Eat, Pray, Love

“But I really loved him.” “Big deal. So you fell in love with someone. Don’t you see what happened? This guy touched a place in ...

“But I wish me and David could—” He cuts me off. “See, now that’s your problem. You’re wishin’ too much, baby. You gotta stop we ...

“All right, Richard, that’s enough,” I say. “I don’t want you walking around inside my head anymore.” “Shut the door, then,” say ...

49 When I was nine years old, going on ten, I experienced a true metaphysical crisis. Maybe this seems young for such a thing, b ...

tracks until I could get a grip on myself might have been the beginning of what my dear friend Richard from Texas calls my “cont ...

Prayer.” For some people, that’s truly enough. For others, more drastic measures are re- quired. And now I will mention my frien ...

I dearly hope that I am one of these mid-level dust-caked people, but I don’t know. I only know that I have been driven to find ...

50 The next morning in meditation, all my caustic old hateful thoughts come up again. I’m starting to think of them as irritatin ...

tions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who’s in charge?” Everything el ...

51 Richard from Texas has some cute habits. Whenever he passes me in the Ashram and no- tices by my distracted face that my thou ...

Thumbs-Up is an Indian soft drink, sort of like Coca-Cola, but with about nine times the corn syrup and triple that of caffeine. ...

“But I have a brave heart!” I piped up, in my own defense. “And other sterling qualities,” added Richard, tossing me a bone for ...

52 The biggest obstacle in my Ashram experience is not meditation, actually. That’s difficult, of course, but not murderous. The ...

change during my stay at the Ashram. I’d hoped that putting it in an Indian context would cause me to learn how to love the thin ...

“But people say it’s a vital spiritual practice.” “It is. But I’m not going to tell you that you’re going to go to hell if you d ...

Eat, Pray, Love ...

53 So I went to the chant the next morning, all full of resolve, and the Gurugita kicked me down a twenty-foot flight of cement ...

Guru himself. Over time, his Ashram in India grew from three rooms on a barren farm to the lush garden it is today. Then he got ...

can feel him working on me. Even in his death, there’s something so earthy and present about him. He’s the master I need when I’ ...

54 This morning, I overslept. Which is to say—sloth that I am, I dozed until the ungodly hour of 4:15 AM. I woke up only minutes ...