Barbara McHugh is the author of the award-winning novel:
Bride of the Buddha
This is the inspirational story of Yasodhara, the abandoned wife of the Buddha. Facing society's challenges, she transforms her rage into devotion to the path of liberation. Concealing her gender, she joins the monastic community and becomes the Buddha's closest confidant, known in the scriptures as Ananda. She/he is the one who persuades the Buddha to allow women to join the order and attains awakening just in time to guide the council in preserving the Buddha's teachings. A page-turner about a woman's struggle in an unapologetic patriarchy, Bride of the Buddha offers the reader a penetrating perspective on the milieu of the Buddha, with a fanciful twist.
Barbara McHugh, PhD, is a Buddhist practitioner with degrees in religious literature from UC Berkeley. Her research for this book includes exhaustive study of Pali texts in translation and onsite explorations in India.
"Bride of the Buddha" is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop, Indiebound, or at your local bookstore.
Publisher: Monkfish Book Publishing Company
Praise
"In this fine debut, McHugh combines scholarship with
intriguing fictionalizations.
This engrossing exploration of gender dynamics, identity,
and the spiritual quest for meaning will appeal to
Buddhists and general readers alike."
—Publishers Weekly
(Read the Full Review)
"McHugh deftly manages to vividly convey a moving drama with a
message about female empowerment at its core without indulging
in any heavy-handed, didactic sermonizing.
This is an impressive tapestry of history, spiritual philosophy,
and literary drama and an edifying look at the patriarchal limitations
of Buddhism's genesis.
An intelligently conceived and artistically executed
reconsideration of religious history."
—Kirkus Reviews
(Read the Full Review)
"Blending new scholarship, established myth,
and skillful storytelling, McHugh delivers
an inspiring portrait of a woman challenging the
patriarchy."
—Lion's Roar
(Read the Full Review)
"A luminous, imaginative story of love, courage, and devotion."
—Foreword Reviews
(Read the Full Review)
"Lovely, poetic prose illuminates this novel of the historical Buddha,
his wife, and his followers. McHugh gives elegant new voice and form
to this ancient story, telling the story from a female's unique perspective,
and in doing so creates a fresh tale that will both entertain
and inspire readers. Recommended." (Editor's Choice)
—Historical Novel Review
(Read the Full Review)
"A deftly crafted and impressively memorable novel that showcases author
Barbara McHugh's impressive flair for originality and the kind of
narrative storytelling style and skills that keep her
readers riveted from first page to last."
—Midwest Book Review
(Read the Full Review)
"Bride of the Buddha transports us to the years after Prince Siddhartha
leaves his wife, Yasodhara, to seek his Dharma and become the Buddha.
In this extraordinary imagining of Yasodhara's own journey to awakening,
you'll feel you are with her every step of the way."
— James N. Frey, author of 7
bestselling books on the craft of writing
"For the most part, the women who support and inspire great men remain anonymous.
We have Barbara McHugh to thank for bringing Yasodhara out of the shadows.
Making use of historical texts, oral traditions, and a vivid imagination,
she has created a portrait of the bride of Buddha and the world in which he lived.
Crisp, charming, and unforgettable."
— Sam Keen, author of To a Dancing God, Fire in the Belly and Your Mythic Journey
"From the first page to the last,
the tale of this feisty bride and seeker held my heart.
Yasi/Ananda repeatedly risks the hell realms out of love
for others and a passion for justice.
In her scrupulous honesty with herself about her faults,
she is often blind to her own goodness,
but her sometime husband aka the Buddha sees her more
clearly and tenderly.
As someone who has found Buddhism baffling,
I was deeply informed and moved by Barbara McHugh's
brilliant imagining of Yasodhara's life."
—
Elizabeth Cunningham, author of The Passion of Mary Magdalen
"A remarkable and riveting love story — I literally could not put this book down —
Barbara McHugh's Bride of the Buddha is told in luminous and mindfully-crafted prose.
By re-imagining the Buddha's disciple Ananda as Yasodhara,
the wife Siddhartha abandoned in order to seek the Way,
McHugh offers a story equally poised between transcendence and simple humanity.
The reading became for me a meditation and an invitation to examine the
Buddha's teaching in a new light. Highly recommended for anyone interested in
living a more awakened life."
— Mobi Warren, translator of Thich Nhat Hanh's Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha
"How wonderful to have the feminine written back into the
early Buddhist tradition.
