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The Ferryman’s Dream * Stewart Bitkoff (2012)

Late 2011 Bitkoff asked if I was interested in reviewing his book “Sufism For Western Seekers”. Only months after I finished it, I got another email that he had a new book ready. The previous book is about spiritual teaching, this time Bitkoff entwined this with a novel. “The Ferryman’s Dream” has 22 chapters, each consisting of three parts. First come spiritual musings, the middle part is a story and the last part can be either spiritual reflections or poetry. The last parts are set in another font. The book is quite alike the previous book, but this time the book is not about the author’s path, but he describes a similar development for two other persons. The first parts of each chapter reminds most of the previous book. In my opinion, the author would have been well able to bring the same message only using the story-format. Now it comes across somewhat duplicate at times, especially when part three is a repeated move.
The story is about a ferryman. This ferryman is Vesudeva from Herman Hesse’s “Siddhartha”. Vesudeva retreated from the world and he fills his days with bringing people across a river both literally and symbolically. A young man with a very Western lifestyle ends up being Vesudeva’s student and later a friend of the young man joins the two. During the story you will learn a thing or two about spiritual living and about real spirituality in a master-student relationship. The story is nice. The book as a whole, again, reads easily. It is not even 150 pages, so it does not take long to read it. Also again the book seems more introductionary and meant for people who are not familiar with esotericism or spiritual teachings than for providing extra depth for people who are. There are many people in the West who should read a book like this, so hopefully the author is able to spread it well enough.
2012 Abandoned Ladder, isbn 9780615613000

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