The sixth and final event of the 2014 Awake in the World Conference was an interreligious dialogue (hosted by the Shambhala Mountain Center and Naropa University on October 24th, 2014) in which six representatives of different religious paths engaged in dialogue on "Livelihood and the Spiritual Journey."
For students of the life of Malcolm X, Manning Marable’s acclaimed yet controversial 2011 publication titled Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention is undoubtedly a must-read. Lauded by critics as a major literary and historical achievement, Marable’s biography of Malcolm X was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2012. The book is based on extensive scholarly research that includes information from personal interviews with Malcolm’s associates, Nation of Islam recordings, archived collections, and government files. Chronicling the life of Malcolm X from birth to death against the backdrop of early black activism and the civil rights movement, this book provides insight into both Malcolm’s life and the social forces that shaped him.
As a professor of African-American Studies, Marable is highly regarded as a historian and as an authority on black history. In addition to having published fifteen books, he edited thirteen books and published more than four hundred articles in academic journals and related publications.[1] Utilizing over one thousand documents, Marable’s biography of Malcolm X is well written and well researched, providing an objective, historical look at a highly controversial figure in twentieth century American history. In this work, the author primarily presents events as they occurred, inserting commentary only where facts differ from information in Malcolm X’s autobiography and where documented information (by implication) points to a logical conclusion. By limiting commentary and personal observations mainly to the Prologue and Epilogue, Marible allows readers to formulate their own opinions about the many topics in this book. If A Life of Reinvention has any drawbacks, it is in the amount of time required to read such an extensive text and in the fact that it has some redundancy. Being chronologically structured, however, redundancy cannot be avoided. The author would have been remiss had he glossed over certain events simply because they repeated themselves.
As the title of this book indicates, Marable views Malcolm X’s life as one of repeated reinvention. In chronological sequence, he details the early years of Malcolm Little’s life and the events that later transformed him from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X and ultimately to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. This book’s structure is based on specific time periods with some chapters spanning several years and other chapters limited to either months or days. The text provides a comprehensive look at Malcolm’s early years with his family, his teenage years of petty crime, his conversion to the Nation of Islam (NOI) while in prison, and his subsequent impact on the NOI as its National Minister. It additionally details major events in his later adult life, including his trips to Africa and the Middle East; his relationships with important Muslim officials; his break with the Nation of Islam and his conversion to orthodox Islam; his influence on dogmatic changes within the NOI; and events leading up to and including his assassination.
In this work, Marable seeks to separate the iconic Malcolm from the historical Malcolm, asserting that the latter has been “strangled by the iconic legend that has been constructed around him.”[2] In order to achieve this separation, Marable first critically deconstructed The Autobiography of Malcolm X[3] and subsequently historically reconstructed the details of Malcolm’s life. During this process, Marable came to view Malcolm’s autobiography as “a brilliant literary work, but more of a memoir than a factual and objective reconstruction”[4] of his life. Marable addresses Malcolm’s relationship with his co-author Alex Haley and reveals previously unknown information regarding the book’s format, structure, and publication. He additionally explores the book’s trajectory and its role in shaping Malcolm’s iconographic status.
