The Journey of One Buddhist Nun: Even Against the Wind

By Sid Brown

Book Overview

Recounts the struggles of a young Thai woman to become a Buddhist nun and the challenges and rewards of that life.

The gripping story of Wabi, a young Thai woman who sought a religious life, The Journey of One Buddhist Nun recounts her struggle to overcome the numerous obstacles along her path. Wabi left her rural village at 17 to become a Buddhist nun in a land where religious men are honored and religious women are scorned. Despite these conditions, Wabi wanted to study Buddhism, to meditate, and to develop a profoundly religious life. She traveled to a monastery in Bangkok, where she heard she might be able to pursue her dream, but upon arrival found she needed money to become a nun-money she didn't have. Moving from difficulty to difficulty, Wabi finally found a home at a convent of Buddhist nuns, where she gained close friends, an education, and a vibrant meditation practice.

As Wabi's life unfolds on the pages of The Journey of One Buddhist Nun, readers are introduced to the background needed to understand Buddhism, Thai culture, the particular impediments women face in Southeast Asia, and the rewards of a deeply spiritual life. Buddhist philosophy, texts, and meditation techniques come alive as we learn the roles each played in Wabi's life. Western readers will be particularly interested in the description of Wabi's vivid, formative meditation experiences.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791450961
• ISBN13: 9780791450963
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.6"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A beautiful book

This is truly a wonderful and insightful book. There is simply not enough written about Buddhist nuns and the nun's or woman's point of view. Another great book that I highly recommend is "Women Living Zen" by Paul Kane Robinson Arai.

A compelling narrative

I love this book. Its core is a riveting spiritual biography of a single modern Thai nun, but the focus of the book gradually widens to include other nuns and then the situation of nuns in Thailand generally. Thematically, it is strikingly similar to Sallie King's Journey in Search of the Way, despite the obvious difference that the latter is a translation of and commentary on a spiritual autobiography. The sameness is that they are both vivid accounts of modern Asian women undergoing profound spiritual experience that take them into the territorial preserves of patriarchal Buddhist institutions. I don't know Sid Brown, but she can count me as a fan.

A response to Dandelion's review

This is not an autobiography...simply a biography. Sid is very insightful and quite the inspiring woman herself. I can't wait for another book.