INSTINCT FOR FREEDOM: A Spiritual Guide for Finding Liberation Through Living

Clements has led a fascinating life as a Buddhist monk in Burma, collaborated with Nobel Peace Prize–winner Aung San Suu Kyi and witnessed genocide and oppression in Burma and Bosnia. The book of experiential wisdom he has distilled, however, is disappointingly in need of much more refining to successfully convey his important message about living with heightened awareness. A coherent middle section recounts his life as a student of famed insight meditation teacher Mahasi Sayadaw and subsequent time among human rights activists in Burma. In one vivid tale, Clements is guarding at gunpoint a Burmese soldier who has just murdered a liberation fighter who was Clements's friend. Both men—as well as the victim—were former Buddhist monks. But otherwise the text either rambles or sermonizes, sometimes sounding like a barely edited transcription from tape, filled with verbal locutions ("my point is this") and such imprecise slang expressions as "cool." It doesn't require a visit to Burma to coin such commencement-speech platitudes as "It is my belief that if we really want something from our lives, we've got to go for it—give it our best and make it happen." Central and distinctive concepts such as "world dharma" lose clarity under a rock slide of buzzwords: authentic, radical, creative, mutual. The ingredients of compelling teaching (dharma)—depth, conviction and uniqueness—are here, but they need clearer articulation through organizing, editing and major rewriting. (Oct. 22)