Enlightenment for Idiots: A Novel

by Anne Cushman

A yoga teacher finds new life in India–just not the one she was expecting.Nearing thirty, Amanda thought she’d be someone else by now. Instead, she’s an ex-nanny yogini-wannabe who cranks out “For Idiots” travel guides. True, she has a sexy photographer boyfriend, but he’s usually off shooting a dogsled race in Alaska or a vision quest in Peru—or just hooking up with other girls. However, she’s sure her new assignment to the ashrams of India will change everything.What she finds, though, is an ashram run by investment bankers, a model-obsessed guru, tantra parties, and silent retreats. India, it turns out, is not the spiritual refuge she’d pictured. But she finds a friend in Devi Das, a redheaded sadhu who refers to himself as “we.” And when a holy lunatic on the street offers her an enigmatic blessing, Amanda realizes a new life may be in store for her—just not the one she was expecting.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Spirituality, Travel, India, Self Help, Humor

386 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

As a writer and teacher of yoga and Buddhist meditation, Anne Cushman explores the poignant intersection between the inspirational ideals of spiritual practice and the gritty, comical, chaotic, and heartbreaking details of ordinary life.

Anne has been investigating the relationship between Eastern spiritual traditions and contemporary Western life for more than 25 years. She graduated from Princeton University with a BA in comparative religion in 1984, and her work includes the NEH-funded documentary Zen Center: Portrait of an American Zen Community (1986); the nonfiction “spiritual India” guidebook From Here to Nirvana (1998); and the novel Enlightenment for Idiots (2008), which was named by Booklist as one of the “Top Ten First Novels” of the year. Her book Moving Into Meditation: A 12-Week Mindfulness Program for Yoga Practitioners will be published by Shambhala in 2014.

Anne is a longtime contributor and former editor at both Yoga Journal and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Her personal essays have also appeared in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, O: The Oprah Magazine, Salon.com, New Woman, and the Shambhala Sun. Her work has been anthologized in Best Buddhist Writing 2004 and 2006; Best Women’s Spiritual Travel Writing; Traveling Souls: Contemporary Pilgrimage Tales; and other books.

Anne’s yoga and meditation background includes extensive training across multiple schools of yoga since 1985, including Iyengar, Ashtanga, Kripalu, Insight Yoga, and many other styles. She has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1983 in both the Zen and vipassana traditions, and is the co-director of the Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation Training Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, where she is also a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader program.

Anne teaches yoga as a support for and an expression of embodied meditative presence. Through sensitive, flowing practice, she invites her students to relax and enliven their bodies, open their hearts, and unwind the physical and energetic obstacles that prevent them from touching their true nature—in the midst of their ordinary and miraculous human lives.

She lives in Fairfax, California, with her twelve-year-old son, Skye Hawthorne.

Reviews

[Susan Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect novel for all us yoginis. Entertaining and insightful.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enlightenment for Idiots may have single-handedly derailed my quest for enlightenment. If it's this boring, who the hell cares.

It took me FOREVER to finish this book. And it's not that it's boring, it's just that the plot twist that happens about a 1/3 of the way into the book changed the premise entirely. If I had known that was going to happen I would not have started the book. Once that happened I knew what the main character was going to consider being enlightened and I'm too old to do that. (Trying very hard here not to give it away here, JIC). This just made all of her "oh no what am I doing with my life" stuff annoying.

I didn't find this book at all compelling even though there are a few gems sprinkled in. But a few bon mots about life and longing don't make it a page-turner.

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really funny book about a young woman who is a free-lance writer for a 'dummies' book series. She is charged with writing a book on enlightenment - her editor says it is a really hot topic & can she write a 'how to' book in a few months!!

The protagonist, Amanda, is self-deprecating and witty, and you really like her a lot. In India she encounters many crazy and interesting people, and meets and becomes close to an American traveler. Devi Das is a true enlightment seeker: celibate, thoughtful, and sweet (he was a religious studies student at KU!) She travels with him through India to investigate various paths to enlightenment (the tantric yoga adventure is really funny).

