=pvin105a PVK I/ Inventory / Notes 15 Oct '05 / Save1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- In these notes I will just list whatever PVK publications I have on my bookshelf, and maybe a few others I know of. ---------------------------------------------------------------- I. A FEW NOTES, FROM MEMORY, OF PVK PUBLICATIONS THAT I DO NOT HAVE AT HAND: 1) There are many PVK articles in copies of 'The Message', the magazine produced by Prof. Munir (now Sharif) Graham & TIK , in the Department of Religion at University of Arizona I assume, from the mid_70s into at least the early 80s. I assume that these articles were all editted excerpts from PVK classes. The editor, usually identified, would be a senior figure in the SO. As far as I recall, Source was not usually noted. All paid_up mureeds received a subscription. I took my collection to Kibutz HaOn in Israel, but disasters intervened and now it is, I hope, in storage, and would be expensive to retrieve. I listed all the PVK articles in the issues that remained in my collection, in one of the documents that are included in now posted, in =pvkinvs.zip , in sub_folder /pvin0510 (within Folder /pvk0410 ) in my Yahoo Briefcase UserID adobetozenith , Password CarwashCharlie. 2) Arifa (Barbara) Goodman published a magazine, Emergence, from Boulder Colorado, in the early '80s. These monthly magazines would often, maybe always, include an article by PVK. It is my impression, from one article that I glanced at (and retyped and input to my Briefcase) that PVK wrote these directly for Emergence, and that they were editted, presumably by Arifa Goodman, minimally if at all. 3) The first PVK publication was 'Toward the One', produced by Lama Foundation, about 1969 if I recall. I remember sitting up there with Susie Harrison, zl'b, helping to collate them. This was Lama's 2nd publication, their first, after which this was (much less appropriately) modelled, was Ram Dass's first book, 'Be Here Now'. Both were printed on large rough_brown paper. Ram Dass wrote in short colloquial remarks, PVK wrote or had spoken in long lines of thought. PVK's book was subsequently republished, in the late 70s I suppose, by -- if memory serves -- Harper and Row, in a conventional and hence much less attractive format. I doubt that it is still in print. It is my impression that this book was an uneditted though most likely excerpt transcription from talks that PVK gave at Lama, in 1969. (The first time I heard him, incidentally. I was struck by the grace of his phrasing. ) 4) The first PVK book that was published was 'The Way of the Dervish'. I assume it is composed from editted excerpts of transcribed PVK -- lectures, or talks, or classes, or seminars, or retreats, call them what you will. Sources are not given. The editor is acknowleged by PVK in his Preface as Alison -- Kilgore, if I recall her last name. I would see her in the Abode dining hall sometimes. A charming and very intelligent young woman, who I think worked as an editor for a major publisher. However, it is possible that she was not deeply -- versed or immersed or whatever we are or would be -- in PVK's thought, and so may have editted out some important but subtle turns of phrase. Indeed, I think that is likely to occur with almost any editor, however highly ranked or rated in the SO. Despite that preposterous cover, (later changed in the English edition to a simple elegant line drawing), which looks like me in a bad year (someone once said, Now I know who you are, you're the dervish; and I said back, 'Only part_time.') this book is he most available and maybe most_sold in the SO, though I don't think its any better nor worse than any other selection of PVK transcriptions. One could regard it as now the standard introducdtion to PVK's thought. 5) PVK wrote 'The Message in our Time' , his re_presentation, with extensive commentary, of the thought of HIK. He spent much time on that book. That was in the 70s. It was published by a major publisher, Harper and Row, if I recall. It was evidently editted by someone on their staff, not identified if I recall. PVK notes, with his constant tact, that they had cut it down to about one_third the size of the manuscript he submitted. Since the moment I read that remark, I have hoped that PVK's original manuscript will be published, at least for mureeds. Harper and Row produced a beautiful book, exceptionally well laid out, on nice paper and maybe printed with real type. It contains many pictures of HIK. One would hope that those pictures, at least, can be made available electronically, since much detail is lost in printing on relatively natural paper. This book was long out of print. One year at Zenith someone went up to PVK and asked if he would authorize republication of the book. I think that Aziz Dikeleous heard PVK's reply. As Aziz told me, PVK said No, it contained too many errors. I can't guess what PVK meant by that. I suppose he meant that he no longer agreed with, or no longer felt he was qualified (presumably from personal experience, rather than from intuition -- for by the late 90s PVK would often say that he wanted to speak only of what he had personally experienced ) many of the things he said in that book. In any event, the book is now again available -- I assume in a simple reprint, without changes from the first edition -- from Omega Press at teh Abode. 