Records the first monastic year of a 38-year-old Californian who was ordained in a Thai Buddhist monastery. This remarkable book records the first monastic year of a 38 year-old Californian who was ordained in a Thai Buddhist monastery. He neither sought nor received special privileges. In every detail, he lived the celibate and abstemious life of the orthodox Theravadin bhikkhu, and embarked on a spiritual quest as relevant in today's troubled world as it was 2,500 years ago when the Buddha was alive. In many respects, the Californian's story is as old as Buddhism itself;