Diary 1963 - Murshid Sam's Living Stream

Diaries 1963January 22, 1963Dear Sheikha:This will probably be my last letter before resuming the typing. I have inferred, or writtenabout the forms of laughter. Copy of a letter is enclosed, which really is also based on laughter. Ivisited the church offices, very business-like, and about as much like a church office as a drugstoreis. That is their business, of course. The modern method of greeting a stranger is to turn on “charm,”which means grinning and even gritting the face and beginning with a negative. I therefore decidedagainst talking with anybody there but the minister.Now this church is having a series of talks on “The Limits of Consciousness” in which a lot ofpopular intellectuals—none of whom would be welcomed on the Berkeley campus—are going toexplain what they have never experienced. Actually, there is a sort of war going on. It came out in“Time’s” review of a book which was written by two professors on atomic warfare. One was Prof.Burdick. I have sarcastically written “Time”: ‘Fiction, yes; fact, no.” The University has replied by avery favorable report on Burdick. What “Time” says is non-scientific or anti-scientific, the scientistsin Berkeley are scientific. This illustrates the “war,” as the British philosopher C.P. Snow calls it,between the literati and the scientists.Here the literati have it all over the radio stations, especially the controversial ones, causing theuniversity of California people to form a sort of cult or clique—which is not necessary at all.I am just wondering whether Scholefield will answer. When I wrote Pike from abroad, he answered,but some of my letters are with my luggage, not received. However, the important thing isthe laughter. There will be no more recoil. And on this note I shall begin my new transcript. It is alsoa period marked by strange rejections of some old friends, counterbalanced by new welcomes andthat most delightful of all experiences—having friends from still an earlier period of life come backinto one’s orbit.Since the last letters concerning Major Sadiq, it would seem I am on the right path in basicthings. On January 30, I shall be at the luncheon where the Consul General of India is the ChiefSpeaker and then I open my mouth.Just had to write a letter to Princeton while reading a book in which they say the “dervishorders have largely died out”—yes, with a President of Pakistan, a Vice-President of India, a PrimeMinister of Malaya—gee, it’s great to have a sense of humor.Love and blessings,