Comparing and contrasting Malcolm’s autobiography with historical documents, Marable notes an absence of information regarding the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) in the autobiography and inconsistencies in names, dates, and facts. Of special note are Marable’s assertions that Malcolm inflated certain aspects of his past as Detroit Red in order to shape his public image while simultaneously omitting information that, had it been known, would have resulted in his arrest on an old warrant.[5] More controversial are Marable’s assertions that Malcolm was involved in an extra-marital affair immediately prior to his death[6] and that Malcolm’s description of Rudy’s homosexual relationship with William Paul Lennon was actually a description of his own relationship with Lennon.[7] Based in part on these last two statements, Marable’s book was severely criticized by members of the black community and provoked many rebuttals. In 2012, the same year in which Marable posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize, A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X was published. This book is a compilation of critical essays of Marable’s biography of Malcolm X, some of which go so far as to challenge Marable’s credibility as a historian, alleging flaws in accuracy, scholarship, and citations.[8]
Because Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention is structured as it is, readers wanting to know about the Nation of Islam will have to read most of the book. Information on the Nation of Islam is not fully described in a discreet section of the text, being presented instead as pieces of information contextually woven into the events of Malcolm’s life. While this can be a bit cumbersome and confusing for readers, it is not unmanageable. Information on orthodox Islam is more easily accessible as it is presented in relation to Malcolm’s conversion. However, this information is primarily focused on the Islamic tenets regarding equality among races, required prayer practice, and the mandatory pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the Hajj. Readers wanting to compare NOI dogma with the teachings of orthodox Islam are compelled to read the entire book and do their own comparison. Readers who are looking for information on Islam are advised to seek out reputable books that present a more thorough picture of Islam’s history and traditions.
One of the most intriguing sections of this book revolves around the period of Malcolm’s life following his conversion to orthodox Islam and his break with the Nation of Islam. Although this section of the book is relatively brief, Marable provides ample information that Malcolm was undergoing a significant psychological and personal transition at the time of his assassination. This period of his life certainly invites further study.
As a post-script to Malcolm’s life, this book provides follow-ups on a diverse collection of people who figured in Malcolm’s life and/or in his death. Referring to the years following his assassination, Marable discloses information on Malcolm’s wife and family members, close associates, and prominent figures such as Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan. Among others, he additionally reports on lesser known figures including both the alleged and convicted assassins and the NYPD detective who surveilled Malcolm X for the last two years of his life. In this section, Marable also recounts the series of murders and violent events that occurred after Malcolm’s death and changes to the NOI following Elijah Muhammad’s death.
Although this period of history may be deemed closed by many, this is not the end of Malcolm’s story. Part of the information disclosed in the latter part of this book points to possible connections between the NOI and law enforcement agencies, with implications regarding Malcolm’s death. Having relied heavily on information that became available only years after Malcolm’s death for the writing of this book, Marable points out that in the future “more definitive judgments will be made”[9] about various connections between key individuals when additional law enforcement files are made available years from now. Until such time as history is again rewritten, however, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention presents a well-documented and fascinating portrayal of a man whose life, ideology, and political vision continue to impact diverse peoples not only in America but around the world.
[1]. Manning Marable. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. New York: Viking, Published by the Penguin Group, 2011. 593-594.
[2]. Ibid., 490.
[3]. Malcolm X and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine, 1999.
[4]. Marable, 491.
[5]. Ibid., 11, 63-65.
[6]. Ibid., 394.
[7]. Ibid., 66. A successful businessman, Lennon often hired male secretaries to work at his home. Malcolm worked for Lennon in 1944 as a “butler and occasional house worker”. He also corresponded with Lennon from prison.
[8]. Jared A. Ball, “An Introduction to a Lie,” in A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X, ed. Jared A. Ball and Todd Steven Burroughs. (Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 2012). Kindle version, no page number given, accessed April 4, 2014, at http://www.amazon.com/Lie-Reinvention-Correcting-Manning-Marables/dp/1574780492/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396638046&sr=1-1&keywords=a+lie+of+reinvention+correcting+manning+marable%E2%80%99s+malcolm+x
[9]. Marable, 478.
