Journey to Mindfulness: The Autobiography of Bhante G.

Rating:
Summary: A Real Gem
Review: This is the story of a Buddhist monk who was born and raised in poverty in Sri Lanka, and through dedication to the teachings of the Buddha became one of the great figures in Buddhism in the United States and the world today. This is an inspirational, charming and delightfully accessible book about a good life, well lived. However, for anyone who expects to find a story full of easy living and religious perfection, this is not the place to come! Buddhist institutions are made of people, and those people are subject to the same anger, fear, pride and jealousy as anyone else is. Bhante tells many stories of his difficulties with entrenched Buddhist institutions. There is no perfection there.

Despite the fact that this is a kind of life that very few of us can relate to, so much of it is terribly familiar. Part of the beauty of this book is that it shows that we are all not so very different, that in the end we are all people, we all have problems, and that we all face the same challenges as human beings. The main reason that I love this book, however, is that what we are left with is the image of a good man who has lived an extraordinary life, but that this kind of life is within reach of all of us. Bhante G. does not, in the end, seem like a religious icon, so much as he seems like the better person in all of us.