Rating: 
Summary: Blew the roof off my 5-star ceiling
Review: I'll admit it. I've written a lot of five star reviews. I tend to comment when I have praise to offer. This book just took me to a whole new level of appreciation for a writer. It's like the difference between, "Yes, I think you are a lovely person" and "There isn't one thing about you which I don't find absolutely loveable."I urge you to buy this book, and expand your own vision of what is possible: in a loving relationship, as one approaches the end of this physical existence, and within the human heart and soul. This book woke me up. It reminded me about Love. (Saying that, the words seem so inadequate) The truth is, I can't come close to conveying the Love which comes through in this book. It's personal love directed toward a wife, a husband, a family. It's universal Love which calls to you to find your way home. It beckons "Promise you will find me again." I just finished reading the last chapter, and I cried and cried. I remembered what it was like when my mom died. Dannion Brinkley said that when someone dies, the doors to Heaven open up, and energy flows in both directions. I'll second that. My mothers death was one of the most sacred experiences of my life. Reading this, I also remembered Love. A friend of mine used to tease his wife. She would say "Honey, do you love me?" And he would respond, "Only when I stop and think about it." Love is like that isn't it? If we don't stop and become present to Love, then Love isn't present in our awareness, and that which isn't present in our awareness isn't real to us in the present moment. At best, it is a myth about a "Once upon a time/somewhere someday" experience. This book, and especially the last chapter increased my awareness of Love so dramatically, I felt like I just woke up. And then it repeated the experience. I just kept waking up to more and more love. I am overflowing with humble gratitude for the gift that reading this book is to me. Thank you Ken. Thank you Treya. Thanks for reminding me of what I live for. I have a request of you the reader. If you do nothing else, go to a bookstore and read the last chapter. I promise that if you are anything like me, it will flat out blow you away. Your reading that chapter will further the conversation of freedom. It will further the conversation of Love as a present moment reality. And it will further the conversation of death being beautiful in its own way, at its own time. You will not regret the time invested. I promise. --Frank Boyd
Rating:
Summary: Made me cry and taught me something
Review: It amazed me how throughout this book you can see Treya Wilber becoming a greater and greater person the sicker she became physically. It is the first book I read of Wilber's. I like the therorizing but realized at the end that love is greater than theorizing. (Far greater than mine.) That is what this book said to me. Also a great introduction to Buddhism and esoteric philsophy. I'm trying to get everyone I know to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: EVERY EMOTION...
Review: It might not be pretty, but Ken Wilber does a good job of relaying all the emotions he went through as the "support person" for his wife, Treya, during her battle with cancer. Many times I didn't like Ken because I felt he was self-centered -- after all, it was TREYA that had the cancer. However, when I was finished with the book, I could view it as a whole and realize that, while the feelings Ken had were not always the most admirable, they were probably very real and probably common. Treya was a beautiful person, inside and out, and I cried so hard at the end of the book. She definitely was in control of her death and it was so beautiful the way she and Ken handled it. I hope he does indeed "find her."
Rating:
Summary: The Easiest On-Ramp to Wilber's Fabulous World-View
Review: Ken Wilber may be the greatest philosopher of our age. In his 20-year trail of books on psychology, sociology, spirituality, and science, he has set forth one of the more cogent syntheses of the various strands of human knowledge in recent times -- perhaps the most cogent. The primary problem with Wilber is where to start. The uninitiated may find his most recent tome, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995) daunting and long, even though it may be the best place to go to get a full dose of Wilber's map of everything. His other books, while less comprehensive than Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, may nevertheless be too unadulterated a dose of this brilliant man's thinking.
Grace and Grit, on the other hand, is a beautifully written, moving account of two lives, a relationship, and a death. It blends a touching love story with the best of Wilber's take on spirituality and materialism. The reader will almost inevitably have both heart and mind altered for the better. Of how many books can that be said?
Rating:
Summary: Another read
Review: Okay, after writing my last review a few days ago, I picked up Grace & Grit again and have now read this book THREE times. This time I am blown away by Wilber's lucid, deep, and inspiring discussions about the difference between "exoteric" and "esoteric" religions as well as a cool, rational explanation of mystical thinking (e.g., Buddhism). He has answered all of my initial questions about "spirituality" and how it all fits together. This is still a juicy read and, of course, incredibly moving.
