Reviewed by Karen Macklin (5/9/08) YOGA JOURNAL BLOG: SAMADHI & THE CITY
I first went to India when I was 22. I knew nothing about yoga, but I had a transformative experience nonetheless, complete with my first contact with saddhus, a visit to the temple where Buddha sat under the Bodhi 
tree, and a visit to the Ganges River to see the bodies [being cremated] on the ghats. My trip felt deeply spiritual...but, as a recent college grad in a tumultuous love affair with a guy I met while traveling, it also felt completely confusing, raw, and, at times, ridiculous.
tree, and a visit to the Ganges River to see the bodies [being cremated] on the ghats. My trip felt deeply spiritual...but, as a recent college grad in a tumultuous love affair with a guy I met while traveling, it also felt completely confusing, raw, and, at times, ridiculous.So, when I heard about local writer and former Yoga Journal editor Anne Cushman's new book, Enlightenment for Idiots, I was excited to pick up a copy. The book, which she calls a cross between a spiritual journey and a dysfunctional romance, is about a San Franciscan writer and yogi who can't seem to practice in life what she practices on the mat. Her relationships are a mess, and she's financially broke and emotionally ungrounded.
Finally, she gets an assignment to go to India and write a book called Enlightenment for Idiots, for which she must hit all the big and small ashrams throughout the country. Like the trip I took at 22, hers is a wild journey during which she tries to find deeper meaning while simultaneously dealing with a completely unenlightened romantic situation and uncertain future.
While there is satire in Anne's story, there is also insight—and a lot of research. She actually visited all of these places in 1998 when researching a prior nonfiction book on spiritual sites and centers in India, From Here to Nirvana, and used these experiences as the basis for her main character's travels.Anne's main interest lies not in some arbitrary idea of enlightenment but rather in how modern day life (specifically romantic life) and yogic ideals intersect. Or how they don't. She says that many yogic practices were designed for Eastern celibate men—not single, Western women.
She also says that our love lives are the most challenging places for us to act with mindfulness and employ yogic principles. As a Western yogini slowly navigating my way through a new relationship, I can relate!- Video interview with author
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