By Leslie A North

My favorite quotes and ideas from the book……

p.13 – he did not intend that ….dance….be used as another form of drug or avoidance of real growth. ……..
Murshid’s writings emphasize the need to embody the states of expanded consciousness which the Dances produce through actual service to the world and work on one’s inner growth. ………it demands a passion for change that does not stop with the self-satisfaction of “being high.” As wonderful as the Dances are, Lewis also emphasized practices………which allow one to probe the depth of being.
This is very similar to the the ideas of Yogananda and his path of Kriya Yoga – and those other yogis who brought things to the west in the early 1900’s. It was for the purpose of the inner path, the mystical path, not a fad or to develop psychic power. That’s an ego attachment.

p. 19 – Lewis felt confirmed in his early intuition that real religion must be practical and express the deep unity that is found behind all traditions……..Peace is fundamental to all faiths, all religions…….out of this Peace has everything been made that was made……..

p. 20 – When her (Ruth St Denis) style of dance fell out of popular favor, she retreated to the further investigation of her first love –sacred dance. She wished to find a group form of a dance that would be easily accessible to non-performers and which would communicate the deep feelings of unity and peace that she had felt. It was here that she found a collaborator…..in Samuel Lewis.

p. 23 – Dances continue to grow because…..chanting simple sacred phrases, simple folk movements, non-elitist, done by everyone.

p. 26 – No dance is a Spiritual Dance because it is called that; it does not mean a certain form or technique, nor a ritual. What must remain is the sacred phrase.

p 38 – The Goose-Step involves a maximum of Yang to practically the complete exclusion of Yin. Metaphysically, the Goose-Step and War are one. …..To abolish war we must abolish war-like movements. ……..

Use and misuse of psychic energy tend toward stimulation or fatigue. When stimulation is under control there is ease and joy. ……before the nature of ecstasy can be understood, one must learn the relation of mind to body and of heart to both, otherwise there will be that debilitating false ecstasy which is nothing but psychic inebriation

p. 53 – The ridding of luggage is more important than the method. What is needed is a method that works, not a philosophy about a method, which can be very confusing……………..One has a whole Body, and the whole Body is the divine temple.

p. 59 – In dance, the human artist uses the Body to express what God (I’ll just say nature) has given, and with that can reproduce all the themes and thoughts of the universe. … they may add ….music as the greatest aid and asset. But underneath all, Yin and Yang will manifest in each effort and movement.