In Love and Wisdom we can unite.
God bless you,
Sam
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif.
June 2, 1969
The Temple of Understanding
1886 R St.
Washington, D. C. 20009
Dear Peter and Friends:
Today we go to the University of California to place in the libraries of the Departments of Far East Studies and also of Southeast Asia Studies copies of The Encyclopedia of Buddhism that are available. To some people this will be a great gift; it is not actually a gift, it is a protest, a cosmic protest. It is a protest against the current attitudes that important people are important and not important people are not important; that excitement is the summa bonum of mankind, and that there are ways out which may be universal, impersonal and effective. But if there are ways out in which universal, impersonal and effective means are used, and they succeed, it will not be because of any support from the various divisive, analytical and dialectical groups which keep humankind apart, each from the others.
Behind this presumable gift is a most tragic history and we are going to continue tragic histories so long as important people are important and unimportant people are unimportant. And this is where the so-called “religions” agree, in the principle, but with a totally different selection of who are important and who are unimportant.
My heir is still a chair, a chair in which the late Phra Sumangalo sat (Dr. Robert Clifton) and told me about Vietnam. It has happened and there will be more Vietnams and more Vietnams and more Vietnams because important people are important and unimportant people are unimportant…. The climax came when a most beautiful letter was received from General Edward Lansdale, now retired and living in Arlington, Va. He was one of our top commanders. He was also one of my real heroes.
I am not here going into personal history excepting that I saw the termination of the World War II before it began. There is such a thin as Prajna, which is most wonderful when it is proclaimed by Mr. Radhakrishnan or the late Daisetz Suzuki, but it is not for little people, even with cosmic vision. Very slowly my poetry of cosmic vision (that which was not destroyed in a conflagration) is coming out.
This cosmic vision came from sitting before one Sokei-An Sasaki (a particularly unimportant person) from whom the Dharma transmission was received. The last person to attest to this has been Master Seo Kyung Bo, now being called “Bishop of Korea” who will be here shortly. But although one passed #1 in a competitive examination on Buddhism or Dharma before him, the important people are still important and the unimportant people are unimportant and the karma, the effect of this on the institutions of the past is that they are sooner or later going to pass away. The institutions will go and the teachings of Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna, etc. will remain, for they are eternal.
The contrast between a most important national-international respectable organization and the young is illustrated: The “Big” people asked me to send ten dollars so I could meet the illustrious of the world. I wrote: “You are asking a man who has been a guest of honor at the Imperial Palaces of Japan and Thailand and had tea in the presidential mansions of India and Pakistan to send you ten dollars; what for?” I have never been forgiven—that and the young seeing I have been successful in getting pro-Israel and anti-Israel Jews, Muslims, and Hare Krishna people to dance in a Christian seminary. Horrors! That would never do! But the young want and before the living God, they are going to get.
I have decided therefor to cancel all contributions and subscriptions to all other non-scientific organizations. Not a single other one will accept that if they recognize my work they get money. They not only want money but they want recognition and refuse to give. This is our “moral and spiritual reform” people whom I shall not name.
The heritage of Ruth St. Denis remains. The replacement of European and English “experts” (“only in America”-experts) on Asiatica, is bringing in a real new age of honesty and objectivity. The last conference on “Asian Philosophy” here, by Europeans and two Asian-Christians plus cocktails at every meeting will no doubt facilitate the downfall of ego-specialism that has passed for “world culture.”
I shall try very hard to consider cooperation with your next Summit Conference. As my income has very slowly but perceptibly been mounting, as the audiences grow, as the young come and bring others and as social attention has been now given, it should not be difficult.
The same thing seems in the offing for my poetry. But one can only do so much. The replacement of Oriental culture by very exclusive mutually antagonistic cults calling themselves “integrative” movements will be laughed out of existence. I can assure you that even books on Taj and Arjunta will be different in the future, covering what has been omitted and at times even purposely omitted by writers and subjectivists.
I am also writing on a world scale. Phillip Kapleau’s Three faces of Zen take that subject out of subjective, personalistic dialectics into the worlds of human experience. The same will soon be true of all wisdoms, eastern and western, scientific or non-scientific. So now Dances of Universal Peace will be dedicated to the Temple of Understanding and all the very separative, separating Integrationalist movements will have to learn there is a moral law and that “Whatsoever ye do to the least of these my creatures, ye do it unto me.”
Love and blessings,
Sam
410 Precita Ave
September 22, 1969
Mr. Finley P Dunne, Jr.
1346 Connection Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Dear Peter and Friends,
There is a motto, “The time is now” and inshallah, the time is now. The time is come when a mystic will not only be permitted to speak on mysticism but will be permitted to function and listened to. Ever since Phillip Kapleau’s Three Pillars of Zen and its proper acceptance in high places the signs are coming into a world of honesty, integrity, impersonality, and impartiality, in the non-sciences as I the sciences; and that the experiences of man, even of unimportant people will be given at least equal treatment to the dialectics and speculations of “important” people.
The Bible teaches, “In the hour ye least think, the son of man cometh,” and it may have pleased God-Allah-Brahm to have selected a woman, a housewife, for His work. I have been away on vacation with my esoteric secretary mansur Otis Johnson. He has been very close to Dr. Huston Smith. In my absence Huston wrote that he will be away until well into 1970. We also met several friends of The Temple of Understanding and Judith while we were travelling.
A few years back I had a mystical-mystical experience, not a dialectic or dream-pantomime of a “Aldous Huxley.” In that God, so to speak, told me I would become spiritual leader of the Hippies. The night of my departure I led at least 150 young people in a public dance or series of dances, those dedicated to the temple of Understanding.
But before I left I had another mystical-mystical experience, not a dream-pantomime of a psychedelic, to now join you and Judith and all your wonderful colleagues to attend the next session of The Temple of Understanding no matter where it is held on the face of the earth, inshallah. At that time my god-daughter Miss Saadia Khawar Khan was with me; she is a full Khalifa in the Sufi-Sufi Chisti Order and has been so recognized by the living Saints of the real world who can be named and placed. Although I feel I have or can easily get enough money for Mansur and myself, Miss Saadia Khan promised almost for us extensive financial aid should we need it. But I must add, my financial affairs are in much better condition, and I certainly have, praise to Allah!, enough excellent banking and other credit to carry on. Besides this, again praise to God!, my affairs in other directions are succeeding in many several directions at the same time. So the question becomes, what, how and when, shall we do?
In 1929 I began working seriously for the now practically defunct World Church Peace Union. I had mystical-mystical experiences then, and a few of those notes have been preserved. These notes, mostly poetical or visionary, certainly predicted almost to an exactitude the proceedings of your conference in Calcutta. I am particularly interested because at least one of the Parsis came out in the end with an encomium of a great Sufi. I am tired, hopelessly tired, of hearing the verbal tributes to East-West conferences and agreements. I am not only going over notes and knowledges of a long life, but my present program, if you want to call it that, is being based on the compilation of notes from Walt Whitman, Sit Richard Burton, the Sufi Fareddin Attar, and the still living Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan—no more blatant egotistical exhortations of East-West harmonizations but actualities backed by writings and deeds.
In the past twenty years there has been a plethora of organizations verbally devoted to East-West integration. While the most obvious is the inheritance of Dr. Charles Moore at the University of Hawaii, the same remarks may be applied to a large number of mutually antagonistic organizations, not movements organizations, collecting money and prestige for pseudo-world movements. None of them permit anything like the actual accomplishments of the actual Sufis of the actual historical and mystical world.
This is becoming clearer because there are now more and more persons born in India who have real integrative outlooks. The two kings who stand out clearest in this picture have been Emperor Akbar of India and Suleiman the Magnificent of Turkey. Try to get a word about either of them in Honolulu or any of these so-called East-West integration organizations; just try! But now Indian musicians are not only playing a greater role in the affairs of California, but they are bringing to the fore the accomplishments of the great Akbar ad the musician Tanzen. And as the public and especially the young begin to find out what has happened, they are congregating more and more to these representatives of actualities and less and less to the money-grabbing fame-seeking “important” people whose success depends on their beclouding history and actualities.
Sufism is the religion of the heart. My own meetings here with Rabbi Schlomo, Swami Maharaj Ranganathananda, Asoke Fakir, etc., etc., etc., demonstrate that the world of heart is above and beyond dualisms (and this afternoon I resume my class on Christian mysticism at a local seminary). And of course the spectacle of Israeli Jews, non-Israeli Jews, part-Jews, Hindus of various cults, and non-believers joining I Sufi dances in a Christian seminary is the champion not-news of the day. But in all this we are keeping The Temple of Understanding in view, and the time is come for this preaching egotist to apply his own philosophy to himself, and to work with you on any and all levels possible, feeling assured that we have the spiritual aspiration, the mental accumulations, and the physical and financial wherewith to do so.
I am therefore going over my notes—the few preserved of 1929. I have gone over the reports of your convocation and feel sure with the help of the living God we can go upstairs; and inshallah, will go upstairs. Even such things as Lord Tennyson’s “Akbar’s Dream” will be brought out.
I cannot make this shorter. To make it longer would make a virtue of verbosity. I can almost parody Browning “God’s on his earth, all’s right with the heavens.” But I am leaving to you for suggestions, advice, etcetera, and promise all possible cooperation on all levels. I am sending copies of this to certain persons who are in favor or The Temple of Understanding. It is easy to say more; it is important to do more.
Love and blessings,
Sam
410 Precita Ave
September 26, 1969
Mr. Finley P Dunne, Jr.
Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Dear Peter and Friends:
This will acknowledge the summer ‘69 newsletter. It is our hope, inshallah, that we attend this conference. I am assuming that there will be excursion rates from Washington or New York. Arrangements would be made at this end to join you at any convenient place.
There is both a personal and impersonal aspect to this. Long efforts have been made to bring Dr. Seyyed Hossein of Tehran and this person together, and if “Mohammed has to go to the Mountain” this is quite in order. Another item both personal and impersonal are the notices and pictures of Her Serene Highness Princess Poon Diskul and his holiness Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj. These are two of the very best friends I have on this earth. These friendships are important because they represent points of view different from the cultures of my place of birth and the cultures foremost in my heart and mind. I notice also the item regarding Dr. Mahmoud F. Hoballah who was very kind and courteous at our own meeting.
I have received a letter from Huston Smith (we are an excellent terms) that he will be out of this country until July of next year. Whether this means his presence or absence at the conference I do not know. But I expect to be traveling with my esoteric secretary Mansur Otis Johnson who has been very close to Huston.
There must be something in the wind. Two sudden items and appointments on this day indicate the growing trend towards spiritual universality. I have gone thoroughly over the notes of the last conference and hope that we can reach both in policy and devotion some common ground for bringing the peoples of the world closer together. This is also giving me opportunities to mention The Temple of Understanding etcetera. I am sure the day of exclusion by the self-important is a thing of the past.
My own program tentatively is based on items from Walt Whitman, Alfred Tennyson, Sir Richard Burton, the Sufi poets, our mutual wonderful friend Dr. Radhakrishnan. Here I wish to pay tribute to his teachings rather than to his person. We have had too much personality adulation and too little devotional respect, but my work is to do rather than to preach, and at this writing it would seem that Allah himself is encouraging both this person and the world around him.
Love and blessing,
Sam
410 Precita Ave.
Sept. 29, 1969
Mr. Finley P. Dunne, Jr.
Executive Director,
Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
My dear Peter:
Your letter of the 26th indicates a common enthusiasm. This has been so great that it was only by restraint I did not telephone. I am glad I did not, because events are demonstrating the Biblical dictum “Unless the Lord buildeth the house, they labor in vain who build.” But I firmly believe with my whole heart and being that this is the time of demonstration both of this and other Biblical quotations.
All the efforts for the World Church Peace Union, the Roerich Foundation, and others which followed brought on the one hand an accumulation of historical data and perhaps philosophical profundity, and on the other a direct insight from experience into the depths of wisdom upon which each and every religion is actually based. I must add to this the ancient dictum, “When the Gods arrive the half-Gods go.” It is with no joy that one sees the half-Gods go. They are still above the “normal human being” but handicapped by that nuisance-vice “humility.” They have stuffed cars, and having stuffed cars, in the end most unfortunately others cause to listen to them. In fact the church editor of the local paper himself published a sermon last week on the uselessness of sermons. But the self-styled “humble” are unable to comprehend this. I am not talking in abstractions here, for the news follows:
1. I have already written Dr. Malalasekera in Ceylon to send you (and others) copies of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism. This work has the merit of having been written and being written by communicant devotees and not—as is the present Encyclopedia of Islam for example—by humble authorities. I am especially interested in this to atone for the death of my dearest friend the late Phra Sumangalo who lived so long in Vietnam and whose warnings went unheard with consequences that you well know.
