Surprised By Grace: A Journey Beyond Personal Enlightenment - Softcover

Terrell, Amber

9780965667029: Surprised By Grace: A Journey Beyond Personal Enlightenment

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965667022 ISBN 13: 9780965667029

Publisher: True Light Publishing, 2003

Surprised By Grace is a true story of spiritual awakening. It is a beautiful story, a love story of Self falling in love with Self, as teacher, as all of life. Simply told and based on direct experience, it dispels many myths about enlightenment and about gurus. It also provides compelling answers to such questions as whether or not one needs a teacher, why deep spiritual experiences can appear to be lost, and what happens as the identification with mind and personality is cut. Most importantly, it reveals that Realization is possible here and now.

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About the Author:

Amber began her spiritual quest as a young college student in the late sixties. After a quarter century of meditation, yoga, and intense seeking that took her all over the world, it became obvious that enlightenment had remained a dream, a concept, existing in the mind only. Into the darkest and most frustrated point of her spiritual yearning came a transmission of Grace so powerful that it not only stopped the search, but revealed the searcher to be an illusion. This transmission took the form of an American teacher named Gangaji, from the lineage of one of the most respected sages of this century, Shri Ramana Maharishi, and continuing through his direct disciple Shri H. W. L. Poonjaji, Gangaji's teacher.

Review:

. . . [O]n the evidence that the author presents in her account, which is characterised by a ruthless self-honesty as well as a genuine struggle to articulate that which is beyond the mind, it is clear. . . that we have in Amber Terrell's book a genuine story of seeing through the story of "me." It is also significant that the process appears to be accompanied by a genuine opening of the heart, so that what we have in Terrell's story of Awareness being aware of Itself, is the accompanying radical transformation of the psychosomatic entity that is the hallmark of all great spiritual transformations. And yet, Terrell does not make much of it; how could she, because even that is not who she really is. It is these tell-tale signs that mark the work as authentic.

The book is also a concise introduction to Gangaji's teachings, with many excerpts of her talks, while presented in the context of Terrell's narrative, giving a clear sense of Gangaji's approach.

Surprised by Grace is definitely for those who have finally come to understand the need to stop all searching and who are willing to release their myths of enlightenment. Paradoxically, it is also about being helped in this task by someone who is truly living this perspective. -- Noumenon [S. Africa], Dec. 12, 1998 [Kriben Pillay]

"Of all the spiritual paths, the relationship between guru and disciple may be the most mysterious. While there are writings by or about various gurus, none really have described the relationship itself. But in Surprised By Grace, disciple Amber Terrell describes her thoughts, feelings, and experiences during her relationship with guru Gangaji.

The vivid descriptions of the physical, mental, and emotional upheavals triggered by Terrell's encounters with Gangaji are fascinating. This honest presentation may help dispel some readers' misconceptions about this kind of relationship. . . Terrell shows that, in spite of spiritual practice, it took the right teacher to point out the ego blocks that kept her from enlightenment.

This book proves to be moving and inspiring. Gangaji or gurus in general are not "sold"--rather, readers will feel moved to work more closely with their own spirit. Terrell is an intelligent and accomplished writer, her style open and sharing. Surprised By Grace is for anyone searching for a spiritual path, seeking inspiration, or interested in gurus." -- New Age Retailer, Jan/Feb 1998 [S. Aurin Haber]

"Terrell's tale stands out as significant, in that she details step-by-step how her awakening was realized, as well as the consequences of that enlightenment. . . [I]t is one of the few books that concentrates on what one does when one's quest is done, and does so beautifully." -- Nexus [Colorado], Nov/Dec 1997 [P. J. Birosik]

"This is why Amber Terrell's book, Surprised by Grace: A Journey Beyond Personal Enlightenment, is so refreshing. . . This is not a story of a teacher taking on a disciple and asking for the complete surrender of personal control for the purposes of being served in the name and game of attaining enlightenment (and the potential abuses that this relationship is open to), but rather it is the story of waking up to our misconceptions of the teacher-student relationship and the myth of enlightenment, and realising that:

"Finally, there is no one who gets enlightened, no one who

awakens. Who one truly is, has always been awake. The

seeking is found to be an illusion, created by the mistaken

identity with mind as who one is. As the mind surrenders to its

Source, the illusion of the person, the illusion of the journey, the

illusion of separation, collapses into Self. Then Self-discovery

unfolds endlessly." -- p. 241

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