Hazrat Inayat Khan
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The Second Hand Band
The Bodhisattvas are having a party tonight
No one-hand clapping will do it right
They’re hooting and hollering and bayin’ at the moon
With fiddles and dancing to a familiar tune
The Bodhisattvas are having a party tonight
No ordinary visitor would bring such delight
Just a brother-father-son could create such a sight
With fiddles and dancing to a familiar tune
The Bodhisattvas are having a party tonight
With Pir and Sam they create such a light
And Merlyn now they are all in full bloom
With fiddles and dancing to a familiar tune
The Bodhisattvas are having a party tonight
With treasures to bring unearthly delight
You can hear their laughter fill the room
With fiddles and dancing to a familiar tune
The Bodhisattvas are having a party tonight
They’re jamming onstage and oh so tight
It’s nothing short of an All Star Band
Because Merlyn is clapping with the Second Hand
For Kalif Malik Merlyn Marvin Kruger
July 30, 1935 – Sept. 19, 2008
With love,
Sept. 29, 2008
Rashid Jonathan Holden
May his Life-Love continue to inspire us and may his passing lead us all to live each precious moment with tender love-faith-and-reverance.
Thank you Rashid. I hadn’t seen my friend for many years but still laugh at the many jokes and stories he told me.
Frank and Ernest were having an argument. They couldn’t agree so Frank said, “Let’s ask God. God? Are you listening?” “Yes Frank I’m listening.” replied God. “Well God is it true that a million years to you is like a second to us?” asked Frank. “Yes, Frank that’s true.” replied God. “Is it also true that a million dollars to us is just like a penny to you?” “Yes, Frank that is also true.” “Well God would you give us million dollars?” asked Frank in a hopeful voice. “Yes Frank, in just a second.”
In loving memoriam to Merlyn the dervish.
Hafiz Decker
Merlyn led zikr in his basement in Seattle for a some years and I attended. It was my portal into a new realm of mysticism. While this was fascinating, tea with him afterwards was at least as lively and enjoyable. Rock on Merlyn.
Merlyn was my Initiator and guide for some years, finally initiating me as “his friend” when he felt that I had reached a station where it was more in alignment with the unfoldments of our lives. I will never forget how inspiring he was in the early days of the Sufi community in Seattle, his capacity to get a roomful of sixty people so high and open-hearted, and his deep knowledge of metaphysics and spiritual practice. His being continues to teach me.
He was a true friend and a master. I will forever be thankful for the day he walked down the stairs at the Allah Boat in Seattle and said,” Welcome home”.
Merlyn was a wonderful friend over many years in Tucson. Later in life he became Malik, but I only saw him a few times in that guise, and to me he will always be Merlyn, and truly a magician and alchemist. I have a lot of Merlyn stories in my fading memory, so I’ll tell one and come back later to tell others.
In Seattle, Merlyn got to know a remarkable old Norwegian man called Shamsher Beorse, who had been a direct disciple of Inayat Khan. Shamsher was a very lively man, with a twinkle in his amazingly blue eyes. One day Shamsher was visiting Merlyn in his room at a commune, and looked at the pictures of gurus Merlyn has pasted on his wall. He especially noticed Kirpal Singh, and asked “Who is this?” Merlyn said his name and added, “his followers say he is a perfect master.” “What do you think?” Shamsher asked. Merlyn said, ‘I don’t know if I would recognize a perfect master if I met one, but I think he’s great.” “That’s a good answer,” Shamsher responded. A few weeks later, a young woman showed up at Merlyn’s door, and announced that Shamsher had sent her to be initiated. She said she had asked Shamsher to do it, but he had said, “Why would you ask me when there’s a perfect master right here in Seattle?” [Note: Shamsher, though he was a Murshid, never initiated people.] Merlyn instantly recognized the joke Shamsher was playing on him, and graciously invited the girl in and did in fact, eventually, initiate her.
I met Merlin in Chamonix, where we were both engaged in working on Pir Vilayat’s cave. We were trying to put in a drainage system for a shower, and it involved digging under a huge rock, We worked at this from opposite ends, with candles and picks, and he joked about asking me to marry him when we finally met in the middle. We played chess together back then…
Merlin was always very playful , especially in those early days – he liked to whistle, and he enjoyed sharing his practical understanding of rocks and leverage. He was also passionate about ecology;- one year in Chamonix when there was a water shortage and we were told not to wash our hair in the shower, I remember him delivering a scalding scolding when I said I was going to do that anyway…I wound up walking about a mile to a waterfall instead…
Merlin has been on my mind a lot recently – I was wondering if he was still on earth – so I appreciate this site very much…….some years back I had a dream about Merlin – he was sitting with Pir Vilayat on that platform in the big tent, looking out across the usual gathering of Mureeds, and after that dream I thought he might have passed, but I had been out of touch with him for some years by then…
When I was visiting Shamcher while he was in Silverdale, he asked me and my friend to take some of Hidayat’s music to Merlyn’s Seattle group. He had been invited but couldn’t go and asked us to go instead. Merlyn met us at the ferry, in the big fantastic pink cadillac! He took us to the Growing Family house, where people were gathered. It was good for me to meet and connect with Merlyn, but I’m sure they were all very disappointed that Shamcher didn’t come, but sent two of their contemporaries instead.
Marvin, Merlyn, Malik, Uncle.
This is how I referred to this great man. Through my childhood I sought out his company. Later I came to appreciate who he is. His intercession on my behalf is more than I can speak. Light, Love and grace.
Ahh, the twinkle.
Yes, it’s with us, he is with us, at least we who saw it, and with the rest of us when he is remembered, a twinkle.
I’m so grateful for this site and for the memories/memorials of others, as I wondered if Malik might still be in Whitefish, as fine a place name as could be.
As I joined the Seattle community long after he had left, I didn’t know Malik Merlyn well, but every time I saw him he made me happy, by the smile, by what he said that time, by his singing, and especially by his constant helping of people, of anyone who needed a hand or for whom he could do something gracious–he was a living lesson of service.
I will always remember one particular morning at Pema Osel Ling, around breakfast and after the morning meditation when I was particularly gonzo, and there was he and those light-filled eyes of blue, the knowing glance.
Who shall separate the knower from the known
Merlyn was my initiator and guide until he asked Pir Vilayat to guide me. His evening classes so opened my heart at times I felt as if I was being physically torn open. When I first asked him to initiate me he told me to meet him at his room in the Growing Family. He wasn’t there. This went on several times until he did the deed.
We lived at the Allah Boat during its brief and glorious life, along with Prajapati, Saraswati, Garuda, Juana(sp), Munawerra, Thor and others who now escape me. The Allah Boat attracted many wonderful people and attracted many new to the path.
After many months I asked Merlyn for a Sufi name. He said he’d see about it. Several weeks later we were driving down to Mendocino for a Sufi camp when he suddenly and loudly exclaimed, “I’ve got it”; I’ve been Munir since.
A couple of years later some of us relocated to Tucson following Merlyn who had gone on before. In 1981 we bought a couple of acres on the SW side, near Mission San Xavier del Bac. Five (and later six) of us lived there for ten years; Merlyn, Rashid, Ariah, Ruhiya, myself, and later, infant, Devon. We had many glorious and mundane times there.
Merlyn is a friend always near and dear to my heart.