How she manages travel in chaotic India and manages her messed-up personal relationships makes for an easy, enjoyable read.

[Andrea Larson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book attracted me because I was looking for some light reading, and this was light, but it was more than that. It was a learning experience about India and the world of ashrams, yoga and meditation, as well as the living conditions and people of India.

Amanda is a yoga instructor and author, and her latest assignment is a plum job: write a book called Enlightenment for Idiots. Since it has always been her dream to travel to India to learn from the best gurus, she can't wait to get to it. While spending many months there, she realizes it's not all she had imagined and finds that enlightenment is a most elusive goal. Amid all the learning experiences at the various ashrams, she deals with her zany mother, her controlling but very dear friend, makes a new wacky friend, and tries to get over the love of her life, who has made it very clear that his adventurous ways cannot be contained - all the while dealing with a surprise pregnancy after a brief reconciliation with him before she leaves for India!

While many of the yoga terms and Indian words were difficult to understand, I did enjoy this different (for me) type of book. The jacket cover says it's a cross between Sex and the City and Eat, Pray, Love, but I think it stands very well on its own.

[Jason Pettus]

DECLINED TO REVIEW. I originally picked this up at my local library on a whim the other week, after reading a good review of it by one of my Goodreads friends, which as someone who's started doing daily meditation and yoga in the last year sounded like it was going to be right up my alley -- a novel about a plucky but flawed California New Ager who ends up traveling to India in the hopes of having her own "Eat Pray Love" adventure, just to realize that she can't really stand the things she finds there, and that the entire concept of enlightenment might in fact just be a giant pile of worthless BS. What I realized after starting the book, however, is that it's not actually this, but rather a lot closer to a traditional middlebrow rom-com than I realized it was going to be; turns out that the whole reason she even goes to India is as an assignment for one of those "[Fill In The Blank] For Idiots" book series, that her boss is like one of those two-dimensional villains from books like The Devil Wears Prada, and that actually the vast majority of this novel's drama derives from the perpetual middle-class-female subjects of boyfriends and babies, which made me roll my eyes more and more as I made my way deeper and deeper into the book. To be clear, it's still written well-enough that, in other circumstances, I would've finished it then done a lackluster review at the CCLaP website; but I've got a big backlog of books for reviewing right now that are clearly more worth my time than this one, which is why I gave up on it about a third of the way in and am declining to give it a score here at all. Buyer beware -- this isn't nearly as subversive and original as its fans claim it is.

[Cleo · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cute take on chick lit, but most definitely chick lit. I enjoyed the self-deprecating humor and "personal growth" in-jokes, as well as the travelogue aspects of her Indian journey. But the plot (which, by the way, pales in comparison to the book jacket description) is pretty contrived. And there's no subtlety in this book. The last few pages in particular are so heavy-handed I wanted to scream, "Enough already! I get it!"

[Starbaby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one of those books that you don't want to end. I actually had to put it down (hard to do, believe me) and *not* read it, because there were so few pages left and I didn't want to finish her life! This is not a book I thought I would have liked. I was just looking at the "new books" shelf in the library and kept coming back to it. I am so glad that I checked it out and I can't wait for her next book!

[Robin Tobin (On the back porch reading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hahaha this was a fun read....

[PJ Swanwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spiritual novel is part chicklit, part exposé, and always fun

Want to see what a spiritual journey to India is really like? Forget "Eat, Pray, Love" and pick up this gem of a novel: "Enlightenment for Idiots" by Anne Cushman. Published in 2009, the book exposes India's spiritual warts with a humorous touch, packaged in an engaging tale of self-discovery. This fun, fast-paced story reaches emotional and spiritual depths beyond standard chicklit fare.

