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In the Company of Sages: The Journey of the Spiritual Seeker

Autor Greg Bogart
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 26 feb 2015
In the search for inner awakening and self-realization, a spiritual mentor can be key to advancement. Yet the process of finding an authentic spiritual teacher who resonates with you can be daunting, especially for anyone who has had a negative experience with a guide. Exploring the emotional nuances of mentoring relationships, Greg Bogart details the nine stages of spiritual apprenticeship, from choosing a teacher to teaching others, and explains how to successfully navigate each.

The author explores how to gauge your inner response for trust and resonance with a teacher and then how to approach them for initiation. He explains how the teacher-student relationship affects the student's state of consciousness over time and how most students eventually need to become independent from their teacher. Describing emotional conflicts that can arise at this stage, he shows how wise teachers accept our need to separate and graduate while immature teachers try to thwart and control us.

Openly sharing his own interior journey, the author illustrates the lasting resonance of his encounters with several provocative spiritual mentors, including Swami Muktananda and Dane Rudhyar. He shares stories showing how unpredictable "crazy wisdom" teachers cause us to confront doubts and sharpen our commitments and how "fierce" teachers expose our fears and lack of confidence, rousing dormant energies and expanded states. Examining practices in Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist Yoga, Sufism, and Jewish and Christian mysticism, he also explores the deeper mystical aspects of the guru-student relationship.

Describing nine stages of the spiritual seeker's journey, the author affirms that a direct path to self-liberation is still attainable through initiation in the company of sages.
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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781620553848
ISBN-10: 1620553848
Pagini: 320
Ilustrații: 23 b&w illustrations
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 18 mm
Greutate: 0.52 kg
Ediția:2nd Edition, New Edition of The Nine Stages of Spiritual Apprenticeship
Editura: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Colecția Inner Traditions

Notă biografică

Greg Bogart, Ph.D., MFT, is a psychotherapist in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a lecturer in psychology at Sonoma State University, a teacher at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and the author of numerous books on astrology, dreams, yoga, and spiritual depth psychology.

Extras

Stage One
Choosing a Teacher

Finding the Lineage and Qualities that Speak to Your Path

Meeting a teacher can impact us so powerfully that we’re seized by a desire to change our lives and embrace the quest for mystical realization. When Rumi, a highly respected scholar, met his teacher Shams of Tabriz, Shams took a book Rumi was writing about philosophy and threw it into a well. Rumi became an ecstatic devotee of Shams and abandoned all else, including scholarship and family responsibilities. After finding a teacher a person may begin to undergo a noticeable transformation and change of habits and lifestyle. One may experience deeper meditations or feel a blissful energy or an opening of the heart, the kindling of an inner fire. Rumi said:

What draws Friends together
does not conform to Laws of Nature.
Form doesn’t know about spiritual closeness. . . .
A hand shifts our birdcages around.
Some are brought closer. Some move apart.
Do not try to reason it out. Be conscious
of who draws you and who not.

A common experience after meeting a teacher is for everything in our lives to fall apart. In the Koran it is said, “I am with those whose hearts are broken for My sake.” Old interests fall away, and old friendships become less compelling as a seeker turns toward the path of spiritual awakening. The disciples of the Indian guru Ramakrishna underwent a profound transformation as a result of their contact with their saintly master. Many were filled with a feverish devotion and burning for enlightenment. Many of them renounced worldly life soon after Ramakrishna’s death and became monks committed to pursuing Self-realization.

We accept a teacher who inspires us to attain the enlightened state through meditation, yoga, and other consciousness-enhancing practices. In deep meditation, the mind quiets down and awareness turns inward, becoming self-reflective, becoming aware of itself as awareness. The diligent practitioner experiences the growth of tranquility, contentment, and wisdom. In Buddhist terms, meditation reveals our dharmakaya nature--the truth body, the pure mind, like a clear mirror. In the Hindu tradition this is known as realization of the Self or Atman, which is one with Brahman, the Absolute.

We need a teacher not only to teach us techniques and doctrine but also to embody the enlightened state, so that we can recognize it in ourselves and attain it. We may also choose a teacher to learn a particular method such as meditation, yoga, or shamanic journeying. Even in cases where a teacher isn’t a fully enlightened Buddha, sage, or siddha guru, we could still grow by studying with that person for a period of time--if the teacher seems clear and balanced and we feel confident that this person can guide us effectively through a stage of our transformation. It’s enough that the teacher embodies a quality of freedom that we wish to emulate.

Teachers appear in many guises. When I met my hatha yoga teacher, Allan Bateman, in 1979, I found that he was quite an unusual individual. Self-taught in yoga, Allan looked like a muscle-bound jock. He moved around his studio in a bikini, sang opera arias, and held in the palm of his hand an enormous cat named Godzilla, who lay on his back stretching out his paws in a magnificent backbend, in full spinal extension. Allan bragged modestly about this and that, and talked about his cattle ranch upstate where he had a herd of Beefalo. I learned so much yoga from this man, I didn’t care if he was some great pundit or intellectual. He wasn’t trying to be saintly. He used his body in his teaching. He was very graceful and respectful and supportive of intelligent movement. He was a free and sexy guy, very confident, and a positive male role model.

