About the Book
A spiritual memoir both timeless and contemporary, Ma and Me invites us to follow the author into ever deeper waters. We meet him as a young Oxford Don who studies the classics of many mystical traditions, but remains hungry for more. We accompany him through his own opening awareness, then through an apprenticeship with an unconventional guru, and into his own reckoning with illness and early death. We follow him willingly because of his rare honesty, humor, and love, while he reminds us that a seeker's life, in our own time, still rhymes with the lives and teachings of the great teachers and mystics of all times.
About the Author :
Dr. Thomas B. "Billy" Byrom (1941-1991) earned his Master's degree in English Literature at Bailol College, Oxford University, and his PhD at Harvard. He taught at Harvard, Bennington, and Oxford, where he held the J.R.R Tolkein chair in English Language and Literature.His life changed dramatically when he met his guru, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, in 1974. Billy had studied the great mystics of many traditions, but now he was face to face with a genuine modern mystic who quickly set him on a path of direct experience. After some hesitation, he committed to what he calls his "apprenticeship." Besides absorbing spiritual practices, he assisted Ma Jaya in developing a spiritual community, founding a school, developing AIDS service organizations, engaging in interfaith networking, and supporting her work as an author and artist.He is the author of published books including Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha, and The Heart of Awareness: A Translation of the Ashtavakra Gita, a classic of nondualistic Indian philosophy. At his death he was working on a translation of the Katha Upanishad to be entitled The Third Wish: The Disquisition of Death.Billy often accompanied Ma Jaya in her work with people with AIDS. She taught about AIDS internationally, and offered deep and personal teachings to thousands who were dying. Meanwhile, he was facing his own diagnosis of terminal leukemia. He died at Kashi Ashram, with Ma Jaya by his side.
Review :
At its great and spacious heart, Ma and Me is a love song-a messy, chaotic, raucous, rhapsodic, lovely, lush, deep, noisy, still love song. It is a sacred river flowing with and into the heart of love-a song of love between a seeker, his guru and the world; between his guru and her Christ; between the Mother and all that is. There is nothing easy about this love song. It demands we ignite the fl ame of our truest selves, embrace fear and death, and, if we're wildly, chaotically diligent, cross over to Life, where we might be blessed to discover Love's eternal embrace.
- The Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs, Founding Executive Director Emeritus, United Religions Initiative
Like a book of matches, Ma and Me by Thomas Byrom has the power to set you on fire, to challenge and inspire you to ignite the flame of your truest self. At its great and spacious heart, it is a love song-a messy, chaotic, raucous, rhapsodic, lovely, lush, deep, noisy, still love song. It is a relentless storm. It is a sacred river flowing with and into the heart of love-a love for self, for the Mother, for everyone and everything, because there is only One. This is a song of love between a seeker, his guru, and the world, especially the natural world; between his guru and her Christ; between the Mother and all that is. There is nothing easy about this love song. It demands we walk the journey of surrender, embrace fear and death, and, if we're wildly, chaotically diligent, cross over to Life, where we might be blessed to discover Christ, Hanuman, and Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati with arms and hearts wide open to welcome us into Love's eternal embrace.-Snatam Kaur, Musician, Teacher of Kundalini Yoga and Sacred SoundWorked with religious, spiritual leaders throughout the world
Billy (Thomas Byrom) and I became friends in the late 1980s, when I met Ma during her visits to California to work with people who were HIV+. We never met in the flesh, but we clicked through messages and letters-we had a shared background and a parallel reaction to Ma: she crashed through our lives that were filled with books, but also with death, bringing us life in a chaotic, lively, loving form we hadn't experienced elsewhere. Byrom's fine translations of spiritual texts-the Dhammapada and the Ashtavakra Gita-are still among the best for both these famous works; he knew not only the languages and the cultures behind them, but he understood their most important messages. He thus did something not many can-he used his learning and intelligence as vessels to lead to spiritual growth, rather than for their own sakes. Ma and Me is his story of how an intelligent man falls toward illness and death, and discovers the perfect teacher-Ma Jaya, who was full of the life and joy he so needed. -Dr. Paul G. Antinello Jungian psychoanalyst, Senior lecturer in music at Newcastle University UK
