BREAKING
FREE - SRIMALA
RATING:
C
A
rather strange book, I found. The book details the life of an English
woman as she goes through various stages of living her life and how
learning and practicing Buddhism alters her direction. That the
author spent most of their life in England and was sincerely
practicing Buddhism might lead one to assume that my having been born
here, spent a little more than half of my life so far living in
England, and being a serious practitioner of Buddhism would allow me
to find multiple connections. However, I found that there were very
few similarities.
The
actual autobiographical aspect was simple enough to understand, but
the Buddhism it contained was so very different to the Buddhism that
I practice, it was confusing and hard to find any common ground. I
found it more geared towards a Hinayana than Mahayana path, although
apparently it was the latter. Giving one example, the book leads one
to see the practices more as stages one can struggle towards in order
to succeed, rather than stages one naturally reaches due to ones
practice.
I
would recommend the book to those interested in general Buddhism,
English Buddhism, and Western Buddhism - rather than those engrossed
in Dzogchen studies or a developed practice of Tibetan Buddhism. I
would also recommend this book to those who wish to read of how
Buddhism can change ones life in the Western world, and those
interested in reading Buddhist biographies.
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