The story charts Amanda's path through a slew of ashrams, temples, and hermitages as she desperately searches for spiritual enlightenment. In addition to the many details about various yoga practices and meditation traditions, Cushman threads the story with Zen philosophy and metaphysical principles that infuse Amanda's personable character with nuance and heart.

My take: In addition to offering an amusing and insightful story of personal transformation, the novel presents a biting examination of how the American spiritual journey has become a very profitable industry in parts of India. Cushman reminds us that an ashram is also a business with salaries, overhead, marketing costs, and human quirks and failings that all contribute to a seeker's experience. Enlightenment for Idiots is a brisk, engaging tour of India's enlightenment industry and an excellent example of spiritual fiction.

For more reviews of spiritual/metaphysical novels, see Fiction For A New Age.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good, not good--the reviews are varied.

I can only speak for myself. As a 2x traveler to India (the first for 8 months to ashrams as a single woman) as well as a seasoned traveler in other parts of Asia, Cushman's descriptions and details were so right on that I was falling out of my seat laughing. Perhaps it's the inside joke, but when you get it, you GET it! She is pretty much 100% accurate and dead-on, including the feelings/escapades of main character Amanda herself.

Totally superb. Witty writing. Excellent portrayal. And as an added benefit, I REALLY like her descriptions of yoga poses at the beginning of each chapter. Beautiful and artfully crafted to fit the story.

I also liked Eat, Pray, Love for the same reasons (a lot of people are comparing the two books), though I think this was much funnier and better done.

If you don't try to control the book (letting your mind get caught up in its inanities) it's a thoroughly fun read. And interesting to think how well that matches the point of the book itself.

[Jerry Peace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like this book a lot, except for the single reference to the name "Jerry." Not a good one. Imagine that.

[Jennifer Ciotta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Cushman developed a surprising concept: a hardcore American yogi who travels to India only to discover that she really doesn't like it. Cushman's approach to India is both realistic and un-idealistic; she portrays India as dirty and unsanitary yet glowing with beauty in rare moments. The young woman protagonist struggles to find enlightenment, which is the assignment for a guidebook she is contracted to write. All activities seem to irk the protagonist, such as meditating, yoga and spiritual lectures. Overall, this book is funny, surprising and provides a truly honest conclusion to those seeking enlightenment in India and beyond.

[dawn armfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was easy to read, the detailed descriptions were exquisite (I could practically taste that smokey sweet chai), and the characters were real. I especially loved Devi Das, who was the comedic relief/guru of the book. His lines were almost always perfect.

There were times when Amanda's self-absorption bothered me, but then I realized that that's where this character was in her life. She needed to focus on that, focus on how to get beyond that. That *is* what the book is really about, expanding one's self enough to see that it's not always about that one person.

I ignored the yoga pose pages before chapters. They actually detracted from the book for me. When the quotes were pertinent, they added. However, not all of the quotes fit the book as the author intended, I think. Or, perhaps, that's the difference between reader response and authorial intention. It won't always be the same.

All of that being said, I did enjoy it. It probably falls more in line with chick-lit or summer reading, but there is more to the story. It has a lovely depth and an important message.

[DMD · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay. I had very low hopes for it at the beginning since it seemed to be about the sterotypical yoga student in the US who thinks India is all about yoga and the kama sutra. The student gets a book deal to write about finding enlightenment in India and this book is like a travelogue. The descriptions of India were very accurate and the portrayals of certain gurus were reminiscent of some currently popular ones. Also, there were two characters that I really liked, the doctor and the guy she meets on the plane and those little bits redeemed the book for me. The ideas of enlightenment in the book are fairly predictable as is the ending but the book was enjoyable enough.

[Patti · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for a travelogue about a journey through India instead got chick lit about a girl whining about her noncommittal boyfriend all through India. The story was predictable and the characters cliche. I gave it two stars for the laugh out loud moments in the ashrams and Devi Das's bizarre character.

