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The Nine Stages of Spiritual Apprenticeship: Understanding the Student-Teacher Relationship
How can a relationship with a spiritual guide aid a seeker on the path to enlightenment? Author Greg Bogart details the challenges and problems that arise in this unique student-teacher relationship, from the process of chosing a spiritual guide through the end of the association and the separation from the teacher. There is a natural cycle that both teacher and student follow in the process of discipleship, including
-- Initiation and testing of the student
-- Attainment, enlightenment and separation
-- Finding the teacher within and becoming a teacher for others
-- Initiation and testing of the student
-- Attainment, enlightenment and separation
-- Finding the teacher within and becoming a teacher for others
Author Bogart takes a positive and highly nuanced psychological and intellectual approach to every area of discipleship, including the ethical ramifications of every interaction between student and teacher. For example, he thoroughly discusses
-- How to seek and choose a teacher
-- The importance of the teacher's lineage
-- How to recognize healthy and unhealthy forms of merging with the teacher
-- The role of the student's ego and personal limitations
-- The role of effort and grace in the formation of the connection
The Nine Stages of Spiritual Apprenticeship also includes a full overview of the nature of -- and the path to -- discipleship in the major world religions and mystical traditions, including Sufism, Hasidism, Christian mysticism and the major Buddhist sects.
Thorough, inclusive, problem-solving, ethical and inherently positive, this is a one-of-a-kind how-to book that will serve all who seek spiritual enlightenment.
A revised second edition of this book is now available from Inner Traditions (January 2015). The book is now titled In the Company of Sages: The Journey of the Spiritual Seeker.
- GenresSpiritualityAstrology
250 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1997
About the author
Greg Bogart
15 books49 followersGreg Bogart, Ph.D, LMFT--psychotherapist in the San Francisco Bay Area, lecturer in psychology at Sonoma State University. Greg's writings bridge clinical research, dream studies, astrology, meditation, hatha yoga, developmental theory, Jungian archetypal psychology, Psychosynthesis, and transpersonal psychology.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 1, 2015
Spiritual enlightenment is something that many of us seek, and throughout our lives we are looking to others to help us along the way. If one of my clients asked me, “How do I find a spiritual teacher or guide?” I honestly wouldn’t know where to begin. Luckily, Greg Bogart’s book, In the Company of Sages: The Journey of a Spiritual Seeker, can help people find the right teacher.
This process is much more complicated than it seems, however, and Bogart does a great job of bringing his own experiences on his personal journey into the entire work. He draws from many different spiritual paths of both Eastern and Western spirituality and mysticism, so you don’t necessarily have to be familiar with one particular way of doing things.
One of the challenges of reading this book for me was its length. At 280 pages, not including the glossary, extensive bibliography—the entire book is thoroughly sourced—and an index, it can seem rather intimidating. The author uses plenty of stories and details to paint an extremely vivid picture of his own search for a guru. While autobiographical, the book is very objective and is far more than just a collection of spiritual stories.
Bogart has compiled a cogent work that delineates this entire process into nine distinct stages, from choosing a teacher, through the process of learning from one, testing, awakening, separating from the teacher, and then becoming a teacher to others.
One portion of the book that I didn’t necessarily agree with was the secrecy of the initiation process in Stage Two. Bogart points out that in many cultures, initiation rites were secret to protect them and to make the experience more meaningful. While I can understand and appreciate these points, I think a lot of folks from the west would have difficulty with the idea of a secret initiation ceremony considering the many wrongs that have been done and kept secret by members of the clergy over the years. A ceremony can be meaningful without being secret, and while initiations are not something that just anyone should be able to come and watch, there must be safeguards in place to protect the physical safety and dignity of the seeker.
