As Cindy Rasicot vividly recalls in THIS FRESH EXISTENCE, her rapport with the revered Buddhist nun Bhikkhuni Dhammananda led her to explore new avenues of inner and outward contemplation.

Many remarkable details of Dhammananda’s life path can be seen from a worldly perspective. Born Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, her mother was an example for her as she once strove to become a nun in the Buddhist religiocultural structure that had never accepted women in their formal hierarchy. Chatsumarn achieved university degrees in philosophy, religion and Buddhism. For a Thai female, that would have been distinction enough, but her absolute zeal to become a fully ordained Buddhist nun made her a courageous and controversial figure. Thailand’s male-dominated media roundly criticized and even insulted her for pursuing that goal.

"Rasicot records numerous lessons conveyed by this remarkable lady --- lessons that touch in purity and practicality on such ponderous issues as loneliness, despair, craving, grasping and forgiveness."

But the now-titled Venerable Dhammananda continually explored and expanded her spiritual understandings, invoking an inner imperative that brought her success. Her writings and speeches have made her a world-renowned figure. She was the first woman to be fully, formally accepted in the Thai Theravada Buddhist tradition, thus setting an example for others.

Rasicot, an esteemed writer who resided in Thailand for a time, first met Dhammananda at a women’s workshop where it seemed that the much-admired nun was speaking directly to Rasicot’s heart. She would share and learn through begging for alms, attending religious ceremonies, and ultimately receiving temporary ordination in two separate rituals conducted by the woman she so admires and whose story she shares here.

Rasicot records numerous lessons conveyed by this remarkable lady --- lessons that touch in purity and practicality on such ponderous issues as loneliness, despair, craving, grasping and forgiveness. They worked together and communicated mentally and emotively, guiding Rasicot to make needed changes in her perspectives and objectives, and collaborating with her soul mother on Casual Buddhism, a Zoom outreach initiated during the COVID lockdowns.

Dhammananda’s self-assumed role as a pious pioneer motivates even now. She avers, in her Epilogue to Rasicot’s enthralling saga, that many injustices still pervade world cultures and urges readers to “remove this wall of illusion, this wall of patriarchy, hierarchy, and inequity to see the truth of the Buddha’s teachings.”