2. I have been invited by the local college to attend its sessions on “Modern Religious Movements” as an expert and authority. This is one of the few occasions in my long life that in this country the speakers will be devotees and not presumptuous PhD’s, etcetera, who have done so much to lead our people astray regarding the nature of exotic faiths.
3. The young, many of whom believe that God can be known through deep experience, are planning a seminar here for all spiritual teachers in this vicinity. The merit of being a Sufi is that one has the most loving affection from and to the Chassidic leader; and from and to various representatives of the Dharma who are always on speaking terms with each other.
4. I had hoped that one of my disciples who has some money would volunteer also to attend this conference at Constantinople, and I have been amazed at her own alacrity and enthusiasm to join.
This morning I spoke to the local Turkish Consul who has expressed his interest. We are presuming that we should be paying our fare to New York or Washington, and have a chartered flight thence on. This of course is just a presumption, but we shall work on this theory until we hear otherwise.
There is some amusing gossip going on that I have been to Asia, sat at the fact of various masters, and then repudiated them. Actually, in the last few days, I have received a cable from my Sufi teacher and air mail letter from my Zen Master and have informed both of them about this forthcoming convocation. Fortunately also one finds at the colleges and universities open-hearted, open-minded instructors with no presumption and no humility (thank God). The doors are opened for further efforts in many directions therefore. I think this is enough for one day. I am sending carbons of this to some who may be interested.
Love and blessings,
Sam
October 8, 1969
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Dear Peter and Friends:
Things are happening so fast here. On the positive side, much of the news is in the carbon to Anandashram in India and on the negative side to Dr. Chaudhuri here. It is symptomatic that most of the clergy, Christian and non-Christian, who have signaled their acceptance of The Temple of Understanding, have steered very clear of my person. In his case every time I have suggested a subject he has accepted the subject and then brought in an outside speaker or given an address on the subject himself.
And it may not have been surprising that when the spiritual leaders met Sunday—I came too late—it was to learn that all the other Indian leaders voted to coordinate with “Sufi Sam.”
Tonight my keynote may be: “Youth of the World Unite! You have nothing to lose!”
For years I practiced Gandhian non-violence and then forced, I went out, “Therefore fight, O Arjuna.” Six apologies in two weeks and last night I heard one of my worst road-blocks excoriated at the university! The doors are opening because they were meant to be opened and I may be having an auditorium, not a church or hall.
But I have become very tough on my followers saying it is absolutely necessary to join in the movement to see that The Temple of Understanding is established and they are going to see this. There are more and more meetings and movements and I can assure you every effort will be bent to accept humanity, to accept history and to work toward common ends.
Love and blessings,
Sam
910 Railroad Ave.
Novato, Calif. 94947
October 22, 1969
Mrs. Judith Hollister
The Temple of Understanding
Steamboat Road
Greenwich, Conn.
My dear Judith:
It is with extreme love and good-will that this letter is being written. I understand Peter is away, hat there is neither a request here nor any need to answer.
Years ago a spiritual teacher travelled with the theme “I have come to bring you the Message of the living God.” There is no need to travel with that theme; rather, that theme is traveling. Hazrat Inayat Khan used to say, “The Message is in the sphere; if I did not bring it, somebody else would.”
It is now over 40 years since I had the vision of the theme which has become The Temple of Understanding. We have a framed picture of it in our dining room. The theme “My house shall be a house of prayer for all people” proceeds, I believe, from eternity. All efforts, all concentration point in the direction that my secretary, Mr. Mansur Otis Johnson and I will be joining you in Istanbul, if not before.
This letter is a blending of downright comedy and divine purpose. A number of years ago winning a law suit with my brother, our attorneys tried to reconcile us, and I said, “He will either give me another double-cross or become my best friend.” Praise to God the second happened. Since that time our mutual independent incomes have both increased, and after 50 years, for the first time, he gave me a birthday greeting.
Of course many “grand” organizations would like to share my wealth, at least putative wealth. They will not accept a very slight condition—that they accept the facts of history and of life. I asked once one of your pretended admirers to lecture on the late President Zakir Hussein of India. I received 100% refusal and tore up the check I had for him. He is one of a large number who have adamantly and absolutely refused to accept the historicity of the Mogul emperor Akbar. All of these people stand for “love,” “brotherhood,” “world union,” etc., etc. They would be glad to share in other people’s wealth but not on the condition that they accept historicity, scriptural teachings, and human devotion. So positively and negatively, I am keeping my money for this trip, and others have only themselves to blame.
Socially and institutionally the break came when this Sufi met our mutual friend, Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj. When the professors and students saw the mutual love and affection between a putative Sufi and a putative Vedantist they realized that there is something in the existence of the divine spirit and the objective manifestation thereof. Following that, the doors of a number of universities began to open, and in turn I have gifted them with the fascicles of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism. I have also written my good friend, Dr. G. Malalasekera, concerning further distributions of this encyclopedia, including one for the Temple of Understanding.
Perhaps it would be better to get this encyclopedia rather than to contribute any more to foundations which provide leadership, theoretical philosophy, leadership, world outlook, leadership, universal programs, and leadership-leadership-leadership. The great sin of Americans has been that we are quite capable of accepting, “The lamb and the lion shall lie down together,” but we are adamant in our absolute refusal to accept, “A little child shall lead them.”
I have humorously written a noted columnist that efforts to become a Pied Piper have failed miserably—only the young show up. I guess I have met about 2000 of them in the last two months; they have a new outlook. As I wrote Peter, I mentioned The Temple of Understanding in my own public mass meeting, and my theme has become, “Youth of the world unite, you have nothing to lose.” In the Logia Jesus Christ has said over and over again, “Seek for me in children.” I personally certainly see an increased increment of the manifestation of the divine spirit in the young.
Last week, I attended a lecture on Meher Baba at a local university. The San Francisco situation is that there is a veritable parade of claimants to the Messiah, Avatar, God-Realized, Maharshis, etc. There does not seem to be any evidence of a great spiritual realization among their various entourages. But the fact is that this theme is out. We are passing into a world of integration, and I do not mean the word “integration”; I mean the processes of integration—something quite different. Verbalists may confuse, are confusing, by their misuse of this term, while their egos stand out prominently. Our leading atheist, a champion in the use of the word “integration” has just received an encomium from the World Council of Churches!
After being rejected or ejected by the various groups dedicated to universal brotherhood, world union, international understanding, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, I have been invited to speak this week at the local university on Sufism. The hard fact that there are more disciples in Sufism than in all the other mystical and esoteric movements united is not yet part of our culture. Here one could almost make a pun, “Damned by those that dam,” but that is not the case at all. Leaders must expect their own karma, if not more of it.
My birthday celebration was by far the most glorious of what with most people would be a long life. Excepting 3 personal friends, the whole audience was of young people. The greatest gifts were a marvelous drawing by my housekeeper Mrs. Fatima Jablonski, and the chorals is of my mistro, Mr. Bill Mathieu. Each is very significant in the blending of spirituality and integration. The chorals have been inspired by a blending of the methods of Pir Vilayat Khan, Dane Rudhyar, modern musical theories, and the spiritual dances.
It is remarkable that these dances derive no doubt from heaven itself, and following both the philosophy and the methodologies of the late Ruth St. Denis, are increasing in number and effectiveness. About 50 young people showed up at my free dancing lesson last Saturday. I guess it must be the divine will that these dances be dedicated to The Temple of Understanding, because of the cold receptions, if not downright rejections, on the part of leaders and groups with a putative common universal outlook.
The same things are going on at a poetry class under the auspices of the University of California. My “The Rejected Avatar” was received in a manner symmetrically and diametrically opposite to the way my writings and person have previously been rejected. Not only the young people but the professors and other leaders openly accept the cosmic experience of mystics. Mr. Johnson himself is a close friend of Dr. Huston Smith and we are all admirers of Philip Kapleau. The day is over when interminable lectures or elongated silences are accepted as substitutes for the grand awakening. One touch of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Renascence” of a whole library—and it would be a pretty big library at that—on Zen which have nothing to do with the Samma Dhyana of Lord Buddha.
It is noteworthy that the textbook at San Francisco State is the work on Buddhism by our very good friend Walpole Rahula, As you know he is a grand man. I leave to others to write books and lecture on what they and their audiences call “Zen Buddhism”; next Sunday I open again Dharma Night, and shall present the Jhanas of Lord Buddha. To bring out an increase of capacity for love, joy, and peace, exactly as Tathagata did.
This is coming at a time when mistro Mathieu, mentioned above, is preparing a choral Christmas program. This will be offered freely to any church in the general vicinity which will accept. These are applications of “The Message of the Living God.” We do not propose and I am sure you do not propose the abolition of any extant institution, but rather more mutual respect.
Until the first of August I have had exactly 2 free days all year. The time program has been relaxed, the duties have not. We are presenting to the world, i.e., to the young, the Living God, bringing love, generosity, and vitality—I mean actually; not symbolically or theoretically. When the young see these things in a putative, super-annuated Pied Piper they respond, how they respond!
I think you will agree Judith, that there is something like a grand design moving toward manifestation. Sunday next we open our Dharma Night, and as soon as possible after that we may celebrate a Vietnamese Night. This will have little relation to the politics of the day. Its purpose is to increase friendship and understanding. I desire neither to oppose or expose the so-called “integrationists,” but before God, we are integrating.
I had to write one rationally known organization whose membership is $10 that I was sending them $25 where I could easily have sent them $100. We are accomplishing. We have Christians of all kinds, former-non-believers, Zionist and non-Zionist Jews, Muslims, and members of Indian spiritual movements dancing together. Hopefully, the number of “blacks” partaking in these dances is increasing. We have no distinctions—one of my God-children is Jewish, one Pakistani Muslim, and the third an American mulatto. While others talk, we do.
Therefore, you may not be surprised to learn we are now putting our hearts, our souls, our thoughts and our finances toward making a success of The Temple of Understanding in order that, “My house shall become a house of prayer for all people.”
With all love and blessing,
Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco
Nov. 2, 1969
Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D. 6. 20036
Dear Peter and friends:
This is a most encouraging letter. There is a passage in the Bible which reads, “The Stone which is rejected is become the corner-stone.” That is the story of my life. There is a law of compensation or karma, or justice and adjustment and the blind and blank refusal of seniors even to grant interviews is now being counterbalanced by the willingness of the young to accept almost anything that comes from me.
I may send a copy or two of this to others but I am not looking for anything. After the long history with the World Church Peace Union, the Roerich Museum, and others which I can but do not choose to name, it has been nothing but a series of mockeries and self-aggrandizement that has stood in the way of human brotherhood and understanding. When Hon. U Thant was here he said, “What the world needs is a moral and spiritual revolution” and the applause was terrific and all the cardinals and highly placed prelates of many faiths applauded. And all I could see was chaos and confusion, slightly mitigated by the remarks by Dr. G. Malalasekera, that what was needed was a revolution inside of each and all of us. Of course, the cardinals and metropolitans and prelates and rabbis did not join. They were on the side of “moral and spiritual” revolution which would only confirm their positions of leadership.
Some time ago a very well known American philosopher (America does have some good philosophers) urged me to forget everything and concentrate on the universities. While he was right I did not have to seek at all. There are plenty of young people in and out of “schools” who want objective honesty, hard facts and also disciplines which can lead to their self-fulfillment. While the rumor has come out of the class I have on Christian mysticism that it is the best theological class the students and participants have ever attended, and that is the very least of my efforts. It is only mentioned to show that I am not supported any one particular religion, but the ways of devotion, reverence and spiritual growth.
I have tried in vain to get those who claim to be universal to grant an interview. It illustrates the futility of our “Judeo-Christian” ethic. But it also gives me a tremendous power by default.
I attend three university classes: poetry, archeology, and philosophy. The archeology class has requested the performance of the Dervish dances. These have been rejected by everybody else to whom they were offered, and most often a priori rejected, because that is the wont of those who verbalize “moral and spiritual reform.” They will not even discuss the matter. But my 1965 theme—which was presented before the university—the “good” people will have none of that—that we could have Joy without drugs, is making tremendous headway. And it is possible that this month there will be a joint meeting of classes of San Francisco State and the University of California for this purpose.
