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Sharon is an extraordinary writer. She's smart and she certainly knows what she is talking about. She generously shares the stories of her journey for greater understanding. She talks again and again about getting "close" to the truth. Wanting to be close to the truth, to living next to it. What is the truth? She uses a borrowed term, ultimate concern, to explain what it is we strive to put our faith in. For some this is justice, for others it is realizing the innate buddha nature in each of us. She talks about two wings of the buddha's teachings, awareness and love. Her journey is inspiring and she takes you along on that journey and inspires you. She remembers one teacher drawing "a loose V shape on a large sheet of paper." The teacher asked the students to describe what the shape was intended to mean. They answered , "a bird." Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche responded, "it is the sky with a bird flying through it." We see the bird representing our thoughts and feelings instead of the vast and unbounded sky. The sky is awareness and can handle any thoughts which come and go. It is our job to practice awareness. Thoughts and feelings properly considered expand awareness. I was often touched by her loving descriptions of her mentors and teachers. Most revealing and relatable was her description of lama khenpo (Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche). It was him who most awakened in her abiding faith. She was so overcome by his kindness and spaciousness and selflessness. He instead would remind her of her own potentials, ones she kept seeing only in others. The idea that she could aspire to be a bodhisattva was a conceit beyond contemplation. But Nyoshul offered the question why she would not think to achieve this in order to be of service to all human beings and all living creatures. She would demur again and again, thinking who I am to think I'm good enough for that. This gentle goading got her to see her thoughts as those things, birds, and not awareness. I also like her definitions of bright faith versus blind faith and abiding faith versus a faith in something we are taught to believe but told not to question. In the sub title it says "trusting in your own deepest experience." This is where she stresses getting close. She is impressing on us the readers the importance of our connectedness to everything and everyone around us. We won't see this unless we are willing to get up close, close to ourselves and our experiences.