Book Review
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.”
Book DescriptionA 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.
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Inner Pilgrimage in the hands of vipassana master His
Holiness S. N. Goenka
August 08, 2011 |
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.
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."
More information at http://www.rajilukkoor.com
Visit Raji’s blog at http://www.rajilukkoor.blogspot.com
Buy at: http://www.amazon.com
My Rating 
.5
.5
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