Overview

An extraordinary spiritual memoir about the will to survive ... one breath at a time Alison Wright covered humanitarian issues with her camera until her own life was nearly cut short during a horrific bus accident with a logging truck on a remote jungle road in Laos. Suffering from excruciating life-threatening injuries, she drew upon her years of meditation practice, concentrating upon each breath, believing it to be her last. Wright's memoir, Learning to Breathe: One Woman's Journey of Spirit and Survival, chronicles this inspirational story of survival and years of rehabilitation, and her ongoing determination to recover and continue traveling the world as an intrepid photojournalist. The book details her ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro as well as her circumambulation of Mount Kailash in Tibet.

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9798200832552

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Reviews

A profound writer...a true pilgrim...There is muscle and tears here, and the fiercest flame of inspiration. -- Richard Gere, actor and producer Alison's story makes clear that if you have courage, you can achieve what others consider to be impossible. -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from the foreword Wright has gone to the ends of the earth, including some mountaintops, in a career that has documented the human wonders of the world, especially resilient children and endangered cultures. In this memoir she turns her lens on herself and her own astonishing story...The author's spiritual insights are fascinating. -- Publishers Weekly Wright's seize-the-day attitude and fierce determination to reach the summit will spur you to hurdle whatever obstacles might lie in your path. -- Self

Author Information

Alison Wright, a social documentary photographer, has spent a career capturing the universal human spirit through her photographs and writing. For many of her editorial and commercial projects, Wright travels to all regions of the globe photographing endangered cultures and people while covering issues concerning the human condition. She was named a National Geographic Traveler of the Year as someone who travels with a sense of passion and purpose. Wright is a recipient of the 1993 Dorothea Lange Award in Documentary Photography for her photographs of child labor in Asia and was twice awarded the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. Alison Wright, a social documentary photographer, has spent a career capturing the universal human spirit through her photographs and writing. For many of her editorial and commercial projects, Wright travels to all regions of the globe photographing endangered cultures and people while covering issues concerning the human condition. She was named a National Geographic Traveler of the Year as someone who travels with a sense of passion and purpose. Wright is a recipient of the 1993 Dorothea Lange Award in Documentary Photography for her photographs of child labor in Asia and was twice awarded the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award. Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He frequently describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. Born in northeastern Tibet in 1935, he was as a toddler recognized as the incarnation of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama and brought to Tibet's capital, Lhasa. In 1950, Mao Zedong's Communist forces made their first incursions into eastern Tibet, shortly after which the young Dalai Lama assumed the political leadership of his country. He passed his scholastic examinations with honors at the Great Prayer Festival in Lhasa in 1959, the same year Chinese forces occupied the city, forcing His Holiness to escape to India. There he set up the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, working to secure the welfare of the more than 100,000 Tibetan exiles and prevent the destruction of Tibetan culture. In his capacity as a spiritual and political leader, he has traveled to more than sixty-two countries on six continents and met with presidents, popes, and leading scientists to foster dialogue and create a better world. In recognition of his tireless work for the nonviolent liberation of Tibet, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. In 2012, he relinquished political authority in his exile government and turned it over to democratically elected representatives. His Holiness frequently states that his life is guided by three major commitments: the promotion of basic human values or secular ethics in the interest of human happiness, the fostering of interreligious harmony, and securing the welfare of the Tibetan people, focusing on the survival of their identity, culture, and religion. As a superior scholar trained in the classical texts of the Nalanda tradition of Indian Buddhism, he is able to distill the central tenets of Buddhist philosophy in clear and inspiring language, his gift for pedagogy imbued with his infectious joy. Connecting scientists with Buddhist scholars, he helps unite contemplative and modern modes of investigation, bringing ancient tools and insights to bear on the acute problems facing the contemporary world. His efforts to foster dialogue among leaders of the world's faiths envision a future where people of different beliefs can share the planet in harmony. Wisdom Publications is proud to be the premier publisher of the Dalai Lama's more serious and in-depth works.

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