I first read Sherry Tara  Marshall's book A Search for Meaning. Connecting with Buddhist Teachers' when Simon and Schuster published it about 10 years ago. I found it inspiring then and I found it just as inspiring and perhaps even more relevant now because devotion is an important and often misunderstood part of Tibetan Buddhism. This book tells the stories of how several students came to Tibetan Buddhism and what devotion means to them. Their stories are simple straight forward accounts of how meeting a master changed their lives. This book makes it clear that devotion as it is understood in Tibetan Buddhism is not blind obedience but an intelligent respect for and openness towards the teacher. For these students, it's simply that their lives improved after meeting the teacher and trying out his teachings. There is nothing wishy-washy about these students, they are real, intelligent people with intriguing stories to tell. Ms Marshall seems to have a talent for drawing their stories … [Read more...]