Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud

Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud - Sun Shuyun
10,000 miles without a cloud, is a Buddhist saying. It signifies the search for a mind clear of doubts: a perfect title for this remarkable book on a journey of discovery and faith. Son Shuyun grew up in China during the dark night of the Cultural Revolution, when it was more important to learn the right attitudes than to study. Her father was an ardent communist and a veteran of the Long March, her grandmother (with whom she shared a room) a Buddhist. By the time Sun Shuyun reached university, she had witnessed the bitter disillusionment of both her father - for whom Mao's brand of communism had failed to deliver on its promises - and her classmates. Scarcely surprising then, given the influence of her grandmother, that she turned to Buddhism for inspiration, and specifically to Xuanzang, a true Chinese hero waiting to be rediscovered. Xuanzang lived in the seventh century AD - a golden period in Chinese history. He was a man of extraordinary qualities, who travelled from China through Central Asia to India in search of enlightenment. Sun Shuyun set out to discover what gave Xuanzang such phenomenal strength and purpose and, above all, to find a faith for herself, a faith that could replace the false god of communism. In retracing Xuanzang's steps, Sun Shuyun makes a journey, both literal and metaphorical, through four landscapes - historical, cultural, spiritual and personal. In so doing, she presents us with a vivid and fascinating insight into China and its people, past and present. Though sparsely illustrated, this is a book whose rich, descriptive language is marvellously evocative. Moving and original, it is both a fine introduction to Chinese Buddhism, and an extraordinary voyage of the soul

BTJunkie