Bogart - In the company of sages: the journey of the spiritual seeker

IN THE
COMPANY
OF SAGES

A clear, reasoned exposition that will help seekers of all persuasions.

YOGA JOURNAL

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.

JUDITH HANSON LASATER, PH.D., P.T.,
COAUTHOR OF WHAT WE SAY MATTERS

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.

YOGA INTERNATIONAL

Bogarts book is a clear and detailed map of the experience of self-unfoldment under the guidance of a guru or spiritual guideincluding its difficulties, dangers, joys, and ultimate value. Highly recommended.

JOHN WARREN WHITE, AUTHOR OF WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT?

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.

STEPHAN BODIAN, AUTHOR OF WAKE UP NOW

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.

BRYAN WITTINE, LMFT, PH.D.,
TEACHING AND SUPERVISING ANALYST,
C. G. JUNG INSTITUTE OF SAN FRANCISCO

Based on decades of firsthand, inspiring, and life-changing experiences and scholarly research, Greg Bogarts In the Company of Sages astutely and caringly steers you through the winding terrains of the spiritual mentor and student relationship.

STUART SOVATSKY, PH.D., AUTHOR OF
ADVANCED SPIRITUAL INTIMACY

This is an excellent practical guide for anyone seeking a spiritual teacher and for those who are teachers. Bogarts 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.

LAUREL CLARK, AUTHOR OF INTUITIVE DREAMING

This uniquely insightful book is a new classic of contemporary spiritual literature.

MASTER CHARLES CANNON, ORIGINATOR OF SYNCHRONICITY HIGH-TECH MEDITATION

Full of wisdom and insights, this book is an essential guide for students and teachers at all levels of their spiritual journeys. Highly recommended.

SANDY SEE, MEDITATION TEACHER,
ASHTANGA YOGA STUDIO, OKLAHOMA

Acknowledgments

Im indebted to Nancy Carleton, whose editorial guidance helped me clarify the vision of this book. I warmly thank Jon Graham and the editors of Inner Traditions for their enthusiastic support and collaboration. A bow of thanks to ten gentle sages who offered comments and suggestions: Georg Feuerstein, John White, Judith Lasater, Master Charles Cannon, Bryan Wittine, Dan Millman, Laurel Clark, Stephan Bodian, Sandy See, and David Frawley. I also thank Linda Cogozzo for her wise counsel.

Im grateful for the positive influence of these friends, teachers, and allies: Chris Abajian, Rick Amaro, Robert Bartner, Ken Bowser, Betsy Cohen, Richard Cook, Brant Cortright, Jorge Ferrer, Michael Gelbart, Michael Gliksohn, Vern Haddick, Amar and Sahib-Amar Khalsa, Karl Knobler, Stanley Krippner, David LaChappelle, Colleen Mauro, Laurel McCabe, Thomas Miller, Shelley Montie, Tricia Moore, Girija Moran, Geri Olson, Claude Palmer, Gayle Peterson, Robert Powell, Richard Rosen, Donald Rothberg, Pat Russell, Bill Sargent, Laura Shekerjian, Swami Shankarananda, Monica Singh, Stuart Sovatsky, Andres Takra, Nandini and Basava Weitzman, Janice Willis, Miles Vich, and Jeremy Zwelling. I gratefully acknowledge Chakrapani Ullal, the luminous astrologer, who has been a guide and companion throughout my life since we first met in Bombay in 1978.

My father, Leo Bogart, was a kind of secular mahatma who spoke eight languages, traveled the whole world, authored many learned books, and was once described as the gurus guru of marketing research. In 1996, while I was writing this book, we traveled together in Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, South India. All my life Id struggled to explain to my father, a skeptical and highly rational person, my predilection to seek the company of yogis and gurus. So it was amazing when he came to India with me to see for himselfand ended up falling in love with India. Im grateful we got to share that soulful journey as this work was taking form.

The author at Tanjore Temple, Tamil Nadu, January 1996. Built of golden granite in the eleventh century by Raja Raja Choala I, Tanjore is an exquisite monument of the Tamil siddhas.

I thank my mother, Agnes, for her laserlike editing and steady encouragement. I also thank my nephew, Nick Pauly, and my sister, Michele Bogart, my lifelong friend; you can look up her books on Amazon. I thank my fabulous wife, Diana Syverud, for her graceful presence and healing energy. And a special thank you to Charles Mintz, advisor and enlightened elder brother.

I thank all of the people I interviewed for the book. Ive changed most of their names and identifying details to preserve anonymity; others requested that their real names be included.

For some years I lived in close proximity to two spiritual teachers, Sangye Drolma and Sheikh Nur Richard Gale. Ive been richly rewarded by our friendships and gratefully acknowledge all the wisdom theyve shared with me. Drolma led womens spiritual pilgrimages in India and Kashmir and studied with Muktananda, Pir Vilayat Khan, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. We meditated together for more than a decade. Drolma passed away in 2004, but her wisdom lives on in several stories recounted in these pages.

I offer loving thanks to Swami Muktananda, my root guru, powerful and mysterious as a jaguar; to my hatha yoga guru, Allan Bateman; to Judith Lasater, who taught me the meaning of balance in yoga; and to Dane Rudhyar, mystic philosopher, poet, and composer, who guided me across a crucial threshold on the path. I offer this work with reverence for the spiritual teachers of all lineages, whose wisdom illuminates the many paths to truth.

An old saying is just as valid today as ever: When the pupil is ready, the Master appears. But he may appear in many disguises. What matters is not the Master, but the Mastery he reveals. It is veiled in his person. It has to be contacted through his person, rather than in his person. Devotion to a guru may be the way, but sooner or later it should be transmuted into reverence: the truth within the disciple saluting in true humility the truth in the Teacher.... [This] is the essential, withal rather mysterious process of transmission.

DANE RUDHYAR

The spiritual pedagogy that initiates the soul into itself cannot be limited to a single form or to the Active Intelligence alone. Thus some souls learn only from human masters; others have had human and superhuman guides; others have learned everything from invisible guides, known only to themselves. This is why the ancient Sages, those who had the gnosis of direct vision, having been initiated into things that the sensible faculties do not perceive, taught that for each individual soul, or perhaps for a number of souls with the same nature and affinity, there is a being of the spiritual world who, throughout their existence, adopts a special solicitude and tenderness toward that soul or group of souls; it is he who initiates them into knowledge, protects, guides, defends, comforts them, brings them to final victory.