"The Tower of Babel" by Pieter Breugel the Elder c. 1653
In 1949, Max Zeller, a disciple of the visionary psychotherapist, Dr. Carl Jung, came to Jung with a dream he could not understand. In the dream, he saw a “temple of vast dimensions” under construction. As far as he could see, in every direction, there were multitudes of people participating in the building of the temple. Though the temple was only in its beginning stages, the foundation had already been laid, and he was himself working on a pillar. Hearing this, Jung simply nodded and said, “this is the temple we are all building today.” It is “the new religion.” We don’t know all the builders, of course, because they are “in India and China and in Russia, and all over the world.” But “this new religion will come together.”[1]
This is what Jung believed. The problem for us is that the process has only just begun, and we do not yet know what shape it will take or how it can help us. Looking at the rubble of the past and the chaotic building-site of the present, many people today—both spiritually-inclined and secular—are understandably declaring “the end of religion.” But what neither seems to understand is that religion cannot die unless we, as human beings, somehow cease to feel and long for that indefinable, ineffable awareness of the sacred to which religion is merely a response. Until that happens, we will continue to reach out to the sacred, and we will use religion to get it. The real question is, what kind of religion will we use to access the sacred? Will we continue to use the old religions of the past, whether in their conventional or mystical forms? Will we evolve and participate in new hyphenated fusions of traditions like Christian Zen or Sufi-Hasidism? Or will we embrace a greater religion of spirituality, as some are already suggesting?
I think the simple answer is, ‘Yes.’
Until fairly late in the 20th-century, no matter where you might find yourself on the map, you were likely to live in a more or less homogenous culture, where most people were ‘like you’ in language, race and religion. If you knew anything about another religion, you probably viewed it as something inferior. But today, we live in a world where cultures are increasingly bumping up against one another, and where religions are learning to co-exist. Today, we find that our neighbors are Hindu, and our co-workers Muslim. In almost every metropolitan area, we have access to Yoga classes, Buddhist meditation, Hindu satsangs, Muslim Sufi dhikrs, Christian Centering Prayer groups, and Jewish Renewal services. Living in this spiritual marketplace, in a time when many of us find ourselves cut-off from the religions of our birth, and with almost every religious possibility within reach, some are asking, “How do we choose between them?” Nevertheless, my sense is that this is not actually the question they want to ask; I think they are bewildered at having to make a choice at all . . . Indeed, I don’t think they want to choose anymore.
In the Jewish mystical tradition, the expulsion from Eden is characterized as the loss of the primal unity. Having eaten the fruit of the eitz ha’da'at, or ‘tree of knowledge,’ humanity suddenly found itself cast headlong into the world of separation, into a world devoid of the sacred, in which we could only see the differences between things.[2] But in the last century, we have again eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge—of other cultures and religions—and found, paradoxically, that we are really one people, one body, whose needs are the concern of all.
Our current access to all the religions of the planet is slowly (or perhaps quickly) putting an end to the myth of religious superiority, the view we call ‘triumphalism.’ But something else is happening as well. It is also eroding the clearly definable boundaries of our current religions, giving many the feeling that there is no longer any particular reason to be exclusively wedded to one religion or another. Many people no longer want to be boxed-in to any one tradition. Having had access to them all, and having seen the unique tools and beauty of each, who can believe that any one of them has all the answers anymore?
Given this awareness, which religion you choose really becomes a matter of emphasis and individual need. For a tall person, a ladder with rungs far apart is preferable, while a shorter person obviously prefers one with rungs set closer together. Still, both are ladders, and both are designed to facilitate access to higher regions. In the same way, religions have all developed the same basic tools to deliver an experience of the sacred, but each has a different emphasis and uses these tools in different ways, just as the ladder is used for different jobs. What the spiritual seeker is able to do today, which is different than through most of our past, is choose which religion (or even which aspect of a religion) is most suitable to their needs, their purpose, and their abilities.
Over the last forty or fifty years, the gradual dawning of this awareness of personal choice has led to an interesting evolutionary phenomenon, one I like to call, “hyphenated religion.”[3] With all the jostling and bumping up against one another that happens in the universe, new relationships are bound to form, just as atoms gain and lose electrons, or different chemical compounds are formed in seemingly random interactions. In the world of religion, such interactions have led to the development of hyphenated loyalties—Christian priests who have become recognized Zen roshis or Vedantic swamis, rabbis who have become Sufi sheikhs or embraced a more shamanic form of Judaism. Today, there is hardly anyone who doesn’t have some kind of ‘hyphen,’ whether they be dedicated Christians devoted to Jungian psychology or resolved atheists to Yoga practice, couples learning to handle the demands of inter-marriage or individuals integrating dual cultural identities. So why should it be any different with religions? Although there is certainly an element of choice at work here, it is also clearly an evolutionary process, the planet mashing things together, as it always has, creating new forms of life and a healthy diversity for itself.
