Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun

As a biracial child of a struggling, single mother in a remote Washington state farming community populated almost entirely by white farmers, their families and their Mexican employees, Faith Adiele became familiar very early in life with race and class differences. In high school, as part of cultural-exchange programs, she visited Mexico and Thailand. In both countries, her experiences fueled her growing outspokenness on issues of race, poverty, and women's rights. A bright child and a gifted student, Adiele found her way paved way to Harvard but as her university career began was struggling with a ferocious set of personal demons. She discovered quickly that her own biracial background and rural upbringing made her experience of being an African-American utterly unlike that of her black classmates. "My entire identity was in opposition to what was around me," she says of those days. "I didn't have the tools to dissect what was going on in this very segregated community." Scared, exhausted and unmotivated, she found herself enrolling in a study-abroad program sponsored by the University of Washington, making her second visit to Thailand to develop a sociology project studying Buddhist nuns. Once there, she made an almost spur-of-the-moment decision to undergo ordination herself, but for scholarly rather than religious reasons: she wanted to experience the nuns' lifestyle firsthand. Doing so, she hoped, would allow her to "challenge traditional anthropological methodology and understand the women I was presuming to write about." Adiele, a Unitarian who had never before meditated, would later write: "Only after ordaining did I discover -- to my horror -- that I'd chosen to reside in an intensive meditation retreat," meaning that she could expect to spend up to 19 hours a day in contemplative activities. Bald and browless -- like many Buddhist nuns, she was required to shave off the trappings of vanity -- she spent two months in a forest temple, learning the intricacies of purposeful, mindful, seemingly simple living. She rose at 3:30 each morning, donned a heavy, full-length white robe, spent long hours in silent sitting and walking meditation sessions, and got by on a single, pre-noon daily meal of rice and vegetables. The adjustment was a huge struggle for Adiele's very young and, as she puts it, very Western mind and body. Despite the emotionally and physically unsettling process of settling into monastic life, Adiele found that her time in Thailand offered a peculiar kind of respite. In a place that, in those days, had limited exposure to African Americans, she was merely "different," rather than the target of preconceptions based on race. Most importantly, she discovered that spiritual practice, with its conflicts and struggles, means moving toward self-awareness and inner peace. These lessons, she says, strengthened her resolve to work against racism and sexism. "When I read about the Buddhist quest, I realized that it was also the

As I also grew up in a small town in the Northwest, find Buddhism intriguing and challenging, and detest creepy crawlies, I was captivated by this memoir. Ms. Adiele is braver and more adventurous than I, both spiritually and gustatorily, but she communicates her humanness with such wit and style that I was delighted to be on this journey with her. I recommend her book most highly.

I learned so much from this book--not only about the Buddhist traditions of Thailand and the forest temple where Ms. Adiele stayed, which was fascinating to me, but about how one young American approached the ideas of race, culture, self and spirituality in an unfamiliar setting.The book's gorgeous design also lends to its power. A fantastic book.

This was a great book about a young woman trying to find herself in today's complicated world. She chooses to ordain as a Buddhist nun in order to do this. The book is not about Buddhism as the title suggests, it is about Faith and how she discovers herself and where she wants to go and what she wants to do with her life. She is a very interesting writer and her style pulls you into the book on the very first page. Sometimes funny and sometimes sad but captivating all the way through.

Though I'm not a Buddhist, it's a topic that fascinates me, and Faith's memoir provided a riveting and highly accessible introduction to what it means to live as a Buddhist. I thought the book's format, which weaves in quotations from an amazing array of scholars and commentators, was fantastic -- very engaging and personal. The book was full of insights and surprises. Best of all, the author has a wry and appealing sense of humor about her odyssey in Thailand -- and, more broadly, about the universal quest to find spiritual fulfillment.