6) Zenith produced a PVK book, of edited excerpts from some of his Zenith lectures I assume, called 'That which transpires behind that which appears'. As I recall, neither source nor editor were identified. I think ZR once remarked to me that he would use or had used a professional editor. Once, in a Zenith class, when PVK happened to use that phrase, he remarked, 'Someone wrote a book by that name.' There was small laugh from the class. PVK added -- and I have sometimes remarked, PVK did not joke -- but someone -- Agnieska maybe, who has excellent insight, for all that she veils in in her tact -- said, yes he does, sometimes -- so PVK added, 'I have not read it.' I think there was another small laugh from the class, and PVK went on with his lecture. I take that to mean that PVK had of course authorized, did not particpate in the production of that book. That is, he did not go over the edit to see how accurately it did and did not convey his thought. 7) Shortly before PVK died, ZR organized a serious of interviews with him, which were videotaped. ZR has said that there are about 16 hours of footage. From these he has made a DVD, which runs about 1.5 hours. That DVD has been shown to some people, and ZR showed it to the Workcamp Staff at Zenith '05. I saw the first half of it. The 2nd half was not shown that night because some of us were tired, and a bit emotionally overwhlemed. I do not recall if the second half was shown on a subsequent evening. I do not recall anything especially striking in the first half of that DVD. It some respects it was, in retrospect, something of a deathbed confession. PVK said that he worried -- 'worried' was not his term, I forget what was -- that he had been responsible for inducing NIK to volunteer for the British Secret Service. Well, if I recall from a biography, her commanding officer had remarked that this was not the sort of young woman whom one would ordinarily send on such an assignment. Others have noted that she did am essemtial job competently when there was no_one else to do it. PVK has noted somewhere -- it is written down somewhere, as I recall -- that for a time she was the only remaining link with the French resistance. PVK does remark on that DVD that Churchill had her send a false message that an invasion of Greece -- if I recall -- was imminent, without telling her that it was false. The Germans intercepted it and believed it, because they kneww that NIk would never lie. PVK remarked that indeed, had she known it was false, she would never have sent it. Well, that is a valuable vignette of WWII history, no doubt revealed here for the first time. ZR remarked to me at the close of Zenith '05 that he intended to withdraw that DVD, and re_do it. It was not my impression that he felt the material on it, which he had chosen, would in any way compromise PVK's reputation, or impair his work, or cause offense to anyone -- ZR would not have allowed any such material onto the DVD in the first place -- but simply that he felt it was not particularly interesting, and that he could choose better material. Well, that brings me to my criticism: Those 16 hours of interiew are secure to a fault. Rather a major fauolt. The Manhattan Project was not so well_protected (as history has shown.) OK, pardon my quips, the keep me awake. The interviews were conducted, at ZR's choice, by the sons of Shahabudin, who have some experience doing such work -- I'm not clear what work nor what experience. ZR chose not to have the Interviewer be himself, nor another of the top figures in the SO, eg Shahabudin, because, ZR remarked to me, he already knew almost all the answers to any queastions one could ask. I can only hope that ZR will write or dictate his reminiscences of PVK, even if they are never published, and kept under lock_and_key for a generation or more. Custody of the 16 hours of interview -- DVD, I should hope, not videotape, but I think it may be on videotape, which can deteriorate -- is held jointly by ZR and Shahabudin, with the stipulation that it can only be released to anyone else if both of them agree. ZR has always been quite security_minded. I am told that when he first met me, at Zenith anyhow, he took me for some sort of spy -- though of what and for whom I can't imagine, though I suppose with 4 consecutive cups of fresh_ground coffee and a fast keyboard I might give it a try. I usually don't drink more than 2 at a time, but we're talking creative science_fiction here, and that's not my genre. OK, catch that frisbee and go back to work. In short, it is my guess, that of course I can't know, that ZR is being over_protective of this material, much as the Bush administration over_classifies information. So I would like to see an opt_out rather than the present opt_in approach to those 16 hours of interviews. First of all, they should all be transcribed, to reduce the risk of loss from substantial -- with apparently only two extant copies, though there must be a few more -- to minimal. Then I would like it reveiwed for release, as is done with classified material in the soi_disant realworld, with the approach that everything is to assumed "innocent until proven guilty" rather than the converse. That is, that any decision to withhold material from further release requires some specific justification -- this person might be hurt, that project might be compromised, etc. --------------- 8) ZR also showed a DVD of pictures of PVK. It is much too much to watch at a single go, but makes a valuable archive, though it really should be redone with optional captions for all the pictures. 