Alan Clements was the first American to become a Buddhist monk in the country of Burma, where he lived for the good part of a decade. Since leaving the monastery, he has become a spiritual maverick, working for global human rights and teaching his contemporary understanding of liberation to audiences around the world.
After twenty years of leading retreats, Instinct for Freedom is Clements's first book of spiritual exploration, a visionary blend of adventurous autobiography and radical inquiry. Here he presents what he calls World Dharma, an approach to spiritual development that mirrors the narrative of Clements's visionary life. He gives voice to an essential spirituality that can be common to all people — an engaged mysticism based in one precious human value: freedom, the liberation from fear, ignorance and dogma, and the elevation of dignity, conscience, and beauty.
For Clements, freedom is rooted in real life experience, in holding life's complexities in balance with its wondrous gifts, and in the transformational power of relationships with other people and with the world. Exploring the nature of consciousness and our place in the mysterious cosmos may be the key to our freedom, he says. In detailing the early years of his Dharma life living in silence in a Burmese monastery, Clements presents a rare, beautiful, and nuanced account of the actual experience of intensive meditation and what it can offer.
Yet Clements's approach is not a doctrine. It is an intuitive process realized through deep inner trust, gentle self-inquiry and naturalness of spirit and expresses itself in daily acts of courage and love. No amount of spiritual practice or meditative training can adequately prepare us for life, he says. We must find our liberation through living, in this very moment, now, in whatever circumstances we face.
This extraordinary book articulates a vision of "World Dharma," a path...that embraces all beings in compassion. -- NAPRA ReView, November/December 2002
[Clements’] experiences . . . shine through this liberating, compelling and sometimes very funny book. -- Mandala Magazine Fall 2002
About the Author
Alan Clements was the first American to pioneer the dharma from the remote South East Asian Buddhist country of Burma, where he lived in a Buddhist monastery during the 1970s and 80s, five years of which he spent as a monk. During this time he trained in classical Buddhist psychology and Vipassana (insight) meditation with two of the most respected meditation masters of our era, the late Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, and his successor Sayadaw U Pandita.
Since 1989, Clements has expanded his teaching beyond classical Buddhism to become an evocative spokesperson for the transformation of consciousness as the basis of freedom and dignity, lecturing and teaching retreats worldwide. His contemporary understanding of "engaged mysticism," and its expression through social and political activism, have brought him international recognition. His efforts on behalf of oppressed peoples worldwide have led Mr. Jack Healy, the former director of Amnesty International, to call Alan "one of the most important and compelling voices of our times."
Alan has lived in some of the most highly volatile areas of the world. In the jungles of Burma, in 1991, he witnessed and documented the genocide of the ethnic minorities by the military dictatorship, which he wrote about in his first book, Burma: The Next Killing Fields? He then lived in the former-Yugoslavia for nearly a year during the war where he wrote "Burning" (a screenplay). Back in Burma he co-authored The Voice of Hope (Seven Stories Press) the internationally acclaimed book of conversations with Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace laureate and leader of her country's non-violent struggle for freedom. Clements is also co-author of Burma's Revolution of the Spirit, with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
In addition, Clements was the script revisionist and advisor for Beyond Rangoon, a feature film depicting Burma's struggle for democracy, directed by John Boorman. Alan has been interviewed on ABC Nightline, CBS Evening News, Talk to America, CBC, VOA, BBC, and by the New York Times, London Times, Time and Newsweek magazines, and scores of other media worldwide.
Presently, Alan focuses his efforts on evolving his vision: WorldDharma, a spiritually-edgy, non-sectarian community of seekers, artists, writers and activists dedicated to exploring the link between our inner journey and engagement with our outer journey through, creativity, service and activism. In addition, Alan is a spoken word artist who regularly performs his highly acclaimed one man show Spiritually Incorrect, described by Lloyd Kandall at Taboo Recordsas as "Krishnamurti meets Michael Moore." Clements also leads World Dharma retreats - speaking to audiences on the fundamental importance of trusting one's own instinct for freedom - the natural urge of the heart to know itself and seek its liberation from all obstacles, real and imagined.
Product Details
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: New World Library; First Edition edition (September 26, 2002)
Alan Clements was the first American to ordain as a Buddhist monk in Burma where he lived in a monastery during the 1970s and 1980s. During this time he trained in existential Buddhist psychology and insight (vipassana) meditation with two of the most respected meditation teachers of the modern era, the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, and his successor, Sayadaw U Pandita.
In 1984, Clements was forced to leave the monastery by Burma's dictatorship, with no reason given. Subsequently, he returned to the United States, and as an independent, nonsectarian dharma teacher, led over one-hundred meditation retreats, worldwide. In 1988, he expanded his understanding beyond classical Buddhism, and as a spiritual maverick and political activist, began working for global human rights and freedom. His efforts on behalf of oppressed peoples led a former director of Amnesty International to call Alan "one of the most important and compelling voices of our times."