The Philosophy class is studying the real modern religious and “esoteric” movements. The subjects are aired. There is none of this platform immunity and pompous superiority. The speakers have to be clear. True, after some discussion about Meher Baba I threw the word “Baha-ullah” at the Teacher and he had to pause in his tracks. I am not a supporter of any particularist, but least of all those particularists who verbalize themselves as “universal” or “integrative’.
Last week I brought a copy of The Oracle to class. This is a local “underground” paper which has almost fully accepted both my person and efforts. I repeat here in passing, that the young simply will not have the old who almost unanimously have rejected my visits (among many many other things) to the Imperial Palace grounds in Tokyo or to Dr. Radhakrishnan in New Delhi. Now I am afraid because the young are pointing me out and look upon me as a sort of local “aint-Messiah.” My “Youth of the World unite, you have nothing to lose” is making rapid headway.
Next week I shall bring in the material of The Temple of Understanding. I think they are ready. Certainly the instructor is.
The opening up of the class on “Dances of Universal Peace” has overwhelmed me. There is not enough room and after next week I shall have to divide it. I don’t want a larger hall because there must be individual contact. We teach the realities of religion through the dance. What was good enough for Prophet David is not too good for me. Even Jesus referred to dancing. And the rejected theme, “Joy Without Drugs” is now getting the young to laugh at their elders who simply reject everything along with the pretended opposition to vegetable derivatives which may actually contact some secrets of life. (I do not wish to impose on scientist Margaret Mead here.)
Our problem in getting ready to join you is not money but time. While all the “superior” movements cry about a need for funds, I have full trust in the “Mercy and Plenitude of God” to consider any alternative. The only other alternative would be to send money on to you but I am holding it for the time being for the fare to the next conference.
The same thing is going on for the poetry class. At least there is a poetry class which permits me to submit my poetry! And no funds solicited for others! So in addition this coming Friday I shall resume my work in the Haight-Ashbury district. Six classes at night per week, and now at least four day classes besides interviews and conferences and counseling.
Next my “revolution.” While others are talking about “revolution” I am starting one here—we are not going to have a Christmas tree. We are going to construct a Cross and have it embellished and do everything in the traditional fashion excepting substituting the Cross for the Tree. (Of course one could make a pun here, too, if one knew many languages.)
Beyond and behind are the seeking of ways to bring peace, real peace in certain parts of the world. I have invited a Vietnamese friend to come here and will let him speak.
In former letters I mentioned we had Israelis, anti-Israeli Jews and mixed bloods, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and unbelievers dance together. There has more recently been an infiltration of “blacks.” It has infuriated both “integrationalists” and separatists when I tell them I have three god-children—a Jewess, a Muslim, and a Mulatto. That is worse than attacking them. To illustrate what others talk about hasn’t been and now it is going to be and nothing else. For God loves everybody regardless, by which I mean regardless and not some doctrine or theology.
Both my homes are being invaded constantly. One long quoted Emerson on the mousetrap inventor and it came just as “The stone which was rejected is bed me the corner-stone.” I think I am ready.
The next step is with my poetry and I’ll see that you get copies. I do not evaluate it but the Jewish epic was rejected by the synagogues, the Christian epic by the Churches with one slight exception (Fosdick); the Islamic epic by the mosques. The Hindu epics have come out a little better, but not too much. Now the demand is for them and they will come out and as they can only coalesce with and from The Temple of Understanding, I think there will be results, God willing.
It is not so easy in saying, “Thank you for letting a mystic speak on mystical experience.” But slowly even this is coming out. We do permit scientists to speak en scientific subjects and even musicians on music. It may be part of the “moral and spiritual revolution” to permit a mystic to speak on mysticism. Anyhow I am being permitted to present my Blakeian things at the university. In the 21st century no doubt, the churches will permit this. At least one hopes that.
Nothing is going wrong, only the avalanche and deluge which were distinctly foreseen are coming to manifestation.
Love and blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
Nov. 16, 1969
Mr. Finley Dunne, Jr.
Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Dear Peter and friends:
It is not so much that I am loquacious, as that there is a multiplicity of signs indicating that God Himself so to speak wishes to have His house of prayer for all peoples.
After writing, but not mailing on November 12th I returned to San Francisco very delighted by the joint meetings with my colleague Pir Vilayat Khan. It is also wonderful because Rolland Gammon was my host when I was last in New York in 1960. It would seem today that a number of us are working together toward cosmic love and brotherhood while others are organizing, appealing for public help, especially funds, and establishing rival organizations with the same presumable goals.
Over 40 years ago I challenged the late Ali Khuli Khan of the Baha’i Movement asking what was the difference between having 700 rival churches and sects and 700 rival purported “universal brotherhoods.” Most of these “universal brotherhoods” seem to deny the direct God experience or to restrict it, in acceptance to a few specially privileged persons.
The meeting with Rabbi Shlomo was repeated here last night when his Reverence Thich Thien An suddenly came to this house. The title Thien corresponds to the Japanese Zenshi as spiritual teacher in the meditation school. The result of this and similar incidents indicates that despite all the organizers, very specialized “brotherhoods,” etc., there is a real trend toward practical universality, and I am writing this with total encouragement and a feeling of assurance of your our ultimate success, God-willing.
Love and blessings,
Sam
410 Precita Ave.,
San Francisco, Calif.
November 22, 1969
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D. C. 20036
Beloved Ones of God:
That same mysterious trend which took place last week continues. Within a few days, most loving meetings with a Chassid Rabbi, Vietnamese Master and Hindu teacher of spiritual dancing. And today a meeting with an English lady who has become a Zen Roshi with a meeting any time with a Tibetan Rimpoche who is settled in nearby Berkeley. And on top of that a plan to spread spirituality among the Negroes to lessen the racial tensions from the highest possible aspects.
We have tentatively agreed that the moneys collected in the dancing class are to be reserved for travel for The Temple of Understanding. This work has started out so surprisingly successful that it would be easy to establish a whole institution, and unlike the organizations which verbally proclaim “integration” we practice integration however it be interpreted.
While this is going on my Christian mystic colleague has been entirely successful. He started out a few years ago with about three faithful (some disloyal) disciples and now has eight flourishing centers and more to come. This is one of the few, if not only Christian organization which depends on inner experience and some of them have had that same Christ-experience which is to the end that only The Temple of Understanding can promote peace in the Holy Land and elsewhere.
While I am planning a Vietnam day, chiefly for Vietnamese Buddhism, this has been uncovered in Vietnam itself. They have a program which falls in so much with your own and if you can have made contacts there I shall take it on my shoulders. Besides this, when I do come to Washington, it will include a visit with the top retired general from Vietnam, who is an old colleague.
Legally we have joined full force with Sufi Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan. We wanted to join others but all have refused any references to the great Moghul Emperor Akbar, etc., etc, But the whole trend in the universities is toward integrative (not verbal) integration, and on a massive scale. I see this every day. It is, thank God, beyond me. Brotherhood is not going to come by me-important-leader but through the union of human hearts.
Love and Blessings,
Sam
Dec. 1, 1969
Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C.
Dear friends:
This is just another progress report. You will find a copy of a letter to an old associate who is now in Washington, D.C.
Tonight we are scheduled to entertain some Turkish servicemen who are visiting this city; we shall try to get as much information as possible which may be of value when we go to Istanbul, inshallah.
We have also received some excellent material on Turkish Dervish Dancing which we hope to publish here soon.
Love and blessings,
Sam
Dec. 13, 1969
Mr. Finley P. Dunne, Jr.
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C.
My Dear Peter:
We have not heard from you for some time, but of course it may not yet be in your plans to give us further information regarding the Istanbul convocation. We are working full blast on the assumption that the program will come to pass as scheduled.
There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that much is going to be settled by the young people, and that the so-called “generation gap” is not so much an age division as one between egocentricity and universality. My earlier “Youth of the World Unite; you have nothing to lose” was no doubt reflected in the great “sing-in” which took place in this area a short time back. I believe equally the young people are ready and willing to worship together.
My own group has celebrated the neglected Enlightenment Day of Buddhism. We have just celebrated Chanukah. We are planning a Christ—not a Santa Claus-Christmas here. We are going ahead with the general hymns of all religions as instituted by my colleague Pir Vilayat Khan. And our Dances of Universal Peace are going ahead unabated.
One becomes indifferent, one has to become indifferent, when after working 40 years for world peace through religion, only the Friends accepted my reports. It is most unfortunate that in this land of ours what is called peace can only arise from the suggestion of well-known characters. True, this seldom, if ever, accomplishes anything. This is very difficult because in going over Handel’s “Messiah” the words appear “Every valley shall be exalted and every hill laid low.” Something which traditional religion has rejected practically into to, and in turn will be rejected until it accepts the seriousness of some of the scriptures it presumably reveres.
The class on the new religions is opening up many doors, closed by the prevailing, or rather, the passing-cultures. So long as religion is concerned with doctrine and dogma, quite apart from the teachings of Faith, there is no other way. I cannot compel Christians or Jews to accept literally or even figuratively the shuvo of the Bible. Unfortunately the new faiths are not based always on love compassion, generosity, etc., etc, and more than the conventional groups. It may be saddening; it will be effective.
But I am writing to advise you that our next venture may be the welcoming here of a Sufi from Palestine. This will be most unusual no doubt. Now there is so much concern with the problems of the Near East, which is a double problem. It is a problem of events; it is the problem also which may be called semantic problem—that is the pressure of important persons and groups is more important than sound facts.
For over 40 years I have been advocating international or non-national holy cities. No exceptions. We joined in greeting a man from. Mecca; we joined in greeting a Chassid from Jerusalem, and we will join in greeting a Sufi from Jerusalem. This may not be the conventional pattern, but in the end, I can assure you, the young people will rise in multitudes to transcend the verbal nonsense of prevailing groups.
I may send a few carbons of this letter out, but have become quite pessimistic. I have no intention to try and convince any religious group that “Every valley shall be exalted, and every hill laid lair,” etc. But I can assure you that one of my colleagues, who has put this into practice, has been successful beyond his wildest dreams. Sooner or later the success may bound and rebound, nationally and internationally. The young are not dumb. The young are not irreverent. Current education has no doubt made them assume broader outlooks, and, I believe that they will readily join in a vesture which promotes universal reverence, and by promoting universal reverence will either awaken or shame the traditionalists into more objective stances without depriving them of anything at all.
Faithfully, and with Christmas Greetings,
Sam
Dec. 29, 1969
Mr. Finley P. Dunne Jr.
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D. C. 20036
Dear Peter:
I was very glad to have your news this morning. My own recent experiences with the Turkish visitors to this city fully confirmed your report. As a side issue, it will be far more comforting to be meeting in Geneva, where I cannot only present any program or talk in conformance with the general purposes of The Temple of Understanding, but where I shall be in a position to cooperate even more fully with Pir Vilayat Khan. In the letter attached I refer to research on the religions originally suggested by the late Dr. Henry Atkinson. Among those which he specifically designated was the Taoist outlook. It is droll no doubt to find the Chinese have concluded some understanding on my part of Taoist principles, whereas Westerners who have become “experts” on Taoism have concluded the opposite. The Gita also teaches that those who find action in inaction and inaction in action have truly found.
I have dared to compare a meeting with Pir Vilayat Khan some time back as that between Gurnemanz and Parsifal. I have seen no reason to change this at all. It is certain that consciously or unconsciously Pir Vilayat Khan is promoting the program of universality in spiritual dancing much better than my own ego could have. To quote history as was said of William Pitt the Younger, I have said, “He is not a chip of the old block, he is the old block himself.” For the wonderful thing about Pir Vilayat is that despite the handicaps of prominent birth, expected prowess, etc., etc., he is accomplishing things in and of his own right, in and by his own prowess, which to me is most marvelous.
In a summation there seems to be no question that the young, our young America, will accept more and more the aims, purposes and objectives of The Temple of Understanding, and I await in “excitable” anticipation further information or news from you.
With all love and blessings
Sam
Jan. 19, 1970
Temple of Understanding
Washington, D.C.
Dear Peter and Friends:
I should appreciate it very much if you could send me some kind of information as to when the international conference will be held. I am not so concerned about the place or any details, but it is impressible at this time to arrange any lasting schedule. I have been variously invited to London, New England, Cornell University, the Boston are complex, New Mexico, etc. And it is most difficult to establish any program at this writing.