[Jackie Trimble · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, since the Fall, I've read this and Eat, Pray, Love. You know what? I'm NEVER going to India.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first few chapters were really funny, with a money-hungry publishers treating the quest of enlightenment like the latest fashion, but it didn't take long for the joke to get old. Ultimately, much of the humor in this book was culturally biased, a nudge and an elbowing of how crazy these Indians are. At the end, the author did make a fair attempt at recovering, but it felt belated to me. I wonder that no one writes flippantly about Christian Evangelists when there is so much more to make fun there: it's so easy to pick faults with other cultures, but should we not start with our own? I had wanted a story about the search for enlightenment, but the protagonist is so obsessed with a man she's in love with who is emotionally unavailable, and so the plot ends up reductively being yet another story about a woman who is in love with the wrong man and must learn to let go, and the self-deprecating voice and jokes felt way too familiar, way too "done" to feel fresh, surprising, or even amusing. Yet, it's not a bad read, as long as you don't take it too seriously. A good book to take on a train ride or on the beach, to pass time.

[Metis-dite · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enlightenment for Idiots may have single-handedly derailed my quest for enlightenment. If it's this boring, who the hell cares.

It took me FOREVER to finish this book. And it's not that it's boring, it's just that the plot twist that happens about a 1/3 of the way into the book changed the premise entirely. If I had known that was going to happen I would not have started the book. Once that happened I knew what the main character was going to consider being enlightened and I'm too old to do that. (Trying very hard here not to give it away here, JIC). This just made all of her "oh no what am I doing with my life" stuff annoying.

I didn't find this book at all compelling even though there are a few gems sprinkled in. But a few bon mots about life and longing don't make it a page-turner.

[10914 Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

For this book, I’m not exactly sure where to start really. I really enjoyed reading this book because it deals with the basic life question, who am I and where is my life heading? And there were plenty of quirky and witty moments that invoked laughter. I can definitely say that I really enjoyed reading and growing along with Amanda, and her friends, as the story progressed. She was a relatable character, and I could picture myself standing exactly in her shoes. The author did a great job of moving the plot along and developing some great characters while giving great advice. My favorite thing about the whole book is that the book we read is the same exact book that Amanda wrote, which I think is pretty clever on the author’s part.

[Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this twice in a row - I loved it that much! Amanda is the author of "idiot" series, when her clueless editor sends her to write a guidebook for idiots on how to be enlightened - bring on the trip to India, to visit her holiest sites! It was hilarious to relive a lot of the places I have been, and also, her adventures were so funny. Partway through her trip, Amanda discovers she might be sick in India for a different reason than she anticipated - a journey full of all of life's twists. Her portrayal of the various gurus was so realistic, and really captures what they can be like. Funny, love, love it!

[Barbara Rhine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is fun; it made me laugh out loud. And it has technical descriptions of the famous yoga postures. And it has variety in approaches to yoga and buddhist practice and enlightenment. It is a story of self-discovery of a privileged white woman, even though she doesn't have much money. She is on a contract to produce a book, so has pressure from her agent. She has a feckless boyfriend, of course, and also another one who is ready to commit, and also a third one who is platonic, and also a mother who drives her nuts. If you can put up with all that, you're gonna like this read!

[JaNelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a bit to get into this then I fell hard. As someone who has made her own journeys alone, I laughed and recalled the pain of it all. This is more like the real version of eat, pray, love. For us travelers with a limited budget. Thoroughly enjoyed and glad I am not forcing myself to keep searching via travel.

[Ramona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book, but felt it was a bit longer than it needed to be.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yoga story

I lost interest and tried to stay with it but just couldn’t. Even a person loving yoga would be bored I’m sure.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yoga, méditation, voyage en Inde vue des yeux d'une jeune Américaine qui tente d'écrire un guide sur comment trouver l'illumination. Bien aimé, livre récréatif.

[Zoë Sutherland · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was nice and funny

[Karen May]

AM

[Anita Arentshorst · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took some time to get into the story, but halfway in I really liked Amanda and what she was doing! Couldn't put it down towards the end, wanting to know how it ended.