But this phenomenon of hyphenated religion is just the beginning of a larger process. Each hyphen must, in time, join to form a part of the mortise-and-tenon construction of the temple of the new religion, described in the dream of Jung’s disciple. In this process, the magisterium—the body of spiritual teachings, lore, rituals and techniques—of each individual religion must, in the interaction with other religious traditions, begin to ‘surrender electrons’ and form a new magisterium that “transcends and includes” both.[4] The process will go on, contributing to and eventually forming a greater magisterium of all religions, where the myths and practices of each will become the rightful inheritance of all. In this sense, it will be a true religion of humanity, though I believe it will be defined as the religion of spirituality, with these basic values:
The religion of spirituality will recognize the centrality of the spiritual, valuing it above religion, which must serve exclusively as a cultivator of spiritual awareness. The religion of spirituality will be comprised of the magisteria of all religions and unified by the primordial mysterium at the heart of all. It will recognize the call of the spirit as the source of all previous religions, and will utilize the deep structures of religion, made clear by comparative analysis, as the catalyzing basis for further spiritual evolution. The distinctively nuanced teachings and practices of independently developed magisteria will continue to serve the needs of individuals and their unique spiritual orientations from within the greater, unified magisterium of the religion of spirituality.
Why is “the new religion” to be defined by spirituality? Because the ‘spiritual but not religious’ have declared it so. They have made it clear that spirituality is more important than religion. What they have not yet discovered is what to do about it; for doing is the territory of religion. Religion is the tool that allows us to access the spirit with regularity, to catalyze growth and spiritual maturity, to accomplish spiritual awakening and transformation. Thus, religion in the future must be the handmaiden of spirituality. One is clearly the servant of the other, though both are essential ingredients. Over time, these two ingredients—the deep structures of religion and heart-essence of spirituality—will be extracted from the individual religions, making a religion not of the Buddha or the Christ, not of the mind or the heart, but of Humanity and Wholeness, the parts and nuances of each the inheritance of all, a reflection of the primordial human archetype, Adam Kadmon, as it is called in the Jewish mystical tradition.
This is my conviction. But it is also clear to me that we are not there yet, and won’t be for a very long time. It is not enough to have a vision of the future and theoretical access to the ‘Greater Magisterium of the Religion of Spirituality.’ We must also understand those deeper structures of religion, the basic technology of how religion works to accomplish spiritual transformation, and put that understanding into practice over a long period of experimentation. Actual understanding will come slowly, organically. We are only beginning to understand what it means to have commitments in more than one tradition. We still don’t have a firm grasp on how one balances and honors each without making one or both anemic. And what will be the role of the old traditions in a universal structure which must, over time, make them all less relevant? How painful will the descent into a lesser degree of relevance be, and how will we deal with the inevitable reactions of violence, which we are already witnessing? Our questions still far outnumber our answers.
After Jung had interpreted the dream of the temple of “the new religion,” his student, Zeller, asked him if he knew how long it would take to build. Jung answered without hesitation, “About six hundred years.” “Where do you know this from?” Zeller asked. “From other people's dreams and from my own.”[5] Did he mean, six hundred years in transition to the new religion, or six hundred years for that religion to reach its peak? And what does it mean that the foundation has already been laid?
However we interpret the dream, three things are clear: our current religions will continue for a long time yet; they will evolve and begin to hyphenate; and the great experiment of the religion of spirituality will proceed, slowly creating the structures of spiritual practice that will define it as a true incubator for spiritual transformation. For this is what is lacking today, and the reason we must bear with the slow evolutionary process.