While I am enclosing a copy of letter to a former employer, I can assure you that the present potentialities are much greater than anything verbalized therein. In fact, my own brother lays before me a program which, if it can be successfully instituted, would enable me to put in full time and effort and perhaps more.
The second meeting with Vilayat filled our auditorium to absolute capacity and made him feel very happy. He also feels that I am taking a lead off of him by appearing at the forthcoming conference. Last night our dance program was enhanced by the appearance of an Indian lady who is quite well acquainted with the art forms both of the north and south of Indian and also of the Islamic communities. And tomorrow morning, inshallah, I am having breakfast with an Arab citizen of Israel to whom I think I have referred in the letter to the Smiths enclosed.
Love and Blessings,
Sam
The Temple of Understanding, Inc.
January 28, 1970
Dear Sam,
We are very happy to have your acceptance of our invitation to be a participant in the second Spiritual Summit Conference.
I enclose herewith the Conference program as it currently stands, hoping you will give thought to the subjects with which you particularly wish to concern yourself.
We need to know as soon as possible what travel arrangements you are making and what actions the Temple of Understanding needs to take regarding them. We also need to know answers to such questions as to whether you would be willing to share a double room at the Intercontinental Hotel with another participant.
Please let us hear from you as soon as possible. With warmest regards.
Sincerely,
Peter
The purpose of The Temple of Understanding is to construct a building in Washington, D.C., to be a symbol of understanding among the major religions of the world and through education in them, to further man’s awareness of his essential brotherhood.
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, 94110
February, 6, 1970
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D. C. 20036
My dear Peter:
It is with great delight that I have your letter of the 28th. I am hoping to have with me my secretary Mansur Otis Johnson who, as I have told you before, has been a pupil of our good friend Dr. Huston Smith, and also became very close to him. At the moment we will plan to fly as quickly as possible (or convenient) from here to Geneva, stopping on our way back, first to London, and then at various places on or near the Atlantic seaboard. At the moment these definitely include the Boston-Charleston areas, Cornell and Pittsburgh Universities, Washington itself, and perhaps Philadelphia (Temple and U. of Penn.). But this matter of return will be discussed with you and much will depend on the aftermath of the conference.
As to the speakers and program, I am delighted. As to my own personal point of views I only know two ways to bring about peace (there may be others), love and business or trade. I see nothing whatever but confusion arising from the various dialectical philosophies, economist and anti-communist and non-communist, or emotional oratory and “the tyranny of words.” Now I feel like Perry Mason, who takes advantage of the prosecution to open testimony. I think I have had two days off since my vacation last year, which was to establish one free day a weak. I am lucky to get an hour off, but the time is coming when mystics will be allowed to testify on it is certainly happening here in the universities. It is not happening with rare exceptions, in the churches, and new age cults, mutually exclusive. One is functioning continuously in a high state of consciousness, making this possible. True, my work is very varied: gardening, scientific-scientific research, spiritual writing, lectures and classes, and most particular, the “Dances of Universal Peace.”
If I have anything to say it will be to mention the Great Moghul Emperor Akbar who did so much to endeavor to bring recognition between one faith and another. This has simply not been permitted here. Especially by those whom I call “the good people.” Actually it is ridiculous. Akbar worked all the time, and seldom slept at all. The state of super-consciousness is posited as theory by a lot of people and those who do not have it simply will not recognize it in others, which does not matter at all. When one reaches a certain state he may go on interminably. In fact, I am lecturing this Sunday on the Taittiriya Upanishad, having in view the actualization of the super-conscious or super-conscient, if you are a follower of Sri Aurobindo, and no nonsense, actual experience.
I am now on excellent terms with the professors of Oriental Religions in the universities in this region, and there is no question that they shall open the doors for me after peregrination to Geneva, inshallah.
I notice that youth is mentioned. I have been drawing constantly enlarging audiences of young people who want truth and experience, and not dialectics and logistics. The very fact that their elders have so universally turned me down has become a great though unfortunate boon. Dr, Richard Alpert who in several senses is now my colleague has been drawing very large audiences, and collecting very large sums, almost entirely from the young, and they certainly are turning in thousands of dollars. This is no doubt indicative of what is coming. Both Dr. Alpert (Baba Ram Dass) and others are collecting materials on the actual spiritual practices of the actual mystical schools of the day, and no nonsense from dialectical European-educated or mis-educated “experts.”
Today I received a copy of Krishna: Myths, Rites, and Attitudes. I already have now two Krishna-Radha dances; one Hare Krishna dance with variations, and continually growing numbers of dances dedicated to Ram and Shiva, a strange panorama of inspirations coming to a Sufi, but strictly in the genre of the ignored Emperor Akbar. These have also been asked for now by two institutions in greater Los Angeles.
All the above will be synthesized no doubt this coming summer in the state of New Mexico where a new type of society is manifesting, based on actual spiritual principles and practice, not sermonized karma yoga.
Well, for an old fellow my health is very good, finances seem to be under control, and after over 40 years patient waiting, inshallah, I may be able to present a program of universal harmonization which does not require the constituents to give up anything to unite in a universal harmony.
With all love and blessing and the possibility of this being followed up as soon as convenient.
Love and Blessings,
Sam
410 Precita
February 17, 1970
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036
Dear Friends,
Having the note from Peter Finley I realize you may be very busy but I am hoping the request for two persons, one double room at the Intercontinental Hotel will go through. Does this have to be confirmed by us? Or by travel agent?
I am very pleased that you have selected The Practical Requirements for World Peace as your topic. For forty years I did research for the World Church peace Union when the late Dr. Henry Atkinson was alive. Neither his successors nor any church has accepted these reports, and excepting the Friends and the Unitarian-Universalist Church in New York, one has been almost universally snubbed. And now the moral law is in operation. Already one has a summer school offered him to do as he would, and offers to publish his writings and findings. It can almost be said that the Generation Gap is working, that the “establishment” people are afraid, and the young welcome. This is wrong, but so long as the churches reject that “every valley shall be exalted, and every hill laid low,” etc. I do not see how this can be changed. Too many want to change others.
I am sending a copy of this to the American Friends of the Middle East, no longer with any expectations but with a door open. I had planned and still plan a meeting wherein Arabs who have been or are citizens of Israel and people who have lived in Israel and withdrew for any reason can come together without a number of State Department official, newspaper experts and other speech-makers making long harangues, ending in another Kellogg-Briand pact. But God evidently favors this for I have found a new neighbor here, another Arab who was forced out of Israel and yet is on bad terms with other Arabs because he will not, cannot hate anybody.
So long as churches refuse to grand interviews, I do not see how they can claim to be working for peace. Excepting for the carbons of this I have no more time to ask any church anything—too many young coming to me at all levels and at all times. One continues to give lectures on and for the World Scriptures based on something more than dialectics.
When it comes to “intercommunication among the religions” which is Judith’s topic, no man on earth has been more successful and no man on earth has been more spurned, but that day is over. In an extreme case we have seen the visit of Dr. Richard Alpert, travelling as Baba Ram Dass, addressing thousands of young people and collecting thousands upon thousands of dollars, and not a word in the press.
I am for your (or our) program. Every bit of it. But I am a Pragmatist and mean to do, not just verbalize.
Love and blessings,
Sam
410 Precita
Feb. 20, 1970
Dorothy Rapp
Temple of Understanding
Beloved One of God:
Thank you for your note of the 14th. Yesterday the first steps were taken for passage for Mr. Johnson and myself so that we might arrive in Geneva on the 30th.
In the same mail I have received my Diner’s Club International Directory and the International (among others) is one of these which accept their credit cards. We have assumed that you may be booking our room and we will be paying for it.
We are also arranging to copy notes accumulated over a number of years originally intended to be presented at a conference of the World Church Peace Union many years past. The conference never took place. The notes still held good, and many more have been added. All of those should be of interest to The Temple of Understanding whether they are presented at the conference or not.
Our present plans include flying to Geneva almost direct—short stop-over in New York. Then if it is advisable or necessary we can come to Washington or visit other places on the Asian tic see bound later.
Love and Blessing,
Samuel L. Lewis
February 27, 1970
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, California 94110
Dear Mr. Lewis:
You will forgive me for not having come nowhere near matching your magnificent outflow of literary letters. I read them all with greatest interest, and then shudder and quail before the magnificent flood tides of words which I could not hope to equal.
Let me say now only that we are indeed happy to look forward to your participating in the Second Spiritual Summit Conference. I have just returned after two weeks in Geneva, where I was making arrangements of various kinds. Like everybody else in Europe, I caught the flu which still has me wobbling a little one legs, but the spirit is still willing even if the flesh is a weak.
We have reserved a double room for you and Mr. Johnson for the night of March 30 and thereafter. We shall be delighted that you will be paying for the room. This is only because the majesty of our concepts is not matched by our bank account.
I shall be looking forward to you and seeing you in action. I suspect we are both happy members of the Pragmatist Club. With best wishes
Sincerely,
Peter
March 2, 1970
Mr. Finley P. Dunne
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Conn. Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
My dear Peter:
Thank you for your letter of the 27th. Perhaps some discipline through the years and real Zen training promotes the ability to take advantage of every moment. Actually, I have not had any days off, but Mr. Johnson and I did go to Southern California to complete our responsibilities in that region.
Whether it is the grace of God, or natural good health, to which must be added the marvelous weather encountered all along so far this year, one is in very high spirits. There has been nothing but encouragement in every direction. In addition to that, I have found that the Hotel in Geneva, and also the one booked for in London belong to the Diners’ Club International Directory. So it would appear we shall be financially fortified on the trip throwing responsibilities nowhere else.
The only complication in considering all things, which is very little, is that my brother has been very ill for a long time. Either his recovery or demise would be most helpful, and this may terminate any extended tour.
I shall be visiting the offices of “Studies in Comparative Religion” in London. These are the colleagues of our good friend Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr of Teheran. Also a group of young people who seem to resemble remarkably the youth of this region. Their headquarters in London is called Gandalf’s Garden, and they are arranging for me to lecture, or even to teach.
But the same thing is true of many sections in this country now. I do not have the time to answer all inquiries, for a summer school has been offered at the Lama Foundation in the northern part of New Mexico, where I shall be teaching and writing and prepare for further work in this country especially. But my program will also be affected by the proceedings at Geneva, and by any personal requests from Mrs. Judith or your good self.
Love and blessings,
Sam
March 9, 1970
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
My dear Peter and friends:
This is a progress report which, I think from the contents, you will find quite in order. I shall buy my ticket this week, leaving here for Geneva on the 28th which means a stopover in New York City for Easter Sunday and am writing the Universalist Unitarian Church in regard to attendance at a service there. Presumable plans are going to London at the end of the Geneva conferences, then to Boston, and then to San Francisco. It is beyond my immediate financial capacity to visit other places and even less within the time capacity. There is going to be review of the status of the relation of my brother and myself and the family estate, and therefore my return could easily lead to financial benefit among other things.
I have received a letter of introduction to the Indian delegation. But I have already chosen to carry with me a small brochure of Vice-President Giri, which may be very handy for the occasion (I also have with me a booklet of quotations which could be helpful).
But the main reason for writing is the wonderful outlook now for “The Dances of Universal Peace.” An educational television station has shown interest. This came right after my talk to what I call “the family” of disciples, that from now on in life privacy would be a luxury. The first filming definitely impressed the station. This week both my homes shall be visited by photographers and sound men. Also, understand they will send a team to photo etc our Spring Festival which will be an exhibition of “Dances of Universal Peace.”
I have also received a very nice letter of apology from the local protestant Episcopal cathedral. They have always avoided giving me an interview, but then so has everybody else. But there is always a hope that children, in this sense, can grow up. It is therefore possible that they will open the doors for my report on returning. All of this, and more, encourages optimism. But I wish to work in harmony with the staff and chief participants, believing that God Himself uses human kind as instruments for His benign purposes.
Love and Blessing,
Sam
Intercontinental Hotel, Geneva
April 11, 1970
Dear Peter and Friends:
In a more sober hour one writes not an “evaluation” but a prospectus for the future of the Temple. An evaluation assume some sort of private prowess. We have moved in three circles of people with universal outlooks. The danger is that despite their purposes and claims they do not always recognize the existence of each other. One is not called upon to make them accept each other. The Bible says “all rivers flow into the sea” but rivers do not for the most part flow into each other. And some of the worthies of the convocation are either now in Great Britain or will be here and carry on.
