Eat, Pray, Love: Blog 3

Liz has now spent about 5 weeks at her Ashram. She has been frustrated with her meditation time, but finally has improved. She is now able to silence her mind or “ego” as her friend from Texas tells her. He also tells her “you got some serious control issues” page 150. He, Richard from Texas, becomes that one person for Liz who she can talk to about all of her spiritual setbacks. He makes her laugh, cry, smile, and most importantly discover that she needs to let go.

As much as she dislikes meditating, she HATES doing the daily chant called the Gurugita. Liz struggles every morning-going through the 182 murderous versus of “sacred” Socratic dialogue. It is a conversation between the goddess Parvati and the almighty god Shiva. Whatever Shiva imagines, Parvati brings to life. Their dance or union (Yoga) is the cause of the universe and its manifestation.

Swamiji, (her Guru’s Guru-once owned this Ashram, until he passed it on to his best student) she believes is kind of “stocking” her. He is so powerful-it scares her. But at the same time all she wants is Swamiji. He is the only one she prays to, only one she sees in her dreams and meditation. He laughs and loves her. When he laughs at her thoughts, it only makes her angrier, which motivates her even more. It is now her last week. She promises she will go to Gurugita everyday this week, no skipping this week! She even overslept on Monday, waking to find out her roommate locked her in their room. Instead taking this as a legitimate excuse, she climbs out the window just in time for Gurugita. This to me truly shows Liz’s determination to discover another aspect of her life.

So back to the question: How and why does exploring a world uncommon to one bring out traits and desires one did not know before? In part two of the book, Liz is discovering her spiritual self. She has her setbacks, like missing David (once again). And she also struggles with meditating and the chanting of Gurugita. But all in all, she learns to silence her mind and the power of god. This was what she wanted from India when she decided to travel there.

Looking back, to the beginning of the book, to the first night she found herself crying and desiring something-anything other than what she had at that moment in time, she began to grow. In India, she begins to let go of her control issues (first of all, admitting them!). She knows now you can’t control the failures of your relationships. Sometimes your soul mate is meant to show you the reflection of yourself, which is not always good. Therefore staying with that person is not always the right choice (aka if you don’t want to feel pain every single day). She has challenged herself to do things she didn’t think were possible. It takes great strength for one to do what she has done in India. I’m excited to read on and see her complete her revolution in full circle!

Eat, Pray, Love: Blog 2

Elizabeth finishes her last two months in Italy with more language lessons from her friends and a lot of traveling. She sees Naples, Venice, Sicily, etc. Her sister, aunt, and good friend even visit her. She eats even better food than she has ever had before, and buys new jeans (she has already outgrown her “Second Month in Italy pants” page 110). As she is leaving Italy, she is able to say to herself, “I exist more now than I did four months ago” (Page 116).
Next is India. Here is where she will be practicing her devotion to her Guru through meditation and yoga 18 hours a day, for six weeks! “My Guru always says that only one thing will happen when you come to the Ashram-that you will discover who you really are” (Page 129). Which is perfect for her right now; she is leaving Italy extremely pleased, with all of the pleasure she let herself feel without guilt. Now she wants to completely devote herself to the Ashram life. Her day begins at 3:00 AM and ends at 9:00 PM. It’s both extremely physically and psychologically draining.
In India, I think she will find the next piece of herself she has been looking for. This year long journey through many different places will end up bringing her the balance she is looking for. But for the moment she must be “unbalanced” and seek only the devotion aspect of her life. Yet I am only at the beginning of her Indian journey, she is enthused and motivated. Her time in Italy was beyond words, and now she is prepared to have the complete opposite experience, but just as rewarding.
So, how will Elizabeth find herself in India, just as she found a piece of herself while in Italy? The first step is to assimilate into her Ashram. She uses the analogy of assimilating a new chicken into the already established chicken coop. “You must…slip the new bird into the chicken coop in the middle of the night while the others are asleep” (Page 119). After that she begins to get in the flow of things. She begins her yoga again. Her yoga helps her to “find God through meditation, through scholarly study, through the practice of silence, though devotional service or through mantra-repetition of sacred words in Sanskrit” (Page121).
What does discovering God and devotion to a Guru have to do with discovering one’s self? Faith. Believing is power. Clearing one’s mind through complete and utter silence can only do good. You become unstressed, relaxed, and afterward able to be in peace with yourself and your environment. You may think it sounds easy to do, but it is the contrary. Elizabeth is about to discover what it takes to not think for extensive periods of time.

Eat, Pray, Love: Blog #1

Eat, Pray, Love

By: Elizabeth Gilbert

BLOG #1

            Elizabeth Gilbert is thirty year-old, who has found herself lying on her bathroom floor crying about her “perfect” life. She thought by the time she turned 30 she would want to be settling down starting a family. Now realizing she has a husband a beautiful home, yet all she can think is “I don’t want to be married anymore” (Page 10).

            Elizabeth goes through this awfully painful and long divorce; all ending with her broke, depressed, and desiring love of self. She decides to travel. She has always wanted to speak Italian fluently, and what better way to do that than go there! She wanted to go to India to visit her Guru’s Ashram. Lastly, she felt the need to fulfill the prediction of an old Indonesian medicine man, “you’re destined to move to Bali and live with him for four months” (Page 28). All together she wished to experience kalos kai agathos, the singular balance of the good and the beautiful. She stopped trying to choose and decided to spend four months living in each country.

            Her first stop is Italy. She eats gelato about three times a day and practices her Italian at school, with her friends, and with Giovanni (she helps him with English and he helps her with Italian). She also learns a new concept: the art of doing nothing. With all of this in mind, she defeats her depression.

            How and why does exploring a world uncommon to one bring out traits and desires one did not know before? In Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert explores three abroad countries: Italy for its pleasure, India for meditating, and Indonesia (Bali) for love. She leaves behind her baggage and pursues new ideas and confidence.

            In Italy she learns the ability to do simply nothing. She makes a delicious meal and enjoys every single bite. She then reads her Italian newspaper, practicing her skills. She is fully embraced in what she is doing that she doesn’t worry about what she is going to do tomorrow or how much weight she is gaining from eating gelato three times per day. This is probably her most significant accomplishment so far, because she strayed from her ways she learned as a child-to always be doing multiple things at once. Therefore she used to feel guilty when only spending time on one task. Now she understands the concept of enjoying the most simple, but splendid tasks in life. She does not feel the least bit guilty for enjoying her meal and newspaper.

            Another example of Elizabeth learning to enjoy the pleasures of life, would be her desire to learn the most beautiful language in the world: Italian. She has no reason to learn, except for the fact she wants to for herself. Even though her friends tease her for traveling to Italy to better her Italian skills, she doesn’t let them ruin her spirits. She is sick of doing things society thinks she should be doing right now (like settling down in a suburb and raising children). Trumping them all, she does what her heart tells her to do. Of course with the guidance of, still unsure of who or what he/she really is, God.

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