The Book With 8 Titles

Meandering from anecdotes - of the author's fellow group members and their reclusive spiritual "advisor" Ella - to reflections, musings, and meditations, the Book With 8 titles is a seeker's amuse-bouche - a small, refreshing palate cleanser between laborious striving and effortless arriving. Ella is not her real name. It is the name she suggested the author use for her in the book. Permission was received from all members of the group for any stories told. In person, Ella addresses everyone by their first name.For the book (in order to maintain confidentiality) she suggested the following titles: :

The Musician 

The Chef

St. Bernard (works for street rescue helping homeless and addicted)

The Dealer (specializes in buying and reselling one particular highly collected item) 

The Barrister (a corporate attorney)

The Journalist (the authorf, because I always take more notes than anyone else, and, I suppose, because I am writing this book)

The Driver (drives a truck for a well-known national delivery service) 

The Comedian (a nationally known celebrity. Not publicly known as a comedian, but certainly one within our group).

The group meets with Ella for or five times a year. Members have no contact with her except at those meetings. Five live in the Western U.S., one in the Midwest, and two on the East Coast. The Book With 8 Titles aims to amuse, provoke, and above all put forward Ella's key teaching re meditation and spiritual seeking: Find what works for you (instead of doggedly pursuing specific rituals and practices that might be perfect for someone else but a toxic waste of time given your personality's needs and more efficient ways of getting to bliss). Or spaciousness. Or whatever you want to call it once you get there. If you are still speaking.