Bio-Bibliography

Indiana to India: A Bio-Bibliography of a Swami's Journey to Neo-Sannyas by Swami Samarpan David (aka David Leslie Kent) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at https://sites.google.com/site/samarpandavid/home.

Indiana to India : A Bio-Bibliography of a 

Swami’s Ontological Journey to Neo-Sannyas

by Swami Samarpan David (aka David Leslie Kent)

This document is autobiographical, in the form of a bio-bibliography of books influential in my life.  The title Indiana to India bears no relation to the book: India to Indiana: Via Dulles and Dallas. (Thrissur: Mar Narsai Publication, 2002), which I discovered after I had titled this work. But it does go to show that cultural migrations happen in both directions! Mine could have been similarly called: Indiana to India: Via Medellín and Mumbai!

My Glossary ... to Explain the Subtitle

Swami -- Sanskrit for “master of oneself”

Ontological -- relating to being or existence

Neo-Sannyas -- a rebellion about all structures, hence the difficulty to define. Sannyas is the fourth life stage in Hinduism, the stage of renunciation. Neo-sannyas is a way of living life unstructured, while embracing and celebrating existence, instead of repressing and renouncing.

Bio-Bibliography -- a work combining biographical information with bibliography. In this case, works that have influenced my intellectual and spiritual development. So, A Bio-Bibliography of a Swami’s Ontological Journey to Neo-Sannyas could be translated as “how reading books helped defeat my 'metaphysical curse'.”  My metaphysical curse, from 1967 to 1981 consisted of always asking “Why do I exist?” and never being satisfied with any answer given.  Reading Wilber, and being initiated by Osho into Neo-Sannyas, allowed me to defeat my metaphysical curse in order to more fully experience and enjoy life. Specifically neo-sannyas freed me to explore through dynamic meditation, freed me to dance, to travel to 17 countries, to become bilingual, to enjoy many different spiritual practices, to live without my metaphysical curse, to laugh heartily, and to "be a joke unto myself."

Major Bibliographic Influences 1964-1981 (in chronological order)

• Wood, Ernest.  Great Systems of Yoga. New York: Philosophical Library, 1954.

• Jones, E. Stanley (1884-1973).  Christ's Alternative to Communism. New York: Abingdon Press, 1935.

• Gandhi.  An Autobiography; the Story of My Experiments with Truth. Boston: Beacon Press, 1957.

• Camus, Albert.  The Myth of Sisyphus, and Other Essays. New York: Knopf, 1955.

• Assagioli, Roberto.  Psychosynthesis; a Manual of Principles and Techniques. New York: Hobbs, Dorman, 1965.

• Merton, Thomas.  The Seven Storey Mountain. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1948.

• Lawrence, Brother. The Practice of the Presence of God: Being Conversations and Letters of Nicholas Herman of Lorraine, Brother Lawrence. Westwood, N.J.,: Revell, 1958.

• Heard, Gerald. Training for the Life of the Spirit. New York: Harper, 1942.

• Hennacy, Ammon, and Steve Allen. The Book of Ammon. [with an Introd. By Steve Allen]. N.pl.1966.

• Osho. Meditation : The Art of Ecstasy. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.

• Wilber, Ken. The Atman Project : A Transpersonal View of Human Development. Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Pub. House, 1980.

Chronological Bio-Bibliographic Notes on a Cosmological Journey -- 1961-2013

1949

Born in Saint Francis Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1961 

Baptized in the Mt. Pleasant Christian Church (Smith Valley, Indiana). Sent to summer Bible camp to read the Good Book.

• The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: Translated Out of the Original Greek; and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised. New York: American Bible Society, 1926.

1959-1963 

Years of Christian religious conditioning.  Asleep.  Zero political awareness. Zero non-Christian spiritual consciousness. The only mention of "others" (all those not in our Christian Church), was to condemn the "others" as non-believers. Jews, Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. (not to mention Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, etc.) were all considered "non-believers." Anyone who didn't believe exactly as my independent non-denominational Christian Church believed was definitely going straight to Hell. "Bible says so!" At least according to the revivalist interpretation of the Bible that came out of the Second Great Awakening (1800-1870) American Restoration Movement... out of which our independent "Christian Church" was formed. When my minister told me that all Catholics are going to hell that got me thinking and questioning and doubting. Seems the Catholics were baptized by being sprinkled, not immersed under water, and that was enough to condemn them to eternal hellfire according to my minister. I didn't believe it. I could not believe it: my best friend was Catholic. I started investigating alternatives to Christianity.

