Instinct for Freedom: A Maverick s Guide to Spiritual Revolution

by Alan Clements

After spending many years in Burma training in meditation as a Buddhist monk, author Alan Clements began travelling the world as a human rights activist. Instinct for Freedom is part memoir and part spiritual inquiry. He details his early years of living in silence in a Burmese monastery, offering a rare, beautiful, and nuanced account of the experience of intensive meditation and what it can offer. He goes on to illuminate a doctrine he calls World Dharma, the belief that no amount of spiritual practice or meditative training can adequately prepare one for life. One must find liberty through living firmly in the present no matter the circumstance. He gives voice to a politically engaged mysticism, based on the irreducible value of freedom. He teaches liberation from fear, ignorance, and dogma, and the elevation of dignity, conscience, and beauty.

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 13, 2006

Reviews

[Karl Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I want to give five stars but it lost some steam in the middle. Overall it was a fascinating read about the fight for freedom in different parts of the world, meditation, and how Buddhism and fighting for what's right intersect. There were a few passages I found very powerful and I'm happy to have read it.