9) I have just received from Niran Roland Lentz, two DVD's from PVK's initiation of ZIK as a Pir in the Sufi Order in the West, at the Dargh of HIK in New Delhi, India, in February 2000. Those are the only DVD's that Nirtan Lentz has so far completed, though he is working on a set of DVD's of the music played for that occasion. This is: Nirtan Roland Lentz ObertorStr. 18 D-88316 ISNY Germany info@nirtan.de www.nirtan.de PostBank Hambrug BLZ 200-100-20 , Konto 1689-232-02 He writes, "...very few players are not able [ sic, but presumably, 'very few players are able'] to show these DVD's without sound problems. ... try the sound without Dolby and so on. On the computer turn off the 'digital CD' im the setup of your DVD player. He sends further details in an Email which I have on file in my Yahoo Inbox, but not at the moment on hand. As I recall, the problem is that he used a very cutting_edge laser recording technique. So no doubt in a year or so most DVD players will be able to handle it. The 2 discs, with identical labels, comprise Part I and Part II of a single production, and give the following information (in German): Reise nach Indien im Februar 2000 . Teil 1 -- Die Zeremonien -- Investitur und Urs Hauplanlass dieser Indienreise, war die Investitur von Pir Zia Inayat Khan durch senen Vater, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan. Die Zeremonie und die Urs von Pir o Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan fanden and der Dharga von Pir of Murshid in Neu Dehli / Indien statt. Im Rahmen dieser Feierlichkeiten wurden Konuerte, Meditationen, nd Vortrage gehalten (in englisher Sprache) As der orhandenen material wurden drei Filme zusammenGestellt. Teil 1: Die Zeremonien (ca 110 mins) Investitur und Urs Teil 2: Meditationen und Vortrage (ca 110 Min) PVK and ZIK Teil 3: Konzerte indishcer Musik (ca. 230 Min) versch. interpreten So it is Part I and Part II, on seperate discs, that I now have, and Part 3 that is presently (Oct. '05) still in prepartation. I hope to take Part II into audio and input it as such, and then transcribe it. But that must wait a while. I have not yet opened these DVD's, that too must wait a bit. ---------------------------------------------- That's all I recall for now of PVK publications. I would add: I had a cassette, a copy of a copy, from a tape at the Abode I suppose, or maybe the Boston SO, of HIK singing. I listened to it one July 5th in Sacher Park in Jerusalem, on whatever inexpensive would_be__Walkman I had. I recall that I noticed no distortion in the singing, and found it of course very moving. PVK would often speak of a recording of HIK singing -- there are very few recordings of his singing -- that was very distorted, and PVK would then express the hope that with modern technology the original could be recovered. (It is, of course, the sort of thing the CIA does every day before breakfast.) As far as I know, the SO has still not done that, I can't imagine why not. Sharif Graham sent me a note in '05 remarking that he had listened to that tape and found it almost impossibly distorted, to the point where he almost questioned its authenticity. He remarked, as I recall -- I don't have his Email at hand, though it sits somewhere in my Yahoo Inbox -- that in those days there were not, especially in India where I gather the recording was made, standardized recording speeds - 78 rpm was the USA standard until 33 rpm was developed -- and that the recording speed had not been noted, so until one determined that speed -- and maybe the speed even varied during that recording -- the sound we be distorted. Well, that's all I recollect for now. It's a typical grey cold autumn morning at Campra -- covered in low clouds, at 1450 meters above sea level. It is the first day of Sukot, and nobody with any pretention to orthodoxy would type on a computer on one of the three great Festivals of the Jewish calendar -- but I seem to be sailing away from orthodoxy. I should at least have davened shaharit at first light -- "when one can tell a dog from a wolf" -- and I will do so now, and then make kiddish with the last of my leftover wine -- though in orthodoxy wine made by non_Jews is not kosher -- well, I learned a bit about wines from my father, who had I suppose an excellent palate and much discrimination -- and I'm darned if I'll forgo so many good wines, whenever I can find and afford a taste