No one walks around the Buddhist holy places in India. Not today. They travel by bus with good reason. The Buddha's homeland is now one of the most desperately overcrowded and poverty ridden places on the planet. It is also very dangerous. But Nick Scott and Ajahn Sucitto decided to do just that: to walk for six months and for over one thousand miles, sleeping out at night and living on alms food, just as the Buddha would have done.

"Armchair pilgrims take note! This book will provide blisters, backaches, frights, absurd laughter and all night meditation. Result? Exhaustion tinged with grace. In the age of the pop-epiphany, Rude Awakenings is a throwback to what began it all: the slow road to enlightenment. It's also a badminton in play between the Odd Couple of Spirituality, and one lovely read." Tad Wise, author of Blessings in the Wind and Circling the Sacred Mountain.

"As the clarity and candour of the writing draw us into this remarkable journey, we soon experience an inner landscape of two extraordinary hearts and minds. This is a wonderful book." Joseph Goldstein, meditation teacher and author of The Emerging Western Buddhism