As a spiritual teacher myself, I found the portions on when to leave a teacher—“Stage Seven: Separating from a Spiritual Teacher”—to be interesting and valuable. Bogart correctly points out that separation from a teacher is inevitable, that the status quo cannot be forever maintained in the relationship. This is actually a good thing, because the student is evolving. Bogart also suggests that those teachers who are most “enlightened” will not attempt to keep their students from leaving. I definitely agree with this last point. When a student is wise enough to decide for himself or herself that it’s time to move on, getting in the way is counterproductive.
This book may not appeal to a lot of people because it is highly specialized, but if you are looking for a book on finding a spiritual teacher, I highly recommend this one. It reminded me of the Nikos Kazantzakis quote: “True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own.”
This process is much more complicated than it seems, however, and Bogart does a great job of bringing his own experiences on his personal journey into the entire work. He draws from many different spiritual paths of both Eastern and Western spirituality and mysticism, so you don’t necessarily have to be familiar with one particular way of doing things.
One of the challenges of reading this book for me was its length. At 280 pages, not including the glossary, extensive bibliography—the entire book is thoroughly sourced—and an index, it can seem rather intimidating. The author uses plenty of stories and details to paint an extremely vivid picture of his own search for a guru. While autobiographical, the book is very objective and is far more than just a collection of spiritual stories.
Bogart has compiled a cogent work that delineates this entire process into nine distinct stages, from choosing a teacher, through the process of learning from one, testing, awakening, separating from the teacher, and then becoming a teacher to others.
One portion of the book that I didn’t necessarily agree with was the secrecy of the initiation process in Stage Two. Bogart points out that in many cultures, initiation rites were secret to protect them and to make the experience more meaningful. While I can understand and appreciate these points, I think a lot of folks from the west would have difficulty with the idea of a secret initiation ceremony considering the many wrongs that have been done and kept secret by members of the clergy over the years. A ceremony can be meaningful without being secret, and while initiations are not something that just anyone should be able to come and watch, there must be safeguards in place to protect the physical safety and dignity of the seeker.
As a spiritual teacher myself, I found the portions on when to leave a teacher—“Stage Seven: Separating from a Spiritual Teacher”—to be interesting and valuable. Bogart correctly points out that separation from a teacher is inevitable, that the status quo cannot be forever maintained in the relationship. This is actually a good thing, because the student is evolving. Bogart also suggests that those teachers who are most “enlightened” will not attempt to keep their students from leaving. I definitely agree with this last point. When a student is wise enough to decide for himself or herself that it’s time to move on, getting in the way is counterproductive.
This book may not appeal to a lot of people because it is highly specialized, but if you are looking for a book on finding a spiritual teacher, I highly recommend this one. It reminded me of the Nikos Kazantzakis quote: “True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own.”
March 5, 2015
Greg Bogart gives an excellent road map to enlighten the reader on their spiritual journey. I found the format of how Greg seperates the stages of the journey easy to follow and he enhances each chapter with a meaningful quote.
June 6, 2010
This was a great book!! For me it's the it carries the kind of energy that when you read certain passages you immediately feel a shift in your personal energy. So empowering and incredibly healing!!
October 3, 2016
I've wanted to read this book for some time and want to thank Greg Bogart for selecting me to receive a free copy through the Goodreads give-away program. This book was slow reading for me because I found myself rereading the material as there is so much to be learned from this work. Mr. Bogart explains the process of finding a spiritual teacher, learning from that teacher, and when the time comes, separating from the teacher and moving on in your own practice. He explains the seven steps in this process of mentorship in straight forward, accessible language. I found this book to be educational in that not only does he explain the positive aspects, but he also explains the negative things that can arise in a teacher-student dynamic. I would recommend this book to all spiritual seekers, and tell them to read this book as early in their quest as possible.
July 14, 2015
I just finished reading In the Company of Sages. I must admit that it sat on the table by my bed but once I picked it up, I couldn't stop reading it, but then had to slow down so I could savor it. It's very good. It helped me to relive my spiritual journey through the years as I read about Greg's. It gave me a deeper understanding of what I was doing and what was happening as I proceeded through the various stages you outline in the book. There's nothing like the wisdom of the perspective of age and the book helped me see how far I've come by looking back and going through it all once again in my memory.
