Rating: 
Summary: Practicing the wound of love . . .
Review: Here is a different side of Ken Wilber. More personal, more vulnerable, more approachable by more people. It's easiest to
imagine Ken Wilber as a scholar/monk, locked in his study
grinding out title after title. (See _Sex, Ecology, Spirituality:
the Spirit of Evolution_ for a recent imposing example).
In _Grace and Grit_ we come as well to know an all-too-human Wilber,
a tragic lover with a heart stung by nettles of distraction and despair. Putting his writing aside for a period of years, Ken became a full-time support person for his wife Treya during her protracted struggle with cancer. Until the very end, the Wilbers hoped and labored for a cure. In the end, they chose to make Treya's death a lesson in living for all of us. This is a sad and joyous book.
Saddest of all: what might Treya Killam Wilber have shared with us
had she lived longer? (Longer, not fuller. Her life was
full - there can be no doubt.) Most joyous: in this work the
Wilbers have shared both a vision and practice of hope beyond
the boundaries of biological existence. Recommended reading for
all who wonder how life can end, when love cannot.
Rating:
Summary: Practicing the wound of love . . .
Review: Here is a different side of Ken Wilber. More personal, more vulnerable, more approachable by more people. It's easiest toimagine Ken Wilber as a scholar/monk, locked in his study grinding out title after title. (See _Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: the Spirit of Evolution_ for a recent imposing example). In _Grace and Grit_ we come as well to know an all-too-human Wilber, a tragic lover with a heart stung by nettles of distraction and despair. Putting his writing aside for a period of years, Ken became a full-time support person for his wife Treya during her protracted struggle with cancer. Until the very end, the Wilbers hoped and labored for a cure. In the end, they chose to make Treya's death a lesson in living for all of us. This is a sad and joyous book. Saddest of all: what might Treya Killam Wilber have shared with us had she lived longer? (Longer, not fuller. Her life was full - there can be no doubt.) Most joyous: in this work the Wilbers have shared both a vision and practice of hope beyond the boundaries of biological existence. Recommended reading for all who wonder how life can end, when love cannot.
Rating:
Summary: Love can be the most healing medicine
Review: I have read the review thus far and want to give some an idea of what this book is. This book is Treya Wilber who, in her warm, inspiring way, fought to find a way to calm her anxiety. This story is about a husband who shares his wife's life with cancer. The emotional content in this book is strong and compelling to the point that I recomend this book for anyone who has known, loved, or even shared a life with a person who has suffered through any life threatening illness/sickness------any illness/sickness. To the readers delighting in pyschology and mystical philosophy, the book is a living breathing practice of such beauty--all presented as two loving people shared their devotion and many tears together. Treya, thank you. I have found something that had lay dormant for years within me. Ken, I wish you so much happiness and peace, and thank you for sharing your story so publically.
Rating: 
Summary: Recommend with reservations
Review: I just finished reading this book. On the one hand, I found it incredibly moving and honest, as did many of the other reviewers. The book is a profound exploration of death in the midst of life. I found the account of Treya's hours before death particulary heart-wrenching and valued the level of surrender reached by both Treya and Ken. ... As a consequence of his view of the true self in all to be the same Self, KW's very moving account of Treya's death is followed by a postscript in which he interprets Treya's words to "find her again" as an exhortation to find the Self. After the honesty and acceptance related in his account of her death, I found this interpretation to be mildly offensive. I wanted to ask, why is it "too literal" for Treya to remain essentially Treya after death? Could she not undergo a radical spiritual transformation without dissolving into a cosmic unity? In a sense KW's interpretation of Treya's words is a denial of the death than Ken and Treya faced so honestly and movingly in the preceding pages. KW views his transpersonal understanding to be an advance over the 'mythical' Christian view. I, however, fail to see how Treya's becoming one with an attributeless Brahman or Buddha nature is an advance over the beautiful particularity of her humanity transformed by the experience of death.
Rating: 
Summary: Truthful, but ultimately disappointing
Review: I read Mr. Wilbur's book when it was first published years ago. I commend Mr. Wilbur for writing so openly and honestly about a subject matter which clearly is heart-wrenching. GRACE AND GRIT was my first and only introduction to Mr. Wilbur's work. I did not continue reading his other published works because I found his superimposed interpretation of what happens to his wife's soul at her passing to be incredibly arrogant. The truth is Mr. Wilbur does not know where his wife goes to or who she becomes at the moment of the death of her physical body. Unless Mr. Wilbur has died himself and has come back from the dead to tell us of the experience, he cannot speak with any authority about what happens at the moment of death to any of us including his late wife. I was young and impressionable when I read this work and Mr. Wilbur was being touted as the greatest American philosopher/thinker of our time. How great can one be if one is so close-minded, so cut and dried, about a subject matter he cannot truly know about? Life is called a mystery, Mr. Wilbur, because it is just that--a mystery. And no matter how great your mind is, you may perhaps learn a lesson from the great poet Rainier Rilke Rilke: "We must try to love the questions themselves..." You don't have all the answers, Mr. Wilbur. A little humility would become you.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: I read this book about many years ago and found I simply could not put it down. Then, a few years later, I picked it up again just to glance at it. I ended up rereading the book in its entirety. If the subject matter weren't so serious, I could say this is a "juicy" read in terms of its "can't put it down" quality. As a result, this book belongs on my top 20 best reads list.
Rating:
Summary: It is really, really good.
Review: I read this book some time back, and I still love it. This book shows real life of real people in a way that can be shared by many. It's no fiction, and it's very well written. I have borrowed my book to friends, and all of them have bought this book and borrowed it further... It's good for people who use to think a bit about themselves and the world - but I guess it's not a favourate book at people who have no other aims in life than to run away from it (which is quite a common way).
Rating:
Summary: Our Fortune and Our Fate
Review: I recommend this book to all mortals as a wonderfully sad introduction to Buddhism. I am the support person for my similarly situated wife, so I could not force myself to stop reading this book. While comparing our ordeals, I felt that this is not only Ken and Treya's story; it is everyone's story. The unique love, suffering and courage described by Wilber is in us all, and that is our fortune as well as our fate.
Rating: 
Summary: a good book
Review: I was put off in some of the early pages which detail this couple's meeting: I thought it was self-indulgent of Ken to include Treya's journal entries which read, "Oh, I met this wonderful, handsome, sexy, very intelligent man," etc. But, actually, entries like that end up setting the stage for later events, so I ended up forgiving the self-indulgence (which occurs elsewhere as well). But I'm a fan of his other works, so it was good to find out more about him as a person through this book. The cancer stuff is really frightening, and it's a sobering realization that this could happen to anyone. The power of a strong, committed relationship comes through in this book, too; if a couple can survive what this couple did, most of the rest of us don't have too many excuses. I also appreciated Ken's struggle with drawing the fine line between his own skepticism and his need to support Treya's choices regarding alternative cancer treatments. Ken's inclusion of information about meditation and other philosophies serves as a good cursory introduction to his other work. And, of course, the end of the book is very powerful, as are other sections leading up to it.
Rating:
Summary: Generous and sensitive.
Review: I was puzzled and disappointed at the conclusions Ken Wilber came to about what happens to consciousness after physical death, but that is a very small part of this generous, sensitive, deeply personal book (with much practical value, especially to the cancer patient) most of it worthy of 5 stars, some of it worth more.
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