1964 

Read about Yoga and India in the Center Grove High School Library (Smith Valley, Indiana). Center Grove got me to India, to yoga, but not to Gandhi.

• Wood, Ernest. Great Systems of Yoga. New York: Philosophical Library, 1954.

• Brunton, Paul. A Search in Secret India. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc, 1935. 

1966

High school civics teacher asks me one day after school: “What are you going to do about Vietnam?” I had never heard of Vietnam.

1967 

Read E. Stanley Jones, Gandhi, and Tolstoy and became a conscientious objector to war.

• Jones, E. Stanley (1884-1973). Christ's Alternative to Communism. New York: Abingdon Press, 1935.

• Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (1869-1948).  An Autobiography; the Story of My Experiments with Truth. Boston: Beacon Press, 1957.

• Tolstoy, Leo.  The Law of Violence And the Law of Love. London: Unicorn Press, 1959.

• Tolstoy, Leo, and Aylmer Maude. 1936. The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays. London,: Oxford university press.

A local Presbyterian minister loaned me a copy of a book by E. Stanley Jones and through that book I arrived at Gandhi. Through Jones I was able to envision the kingdom of God on earth, without private property and without competition. In place of competition (upon which capitalism thrives), Jones substitutes “cooperation.” According to Jones the world is ready for cooperation on a grand or universal scale.

Reading E. Stanley Jones accomplished two things: 1) it moved me further away from literal belief in what the Bible says and moved me toward direct spiritual experience independent of religious scriptures, and 2) it continued my learning about India and led me to Gandhi, ahimsa, and social gospel. I began to identify myself as a pacifist.

Upon discovering pacifism I soon came upon writings by Tolstoy and Gandhi and other writers in the traditional “peace churches” (Mennonites, Brethren, and Quakers). In addition to the many books I found in the Center Grove High School Library, which introduced me to Hinduism and the “mysterious” land that is India, I also explored the holdings of the Greenwood Public Library. The librarian and I became friends. She was later more than happy to write a letter to the draft board in support of my application for conscientious objection to war. My local minister would not write such a letter of support. He called me a traitor and a communist for refusing to join the armed forces and fight the "godless communist enemy." Never mind that he was the one who had for years said to follow Christ's example, but I guess he didn't think that applied to the part where Jesus said to "love your enemies." (Matthew 5:44 ... those years in Bible Camp were not wasted!)

The fundamentalist Christian brainwashing of my first fifteen years was so thorough it took the next fifteen years of my life to get out of it. But, thanks to my minister, I knew I needed to look elsewhere and I had a good idea of where to start looking.

1968 

Read Daybreak by Joan Baez. Marched against Vietnam War with Martin Luther King and Joan Baez in Washington, D. C.

• Baez, Joan. Daybreak. New York: The Dial Press, 1968.

1969 

Read Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus and became an “existential atheist pacifist.” Start two years of alternative service working in a hospital library.

• Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus, and Other Essays. New York: Knopf, 1955.

• Russell, Bertrand. 1957. Why I Am Not a Christian, and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects. New York,: Simon and Schuster.

While working at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library, doing my alternative service as a conscientious objector, I took advantage of the incredible resources of the UW Libraries.

1970 

Read more Gandhi (on constructive program) and read John Woolman. Became a Quaker.

• Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. (1869-1948). Sarvodaya (the Welfare of All). Ahmedabad: Navajivan Pub. House, 1954.

• Woolman, John, and John Woolman. The Journal of John Woolman, and a Plea for the Poor. New York: Corinth Books, 1961.

1971 

Read radical Catholic pacifist/anarchist/personalist writers, who seduced me back to theism. Become active with Catholic Worker Movement.

• Merton, Thomas. The Seven Storey Mountain. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1948.

• Merton, Thomas. [spoken audiocassettes] Life and community. Life and prophecy. Life and celebration. Life and work. Life and solitude. Life and truth. Life and God's love. Life and the Holy Spirit. Life and contemplation.

