Salik,
Salik very kindly wrote:
"A real madman of devotion, love and gratitude."
I love it! Sounds like a fine fellow.
I think I might know this (that!) Salik!, Salik! I think he was/is? a close
associate of Shahabuddhin Lesh. A tallish skinny fellow, eyes a little sunken,
yellowish short hair (in 1973-74-75) and who smoked cigarettes, even inside the
Cathedral!, where it was Verboten, on our Sufi Dancing nights. He said he
smoked them "in order to keep from becoming too pure". Maybe it's the same
principle as practiced in the construction of Islamic Mosque tile-mosaics, in
which an obvious "mistake" is always committed intentionally so as not to
offend Allah, and left in full view.
It was Salik who often did the Call to Prayer once we were all assembled there
on Wednesday evenings after we had moved HUNDREDS of wood chairs out of the
100-foot space under the dome arching over the cathedral's "Crossing", where
the Transcept intersects the Nave-Apse axis of the building. That Crossing is
the largest of ANY Cathedral's in the world: 100 x 100 ft. A record. And
Saint John's is also the largest Cathedral in the world (Saint Peter's in Rome
is a larger building, but it is *not* a Cathedral: it is a "Basilica").
Salik would put his open hands behind the ears and solemnly project the Call up
into the rafters, bringing in some *really* sharp and arresting tones: Wow! It
was always a privilege to hear him and see him do this, belting out the sounds
up into the stone "rafters" there inside the Christian cathedral. You know the
acoustics in that place: just amazing! Very lively. And Salik never let the
echo come back and step-on a new syllable: he had the timing DOWN. Definitely
a musician. He played the drum during our dancing, and was a natural at it.
An amazing guy.
I'm so glad you're at ZCLA. I know you'll have great practice there. I wish
you very, very strong practice. Many great Sesshin, and powerful ones. May
they open up for everybody there the full flower of our original face.
Many blessings, and as my Ch'an Shih-fu used to say, "Don't be in a hurry!"
And, "just fall right in line with how they practice, there".
--Joe
PS I'm sorry to sound so ignorant of Gurdjief's ways, earlier, but I am! But I
really don't need to express uninformed opinions as I did. Toward the One!
That's for sure, --J.
> "salik888" <novelidea8@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Joe
>
> I spent some time with a friend and fellow Shaykh in the Halvati Jerrahi
> Tariqa, Shaykh Salik Schwartz. A real madman of devotion, love and gratitude.
> He knew Lex Hixon well, was with Shaykh Muzzafer Effendi for years.
>
> I just missed meeting Sensei Bernie by a couple of weeks at the Zen Center of
> Los Angeles, of which I have just joined. I have been at the Gurdjieff
> Foundation studying for about 5 years. Sensei Bernie was here and apparently
> there was quite a bit of talk about the new book, The Dude and the Zen
> Master.
>
> I am back to sit with a Sangah, although I have been sitting and working with
> the Gurdjieff Foundation, studying the ideas and text of Gurdjieff's All and
> Everything.
>
> But, always "sitting." Even during my sitting with Gurdjieff Foundation I sit
> zazen. (sitting is different in Gurdjieff Tradition, more Taoist)
>
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