The Journey of a Buddhist Nun: Even Against the Wind - Book Report/Review Example

The Journey of a Buddhist Nun: Even Against the Wind An extremely touching story narrated by the protagonist himself to the Sid Brown. This story was narrated to the author by a Thai woman named Wabi, who attained nirvana by following the path of Buddhism. Brown met Maechi Wabi, and she agreed to share her tale with him, and thus we got this spectacular book which turned out to be an intense inspiration. The story tells us about the difficulties faced by Wabi to turn into a maechi (Buddhist nun), due to economic, familial and social problems.

The story is more of an epic lesson that teaches undefined determination to attain something. Question 1 Unsatisfied about life From childhood, Wabi was not satisfied with the normal way of living. One day, after returning from a temple with her mother, she realized in herself a desire “to go forth”. After the completion of her sixth grade, the young Wabi was pressurized by crisis of money to work on fields, and help her mother to do household works and also raise her siblings. At the age of sixteen she had a sudden realization of nirvana, and hence forth she had an uncontrollable urge to move away from the normal life and take the noble path pursued by the Buddha.

So, she moved on to pursue the life of meditation, which would finally lead her to enlightment. Real meaning The meaning of the word “to go forth” in terms of Buddhism is to attain renunciation. The decision taken by a person to give up his or her family and social life to take the path of achieving nirvana is said to be renunciation. Gifted individuals There are only a few people in this world who possess the potential required for enlightment. Such people feel depressed and disoriented living in the midst of the society and family members, because what they seek actually is freedom from the general life and a life of grand meditation.

These people go forth to attain nirvana. Tale of “The Enlightened one” Gautama Buddha or as we all know him as “The Enlightened One” followed the path of nirvana finally reaching true enlightment. Buddha or Siddhartha Gautama, as his name was before he got enlightment, was born as a prince, and had received each and every luxury in life. But, he was more interested in following the path of meditation; away from all lively pleasures and ties. He did not like the family ties and social bonding.

He kept to himself, questioning each and every fact of life that is taken for granted by other people. One day he went out of the castle, and saw four visions. The first vision was an old man, then a sick man, the third was of a corpse and the last was of a meditating ascetic. He realized that the four sad but true facts of life, i.e. sickness, aging and death, awaited every human being. But, the fourth site explained to him that trying to find the reason of all these facts of life, will keep him away from these painful facts.

So, at the age of 29, he shaved off all his hair, left all his costly garments, and wore a saffron garment, thereby deciding to go forth. Following Buddhism The path to Buddhism is not very easy to accomplish. Giving up all sorts of worldly ties to seek for enlightment is not an easy task. The path taken up to get nirvana is obscured with a number of difficulties, and that is what the life of Maechi Wabi has been like. The Buddhist nun who gave up her family and social life had to face a number of difficulties before she received enlightment.

Therefore, the story of Maechi Wabi is surely close enough to the great Buddha, as both of them had to face difficulties before reaching their only goal in life. Question 7 Respected woman At the time that maechi Wabi decided to follow the path of Buddhism, the Thai society was exceptionally rigid about women following Buddhism. Therefore, her father took her to Bangkok, and there he left her at a Samnak where she met the owner of the Samnak, maechi Seni. Maechi Seni took her into the Samnak on one condition that she would help to take care of her family, as well as, assists her at the Samnak.

Maechi Wabi agreed to her condition and started living at the Samnak and serving them as well. At the Samnak, there was another woman called Maechi Mina, who did not like the intimacy of Maechi Wabi to Maechi Seni and thus called her a leech that cannot be taken off. Maechi Wabi respected and loved Maechi Seni a lot, but Maechi Mina hated Wabi beyond limit. Distraction in meditation Maechi Wabi stayed at the Samnak of maechi Seni for a very long time. During her stay, she suffered from wasp stings and had to be hospitalized.

At that time Maechi Mina said to her that it serves her right and did not help her. This hurt Wabi a lot as she did not want to have any kind of conflict at the Samnak. This behavior of Mina greatly depressed Wabi, and inside her, a lot of anger boiled up which prevented her to do proper meditation. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t get rid of that exceeding anger inside her. Gift of enlightment Maechi Wabi tried her best to ignore the anger for Maechi Mina, and concentrate on the meditation.

But, she couldn’t attain the entire concentration required for doing a proper meditation. Once during her hard inputs of trial, when she concentrated her best to meditate, she saw visions of hellfire and karma. She saw the reasons for Maechi Mina’s inappropriate behavior and also the results of Karma in previous, as well as, present lives. Thus, maechi Wabi found enlightment and she came to know why people suffered in their present lives and had answer to each suffering o punishment in life.

Lesson well learnt The real life story of Maechi Wabi teaches us that the true and appropriate result of firm determination is always success. Maechi Wabi always wanted to follow the path of nirvana and attain enlightment, and hence she did so. This teaches us that if we are determined to do something, then we must not sit back on facing any difficulties. We should fight through that situation, and achieve our goal with willpower. The story of Maechi Wabi or the Buddhist nun will always be an inspiration for every individual.

Work Cited Sid Brown. “The Journey of One Buddhist Nun: Even Against the Wind”. SUNY Press publishers.