or too -- though Swiss supermarket Merlot is not up to the standards of the better Israel supermarket reds, for all that Israel considers anything over 3 years old aged. So anyhow, one should make kiddish in the Sukah, -- and by a concatennation of good like I did manage to make a -- kosher, I think -- suka this year -- a more preposterous structure was maybe never built, a frame of upeneded ski_racks walled with traffic_stop barriers and discarded road_signs, discreetly turned outward of course, with a metal chair recycled from the trash_pile, and two upended vegetable crates for a table -- R. Shlomo once remarked, one must have a table and chair in the Sukah, that is the only essential furnishing -- so anyhow I should make kiddish there, but the clouds are so heavy they're lightly drizzling -- one would almost call it heavy fog, not drizzle -- and it is said, one who sits in the sukah in the rain is accounted, not pious, but a fool. So maybe I'll just chug the last of the wine and then make some buttered toast with the indifferent apricot marmalade with an unustifiably attractive label , which I got at the supermarket when I came back from Lugano after an almost intolerably machmere -- that means strict -- Yom Kippur at the Lugano synagogue -- the Bialer Rebbe was away, he went to Israel for the High Holidays -- and in Olivone, to honor the Shabat, I asked the bank for another drib_and_drab of overdraft -- a practically universal Israeli custom which I can take pride in having introduced to Switzerland. OK, next I turn to, or resume rather, the listing of the PVK books that I do have at hand, bought this year from the Zenith bookshop. ================================================================ This is what was sold in the Zenith Bookstore in '05: --------------- A set of 4 booklets, identically bound in white plastic, with a picture of PVK on the cover. The titles are: Healing, pp64 The Hoax of the Mind, pp63 Light and Ecstacy: The Grand Illumination, pp84 A Longing for the unattainable, pp53 The author is listed as 'Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan' In 'Healing the publication Info includes: Published by The Sufi Order International, North American Secretatiat POB 30065 Seattle, Washington, 98103 Copyright (C) 1997 by PVK All rights reserved Transcriptins were compiled, organized and edited by Sarmad Tide and copyedited by Dorothy Craig. Thanks are given to 'volunteer transcribers', not otherwise identified, who have enabled the publiction of PVK's teacings "in a timely manner". So that implies that the Source of t hese booklets was recent. 'The Hoax of the Mind' is likewise Copywrite (C) 1997. Here Source is clearly noted: "The material in this volume as drawn from transcriptions and seminars led by PVK in February and March 1997 at the Abode of the Message in New Lebanon, New York; Seattle, Washington, and Tuscon, Arizona. Sources of the various sections of the booklet are onot indicated. This booklet includes extensive quotations from HIK. I would guess that those were filled during editting from brief quotes by PVK, or maybe added by him. Ligt and Ecstacy: the Grand Illumintion, does not include Publication Info. Clearly it also produced by the Seattle SO, presumably in 1997. It includes many quotations, from HIK and from classical Sufis. A Longing for the Unattainable. Notes - First edition, February 1997, Second printing, July 1997. It further notes: "the material in this volume was drawn mainly from transciptions of retreats and seminars led by PVK in August 1996 at The Institute of Mental Physics, Joshua Tree, California. [ Joshua Tree National Park is in the far southern desert of California. ] I do not notice quotes from HIK nor from traditional Sufi's within the text of this booklet. From a quick glance, I do not hear PVK's voice. I'm sure his concepts are preserved intact -- well, truth to tell, my guess is that professional editors who are not senior figures in the SO have diminished PVK's conceptual structure -- Sarmad Tide, who editted this volume, is a senior figure in the SO. But at least with regard to style, and with regard to a readership composed predominantly of people who have attended many of PVK's teachings, I would guess that one might be able to argue that this booklet has been over_edited. (pvin105--Fn1) ================================================================= *** ZOWIE FOR HOWIE %%% =============================================================== COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY to =pvin105*. (as_it_is_said, (USA 1940's), "No Comments from the Peanut Gallery") In a great Movie Theatre, of the USA 1940's, the Peanut Gallery is the cheap seats, the upper balcony, where everyone is eating peanuts because peanuts -- "Goober Peas" as the Confederate soldiers called them in the Civl War -- were poor_man's__food in the USA. ============================================================== (pvin105--Fn1) Again, hardcopy is largely an antique -- charming and enjoyable, but not all that functional. And that especially applies to extensive teachings of a major figure. I