{"product_id":"the-buddha-from-brooklyn-9780679452751","title":"The Buddha from Brooklyn","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1985  Catharine Burroughs was a Maryland housewife with two childrenand two failed marriages behind herrunning a New Age prayer group in her basement. Out of the blue  a monastery in India for which she had raised some money contacted Burroughs and asked her to host His Holiness Penor Rinpoche  one of the highest-ranking lamas of Tibetan Buddhism  on his first visit to America. After meeting Burroughs  and observing her and her followers for a period of five days  he told her that she was a \"great  great bodhisattva \" and already  unbeknownst to her  practicing Buddhism. Later  in India  he officially recognized this Jewish-Italian woman from Brooklyn as the reincarnation of a sixteenth-century Ti-betan saint  making her the first American woman to be named a tulku  or reborn lama.  The Buddha from Brooklyn tells the complex and fascinating story of how Catharine Burroughs  now known as Jetsunma Ahkn Lhamo  embarked on a journey to build the largest Tibetan Buddhist center in America. With boundless enthusiasm but precious little formal training in Buddhist practices and traditions  Jetsunma and her students bought an estate in Poolesville  Maryland  on the outskirts of Washington  D.C.  and founded Kunzang Palyul Choling (Fully Awakened Dharma Continent of Absolute Clear Light). Under Jetsunmas tutelage  the group memorized sacred texts and held all-night prayer vigils. They asked venerable Tibetan lamas to visit and give them \"empowerments.\" Many took Buddhist vows and became monks and nuns. And as word of this remarkable place spread  others came to see the new lama for themselves and joined her community.  Martha Sherrill  a writer at The Washington Post  heard about Jetsunma in 1993. She visited the center and was charmed by both its charismatic lama  the only Western woman in the male-dominated hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhism  and by the monks and nuns (all Americans) living there. They seemed  for the most part  like a remarkably happy group of people whose lives had been transformed by this exotic  imported faithand by Jetsunma. At the beginning of The Buddha from Brooklyn  as the group is breaking ground for a sacred monument called a stupa  Sherrill commences her own journey to discover for herself what makes this unlikely lamawho enjoys clothes shopping and manicures  Motown music and Star Trek rerunssuch a magnetic spiritual leader. And as the story unfolds  so do the secrets of this seemingly idyllic sanctuary.  Compassionate and clear-eyed  Sherrill takes her readers on a breathtaking exploration inside the monastery at Poolesville  a place where idealistic but flawed human beings struggle with their devotion every day. She demystifies monastic life and Tibetan Buddhism  and amends the simplified view that most Americans have of this 2 500-year-old faith. Weaving together the stories of the believers into a narrative structure that is as moving and beautiful as the stupa they are building  Sherrill has created a brilliant work of investigative journalism that raises profound  provocative questions about religious faith and its price. The Buddha from Brooklyn is a monument to the miracles and failures that stem from the deepest human longings.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648019980341,"sku":"ByrdShop_0679452753","price":20.38,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780679452751.jpg?v=1781706758","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-buddha-from-brooklyn-9780679452751","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}