Do You Need a Guru?: Understanding the student-teacher relationship in an era of false prophets - Hardcover

Caplan, Mariana

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9780007118656: Do You Need a Guru?: Understanding the student-teacher relationship in an era of false prophets

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007118651 ISBN 13: 9780007118656

Publisher: Thorsons, 2002

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Few arenas in the field of contemporary spirituality create as much challenge, confusion and provocation as that of the student – teacher relationship.

In the new millennium, Mariana Caplan predicts, there will be a shift back to the student-teacher relationship as we realise the limitations of trying to "do it on our own". However, this teacher-student relationship will have to be created anew to reflect our new awareness.
DO YOU NEED A GURU points towards this new approach and the value of the relationship. Her stance is controversial, and is deeply informed by extensive research, interviews with today's leading authorities on the subject, and the author's training as a transpersonal psychologist and cultural anthropologist, combined with over a decade of immersion in spiritual life.

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From the Back Cover:

Few arenas in the field of contemporary spirituality create as much challenge, confusion, and provocation as that of spiritual authority. The student-teacher relationship is full of landmines and goldmines, with extraordinary potentials and hazards along the way. Mariana Caplan responds to the challenge of spiritual authority by suggesting the principle and practice of 'conscious discipleship', a model that places the power and responsibility back into the hands and heart of the spiritual student

Caplan's compelling narrative of her own outrageous 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 Each chapter includes previously unpublished interviews on the subjects with leading scholars and long-term practitioners including: Ram Dass, Jai Uttal, Georg Feuerstein, Vimala Thakar, John Welwood, Krishna Das, Arnaud Desjardins, Ma Sati Jaya Bhagavati, George Leonard, and more...

Topics include:
� The nature of spiritual scandals
� The need for a teacher
� Guru games, money, sex and power
� Imperfections in the teacher
� Conscious discipleship and the glory of love

About the Author:

Caplan is a trained cultural anthrolopologist and therapist. She is a student of the Western Baul (Hindu-based tradition) but is widely versed in other forms of spirituality. Her books have been published by a small press in the US to date; Hohm Press. Her latest book, Halfway Up the Mountain, has been extremely influential and fostered widespread debate. US sales figures are modest because Hohm Press is not a major publisher. Her work has only been distributed in the UK. She is based in California.

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