Gandalf’s Garden is the home of the young “Hippies” of universal outlook and there someone has quoted from Joel that old man will have dreams and young man visions (or the opposite). I think this is important. My chief negative note at Geneva—and this does not concern the events but the sideshows—was that people who would not dare say anything to a great person like Dr. Radhakrishnan criticized this comparatively unknown for exactly the same outlooks and words. So long as there is “noblesse oblige” and personality kowtowing there is not understanding. And besides this it will not now attract money. I think money can be attracted toward the edifice; I do not believe it can be attracted toward any sort of personal aggrandizement or belittling. “Every valley shall be exalted, an every hill laid low.” We cannot at the same time uphold the “truths” of the World’s Faiths and contradict them.
The chief request would be to have the names of the person or committee to whom suggestions and reports are to sent, thus relieving Washington correspondence, either to Father Haughey or others.
Tonight we sup with Muz Murray, who is in a sense the “guru” of the young new age people. There is a fair sprinkling of seniors among this group. He seems very close to Pir Vilayat who will be here shortly to conduct a conference. There is generally a good feeling about this conference. A report of any progress or a success would, I believe, be better presented to Father Haughey, or alternate, to those who will be concerned with the efforts of other groups in the same direction as The Temple of Understanding, or who may actually be persuaded to join it. Anyhow we shall plant some bugs tonight we hope.
Faithfully,
Sam
410 Precita Ave.
April 26, 1970
Mrs. Judith Hollister
The Temple of Understanding
Greenwich, Conn.
My dear Judith,
There is no question that the attendance at the conference in Geneva will have become a turning point in life. Sometimes there exists within one hidden faculties and potentialities. Even to make the slightest assertion is regarded by what are now called “establishments” as sign of gross egotism. The way things have turned out there is a growing demand for the writing of one’s own autobiography.
This whole thing can be summarized in the phrase, “The stone which is rejected is become the cornerstone.” One cannot compel religionists to accept their own scriptures. If they do not they are doomed by the very moral law they acclaim but seldom practice. This is a New Age of objective honesty, a New Age in which hypocrisy will be barred; a New Age in which whatsoever one claimer he will have to live himself and not demand from others.
If I had returned here to start a destructive movement of any kind all the press would have been in attendance to see crowds of youth welcoming their “Guru.” And one thing is certain and that is that my young followers are full of light and life and élan vital which will become the wonder when stress is made upon facts and actualities. Everything on this trip turned out beautifully as if there were a cosmic moral law in operation, and maybe there is. I have no doubt whatsoever that we are going to have a Temple of Understanding and a temple with understanding.
The invention of the symphony did not terminate the use of solo compositions. The grand orchestra of the day has not abolished the musical instruments, but has used than. And I am very thankful indeed that there was no proclamation of any verbal “universal religion” which only proclaims some ego and abolishes devotion and piety. Those things have to be renovated and not destroyed, and the young will do just that.
My first theme at the conference was peace in Palestine, and I received help from the outset. At the end of the conference I was approached by two different persons with practical measures to bring this about; to end this pious hypocrisy of wishing and begging which operate as if they were constructive values.
Our last night in London was amazingly successful, so such so that we hope to visit England again, perhaps in two years. Our last night in Boston was so successful that we plan to return in the Autumn. The young are hungry and looking. They do not want any more barren leadership. They do not want any more religions which reject their own scriptures. They will accept Christ; they will accept Buddha; they will accept Mohammed; but they will not accept hypocrisy and ignorance. Some churches realize this.
I think Mansur and I were perhaps the only ones at Geneva who could and did have cordial communications and relations with all 14 groups who participated in the united prayer. And it was like a miracle that those personalities whom I personally felt were the best fitted to become the leaders, were the very personalities selected to lead. Or as one of my spiritual mentors said, “Leader is he who is leader of himself.”
When I reached London there was a cable announcing the death of my brother. This man devoted his life to placing barriers before me and was externally successful. There was nothing else to do but try Lord Buddha’s moral principles as laid down in the very neglected Buddhist scriptures. I can assure you this operation, this attitude, was successful.
I have no doubt that a number of organizations which have adamantly refused interviews and information will be glad to share my potential forthcoming wealth. If today I overlooked their attitudes I should be losing respect of the young. Surprisingly, several of the leaders tried to convert me to their own points of view without any consideration of my past or knowledge or research or anything. This included some very wonderful personalities whom I deeply love and venerate. But this is a New Age, an age in which real honesty, morality, and objectivity will dominate.
About a month from now I expect to go to the state of New Mexico. In the northern part of that state there are a number of communes, spiritual and not spiritual; there are a number of spiritual movements, communal and not communal. There is one thing clear and that is that the young wish to worship together and will not accept traditional barriers. Many will accept traditional religions, traditional rituals, traditional worships, but they will not adept barrier. It is those people who are sending for me to become their Guru, so to speak. And it is with and among such people that there is a possibility of establishing a model Temple of Understanding without asking for external aid.
In another sense either God is with me or there is a real moral law which really operates. Not only does it appear that my income is going up, but also that the various incomes of my several disciple is also on the increase. And the presentation of Dances of Universal Peace, frowned upon by the various exponents of separative groups, are going ahead full blast. So I see nothing but hope and possibilities here.
Therefore as matters stand we should be in attendance of all further convocations of The Temple of Understanding and also to give full cooperation in whatever and wherever such cooperation is important—this to be determined by the new board so wisely selected and not by us. With all love and blessings and best wishes,
Sam
May 9, 1970
Mr. Finley P. Dunne Jr.
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C.
My dear Peter:
It is said in the Bible that unless the Lord buildeth a house, they labor in vain who build, but I have a strong feeling that the divinity, by whatever name we may call Him, is in favor of our common efforts.
Last night I gave my only public address at this time on The Temple of Understanding. The audience was composed almost entirely of young people, not only my own followers but strangers were there. Indeed the small number of mature people there were also old friends. I made it clear at this time that I was not seeking any sort of help, but the promoter of these occasions was so pleased he wants me to appear again.
The only point to mention here is that I told them and I tell you now what was inferred at Geneva that we are prepared to construct a model in northern New Mexico this summer. It will not be an architectural model, it will be an operative model to be used for prayer, meditation, and devotion, by individual or by group. Indeed if we had a picture of the proposed model we might even make it something like that.
I tell you Peter, that the basis of the present revolution in this country is spiritual and not political or even economic. It has been coming for a long time. It is a revolution which sociologists and economists of all camps, decry, because it is not going their own way. Even now some of the churches in this city realize this. One of the simplest of simple facts is that youth wishes to worship with other youth. They do not wish to be divided from each other; Love, brotherhood, and devotion can became empty terms if they are not operative.
I only have a small time before leaving here to conduct a summer school in the state of New Mexico. There is a limited enrollment and the director would rather I meet new faces. This is all the more welcome because I wish to cooperate in full with Pir Vilayat Khan who is planning his own summer camp in the state of Arizona. Even now some of my disciples are busy in this direction. We are hoping to have a really large camp, though it will be of short duration. Pir Vilayat will also visit this city during my absence, etc.
I am also only giving another talk here to divinity students, and will also try to present the matters concerning The Temple of Understanding to the San Francisco Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian institution to the north, not far from my general headquarters.
I am particularly concerned with the beatitudes of Jesus Christ and now am prepared to conduct a form of meditation basically Zen (and no nonsense) but using these beatitudes as the subject matter.
There is another situation now working in my behalf. Forty years effort for the world Church Peace Union, and more recent endeavors for The Temple of Understanding have not brought me interviews from any local cleric excepting Bishop Hanayama. Even those verbally attached to The Temple of Understanding have refused interviews. Seizing the opportunities in Geneva, I am working for a peace program for the Near East, and in the past weeks all signs report progress. Indeed, my friends are now operative, and they are asking why clerics have refused me interviews. I am pleased to say there is a break, enough of a break to keep me occupied until I leave for New Mexico.
On the other hand, all the university professors contacted have been favorable. Those purportedly working for peace seem also to be working for understanding, and thus for “The Temple of Understanding”. I feel that the present dramatic situation may be resolved at a higher level in the direction of real peace, in the direction of the semantization of the beatitudes of Lord Jesus Christ.
Love and Blessings,
Sam
The Temple of Understanding
May 11, 1970
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, California 94110
Dear Sam:
I want you to know that I am very much aware of you and your very valuable activities. As you know, our major objective is to try to bring about better understanding among the religious traditions of the world, and this means understandings at every level, from the senior priesthood to the masses of adherents of the religions.
Essentially, we hope that people belonging to any religion, including Christianity, will develop some comprehension of the basic doctrines and the underlying sanctity of other religions. Of course, this does not mean that we are asking them to abandon their own inherent doctrines. Far from it, we suppose that understanding of Buddhism by a Christian will make him a better Christian, or at least a more thoughtful one.
You yourself have been something of an explorer among the world’s religions, a universalist (not capitalized), and a scholar. Your scholarship is potentially very important to us, and I want you to know that we respect it deeply. I thought you contributed a great deal to the conference in Geneva, as did Dr. Benz, Dr. Jurji, Dr. Ariga, and the others who were there, not as representatives of particular religions, but because of their scholarship, to help us evaluate what developed and to guard us against erroneous conclusions and unwise policy decisions. It would be very helpful to us if you would give us your personal overview of the Geneva Conference.
I just received the copy of your letter to Princess Poon. I have no idea to what you refer when you suggest that “a representative of lust, greed, and anger” was named to become more active for The Temple of Understanding. Perhaps you would be good enough to let me know about this in a confidential manner.
The purpose of The Temple of Understanding is to construct a building in Washington, D.C., to be a symbol of understanding among the major world religion and through education in them further man’s awareness of his essential brotherhood.
Last week I had the pleasure of calling on Dean Krister Stendahl at Harvard, who told me you had reported to him on the Geneva Conference. He is as much impressed as I am by your extraordinary epistolary gifts.
Finally, I am sorry to hear about the death of your brother, but glad that you will now have enough funds to carry out your work in a creative and productive fashion. One way you might help things along would be to send a contribution to The Temple of Understanding. The Conference cost us a good deal more than we anticipated, and we are in great need of operating funds at the present time. I wonder whether you have any suggestions for fund-raising in the Bay Area?
Please let me hear from you. I shall be participating in a very substantial WESAK at the Buddhist Vihara here in Washington on May 16. I thought you might be interested in the news release we have published about it.
with warmest regards,
Sincerely,
Peter
PS. In all of the above, I failed to answer any part of your kind letter of April 10, from London—mea culpa. I don’t know how exactly to answer your question as to when it may be most beneficial, from the standpoint of The Temple of Understanding, for you to come this way. The best thing might be for you to plan according to your own convenience, and let us know. I think you’ll have a good and interesting summer in New Mexico. I can’t find Lama on the map. Could it be in Alma, in my beautiful white mountains: Mogollon Mountains?
May 18, 1970
Mr. Finley P. Dunne Jr.
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C.
My Dear Peter:
I want to thank you for your letter of the 11th. I feel it is a duty to report in full without asking for too much in return. I am at the moment rather free in a geographical sense, and tomorrow will know better how much more free I shall be in a financial sense.
There is one negative note and it need not be referred to again. There have been, especially in this area, but also occasionally elsewhere, pretenders and superficial scholars who have been bolstered as “experts” so that the public is under the impression they have accumulated a vast amount of knowledge. I forego naming them. Once, one of them arose at a meeting dedicated to Mohammed Iqbal and said “I am very glad to come here to address you on the greatest of all Asian poets, Rabindranath Tagore.” Silence. A few weeks later a prominent citizen began a meeting in praise of this celebrity. A small voice from the back of the hall arose, “But papa was wrong, papa was wrong on every single item.” The young girl walked forwards addressed the audience and pointed seriatim where the learned gentleman was wrong. He was never called upon again. I think we can leave the dead bury the dead.
I am amazed and delighted with the reactions of Lowell Ditzen to one of my spiritual poems. He has offered to co-operate about it being published. While I am delighted, I am for the moment far more concerned with peace in the Near East and the building of The Temple of Understanding. I am, however, sending Lowell a copy of the cosmic poem which preceded the one sent to him. There is a possibility of this being published with still a third poem, all in the interest of promoting peace in the Near East. I am also fanatical in this, and have sidestepped any demonstration of news or knowledge concerning the peoples of Southeast Asia for this reason. Also as a gentleman, I wish to cover up some of the sadder events in the life of Her Serene Highness Princess Poon Diskul. We can let the dead bury their dead. I am very happy that Lowell participated in Wesak Day.
