Mae Chee Kaew: Her Journey to Spiritual Awakening and Enlightenment, by Bhikkhu Silaratano

(246 pp., Forest Dhamma Books, 2009)

A gripping account of spiritual effort and progress, this book gives us the inside story of a Thai woman’s path to enlightenment. Her movement from laywoman to write-robed mae chee (eight-precept nun) to fully liberated being is intimately described by an American monk in Thailand who gathered accounts of her life and teachings and translated them into English. The book also offers an inkling of the life of the Thai forest monks, who actually do, or did, go off and live in the forests.

From the Fall 2010 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 27, No. 1)

© 2010 Sandy Boucher

Sandy Boucher is a writer, teacher and editor active in the Bay Area for more than thirty years; she leads retreats on Meditation and the Spirit of Creativity. Her latest book is She Appears! Encounters with Kwan Yin, Goddess of Compassion (Goddess Ink, 2015), containing thirty-five works of contemporary original art and as many essays on the experience of compassion in our lives. Boucher was an Inquiring Mind guest editor for three issues: "Blowin' in the Wind" (Spring 2015), "Bodhisattva" (Fall 2011) and "Enlightenment" (Fall 2010).