Sam M. Lewis

Samuel L. Lewis on the cover of a book of a series of lectures made by him in 1970

Samuel Lewis (October 18, 1896–January 15, 1971) was an American mystic and dance teacher who founded the Dances of Universal Peace movement. He was also known under his Sufi name Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti and was addressed by his mureeds and others as Murshid. This is an arabic word that means, "Exalted Teacher." In the popular press he was sometimes known as Sufi Sam.

Life

Lewis' father Jacob Lewis was a vice president of the Levi Strauss jean manufacturing company. His mother was Harriett Rosenthal, the daughter of Lenore Rothschild of the international banking family.

To his parents' dismay Lewis showed a keen interest in religion and spirituality from an early age and later rejected their attempts at as business career for him. Lewis studied mathematics at Columbia University in 1916.

In 1919 Lewis entered a Sufi community in Fairfax, California where he met and was influenced by the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan an Indian Sufi teacher and musician . A year later he began Zen study with Sogaku Shaku, a disciple of the Rinzai Zen Buddhist Abbot Shaku Soyen. The twin spiritual influences of Sufism and Zen were to remain central throughout his life.

Lewis remained in the Fairfax Sufi community through the early 1920s and achieved deepening mystical experiences. In 1926 he collaborated in the opening of the first official Zendo teaching Zen Buddhism in America in San Francisco.

Lewis continued to study Sufism and Zen and added yoga to his studies. He developed an interest in horticulture and promoted seed exchanges across the world.

In 1956 he began travelling the world visiting Japan, India, Pakistan and Egypt, seeking the company of other mystics and teachers.

In 1967 whilst recovering from a heart attack in a hospital Lewis claimed that he heard the Voice of God speak to him and say, "I make you spiritual leader of the hippies." For the remainder of his life Lewis travelled around California developing and teaching the Dances of Universal Peace which draw on all the spiritual traditions he had encountered. The movement he created continues today in a formal way as Sufi Ruhaniat International, as well as informally through the wide adoption of the Dances of Universal Peace by many other Sufi and non-Sufi groups.

Quotations

"Words are not peace. Thoughts are not peace. Plans are not peace. Programs are not peace. Peace is fundamental to all faiths. Peace is fullness, all inclusive ...and must be experienced."

"One of the reasons I am teaching this music and dancing is to increase Joy, not awe towards another person, but bliss in our own self. This is finding God within, through Experience."

Books

• In the Garden (ISBN 0517524120)
• The Jerusalem Trilogy: Song of the Prophets (ISBN 0915424037)
• Sufi Vision & Initiation: Meetings with Remarkable Beings (ISBN 091542410X)
• Spiritual Dance & Walk: An Introduction to the Dances of Universal Peace & Walking Meditations of Samuel L. Lewis (ISBN 0915424134)
• This is the New Age in Person Published by Sufi Islamia Ruhaniat Society (1972). Omen Press (ISBN 0912358130)
• Murshid - A Personal Memoir of Life with American Sufi Samuel L. Lewis by spiritual secretary of Samuel Lewis, Mansur Johnson (http://www.mansurjohnson.com/ - ISBN 0-915424-16-9)

External links

• Samuel L. Lewis biography
• Samuel L. Lewis
• Dances of Universal Peace

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