The Buddha from Brooklyn by Martha Sherrill

This week, I've been reading Martha Sherrill's The Buddha from Brooklyn.

I borrowed the hardcover version which does not include the subtitle from the paperback version (cover shown here): A Tale of Spiritual Seduction.

Last night, I finished The Buddha from Brooklyn and the subtitle seems appropriate.

When I picked up the book I was hopeful that this would be an inspirational story of a Jewish-Italian girl from Brooklyn, NY who'd had a rough childhood in Miami, FL, had a tough young-adult life that led to two divorces but was somehow all along practicing Buddhism.

The Buddha from Brooklyn was an interesting book but not in the way I had hoped.

Forty-something year old "Jetsunma" left her third husband for her female personal trainer who became one of her students and later a nun, then became involved with one of her twenty-six year old students who became a monk (the sangha -- the community -- paid for their honeymoon to Hawaii), and then married one of her twenty-three year old students!

She gave herself the title "Jetsunma" though in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition titles are given to lamas and are usually downplayed and the sangha voted to give her a $100,000 annual salary (half of the temple budget).

Monks and nuns must pay rent at "Jetsunma's" temple center Kunzang Palyul Chöling (traditionally temples support the monks and nuns not the other way around)!

And that's not even half of the scandal!

I hate to use this word but it sounds like a cult and not a Tibetan Buddhist monastery.

The Buddha from Brooklyn by Martha Sherrill - Part I

I've been reading The Buddha from Brooklyn by Martha Sherrill.

If you haven't heard of it I'm not surprised.

It tells the story of Jetsunma Ahkön Norbu Lhamo (aka Alyce Louise Zeoli aka Alyce Cassara aka Catharine Burroughs), recognized by Holiness Penor Rinpoche (Throne holder of the Palyul Lineage and former Supreme Head of the Nyingma, the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism) as the reincarnation of Ahkön Lhamo who cofounded the Palyul lineage with her brother Kunzang Sherab in the 17th century.

She is also recognized by Orgyen Kusum Lingpa as an emanation of White Tara and of Lhacham Mandarawa, the Indian spiritual consort of Padmasambhava, the tantric master who established the Buddha's teaching in Tibet.

She is the first Western woman to be recognized and enthroned by Tibetan lamas as a tulku (an enlightened teacher who reincarnates in whatever form can most benefit all beings) who enjoys manicures, has married four times, and has three children.

Kunzang Palyul Chöling (KPC), the Buddhist center that Jestsunma runs, is on 65 acres in in Poolesville, MD and includes walking trails, meditation gardens, a peace park with wonderful walking trails, meditation benches, gardens and 28 consecrated stupas.

I've only read Part I so far and don't know what to think so far. How can someone who has been divorced so many times be considered an enlightened being?

I'll write more as I get further into this The Buddha from Brooklyn.

Click here to read an excerpt from Random House.