Book Review - Inner Pilgrimage Ten Days to a Mindful Me by Raji Lukkoor

Book Review

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Inner Pilgrimage Ten Days to a Mindful Me
 by Raji Lukkoor

Meet the Author

Hi I’m Raji Lukkoor, and I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.  A travel enthusiast, I was born and raised in Goa, India, but now call California, USA, my home, where I live with my husband and two sons.  I have loved to write since I was in the seventh grade, and although I went on to study and work in the field of environmental engineering, the art of communication always fascinated me and has consistently brightened my verbal, aural, written, and interpersonal competence. Travel- both physical and vicarious (although online volunteering)-across the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia over the years has given me perspective, motivation, a sense of achievement, the ability to connect to others, and deep regard for the world's cultures.  In summer 2008, when an opportunity for travel presented itself, I couldn't resist.  It was the trip of a lifetime - at a  vipassana meditation course. This compelling experience held up a mirror to the reality of my existence, furthering my spiritual evolution and helping resurrect the authentic me. Thus was born my first publication, “Inner Pilgrimage: Ten Days to a Mindful Me.”

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Book Description
A profound human experience, a modern-day response to the primeval human quest for truth and meaning in life. By engaging in the author’s spiritual journey, readers learn about vipassana—a timeless, powerful, non-sectarian, and non-mystical tool for transformation. They see how the practice of mindfulness, nourished through regular meditation, can help anyone to live a life that is fully expressed, affirming, connected, healthy, compassionate, and vibrant. This book will appeal to all spiritual seekers and to anyone with an interest in Buddhism or meditation.

Inner Pilgrimage in the hands of vipassana master His Holiness S. N. Goenka

August 08, 2011

http://www.dhamma.org/

My Review

I have often watched documentaries on retreats with the secret yearning of wanting to attend one of these myself one day.  They show you the difficulties people have to overcome and the unbelievable transformations of peoples lives that can take place, it is simply amazing.

What you don't actually think about is what it is really like to participate on such a retreat for the whole period, spending every minute there, on the personal journey you have to travel to get to your destination.  For anyone thinking of going on a similar retreat this is a great book to read, giving you an insight of what it genuinely feels like to the there, day by day, through the authors writings.

When I first saw this book, for some reason I was immediately pulled towards it and couldn't wait for its arrival.  On opening the book two words struck out to me straight away 'inner war'.  The description was so clear and so close to home that the book grabbed my attention as soon as it had began.

As well as explaining, in fantastic realistic detail, how living through the whole course felt - through the emotions, the ever so true worries the author felt, the pain and yet the enlightenment she felt, it also explains basic Buddha and meditation methods learnt.  These are the parts where you may have to re-read certain pages to fully understand.

For me the main message in the Buddha teaching is that everything in life is impermanent and by not accepting this we create our own problems.  "Why agonize over that which is I, me and mine?  The body and the mind are mere wavelets of vibration and energy.  Egoism is futile because if brings unhappiness, disappointment, frustrations, sorrow, anxieties, and worries.  Happiness is to be sought not in the outside world where society judges you, but within the person, where eternal peace, compassion, equanimity, wisdom, joy and moral integrity flourish."

A fascinating read and I have so much respect for the author, travelling through her own journey.

"A beacon of spiritual light charted a new course for my life during the summer of 2008, when I attended a S. N. Goenka led, ten-day Buddhist meditation (vipassana) retreat. That experience sparked the writing of Inner Pilgrimage: Ten Days to a Mindful Me--a mindfulness triggered spiritual transformation."

 

My Rating .5


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Ten Days to a Mindful Me by Raji Lukkoor click here