Hidden Spring

Hidden Spring: A Buddhist Woman Confronts Cancer

by Sandy Boucher

Wisdom Publications,  Somerville, Massachusetts, 2000. 192 pp.

The marvelous treasure of having a true teacher is discovered in Sandy Boucher’s story of surviving cancer. Throughout the unfolding diagnosis, surgery, and chemotherapy, Boucher is “visited” by the teachings of Ruth Denison who offered her selfless service at Dhamma Dena Vipassana Center in Southern California.

A student of Ruth for more than twenty years, Sandy reveals how she benefits from the practice, the reminders, and the lovingkindness. Sandy brings to life Ruth’s valuable teachings and shows the day-to-day service of this extraordinary lay teacher in action. Besides exposing the bare facts of Stage III colon cancer and the effects of chemotherapy, Sandy skillfully demonstrates how her Buddhist practice lights her path of suffering and points her to embracing rather than resisting the consequences.

Sandy Boucher is a writer, teacher, and long-time Buddhist practitioner. The disease that thwarts her life becomes a jewel that exposes the Buddha’s four noble truths. The reader may feel gratitude for this brave writer who weaves words through her own ordeal and ends up delivering a powerful teaching. If you ever wanted to know about surviving an illness, how illness can devastate your personal life, and of what real value are the spiritual teachings at a time like that, read Sandy Boucher’s Hidden Spring.

-- reviewed by Merry Song


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