I am a sort of historian of Buddhism in this country. Buddhism offers a most superior ethic; with Buddhists it is often otherwise. The best Wesak celebrations here also have been in Christian edifices, and I think there is something very significant in this. Mansur and I visited the Vihara in London, also a Rinzai Zen Temple, also Marco Pallis, and the Royal Asiatic Society, and World Congress of Faiths. Nothing but satisfaction all along the line.
Yes Peter, I hope to establish a model at Lama in New Mexico. I want to present to the young people there all the things for which Judith and you stand. I am becoming more and more confident. Everything here is growing: number of adherents, number in audience, and a constant flow of creative activities so stupendous they make one’s head spin. This is a real New Age when we look deeply into it.
Next morning. It was necessary to stop suddenly, and in the ensuing hours much has happened. I had occasion to write to Senator Ribicoff this morning because of his remarks on the generation gap, but I did this also because he is Jewish. At long last a local Rabbi has assented to an interview. Fortunately, before our appointment I received a telephone call that an Arab, who is a citizen of Israel is returning here shortly to try to arrange some sort of meeting to be attended by Jewish people of several views, some Arabs, and some Christians. This led me to have a short conference climaxing the efforts of Mr. Norman Laurie. Norman gave me a whole half-day after the conference; it was marvelous. Fortunately the willingness of Rabbi Spicehandler to change his attitudes and views for the sake of peace and a universality in God, was most marked and wonderful, and this may enable us to accomplish something both useful and pragmatic.
Although I did not mail the letter yet to Lowell (carbon enclosed) I think I shall now enclose to him the Jewish epic written before “What Christ? What Peace?” Actually it is astounding and wonderful to find oneself accepted after years of almost absolute rejection in one’s own milieu. But now I am going forward with hopefulness and self-assurance and wish to follow this us by activities and accomplishments.
Many of my disciples are now getting ready to go to Pir Vilayat’s short summer camp. We have every assurance that this will be a success, and it will affect my mark when I return. The main question to me is how to cooperate fully with others, not to get off the handle, and not to got the ego so far forward that it may stand in the light of the full accomplishment of The Temple of Understanding.
Love and Blessings,
Sam
May 28, 1970
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, California 94110
Dear Sam:
I agree with you that it is news when a man bites a dog. That is why I always bite dogs, and when the K-9 corps sees me come, they scurry to shelter. I have asked them to change from German Shepherds to Dachshunds, as the latter are much tastier.
I don’t know what to do about the people in various religions, including Islam, who are determined that their particular form of religion is the only one that has any value. You may remember that both Sir Zafrulla Khan and Dr. Sami Makarem were attacked at Geneva as not representative Muslims. My rule is that anybody who has the necessary credentials, and who says he is a Muslim, is a Muslim. I say I am Christian, although if you tried to decide it on the basis of attendance at church on Sunday, you would have a hard time proving it. So I say, let the dajjalists go jump in the lake at Disneyland.
As for God, I find myself rejecting the notion that He belongs to any one sect. If He is a God worthy of our worship, He has to be God of all mankind. Once one gets that firmly established, one will have no difficulty in feeling love for people of vastly different political, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.
Incidentally, I will be interested to see some of the films you have been doing. As you may know, John Haughey and his working team are exploring the possibilities of a whole series of movies about the world religions, perhaps to go on TV, perhaps to be shown in high schools. There is no firm unifying theme as far as I know, but we must eventually arrive at one. Let us know about any of the material that you and Dr. Warwick are developing out there. We would like to see it.
The purpose of The Temple of Understanding is to construct a building in Washington, D.C., to be a symbol of understanding among the major religions of the world and through education in them, to further man’s awareness of his essential brotherhood.
From what you tell me about Lama, I would love to be there with you. If your location is where I think it is, it is lovely country. I hope you will all have a chance to pay a visit to the Zuni Pueblo and that you will come upon a Navajo girl in velvet jacket, multiple skirts, deerskin moccasins, silver belt, and turquoise necklace and earrings, herding her sheep and goats from a pinto pony. You suddenly see life in a different perspective.
Blessings on you, and let us hear from you again.
Sincerely,
Peter
PS. I enclose a picture of the architect’s model for The Temple of Understanding: 6 wings, for 6 “major” religions. I have an idea this will change to something more flexible, so that the religions of mankind may all be included.
Box 444,
San Cristobal, NM 87564
June 7, 1970
Temple of Understanding
Finley P. Dunne
1346 Conn. Ave. NW
Washington, D.C.
My dear Peter:
Your last letter to me was evidently delivered to the right time and the right place. Here they have already built a meditation room, so to speak, with some of the architecture of the Amerindian kiva. And the basic ceremonies derived from Hebraic and Indian sources—I mean East Indian. There is a meditation every morning at 6, each meditating in his own fashion. At 7 we all meet and have a sort of service: a silence, Essene prayer, a Buddhist yoga practice and a chant which is selected by the person in charge. I think already we have had chants from all the great religions.
Under the circumstances there has been no problem about presenting the ideas for The Temple of Understanding. In fact it has been the other way around. One enterprising person has suggested that if the youth of the land can congregate to hold protest meetings against, why can’t they have protest meetings for. They say if you can furnish the ground for a meeting they would do all the rest.
Today marks a change in my life. The difference between a Sufi and some other people is that they have a telephone to God. The Sufi also has a phone to God but he also has one from God. It is only a little over three years when I was flat on the hospital bed and the voice of God came and said, “I make you spiritual teacher of the hippies.” I was flat on my back and remained so for a few days. During that time I had visions of the growth of my work from six to thirty disciples, from thirty to sixty and from sixty to hundred. Then the intimation that my private career would be over. It is certain today that my disciples are working with the Holy Man’s Jamboree in the San Francisco area, and for the first time I find myself personally the object of a pilgrimage.
The dominant aspect of this pilgrimage is to witness and participate in Dances of Universal Peace. But I shall certainly seize the opportunity to speak constructively for The Temple of Understanding. The doors are also open in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. I have a very good friend and colleague, Dr. Archie Bahm, at the university. The result of either of these events in this state and in the San Francisco area mean that I shall be called on to work on a larger scale. Fortunately, praise to God, my income is ample for myself alone. It will be necessary to work on a much larger scale and for this some kind of organization will be necessary. I once wanted to help the “World Congress of Faithsᾀ? who put me under a man rather famous who did nothing. I refuse henceforth to be under anybody famous or not famous who does nothing.
The other morning before your letter arrived I had one of those grand inspirations: to write my commentary on St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians. I have lectured on this work at a San Francisco Seminary but would address the commentary to our good friend, Lowell Ditzen. You see, St. Paul says man has three bodies and Hindu metaphysics says man has three bodies. When I broached this to Huston Smith. and asked, “Don’t you realize that both Christianity, or rather Paul, and the Hindus are giving us the same truth?” Now, of course, Huston is in sanctuary. We have to go to the Boston area in the Autumn on other but quite related affairs about which I shall keep you informed.
Film. Working separately, our good friend Vilayat Khan and my disciples had started the filming of my dances and parallel achievements first of the Buddhists and Hassidic Jews (with both of whom we are on good terms.) We joined forces. Unfortunately, a man who was close to us socially horned in on the deal and has in my absence turned it in to a promotional racket, leaving the doors open for those very Dajjals against which you have correctly written.
My next grand inspiration after that concerning St. Paul above was that glorious emotions solve no problems. Nearly all the new cults and religious movements or anti-religious movements seem to be based upon the hypothesis that if you have a grand emotion you can save the world and yourself. Unfortunately, the grand emotionalists only agree in that they call this state expansion of consciousness. It is no more expansion of consciousness and no less than dry ice becoming carbon dioxide gas. Glorious emotionalizing has nothing to do with the spirit at all.
I think it is on this point I must agree with you entirely that religion in practice must be based on some form of devotionalism and not emotionalism. My present objection to Christianity is that the Bible begins, “In the beginning, God.” And religionists begin, “I believe.” I don’t know where this “I” came in. I don’t know where it started or how it started; but certainly my proposed commentary on St. Paul’s Corinthians is based on the assumption that we have a valid Scripture given by a man who has told us his own basic experience which led to his missions, literary pilgrimistic.
I have twice completed my Buddhist training: once before Roshi Sogen Asahina in Engaku-ji Temple in Kamakura, Japan; and once before Master Seo Kyung Bo of Korea, when he was staying in San Francisco. I haven’t the slightest doubt that Philip Kapleau would have accepted the experiences. But I do not know whether he would have accepted the remarks, the actually same remarks, given by two Buddhist masters of two races at two different times: If you want to realize Zen in the fullness, complete your realization of Jesus Christ. It is quite evident on this point that the world’s top masters don’t always agree with the experts.
I myself have found it possible to worship with all peoples. What is largely missing in Christianity today are techniques and not Billy Graham’s emotional outpours. My work for the coming season will be in the restoration or renovation of the symphony-antiphony responses similar to those of the early Christians. Jesus Christ himself said, “I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.” In the name of fulfilling the Dajjals come to destroy. There are untapped values in the ceremonies of many, maybe all, religions. The way cathedrals are built, the possible echoes and re-echoes from chanting and singing have endless latent values. I don’t think mankind can improve on them. Architects may be just as inspired as clergy men and poets. What we are proposing is to revive, to resurrect, to reawaken, only we are doing this through the dance without replacing any earlier forgotten or by-passed methods.
My Buddhist training of recent years has been in the Avatamsaka (Kegon) School. The principle teaching of this is that the Divine Light is in everybody. Just compare it with the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John. Fortunately, some of the young people here have also discovered this. What good is there to replace; we may be fulfilling and fulfilling isn’t going to hurt anybody’s prejudices.
Vilayat has proposed a Universal Worship, involving elements from ell religions in a rather ritualistic manner. Here the young people have already put into operation the same principles which leaves everyone free for his own divine inspirations, and it is marvelous. I do not wish to impose anything here, buy rather report something that is being done with success. As I reach more young people here I shall be able to report with more details. I think The Temple of Understanding is in full accord with the spirit of the age, and if we can channel the energies of the young constructively to this end there will be an achievement. Or, as written before, if we held the next conference in this country, we can easily get caravans. I think I have already written Heidi on this subject, etc.
The young people here like the plan for the temple. The reaction was much more favorable than that given at Geneva.
Love and Blessings,
Sam
The Temple of Understanding
July 28, 1970
Dear Sam:
This is such a long overdue answer to your excellent letter of April 26th, and I apologize. But after the Geneva Conference I came home to a very severe attack of bursitis, making it impossible for me to use my right arm for almost a month. Then this was followed by a visit of our married daughter from Japan and her little daughter, our first grandchild, whom we had not seen. And so it’s only now I’m finally catching up with the huge backlog of mail.
But you won’t mind because by now you are in New Mexico, and I am sure your mind is on many other things. As I wrote young Chotsy Wallace recently, it was wonderful to meet you at last in Geneva, and aside from your obvious knowledge, you exhibited a quality that instantly endeared you to me, a sense of joy! The large lovely twinkle in your eye across the crowded room read to me, “Maybe no one else in this crowd understands you, Judith, or sees your particular vision—but I do!” And who, especially one as inadequate and basically slay (which no one believes, but it’s true) as myself, doesn’t need such a twinkle with such a message at such a moment?
We so longed to have more of the young there. That is as it should be, and I share your feelings about them. But again (contrary to what many suppose), we are not millionaires. My husband and I live simply, and I am the cook, waitress and cleaning lady. The Temple of Understanding does not find it simple to raise funds to build. Large sums, as you know, are generally in the hands of the “Establishment”, and they feel we are anti-Establishment. So it goes. But something (?) saves us in the nick of time, when we sometimes don’t know how to pay the rent!!
Now, Sam, a question. If you were to scan the world, from Brooklyn to Bangkok, to choose the most dynamic religious (?) seers who could talk to the American student, whom would you suggest? You know the field far better than I, and I’d appreciate your suggestion.
If Chotsy is near, or your young companion Mansur, give them both a bear-hug from me. We’ll keep in touch, and let’s hope your summer is the real spiritual adventure I suspect it will be. Again, so glad you came to Geneva—you contributed more than you know.
