The Spiritual Odyssey of Freda Bedi: England, India, Burma, Sikkim, and Beyond

Freda Bedi (Sister Palmo) was an extraordinary woman whose story is told with ease and eloquence in this gripping account by Norma Levine. Like Levine's other books, it's a smooth read and once started is hard to put down. I had heard about Freda Bedi for years, even the rumors that she was the first Western woman to become enlightened, but didn't know the particulars of her life and death. I find it strange that not more had been written about her until now. It is refreshing to read a bio of such an inspirational woman who achieved such heights in both the mundane and spiritual realms. She was a bodhisattva and benefitted many beings. Her story is long overdue and told quite beautifully here. I highly recommend this volume with a deep bow to Ms. Levine for her efforts.

This is a wonderful book that anyone with an interest in the history of modern Buddhism and woman practitioners should read. It is carefully and extensively researched by Norma Levine, who practices in the Karmapa’s lineage and knows it from the inside. This gives her a sensitivity to the material and an accuracy to her reporting that is not found elsewhere. The family of Freda Bedi (later Sister Palmo) opened all their archives to Levine, and she also found new material, including recordings of Sister Palmo talking about her life and documents by and about her. Levine weaves all of this into an engaging narrative that is interspersed with numerous pictures published for the first time.Sister Palmo’s story is an amazing one, beginning with a young woman at Oxford who boldly married a Sikh and moved to India to support the independence movement from Brittan for which she was jailed. After meeting the Sixteenth Karmapa, she became a nun and through her connections with the Indian government supported the Tibetans, who had recently escaped to India. She was a strong practitioner and learned Tibetan so well that she could read (and practice) advanced meditation treatises and as well as translate texts for new western Buddhists. In addition to providing insights into this eventful era in the history of India and Tibet, her life is an inspiring example of how to blend practice with engagement in the world.

Before this book the world in general had little idea of Freda Bedi's extraordinary life and none at all of her even more extraordinary death. Levine's background as a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner of long standing who intimately knows the cultural and peopled Tibetan Buddhist world has been able to dive deeply into her subject and understand the import of her death - a death exhibiting all the signs of full awakening- after such an extraordinary life. With unique access to to her family archive and to those who knew her, ranging from high Lamas to personal assistant, Levine has unearthed Freda Bedi's story of a life long commitment to freedom. This was not only freedom of her beloved India but to her own personal freedom from this wheel of life to which we are all chained, through devotion to her beloved guru, HH the Sixteenth Karmapa, and the meditation practices he taught her and allowed her to teach to others. The book spoke to me at such a deep level. What a role model she is for modern woman, both fully engaged in the world and at the same time fully engaged in her own deep practice . Levine has managed to write so clearly and compellingly about subjects which may appear esoteric to some that I couldn't put it down. Why, one wonders, did her death pass almost unnoticed at the time?

I'm nearly finished reading this long awaited beautiful bio of Freda Bedi. . Have barely been able to put the book down since I started it.I've wanted so much to learn about Freda and her extraordinary life and spiritual journey.An inspiring read. Thankyou Norma Levine.