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The Role of the Guru The Role of the Guru Compiled by: Trisha Lamb Last Revised: April 27, 2006 © 2004 by International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) International Association of Yoga Therapists P.O. Box 2513 • Prescott • AZ 86302 • Phone: 928-541-0004 E-mail: [email protected] • URL: www.iayt.org The contents of this bibliography do not provide medical advice and should not be so interpreted. Before beginning any exercise program, see your physician for clearance. Guru Yoga At the bottom of understanding, Love is there. Breathtaking. —Candace Byers Allen, Ryan. Moving toward the light. LA Yoga, Jul/Aug 2003, pp. 26-30. Explores the way the term “guru” is used in the West and the East. Ashvagosha. Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion. Many translations. Baker, Douglas. The Psychology of Discipleship. Great Britain: Baker Publications, 1976, 19991. “The author . describes the characteristics of the true disciple battling to assimilate the ever increasing stress which faces him on the Path of spiritual growth. He deals at length with the subject of personality integration, a prerequisite to treading the Path.” Barrett, Marvin. Spiritual masters: Linking heaven and earth. An interview with William Segal. Parabola, Fall 2000, pp. 11-19. Berzin, Alexander. Relating to a Spiritual Teacher: Building a Healthy Relationship. “The [excellent] book explores the sources of misunderstandings between spiritual teachers and their students and reveals methods to develop healthy relationships.” Besant, Annie. Gurus & chelas. Adyar Bulletin, July 1929, 22:133ff. Bilimoria, Purusottama. Yoga, Meditation and the Guru: Critical Reflections on the Australian Scenario. Indra Publishing, 1989. Bogart, Greg. Separating from a spiritual teacher. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1992, 24(1):1-21. ___________. The Nine Stages of Spiritual Apprenticeship: Understanding the Student- Teacher Relationship. Berkeley, Calif.: Dawn Mountain Press, 1998. Braak, Andre van der. Enlightenment Blues: My Years with an American Guru. Rhinebeck, N.Y.: Monkfish Book Publishing, 2004. 2 From a review by Phil Catalfo in the Sep/Oct 2004 issue of Yoga Journal, p. 164: “Andre van der Braak became a close disciple of American-born guru Andrew Cohen, only to find—over the course of 11 years in Cohen’s sangha (community)—the contradictions and strictures that he experienced too painful and insupportable to bear . .” Braun, Andreas. Walking open eyed into the guru trap, or loving the guru will kill you. Unpublished paper. Caplan, Mariana. Do You Need a Guru? Understanding the Student-Teacher Relationship in an Era of False Prophets. London: Thorsons, 2002. From the publisher: “Caplan’s compelling narrative of her own outrageious encounters with Central American shamans, Hindu gurus, and every kind of witch, healer and magician in between, serves as a guiding thread to illuminate the challenging principles involved in creating a working model of the student-teacher relationship in Western culture. Each chapter includes previously unpublished interviews on the subject with leading scholars, teachers, and long-term practitioners including: Ram Dass, Jai Uttal, Georg Feuerstein, Charles Tart, Vimala Thakar, John Welwood, Krishna Das, Arnaud Desjardins, Ma Sati Jaya Bhagavati, Georg Leonard, Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, and others. “Topics addressed include: Do you need a spiritual teachers?; the nature of spiritual scandals; he need for a teacher; Guru games, money, sex, and power; imperfections in the teacher; conscious discipleship and the glory of love.” Chidananda, Swami. Guru bhakti. Article available online: http://www.divyajivan.org/articles/chida/guru_bhakti.htm. Cohen, Darlene. What to look for in a spiritual teacher. Article available online: http://www.darlenecohen.net/quotes.html#teacher. Coukoulis, Peter. Guru, Psychotherapist, and Self: A Comparative Study of the Guru- Disciple Relationship and the Jungian Analytic Process. Marina del Rey, Calif.: DeVorss & Co., 1976. Contents: Eastern Views and Jung’s Views of Self-Realization; Tantrik Views Regarding the Guru-Disciple Relationship; The Guru-Disciple Relationship in the Bhagavad-Gita; Sri Aurobindo’s Views on the Guru; Ramakrishna, the Great Devotional Guru; The Guru- Disciple Relationship in the Legendary Biography of Tibet’s Great Yogi Milarepa Devi Bhavanani, Meenakshi. Guru paduka. Yoga Life, Jan 2000, 31(1):12-18. Dharmnidhi Saraswati, Swami. Resurrecting the guru-disciple system. Article available online: http://www.tantriccollege.org/guru-disciple.htm. Dorje, Rig’dzin. Dangerous Friend: The Teacher-Student Relationship in Vajrayana Buddhism. Boston: Shambhala, 2001. 