Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi

Lex Hixon
Born	December 25, 1941 Pasadena, California
Died	November 1, 1995 Riverdale, New York
Cause of death	Cancer
Era	20th-century philosophy

Lex Hixon (1941–1995) (born Alexander Paul Hixon Junior, also known as Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi in the Sufi community) was an American Sufi author, poet, and spiritual teacher. He practiced and held membership in several of the world's major great religious traditions, and documented his spiritual explorations in nine books and many articles and teachings given to various groups. His passionate conviction that all of the great religions are true was sparked by his study of the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, and he made his life a witness to this belief by fully immersing himself in multiple religious practices and studies, not as a research project but as an act of faith.

Hixon was born on December 25, 1941 in Pasadena, California, one of three sons of Alexander and Adelaide Hixon. He married his second wife Sheila in 1965; they had two daughters and one son. Shanti, India, and Dylan. Hixon also had a daughter, Alexandra, from a previous marriage with Margaret Taylor. He graduated from Yale University in 1963, where he majored in philosophy, and received a PhD in comparative religion from Columbia University in 1976. His doctoral thesis was on the Gaudapada Karika, a Sanskrit scripture of the very early Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, bringing out Buddhist influences.

Hixon first studied prayer and meditation at the age of nineteen with Vine Deloria, Senior, a Lakota Sioux elder and Episcopal priest in Pierre, South Dakota. In 1966 he began his discipleship with Swami Nikhilananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, who headed the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York. The study with Swami Nikhilananda formed the basis for all of his latter spiritual quest. He simultaneously remained involved in various religions, or as he called them, "parallel sacred worlds". His experience of being "orthodox in five different spiritual traditions" produced a unique philosophy, a "theory of relativity for religions". He touched thousands of lives with his warm, joyful manner of teaching, celebrating, and encouraging spiritual seekers of all kinds.

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