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The Afterword of Spiritual Transmission was written by American philosopher, author, and the creator of Integral Theory Ken Wilber. Below are the first two paragraphs:
The theme of this important volume is “spiritual transmission”—the transmission of a special spiritual awareness from a teacher to a student—which is actually an issue that affects most forms of spiritual training. But its spiritual forms are especially associated with teachers known as “gurus” and with the entire path of Guru Yoga. And that overall path is what I’m going to focus on, because the whole topic of there being a “guru” or spiritual master is truly one of the most pressing and profound issues of our time.
The underlying idea of Guru Yoga is the notion that, in order to receive the guru’s spiritual “transmission,” you must surrender to the guru; you must voluntarily turn your life—or large portions of it—over to somebody else, somebody who allegedly knows more than you do in this area, and you choose to submit yourself to that person in order to receive that learning. At its base is the question of self-sovereignty and self-autonomy itself: when is it appropriate to voluntarily surrender one’s own autonomy and turn it over to somebody else, and occasionally in quite far-reaching and extensive ways?