Edge of Grace

This is the story of a spiritual quest with peaceful periods in an ashram and then transformational episodes arising directly from family life and the health challenges of the author's children. It shows up the tensions inherent in balancing separation with union and dealing with all one's personality issues at the same time as intensely pursuing a spiritual path. She leaves the ashram in 1988 at the behest of her spiritual teacher, who then suddenly dies. Her twins are born with severe brain injuries and domestic life is hugely challenging, in the midst of which she tries to 'live awake.' When it looks like we are cracking up, we can in fact crack open. It is at this point that she meets her new Zen teacher Adyashanti and begins to reach a new level, assuming her new name, which means insightful knowing. There is a fascinating conversation with her other daughter Bodhi, who suddenly remarks that she does not think there is a me. The last few pages are worth the price of the book: "awakening to yourself as Spirit is to look to the depths of your being to see that what you are is Light… We are Light, everything is Light, there is no other. Everything is you. Everyone is you. One Light living you, living me, and living everyone. Light is always moving in the direction of that which does not yet know it is Light. Light that knows it is Light has no fear of that which does not realise it is Light…. Light sees everything as an expression of Light – equal to itself, undivided and whole."