Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is [Paperback]

Joan Tollifson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 21, 2006

Awake in the Heartland offers clear non-dual understanding, not in the abstract, but grounded in the actuality of daily life with all its messiness, complexity, uncertainty, paradox, and apparent imperfection. If there seems to be a gap between what the enlightenment books describe and what you find in your own life, if you still think enlightenment is something that will happen to you in the future (or not at all), if you're still chasing experiences or self-improvement, then this book may be just what you need to wake up to the truth that what you are seeking is already here. Awake in the Heartland takes a fresh look at questions of addiction, free will, good and evil, authority, and identity. It encourages the reader to look for themselves without clinging to old opinions or relying on outside authorities. Honest, funny, and profound, this is a book that invites you to discover who or what you really are.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

This page lists used or "new" (meaning unread and previously unsold) copies of a discontinued edition from Trafford Publishing that is unrevised and no longer in print. The current edition sold by Nonduality Press is the only edition I recommend to readers. These old Trafford books are of poor quality -- the pages fall out, the color on the cover photo is washed out and distorted -- so I strongly recommend you buy the beautiful Nonduality Press edition instead. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Joan Tollifson writes and talks with people about nonduality and present moment awareness. She has an affinity with Advaita and Zen, but belongs to no formal tradition. Her first book, Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life, was published by Bell Tower in 1996. Joan has lived in California, New York, Chicago, and currently resides in Oregon. Some of the teachers who have touched her most deeply include Toni Packer, Jean Klein and Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: Non-Duality Press (May 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0955176247
• ISBN-13: 978-0955176241
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #985,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joan Tollifson was born in Chicago in 1948. She graduated from Bard College in 1970 and later earned a graduate degree in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. In 2000, she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for her writing. Her books focus on nonduality and present moment awareness, often including personal narrative about her own life. She was on staff for 5 years at Springwater Center for Meditative Inquiry and Retreats in northwestern New York and is a longtime student of Toni Packer. Joan has also studied with several Zen teachers including Joko Beck and Steve Hagen, and she has been with a number of nondual and Advaita teachers including Jean Klein, Gangaji and Sailor Bob Adamson. She has lived in Illinois, New York, California, and currently resides in southern Oregon. You can learn more at her website: www.joantollifson.com. (Author photos were taken by David Lorenz Winston).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In a nutshell....., August 27, 2003

By 

"melissablue" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is (Paperback)

Some years ago I also stopped reading spiritual books, as the author of this book says she has done. I got tired of reading about the finger pointing and wanted to step back and live it, not read it. Or as Jack Kornfield says someplace -- if you get the message, hang-up the phone. Well, I am happy that I read this book. It describes nothing other than what IS, what is available to everyone, right here, right now. Nothing special. Quite exceptional to read about enlightment written with such clarity, honesty, and humor. "You are it. Everything is it. There is nothing else. Wake up to the Holy Reality. Pull back the curtain and see your own face everywhere. Dance until you dissolve. This awakening is absolutely simple. There is literally nothing to it. It is what is, just as it is" to quote from the book.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 Stars Fall Short, May 22, 2004

By 

Eric Gross "www.liberationfromthelie.com" (Philadelphia Suburbs) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is (Paperback)

If your spirit is excited by Advaita/Zen philosophy and living in a way that reflects that immediate understanding, then this book is pretty much all you will need for "your" journey. I have struggled with "understanding" advaita philosophy for many years. I "wanted" advaita/zen to have some significant impact on how I lived my life. I sought tangible answers, big experiences...but this book put in all in perfect perspective. Reading it is truly and utterly liberating experience. No other book is so radiantly clear on a subject that cannot be put into words (thought) Reading Awake in the Heartland was like reading my own inner sense of this moment to moment experience of life.

37 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book I've Ever Read, August 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is (Paperback)

I have no idea how to express my feelings about this book.
It's very clear that words, however carefully strung together,
will not come close to capturing how profoundly this book has
effected me. But since words are all I have......

From where I sit typing this, I can see my bookshelf.... filled
with at least a hundred books. All of them what you would
consider "spiritual/non-dual/advaitic" (whatever term you want
to use). Some of them are written by the most well-known
and popular "sages/teachers" of all time and some are great
books written by people you've probably never heard of. But
not one of them comes close to Awake In The Heartland as
far as the impact it's had on my life.

This is quite simply the most amazing book I've ever read. On
the "everyday regular book" level, it is very very good. It is
extremely well written...... beautifully poetic in places. And it
is interesting and enjoyable to read the autobiographical portions...to realize that the author has gone through many of the same things we all have. She's dealt with severe adversity, she's had "good" and "bad" times, she's gone on a "spiritual search", etc. But this is NOT a "typical" book in any sense of the word. The author would probably say that EVERYTHING is "typical" and there is nothing "special" or "above" or "different" about this book. But this book functions at an entirely different "level" than any I've ever read.

That other "level" is the one that transcends the mind and everything you think you are. Continually throughout this book, the author will take a concept or idea and deftly and lucidly point out reasons why it could be "true". While reading it my mind would GRASP at that concept....."Oh.....okay...now I've got it, now I understand..... that's the way things are.... that is the Truth." But THEN..... in the next page or two the author will take a SEEMINGLY OPPOSITE perspective on the very same concept and just as deftly and lucidly point out how THAT may be "true". And my mind would then grasp THAT perspective and think that once again it had found the Truth. The effect of that, after the author had done it a few times with various subjects... is that my mind SPUN and had nowhere to "land". It was "frustrating" and "freeing" at the very same time. She does
this with the most profound issues the human race has ever faced
(and the most mundane too for that matter). Free Will, Addiction,
Pleasure, Grief, Death, Spirituality, Love, Teaching, etc. etc. etc. The result is that this book ends up being one incredibly powerful Zen Koan. Like this............

The following sentence is true.

The previous sentence is false.

If you are like me, in reading that, there was a moment, probably
just a split second, when your mind could make no sense of it
and "rolled over" and STOPPED. Well, all I can say in closing is
that..... THIS ENTIRE BOOK IS LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is why I say it's not a "regular" book. Reading it is an EXPERIENCE.

If you want a good novel........ buy something else. If you want
an autobiography...... there are plenty of good ones out there.
If you want a self-help book........look elsewhere. But if you want to stop dreaming and actually experience Reality (and if you think you know what Reality is..... you are wrong..... the second you try to conceptualize it, you've already strayed from it), then get Awake In The Heartland. I'm not sure that my encouraging you to get it will change anything..... maybe "you" aren't in control and have no choice in the matter. But maybe you do.
Who knows? I certainly don't.