find many of the same factors regarding the teachings of R. Shlomo Carlebach. Both left a very extensive aural Nachlass, on cassettes which are at risk of deterioration. Both said essentially the same thing many times, which is a saving grace ( a useful pun, that) , since there will be many missing tapes from their Nachlass. For a major thinker, PVK wrote very few books. R. Shlomo wrote none. Only a miniscule fraction of their Nachlass -- from the standpoint of quantity, though not one hopes from the standpoint of a comprehensive presentation of their thought -- will ever see hardcopy presentation. There just ain't the market for it. And that impacts of the question of copyright. Coprright must be distinguished from moral right. The SO and Zenith slaps its copyright on everything PVK does. Considering the question of the copyright of R. Shlomo's Nachlass, a sort of 'advisory Bet Din', pardon the oxymoron, ruled that the property of a Rabbi belongs to his descendents, but his teachings belong to 'all Israel'. Ben_Zion Solomon of Moshav Modi'in will know the details of that ruling, and most likely he is the only person to whom one could turn with that question. It seems to be that copyright is the right to sell whatever one has produced, but is not the right to withhold from at least semi_public distribution whatever has not been published. That was the scandal with Wittgenstein's Nachlass. Under the guise of scrupulous scholarship, his literary executors doled it out in little bits for 50 years, "eating high off the hog". There are no doubt esoteric and in a sense political constraints regarding publication of some of what PVK once said -- one year when PVK left Zenith he left word that the contents of his wastebasket should be burned, which was done. But I would guess that these concerns are very much exaggerated, if only because in the Kafkaesque clutter of the information explosion nobody's aprt to find much of anything. So I would guess that ZR is over_protective in this regard. But that is not something which I am in a position to know, nor even on a level to comprehend. As I have repeatedly said, with regard to the teachings of PVK and of R. Shlomo Carlebach -- your basic publication must be electronic, and electronic publication of any editted material must be juxtaposed, as an option, with the verbatim text. I have done that with all the PVK material I have transcrdibed. As to R. Shlomo material, after my first year or so working with it, around 1985, I did not attempt to edit it. As Reuven Goldfarb pointed out, in making this material available to those who knew him, one wants to preserve his voice. That's all I can say about these booklets now. =============================================================== Awakening: A Sufi Experience Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan USA $21.95 Jeremy P. Tarcher / Putnam 375 Hudson Street New York, NY 10014 www.penguinputnam.com Copyright (C) 1999 by Zenith Institute ISBN 0-87477-974-X Hardcover Printed on acid_free paper -- no need to add olive oil -- Forward, about 4 pages, by ZIK Text pp221 Line lenght about 50 characters, justified Page length 30 lines of text A standard word is 5 characters (a standard page is 60 charcters by 50 lines, hence 3000 characters, hence 3K) (My pages are usually 65 characters by 54 lines, which is 3.4K) Hence this book is approximately 330K, which is 66,000 words For more information contactd Sufi Order International, Seattle [ From which we learn two things: that this book is produced under the Aegis of the SO NO USA as well as Zenith, and that the SO NO USA had termed itself the Sufi Order International prior to ZIK assuming the directorship of the SO. Well, I reckon they know how to get to Canada. Go out the dining hall, walk up the hill, cross U.S. Route 20, take the trail up the hill, walk over Greylock and keep going. ] a member of Penguin Putnam, Inc. Edited by Pythia Peay The book is divided into the following chapters; 1) Awakenind and Illumination 2) Beginning the Journey: Loosening the ties that bind [ Already I dislike this editor -- that subtitle was ineptly cute. Though one could argue that point. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it was ept. Or both ept and inept. "Blessed be the ties that bind" is the title of a U.S. song, of the 1800's I guess. Maybe a church song. Well, if the ties are blessed, why should one loosen them on a non_renunciate spiritual path -- and the 'Sufi' path is emphatically non_renunciate. ] 3) Attuning to the Masters, Saints, and Prophets 4) Becoming a Being of Light 5) Awakening in Life: How our problems can become the catalysts for spiritual creativity. 