Books by Joan Tollifson

This exuberant and amazing testament is the story of a woman born with only one hand. She grows up feeling different, discovers her lesbianism and bisexuality amid the tumultuous sixties, sinks into alcoholism and drug addiction, and eventually bottoms out. She finds meaning as a political and disability rights activist, and eventually embraces first Zen Buddhism and then a very bare-bones form of spirituality which indeed has no form. Joan Tollifson describes meditation as "moment-to-moment presence that excludes nothing and sticks to nothing". Here is spiritual work happening right in the middle of everyday American life with all its complexity and ambiguities - ordinary, messy, and accessible to everyone. Bare-Bones Meditation reveals the inner process of the mind in a way that hasn't been done before, and Tollifson's account is beautifully written - unbuttoned, intense, and from the heart.

This book points relentlessly to what is most obvious and impossible to avoid, the ever-present, ever-changing, nonconceptual actuality of the present moment that is effortlessly presenting itself right now. The book is an invitation to wake up from commonplace misconceptions and to see through the imaginary separate self at the root of our human suffering and confusion. Nothing to Grasp is a celebration of what is, exactly as it is.