When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening - Softcover

Frazier, Jan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1578634008 ISBN 13: 9781578634002

Publisher: Weiser Books, 2007

Synopsis

In August 2003, virtually overnight, Jan Frazier experienced "a dramatic falling away of fear"--not just the immediate fear of her annual medical test but, as she learned as time went on, her fear of everything. She was "flooded with a causeless joy that has never left me." In this book the commonplace belief that enlightenment is only for saints comes apart at the seams. Anyone can be enlightened, and all we need to do is ask. * This rare and beautiful account puts Jan Frazier solidly in the tradition of enlightened teachers from J. Krishnamurti to Byron Katie. * Guns and money aren't going to buy peace of mind. Giving up fear is.

About this title

About the Author:

Jan Frazier is a creative-writing teacher and mother of two adolescents. Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Yankee, Cimarron Review, and the Minnesota Review, and her poetry collection was published in 2003 by Pudding House. She resides in rural western Massachusetts.

From Publishers Weekly:

The summer she turned 50, Frazier suddenly lost the nearly crippling fear that had plagued her for decades. In its place came love, tears, laughter, ecstasy, delight, bliss, understanding and, eventually, an unshakable "undercurrent of fundamental contentment." This book, she says, is not self-help but a "testimony to a life transformed" and a promise that her experience is open to all. Frazier, a poet, knows how to turn a phrase, but her dated commentary, covering 18 months beginning in August 2003, often evokes the self-absorption and inchoate emotion of an adolescent's diary: "Every single thing I do is a total blast. It's like being stoned, only it's entirely clearheaded." Interspersed with celebratory journal entries are lyrical descriptions of her worshipful encounters with Gurumayi, the controversial "perfected master" whose Siddha Yoga mantra is translated "I bow to my inner Self, who is God." Some readers may find Frazier's unremitting attention to her emotional state tedious, if occasionally worrisome ("I expend a lot of energy to keep from whirling in circles with my arms out to the sides"), while others will perceive deep wisdom in her awakened realization "that being released from fear was independent of being released from bad things happening." (May)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Weiser Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1578634008
• ISBN 13: 9781578634002
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 201