By carefully examining a handful of great exemplars of teaching from various spiritual traditions and cultural contexts, this book breaks new ground in helping both prospective and practicing teachers discover and deepen their sense of spiritual calling. The masters examined in this book are found in many venues. Some appear in biographies, such as Yogananda, the great Hindu saint of the 20th century, in his Autobiography of a Yogi, or Eugene Herrigel and his Zen archery master in Zen in the Art of Archery. Some are enshrined in literature, such as St. Thomas More in Robert Bolt's dramatization of More's life, A Man for All Seasons. Others, like the Yaqui medicine man Don Juan in Carlos Castaneda's Journey to Ixtlan, occupy an intriguing region that moves on the misty boundaries between biography and fiction. A few even reside in academia-among them the Jewish theologian Martin Buber, author of the 20th century theological classic I and Thou.

In encountering these exemplars of spiritual teaching, each teacher may discover and uniquely appropriate ways to further his or her own spiritual growth as a teacher, as well as the growth of his or her students in the most traditional to the most experimental school settings. Special emphasis is placed on the perspectives and needs of public school teachers and administrators. At the end of each chapter are "Topics for Discussion" and "Topics for Research" to stimulate further thought and research.