From Publishers Weekly
Raised in segregated Alabama, as an adult Willis journeyed to the monasteries of Kathmandu. In this memoir, she remembers the segregated South of the 1950s and 1960s. She lets readers travel back with her: growing up with TV channels that had "trouble along the cable" whenever a black performer appeared, avoiding getting swatted by the spirited "shouters" in her church or marching with Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham. She takes readers inside the Cornell black students' protests of the late 1960s and reveals the temptations of the Black Panthers. Ultimately she chose inner peace over carrying a piece: it was the Buddhist path, which acknowledged suffering but focused on healing, that won her heart. While her Tibetan mentor, Lama Yeshe, had no personal experience with American racism, he saw his student's wounded self-esteem and helped her cope with her perfectionism. Willis returned to America, becoming one of the first tenured Buddhist scholars in academia (she is currently a professor of religious studies at Wesleyan University). Although she recounts several difficult experiences from her early days as an African-American professor and practicing Buddhist, Willis is strong. She realizes that the Baptist she was raised to be and the Buddhist she has become share basic beliefs: "We are all human beings... all wish to have happiness and to avoid suffering." (Apr.)Forecast: Hailed by Time magazine as one of the top innovators in religion for the new millennium, Willis delivers a gripping, intimate account of her spiritual journey that will move anyone who is compelled by the examined life. The Buddhist audience will discover her through an upcoming book excerpt in Tricycle, but with a whisper to Oprah, she could be the first African-American Buddhist feminist guru to be embraced by reading groups across America.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Destined for the same shelf as Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies and Kathleen Norris's The Cloister Walk and Amazing Grace, this is a powerful memoir of a "Baptist Buddhist" who writes with courage, compassion, and forgiveness. Like Lamott and Norris, Willis (religion, Wesleyan Univ.; Enlightened Beings, The Diamond Light) did not find her faith in the "easy way." Born into a "colored" Baptist family in Birmingham, AL, during the 1950s, Willis was subjected to hatred and humiliation firsthand. One of her earliest memories is of watching her mother stand behind a door with a loaded gun to protect her daughters as the Klan burned a cross on the family's lawn. The most heart-breaking scene is of Willis's father, who also loved learning, running away to the closest black college, camping out because he had no money, and being forced to go home because there were no jobs for educated blacks. A lesser spirit might have given up, but Willis followed her conscience, marching with Dr. King in Birmingham and opting to attend an Ivy League university. Eventually, her choices led her to rendezvous with both the Black Panthers and Buddhists in India. This searching memoir is recommended for all collections. Pam Kingsbury, Florence, AL Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
A self-described Baptist-Buddhist, Willis relates her fascinating personal journey from a small Alabama mining town to a life of teaching and writing about Buddhism. She took the first opportunity to leave behind the racism and poverty of her childhood. A student activist at Cornell University, she participated in demonstrations against war and racism, and she gravitated to Buddhism as a means of learning to overcome the anger, bitterness, and fear engendered by racial injustice. Eventually she had to choose between joining the Black Panther Party or studying Buddhism in India. She chose India and also Nepal, studying with a Tibetan master who taught her to recognize within herself the capability to respond to violence with violence and to reconcile those impulses with the desire to learn and practice peace. When she returned to the U.S. to teach, Willis struggled for further reconciliation with racial struggles and to integrate her beliefs with the traditional Baptism of her family. Although she explains basic Buddhism, this is first and foremost a powerful and moving personal memoir. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Cited by Time magazine as one of the top religious innovators of the new millennium, Jan Willis has an extraordinary story to tell. Raised in a segregated Alabama mining camp, she eventually would become a renowned Indo-Tibetan scholar and professor of religion at Wesleyan University. Along the way, she took part in an armed takeover of a Cornell University building during a black student protest, marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Birmingham, and, ultimately, found peace within a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. Hers is a deeply personal journey of racial and spiritual healing that "will move anyone who is compelled by the examined life." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Author Biography: Jan Willis is one of Wesleyan University's most inspiring and popular professors. She is the first African American to become Indo-Tibetan scholar and translator. She has been a practitioner of Tibetan-Buddhism for more than 30 years and is the author of several books on Buddhism.

FROM THE CRITICS

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