Joanna’s Reviews > Eat, Pray, Love > Status Update

'The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Clearing out all your misery GETS YOU OUT OF THE WAT. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people.'

(The word AMOK, as in "running amok" is a Balinese word, describing a battle technique of suddenly going insanely wild against one's enemies in suicidal and bloody hand-to-hand combat; the Europeans were frankly terrified by this practice.)

'...hobo (which is short for "homeward bound," you know)...

The Yogic scriptures say that God responds to the sacred prayers and efforts of human beings IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER that mortals choose to worship- just so long as those prayers are sincere.

CIAO...an abbreviation of a phrase used by medieval Venetians as an intimate salutation: "Sono il suo Schiavo!" Meaning "I am your slave!"

'The Augusteum warns me not to get attached to any obsolete ideas about who I am, what I represent, whom I belong to, or what function I may once have intended to serve. Yesterday I might have been a glorious monument to somebody...tomorrow I could be a fireworks depository...one must always be prepared for riotous and endless waves of transformation.'

'...I can't swallow that one fixed rule of Christianity insisting that Christ is the ONLY path to God.'

(On God) '...it seems only fair that I pause here for a moment to explain exactly what I mean when I say that word, just so people can decide right away how offended they need to get.'