Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Read!!!
Comment: This book was a gem! So well written, so enjoyable, thought provoking, laughable that it was hard for me to see it end. I had never read any of this author's works before. After reading this book, I know I will read them all.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Engaging memoir about a woman's search for self and happiness
Comment: Although this book gained huge popularity almost immediately after its release--which was a full two years ago now--initially, I had some reluctance to read it. This is surprising given that 1) I'm about the same age as the author, 2) I generally really enjoy memoirs, and 3) I've studied Italian and am into yoga, which are two of the three major themes of this book. However, my sense from others who had read EAT, PRAY, LOVE before me was that for all those who loved the book, just as many hated it, finding it to be self-indulgent.

So, is this book self-indulgent? Well, of COURSE it is--but what memoir isn't? You could dismiss the entire book by saying that author Elizabeth Gilbert is, like so many other women before her, simply trying to "find herself" after an ugly divorce. While this is arguably true, the universal nature of Gilbert's general situation doesn't make the particular details of her story any less interesting. The fact is, Gilbert is an engaging writer, and although the pages of her book might should "ME, ME, ME!", she certainly provides her readers with a clear portrayal of her year of transformative travel. Readers are with Gilbert each step of the way as she learns to experience pleasure again in Italy (through the joy of wonderful food), to connect with a higher being in India (by practicing yoga and meditation at her Guru's ashram), and to find peace and love in Bali.

There were a few things I didn't like about Gilbert's writing style. For example, she seemed to be unnecessarily coy at times, like when she made the specific point of saying within the first few pages of the book that she wasn't going to let readers know anything about what went wrong with her ex-husband. She also refused to reveal the name of her Guru, something that of course can easily be obtained on the internet (and in fact now appears in Gilbert's own blog). But overall, I found this book to be enjoyable: I enjoyed taking part in Gilbert's journey and truly rooted for her happiness in the end.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: She did it again!
Comment: This author sounds like very immature for her age. At age 35, she is still dreaming to be loved like a princess. She is very needy, needs a full attention from everyone, particularly from her lover. Her inner voice tells her that she doesn't want to have children. I think her inner voice is right about it. How can she take of children when she needs a full attention herself. From the book I feel that she is someone who always gets what she wants in a selfish way. That book doesn't say exactly what happened to her marriage and when a marriage is over, it can't be just one person's fault but because of her personality, I almost think that her husband is mad because she is so selfish and always do everything in her way, and gets everything she wants at the end.

I really wanted to like this book because I am on a journey to find inner peace myself. I was hoping to learn some good tips from this book. For me it was OK in Italy and India but I closed the book at the line in Indonesia "I go straight back to Felipe"s house and I don't leave his bedroom for approximately another month."
That was it for me. She did it again. It was such a disappointment to read the line and know that she didn't learn a thing. I felt like I wasted my time reading this book this far. I hope she can prove me wrong to spend her rest of her life happily with Felipe. It sounds like a good match for her to have a much older guy.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Truly Wonderful!!
Comment: I know everyone has thier opinion and story about this book, some loved it and some thought is was over sold - well, I think that depends on where you are and how open you are to experiencing growth. My story is that this book moved me in ways unimaginable. I absolutely loved the journey and the truths discovered along the way. If you are still trying to figure it all out and would love some great insight, read this book. It has become almost like a reference for me - I plan to read it many times throughout me life. I am grateful to people like Elizabeth Gilbert who have the courage and foresight to put themselves out there and share thier stories with us - she has given all of us a gift.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: "Eat, Pray, Love" is a kind of 21st Century Version of 10 Ox-Herding Pictures
Comment: Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" is an entertaining, personally revealing permutation on the classic existential character arc - the search of our true nature. Some call it God (as does Gilbert), some call it "what is" or "Suchness" or "Natural Perfection" (as in Dzogchen). "Eat, Pray, Love" struck me as an eloquent and illuminating parallel to the 12th century Ch'an/Zen metaphor of 10 Ox-Herding Pictures that narrate - albeit, more succinctly, - a similar existential search-and-rescue story, a spiritual evolution from materialistic hoarding to herding (controlling, managing, transcending) one's impulses, cravings, and desires.

In the ox-herding pictures, just like in Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love," the protagonist (a boy ox-hearder) is lost (because he had lost his ox). Like Gilbert, the ox-hearding boy is not only trying to restore the status quo (find and recapture the ox) but to return Home (spiritually, existentially, meta-cognitively). The 10 ox-hearding pictures serve as a pictorial protocol, a step-by-step guide that narrates a path towards clarity and seeing "what is."

Gilbert's literary device is 109 beads (japa malas) - with each being a vignette of step on a journey. The bead #67 corresponds to Ox-hearding picture #8 which was simply an empty circle (in which the protagonist/seeker transcends one's Self and Self-Other distinctions and dualities that obfuscate our "true nature"). It's an encounter with the Void of Non-Duality.

Whereas in the Ox-hearind series, the empty circle of self-transcedance is followed by just two more pictures (riding the ox home), Gilbert's narrative keeps on - ever as revealing and entertaining and astute, serving - in my opinion - as a literary echo to Jack Kornfield's theme of "After the Ecstasy, the Laundry" (the theme of post-enligtenment "now what?!").

"Eat, Pray, Love" is a kind of character arc of Input ("Eat") > Meditation/Information-Processing ("Pray") > Output ("Love"). Or, put differently, in order be able to give authentically, in a non-bartering manner(i.e. to love), we first have to have something to give (i.e. we have first to take), and then we have to have a reason to give (post-enlightenment compassion/loving kindness). So, first "eat" (take), then develop a reason to share (through education, thinking, analysis, mediation, payer - various forms of "information-processing" and "digestion") and then give ("love").

A richly detailed story of self-growth (or self-reduction?!) from caustic self-deprecation to self-acceptance and onto authentic capacity for love, kindness, and here-and-now presence.

Another ego-block transcended!


Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of "Eating the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time" (New Harbinger, 2008)
www.eatingthemoment.com

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