As a journalist, Alan has lived in some of the most highly volatile areas of the world. In the jungles of Burma, in 1990, he was the first eye-witness to document the mass murdering of the ethnic minorities by the military dictatorship, which he wrote about in his first book "Burma: The Next Killing Fields?" (with a foreword by the Dalai Lama).
Invited to the former-Yugoslavia in 1993 by a senior officer for the United Nations, where he lived during the final year of their war consulting with NGO's and the United Nation's on the "vital role of consciousness in understanding human rights, freedom, and peace." At that time Alan was commissioned to write "Burning" - a screenplay exploring the nature of love and nonviolence in the context of hatred and war.
In 1995, the French publishing house Editions Stock contracted Alan to reenter Burma and attempt contact with Aung San Suu Kyi, the elected leader of her country's pro-democracy movement and the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate. She had just been released from six years of incarceration. The goal was to invite Aung San Suu Kyi to tell her courageous story, illuminating the philosophical underpinnings of Burma's nonviolent spiritual revolution - a nationwide struggle for freedom known as a "revolution of the spirit."
The transcripts of six months of conversations, smuggled out of the country, ultimately became the book "The Voice of Hope." Translated into 13 languages, The Voice of Hope offers penetrating insight into the psychology of totalitarianism and nonviolent revolution. Said the London Observer: "Clements is the perfect interlocutor.... whatever the future of Burma, a possible future for politics itself is illuminated by these conversations."
In late 2007, based on the Buddhist monk-and nun-led uprisings in Burma, a new edition of The Voice of Hope, was updated and revised by Alan. The book, published in English by Seven Stories Press in North America and worldwide by Random House UK, will also appear in a number of foreign languages in late 2008 and 2009, including Japanese, Italian and French.
Clements is also the co-author (with Leslie Kean) and a contributing photographer to "Burma's Revolution of the Spirit" (Aperture, NY)- a large format photographic tribute to Burma's nonviolent struggle for democracy - with a foreword by the Dalai Lama and essays by eight Nobel peace laureates.
In addition, Clements was the script revisionist and advisor for Beyond Rangoon (Castle Rock Entertainment), a feature film depicting the crisis in Burma, directed by John Boorman.
Alan's most recent book, "Instinct for Freedom: A Maverick's Guide to Spiritual Revolution - The Practice of Finding Liberation Through Living," details his thirty-year long "search for truth and freedom " - from the sacredness of monastic silence deep into the dark heart of war zones. "Instinct" is a revolutionary book about the power of authenticity - "the liberating art of being true to one's heart." And forms the foundation of the World Dharma vision as well as the basis for the course.
As result of Alan's activism in Burma, in 1997 the dictatorship "permanently blacklisted" him from reentering the country, branding him "Public Enemy."
Aung San Suu Kyi was rearrested in 2001 and again in 2003, where she remains incommunicado, along with nearly 1,500 other prisoner's of conscience.
Alan is also a political and spiritual satirist, and performs his acclaimed monologue, "Spiritually Incorrect: In Defense of Being, Human," to audiences around the world, as benefits to raise awareness of Aung San Suu Kyi and her country's ongoing struggle for freedom.
Clements has been interviewed on ABC's Nightline, CBS Evening News, Talk to America, CBC, VOA, BBC, and by the New York Times, London Times, Time and Newsweek magazines, Yoga Journal, Conscious Living, and scores of other media worldwide.
In addition, Alan has presented to such organizations as Mikhail Gorbachev's State of The World Forum, The Soros Foundation, United Nations Association of San Francisco, the universities of California, Toronto, Sydney, and many others, including a keynote address at the John Ford Theater for Amnesty International's 30th year anniversary.
This review is from: Instinct for Freedom: Finding Liberation through Living (Hardcover)
In reading most spiritual books, I've noticed that there's a subtle gap between the well-meaning view portrayed, and what I actually feel and experience in reading. You know when you get a used book, and the prior reader has underlined and written, "How true!" Well, it's like other spiritual books have an undertone of "I wish it were true."
In contrast, Clements' words are alive with authentic conviction, and the unmistakeable clarion ring of truth. There's not a trace of pontification. This man has lived an incredible life. He's able to capture the essence of real spirituality and deliver it live and wriggling to the reader. I don't know how he does it. But, as a writer myself, I know that there's only one way he could do it. By really living it. And clearly he does.
He came back down from the mountaintop, so listen up, folks, cause he's really got something worth hearing.
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This review is from: Instinct for Freedom: Finding Liberation through Living (Hardcover)
As a Pastor,I've heard many a good sermon and read many spiritual books. But nothing compares to Alan Clement's ability to spellbind the reader with his magnificently written true life stories. He weaves together into a beautiful tapestry his own brand of Buddhist philosophy, political knowledge, science, wisdom and chutzpah that also seems mysteriously to encapsulate the reader as well. What I found even more intriguing in "Instinct For Freedom" are Alan's honestly-written and courageous choices and sacrifices he has made in life in pursuit of spirituality, freedom, truth and enlightenment. Any and all spiritual seekers from any belief system (or none) should definitely read this book.
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