Read
February 3, 2016Well written but could have used more examples from Western traditions.
August 2, 2018
This book artfully weaves together several narratives into a single volume.
On one level, it is a spiritual memoir, full of vivid stories about the author’s meditation practices and insights. He began on a path of yoga and meditation at the age of 14 and takes us through his encounters with some of the well-known gurus of the 1970s and 1980s. I feel nostalgia reading about those times. I’m the same age as the author, and I also started practicing yoga and meditation at the age of 14. The author became a disciple of the late Swami Muktunanda. I went the way of the schools of western Sufis who are featured in this book.
The publishing industry has produced an abundance of memoirs and how-to books from some of the leading spiritual teachers of our generation, and we have benefited immensely from their writing. (I’m thinking of all the great books by Jack Kornfield and Pema Chodron.) What we need more of, in my view, is what Greg Bogart has published: a literature from the point of view of the students. As memoir, this book shows us how the author has integrated the teachings of some of the great gurus into his own life as a university professor, psychotherapist and astrological counselor.
On another level, the book serves as a guide to anyone pondering whether or how to search out a spiritual teacher. We are taken through the process of becoming a disciple, with a focus on three traditions that base their training of students on an “initiation” between seeker and a charismatic figure (usually older, and historically, usually male). These are the yogic guru lineages, the Sufi orders and certain schools of Buddhism, especially those in the Tibetan tradition. Initiation offers a seeker a promise of being carried by someone more enlightened than oneself, from darkness to light (the meaning of the word ‘guru’). There are secret teachings given only to disciples. There is a specialness to it. Initiation is intended as an eternal bond, a pledge of loyalty between unequals, one hierarchically above the other. This relationship is fraught with potentials for unconditional and parental-like love, and so, also, it is fraught with the possibility of betrayal and the breaking of hearts.
I was curious how the author would handle the common problem of abuse in the guru-disciple relationship. It is so frequently the case that it has become, in a sense, the norm: gurus exploit their students. Some gurus do it mostly with emotional and verbal abuse and manipulation. Some gurus milk their students for money. Some gurus run criminal enterprises. Many, many are sexual predators. The sexually exploitative swami, sheihk and Rinpoche has become a cliché.
The author takes this issue on forthrightly. I was relieved that he did not soft pedal or excuse the misdeeds of his guru Swami Muktunanda who was eventually, post-mortemly, revealed to have been a sexual predator, as were some of the other gurus treated favorably in this book. (I wanted the author to “name names,” but this is not that kind of a book.) Bogart calls out the misdeeds of the gurus as “shocking and reprehensible.” He discusses how students often collaborate in abusive relationships, in states of denial of their teachers’ limitations. He offers an explanation from one of his teachers in Jungian psychology, to the effect that we humans are able to split off our shameful and disavowed misbehavior, as if we are of two minds. Perhaps, he writes, his guru was an evolved being who operated with a psychological split between his goodness and his “shameful feelings and impulses.”
If psychology offers us some good explanations for why someone billed as spiritually enlightened does objectively bad things-- and why lots of emotionally committed beloveds put up with it-- we are still left with the question of whether abuse, even potential abuse, is worth it for the sake of a transmission of teachings. The author seems to conclude that it is worth it. Eventually, we can internalize the valuable teachings we have received from even a very flawed guru and find the teacher within.
Having been on the receiving end of spiritual teacher abuse, and not just once, I question this conclusion. Many in the spiritual counterculture have been so damaged by gurus and their organizations as to have left the path of spiritual practice altogether. Many others of us have sought out, and found practices and traditions that are not based on the powerful hierarchy of the guru-disciple arrangement.
There is a Zen saying, that the dharma (the path and practice toward the cessation of suffering) is passed just simply, “from one warm hand to one warm hand.”
If, ultimately, we are to find the “teacher within,” why not just start there?
