Akademik

(1943– )

   Western Baul teacher

   Lee Lozowick is an American teacher of the YOGA practices and syncretic Buddhist-Hindu philoso-phy of the BAUL SECT of Bengal. He is a prolific poet and writer, whose practice strongly empha-sizes music—he and his followers have performed around the world.

   Born on November 18, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish parents, Lozowick describes his early life as “completely ordinary.” His grandfather had been a tzaddik, or religious teacher, and his father, Louis, a successful artist. In 1970, while living in New Jersey, Lozowick became a teacher of Silva Mind Control and stud-ied the human potential movement in depth. In 1975, after reading the works of ADI DA SAMRAJ (known at the time as Bubba Free John), which he recognized as true, he became enlightened, or as he puts it, “woke up.” He describes the process as completely impersonal and not the result of any training or discipline. In 1977, Lozowick went to India and met Yogi RAMSURATKUMAR, who was living at the ashram of RAMANA MAHARSHI in Tiruvannamalai, South India. Lozowick called the yogi his “father.”

   Lozowick relates that since 1975 he has been teaching in the Western Baul tradition. The Bauls of Bengal are a 500-year-old sect of ecstatic sing-ers, love poets, and wandering minstrels who sprang from the folk tradition of rural Bengal. The Bauls blend tantric Buddhism and devotional Hinduism with music, dance, and yoga of sexual energy and breath, to form a path to God-realiza-tion through the body. Lozowick has adapted this tradition to serve spiritual seekers in the West.

   Lozowick’s teachings emphasize the practice of guru yoga, which he himself practiced for 25 years when his own guru was alive and continues to practice since his death. Lozowick functions as both guru and disciple. He has published over 1,000 poems to his master, Yogi Ramsuratkumar.

   After awakening, Lozowick formed a small community called Hohm in New Jersey and began to teach spiritual devotees. In 1980, the com-munity moved to Arizona, where both the Hohm Sahaj Mandir (temple) and Hohm Community are located. Lozowick also founded two ashrams, in France and India. Hohm Press has issued a number of publications on spiritual topics, natu-ral health, Eastern religion, poetry, and parenting. Lozowick himself has written 18 books.

   Lozowick is known for the poetry and music he has produced in the past 20 years. He is the lead singer in Sri, a blues band composed of members of his community that has produced nine albums and performs yearly tours to large audiences throughout Europe and the United States. His community also has a theater company, a gospel choir, a children’s school, a publishing company, and several published authors. He is a passionate advocate for children and teaches practices for conscious parenting. For Lee Lozowick and his students, spiritual maturity is expressed in and through all aspects of life, and service to the divine is expressed through service of humanity.

   Further reading: Georg Feuerstein, Holy Madness: The Shock Tactics and Radical Teachings of Crazy-Wise Adepts, Holy Fools, and Rascal Gurus (New York: Arkana, 1990); Lee Lozowick, Alchemy of Transforma-tion (Prescott, Ariz.: Hohm Press, 1996); ———, The Book of Unenlightenment/The Yoga of Enlightenment (Prescott Valley, Ariz.: Hohm Press, 1980); ———, In the Fire (Tabor, N.J.: Hohm Press, 1978); ———, Spiri-tual Slavery (Tabor, N.J.: Hohm Press, 1975).