Salik, One of my dear friends in NY was the late Lex Hixon, who was a transmitted Dervish of Sheikh Muzaffer, of Istanbul. Lex had his radio show "In The Spirit" on Free-Speech Radio, Pacifica WBAI-99.5-FM in NYC for two decades, and brought hundreds of teachers to the USA and to the airwaves, including my Ch'an teacher, the Ven. Rev. Sheng Yen, PhD.
I sat one Ch'an retreat in Queens with Lex and my teacher. And many more with my teacher, and no Lex. Lex had been a PhD advisee of Alex Wayman, a Sanskritist at my _alma mater_, Columbia. Whenever I can, I still recommend Lex's first book to everyone, a book whose title perhaps says enough to introduce it: Hixon, Lex; COMING HOME: THE EXPERIENCE OF ENLIGHTENMENT IN SACRED TRADITIONS, 1978, Doubleday, New York. Lex became a member of the Board of Directors of Bernie Glassman's "Zen Center of New York", uptown in Riverdale, in 1980 or 1981, and I sat with those guys up there as often as I could, at least two nights a week, although my teacher and main sangha was in Elmhurst, Queens, where I attended on Sundays. I met Maezumi Roshi at Bernie's first place, before they bought the Greystone Mansion, and sat several days with him there and heard Maezumi's Teisho. John Loori was there often in those early days, too, and I became a fast friend of John's as well. He loved Bologna sandwiches!, while I preferred Grilled Cheese and Tomato, and he had a nice small zippy car, while my transportation was the 35-cent subway. We were both photographers, and John was a disciple of Minor White, photographer _par excellence_. John employed me to help proofread several of his manuscripts, which became his earliest published books. John smoked, and I didn't. It was hard to be around his grey cloud, sometimes. I think it was lung cancer that killed him, recently, at his monastery at Mount Tremper. Here is a blurb about Lex: Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order -- The Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order is a modern dervish order (tariqah) of Sufism. It is a branch of the Halveti-Jerrahi Tariqah of Istanbul, Turkey, and was founded in the early 1980s by American Sufis Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi (born Lex Hixon) and Fariha al-Jerrahi (born Philippa De Menil) after they received direct transmission from their teacher, Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak (Ashki) al-Jerrahi, the Grand Sheikh of the Halveti-Jerrahi Order at that time. Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak al-Jerrahi was the 19th successor to Hazreti Pir Muhammad Nureddin al-Jerrahi, the founding pir of the Halveti-Jerrahi Order. from: http://my.wn.com/search/Ground_Zero_mosque?p=0&t=details Pardon me, Salik; reminiscences of an Old Man. ;-) Zen is home for me too, Salik. Now trying to make a home for Zen: a Ch'an practice group for the State of Arizona! Something new for our desert of plenty. Salam, Aloha, gassho, and see ya, --Joe > "salik888" <novelidea8@...> wrote: > > Joe > > I am a mureed in the Naqshbandi Tariqa, was intitiated, given intstruction in > Fiqh, Zikr,Wird, pratices, etc . . . I actually practiced Islam for a number > of years, had several Shaykhs. I have long-standing connections, involvement > in Gurdjieff Work Groups. Of course Gurdjieff is sort of a Central Asian > school. But I rarely go into the Sufi community anymore. Zen is home for me > . . . ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
