At twenty, Maura O'Halloran participated in university demonstrations, encouraged waitresses to form a union, and volunteered with children with autism. Maura modeled herself on the Catholic saint Mother Teresa, but at home she meditated in the lotus position, surprising her family—Buddhist practices were not yet popular in Ireland in the 1970s. At twenty-four, she went to Japan without any particular plans and spent three years in a Buddhist monastery.
This book contains Maura O'Halloran's diaries and letters over these three years: from the beginning of her journey to Japan until the end of her apprenticeship at Toshoji Monastery. She became the first Western woman to receive Dharma transmission and was authorized to teach Zen. However, on her way from Tokyo to Dublin, Maura died in a car accident at the age of twenty-seven. In memory of the "great enlightened one," a statue of Mora, depicted as a bodhisattva of compassion, was erected at Kannonji Temple.
Despite the seriousness of her spiritual quest, O'Halloran's tone is far from pious detachment: in her letters, she mocks the arrogance of Hawaiian Hare Krishnas, criticizes gender inequality, and outlines a dissertation. Her diaries bear witness to a monastic life dedicated to work and inquiry: "emptiness" and other concepts of Zen philosophy are hardly verbally expressible, but cooking rice and sharing meals become daily meditations.