• Merton, Thomas. 1953. The sign of Jonas. New York: Harcourt, Brace.

• Merton, Thomas. 1968. Albert Camus' The plague; introduction and commentary. New York: Seabury Press.

• Maurin, Peter. Radical Christian Thought: Easy Essays. West Hamlin, W. Va: The Green Revolution, 1971. Print.

• Maritain, Jacques, and John J. Fitzgerald. The Person and the Common Good. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1947.

• Hennacy, Ammon, and Steve Allen. The Book of Ammon. [with an Introd. By Steve Allen]. s. n., 1966.

• Day, Dorothy. The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of Dorothy Day; Illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg ; [introduction by Daniel Berrigan]. Garden City: Doubleday, 1959.

• Day, Dorothy. Loaves and Fishes. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.

1972 

Read Training for the Life of the Spirit by Gerald Heard, and read more on Vedanta... and Perennial Philosophy... and Psychosynthesis.  Meet and take classes from Robert Gussner [Swami Anand Jina] while studying comparative religion at University of Vermont.

• Heard, Gerald. Training for the Life of the Spirit. New York: Harper, 1942.

• Assagioli, Roberto. Psychosynthesis; a Manual of Principles and Techniques. New York: Hobbs, Dorman, 1965.

• Deutsch, Eliot. Advaita Vedānta: a Philosophical Reconstruction. Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1969.

• Huxley, Aldous. The Perennial Philosophy. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945.

• Vivekananda.  Raja-yoga, or Conquering the Internal Nature.  New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York, 1939.

1973-1974 

Read Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. Read Berdyayev and practice Eastern Orthodox Christian prayer "hesychia" (quiet, solitude, stillness).

• Lawrence, . The Practice of the Presence of God: Being Conversations and Letters of Nicholas Herman of Lorraine, Brother Lawrence. Westwood, N.J.,: Revell, 1958.

• Berdyayev, Nikolay A. Freedom and the Spirit. London: G. Bles, 1935.

• Marcel, Gabriel. 1956. The philosophy of existentialism. New York: Citadel Press.

• Berdyaev, Nikolai, and Donald A. Lowrie. 1965. Christian existentialism. London: Allen & Unwin.

• Sandperl, Ira. A Little Kinder. Palo Alto, Calif: Science and Behavior Books, 1974.

• Assagioli, Roberto. The Act of Will. New York (N.Y.: The Viking Press, 1973.  

1975 

Ultimately, I failed to integrate spirituality and social action into an ethical mysticism and dropped out of “the anti-war movement,” beginning a transition from activist to quietist. 1975 was the year I dropped out of social activism (seven years of constant anxiety, guilt, and protest against the War in Vietnam left me exhausted). In 1975 I stopped trying to change the world, and became more quietist, though my social conscience was never completely submerged. My ego was surprised to learn that the movement was quite capable of continuing without me!

1976 

Discover Osho through my "mentor" Swami Anand Jina (Robert Gussner at UVM).  Begin doing Osho’s active meditations.

• Osho. Meditation : The Art of Ecstasy. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.

1977 

Read Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science and decided to attend graduate school in librarianship.

• Ranganathan, S R. The Five Laws of Library Science. Bombay, New York: Asia Pub. House, 1963.

1978 

Attended Graduate School of Library and Information Science at University of Washington (now called The Information School). Create a 42-page "preliminary work toward a comprehensive bibliography of the works by and about Gerald Heard."

1979 

Discovered the South Asian collections of the University of Washington Libraries, developed using the U.S. Library of Congress Public Law 480 buying program. Among the treasures I discovered there were the many works of one Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. (Today you will see this message in the UW Libraries Catalog: Rajaneesh, Ācarya, Śri, 1931-1990 is not used in this library's catalog. Osho, 1931-1990 is used instead.)

Altogether I read 40 of Osho’s books (there are now over 300 titles) mostly darshan diaries and discourse commentaries. Simultaneously I began doing active meditations at the Rajneesh Meditation Center in West Seattle.