On one level, it is a spiritual memoir, full of vivid stories about the author’s meditation practices and insights. He began on a path of yoga and meditation at the age of 14 and takes us through his encounters with some of the well-known gurus of the 1970s and 1980s. I feel nostalgia reading about those times. I’m the same age as the author, and I also started practicing yoga and meditation at the age of 14. The author became a disciple of the late Swami Muktunanda. I went the way of the schools of western Sufis who are featured in this book.
The publishing industry has produced an abundance of memoirs and how-to books from some of the leading spiritual teachers of our generation, and we have benefited immensely from their writing. (I’m thinking of all the great books by Jack Kornfield and Pema Chodron.) What we need more of, in my view, is what Greg Bogart has published: a literature from the point of view of the students. As memoir, this book shows us how the author has integrated the teachings of some of the great gurus into his own life as a university professor, psychotherapist and astrological counselor.
On another level, the book serves as a guide to anyone pondering whether or how to search out a spiritual teacher. We are taken through the process of becoming a disciple, with a focus on three traditions that base their training of students on an “initiation” between seeker and a charismatic figure (usually older, and historically, usually male). These are the yogic guru lineages, the Sufi orders and certain schools of Buddhism, especially those in the Tibetan tradition. Initiation offers a seeker a promise of being carried by someone more enlightened than oneself, from darkness to light (the meaning of the word ‘guru’). There are secret teachings given only to disciples. There is a specialness to it. Initiation is intended as an eternal bond, a pledge of loyalty between unequals, one hierarchically above the other. This relationship is fraught with potentials for unconditional and parental-like love, and so, also, it is fraught with the possibility of betrayal and the breaking of hearts.
I was curious how the author would handle the common problem of abuse in the guru-disciple relationship. It is so frequently the case that it has become, in a sense, the norm: gurus exploit their students. Some gurus do it mostly with emotional and verbal abuse and manipulation. Some gurus milk their students for money. Some gurus run criminal enterprises. Many, many are sexual predators. The sexually exploitative swami, sheihk and Rinpoche has become a cliché.
The author takes this issue on forthrightly. I was relieved that he did not soft pedal or excuse the misdeeds of his guru Swami Muktunanda who was eventually, post-mortemly, revealed to have been a sexual predator, as were some of the other gurus treated favorably in this book. (I wanted the author to “name names,” but this is not that kind of a book.) Bogart calls out the misdeeds of the gurus as “shocking and reprehensible.” He discusses how students often collaborate in abusive relationships, in states of denial of their teachers’ limitations. He offers an explanation from one of his teachers in Jungian psychology, to the effect that we humans are able to split off our shameful and disavowed misbehavior, as if we are of two minds. Perhaps, he writes, his guru was an evolved being who operated with a psychological split between his goodness and his “shameful feelings and impulses.”
If psychology offers us some good explanations for why someone billed as spiritually enlightened does objectively bad things-- and why lots of emotionally committed beloveds put up with it-- we are still left with the question of whether abuse, even potential abuse, is worth it for the sake of a transmission of teachings. The author seems to conclude that it is worth it. Eventually, we can internalize the valuable teachings we have received from even a very flawed guru and find the teacher within.
Having been on the receiving end of spiritual teacher abuse, and not just once, I question this conclusion. Many in the spiritual counterculture have been so damaged by gurus and their organizations as to have left the path of spiritual practice altogether. Many others of us have sought out, and found practices and traditions that are not based on the powerful hierarchy of the guru-disciple arrangement.
There is a Zen saying, that the dharma (the path and practice toward the cessation of suffering) is passed just simply, “from one warm hand to one warm hand.”
If, ultimately, we are to find the “teacher within,” why not just start there?
October 9, 2018
Great Book,
Greg Bogart surveys thoroughly the spiritual journey in search of enlightment.
I highly recommend this book.
Greg Bogart surveys thoroughly the spiritual journey in search of enlightment.
I highly recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews