Goal in Progress: The Detours and Diversions of a Spiritual Journey

In Goal in Progress: The Detours and Diversions of a Spiritual Journey, an American Buddhist monk describes his eclectic, non-linear spiritual journey and his ongoing attempts to clarify the goal of his quest.

Beginning with his early search during the late 1970s, followed by a prolonged residence in West Berlin, he goes on to articulate the monastic journey he embarked on at the age of fifty-four. After initially entering into Buddhist monastic life in Bodhgaya, India, and subsequently ordaining as a novice monk in Dharamsala with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he resides as a monastic in a Tibetan monastery in France, monasteries of the Thai Forest tradition in England, a Benedictine monastery in Michigan, and a Greek Orthodox monastery in Ohio. He finally re-ordains as a Theravada Buddhist monk in Malaysia.

The author comes to see that his goal, though firmly rooted in Buddhist thought, has been enriched by his significant detours into Christianity and Judaism.