Cordially,
Judith
Novato, Calif. 94947
July 30, 1970
Finley Dunne
Temple of Understanding
Dear Peter: In re Chet Huntley.
During the years when this now retiring commentator lived in Southern California we were constantly crossing each other’s trails.
His last efforts were to try to convince me to join a movement which claimed to unite all religions. I was unable to join this movement, because it ignored the simple fact that there were other groups also trying to unite all religions. But the fact remains that Chet had and I believe he still has a universal outlook. This may give you an idea of inviting him to further gatherings under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding. I do not wish to undertake this myself owing to the load of work on my hands of which the copy of letter enclosed gives an example. But this also may be a suggestion to you.
Love and blessings,
Samuel
August 3, 1970
Mr. Finley P. Dunne, Jr.
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
My dear Peter:
This is an unusually bright Monday morning. My meetings, though small, are getting larger and larger. I had visitors yesterday from three parts of the country asking me to visit their respective areas. The one to the Southwest will be delayed until Winter, but those on the East coast are receiving more consideration. In the meanwhile long distance telephone calls that I am wanted in Portland, Oregon, and in Los Angeles, and at least so-called underground personalities have informed me they are coming here.
I fact the only kind of oppositions are amusing—A. the Press, which will not accept anything unusual; B. The so-called “peace” and “universal” groups, which absolutely give one no consideration. I don’t think either of these matters.
I keep on getting more hints that my efforts will be publicized, and if they are publicized too soon, I may not be able to keep up with the demands. It is certain that the young are accepting without question my heritages from the late Miss Ruth St. Denis.
This morning we must make first efforts to incorporate. I have never wished this, believing in the brotherhood of men, but when this “universal” organization and that “world” group rejects not only my personal efforts but rejects the actualities of history, this independent stance is necessary. Fortunately, good-will is increasing on university campuses and wherever objectively and reality are prided above realism.
There are several things noticeable. One is the hard cry for love. The second is that the young want to worship together. They will accept sectarianism or universalism, and prefer traditions to novelty, but the togetherness stands out.
Several persons rather independently are planning a joint Sufi-Israeli Hassid spiritual endeavor, using music and dance, etc. We have Jews, even Israelis, chanting Allah, and Christians and Muslims joining in the Shemah. This Cawnt be, but it is going to be made public despite its rejections by the press, etc. And while this is going on more and more publisher’s representatives come to me. I mention this only because at this writing all my intensions are to promote The Temple of Understanding above all else. And there is a general favorable agreement to this among all these newcomers.
The next project after incorporating will be to provide for my travel fund, so I can visit the East Coast along with Mansur, we hope, say late in September. This whole thing is trying on me because of having to change the career of a spiritual teacher to an organizer and executive, but I feel help is coming. Bob Kaufman has been attending all my public meetings and he is more than enthusiastic. I think this is the best thing that can be said.
Love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
Aug. 9, 1970
Mr. Finley P. Dunne Jr.
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C.
My dear Peter,
This is a beautiful optimistic Sunday morning. We have had problems. We have had problems simply because what are known as establishments will not accept the teachings of the Bible that “Every valley shall be exalted and every hill laid low.” The establishments simply do not accept anything coming out of Ephratahs. A number of years ago His Holiness Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj gave a tea for my sixtieth birthday. A celebrated Indian philosopher came in and without an introduction attacked me personally for coming from a country where credits were given in what was called Indian philosophy by German professors. He made no inquiry. He did not know that these same German professors had been successful in blockading even my attendance at inter-religious conferences, etc., etc. We can skip that now.
The swami Ranganathananda did something I have never done by those who verbalize a Judeo-Christian ethic. He said, “Wait till you hear his point of view before you criticize him.” I asked the Indian, “Which would you rather hear, the flute-of-Krishna or a discourse on the Chandogya Upanishad right off the cuff?” The Swami said, “He means exactly what he says.” The professor apologized.
Now no establishment organization has ever been willing to accept any articles by me on the Chandogya Upanishad—this includes the Vedanta publication in this country. But I did upset a meeting of the top Orientalists in the United States when it was found out I was the only person in the audience who could answer some questions propounded by the famous Prof. Singer of Chicago University on Indian Mysticism. I was never forgiven for that either, and have never been invited either by those people.
I am enclosing a copy of a letter written yesterday to the World Congress of faiths. I wanted to join them. I even wanted to represent them in this country. They may have changed; they may have accepted that there are Bethlehem-Ephratahs. I hope so. But we had to incorporate to avoid paying income taxes, etc. So we accepted unconditionally the Sufi Movement of Pir Vilayat, although even in the past two weeks our work has expanded so rapidly as to produce quandaries.
But God be praised, these very quandaries may provide answers to the request of wonderful Judith. Although my program has been full, we have added two more projects. One has been in connection with lectures on the First Epistle to the Corinthians on the three-body constitution of man, and the clarification of a multitude of complexes connected with the psychedelic experiences. The audiences are packed, all young excepting seminary students. The fact that my two chief secretaries now have outside jobs is delaying turning the material over to Lowell that I wished to. Peter, there are no problems. There are just egoistic individuals who do not accept Bethlehem-Ephratahs or that valleys shall be exalted or hills laid low.
(Every letter of mine written to a scientist on pollution problems has been answered. No a single letter on this subject to a non-scientist has been acknowledged. The scientists, and I also, are very fearful that the confusions being spread by editors and literati may produce tremendous destruction when there are many available answers at hand.)
The other additional adventure includes our efforts to bring Arabs and Israelis together. This is the chief type of “not-news.” The editors simply will not accept it. Our preliminary meetings have been totally successful. The young do not want to fight each other. The young want to understand each other. The young want to pray together and play together, and their “leaders,” including a lot of famous men, practically forbid it. Our good friends of the World Congress of faiths bring Rabbis and Imams together, who then turn to their respective holy edifices and forbid their congregations from intermingling. This is what the young people are horrified by. In Sufism itself there is only one sin: Hypocrisy.
Our young people, meeting together, wish to organize, even incorporate. They are not sure that the present constitution of the Sufi order, as arranged by Pir Vilayat, provides for their present undertakings. They have asked if they can organize in some way connected with The Temple of Understanding.
They do not want money. On the contrary, all our efforts in the past months to raise funds have been successful. They are very proud. They think they can raise funds for this or any allied purpose. Therefor we are anti-establishment in that we wish to bring you money instead of begging it. Only it must be done legally.
I have previously asked that provisions be made for more young representatives at the next conference. Rob Kaufman, who has been attending all my public meetings, is also going to write to you. I also enclose copy of letter to Shotsy Wallace, with whom I do not agree.
These things have happened so suddenly and forcefully I am writing under pressure. I have had to write other letters to “good people” who seem to have the keys to God excepting funds. The young people believe that when you have the keys to God you will have the funds, and intend to prove it. At this writing I have no less than four promoters to consult with during the coming month. Even without their help I have been working and my disciples have been working so that if necessary we can visit Washington this Autumn.
I believe Judith’s heart is absolutely in the right place, and I believe now the good, omniscient, omnipresent God is going to help in this work. Every valley shall be exalted, every hill shall be laid low, the lamb and the lion shall lie together, and we might as well throw away our “humility” and let these little children lead us.
Love and blessing,
Sam
Aug. 15, 1970
Rev. Henry Babel
Pastor, The Cathedral of St. Pierre
1 Rue Pierre Fatio
Geneva, Switzerland
Beloved One of God:
You may remember the writer—the little bearded American who attended the conference of The Temple of Understanding earlier this year in your city. I am sorry I cannot empress myself in French very well, but when you answer you may write in your own language if you wish.
It seems that the Living God has given blessings for all dreams and undertakings since the spring of this year. While the conference was going on, my brother died and this has led to an increase in income. After the conference more and more young people came to my meetings and gathering, first in England, and then in various parts of the United Staten, and there is nothing but constant increase in attendance at meetings, in increased collections, and in the efforts of growing and loving disciples to cooperate in every manner. But many of these forms of cooperation are spiritual and cosmic:
1. Two teams of friends and disciples are leaving for the Orient, for various parts of Asia, to take films of undertakings and religious ceremonies which depict the present status of devotion. One team will go to Jerusalem first, and all will gather together in India, and then again separate. Later on one of them hopes to go also to your city. I think this will be headed by disciple Phillip Davenport who was previously editor of a local spiritually oriented paper called The Oracle.
2. A group of disciples have organized a movement bringing together Jew, Christian, and Muslim, Israeli, Arab, and Palestinian, to work for peace in the Near East, with special emphasis on the Book of the Prophet Malachi. They believe they can raise funds and more, and feel very self-assured. They wish to work for and with The Temple of Understanding, and believe they can raise all the funds necessary.
At Geneva, I pretended I was an incarnation of “Nathan the Wise” of Lessing, but my friends have rightly given credit to Boccaccio and his “The Three Rings.” At the moment I am expecting a loan to start a scholarship for peace based on this theme, at the University of California in Berkeley. I not only have backgrounds in all the religions, but have studied soil science, water resources, desert reclamation and social institutions.
3. I am now lecturing on “The Three Body Constitution of Man” based not on Indian teachings, but on St. Paul. My lectures are an “esoteric” interpretation of Paul, with a very stern defense of him. I believe when we recognize the existence of the three bodies, we shall find that all psychedelic experience belongs. But I am following St. Paul in emphasizing pneumatikos as against psychikos. However the stress is following Paul on Love and we have the mind of Christ
These lectures are tape-recorded, are being edited, and will be sent to Rev. Dr. Ditzen in Washington, D.C.
4. A very wealthy publisher has recently joined the Sufi Order and has offered to print anything I write, etc. This covers many subjects during a long life. We should prefer working with Lowell Ditzen, and very fortunately a few Presbyterian clerics have happened into my meetings and been won over. The largest of these meetings takes place in the San Francisco Theological Seminary, which is a Presbyterian institution and where I myself once taught Sunday school.
The actual proceedings at Geneva followed in detail visions I had years ago when working presumably for the World Church Peace Union. I worked voluntarily for this group for forty years, and when the early leaders died their replacements did not have the courtesy to look at my reports. But I am not worrying about it. I am much more concerned with “We have the mind of Christ.” I think this can be incorporated into our culture.
Later on you may be visited by one or more of my disciples, after they have been to Asia. We are so delighted with the prayer proceedings, with the infinite possibilities of love and devotion, that we can only praise Cod about them.
Love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
Aug. 23, 1970
Mr. Finley P. Dunne Jr.
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C.
My dear Peter,
Friday I wrote a letter to Lowell Ditzen and wanted to hold it up for another report. I think the contents of this letter may rationalize the situation that I do not have and do not want days off. It seems so to speak that God Himself is not only inspiring but is invigorating this personality.
At last, I was able to give my commentary on the 12th Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Its very theme is so close to Sufi teaching, and supports our contention “That God Alone was the Founder of Sufism.” Although it has been tape-recorded, I also may check the Hebrew version of the scriptures, or barring that, the Concordance.
This lesson is the high-water mark of the look. It leaves me thoroughly inspired and re-invigorated. The underlying theme is “We have the mind of Christ.” And on this I will not compromise.
The spiritual dance classes are progressing and expanding so rapidly they are out of my control. But the objective is to get young people to repeat phrases of recognition and praise to God, no matter what language, no matter what religion. I guess the numbers are expanding from 100s to 1000s.
In the meanwhile, disciples have joined with Pir Vilayat Khan into expanding TV recordings which began with my own efforts. This alone is a tremendous undertaking. During this time I have had an unusual difficulty. My former secretary Mansur is now employed full-time in and with the above. Another secretary is now down in Arizona, and functioning as a spiritual teacher, and all reports show success. He is being employed by a very wealthy publisher, who probably will give you all the publicity you wait.
There has been nothing but success in the efforts to promote peace for the Near East. The meetings are entirely in the hands of young person, and I think one of them, Jonathan Lewis, has written to you. At the present time, our problems are certainly not financial, and it may interest you to know that Bob Kaufman is a volunteer worker, and if there are financial improvements with the dirth of help, he may even be on the payroll.
It also looks at this time that we already have enough money to cover a trip for a secretary and myself. We shall have to go to New York to pick up her car. I must say that there is much enthusiasm now for The Temple of Understanding among the young. The young want to help. Their elders, including some “establishment” churches, seem to have wished The Temple of Understanding to further and promote their own interests. I am not against that. I am not against that at all. But we must, I believe, further the objectification and material manifestation, inshallah, of Judith’s dream.
