{"id":237,"date":"2012-04-12T11:27:05","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T15:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/insweetcompany\/?p=237"},"modified":"2012-04-12T11:27:05","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T15:27:05","slug":"books-are-our-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/04\/books-are-our-friends.html","title":{"rendered":"Books Are Our Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u201cGod is not someone who allows things to happen or not happen. The real question I need to ask [ is ] how can God help me find the strength to deal with what happens? By reframing the question, I opened myself up to other possibilities.\u201d<\/em> &#8212; Rabbi Laura Geller, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been thirty-six years since I first labored over the pronunciation of the names of the Indian saints and sages featured in the pages of <em>Autobiography of a Yogi<\/em>, unaware of how the unfamiliar marriage of letters would one day roll off my tongue and become music to my ears. At some point in my life the words \u201cBooks are your friends\u201d popped into my head and has proven true time and again\u2014particularly with <em>Autobiography of a Yogi<\/em>. Recently, I bought my fifth copy of the \u201c<em>AY<\/em>,\u201d Paramahansa Yogananda\u2019s spellbinding account of his search for God, and will soon read it again\u2014underlining phrases, dog-earring pages to the point where eventually it, too, will need to be replaced.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I like to believe everyone has a \u201cfriend\u201d like this, a book they turn to for inspiration and comfort, that fascinates them, that brings order and meaning to their life. Though I can effortlessly quote lines from its pages, each time I read the <em>AY<\/em> I feel like I am reading it for the first time; I \u201cdiscover\u201d ideas I did not notice before, I connect with a story on a deeper level. Each new <em>Voila! <\/em>is powerfully relevant to what is occurring in my life and I marvel at the seemingly serendipitous appearance of the right words at the right time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One of the surprising things about<em> Autobiography of a Yogi<\/em> is that it is witty as well as profound. I did not expect a book of such spiritual heft and depth to be light-hearted. Paramahansa Yogananda was a spiritual adept, an eminent sage, and an ardent lover of God with a first-rate sense of humor. He expertly puns and teases, gently guiding his reader to not take their humanity too seriously. His humor also bears witness to the great joy that permeated his consciousness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mostly when I read the <em>Autobiography of a Yogi<\/em>, I feel as if I\u2019ve come home. Though I did not conceptualize my quest for meaning and happiness in spiritual terms when it began\u2014and was quite surprised to discover it was God I was, in fact, seeking\u2014the validation and belonging I felt when I first read the <em>AY<\/em> made it perfectly clear developing a personal relationship with God was the sum and substance of my search.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Though the <em>AY<\/em> has been acknowledged as a classic in spiritual literature for over sixty-five years, has been translated into twenty-six languages, and is used as a text in colleges and universities around the world, it may not be everyone\u2019s cup of tea. I do believe, however, that we all need books like this, books that are our friends, that make us feel stronger, smarter, braver, a part of something greater than ourselves and, thus, immensely grateful. As the heroine of another well-loved book once said, \u201cthere is no place like home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Your thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cGod is not someone who allows things to happen or not happen. The real question I need to ask [ is ] how can God help me find the strength to deal with what happens? By reframing the question, I opened myself up to other possibilities.\u201d &#8212; Rabbi Laura Geller, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[105,106,107],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gratitude","category-spiritual-journey","tag-autobiography-of-a-yogi","tag-laura-geller","tag-paramahansa-yogananda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Books Are Our Friends - In Sweet Company<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/04\/books-are-our-friends.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Books Are Our Friends - In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cGod is not someone who allows things to happen or not happen. 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She speaks and writes about things women care about: how to make our lives and our work be about what we value most; how to navigate challenge and change; how to live with integrity and grace, to look at error in ourselves and others in a forgiving way and view life as an invitation to transform ourselves into instruments for the Greater Good. \"I laughed, I cried, I was silent, I cheered. Most of all, I loved.\" Spoken by a woman at In Sweet Company Retreat, these words express what women experience when Margaret engages them in dynamic, soul-searching conversations about their lives. Margaret holds degrees in art therapy, psychosynthesis, and leadership and human behavior. Her work takes her to universities, to conferences and retreat settings, to living rooms and board rooms -- wherever women gather. Her articles, essays, and stories are featured in numerous magazines; her women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spirituality retreats are held throughout the U.S. Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last book, In \"Sweet Company: Conversations With Extraordinary Women About Living a Spiritual Life\" (Jossey Bass), is a collection of intimate conversations she had with 14 famous women of various ages, faiths, and backgrounds about how their spirituality nourishes them and serves as a steady compass for their decision-making. Olympia Dukakis, Riane Eisler, Zainab Salbi, Margaret Wheatley, Sri Daya Mata, Lauren Artress, and other women artists, activists, religious leaders, and visionary thinkers shared their lives with her. You can too!","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/author\/mwolff"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}