If Buddhism is to realize its liberative potential in the modern world, we need to learn a lot more about the nature of awakening. This book is an important step in that direction. Boyle's interviews with well-known Western teachers are insightful (sometimes fascinating) in themselves, and the conclusions that he draws from them are a significant contribution to our understanding of contemplative traditions. -- David Loy, author of A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution, and Ethics in the Modern World 'Awakening,' as described and practiced in Buddhism, Boyle shows, is a process that is real and can be appraised in scientific terms. -- Anthony Giddens, London School of Economics When meditators have an 'awakening,' what is it really like? Richard P. Boyle interviewed eleven Western Buddhist teachers to find out, and we get to read their accounts in their own words. Then, drawing on these interviews and on scientific research, Boyle offers an innovative view of how awakening happens and how it can transform each of us. -- Paula England, New York University, and president, American Sociological Association In addition to the interviews with well-known American Buddhist teachers, which form the heart of this book and make fascinating reading in themselves, Boyle develops a provocative frame of reference for understanding and discussing philosophically the meaning of some common features he identifies in the interviews, regarding the form of consciousness generally referred as 'awakening.' -- David Preston, San Diego State University, author of Constructing Trans-Cultural Reality: The Social Organization of Zen Practice More than any book I have read, it left me optimistic that awakened consciousness is not some myth but an attainable human potential. PsycCritiques