Where the Pali Canon leaves women out on the periphery,
denied their place in the meditation grounds
(and therefore denied a path to enlightenment),
Barbara's imaginative placement of Yasodhara as Ananda,
the historical Buddha's right hand 'wo/man,'
is timely and welcome. As the narrative aligns so closely to the Pali texts,
it is truly delightful to imagine Yasodhara / Ananda helping the
female sangha become established.
I shall happily consider this course of herstory from now on.
Truly wonderful!"
— Ruth Phypers, author of
Women, Meditative Practice and the Path to Enlightenment in Mahayana Buddhism,
dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
"In the tradition of alternate reality novels, Barbara McHugh spins a
creative tale of intrigue and family drama as she reimagines aspects
of the story of the Buddha. It is engaging and inventive, and very enjoyable."
—Phillip Moffitt, teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
and author of Dancing with Life:
Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the face of Suffering
"A masterfully woven story of love and a yearning for freedom,
both societal and spiritual, Barbara McHugh's moving narrative,
transmuting characters into each other, weaving facts with fiction,
teachings with tales,
kept me engaged and wanting to know what happened next.
I very much enjoyed reading Bride of the Buddha
and will definitely recommend it to others."
— Shantum Seth, founding teacher of
BuddhaPath Pilgrimages, "In the Footsteps of the Buddha"
"The wife of Siddhartha, the man who would be Buddha,
Yasodhara sees her husband's heart and sacrifices her marriage
to his quest for enlightenment, then has to face hard truths to
pursue her own spiritual authenticity."
Bride of the Buddha is a riveting tale of the nature of suffering
and the journey to wisdom.
Magically written, McHugh creates a world of mystic hope and earthly
promise that leaves us looking more deeply into our own hearts."
— Tess Collins, author of Shadow Mountain
"In this unique and gripping novel of a historical figure relegated to the
shadows by her famous husband, Yasodhara forges her own path,
sacrificing position and privilege to undertake a perilous quest for enlightenment."
Bride of the Buddha educates, illuminates,
and captivates as it brings us into a legendary world.
— Max Tomlinson, award-winning author of Sendero
and many other best-sellers
"In an ambitious and brilliantly conceived historical novel that is both
spiritually inspirational and heart-stopping entertainment, McHugh,
a lifelong student of Buddhism and accomplished teacher of poetry,
brings these gifts together in a novel with characters so
well-realized that readers will be drawn into their quest and make it their own."
— John Martel, author of The Alternate and other bestselling novels
"A daring reimagining of the life of Yasodhara, the wife and mother of
the infant Rahula that were left by Siddhartha to pursue enlightenment.
As a young girl, Yasodhara is determined to engage a
spiritual quest in the midst of a suffocating patriarchal culture in
which men wielded power and upheld rigidly defined gender and class roles.
It is all the more shocking, therefore, when Yasodhara infiltrates the
Buddha's Sangha as the young monk Ananda and plays the pivotal role
that he played in the life of the Buddha.
At the heart of Yasodhara's spiritual seeking is an
unshakable love that fiercely defends her husband and son,
women and young seekers, and eventually expands to include
the entire Sangha and the preservation of what the Buddha taught.
I finished this novel with a yearning for this story to be true."
—Wendy Egyoku Nakao, Abbot Emeritus of
Zen Center of Los Angeles and co-author of The Book of Householder Koans
"A rare and captivating story, set in India some 2600 years ago,
that explores who the Buddha might have been as a husband,
father, and supremely enlightened being seen from the point of view of Yasodhara,
the beautiful wife he abandoned.
Barbara McHugh skillfully weaves documentation from the earliest Pali texts
together with vividly imagined fictional events and
characters to create a literary delight."
— Meg Gawler, author of Voices of Early Buddhist Nuns (Thesis)
"In deft prose, Barbara McHugh creates the voice of Buddha's wife
as a proto-feminist in a profoundly patriarchal culture.
Yasodhara journeys from being the Buddha's profoundly sensual spouse to
becoming his valued spiritual companion and attendant, Ananda, credibly disguised as a man.
Bride of the Buddha is first a story,
not a philosophical discourse, a re-imagining,
not a re-telling of her story that even a non-Buddhist can appreciate."
— Carol L. Gloor, author of Gifting Death the Raspberries
"In prose that glides like poetry, McHugh weaves the bold story of a remarkable woman.
Transported to a period when women were meant to be vessels only for breeding and serving,
we follow her perilous spiritual journey to enlightenment.
So much of women's truth has been lost to history,
but McHugh lifts the veil to reveal Yasodhara, the Buddha's wife."
— Dorothy Edwards, author of Langston's Moon
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