Cushman - The mama sutra: a story of love, loss, and the path of motherhood

PRAISE FOR

The Mama Sutra is a deep, heartfelt journey into the steep canyons and peaks of motherhoodan often-undervalued Dharma path. Anne Cushmans captivating writing takes you with her on this journey into the raw and challenging places only motherhood can take you. I treasure this book and will recommend it to others.

LAMA TSULTRIM ALLIONE , author of Wisdom Rising

Reading The Mama Sutra, I realize that Im doubly blessed. Blessed that Anne has taken us into her confidence and shared the raw, messy, beautiful details of her lifealternately heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny. And blessed that her courage to share such intimacies has encouraged me look tenderly at my own life.

LINDA SPARROWE , author of Yoga Mama

With lush specificity, sparkling wit, and the courage to expose her own vulnerability, Anne Cushman explores the joys and sorrows of motherhood. She does so in a way that ultimately transcends its subject and becomes something much broader: an exploration of what it means to be a spiritual seeker who lives a passionately embodied life, inextricably connected to otherschildren, parents, lovers, friendsthrough the mystery of incarnation, the grief of loss, and the timeless nature of love.

NOELLE OXENHANDLER , author of The Wishing Year

A mothers unconditional love is often presented as a model of loving-kindness, but real motherscursing in childbirth, leaking milk, kissing bruises, pounding a wall in the middle of the night so they didnt pound their babieshave never had a voice in spiritual literature. With courage and compassion, The Mama Sutra gives them that voice. Cushmans tender, fierce, and beautiful memoir masterfully brings the lofty ideals of spiritual practice down to the messy, heartbreaking details of womens lives, honoring the labor with which women give birth and nurture our families, our partners, our communities, and ourselves. Cushmans powerful book shows us that the joys and sorrows of motherhood are not separate from the spiritual path but are the path itself. Finally!

LEZA LOWITZ , author of In Search of the Sun

Shambhala Publications, Inc.

4720 Walnut Street

Boulder, Colorado 80301

www.shambhala.com

2019 by Anne Cushman

constitutes a continuation of the copyright page.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Designed by Claudine Mansour Design

Cover art by hatipoglu/iStock/Getty Images

Cover design by Graciela Galup

L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING - IN -P UBLICATION D ATA

Names: Cushman, Anne, author.

Title: The mama sutra: a story of love, loss, and the path of motherhood / Anne Cushman.

Description: First edition. | Boulder: Shambhala, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018035342 | ISBN 9781611804638 (pbk.: alk. paper)

eISBN9780834842106

Subjects: LCSH : Cushman, Anne. | Motherhood. | Loss (Psychology) | Buddhism.

Classification: LCC HQ 759 . C 984 2019 | DDC 306.874/3dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018035342

v5.4

a

For my mother

Nancy Troland Cushman

19242015

and my daughter

Sierra

May 9, 1999

Sutra is the Sanskrit name for a short spiritual teaching in the yogic and Buddhist tradition. It comes from the same root as the English word suture, a verb that means to stitch.

The stories in this book are not sutras in the traditional sense. They are an homage to the long threads that run through all human lives, stitching up whats shredded in our hearts.