Born with only one hand, Joan Tollifson grows up feeling different. She comes out as a lesbian in the tumultuous 1960's, sinks into alcoholism and drug abuse, sobers up in 1973, becomes a political activist, embraces Zen Buddhism and then a very bare-bones spirituality that has no fixed form or tradition, and spends a number of years living and working at a rural meditation retreat center. Bare-Bones Meditation reveals the inner process of the mind in a new way, and Tollifson's account is beautifully written--intense and from the heart.

Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life

Biographies & Memoirs

Tollifson, Joan

Community & Culture

Harmony/Rodale

Awake in the Heartland offers clear non-dual understanding, not in the abstract, but grounded in the actuality of daily life with all its messiness, complexity, uncertainty, paradox, and apparent imperfection. If there seems to be a gap between what the enlightenment books describe and what you find in your own life, if you still think enlightenment is something that will happen to "you" someday in the future (or not at all), if you're still chasing spiritual experiences or self-improvement, then this book may be just what you need to wake up to the truth that what you are seeking is Here / Now. It cannot be attained, nor can it be lost, and it belongs to no one. Awake in the Heartland takes a fresh look at questions of addiction, free will, good and evil, authority, and identity. It encourages the reader to look for themselves without clinging to old opinions or relying on outside authorities. Honest, funny, and profound, this is a book that invites you to discover who or what you really are.

Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is

Self-Help

Personal Transformation

Non-Duality

These lively talks and dialogs are about seeing through the illusion of separation and waking up to the boundless wholeness that is all there is. Joan's approach is open and explorative, questioning all attempts to conceptually grasp and frame the movement of life. She talks about seeing through the stories and beliefs that create our human suffering and waking up to the simplicity of what is. This book beautifully dissolves the apparent dichotomy between the uncompromising "this is it, just as it is" message of radical nonduality and the emphasis on "being here now" that is found in many meditation teachings. Joan has an affinity with Buddhism, Advaita and radical nonduality, but she belongs to no tradition. In these talks and dialogs, she takes on such perennial questions as, Is there a way out of personal and global suffering? Can we choose to stop addictive and destructive patterns? Does being awake take effort, vigilance and practice, or is it effortlessly and unavoidably always already the case? What happens when we die?

Painting the Sidewalk with Water: Talks and Dialogs About Nonduality

Religion & Spirituality

New Age & Spirituality

This edition from Trafford Publishing is an old, discontinued edition that is no longer in print. It was never published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, as it says. The binding and cover photo on this old edition are of very poor quality, and the author still has not received all royalties due from this publisher. The author recommends that people purchase only the edition(s) published by Nonduality Press (now an imprint of New Harbinger) starting in 2006. See separate listing for that. The main text itself is the same in all editions, although there have been several different forewords and afterwords, and a few typos in the Trafford original have since been corrected. Please look for and buy the Nonduality Press / New Harbinger editions.

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

SOUNDS TRUE.

A new edition with an updated Preface and Afterword for 2022. Awake in the Heartland offers clear non-dual understanding, not in the abstract, but grounded in the actuality of daily life with all its messiness, complexity, uncertainty, paradox, and apparent imperfection. If there seems to be a gap between what the enlightenment books describe and what you find in your own life, if you still think enlightenment is something that will happen to you in the future (or not at all), if you're still chasing experiences or self-improvement, then this book may be just what you need to wake up to the truth that what you are seeking is already here. Awake in the Heartland takes a fresh look at questions of addiction, free will, good and evil, authority, and identity. It encourages the reader to look for themselves without clinging to old opinions or relying on outside authorities. Honest, funny, and profound, this is a book that invites you to discover who or what you really are.

New Sarum Press

These lively talks and dialogs are about seeing through the illusion of separation and waking up to the boundless wholeness that is all there is. They take on perennial questions such as: Who am I? Is there a way out of personal and global suffering? Can we choose to stop addictive and destructive patterns? What does it mean to be awake? What is enlightenment? Does waking up take effort, vigilance and practice, or is it effortlessly and unavoidably always already the case? What happens when we die? Joan questions all attempts to conceptually grasp and frame the movement of life, and she points to what remains when everything that can be doubted drops away. She talks about seeing through the stories and beliefs that create our human suffering and waking up to the simplicity of what is, as it is -- the ever-present, ever-changing seamlessness of being.\nJoan’s approach is open and explorative, not methodical or dogmatic. For those struggling to reconcile the emphasis on "being here now" in some teachings with the uncompromising "this is it, just as it is" message of radical nonduality, Joan brings them together beautifully. With subtlety and humor, these talks reveal the perfection in apparent imperfection, the extraordinary in what appears most ordinary, and the freedom of being what you can't not be.

Painting the Sidewalk with Water: Talks and Dialogs about Nonduality

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Alternative Medicine

This book points relentlessly to what is most obvious and impossible to avoid: the ever-present, ever-changing, nonconceptual actuality of the present moment that is effortlessly presenting itself right now. This book is an invitation to wake up from commonplace misconceptions and to see through the imaginary separate self at the root of our human suffering and confusion. Nothing to Grasp is a celebration of what is, exactly as it is.

Nothing to Grasp

This book celebrates the great stripping process of aging, dying and spiritual awakening. Beautiful, poignant, at times humorous, transcendent, messy, down to earth, refreshingly honest—the book explores death, and more importantly, being alive, through a rich mix of personal stories and spiritual reflections.
Joan writes about her mother’s final years and about being with friends and teachers at the end of their lives. She shares her own journey with aging, anal cancer, and other life challenges. She explores what it means to be alive in what may be the collapse of civilization and the possible extinction of life on earth due to climate change.
Pointing beyond deficiency stories, future fantasies, and oppressive self-improvement projects, Joan invites an awakening to the immediacy of this moment and the wonder of ordinary life. She demonstrates a pathless path of genuine transformation, seeing all of life as sacred and worthy of devotion, and finding joy in the full range of our human experience.

Death: The End of Self-Improvement

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

20 Multifaceted Lives, 20 Unique Stories. There is the possibility in every human life when for an instant the illusion of existing as a separate entity simply vanishes. A veil is lifted and somehow, miraculously, all of life is experienced as one seamless unified reality, and you recognize without a doubt that the truth of who you are is this one reality. Never again can you truly deny that not only are you intimately connected with every human heart and with all of life, in truth you are the fabric of life itself.

The Journey Home: Discovering the Essential Self

Macpherson, Miranda

Woodyard, Vicki

In the Garden Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tollifson, Joan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Tollifson, Joan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tollifson, Joan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life

Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is

Painting the Sidewalk with Water: Talks and Dialogs About Nonduality

Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is

Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life

Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is

Painting the Sidewalk with Water: Talks and Dialogs about Nonduality

Nothing to Grasp

Death: The End of Self-Improvement

The Journey Home: Discovering the Essential Self