6) Building a temple for the Divine Presence: Traditional Sufi practices 7) Heaven on earth: Awakening Conscience in everyday life [ Now I would have though that most of us had already woken up our consciences, long before we found our way to the SO, and that we came to the SO in the hope of finding something to do with that woke_up conscience. "Lady, the cat is in the plum tree. She won't come down. Oh well. " [ madrigal or round or whatever you call it that I heard at Haverat Shalom ] The points made in ZIK's preface include the following: ZIK notes that the Chisti order originated in India 700 years ago ZIK takes the term 'Pir' to mean 'Sufi Master', though PVK once remarked that it means merely 'Elder'. The Preface uses the spelling "Universal", though if memory serves the usual spelling is "Universel", an intentional pun I asssume -- Universe -- Cell . ZIK, with a quote from Ibn Arabi, seems to imply the the Universal Worship -- yes, it's 'Universal Worship', but I think 'Universel' -- the latter is the pronunciation in Engllish -- ZIK writes_ "HIK's work in the West expressed a deep commitment to ecumenism under the sign (!) of the 'Universal' [ sic, 'Universal' ] the archetype of the spirituality of the future as he envisioned it, a Temple of Light in which all faiths converge in polyphonic glorification of the One Being.' Well, I would not say that joining the SO entails a commitment to ecumenicism. Indeed, I had heard it said, at the Abode I assume, that HIK himself practiced Islam. I once , with my usual tact, second only to that of an absent_minded elephant, asked ZIK if he was following Islam -- this was in 1999 -- and he said, No, I am an -- eclectic, I don't now recall his word -- like my grandfather. I do like the term 'polyphonic', though I have said to see those harmonies made explicit in the SO. So anyhow, I would rather say that the SO offers a setting in which people of any and no formal religion can assemble, and each continue to worship , or daven, or whatever you call it, in his/her own way, enhanced by universal spiritual insights expressed often but by no means always (Islamic terminology is predominate in the SO, to the confusion of some at Moshav Mevo Modi'in, who ask me, what are you doing with those Arabs), in neutral terminology. Though I must admit that is my ideal, in reality I have found few in the SO who continued to follow the religious practice of their upbringing or known ancestors. When Gedalya Persky tripped over Dovid Din and fell into (Jewish, of course) orthodoxy, he quit the SO, more fool him. I once asked Barkat -- this was Kule's wife, and/or he her husband -- what the religious practice was of folkks at the Abode, thinking she would say, Islam, and she said, 'I think they're dabbling in Christianity.' This is back in the mid_70s, of course. Sadjata, Sikander's wife, was intensely into Christianity, I think. I do not know if the Shakers would have approved. I must say, ZIK's literary style in this Forward does strike me as a bit callow in some places. ZIK notes of this book: "It's chapters are compiled from transcriptions from transcriptiosn of js [ PVK's ] talks on these occasions [ ie, "group retreats"]. T his was the invaluable contribution of Pythia Peay, a writer and longtime student of Sufism, who has pored over vast ammounts of material to distill the ideas presented here. In editting and sometimes paraphrasing PVK's words, she has succeeded wonderfully in unravelling [ an apt word, for PVK's thought is often intricate -- well, I have here a beautiful natural_wool rug that someone left behind, and if I were to unravell it what's left would not be much use to anyone but a mouse ] the intricacies of his thought and expression to convey the broad sense of his teachings to the general reader, for whom the Sufi tradition tends to be terra incognita. Those who are approaching PVK's teachings for the first time, or those who have had difficulty comoprehending his more esoteric Sufi writings, will no doubt find this book and gentle and forebearing companion." Well, that's candid enough, though I'd guess that these book is not nearly as much a popularization as that paragraph seems to imply. Personally, my interest is in philsophy, I have no interest in pedagogy, popularization, nor outread (kiruv). I am concerened only with establishing what was said, not in making in accessible to hoi polloi. Me and Pope Ratzinger. Hence I define my role as archiving, and deal almost entirely -- well, primarily anyhow -- in verbatim input. I would like a list of the transcriptions that the editor used in preparing this book, and as much indiction as possible of which transcriptions correpond to which sections of the book. The editor's name is not familiar to me, but have been away from the USA for 20 years. But I think it is relevant to ask how much she did study with PVK, and how much he was involved in the preparation of this book -- in particular, whether he critically read the final draft. By chance I come across a phrase where PVK is said to have said, "I gazed at the sun for hours." That is of course a very dangerous thing to do, and nothing should be said that might tempt unqualified persons to do it -- most people would go nearly blind in a few minutes -- so I would like to confirm his exact words. I never heard him speak of gazing at the sun for hours, the implication was only that if one could do it, one might glance momentarily at the sun. Ok, I'll have to set this book aside for now. It is apparently written entirely as if it were PVK's exact words. The