Lewis Thompson
Lewis Thompson. Born in Great Britain, Thompson encountered the Buddhist teachings in his early adolescence and thus began his great love affair with the East. He lived for seventeen years in India, where his passionate mysticism and itinerant lifestyle acquainted him with the living spiritual giants of his day, including Ramana Maharsi, Sri Aurobindo, J. Krishnamurti, Anandamayi Ma and others. Thompson’s meticulously-kept journals trace the interior journey of a dedicated sadhika, one who pursues the spiritual path. On June 19, 1949, Lewis Thompson was found wandering in a dazed state by the Ganges River in Benares, India, under the merciless heat of the noonday sun. He was penniless. Taken to a small room in the house of an absent friend, he languished for two days. Here he wrote the last entry in his journal and his last poem, “Black Flower,” before lapsing into a coma. He died entirely alone, at the age of forty, on June 21, 1949.