Issue 7 Enlightenment Magazine

A Sufi Dhikr with Lex Hixon [Part 1]

Allahu Akbar!

The Unimaginable Inconceivable Reality
A burst of shouts rang out, piercing through the chorus of voices that had
by now reached a fever pitch: "Allah! Allah! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!"
It seemed like we had been singing and dancing for hours. The men,
arm-in-arm, were the outer circle, the women holding hands formed the inner
circle, and the musicians and Sufi singers were in the center.

We were carried around and around, again and again and again, caught up
in the relentless dance of ecstasy that is the Sufi dhikr, or "Circle of
Divine Remembrance". If the dhikr actually fulfills its highest purpose,
one is lifted out of the illusion of separation and individuality to be
consumed in divine intoxication itself. According to Sufi tradition, in the
dhikr true mystical ascension into God-consciousness becomes living reality.

After their meeting together in New York this fall, Andrew and some of his
students were invited by Lex Hixon to attend this evening of Sufi
celebration and worship. A well-known figure in the spiritual world, Lex is
a scholar of world religions, the author of several books (including Heart
of the Koran and Atom from the Sun of Knowledge) and for many years hosted
a popular New York City radio show called In the Spirit. A spiritual
practitioner himself, he holds positions of accomplishment in five
spiritual traditions: Advaita Vedanta, Islamic Sufism, Vajrayana Buddhism,
Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Soto Zen.

Lex and Andrew first met a year ago when Lex heard Andrew speak at a
philosophy class at Sarah Lawrence College. After the class, they had the
opportunity to talk in depth about their philosophies and experiences of
spiritual life. Lex has been profoundly influenced and inspired by the
renowned Indian sage Ramakrishna. His own philosophy, like Ramakrishna';s,
is founded in a vision of the universality of religions. He expressed a
deep respect and appreciation for Andrew's teachings, comparing them to the
teachings of Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna. But he went on to caution
Andrew about the fact that enlightenment teachings are not for everybody
and that few are prepared to take up such a call. He felt that a teaching
that from the beginning stresses direct understanding and experience of the
Absolute could potentially be limited and difficult for many to grasp. In
both meetings, Lex emphasized the importance of religious traditions in
that they offer spiritual guidance for people at all levels of interest and
involvement.

That evening in New York, dressed in a long white robe, a brightly colored
shawl thrown over his shoulder, Lex had become Sheikh Nur al-Jerrahi who,
after meeting with Andrew, conducted the weekly dhikr at a Sufi mosque.
Since he received transmission to become a formal successor of the Sufi
teacher Muzaffer Effendi, he has been a spiritual guide for several Islamic
Sufi Dervish communities in America. The evening was a fascinating one and
gave us a taste of Sufi life.

The mosque was housed in an unassuming building on a dark and somewhat
run-down looking block in lower Manhattan. We entered a long, dimly-lit
room, where all we could see were the backs of what seemed like close to a
hundred people kneeling on the floor, heads bowed. The room was empty
except for several Oriental carpets and a shrine in the far corner
highlighted by a colored spotlight. Everyone faced the shrine;the men in
front, the women in back. (Later, one of the women explained that we
shouldn't take offense at the fact that the women worshiped behind the men,
as it in no way signified anything about their status. It was simply less
distracting to be segregated in this way, and because women wear dresses in
the midst of so much movement, it was more appropriate for them to be in
the back.) We were immediately swept up into a continuous wave of kneeling,
then bowing and standing again, hands always brought back and clasped
together over the heart. The ebb and flow of an unbroken cycle of prayers,
offerings to Allah, moved from passionate exaltations to quiet murmurings
then to ecstatic praises once again.

After a short period of silent prayer, Lex took Andrew by the hand and they
walked together out of the room and up the stairs to the hall where dinner
was about to be served. As we began to sit at the low tables lining the
wall, the room quickly filled with a cadence of buzzing chatter, warm
embraces and friendly greetings. The people were a mixture of many ages,
races and cultural backgrounds.

Lex sat at the head table along with Andrew and his wife and a few Sufi
friends dressed in traditional garb. As heaping plates of rice, vegetables,
bread and lamb were brought out from the kitchen, we spoke with many of the
Sufis about their philosophy and practice, and were in turn asked questions
about Andrew and his teachings. By this time in the evening, two aspects of
the Sufi life had become very apparent to us: the emphasis on a devotional
relationship to God and the importance of community. Lex has said of the
Sufi way that "The maturing process in a Dervish Order is communal. The
mystical ascension into Paradise consciousness, and beyond into the Garden
of Essence, occurs hand in hand, hearts intertwined eternally."

After the feast, Lex again took Andrew's hand, leading the procession up
the next flight of stairs to a smaller more intimate room where our eyes
were immediately drawn to an unusual domed ceiling. Buttressed with wooden
beams, the ceiling displayed a beautiful stained glass window that filtered
the moonlight from above. Lex seated himself on a low couch, motioning to
Andrew to sit next to him while another sheikh sat at his other side. As
everyone gathered around, two musicians began to play and we joined in
singing Sufi songs. It was not long before Lex introduced Andrew and asked
him to speak, encouraging people to ask questions. Amidst the commotion of
tea and cookies being passed, people coming and going, and the background
hum of hushed conversations, the questions began. Curious faces were drawn
to the discussion as the room grew quiet. Andrew addressed one question
after another, Lex following with answers from the Sufi perspective. The
dialogue that unfolded was illuminating and revealed many points where the
two teachings met and where they diverged. Even in their approach to the
discussion itself, Andrew's emphasis on inquiry seemed to contrast with the
primarily devotional orientation expressed by many of the Sufis.

The evening ended with the dhikr in the hall where it began. After the
celebration, the room was lulled in silence for quite a while before Lex
asked for a Sufi mala (beads) and hat to be brought to him. Saying that
Andrew had, on his own, arrived at the same understanding as that expressed
in the essential tenets of Islam, he placed the mala around Andrew's neck,
the hat on his head and gave Andrew an honorary Sufi name, Ali.

The following dialogue is an excerpt from the discussion that evening.