Sy Ginsburg went East in his search and found a teacher who came from West. Sy quotes Sri Madhave Ashish from his letters and lectures, which have a remarkable clearity, both in vision and expression. Ashish has the ability to put deep thoughts in a simple and understandable form and he does it with authority.

The book is certainly of interest for those who study Gurdjieff's ideas. The picture that Sy Ginsburg paints of himself is that of a rebel, who does not always agree with the Work authorities, but will pursue his own way. He has a good solution to the matter to be solved - he builds his own Work activity. To put it in business terms: he makes a product that satisfies the demand, which in his case is his own.

This book is a compilation of letters and other interactions between the author and Sri Madhava Ashish over many years. Sri Madhava Ashish, born English, lived most of his adult life in a small ashram in the middle Himalayas, Mirtola. His approach to inner and spiritual questions was comprehensive, modern, and clear. As such it attracted a diverse community to him and to Mirtola. Ginsburg's book shows through their communications over many years the subtle, complex, yet harmonious nature of Sri Madhava Ashish's teaching, if that word can be applied here. For, rather than systematized teaching, which he abhorred, he represented a living, organic, clear yet intelligent medium between the few basic principles and their translation into spiritual practice, what he would call wisdom. Ginsburg's book is written with a light touch so that no more than is necessary of personality impinges on the always original and fresh insights going back and forth in their dialogue. There is a dialectic in the book between constant themes, both in terms of specific issues of a real life, lived, and the one source that establishes a firm foundation for their resolution. The other part of the dialectic is the original and fresh way in which these were always interpreted.

During the past decade a host of books that concern man's spiritual quest have appeared. Unfortunately, most of them focus the readers attention on conclusions, convictions and pronouncements on 'the' way to come to spirtiual fulfillment. Not so, thankfully, with Sy Ginsburg's "In Search of the Unitive Vision - Letters of Sri Madhava Ashish to an American Businessman 1978-1997". In this compact [280 pages], highly readable collection lie innumerable pearls of practical and critical advise, focusing throughout on the uniqueness of man's capacity to stand in the 'awareness that he is aware'. Refreshingly, Ginsburg does not spare himself in his selection of answers given by Ashish to his [Sy's] questions. When an author is able and willing to expose his own superficialities and recurrant inabliity to stay on track a taste of reality and the wish for truth in the spiritual pursuit is evident.
Ginsburg intersperses his lively coorespondance with a selection of of four essays by Ashish that highlight his ablility to be succinct and practical in his exploration of spiritual questions.
This book is a significant contribution to the reconciliation of the inner and outer life of man. Ginsburgs growth in Being, growth in his own pursuit of this inner-outer reconcilliation, is ably reflected in the consistancy of his search and in the perseptive help given him by this quite remarkable 'englishman-become-guide'.
The book is a gift worth sharing with all of your co-searchers.

Keith A. Buzzell, D.O.