Reviews of Meetings With Mentors

from The Healing Breath (reviewed by Vivienne Silver-Leigh)

Distilled Wisdom Offered to Young People

The author was twenty four in 1975 when he wrote this book, which consists of thirteen interviews with American psychologists, philosophers and writers who he deeply respected. . .He had lived for a year at the Esalen Institute, that powerhouse of transpersonal and personal development, where he met or heard of those he has now interviewed. Their distilled wisdom is offered here to other young people. I turned first to those names which I recognise as writers who have influenced me also. Jack Kornfield, Ram Dass, Arnold Mindell.

"On Spiritual Practice," the first section, tells Jack Kornfield’s early life story, and how this brought him to the study of Meditation in Asia, training with monks and spending a year alone in a room in silence. The Question and answer format makes for lively reading. It brings out the practical information that young people might want to know with regard to what meditation can and cannot do for you.

Brother David Steindl-Rast on Finding your boat and Keeping it afloat, Starhawk on The Goddess and Ritual, and Richard Strozzi Heckler on Aikido and the Warrior Spirit, describe their involvement in Zen, women’s spirituality, and Aikido practice. Their names are new to me, but they are clearly people who have developed rich and intense lives.

The Second section, "On the Earth," consists of different views on ecology. Sam Keen "staying in one place is what’s required to develop community and an ecologically valid style of life"… raises more questions than answers for the young adult seeking a way to live his life. Malidoma Some, born in West Africa and carried off from his tribe to be educated by harsh French Jesuits, talks about Ritual and Initiation. He eventually escaped the Jesuits and fled back to his tribe seven years later, literate but having missed out on the tribal initiation ceremony which takes six weeks. Now a Californian resident, and having belatedly endured the ritual of his tribe, he has become a writer and traveller, with a message for young people about the importance of staying close to the Earth. Joan Halifax, Buddhist, anthropologist and ecologist who has written about Shamanism and explored indigenous cultures throughout the world, has similar views on the need to keep in touch with nature: "Going into the wilderness is an extraordinary way to enter a world where our sense of self- the identity box we put ourselves in – starts to expand so we understand that we are one small creation which is also a part of nature"

In the third section, "On Social Action," Arnold Mindell gives a telephone interview, due to his busy work schedule. It gives a flavour of the man and his varied activities: his writings on dreams and process-oriented psychology.

To interview Teru Imai, the author had to catch up with her on a walking pilgrimage, Global Walk for a Liveable World, in Pakistan at that moment. A Japanese-American woman, she walked across the USA., through Eastern Europe, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Japan. Her commitment and dedication to the life of the spirit, turning away from material comforts and experiencing the adventure of travelling light and creating a community wherever she walks is both extraordinary and inspiring.

John Robbins son of a well known American icecream company Director, walked away from his inheritance, took up farming, became a writer on food and healthy living, then founded the Earthsave Foundation, concerned with the environment, and animal rights. In this interview, he deeply impressed me with his integrity and clear thinking about the way to live spiritually, socially and practically in the world today. A worthy mentor.

"On Service and Spirit," the fourth part, introduced me to Ondrea Levine, the wife of the well known writer Stephen Levine, the author of Who dies? They both have been involved deeply with work with the dying, counselling and healing. Ondrea, once a young sixties hippy trying out psychedelic drugs and a wild lifestyle, learned early that her vocation was to work with the elderly and the dying. She herself has experienced serious illnesses, and has learned "For every wound there is a healing period. If you are willing to look deeply into your wounds, you can see the grace in them…" Her conclusion from her life’s lessons is that loving is the ultimate wisdom we need." Another inspiring mentor.

The final interview is with Ram Dass whose spiritual quest led him a long way from being a formal Freudian professor at Harvard. His early background focused on achievement in education, as in many Jewish families, but in the sixties he too found psychedelic drugs and also mystical literature. Confused, he went to India and studied with Maharajji, a Guru who inspired him and thousands of others. Ram Dass passes on the new perspectives he learned there, which led him to work with the dying and to appreciate the wisdom of the universe. The interview shows him as human, fallible and deeply spiritual, and well aware of the need for balance.

In the "Epilogue" the author reflects on how he has been affected by making these interviews and concludes: "Whatever we create must be created together, no one person has the answers." Each contributor has learned from others to attain their own truth, to find a direction in life, including a spiritual path, as so many of us want to do. You can surely find a Mentor here to speed the process.

Reviewed in The Healing Breath
July 23, 2003

Bo Lozoff, author of We Are All Doing Time

Book Inspires Hope

The great problem of our age is that human life, the human journey, is very deep, while the dominant modern culture is not. Meetings with Mentors is a wonderful step in the right direction. We need young people asking questions about meaning and purpose, and we need elders responding from a variety of perspectives. We need to take time with each other, for each other, and that is exactly what Soren Gordhamer has taken upon himself to do. He and his book inspire my hope for his generation.

Mary Ruppenthal, from review in New Age Retailer

For Readers of all Ages

Readers of all ages will respond to the stories of the lives of these monks, shamans, witches, environmentalists, and meditation teachers. Many of them gave up the easy, predictable life to live their values, and some gave up status and wealth to travel their own, often-uncelebrated paths. The leaders Gordhamer interviewed invite us to question, dream, and risk being ourselves....Valuable for its premise of trusting one's "inner-knowing" as guidance, there is a strong sense of grounding in Meetings with Mentors that is reassuring in times of uncertainty.