I wrote these stories of my spiritual journey with two goals in mind: First, to shed a bit of light on the practice of contemplating what happens in life. I also hoped I might, in some small way, help clarify who the spiritual teacher is -- and isn't. The relationship with the teacher has been and continues to be a source of confusion and frustration for many western seekers. What I've written is only my understanding, of course. And I'm not "done," as they say. So please be kind.

The outer trip -- the karmic one -- starts with a suicidal college student who has a life-changing meditation, decides to live, gets married, and goes off to study poetry at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. While there, I'm diagnosed with a brain tumor (See Chapter 4, "The Black Angel Comes to My Rescue"). 

After graduation, working as a paralegal in Austin, Texas, I hear about a meditation teacher known as Gurumayi and go to meet her. Recognizing her as my teacher, I begin attempting to meditate regularly.

As the years progress, I have increasingly dramatic (and very educational) visions, meditations, and dreams. The rest of the book chronicles that period, during which my outer life featured two husbands and the birth of my son. My "inner life," to speak in the language of separation, presented a series of prophetic dreams. In two of them, Gurumayi directly pointed out (a) how I should consider and contemplate the tragic events of 9/11 and (b) the identity of my future (and final) husband.

I'm leaving out the earthquake.

Bottom line: I discover a specific process for contemplating life events and dreams. If I hadn't written Sacred Visitations, I'd probably never have noticed that this process had five parts. I named them "5 Steps of Sacred Awareness." The phrase seemed apt.

I also discovered that the rules didn't require that my meditation teacher stay glued to my side until the moment of enlightenment. Such a disappointment. But this has become the ultimate and most precious teaching of all.