Sufi Ruhaniat International
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti (Samuel L. Lewis), a disciple of Inayat Khan, formally founded the order in 1970.
She continued independently,[2] and recognized Meher Baba as the Avatar of the age, eventually giving rise to Sufism Reoriented.
In the late 1960s, Murshid Samuel L. Lewis began initiating and training students first under the banner of Zen and then of Sufism.
When Samuel Lewis died, he asked that his body be buried at the interspiritual community of Lama Foundation, near Taos, New Mexico.
To attain that perfection where mysticism remains no more a mystery, which relieves the disbeliever from ignorance and the believer from falling victim to hypocrisy.
Sunshine and rain attend the turning of the seasons, and the ancient cycles of sowing, growth, fruition and harvest are realized in ourselves and in our gardens and farms.
[11] The Universal Worship Service was created by Inayat Khan to promote a deeper understanding and appreciation of the diverse religious traditions of the world: both in the beauty of their distinctions and differences, externally, and in the transformative and healing power of their inner Unity...all coming from the same Source.
For each tradition, a candle is lit, a selection from the sacred scriptures is read, and a spiritual practice or Dance of Universal Peace is led.
Based on the work begun in the late 1960s by Murshid Samuel L. Lewis, they promote peace and integration within individuals and groups worldwide.
Dances were originally performed at camps and meetings with a distinctly new age and alternative feel but have increasingly been offered in diverse places of worship and more secular places such as schools, colleges, prisons, hospices, residential homes for those with special needs, and holistic health centers.
[19] Leadership of SRI is provided by a pir (spiritual leader) and a council of murshids and murshidas (senior teachers).
[20] Shabda Kahn received bayat (initiation) from his teacher Murshid Samuel L. Lewis, a disciple of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, in 1969.
He was initiated as a Murshid in 1997 by Pir Hidayat Inayat Khan uniting all of the previously disparate Universal Sufi lineages.
As Pir of the Sufi Ruhaniat International, Shabda directs the Jamiat Khas (the Ruhaniat leader circle), directs the SRI Board of Trustees, and is the spiritual director for the Dances of Universal Peace worldwide, as well as the director of the Chisti Sabri School of Music.
The shaikh gives his disciples permission (ijâza) to practice the tariqa: he may also authorise one or more of them to teach it to others, i.e. appoint them as his khalîfa.
"[23] Ruth St. Denis (1879–1968) was a modern dance pioneer and a major influence on Samuel L. Lewis, who called her "Mata-Ji" (Honored Mother) and referred to her as "my fairy godmother".
[24] Joe Miller (1904–1992) was an American mystic best known for his Thursday Morning Walks in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park with his wife Guin during the 1970s and 1980s.
Joe was widely respected for his spiritual clarity and Walter Evans-Wentz, the original translator of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and other sacred Mahayana texts, considered Joe Miller "the only man he had met in the West who understood the Doctrine of the Clear Light."
[25] Swami Papa Ramdas and Mother Krishnabai – In the 1950s Murshid SAM reported a recurring vision with the face of a saint accompanied by poetry, “By one year’s time, by land or sea, I will come to thee.” In 1954, in keeping with the vision, Papa (Swami) Ramdas and Mother Krishnabai came to San Francisco on their World Tour and Murshid SAM found his “Hindu” Guru.
