In this time of "serial distraction" an American woman chose to jump feet first into solitary retreat in the Tibetan tradition--lasting three and a half years. Based on her journal writing, Small Boat, Vast Ocean brings the reader intimately into her unfolding inner and outer adventure. It's the story of what this form brought forth from the psyche, how healing was found, then giving way to a true spiritual journey.

This story is told through a "collage" of expository writing, reflection, letters, essays, poetry, and observations of the natural world, offered in chronology. An honest relaying of experience, it includes meetings with bears, scorpions, one cougar, and other adventures while making this oceanic crossing, soul's journey.

The Buddhist ideal of "journey without goal" sums up the classic paradox of spiritual pursuit: a seemingly unattainable balancing of the endeavor toward enlightenment, with a profound acceptance of what is. Berger's reflections on the process of further and further quieting, leads one to understand how this is possible.

Small Boat, Vast Ocean: My Years in Solitary Buddhist Retreat, Diane Rigdzin Berger, Butter Lamp Press, Paperback, 301 pp, $19.95

Diane Berger is a native of the Pacific Northwest, where she graduated from The Evergreen State College in journalism and anthropology. She then went into publishing, including newspaper reporter-photographer to copy editor, including a stint with the book division of Rolling Stone. As a member of the press, Diane first encountered a reincarnated Tibetan lama--the Dalai Lama--on his first trip to the West in 1978. A decade later she stepped fully into the Buddhist world, attending many retreats, including one with HH Dilgo Khyentse in 1990, whom she still considers her heart teacher. On a one-year adventure with her teenage twins, Diane's life took a significant turn in the south of India when she met the reincarnated lama, Dza Kilung Rinpoche. Already an experienced Tibetan Buddhist practitioner, she began assisting this young lama, eventually bringing him to the West, to her city of Seattle. While initially the goal was to find funding to rebuild his monastery in Tibet, the work took off, and they created a thriving humanitarian foundation and Buddhist sangha. After 15 intense years of worldly accomplishment, Diane felt it was time to shift her focus inwardly, to direct spiritual practice, choosing traditional three-year retreat, the subject of this book. Diane completed her retreat in 2015, with an additional nine months in 2016. Since then she has been teaching meditation and Buddhism in Seattle. www.dianerigdzinberger.com