Reiner Schurmann was born to German parents in Amsterdam in 1941. He received his doctorate at the Sorbonne in 1981 and was Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Among many awards, he received the Distinguished University Teacher Award in 1989. Shortly before his death in 1993, he completed the two-volume Broken Hegemonies. David Appelbaum is Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University, New Paltz, and editor of Parabola magazine and of the Studies in Esotericism series. He is a poet and the author of numerous books, including The Stop, Everyday Spirits, and Disruption.

"There are two births, one is into the world, and the other out of the world, that is, spiritually into God... If you reach a state where you feel neither suffering nor vexation from whatever may happen, so that suffering is not for you and that all things are sheer joy to you, then truly the child is born. Meister Eckhart."