The Journey of One Buddhist Nun, written by Sid Brown, is a story about a woman who is called Wabi. In her efforts to do so, she faces many hardships and difficulties. This story tells about her experiences during her expedition to becoming a maechi. .
When growing up, Wabi felt unappreciated in her family. Early in her age, she discovered her love for meditation from a visit to a temple with her mother. After completing 6th grade, she was required to assist her mother in caring for her siblings and work in the fields for food and money. At 16 years of age, she experienced going forth as a maechi for the first time and realized that at this moment was when she found peace. Wabi was always discontented and dissatisfied with the idea of growing up to be a mother and constantly having to care for others and work, so at age 17, she makes the decision to go forth. Seeking her father for help, he advises her to travel to Bangkok and together they travel there. Her father soon departs from her side and Maechi Seni offers to take Wabi into her Samnak if she would help care for her father and sister. There, Maechi Wabi stayed for seven years cooking, cleaning, and meditating and she felt peace and happiness for the first time in her life. Maechi Seni teaches her many meditaion forms and Maechi Wabi also travels to other Samnaks to learn. Illness takes over her body and she returns home twice in the same year because of unexpected events. After many hardships, she sets out to reestablish her faith. The Dhammacarini Samnak invites .
her to farther her education and there she remained to the present time to live, study, and teach.
Throughout Wabi's journey, she crosses some major and significant impediments. When she first decides to go forth, she was forewarned about the social status of maechi. They were not the same as a monk's and maechi were less appreciated. "Maechi suffer for their lack of societal recognition, while monks suffer for their great societal recognition- (Brown, 27).