Editor has not written an introduction, though that is often done by editors, and would have been helpful here. ---------------------------------------------------------------- KIT, Number 31, and Number 61--72. (C) Sufi Order International, 23 rue de la Tuilerie, 92150 Suresnes, France Paperback booklet in a plastic binder, pp67, of which 60 pages are text. PVK's wrote the KIT's monthly, and they were sent out by subscription to mureeds. As far as I know, they were not editted. The booklet notes, "KIT is available in the original English version, or tranlsated into German and French." I know it exists in input, in 1999 ZR offered to bring me a copy when they came to Israel, but then I broke down on Rodos for a few years. In this booklet the KIT's are not numbered. I had an extensive though not complete collection of KIT's at Kibutz HaOn -- all that is in storage now, as far as I know, though I might be able to recover it -- and I did list all the titles and topics, by number, in one of my PVK Inventory documents, which are now posted to by Yahoo Briefase, adobetozenith , Password CarwashCharlie , sub_folder under /PVK0410 , //PVIN0510 . If memory seves. SO ok, the titles are: The Guru Syndrome -- This was KIT 31 -- Its importance is indicated by the fact that it is placed here, out of sequence, as the first issue. So here are the rest of the titles, I assume with the original numbers that I preface them with: (61) O my feeling heart, why do you laugh and cry -- a dream (62) How to find peace in teh cosmic drama (63) Meditation as a factor in addiction reduction (64) Suffering (65) Ibn Arabi's vision of beauty (66) Embodying stes of consciousness reached in meditation: thae Celestial celebration on earth and the human drama (67) Ring out the old, ring in the new. (68) Dreams_ Guidng you through into the dream world (69) Global thinking (70) Preparing for resurrection (71) Future spirituality (72) Meditation aftereffect The dates of these KIT's are not given. By mistake I also picked up the German edition, whiczh is numbers 61--70 only. These were translated, as far as I know, entirely by Hadi -- that's Hadi Whitman, as I recall. He was brilliant, as far as I know, and I think left under a cloud. So it's likely that not all the KIT's were translated into German. But I assume that a lot more than this were translated into German. The KITs are PVK's most dense and difficult writing, to translate them would be very difficult. I have sometimes thought that I would like to try to edit some of them, PVK seems to have written them at a go, without going back over them to -- untangle -- the wording. Incidentally, I have always found his class lectures clear enough to need only minor editting -- those do not require 'untangling'. OK, I don't know have time to do a more detailed listing of the contents of these KITs, nor now to insert here my listing of the KITs from my /pvkinvs document. --------------------------------------------------------------- In Search of the Hidden Treasure: A conference of Sufis Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan USA $37.50 Jeraemy P. Tarcher / Putnam 375 Hudson Street, New York NY 10014 A member of Penguin Putnam, Inc. New York A book laboratory book www.penguinputnam.com Copyright (C) 2003 by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan ISBN 1-58542-180-4 pp210 with very extensive illustrations, mostly in colour, with extensive portraits -- [ or rather, evocations ] of Sufis by Mary Inayat Khan With so many illustrations, there is much less text here than one might have anticipated in what was PVK's book on the traditional sufis. So here one would like to see the original -- input typescripts, I suppose -- . My guess is that what PVK wrote was very much chopped down by the publisher. It is said that NIK , zl'b, was "tortured to death" at Dachau. From what I have read hitherto, she was beaten to death, although nowadays beating is termed torture. Well, this is a beautifully produced book, on glossy paper to accomodate the illustrations. An essential Sufi coffee_table book. As noted, PVK did write and produce this book, and was deeply involved with it over a period of many years. I do recall him speaking of it in 1999. Acknowlegements are given in the preface to: "Thanks are given here to Mariel Walters, Telema Hess, Dorthy Craig, Raquib Ickovitz, Michale David Clearkson, Sharif Graham, amida Cary, Yasodhara Sandra Lillydah, Mussawwira Butta, and Kerubiel Inayat Khan, who have helped edit the manuscript. The author partuclarly wishes to thing Jyoti Jessica Roshan and Melea Press for assisting him with the manuscirpt, and takes pleasure in giving special thanks to Aostra Ja,,am fpr jer je wotj tje rferemces." Latifa mentioned to me that she and Pascal were involved in preparing the book; ZR confirmed that Pascal did a substantial ammount of work on it. PVK has created a new structure for this work -- imagined colloquia amonst Sufi masters and aspirants, "beyond time and space." As he says, this is not an academic treatise. Nor is it a popularization, it is clearly intended for serious seekers. Appended