Book Review by Valerie Lawson - The Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney, Australia
Monday, May 22, 2006
Title: My Nine Lives
Author: Diane Cilento
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 522
RRP: $49.95
After putting life as Mrs 007 behind her, Diane Cilento set off to find meaning in her life. Like an agile cat, Diane Cilento sees her life as a journey through nine lucky lives. But her autobiography can be more neatly divided into two: before and after Sean Connery.
Before is the sensual half: men fall at the feet of the frisky Aussie actress. After is the esoteric half: Cilento becomes the hero of her own story, searching for meaning through spiritual experimentation. Already intrigued by Buddhism, she embraces Sufism for a sense of purpose.
The division took place about 1970 when she knew "I could not live the rest of my life in the shadow of 007". Soon after, she stumbled upon In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching by P.D. Ouspensky. She barely understood it then, but the book became a key that opened a door to the second part of her life. Ouspensky had written of his studies with the mysterious Russian, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, a guru and philosopher and, some have said, a charming charlatan.
Following in their wake was the British intellectual, J.C. Bennett - who, in turn, became Cilento's guru and whose ideas she finally adapted into running her Karnak Playhouse within the Daintree National Park from the 1980s.
At 72, Cilento marches on, still feeling like a child, yet knowing she is "old", and still looking for Mecca, literally. Her book, which begins poetically with her early life at Mooloolaba, ends equally serenely, with her journey last year to Mecca.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
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Tuesday, October 31, 2006
My Nine Lives: from Stage to Sufism
Book Review by Valerie Lawson - The Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney, Australia
Monday, May 22, 2006
Title: My Nine Lives
Author: Diane Cilento
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 522
RRP: $49.95
After putting life as Mrs 007 behind her, Diane Cilento set off to find meaning in her life. Like an agile cat, Diane Cilento sees her life as a journey through nine lucky lives. But her autobiography can be more neatly divided into two: before and after Sean Connery.
Before is the sensual half: men fall at the feet of the frisky Aussie actress. After is the esoteric half: Cilento becomes the hero of her own story, searching for meaning through spiritual experimentation. Already intrigued by Buddhism, she embraces Sufism for a sense of purpose.
The division took place about 1970 when she knew "I could not live the rest of my life in the shadow of 007". Soon after, she stumbled upon In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching by P.D. Ouspensky. She barely understood it then, but the book became a key that opened a door to the second part of her life. Ouspensky had written of his studies with the mysterious Russian, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, a guru and philosopher and, some have said, a charming charlatan.
Following in their wake was the British intellectual, J.C. Bennett - who, in turn, became Cilento's guru and whose ideas she finally adapted into running her Karnak Playhouse within the Daintree National Park from the 1980s.
At 72, Cilento marches on, still feeling like a child, yet knowing she is "old", and still looking for Mecca, literally. Her book, which begins poetically with her early life at Mooloolaba, ends equally serenely, with her journey last year to Mecca.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Title: My Nine Lives
Author: Diane Cilento
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 522
RRP: $49.95
After putting life as Mrs 007 behind her, Diane Cilento set off to find meaning in her life. Like an agile cat, Diane Cilento sees her life as a journey through nine lucky lives. But her autobiography can be more neatly divided into two: before and after Sean Connery.
Before is the sensual half: men fall at the feet of the frisky Aussie actress. After is the esoteric half: Cilento becomes the hero of her own story, searching for meaning through spiritual experimentation. Already intrigued by Buddhism, she embraces Sufism for a sense of purpose.
The division took place about 1970 when she knew "I could not live the rest of my life in the shadow of 007". Soon after, she stumbled upon In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching by P.D. Ouspensky. She barely understood it then, but the book became a key that opened a door to the second part of her life. Ouspensky had written of his studies with the mysterious Russian, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, a guru and philosopher and, some have said, a charming charlatan.
Following in their wake was the British intellectual, J.C. Bennett - who, in turn, became Cilento's guru and whose ideas she finally adapted into running her Karnak Playhouse within the Daintree National Park from the 1980s.
At 72, Cilento marches on, still feeling like a child, yet knowing she is "old", and still looking for Mecca, literally. Her book, which begins poetically with her early life at Mooloolaba, ends equally serenely, with her journey last year to Mecca.
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