(Part three of a three-part series on The Religion of Spirituality.)
[1] Max Zeller, The Dream: The Vision of the Night, ed. Janet Dallett, Los Angeles: The Analytical Psychology Club of Los Angeles, 1975:2.
[2] Actually, the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil,’ etz ha-da'at tov va-ra, Genesis 2-3.
[3] After similar usage by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, who often referred to the hyphen connecting a person to more than one religious commitment.
[4] A phrase used by philosopher Ken Wilber in his descriptions of holarchies.
[5] Zeller, The Dream, 2.
“Reb Zalman in celebratory prayer at Baker’s Beach, California.” Photo credit: Yehudit Goldfarb, 1987.
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, a spiritual innovator who developed a new trend in Judaism over the last half-century, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Thursday, July 3rd, 2014, at around 8:40AM in his home. He was 89. He will be buried at the Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado.
Schachter-Shalomi, better known as 'Reb Zalman' (a less formal title he preferred), was often a controversial figure in his lifetime, beloved of many and reviled by others. Those who loved him saw him as the visionary father of the Jewish Renewal movement, as a spiritual revolutionary who infused religion and inter-faith relations with a new vitality and contemplative depth. Those who opposed his innovative approach to Jewish spiritual practice felt he had betrayed the traditional values of Orthodox Judaism. Though this opposition diminished in his later years as former opponents came to appreciate his spiritual integrity and the need for new perspectives. But whether embraced or shunned, his impact upon Judaism and modern spirituality is undeniable.
Beginning in the 1950s, Schachter-Shalomi addressed himself to the masses of disaffected Jews who found their own religious tradition bereft of spiritual depth in the wake of the Holocaust. Along with his friend and fellow revolutionary, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (d.1994), he set out to find Jewish youth 'where they were' and to show them the depths and options still available within Judaism. For his currency and participation in the spirit of the times, some dubbed him the "Hippie Rabbi" in the 1970s, just as in the 1990s, many called him the "Cyber Rebbe" for his mix of Hasidism and technological savvy.
For the most part, Schachter-Shalomi's success was based in his liberal acceptance of people exploring alternate paths of spiritual awakening (from LSD to Yoga), and his legitimizing of alternate possibilities within Judaism (from the rabbinical ordination of women to the acceptance homosexuals), and not least on his making available to them the deepest teachings of Jewish mysticism and meditation.
Today, Jews the world over wear the B'nai Or 'Rainbow Tallit' (prayer-shawl) he designed, and Jewish Renewal rabbis and teachers are at the forefront of modern Judaism and its encounter with the changing nature of society. ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, the organization he originally founded as B'nai Or Religious Fellowship, continues to serve the core of Jewish Renewal communities all over the world; and OHALAH: the Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal, originally begun by rabbis personally ordained by Schachter-Shalomi, meets every year for fellowship, learning and the ordination of new rabbis.
From the earliest days of Schachter-Shalomi's career, he was continually involved in ecumenical dialogue with leaders and practitioners of other spiritual paths, from Trappist monks to Sufi sheikhs. These frequent forays into what was then forbidden territory led Schachter-Shalomi to describe himself as a "spiritual peeping-Tom." But far from being a mere browser, Schachter-Shalomi became deeply learned in the most minute aspects of the theory and experiential practice of these traditions, praying matins with the monks and performing dhikr with the Sufis.
This deeply personal approach to dialogue led to significant friendships with many of the world's great philosophers and spiritual teachers, including: Father Thomas Merton, Pir Vilayat Khan, Ken Wilber, and the 14th Dalai Lama.
The twin peaks of this ecumenical work had to do with the increasingly significant dialogue between Jews and Buddhists. Always sensitive and sympathetic to Jewish involvement in Eastern traditions, in 1990, Schachter-Shalomi was invited to a meeting in Dharamsala, India, between the Dalai Lama and Jewish leaders, to discuss how Tibetan Buddhism might "survive in exile." This dialogue, and Schachter-Shalomi's remarkable influence upon it, became the focus of a best-selling book by Rodger Kamenetz called The Jew in the Lotus. Immediately, the book became a catalyst for Jewish-Buddhist dialogue and the sensitive issue of why so many American Jews were involved in so-called 'Eastern' spiritual paths.
