Constance Casey’s memoir, Time for Awakening, examines how a Midwestern wife and mother, well-schooled in recovery and Western religions, found enlightenment through intense Buddhist meditation practice. The author juggled two growing sons, a husband who was often away, a DIY home renovation and self-employment, while still satisfying her “ferocious desire to truly know myself…what it is to be born here, to be born human.”
After years as a stalwart Twelve Step member who had also investigated Unitarian Universalism and the Quaker faith, Casey felt drawn to the Buddhist practice of sitting with questions rather than accepting a doctrine. Initially, her local Zen center sufficed to teach her the basics of meditation, and feminist author Anne Wilson Schaef supplied the foundation for Casey’s daily check-in of her denial, illusion of control, external referencing, and dualistic thinking.
Later, she organized her family’s lives so she could attend longer, richer retreats, culminating in a three-month stay at a meditation center in Southeast Asia. There, she had her awakening: “I finally understood my humanness on our terrestrial plane, unified with our vital earthly life force, but also limitless, interwoven, branching outward to the cosmos and beyond.”
Casey, now a teacher of Mindful Meditation Instruction, details the meditation ceremony (bowing to the chair; various postures; silence) and conveys her experiences along the road to enlightenment. She also seamlessly weaves in her relationship with her sons, the challenges of re-building their home, and the joy of longtime friendships, syncing her two storylines in a lovely simile: “For most of my life, I felt like one of my handmade wooden scrap cutting boards—workable, but dry, with tautly warped fibers arching into distorted forms.” After meditation practice, “my inner grain relaxed into a more pliable, natural readiness.”
Although the narration can sometimes feel repetitious and theoretical, it will inform serious Truth seekers. Achieving her own peace, Casey is a gentle guide for readers ready to “Stop. Sit. Be.”