Between Heaven and Earth: The Contact, the Initiation

Rating:
Summary: seizing the opportunity
Review: 'Between Heaven and Earth' is the story of a process of personal growth and development. But unlike the sentimental kind of 'growth' so often talked about in Self Development literature, it is a process that leads the author away from fixed ideas, shallow thinking and dependency and pushes him towards greater capacity, positivity and autonomy. And that 'pushing' forms the tenor of this book - Marco Santello's encounter with a remarkable 'teacher of life', Alfredo, is by turns challenging, uncomfortable, perplexing, humorous and deadly serious. But ultimately the process is liberating - freeing him to be the person he has it within himself to be; freeing him from the burden of a lifetime's intellectual and emotional baggage.

'Between Heaven and Earth' begins with an extraordinary sequence of events that brings the young Santello into contact with the ancient tradition of the Sufis. Visiting the city of Konya in the heart of Anatolia, tomb of the great Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi, he meets an enigmatic figure who appears to be waiting for him. "Between Heaven and Earth there are possibilities. There is assistance, and there is opportunity... possibilities... look for them with a sincere heart, and you will find them", he is told. Little does he suspect that the possibilities that will open up for him, the opportunity presented by a contemporary teaching master, will be in the midst of his home town of San Benedetto del Tronto on the Adriatic coast of Italy.

But 'Between Heaven and Earth' isn't just Marco's story. It is also the story of his sister Mariella who, caught in the terrifying King's Cross fire and suffering 42% burns, is given 'assistance' to survive and overcome her ordeal. Like Marco, Mariella comes to find in Alfredo's teaching a deep resonance and purpose that transforms her life.

Alfredo tells Santello that "Each type of book feeds and develops different organs of perception, but true books should be 'eaten', not understood". This is indeed a book to be 'eaten', full of nutrition for those of us who have searched for years for a true, comprehensive and balanced path of development. And it's a 'meal' richly infused with the flavour of Alfredo's teaching: robust, subtle and deeply insightful but never mushy or dogmatic. This flavour will taste strikingly familiar to anyone who knows, for instance, Rafael Lefort's 'The Teachers of Gurdjieff' or Idries Shah's 'The Sufis'.

Rating:
Summary: Give yourself the chance of opening the door !!!
Review: All my life I have been asking my self about the reason of our existence in the world. This book strongly shaked my soul from the first of the many times I have read it. It is as if it listens to what I think or what I ask for. I was perplexed by the fact that each time I asked a question or had a thought about anything related to my search, the answer was in the next page. It was like having an animated object, with the form of a book, ready to talk with me in person.
When I finally found that the afterword said "this book is not to be read but to be eaten" I understood that this was the way of feeding my hunger for answers. The nourishment that I have obtained in this path with a Teacher of Truth, has been incrementally distributed in each of my multidimensional body cells. I recommend this book as an experience of the joy of recognizing yourself, knowing that "There exists the Assistance... There exists the Opportunity".

Rating:
Summary: Seekers of the Truth
Review: Are you a true seeker of the Truth?
If so, this is the right book for you!
Are you searching for a real, living and operating Master of today? If so, the contents of this book will serve their purpose.
If you have always been searching for a spiritual Path, this book will definitely change you and your life... for the better and for good...
This book is to be eaten, it is real food for the hungry soul, tired of looking for existential answers, empty and ready to be filled with Knowledge, Light and Self-Understanding...
Experience this book with the whole of you and try not to think... read it with your Heart, the one to be re-connected... soon...

Rating:
Summary: For anyone in search of meaning
Review: Having spent many years being lost i've been finally given the gift of direction. Far and beyond the chicken soup for the soul...this book will take you on a journey to that place in your soul where there is great love, warmth, feeling and forgiveness. and it will change you.