Rating:
Summary: Another read
Review: Okay, after writing my last review a few days ago, I picked up Grace & Grit again and have now read this book THREE times. This time I am blown away by Wilber's lucid, deep, and inspiring discussions about the difference between "exoteric" and "esoteric" religions as well as a cool, rational explanation of mystical thinking (e.g., Buddhism). He has answered all of my initial questions about "spirituality" and how it all fits together. This is still a juicy read and, of course, incredibly moving.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Quite simply, _Grace and Grit_ gives us real people behind Wilber's usual academic prose. And it's fresh air compared to his other works. This along with _Marriage of Sense and Soul_ are the best Wilber books to begin with. Best of all we are introduced to Treya--the truest inspiration I have ever read. Yikes, Wilber feels so strongly about what he writes about! Can anyone, even those that disagree with his ideas, argue with that? The passion and strength behind his ideas and style are inspiring to some, off-putting to others, and typical male-testosterone-patriarchy to the rest. But look here. Here is his account that perhaps explains his neverending zeal--that which he experienced himself, the love and death of his soulmate. There is no one who writes like him, infusing philosophy with accounts of chemo, meditation with medication, deities with diaries. This guy is a warrior and an scholar. That much we knew. Know, we know him as a lover, too. Love the story about his satori in a German pub in the middle of the country side with several Grolsch's in him, dancing stupidly with other Germans around a circle and it just all made sense then. What is most remarkable is not the sometimes excessive narcisism. (What he himself has later to refered to as boomeritis--a word aimed at society and even himself, here especially.) And it's not even the utterly devastating ending (truly unique in all of western literature, methinks--the first account of actual enlightenment, play by play?) No, the most remarkable thing is that amidst what was undoubtedly a heartwrenching ordeal to write and recreate, he has either a) the utter gall, b) culteral foresight, c) condescending naivete, or d) typical moxie, to include several whole chapters (!) of his academic theorizing, about the "Great Chain of Being", or "Great Holarchy of Being", or the "successive stages and waves of personal growth"--for god's sake, who is this guy Wilber and where did he come from? His wife just died! Dig the meditation, sister. Dig the deity descriptions. Dig the equimanity in the face of killer chemo. Dig the alternative/white man's medical drama. Dig Treya's journals. Did you have to include the parts about how great you are? Maybe you did. Keep telling us about buddhism and mystical christianity. Keep putting in all in a modern light, bro. You've started th ball rolling on transpersonal psychology. Let the grad students do the rest. After reading Grace and Grit, Wilber's got in me a reader for life. And with this book (and those since it), now we know that he seems to be getting ready to write novels. Lord help us.
Rating:
Summary: Moving, Powerful, Filling, Inspiring
Review: Simply and literally the most moving and powerful
stack of paper and ink that has passed through my hands. A complete meal.
If you're familiar with and interested in Wilber's thinking (as I was) but have yet to read this title, it would be especially tragic to miss the additional dimensions provided here.
-- Scott
Rating:
Summary: A story of love and loss
Review: The incredible story of Ken and Treya Wilber. A few days after their wedding Treya was diagnosed with breast cancer. This is the honest story of their spiritual journey in their short 5 years together. It was a very moving book for me and especially made me see how much I take for granted.
Rating:
Summary: Highly valuable as a chronicle, editorial, and tribute
Review: The previous reviewer's charge of arrogance was a surprise to this reader. The power of Wilber's analytical thinking could overpower this book, were it not for two of the book's strengths: one, the extent to which his deceased wife is allowed to speak for herself, through her poetry, art, and journal excerpts (all of which she authorized for publication); and two, the author's palpable admiration of and humility before the memory of his wife: a woman who provided inspiration and guidance to many people through her research, advocacy, and sincere spiritual practice. Ken Wilber, already noted for his early works on transpersonal psychology and contemporary philosophy, and Terry Killam fell deeply in love upon their first meeting and were quickly engaged. Right away, she was diagnosed with cancer which proved to be persistent and aggressive. The book which emerges is amazing: a tribute to a person who, in the words of one friend, taught people how to live and how to die, by strong example; it is also a cogent examination of different approaches to illness, with a refreshingly open perspective to orthodox and New Age paths alike; a book about dying, and about being a caretaker; a bare-bones, courageous examination of maintaining a strong marriage in the face of something unthinkable; a book about illness, dying, and practicing the dharma not only for one's own healing, but for the benefit of all beings. The book itself is pretty clearly the product of a healing process, and it has so many gifts to offer. Highly recommended.
| 