Love and blessings,
Samuel
August 31, 1970
The Temple of Understanding
1346 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C.
My dear Peter:
Just a rush note. Our teams are leaving for Asia to take films of holy places and spiritual ceremonies. I believe they will be directed by our good friend Pir Vilayat Khan. I have lost Mansur, who is busy editing the films and records.
My second secretary has now a good job in Arizona, and we believe his publisher-employer will do everything to cooperate with both your efforts and mine.
My local secretary is very busy promoting real joint efforts between Jewish (including Israeli) and Arab and Muslim communities, with Christians assisting. We even have the radio, and TV people interested, which is something, and will keep you informed.
His other efforts are connected with the lectures which are being given to large crowds of young people, and copies sent to Lowell Ditzen as soon as available. It is really wonderful, praise to God.
And my new secretary and I are hoping to leave for New York first, then to visit the East coast by October, inshallah.
Love and Blessings, Samuel L. Lewis
P.S. It is noteworthy, and it will become part of history that one man gave me four hours to listen to my plan for the Holy Land. His name: Gunnar Jarring. This is going to become part of my autobiography and maybe of history itself.
The Temple of Understanding
September 9, 1970
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, California 94110
Dear Murshid:
Late last month Mrs. Hollister and I received a letter from Jonathan Lewis, and as you will see, I wrote back to him at the address he had given. Apparently he is no longer there because the letter was returned with the notation that the addressee was unknown. Perhaps you will be good enough to see that he gets it.
I gather from his letter that he is one of those who are working somewhat under your aegis to bring about improved personal relationships among Jews and Muslims, as a way to promote a peaceful settlement of the Middle Eastern situation which now seems so desperately out of control.
Many blessings upon you.
Sincerely,
Peter
Novato, Calif. 94947
September 12, 1970
Finley P. Dunne Dr.
The Temple of Understanding
Washington, D. C.
Dear Peter:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. This is written pre-dawn. There has not been any time off excepting yesterday we went and picked apples for exercise and “economy.” And nothing but good news, real historical news which will no doubt be incorporated into history but not-news, we do not do things that way. And it may cause a revolution but not a series of violent acts by groups who also do not accept real history but have a different type of subjective “realism.”
All plans to bring Israelis, Christians and Arabs together have succeeded to date. We had the most wonderful reports from Jerusalem. We had the most wonderful reports from Geneva. We have had the most wonderful reports from Teheran and our groups will meet together soon in India, and also the most wonderful reports.
We have not yet succeeded in getting a simple newspaper in this region to accept anything, and this is particularly ironical because all the persons involved are from Marin County, north of San Francisco. Also the one man who has stood by me through thick and thin, the retired Admiral Evenson, who also has a Washington background—but not-news, we don’t do things that way!
I am also through the lectures on “The Three Body Constitution of Man according to St. Paul” and this will go to Rev. Lowell Ditzen. And it will show how we can resolve and solve all psychedelic problems, or shall I saw, “Pseudo-problems.”
We “lost” an election in Chile and will continue to lose so long as we adhere to mini-skirts, whiskey and hard liquor and stories of violence. Years ago I found nearly all Asians would accept our economic structure, but now our “morals.” Well, I have met more actual human beings who are Asiatic than perhaps all the news reporters combined.
We shall, with God’s grace, have pictures and sound recordings. And next week I have been included in a Holy Man’s gathering in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Then we leave for New York, then Boston and then Washington. And at long last, it seems I am gathering secretaries again. Mansur is doing wonderful and cooperating.
Love and Blessings,
Samuel
The Temple of Understanding
Sept. 18, 1970
Dear Sam:
Praise God indeed—as declaimed in yours of Sept. 12, received just today. You didn’t put any street address on the envelope, but with God’s praiseworthy help, the Post Office found us. Sometimes we seem herd to locate. I get an angry or frustrated letter every now and then from some subscriber who comes to Washington and can’t find “Temple of Understanding” in the telephone book, although it’s there in clear if discreet type.
We are of course looking forward to your descent to Washington (after attaining the zeniths of New York and Boston). I want to hear all about your maneuverings of the Israelis, Christians and Arabs, a trio finding a true avatar in your good self. I wonder what effect the highjackings will have. It might in the end be good, a kind of purge, painful but clarifying the issues in the poor, unhappy Middle East.
It is inevitable that you will get no attention from the newspapers, which have long believed that nothing matters except events. A meeting is not an event. A murder is an event. So the murder gets the headlines, unless an event occurs at the meeting. So all we can do is to think of ourselves as educational, and realize that our quiet influence day after day on the people who will listen to us is the greatest force operating in the world. Patience ought to be our watchword, even if it’s hard to sustain.
I don’t think we lost an election in Chile. When the masses of people feel they are being used by their elite, and when there is no response to their efforts to get out of the gutter, they are liable to fall for extremist solutions, among which the communist line is in the forefront. They know it means cruel dictatorship, they know it is a fraud, they know it denies both God and human nature, but for a moment it looks better than what they’ve got—and I believe, in Chile they don’t really truly think Allende is an honest-to goodness commie. Hell, he’s a Chileno, not a Russian or a Chinese. The question is, where do they go from here? And it’s not our question to decide. It’s the Chilenos’.
Best to Mansur.
regards,
Peter
Some suggestions for Judith Hollister and the Board of Directors of The Temple of Understanding.
Parliamentarians
One suggests the establishment of a person or group to act as parliamentarians secretary to the chair or chairs. The person should be qualified to rule on points of order or even points of information when proposals are made which ignore the principles, especially of those religions that have scriptures. And especially that have scriptures studied in courses on comparative religion, etc.
For instance, one heard a vociferous debate between two men, one from India and one from Lebanon, on the nature of Buddhism. From a real Buddhist standpoint they were both very much misinformed. It is necessary no doubt to have not only some knowledge of scriptures, but also of the logics and psychologies of Oriental religions. The one objection this person had was to include Alan Watts as an expert. Not only is this man anathema to many Asians, but it would be actually a rude procedure to have any non-devotee represent a faith without their approval. There have been may fiascoes I the past and I can give you detailed information.
The Parliamentarian may be more than one person, and he would be limited to ruling on information and points of information. This would dispense with some quite unnecessary wastages of tame, when some enthusiastic but ignorant persons introduce proposals either in accord with their own personality inclination or with their particular religion.
Bureau of Information
There was a lot of time wasted in and out of committee with the statement: “We ought to have….” This “we” also meant simply that the person uttering the statement did not know. When such a statement is made, the chairman, either of particular committees or of the committee of the whole, ought to ask: “Does anybody have this information?” But usually it happened that when some person, especially a prominent person, made this statement, “We ought to know,” the chair assumed that nobody present had that information. This itself is rudeness, although unconsciously so. There were many people of vast erudition as well as vast spirituality in the audience. Now a communication which could be made in a few seconds has to go through organizational dynamics and left up in the air. This in turn adds to burdens of the central headquarters and very valuable information which could have been presented readily may require months of very arduous efforts to obtain.
Of course there can be a committee or bureau of universal information. A few persons like Dr. Jenz, Professor Jurji, and myself, I think, can cover all of this. But I am quite willing to operate either directly or under and I mean under Father Haughey.
Sher Singh’s proposal
After the meeting, Dr. Nasr said he had opposed the admission of the Baha’i and one rather cultist group. When he UN had its convocation of the religions of the world, they ruled that the Christian Scientists and Latter day Saints were not Christians, because they had other scriptures than the Bible. If they had been accepted as Christians, the Muslims would have asked: “Why aren’t we Christians also, for we also accept the Bible along with our later Scriptures?
There should, therefor, be some distinction, following the UN ruling and also following the Hadiths of Mohammed that each culture had its own scripture or revelation. But this might mean that there are revelations without scripture, and thus validates Dr. Roberts’ proposal to include African non-scriptural faiths. Only a question arise here about also including new Japanese non-scriptural faiths and the Church of the American natives. I am not proposing anything, but there should be a clarification.
Guidelines
On section C under Purpose, it states: “to bring our mutual spiritual forces….” Now what are these spiritual forces? They are presented variously in and by and from different faiths. They should be accepted as functionally real and as fundamentally different from intellect and emotion. Here we run into a difficulty that if a person of prominence presents an interpretation and a person on non-prominence presents the same interpretation, there may be entirely different response; and this would evince a non-acceptance of spirituality. This does not seem to happen at The Temple of Understanding gatherings, but it has most certainly happened at the World Buddhist Convocations. They accepted Prajna when presented by Dr. Radhakrishnan.
They did not accept it when presented by others. Now “Prajna” means that every man and woman is essentially enlightened and thus has the possibility of representing the whole universe. To me Buddha-mind and Divine-mind are the same thing, but I am considering the functions and not the metaphysics or theologies. Sublime inspiration and vision are both possible and functional. What has happened to Judith may happen to others, may be happening to others, and especially to the young.
The Temple of Understanding
In an esoteric sense, this has been presented in the Hebrew book of Ezekiel, in the Christian book of Revelation, and most of all in the Buddhist Lotus Scripture. It also came to me in a sense as to Pir Vilayat Khan through his Reverend father. But his father showed me a methodology by which funds could be raised and a structure built without being involved and over-burdened with fund-raising by traditional methods. I have already participated in the rapid erection of the Buddhist Universal Church of San Francisco. I am now prepared to work for a miniature Temple of Understanding with and among the young. We cannot have it both ways, acting as if we were vehicles of divine guidance and also as if we were ignorant of divine guidance at the same time. Fortunately, Dr. Spicehandler was very receptive to ideas based on practical experiences and suggested I report to Father Haughey which can very easily be done. I also pointed out to Rabbi Spicehandler that the Hebrew people long had the ark and then the temple. There are still too many people who adhere to the old “capitalistic” method of raising funds first, rather than attracting them. The young people recently attracted so much money without any effort that I am sure if we approach Richard Alpert (now known as Baba Ram Dass) or similar representatives of the New Age, including the Beatles themselves, we can easily raise the funds. Indeed, it has just come to me to ask the Beatles, but I leave it at that point.
Sincerely,
Sam
Addendum
“Africa vs. The Young.” There were two presumable programs for next year:
1. That we should express our internationalism by meeting in some part of Africa.
2. That we should include the youth.
Although at the time I was much won by the charm of Dr. Roberts, I feel very definite that any movement away from the Washington concentration could inhibit The Temple of Understanding itself. I do not believe that a splendid idea should be smothered under an avalanche of “ands,” “ifs,” and buts,” etc. Even now, there are quite a number of people who never talked in open session, but often at cocktail lounges, etc., who are not enthusiastic about the temple—what are they here for? They believe and practice a sort of social brotherhood and internationals. This is no doubt excellent, but I do not think we are here for that.
There is an extreme danger of the side-shows overwhelming the circus, and here we are facing what is to me a very serious problem: When a person receives a divine inspiration—and to some of us Judith has received a divine inspiration—it should be kept in the foreground at all times.
An African venture, no matter how worthy, would involve a large expenditure both by the temple itself and from those of us who would like to contribute to the Temple having to consume our resources in travel.
On the other hand, the young could supply quantity and quality of personality and quantities of money. Given them the opportunity, they would do it. The one obstacle I definitely ran into was a blank wall in the minds of certain older people, who look upon youth too subjectively. They have an unfortunate instinct that youth consist of a mass of sub-humans who must be led if not mis-led. I wonder how many people actually know that one of the greatest of Great Britain’s Prime Ministers was the youth Wm. Pitt, the younger. There are a lot of William Pitts today. They have broken out in music and song where they are not stopped. They have not broken out elsewhere, because they are stopped. But our own immediate experience of the past month has witnessed the phenomena of youth breaking out in new businesses where they are not stopped, and where they are prospering beyond even their own dreams.
Personally, and of course this is a limitation, I am all but dismayed by the oratory of very, very lonely old people, impassioned appeals for love and compassion, which they did not recognize in the audience. this stands in marked contrast to the one suggestion we accepted from the young, the holding together of the same ribbon. To me, spirituality consists in listening and not talking. And if The temple of Understanding or any other group today embarks on any international or spiritual undertaking and does not make youth complete partner, the young themselves will take over and do what their elders are talking about.
Or they may for further and by-pass and establish universal Temples literally appropriating or misappropriating Judith’s dream. She’ll get her dream alright, but not necessarily in the manner some expect it to manifest.