are 10 pages of 'Bibliographic references', in small print; every quotation from a traditional Sufi master, including HIK, seems to have been documented. There is also a very brief glossary -- only 27 entries -- 59 thumbnailo biogrphies of traditional Sufi's, including Abraham Maimonides. There is also a 2_page bibliography, which likely includes some rather rare references. So far all that this is not an academic book, it is buttressed in the usual academic fashion. In "Author Acknowlegements", and the end of the book, PVK notes that he worked on this book over many decades, and remarks: "this book is basically ficiton built out of an academic background in an endeavor to make sufism more accessible to the braoder public unfamiliar iwth the subtleties of Sufi metaphor. In my intial stages, I was simply recoding notes on my computer iwthout any intention of their being assembled in a book." Additional acknowlegements are given in these after_notes. It is clear that this is a very serious book, only 'The Message in our Time' is comprable . And indeed, those are the only two books , that PVK directly wrote. It is also clear that with this book PVK was creating a new form, highly interactive with the reader. ---------------------------------------------------------------- That concludes my listing of the PVK works which I have at hand. Let me briefly note two others works, then grab a bite to eat and get some sleep. Tomorrow I should walk down the hill, grab a train with my last coins ( unless of course, my monthly remittance has come through, or the bank gives me a bit more of an overdraft, one or the other of which is likely ), and go to the Hotel Dan (Glatt Kosher) in Lugano to bentch lulav, and hopefully grab a bit of a snack to eat in their indoor sukah -- though I really did built one here this year, with the bemused indulgence of Mr. Vanzetti, who immediately remarked that he assumed he would find me sleeping there at midnight -- as indeed, one should. Meanwhile, Sukot here so far has been steady overcast, almost a greyout at times, cold and wet and dreary, barely enough time to eat a sandwich and take swig of Guiness in the Suka before the drizzle resumed. My suka is a preposterous sturcture of upended ski_racks walled with traffic_barriers , but I think it meets the halachot, even though I usually don't. OK, on to the last listings and then out to grab a few small ptit pois and some boiled Brussel sprounts: --------------------------------------------------------------- A Pearl in Win: Essys on the life, music and sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan, editted by ZIK. Omega Publications, New Lebanon, NY (C) 2001 Omega Publications With two exceptions, all the essays in this volume are original. Cloth 0-930872-69-X Paper 0-9390872-70-X Omega Publications, 256 Darrow Road, New Lebanon NY, 12125-2615 goodbooks@omegapub.com www.wisdomschild.com Back cover has it; 0-930872-70-3 Price $40 (paperback) pp492 [ Yeth, that's wisdomschild -- I really don't have enough teeth left even to think it -- but then, I do think aurally, you can see that in my typos. It was named after the bookshop cat, named Sophia . Or maybe a kitten of the bookshop cat. ] Well, clearly this is a solid and serious work, but I don't hae time to go into it now. ------------------------------------------------------------ "Allow us to Recognize Thee ..." lst edition 1983 2nd edition 1991 Published by Ziraat Publications, for the PVK Trust. paperback booklete, pp43. Based on a retreat led by Sharif Graham in March 1983 in Arizona. Edited by Arifa Miller (zl'b) Reference is made to, and exerpts taken from, PVK, Sufi Order Leader's Manual, Volumes 1 and 2, of which I had not hitherto taken note. Thaere is a 1_page excerpt about Melchizedek, by PVK there is also a quarter_page quote from PVK, Death Valley Retreat, 1983. This short booklet is clearly dense and serious. I don't have time to go into it now. -------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, that wraps it up. Time for a snack of sorts, and maybe a half_bottle of Guiness -- in the sukah, if I can steal myself to venture out to it -- sitting at the edge of the parking lot, next to the trash bins. I really ought to have had a word with whoever started the tradition that a dervish sits on a pile of -- banana_plant stalks, which is what's left when you cut down the bananna plants to harvest the banannas. Nobody could ever eat enough banannas to make a pile of bannana peels large and comfortable enough for any self_respecting dervish to sit on. Pardon my typos, I don't have time to go back and tidy them up. ---------------------------------------------------------------- sa, Campra, 19 Oct '05 -- 17 Tishrei -- 3rd day of Sukot -- Jakob -- 17 Ramadan Overcast and dreary out, or was the last time I looked. Again, I am greatful to the Vanzetti's for giving me a warm dry place to work -- not to mention eat, sleep, read Jeffry Archer novels, and compress all my clothes into. ================================================================ ===============================================================