In the Spirit: the Life and Work of Lex Hixon

Gathering in the Spirit

Photograph of Lex Hixon at Gangjong Namgyal at Domo Geshe Rinpoche's birthday, by Ursula Bernis, 1987. Courtesy of Sheila Hixon

“Diagnosed with cancer when it was already too late for Western medicine to offer him any options, Lex chose to work with an alternative medicine doctor who ordered him to cease all outward activity and draw his energy inward for healing. What was to have been a three-month healing retreat ended up lasting the remaining nine months of his life. It was difficult for him at first to stop the work in the world he had felt so called upon to do. To withdraw from the many people who clamored for his attention seemed unnatural to him. But as time went on, supported by his wife and four grown children who stayed close, supporting his process, he surrendered to a peace and inner contemplativeness he’d never before been able to give himself the luxury to make time for. Under doctor’s orders not to discuss religion for more than five minutes, he would watch a sunset for two hours. He seemed in his last days, according to his wife Sheila, to have entered the ‘open space beyond religion’ not saying prayers from any specific tradition but blissfully merging into light. Conscious to the end as he left, he was able to give a moment-to-moment description of what he was experiencing to his wife and the two of his daughters who were in the room with him.”  - Farewell to an American Vedantist by Cassia Berman

"A Final Visit" by Lex Hixon's daughter, Alexandra Ballard.  RG 345, Box 34, Folders 10-11. Divinity Library Special Collections

Hixon was diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer in 1994 and died on November 1, 1995. Students, admirers, friends and family gathered to celebrate Hixon in a profoundly multifaith memorial service on December 8, 1995, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Hixon had been scheduled to travel to Japan to receive initiation as a novice priest in the 82nd generation of the Soto Zen lineage, however, was too ill to travel. Despite not receiving the initiation, he received the Dharma transmission from his friend, student and teacher Bernard Tetsungen Glassman Roshi. Glassman remarked that because Hixon no longer had a physical form, the transmission was for all to receive.  

Photograph of Shaikha Fariha Fatima al-Jerrahi, leader of the Nur Ashki Al-Jerrahi lodge in New York City, speaking at Hixon's memorial. Lex Hixon papers, RG 345, Box 34, Folder 12. Divinity Library Special Collections
 

Photograph of Bernard Glassman, Roshi, speaking at Hixon's memorial at St. John the Divine, 1995. Lex Hixon papers, RG 345, Box 34, Folder 12. Divinity Library Special Collections