1980 

Read The Atman Project by Ken Wilber and finally find an intellectual answer to my “metaphysical curse” that I can accept.  If Osho was my main spiritual influence, Wilber was my main transpersonal theorist to explain what was going on in the evolution of consciousness, both globally and personally. Between 1981 and 2001 I read about 12 of Wilber’s works. The Atman Project was the second Wilber book I read, after No Boundary. Wilber satisfied my intellectual skepticism and my curiosity in a way no other philosophical writer had. Of course, I loved it that Wilber is a meditator and knowledgeable in both eastern and western approaches to transformation.

• Wilber, Ken. The Atman Project : A Transpersonal View of Human Development. Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Pub. House, 1980.

• Wilber, Ken. No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth. Boston: Shambhala, 1979.

1981 

Continue reading Osho, meditating, and begin to dye all my clothes and underwear red... My Italian-American wife at that time (who ironically later became involved with Werner Erhard and est training), did not want Osho’s books in the house and did not want me going to Osho meditations. Red clothes? She said I looked like a clown. She gave me an ultimatum to choose between her and Osho.

I wrote to Osho, requesting to take sannyas, and received the reply that, if it was going to cause domestic rough waters, it would be better not to take sannyas. I then read 39 more books by Osho and continued to meditate at the Rajneesh Meditation Center in Seattle. Many weekly sessions... months of marriage counseling... were followed by the decision to divorce. In the absence of turbulent domestic waters I received neo-sannyas from Osho on June 4, 1982, a mala, and a new name: Swami Samarpan David. I already had the red clothes.

1982 

Neo-Sannyas, June 4 ; First Annual World Celebration (July) in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. The first song I hear after embracing sannyas is Linda Ronstadt’s “It’s so easy to fall in love, It’s so easy to fall in love, People say that love’s for fools... Here I go breakin’ all the rules.” The most meaningful Osho quote in that moment: “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be enjoyed.” 

1983 

Danced regularly to Jamaican reggae and African dance music as part of my neo-sannyas meditation. Go to the Reggae Sunsplash annual festival in Montego Bay. Everyting Irie, Mon!

1984 

Moved to Medellín, Colombia to work as the Columbus School Head Librarian and to become fluent in Spanish.

1985 

Started Padma Rajneesh Meditation Center in Medellín and traveled to Pune, India. Osho says wearing red clothes and the mala are now optional, emphasizing that meditation is what is essential.

1986 

Traveled to Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Brazil, and most parts of Colombia

1987 

Published bilingual edition of ¡Celebra! ¡Medita! in Medellín, from my translation of two Osho discourses into Spanish.

• Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree. ¡Celebra! ¡Medita! : Charlas dadas en la India por Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh sobre la meditación como respuestas a las preguntas de discípulos y visitantes. [Discourses given in India by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh on meditation as answers to questions by disciples and visitors.] Bilingual Edition. Translated by Swami Samarpan David. Medellín, Colombia : Padma, 1988. ISBN 958-9171-00-1

            “This book contains [translations of] two discourses:

                “Unless the whole existence...” (Bombay, India, 31 Oct. 1986)

  “Light in the seed” (Pune, India, 7 May 1980)

2015-2016 ??? 

2017  Three months in Colombia, hip and back pain, hospice care for my mother who died in Nov. 2017.

2018  Family reunion in Lake Tahoe, CA, USA. Sufi retreats. Buddhist retreats. Native American Flute School.

Shakuhachi Yuu

https://shakuhachiyuu.com

• Abbott, Carl. Blowing Zen. Santa Cruz, Calif: Center for Taoist Thought and Fellowship, 2005. Musical score.

• Abbott, Carl. Blowing Zen II. Santa Cruz, Calif: Center for Taoist Thought and Fellowship, 2005. Musical score. "This booklet carries on where "Blowing Zen" left off. It contains musical scores for additional Hon Kyoku, San Kyoku and Japanese folk music."

• Blasdel, Christopher Y. The Shakuhachi: A Manual for Learning. Tokyo, Japan: Printed Matter Press, 2008.

• Blasdel, Christopher Y. The Single Tone: A Personal Journey into Shakuhachi Music. , 2008. Print.

• Brooks, Ray. Blowing Zen: Finding an Authentic Life. Boulder: Sentient Publications, 2011. Print.

• Johnson, Henry M. The Shakuhachi: Roots and Routes. Leiden: Brill, 2014. Print.

