The Buddha of Lightning Peak

Author: Yudron Wangmo
Subtitle: Cycle of the Sky Book 2
Softcover ~ 259 pages

Sometimes it seems like no one has seventeen-year-old Dee Adair’s back. She’s got enough stress dealing with her little brother being locked up, a heartless homophobic grandmother, and an ex-girlfriend who gives her trouble every time they cross paths. Now, sacred Lighting Peak—her only place of peace—is scheduled for destruction. Bulldozers and dynamite are poised to excavate the mine, massacring the animals who live there in the process. Matrika Shergill, the mine’s hot no-nonsense owner, couldn’t care less about the furry little darlings.

Dee must find the inner strength from her meditation practice to weather violence and betrayal—and harness the power of friendship—if she is to save Lightning Peak. Discouraged by apathetic adults, pursued by murderous goons, inspired by a sage, and yearning for love, she presses onward. The Buddha of Lightning Peak forges the transformational journey of an imperfect African-American lesbian teen lit up by the heroic promise to help all living things no matter what.

"The Buddha of Lightning Peak sees the author, Yudron Wangmo, grow quite a bit as a writer from her first work, Excavating Pema Ozer. While Excavating stayed more within the bounds of the author's experience, Buddha of Lightning Peak expands beyond it with a very action-packed and exciting tale. Many new themes appear in this work: The experience of LGBT youth, environmentalism, the urban farming movement, organized crime in rural America, and more. . . The background theme of Buddhist teaching and practice is more subdued here than in Excavating Pema Ozer, but it guides the action and themes at every step. I strongly recommend this work for both young and adult readers."

Yudron Wangmo is an in-depth Buddhist practitioner (naljorma) of the Nyingma Buddhist tradition. She started down that path in the early nineties and has had the good fortune to be guided by three amazing meditation masters. She’s a strong believer in the effectiveness of a daily meditation practice, guided by a qualified meditation master, in relieving personal and global suffering. She’s been a full-time naljorma since 2007 and has completed a traditional three-year, three-month group retreat and two additional cumulative years of personal retreat. In the past she worked as a nurse, a practitioner of alternative medicine, and an ice cream truck driver. She is currently focused on continuing her own practice and writing novels about how these traditional practices of Tibet can heal the human heart and turn our lives in an ever more positive direction. She abides in a peaceful sanctuary on a creek in the middle of Oakland, California, where birds chirp in the foreground and gunshots resound in the background.