Mar 24, 2010 at 04:00PM

The Novice: Why I Became A Buddhist Monk,
Why I Quit and What I Learned.

Stephen Schettini is the author of The Novice: Why I Became A Buddhist Monk, Why I Quit and What I Learned.

His memoir tells of his unusual journey searching for truth and purpose. It opens with the frustrated childhood that led him as a young man on an exciting overland trip through Iran, Afghanistan and the Swat Valley before settling down among the Tibetans for a life of study and meditation. Eight years later, and after a year in a Tibetan refugee camp in Southern India and a prolonged encounter with austere southern Buddhism, he grows disillusioned and abandons his monastic path.

Schettini is not your typical spiritual teacher. Instead of offering a philosophy, he tells stories that provoke deep philosophical thought. Rather than giving answers, he shares stubborn questions. Disdaining any claim to enlightenment, he speaks frankly of the stresses of life in a fast-paced, technologically challenging, sometimes soulless consumer culture.

He’s found that by developing trust in himself and by honing his intuition he can contribute to contemporary life without having to withdraw. Relying entirely on his ability to learn from experience, without sooth-saying or philosophical pretentions, he’s on a par with students and readers alike.

Director of Quiet Mind Seminars based in Montreal since 2003, he’s led hundreds of mindful reflection™ workshops mostly to non-Buddhists.

Schettini has also written a practical guide to the way of awakening taught by the historical Buddha entitled It Begins with Silence, subtitled The Art of Mindful Reflection™

He resides with his wife, Caroline in Quebec, Canada.

http://www.schettini.com/