• Kypros, Jon. Your Shakuhachi Journey: How to Play the Shakuhachi Japanese Bamboo Flute. Place of publication not identified: Flutedojo.com, 2015. Print.

• Lee, Riley K. Blowing Zen: Aspects of Performance Practices of the Chikuho Ryū Honkyoku. , 1986. Print. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii, 1986. 

• Matoušek, Vlatislav. "Suizen - "blowing Zen": Spirituality As Music and Music As Spirituality." Estetyka I Krytyka. 2011 (2011): 61-72. Print.

• Seldin, Ronnie Nyogetsu. Sui Zen: Blowing Meditation on the Shakuhachi. Hoboken, NJ: Sterner Editorial Services, 2004. Print. Shakuhachi Immersion : 20th Annual Shakuhachi Summer Camp of the Rockies (Loveland, CO, USA, June 21-25, 2018)  https://shakucamp.com

The International Shakuhachi Society ... Hélène Seiyu Codjo

https://www.komuso.com/people/people.pl?person=1912

Zen and Suizen

http://www.daviderath.com/shakuhachi/suizen

Ro-Buki in Rhyme : Reflections on Blowing Zen    (2018 Samarpan David Kent)

This year turns out my spiritual path involves breathing and plastic  

The simple practice called blowing zen has really been fantastic!  

In spiritual traditions breathing is utilitarian   

For monotheists, polytheists, even Unitarians 

In my spiritual journey, I’ve had philosophies galore.  

Atheism, agnosticism, anarchism, and more. 

Pantheism, panentheism, pacifism … Oh my! … What schisms!  

Existentialism, theism… and many many more “isms.”  

Forty five years I searched for Truth. To find practices, there was no dearth. 

Searching philosophies… Religious traditions … Of Planet Earth.  

And from all that searching, what have I learned… of what I was after?  

I found the non-verbal most valuable: silence, music, laughter. 

This year I began a new Zen nothingness practice, Ro-Buki,  

Breathing into emptiness with Shunya, my plastic Shakuhachi.  

I AM thankful to be alive, to STILL be alive… and breathing.  

My search led me to Shunya … Had nothing to do with believing.  

From Mahāyāna Buddhism Shunya is short hand for Shunyata  

By blowing zen, Buddhist emptiness comes right straight back atcha  

Now I no longer meditatively dance my way to pure stoned bliss  

Due to an M. R. I. diagnosing osteoarthritis  

With all five holes covered the lowest Shakuhachi note is Ro  

Ro-Buki means to blow Ro, so every day … Ro I must blow  

Ro-Buki inspires “shugyo,” which is a deep body-mind training  

I practice Ro-Buki every day … Sun shining or raining  

Ro-Buki … Suizen .. is important … Both for playing and being  

Enlightenment through a single pure note … And new ways of seeing. 

The Shakuhachi flute is paradox … both form and emptiness… 

Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Gotta love those Buddhists! 

My flute is a Shakuhachi Yuu, made of plastic not bamboo  

Will not dry or crack in desert climate … and my heart, it did woo.  

Recommended for beginners… this Shakuhachi .. Y .. U .. U  

Wet will not harm it… and amazon dot com gave a good review!  

Shakuhachi arrived in Japan fourteen hundred years ago   

Not an ensemble instrument …  Meditatively played … Solo   

Shakuhachis are part of Zen culture … As very sacred tools  

The Komuso, “monks of emptiness” who played them were smart, not fools  

Komuso of Fuke Zen Sect… Suppressed by Meiji Restoration  

Their honkyoku song pieces are still here for meditation   

The works they composed used sound and silence in their originality  

The gaps between notes express beautifully Zen non-duality 

 Instead of sitting watching breath, a sitting practice called zazen 

Tengai baskets over their heads they were always blowing sui zen  

Wandering monks, baskets covering faces, eyes following the ground  

Playing Shakuhachis … Uniting opposites: Silence and sound  

Suizen practice has breathed energy into my spiritual life.  

Thankfully I have a very supportive, understanding wife!  

Suizen gets me out of bed … Ro-Buki … Five a. m. … A new day  

Age sixty-nine … Beginner … Blowing Ro … Emptiness … On my way.