Acknowledgments

In many of the world’s spiritual traditions, the feminine provides the dynamic, creative aspect of life. So it is that aspect that I wish to humbly thank first. Women founded, created and sustained the course on which this book is based. Rochelle Myers put her wisdom, creativity and uncanny teaching ability into our course from the beginning. She planted the seeds that others of us have been nurturing all these years. Lorna Catford took up the torch left by Rochelle as she went on to simplify her life. Lorna started as a student of this material and then became a primary teacher and developer of it. Sandhya Abee brought many innovations into the course as we taught it together for several years and moved this material into a leadership class. Jackie McGrath (working in the early going with Sherri Lassila who designed our first company courses), perhaps more than anyone, helped to fashion the course in a way that it could be brought to thousands of people outside of academia.

Two women have brought the highest goal to my life and into the course through the years, even though they didn’t participate in its teaching. Gurumayi Chidvilasananda has guided me with her teachings and nurtured the flame of my path from the time of my awakening in her tradition. By her grace I have experienced this course as my seva, my spiritual service.

Sarah Cecelia Ray, my life partner, brings the highest into my life and challenges me to live with it because of her clarity and lust for life. Everything in my life has changed since our first meeting over twenty-five years ago. She illustrates that love is the highest goal, and more specifically she set up a system and made sacrifices that made it possible for me to do the writing.

Others, male and female, have taught the course and taught me so much through the years—Stephen Miller, Steve Curtis, Hal Louchheim, Tom Kosnick, Todd Porter, John Vercelli, Pat Jordan, Jim Collins, Michelle Jurika, Françoise Netter, William Miller, Douglas Pressman, Fred Fischer, and all our Creativity in Business trained teachers—Athena Katsoras, Bruce Koren, Cheryl De Chantis, David Newman, Ginger Grant, John Davis, Julia Romaine, Julie Daley, Julie Saltonstall, Karin Albert, Kenton Hyatt, Lakiba Pittman, Martha Tilyard, Molly Fox, Pam Mayer, Paul Mlotok, Ron Nahser, Seema Khan, Sue Blondell, Tevis Trower, Theresa Leets, and Wayne Robertson—many of whose stories you’ll find in this book. Their maturity, experience and energy are bringing this work to a new level that takes people to a life with the highest goal at an ever-faster pace. They give me faith in the future, and for that I am grateful.

Then there are the students and participants in our courses at Stanford and elsewhere. Some of them are mentioned in this book, but many are not. People like Steve Westly, Gary Marenzi, Michelle Barmazel, Stephen Phillips, Guillermina Castellanos, Shannon Williamson, Stephen Fields, Stephen Glikbarg, Larry Smith, Bob Moog, Gilberto Carrasquero, Charles Bresler, Lisa Phillips, Barry Sudbury, Jennifer Joss-Bradley, Brian Dowd, and Christopher Forman represent so many others who are not mentioned in this book but have taken the course and become my friends and teachers. It has been an honor and a gift to know them. Thank you also to Anne Durram Robinson, Lucia Marinelli, the late Father Peter Salmon, the Siddha Yoga swamis, Marilyn and Bill Veltrop and their Pathfinder Circles members, Patricia and Craig Neal and their Thought Leader Gatherings, FireHawk and Pele Rouge, John Renesch and his Presidio Dialogues, and Father Mark Stetz for your inspiration.

This book wouldn’t exist without the vision and guidance of my agent, Carol Roth, surely an author’s best friend but also a yogi’s best friend. And all the people at Berrett-Koehler were kind enough to make me part of their team and guide me and make this book a work of art (although I’m not too sure about the visual they picked for the cover). Steve Piersanti, Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, Rick Wilson, Michael Crowley, Ken Lupoff, Dianne Platner, Pat Anderson, and Robin Donovan took this project on when it was at a low point and made it into something completely new and exciting. And I’ll never forget the great developmental editing by Chris Lee (her collaboration turned a manuscript into a book), the tough but illuminating early reviewing by Valerie Andrews, Joseph A. Webb, and Eileen Hammer, copyediting by Judith Brown, interior design by Laura Lind, proofreading by Henrietta Bensussen, indexing by Medea Minnich, and production administration by Linda Jupiter.

Finally, I thank my family, from my parents, Evelyn and Michael, my brother Dick and his family and all the Ray and Slavik relatives (some of whom are mentioned in this book specifically), to all of the people in Sarah’s family who have welcomed me with such grace, to my six children and their families, including my eight grandchildren (the latest of whom, Eva Lucia Corral, is only a day old as I write this).

There is no way to thank you all sufficiently. You are the highest goal in living beings. May we be together again and again. May all be happy and living in the highest goal forever.