Eat Pray love. Elizabeth Gilbert.

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What do I love about: eat, pray, love?

The book covers Elizabeth’s journey to 3 (Italy, India, Indonesia) countries with 36 stories each for each city. The interplay of pleasure, love, passion, devotion, freedom, spiritual enlightenment makes this book one that keeps you asking for more. The good news is that there is also a movie on this.

What do I not love about: eat, pray, love?

Zilch

Who should read: eat, pray, love?

Are you curious about the pleasures in Italy and the devotion in India or are you a lover of a good story? Then this is for you.

Who should not read: eat, pray, love?

None on my mind cause it is an interesting and fun read.

Notes from eat, pray, love

Book One: Italy

Say it like you eat it or 36 tales about the pursuit of pleasure 

  • I believe in a magnificent God
  • I can’t swallow that one fixed rule of Christianity insisting that Christ is the only path to God
  • I have always responded with breathless excitement to anyone who has ever said that God does not live in a dogmatic scripture or in a distant throne in the sky, but instead abides very close to us indeed- much closer than we can imagine, breathing right through our own hearts
  • To find the balance you want, you must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it’s like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your HEAD. You must look through your HEART, instead
  • I wanted to explore the act of PLEASURE in ITALY, the art of DEVOTION in INDIA, and in INDONESIA the act of BALANCE
  • Across the broad continent of a woman’s life falls the shadow of a sword
  • It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection
  • “No town can live peacefully, whatever the laws,” Plato wrote, “when its citizen…. Do nothing but feast, drink, and tire themselves out in the cares of love.

Book Two: India

36 tales about the pursuit of devotion

  • “Our whole business therefore in life”, wrote saint Augustine, rather yogically, “is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen
  • Yoga is the effort to experience one’s divinity personally and then to hold on to that experience forever
  • True knowledge is impossible without a Guru
  • PRAYER is the act of talking to God, while MEDITATION is the act of listening.
  • DEVOTION is diligence without assurance.
  • Prayer is a relationship; half the job is mine
  • Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship- a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. Half of it you have no control over; half of it is absolutely in your hands, and your actions will show measurable consequence. Man is neither entirely a puppet of the gods, nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny; he is a little of both.
  • GUILT’s just your ego’s way of tricking you into thinking that you’re making moral progress. Don’t fall for it, my dear
  • God dwells with you as you
  • Silence is the only true religion
  • The hub of calmness- that is your heart. That is where God lives within you. So stop looking for answers in the world. Just keep coming back to that center and you will always find peace.

Book Three: Indonesia

Even in my underpants I feel different or 36 Tales about the pursuit of Balance

  • If you tell me SLOWLY, I can understand QUICKLY
  • I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue.

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