Within a few years, Schachter-Shalomi was invited to take up the World Wisdom Chair at Naropa University, the only accredited Buddhist-inspired university in the Western hemisphere. Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado became home to Schachter-Shalomi and a new phase of his teaching career. By the time of his retirement from Naropa in 2004, he had influenced thousands of students and spiritual seekers of all backgrounds.
Despite his profound impact upon American Judaism, his renewal teachings are still only beginning to take hold in Europe and Israel. To many, he remains a misunderstood figure, representing far more 'innovation' than they are comfortable with, and yet 'guilty' of far less than they usually suspect.
A charismatic and infinitely accessible teacher, he was able to tap-in to the particular need and interest of a generation ready for a paradigm shift in consciousness. His expansive personality and brilliantly creative mind never found a place to rest, but continued to push the margins of spiritual growth, using the language of emerging technologies and ecological awareness. Nevertheless, he was deeply committed to restoring vitality to as much of tradition as was possible, and to "re-formatting" it for modern use. In many ways, this was his particular genius, to build the "spiritual technology" of the future from the traditional wisdom of the past.
Meshullam Zalman Schachter was born on August 17th, 1924 in Zholkiew, Poland, to Shlomo and Hayyah Gittel Schachter. In 1925, his family moved to Vienna, Austria, where he spent most of his childhood.
His father, a Belzer hasid with liberal tendencies, had him educated in both a 'leftist' Zionist high school and a traditional Orthodox yeshiva.
In 1938, when he was just 14, his family began a long and harrowing flight from Nazi oppression through Belgium, France, North Africa, and the Caribbean, until they finally landed in New York City in 1941.
In 1939, while still in Belgium, the young Schachter-Shalomi became acquainted with and began to frequent a circle of Habad hasidim who cut and polished diamonds in Antwerp. This association eventually led to his becoming a Habad hasid of the Lubavitch branch, in whose yeshiva he later enrolled in 1941, in Brooklyn, New York.
In 1947, he received his rabbinic ordination from the 'Lubavitcher Yeshiva' (Yeshivat Tomhei Temimim) and continued the outreach and teaching work he had begun the previous year in New Haven, Connecticut.
In 1948 or '49, he began to travel to college campuses with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach at the direction of the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe and took up a post as a congregational rabbi in Fall River, MA. From 1952 to 1956, he was a congregational rabbi in New Bedford, MA.
By 1956, he had acquired a Master of Arts degree in the Psychology of Religion (pastoral counseling) from Boston University and had taken up a teaching post in the Department of Religion at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, which he would hold until 1975.
In 1958, with the blessing of the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, he wrote and privately published what was perhaps the first book on Jewish meditation in English. Later reprinted in The Jewish Catalog, this little manual would be read by an entire generation of Jews, and would reach individuals as diverse as President Zalman Shazar of Israel and the Christian monk and spiritual activist, Thomas Merton.
In 1964, inspired by examples of Trappist spirituality, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Hasidism of his teachers, Schachter-Shalomi founded the neo-Hasidic B'nai Or Religious Fellowship with a small circle of students.
By 1968, he had earned his Doctor of Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College and was effectively 'divorced' from the Lubavitcher hasidim over issues relating his controversial engagement with modern culture and other religions. Nevertheless, he continued on as an 'independent' hasid, teaching the experiential dimensions of Hasidism as one of the world's great spiritual traditions. That year, he was also influential among the group who formed Havurat Shalom in Boston.
In 1974, he ordained his first rabbi, Rabbi Daniel Siegel of British Columbia (one of the current leaders of ALEPH) and helped to found the Aquarian Minyan of Berkeley, California.
