Fire in Our Eyes, Flowers in Our Hearts:
Tantric Women Tell Their Stories
Edited by Jennifer Jayanti Fitzgerald & Marcus Bussey
Fire in Our Eyes, Flowers in Our Hearts is a collection of essays by tantric
women. The stories told here capture the diversity of women’s spiritual
experience exploring the struggles and triumphs of spiritual life. The
emphasis of the book is upon feminine spirituality and the ways in which
women experience and express their spirituality.
Doubt, confusion, and fear mix with joy, love and commitment on the
spiritual path. The stories explore first hand moments of transformation and
insight in a way that is down to earth and real. This is not a cosmetic or
romantic look at spiritual life but a ‘feet on the ground’ appraisal of what
it means to be committed to a spiritual tradition and how the guru-disciple
relationship develops over time in unique and unexpected ways.
The book offers a transcultural glimpse into the spiritual lives of women
from around the world. Their stories give insight into how culture shapes,
directs and defines how we create meaning in our lives. The stories also
cover the experiences of women from their twenties to their seventies
allowing the reader to appreciate women’s concerns, aspirations and
yearnings at all points in their life journey.
The text was originally conceived by Jennifer Jayanti Fitzgerald (1959-2000)
who collected these essays. It is as much her story as she struggled with
cancer and dealt with questions of meaning, value and what really counts
when faced with the end of life. She left us with a snap shot, a glimpse
into the lives of spiritually committed women. Be prepared to be touched,
confronted, inspired and amused by these stories which always lead back to
spiritual reality and the depth of relationships that bind us to the Divine.
Comments about Fire in Our Eyes, Flowers in Our Hearts
Finally! Here is something that gives the remarkable devotion and
dedication of our sisters a deserved space!
Dada Shambhushivananda, Kulapati, Gurukula Vice-Chancellor
I started reading the text and could not put it down at all until the
end. We all read now about the need for the spiritual dimension in our
lives. But this collection of writings brings all of this to the intensely
personal level of specific persons on their
own personal spiritual journeys.
This is a book about people in their most inner work of spirituality not
mere philosophical nostrums. It is so beautifully written and so intensely
personal in their stories.
This collection works so well on many levels.
First, it deals with the potential saviours of our planet- women. We are not
talking about the feminists who want to be like men, that is absurd. It is
about the Yin, female, Shechinah, female aspect in all of us--men and women
alike.
Second, It tells about Tantra. Not about only what it is but how it works in
peoples actual lives during all kinds of life situations.
Third, it tells in personal detail both the passion of the "fire" and the
elegance and beauty of the "flower" in each of us.
Fire in Our Eyes, Flowers in Our Heart is a really powerful
description and witness of how grand ideas work in the lives of real people
in their own personal journeys.
Rabbi Moshe Dror, Bet Yatziv Teacher’s College, Beer Shiva, Israel
To reach a point where one learns to embrace one’s difficulties and
find the bliss beneath all the struggle – Didi Ananda Udaya p168
What a marvellous goal! It seems to me to capture both the essence of the
book and the answer to living a fulfilling, satisfying and useful life.
Every page hits one with this sense of bliss along with the struggles to
which the women have applied themselves and over which they have triumphed .
The stories come from a very different tradition from my accustomed place
but I recognise the signposts! I am impressed, too, with the willingness of
the women to share not only their stories but the inner experiences which
are less easy to relate and often less ‘acceptable’ as narration. I have
often wondered over the years, what untold riches there are of spiritual
experience within the hearts and minds of Christian women that are never
spoken or valued by the community and, perhaps, by the women themselves. I
applaud these women who rejoice in sharing their inner joys and sorrows. It
is wonderful to have current accounts of women’s spiritual journeys and they
can be, must be, appreciated as valid and authentic no matter how different
they are from ‘mainstream’ religion. I guess over the centuries some of the
most ‘shocking’ and authentic women’s spiritual writings have come from
groups outside of the recognised and ‘acceptable’ paths.
The book is itself a signpost and one I hope many people have a chance to
see. It is inspirational, real, and very touching. I have a particular view
(which may have come from a Buddhist women I read years ago, don’t remember)
that I recommend to the women with whom I pray, that we do well to remember
whenever we meditate or pray that there are people all over the world,
dedicated to peace, love, silence, who pray and meditate with devotion in
whatever tradition – or none - and that each time we do, we consciously
place ourselves within that vast throng. I am moved by the thought that we,
through the silence, share with the women who contributed to this book, and
those who have gone before them, with whom we still are one.
Josephine Griffiths, Anglican (Episcopal) Theologian, Life Skills Coach and
Spiritual Mentor, and author of Reclaiming of Wisdom: the Restoration of
the Feminine in Christianity
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