Urban Dharma

Ten years after his ordination, American Buddhist monk Kusala Bhikshu planned to escape Los Angeles and spend his days meditating in nature. But his teacher said, "Here beings are suffering, here is where you can help people. Who can you serve if you sit by a lake alone?" In response, he got busy working for free in some highly unusual places. His wry, satirical memoir reflects on 20 years of volunteering in Los Angeles: in prison, juvenile hall, hospitals, and even a police department...
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Ten years after his ordination, American Buddhist monk Kusala Bhikshu planned to escape Los Angeles and spend his days meditating in nature. But his teacher said, "Here beings are suffering, here is where you can help people. Who can you serve if you sit by a lake alone?" In response, he got busy working for free in some highly unusual places. His wry, satirical memoir reflects on 20 years of volunteering in Los Angeles: in prison, juvenile hall, hospitals, and even a police department as a ride-along chaplain. He is asked to serve those in the most unwinnable of circumstances--the dying, sick, broke, and abandoned. His home, a residential meditation center, is speckled with a cast of monks, nuns, and economically challenged renters off the streets of L.A.The story scrapes along the bottom of what it means to be human at every turn, showing life's challenges through the compassionate lens of applied Buddhism and offering reflection in the face of obstacles and our shared human struggles.