A few years earlier, he had begun to study Sufism and meet with Sufis in California's Bay Area. This eventually led to his being initiated and ordained as a Sheikh in the Sufi Order of Pir Vilayat Khan in 1975. That year, he also became professor of Jewish Mysticism and Psychology of Religion at Temple University, where he stayed until his early retirement in 1987, when he was named professor emeritus.
1984 saw the birth of a new period in Schachter-Shalomi's life. That year, he took a forty-day retreat at Lama Foundation in New Mexico and emerged with a new teaching about "spiritual eldering," which later developed into his popular book, From Age-ing to Sage-ing, and led to his founding the Spiritual Eldering Institute, whose work is now carried on by Sage-ing International.
In 1986, B'nai Or ('children of light') Religious Fellowship became P'nai Or ('faces of light') Religious Fellowship, which would later undergo one more transformation and take up its current name, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal.
In 1995 he accepted the World Wisdom Chair at the Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) from which he officially retired in 2004.
In 2004, Schachter-Shalomi participated in the Vancouver Peace Summit, where he gave an address to the session on "Balancing Educating the Mind with Educating the Heart" at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and dialogued with Nobel laureates, the 14th Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu. He also co-founded the "Sufi-Hasidic," Inayati-Maimuni lineage of Sufism, reviving the medieval tradition of Rabbi Avraham Maimuni and allowing the Hasidic lineage of the Ba'al Shem Tov to integrate with the Sufi lineage of Hazrat Inayat Khan.
In 2005, he witnessed the creation of The Reb Zalman Legacy Project, an initiative of the Yesod Foundation "to preserve, develop and disseminate" his teachings, which eventually led to the donation of the Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Collection to the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2011 and the creation, in cooperation with the Program in Jewish Studies, of the Post-Holocaust American Judaism Archives in 2013. Since then, the University of Colorado has hosted an exhibit on his life and work, as well as a symposium on his influence upon Jewish music.
In 2012, Schachter-Shalomi was awarded an honorary doctorate of theology from the Starr King School for the Ministry in Oakland, California, and gave a popular series of lectures on the "Emerging Cosmology" as a part of its inaugural symposium, "Living in the Differences."
In 2014, he was again awarded an honorary doctorate from Hebrew College in Boston, Massachusetts, for his many contributions to global Judaism and his influence upon the college itself. Shortly thereafter, he traveled to Connecticut to lead a Shavuot retreat at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. After this retreat, he fell ill with pneumonia. He recovered sufficiently to return home to Boulder on June 19th, and seemed to be improving steadily, before passing in his sleep two weeks later.
His greatest interest in his last years was to articulate the foundations of a new manifestation of Hasidism, which he called "The Fourth Turning of Hasidism," and to contribute to the evolving understanding of religion and spirituality. At the time of his passing, after hundreds of hours of dialogue on the subject, Foundations of the Fourth Turning of Hasidism, a short statement of principles written with a student, was being prepared for publication, the last writing he read and approved.
A few of Schachter-Shalomi's most significant books include: Spiritual Intimacy: A Study of Counseling in Hasidism (1991), Paradigm Shift: From the Jewish Renewal Writings of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (1993), From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older (1995), Jewish with Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice (2005), A Heart Afire: Stories and Teachings of the Early Hasidic Masters (2009), Sh'ma': A Concise Weekday Siddur for Praying in English (2010), Gate to the Heart: A Manual of Contemplative Jewish Practice (2013), and The December Project (2014).
He is survived by his wife, Eve Ilsen (married in 1994); ten children, Mimi Gess, Shalom Schachter, Joseph Schachter, Yale Schachter, Tina Duskis, Jonathan Schachter, Lisa Vito, Shalvi Schachter, Barya Schachter, and Yotam Schachter; and his child by donation, Rosi Greenberg; numerous grandchildren and many great-grandchildren; a brother, Joseph Schachter, and a sister, Dvorah Kieffer.
