Anne Cushman

This is a funny and moving story about Amanda, a 29-year-old lost soul who writes a series of guidebooks for "idiots." Her latest assignment sends her to India in search of enlightenment. Instead, she finds all the chaos for which India is famous...and also finds a fetus in her belly. The father? AWOL.

There are many colorful characters in this book, including Devi Das (a red-haired saddhu from Boston who refers to himself as "we," thus destroying ego attachment to the idea of a separate show more self). But the most sympathetic character is Amanda herself, who grapples with the concept of enlightenment. Does it equal perfection? Or does it really mean something more like contentment...with the present moment, with our own flawed selves?

Meaningful without being heavy, funny without being shallow, this was my favorite of the Early Reviewer books I've received from LibraryThing. show less

Moving Into Meditation by Anne Cushman
An e-advance copy of this book was made available by Shambhala Publications and NetGalley.com.

Anne Cushman merges the latest wave of interest in yoga fitness with the peaceful sense of self found in a deep meditation practice. She has written a cogent 12 week program that offers step-by-step methods to develop a deepening awareness of self in heart, body and mind. Her humorous style and clear step-by-step descriptions guide a yoga practitioner through a show more union of mind and body.

The core strength of the book is in the development of a "mindful" experience. Mindfulness is shown as enrichment to every activity from pleasure to pain control.

Her text is sprinkled with references to online videos and guidance forming a well blended method of self-directed growth. The book begins by providing an interesting history of yoga and its deeply spiritual nature. The author shares her knowledge and experiences that will help devotees enhance every aspect of their lives.

Although the book is written for everyone, those with some familiarity to yoga asanas and pranayama will benefit the most.

I rated this book with only 3 stars because I feel it can't truly stand alone without the online help. There are portions of the book that would be better served with illustrations. My advance copy did not include these. If the book is released with instructional graphics I would upgrade my approval to four stars in a heartbeat! show less

A heartfelt memoir of motherhood as a spiritual practice by a longtime yoga and dharma teacher.

Sutra is the Sanskrit name for a short spiritual teaching, and it comes from the same root as the English word suture, or stitch. This story of motherhood as a path to awakening is, says yoga and meditation teacher Anne Cushman, “an homage to the long threads that run through all human lives, stitching up what’s shredded in our hearts.”

The Mama Sutra spans an eighteen-year journey through show more motherhood as a spiritual practice, chronicling Cushman’s first pregnancy, her daughter's tragic stillbirth, the joyful birth of her son, the “home retreat” of early motherhood, the challenges of parenthood, the diagnosis and gifts of her son’s developmental differences, the meltdown of her nuclear family and its reconfiguration into a new and joyful form, and more. This is a powerful story of the rawness and beauty of life. show less

I was looking forward to reading this. It wasn't exactly what I expected. The protagonist and narrator, Amanda, is a yoga student, and is contracted to write a book about enlightenment. She travels to India to find enlightenment herself so she can write about it. The author describes yoga poses exquisitely. Those passages (which were usually short italicized paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter), made me want to go back to a yoga class. The rest of the book was okay - it felt as show more though those passages about yoga were in one style. Then Amanda narrates her travels and travails, and that seemed...contrived. The voice didn't seem authentic to me. It seemed as though the author was trying to make Amanda be a real mess (and in dire need of enlightenment!), which itself isn't contrived, but just the way Amanda 'spoke' didn't seem authentic to me. And then there were the 'sample chapters' from the book Amanda was writing on enlightenment. I thought they were awful. Waaaay too cutesy. Fortunately, there were only a few of those. While it kind of came together at the end, the book didn't really work as a whole for me. I work in a bookstore. I have to say that I'll have a hard time recommending it wholeheartedly. The back cover (an advanced reader copy) says that it is being marketed to yoga studios and in yoga periodicals. I think people who have some familiarity with yoga will enjoy it more than those who don't. show less