A Fierce Heart

Starred review from September 11, 2017
Washam, cofounder of Oakland, Calif.’s East Bay Meditation Center, blends personal stories with Buddhist wisdom and a range of other traditions (particularly shamanism) in this forceful invitation to personal transformation. “Cultivating a fierce heart is about learning to embrace it all, even the most painful aspects of our lives,” the author writes, and chapters explore such aspects of the spiritual path as leaving the prison of the mind, accepting impermanence, and learning forgiveness. Throughout, Washam shares her struggles to find inner peace and feel compassion for others. Her personal difficulties included growing up biracial in a troubled family, leaving home at age 15, and suffering and witnessing violence before discovering Buddhist meditation. Washam brings energy and passion to the often-staid genre of writing by contemporary American Buddhist teachers. Given the intensity of Washam’s sometimes-extreme spiritual experiences (she often goes on solitary retreats, which she recommends), a few guidelines about when to seek help from expert teachers or mental health professionals would have been helpful for readers. Despite this, Washam brings considerable gifts for conveying her vision of personal change and offers vivid, inspiring testimony to the power of Buddhism (and other wisdom traditions) to help heal suffering.