John Welwood, author of Awakening the Heart, notes, “Since genuine spiritual teachers come in many different shapes and forms, we’ll no doubt fail if we try to spell out how a good guru should behave.” David Frawley, founder and director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies, echoes this view, saying, “Great gurus may be saints with impeccable characters and lifestyles. However, they may also look like madmen and refuse to conform to any social norms. Society may consider them scoundrels.” We shouldn’t accept a teacher just because everybody else says this is an enlightened sage; nor should we immediately reject all teachers who don’t conform to our expectations or conceptions of holiness. The teacher doesn’t have to be famous, or an impoverished ascetic, or surrounded by important disciples. What’s important is that the teacher’s personal example inspires us, the teacher’s words speak to us deeply, and the teacher’s presence affects us intensely. The guide shows us glimpses of the goal of the spiritual journey, as well as a path we can follow to reach this goal.

In this book we’ll consider how spiritual teachers have been described in a number of world religions. From the insights derived from these traditions, we’ll reach a number of conclusions:

1. Spiritual apprenticeship begins with a personal relationship with a teacher who tangibly affects our awareness and inspires us to practice a contemplative discipline in order to attain enlightenment.

2. Initiation connects the student to the influence of a spiritual lineage that transcends the individual teacher.

3. The student-teacher relationship involves the mutual meditation of the student and teacher upon one another, and may entail the deliberate cultivation of a form of psychic merger or unity that can have a transformative effect upon the student.

4. The relationship may involve experiences of grace in which the teacher functions as a conduit for transmission of transpersonal forces.

When choosing a guide, proceed with care. It’s important to take sufficient time to examine the teacher’s character and note any internal changes that occur as a result of contact with this being. A powerful inner shift of consciousness after meeting a teacher signals us to seek further contact and instruction.

Cuprins

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction
The Catalyzing Role of Teachers

Stage One
Choosing a Teacher

In Search of a Trustworthy Guide

Stage Two
Initiation

The Kindling of Spiritual Life

Stage Three
Discipleship

Absorbing Instruction and Developing a Spiritual Practice

Stage Four
Testing

Trust, Surrender, and Refinement of the Personality

Stage Five
Grace and Guru Yoga

Receiving the Teacher's Spacious Gaze

Stage Six
At the Threshold of Awakening

Glimpses of the Goal

Stage Seven
Separating from a Spiritual Teacher

Maturation and Autonomy

Stage Eight
Finding the Teacher Within

Creating Your Own Synthesis and Paths of Self-Liberation

Stage Nine
Teaching Others

Sharing Knowledge Gracefully

Epilogue
The Cycle of Apprenticeship Complete

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index


About the Author

Recenzii

“A clear, reasoned exposition that will help seekers of all persuasions.”
“Bogart calls upon his expertise as a psychotherapist and his experience as a mature spiritual seeker to discuss issues that are crucial for Western students of inner pathways. This is a must-read for all spiritual seekers and their teachers.”
“This book is valuable for anyone who has been a student of a spiritual teacher or who is contemplating becoming one, and it helps prevent misconceptions so that a mature teacher-student relationship can develop.”
“Bogart’s book is a clear and detailed map of the experience of self-unfoldment under the guidance of a guru or spiritual guide--including its difficulties, dangers, joys, and ultimate value. Highly recommended.”
“If the recurring stories of gurus gone egregiously astray have you wondering whether teachers still have relevance on the spiritual path, I encourage you to read this wise and balanced book. Bogart makes a cogent case for the perennial value of awakening to who we are in relationship with one who already knows and can point the way.”
“In this volume, which I regard as his best, Bogart brings an integrated psychospiritual perspective to his description of the guru-disciple relationship. I welcome this book and will recommend it frequently to clients and students of my own.”
“Based on decades of firsthand, inspiring, and life-changing experiences and scholarly research, Greg Bogart’s In the Company of Sages astutely and caringly steers you through the winding terrains of the spiritual mentor and student relationship.”
“This is an excellent practical guide for anyone seeking a spiritual teacher and for those who are teachers. Bogart’s openness and forthright storytelling may benefit parents or loved ones who are concerned about friends and family members who invest themselves in spiritual practice. I highly recommend this book. Well researched and documented, readable, and personal, it lights the way for those navigating the journey of transformation.”
“This uniquely insightful book is a new classic of contemporary spiritual literature.”
"Sensitive both to traditional views and the unique concerns of seekers in the West."
“Valuable, even essential, words of wisdom to open the eyes and minds of those who have a spiritual teacher in their past, present, or future.”
“Clarifying, balanced, highly readable, and above all helpful. This is the best book available on spiritual apprenticeship and the psychological issues involved.”

Descriere

Explains how to successfully navigate each of the nine stages of spiritual apprenticeship, from choosing a teacher to teaching others.