Half raucous adventure and half inspirational memoir, Rude Awakenings documents an unusual pilgrimage. Two very different men—life-loving naturalist Nick Scott and austere Buddhist monk Ajahn Sucitto—together spend six months retracing the Buddha's footsteps through India. Told alternately by Sucitto and Scott in their distinctive voices, this story blends self-effacing humor, philosophical explorations, drama, travel observations, and the occasional giant fruit bat. Rude Awakenings is a heady record of survival and spirituality set against the dramatic backdrop of one of India's most lawless regions.

Praise & Reviews "Armchair Pilgrims take note! This book will provide blisters, back-aches, frights, absurd laughter, and all-night meditations (including the nod-offs). Result? Exhaustion tinged with grace. In the age of the pop-epiphany Rude Awakenings is a throwback to what began it all: the slow road to enlightenment. One that, in fact, never ends. It's also a badmitten in play between the Odd Couple of Spirituality , a most welcome recounting of a warts-'n-all Buddha, the clash of trash-and-timeless India, and one lovely read." —Tad Wise, co-author of Blessings on the Wind and co-author (with Robert Thurman) of Circling the Sacred Mountain "In Rude Awakenings, Ajahn Sucitto anjd Nick Scott take us on a pilgrimage through Buddhist India. But as the clarity and candor of their writing draw us into this remarkable journey, we soon experience an inner landscape of two extraordinary hearts and minds. This is a wonderful book."—Joseph Goldstein, author of One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism "This generous book by 'Two Englishmen' on pilgrimage in India is utterly delightful and filled with insight. Although the outer details of their travels are recorded as well, it is basically an honest and brilliantly executed book about an inner pilgrimage. The writers illustrate how to put the teachings of the Buddha into practice amidst both the mundane and the dramatic. With a moving earnestness and sincerity of heart, this book has much to teach about expectations and humility."—Narayan Liebenson Grady, guiding teacher, Cambridge Insight Meditation Center, and author of When Singing, Just Sing: Life As Meditation "This is the written crystallization of a unique journey to the Buddhist holy places of India, a trek of 1000 miles made on foot, by two religious seekers. As the reader accompanies them along the dusty trail of their juxtaposed accounts-of the glories & horrors of teeming pungent cities, somnolent villages, ancient sanctuaries and tiger-haunted forests-the reading too becomes something of a pilgrimage. And just as this pair of travelers were challenged, inspired and transformed by their journey, we too find ourselves similarly changed."—Ajahn Amaro, abbot of Abhayagiri Monastery "An intimate pilgrimage viewed in stereoscope. Part of the joy in reading comes from the tension between the two distinct perspectives: the monk's observation of the proper forms; the scientist's discriminating yet passionately-held views. Rude Awakenings is a rare opportunity to see modern India from the street level. Memorable and highly recommended."—Rev. Heng Sure, Director of the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery "A delightful, amusing, and sometimes harrowing journey across a surprising landscape of Buddhist history, with a pair of honest and endearing travel guides. Ajahn Sucitto and Nick Scott prove that enlightenment can be found anywhere, even on a dusty back road."—Dinty W. Moore, author of The Accidental Buddhist: Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still

Ajahn Sucitto and Nick Scott, Author AJAHN SUCITTO, a Theravadan Buddhist monk in the Thai forest tradition for twenty-eight years, is the Abbot of Chithurst Monastery in England. He is a popular teacher of meditation who teaches and conducts retreats around the world. DR NICK SCOTT is a botanist and ecologist who has worked most of his life in conservation. He lives in Ireland. Ajahn Sucitto, Author AJAHN SUCITTO, a Theravadan Buddhist monk in the Thai forest tradition for twenty-eight years, is the Abbot of Chithurst Monastery in England. He is a popular teacher of meditation who teaches and conducts retreats around the world.