3 “The mirror of the lama reflects both the quality of our enlightenment and the style of our unenlightenment, such that we are able to recognize them both. That means on the one hand being able to tell them apart, but also being able to glimpse the dimension in which they interlock.” Do you need a spiritual teacher? Shambhala Sun, May 1995. Feuerstein, Georg. Holy Madness: The Shock Tactics and Radical Teachings of Crazy- Wise Adepts, Holy Fools, and Rascal Gurus. New York: Paragon House, 1991. ___________. The guru function: Transmission in the Yoga tradition. Parabola, Fall 2000, pp. 60-64. Frawley, David. All gurus great and small. Yoga Journal, Mar-Apr 1997. Gitananda Giri, Swami. On manufacturing gurus and crucifying messiahs. Yoga Today, Jan 1980, 4(9):37. ___________. Satsangha with the guru: The control of sub-conscious mind. Yoga Life, Jul 2002, 33(7):3-6. Grenager, Suzanne Selby. One woman’s case for gurus: Yes, the relationship between guru and student can be risky—but what relationship worth pursuing isn’t? Yoga Journal, Aug 1996, pp. 20-23. Gross, Rita. Guru, God, and gender. Shambhala Sun Online. Article available online: http://www.shambhalasun.com/revolving_themes/woman/gross.htm. Guenther, Herbert V., Ilse Guenther, and Swami Sivananda Radha. Questions and Answers on Guru and Disciple. Kootenay Bay, B.C., Canada: Yasodhara Ashram Society, 1977. A booklet compiled by Phyllis Dale, psychologist, from a conference on “Guru and Disciple” led by Dr. Guenther and Swami Sivananda Radha. Guru: The true protector. Akhand Jyoti: The Light Divine, Sep/Oct 2004. Article available online: http://www.akhand-jyoti.org/sepoct04/article10.html. H., W. P. The teacher and his spiritual group. Self-Knowledge, Autumn 1996, 47(4):143- 149. Hawk, Red. Why’d you get a guru? Tawagoto, Fall 2001, 14(4):64. A Hindu Chela. The guru. Adyar Bulletin, Oct 1928, 21:218ff. Reprinted from Lucifer, May 1893. 4 Kaur, Harinder. From heart to heart: Yoga takes a consciousness to a higher level. The Register-Guard (Eugene, Oregon), 9 Apr 2005. “A few years later I found my true source of light, my guru, in the Sikh Dharma. The word ‘guru’ creates confusion for some people. It simply means ‘teacher,’ the one who brings you from ‘darkness’ (gu) to ‘light’ (ru). It is the cosmic/teacher/consciousness that resides in every heart, the source of light itself . .” Khyentse Rinpoche, Dhilgo. The Wish Fulfilling Jewel: The Practice of Guru Yoga According to the Longchen Nyingthig Tradtion. Boston: Shambhala, 1988. Republished by Shambhala as Guru Yoga in 1999. Khyentse Rinpoche, Dzongsar. Approaching the guru. Shambhala Sun. Article available online: http://www.shambhalasun.com/Archives/Features/2000/Nov00/dzongsar.htm. Kongtrul the Great, Jamgon. The Teacher-Student Relationship. Snow Lion, 1999. “It is crucial for students of Vajrayana Buddhism to find an authentic wisdom teacher, and know how to properly rely upon that teacher in order to awaken to the buddha nature and thereby attain full enlightenment. As Buddhism is still relatively new in the West, we don’t always know how to go about this essential task. Fortunately, the topic has never been more thoroughly explored, and the ideal relationship more clearly delineated, than by the unsurpassed Tibetan teacher Jamgön Kongrul in the tenth chapter of his monumental Buddhist encyclopedia, The Treasury of Knowledge . “[The present] book also includes a teaching by Gyatrul Rinpoche that explains for Western students the critical importance of the teacher-student relationship in Buddhist practice.” Kramer, Joel, and Diana Alstad. The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. Berkeley, Calif.: Frog, Ltd., 1989, 1993. Krishnananda, Swami. Questions and answers about the guru. Article available online: http://www.divyajivan.org/articles/krishna/qanda_guru..htm. Contents: Who is a Guru?; The necessity for a Guru; After the Guru has left the body; The guru-disciple relationship Kriyananda, Swami. Gurus, true spiritual teachers, and the inner experience of truth. East West Magazine, Nov-Dec 2000, p. 24. ___________. Do you need a living guru? Clarity, Spring 2003, pp. 4-7. Article available online: http://www.ananda.org/inspiration/magazine/clarityspring2003.pdf. 5 ___________. Why a guru? Clarity, Spring 2003, p. 7. Article available online: http://www.ananda.org/inspiration/magazine/clarityspring2003.pdf. Lamrimpa, Gen. Transcending Time: The Kalacakra Six-Session Guru Yoga. Wisdom Publications, 1999. Magee, Mike. The guru. Article available online: http://www.shivashakti.com/guru.htm. Mansfield, Victor. The guru-disciple relationship: Making connections and withdrawing projections. 1995. Article available online: http://www.lightlink.com/vic/guru.html. Abstract: Although the guru-disciple relationship is of the highest value for some, it is the source of great exploitation for others. The great difficulties with the relationship encourage some to
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