Guru

This volume comprises most of the papers which were presented at the National Conference “Guru. The Spiritual Master in East-ern and Western Traditions: Authority and Charisma”, held in Ve-nice, 18-20 April 2002, organized by the Venetian Academy of In-dian Studies (VAIS) in collaboration with the Department of East Asian Studies of the University of Venice, Ca’ Foscari, and the Cul-tural Center Palazzo Cavagnis. These twenty-seven essays are grouped according to the different cultural and religious traditions involved, moving from West to East and circularly coming back to the West. In a crossing of boundaries which sharpens the compara-tive exchange, we move through the following civilizations and worldviews: Ancient Greece, Judaism, Christianity, Islām, Hindu-ism, Indian Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, Na-tive Americans. Two final articles on the guru as mediator of healing and on the figure and role of the master between East and West bring the volume to a close.