About the author xi
Publisher’s acknowledgements xii
Preface to the second edition xiii
1 Stumped 1
2 The breakfast table 10
3 Ontology 25
4 Out of my head 44
5 A long way to go 60
6 Buddhists in Bethnal Green 71
7 Very strange, very okay 83
8 Cult 91
9 Freedom within 103
10 Moon metaphors 111
11 My guru reads the Daily Telegraph 128
12 Funny teeth 137
13 The Middle Way 147
14 Cats and dogs 163
15 After the ecstasy, the laundry basket 174
16 On solitary 181
17 It makes sense at every level, except the one on which I live 190
18 Prosthetics 205
19 We are where we are 217
20 Big mind 230
21 Making merit 242
22 In the bardo 255
23 Death and rebirth 262
24 Lineage 279
Author’s Note 292