Sofa Enlightenment

by Robert Broughton

Table of contents


#6 – Krishnamurti and a Burmese Nun

With money to spend and no parents to look after, the narrator is now ready to start his spiritual quest in earnest. At the close of the 1970s he reads a book by Krishnamurti that tells him to abandon teachers, methods, techniques and practices. He decides to pay a visit to Krishnamurti's place in California.

Once there, he meets a Burmese woman called Rina, who invites him to a Buddhist retreat in the mountains. Although he finds many teachings on Buddhism too difficult to digest, what he hears about the life of Burmese monks grabs his attention. He decides to become a monk in Burma. Rina thinks this is a good idea and exactly what he is looking for. On the strength of this, he travels to Burma via Bangkok and Rangoon.

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