[Libraryscat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me begin this review with the statement that I enjoyed the book. While I did not find spiritual enlightenment, I feel sure that I now know something about the idea of enlightenment from a variety of perspectives. My only complaint about the book is that it is too long the details and descriptions are individually stunning, but I think some could have been shortened or deleted for the sake of the book s readability.[return][return]Enlightenment for Idiots by Anne Cushman follows twenty-nine year old Amanda as she travels across India looking for enlightenment. As she tries to untangle her failing relationships with two men, she accepts a book contract for a tourist guide to enlightenment in India. With her advance money and a somewhat broken heart, she begins her quest. The author s descriptions of the people and places of India are stunning from the sights, the smells, and cultural mores of the country to the sense of confusion as she navigates from place to place. To further complicate matters, she finds herself pregnant. I loved that she persevered with her journey despite recommendations from friends and family that she should return home immediately. She is sustained emotionally by a friend she met along the way Devi Das, who has his own story. Ultimately, Amanda returns home to have her baby. Still in love with the father, she finds that things do not always work out the way you had hoped and that sometimes that is good. [return][return]Hoping to learn a little more about the author, I Googled her and found that she co-authored another book From Here to Nirvana which is a non-fiction guidebook to traveling in India. The introduction to this work gives wonderful insight to the author s own experiences which are then filtered to Enlightenment for Idiots.[return][return]"The guidebook should give elaborate directions complete with train schedules and hotel rates to the sites of fleeting and unrepeatable incidents: a blessing from an ash-covered sadhu by a funeral pyre, a vision of Kali in a dream on the cramped top bunk of a sleeper train. It should advertise as coming attractions events that happened thousands of years ago: the Enlightenment of Buddha under the Bodhi Tree; Krishna seducing the milkmaids on the riverbanks near Vrindaban. And in the midst of an indecipherable bus schedule, a verse from the Upanishads should be printed, so shimmeringly beautiful that it precipitates sudden enlightenment. & A spiritual journey to India is inevitably a swan dive into the unknown." (Cushman and Jones, 1998, From Here to Nirvana, pp. 1-2)[return][return]Overall I really enjoyed the book the author s knowledge of yoga gave an authenticity to her writing that was very evident to the reader. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. I will definitely recommend it to others.[return][return]Also posted on my blog: http://libraryscatbooks.blogspot.com/

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne Cushman will be facilitating the Dharma Yoga Mindfulness Training I begin next week at Spirit Rock! I'm compelled by Anne's honesty and humility as a spiritual teacher, a creative, and a mother—all things I aspire to be. The protagonist, Amanda, and her travels reminded me of my trip to Chennai, India with my Abuelita, where I got my first 200-hr YTT at 17. A few years later in college, I participated in a MBSR research study, which changed my life. Since then, I continue to practice Mindfulness and Yoga.

Between the mat and zafu, I grappled with many of the same obstacles as Amanda—guru glorification, commodification of spirituality, dissonance between religious schools of thought, misogyny, ethics of westerners traveling to India, and so on. "Enlightenment for Idiots" treats these themes with measured gravity, and generous humor. It's a less glossy "Eat, Pray, Love." Its matte quality offers a sobering criticism of the things to which Gilbert's novel turns a blind eye. A must read for every yogi—especially those who identify as western and/or white women, who have traveled, or are considering traveling to India.

Some quotes I've stashed in my back pocket are:

“Even if the teacher is a fraud, the teachings can be real.” (176)

“Was this the world of prakriti I was supposed to be disentangling myself from? This world of cow, and manure, and pineapple? What about the child growing inside me, with its tiny beating heart?” (161)

“If half of the people who are so thrilled about visiting a Divine Mother were to turn their attention instead to taking care of some actual mother in their own village —maybe right in their own house—India would be a better place.” (238)

“And lying there in my bed—with nothing to do and no one to become—I was surprised to discover what a relief that was.” (320)