Sufi Vision and Initiation: Meetings with Remarkable Beings

A moving personal history of how Sufism and Zen came to America…. The story of meetings with remarkable beings like Swami Papa Ramdas, Nyogen Senzaki, Sokeian Sasaki, Mother Krishnabai, Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, the Rev. M.T. Kirby and others who sought to bring East and West together through the universality of genuine mystical experience… A sweeping and prophetic view of the last half-century of international relations with the East…. Political and religious turmoil in faraway Iands, organic agriculture and seed exchange for peace, the great mystics and sages of the 20th century–all play a part in this story of an American scholar and scientist’s search for truth.
I have no fonder memory of the 60’s than the appearance of this strange-looking man, who said things which made me first laugh, then smile, then later pause in appreciation of a spiritual original, a pioneer. - Dr. Jacob Needleman , author of The New Religions
Everytime I remember Sam, I end up laughing at myself. That’s pretty good work for a dead-rascal-saint. - Ram Dass , author of Be Here Now
By being spiritual, Samuel Lewis expanded the range of being human; and by being human he deepened the meaning of being spiritual. - Moineddin Jablonski , spiritual successor of Murshid Samuel Lewis