with commentaries by Vya ̄sa and Va ̄caspati Mi ́sra has been
translated by James Haughton Woods as The Yoga-System of
Patañjali (1914), 3d ed. (Delhi, 1966).
Those interested in the writings of Thomas à Kempis might look
to The Imitation of Mary, edited and translated by Albin de
Cigala (Westminster, Md., 1948) and his far better-known
The Imitation of Christ, translated by Leo Sherley-Price (Har-
mondsworth, 1953). Those wishing to read Benedict’s rule
have available many translations, a good one being The Rule
of St. Benedict, edited and translated by Justin McCann
(London, 1921). For Bernard of Clairvaux, see Étienne Gil-
son’s The Mystical Theology of Saint Bernard, translated by
A. H. C. Downes (London and New York, 1940). Transla-
tions from Dionysius the Aeropagite come from F. C. Hap-
pold’s Mysticism: A Study and an Anthology (Harmonds-
worth, 1970), pp. 212, 216–217. The same is true for the
translation from Richard of Saint Victor’s The Four Degrees
of Passionate Charity (see Happold, pp. 241–248, esp.
p. 242). Happold’s book contains short selections drawn
from mystical tracts from a variety of classical religious tradi-
tions around the world.
For studies on rabbinic understanding of Jewish sacred law and
custom, both written and oral, one might turn first to The
Code of Maimonides, 15 vols. (New Haven, 1949–1980).
Less imposing works include A Maimonides Reader, edited by
Isidore Twersky (New York, 1972), and Maimonides’ Mish-
neh Toreh, 3 vols., edited and translated by Moses Hyamson
(New York, 1949). For other codes, see Code of Hebrew Law:
Shulh:an EAruk, 5 vols., edited and translated by Chaim N.
Denburg (Montreal, 1954–), or Code of Jewish Law: Kitzur
Shulhan Aruh, 4 vols., annot. rev. ed., compiled and translat-
ed by Solomon Ganzfried and Hyman E. Goldin (New York,
1961). Otherwise, see Alan Unterman’s Jews: Their Religious
Beliefs and Practices (Boston, 1981); A Rabbinic Anthology,
edited by C. G. Montefiore and Herbert Loewe (New York,
1974); and The Mishnah, edited and translated by Herbert
Danby (Oxford, 1933).
WILLIAM K. MAHONY (1987)
SPIRITUAL GUIDE. Since ancient times, the figure
of the spiritual guide has stood at the center of contemplative
and esoteric traditions. It would appear that all such tradi-
tions stress the necessity of a spiritual preceptor who has im-
mediate knowledge of the laws of spiritual development and
who can glean from the adept’s actions and attitudes his re-
spective station on the spiritual path as well as the impedi-
ments that lie ahead. Furthermore, the guide is responsible
for preserving and advancing the precise understanding of
the teaching and spiritual discipline to which he is heir, in-
cluding both a written tradition and an oral tradition “out-
side the scriptures,” which at its highest level is passed on
from master to succeeding master and to certain disciples ac-
cording to their level of insight. The precarious nature of this
transfer has been recognized by all traditions, but no one has
described the situation more succinctly than the fifth Chan
patriarch, who warned that from “ancient times the trans-
mission of the Dharma has been as tenuous as a dangling
thread” (Yampolsky, 1967, p. 133).
Hinduism is not alone in its insistence that the spiritual
bond (vidya ̄sambandha) that exists between the spiritual pre-
ceptor (guru) and his disciple ( ́sis:ya) is no less real than a
blood relationship. Taking Socrates as the model preceptor,
Kierkegaard maintained that the maieutic relationship be-
tween teacher and disciple was the highest possible relation-
ship between man and man. Socrates, writes Kierkegaard,
entered into the role of midwife, not because his thought
lacked “positive content,” but because he “perceived that this
relationship is the highest that one human being can sustain
to another” (Kierkegaard, 1962, p. 12; cf. Plato, Theaetetus
150).
Whether he is regarded as a midwife, daimo ̄n, or bodhi-
sattva, the paradigmatic feature of the spiritual guide is al-
ways his intermediate status; in a hierarchically ordered cos-
mos, the guide is situated in an intermediary world of subtle
possibilities, between the realms of pure matter and pure
spirit, between earth and heaven, or, one might say, between
the exoteric and esoteric. The mythological paradigm for this
idea finds expression in a variety of forms: Eros is the half-
mortal, half-immortal daimo ̄n of special significance to Soc-
rates (See Plato, Symposium 202); in Twelver Shiism the
guide is the Hidden Ima ̄m who lives unseen in the third
world of the esoteric Church, a Paradise in potentia, between
the physical and spiritual cosmos; and as Hermes, he is both
the messenger of the gods and their interpreter (hermeneut ̄es),
an intermediary between the terrestrial and celestial worlds
who has an additional function as the “guide of the souls of
the dead.”
The legitimacy of the unearthly, inner guide has been
vouchsafed by all traditions; but the “masterless master” who
has been initiated and guided by the inner spiritual guide
without first having been counseled by an outer, human
guide (as in the case of Ibn al-EArab ̄ı, the “disciple of Khid:r”;
see Corbin, 1969) is especially rare. Hui-neng, the sixth
Chan patriarch, said that if a man cannot gain awakening on
his own
he must obtain a good teacher to show him how to see
into his own self-nature. But if you awaken by yourself,
do not rely on teachers outside. If you try to seek a
teacher outside and hope to obtain deliverance, you will
find it impossible. If you have recognized the good
teacher within your own mind, you have already ob-
tained deliverance. (Yampolsky, 1967, p. 152)
On the other hand, the Indian guru Maharaj has suggested
that it is the inner guru who leads the disciple to the outer
guru, and it is the outer guru who reveals the inner guru
(Maharaj, 1973).
ANCIENT GREECE. Pythagoras and Socrates remind us that
the worthy figure of the spiritual guide is not confined to the
strict forms of religion but can also be identified in various
fraternities, orders, and academies whose primary concern is
the self-transformation and spiritual enlightenment of their
members. As is often the case with founders of religions and
lineages, there are no writings that have been attributed to8708 SPIRITUAL GUIDE