https://www.vanessarsasson.com/about-vanessarsasson daily 0.75 2024-11-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608615355896-91N7FPV3HNXM022TD2UH/VanessaRSasson.png About the author Vanessa R Sasson https://www.vanessarsasson.com/general-3 daily 0.75 2023-06-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1e8e6713-71f1-4891-a072-a9949b93be8a/gathering+front+cover+hig+res.jpg Fiction - The Gathering Sasson’s new book is a retelling of the story of the women’s request for ordination. Inspired by the Therigatha and building on years of research and experience in the field, Sasson follows Vimala, Patachara, Bhadda Kundalakesa, and many others as they walk through the forest to request full access to the tradition. The Buddha’s response to this request is famously complicated; he eventually accepts women into the Order, but specific and controversial conditions are attached. Sasson invites us to think about who these first Buddhist women might have been, what they might have hoped to achieve, and what these conditions might have meant to them thereafter. By shaping her research into a story, Sasson invites readers to imagine a world that continues to inspire and complicate the Buddhist narrative to this day. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/9dda08aa-dc53-4093-842b-a49385e4d240/yasodhara+front+cover.jpg Fiction - Yasodhara A long time ago, in a far-off kingdom, a boy and a girl, born on the same day, were destined to be together--and then painfully wrenched apart. The boy was Siddhattha, heir to the Sakya kingdom and the future Buddha; the girl was the beautiful and precocious Yasodhara, his friend who became his loving wife. In this exquisitely crafted narrative, we encounter Yasodhara as a fiercely independent, passionate and resilient individual. We witness her joys and sorrows, her expectations and frustrations, her fairy-tale wedding, and her overwhelming devastation at the departure of her beloved. It is through her eyes that we witness Siddhattha's slow transformation, from a sheltered prince to a deeply sensitive young man. On the way, we see how the gods watch over the future Buddha from the clouds, how the king and his ministers try to keep the suffering of the world from him and how he eventually renounces the throne, his wife and newly-born son to seek enlightenment. Resurrecting a forgotten woman from the origin stories of the Buddha, Vanessa R. Sasson combines the spirit of fiction and the fabulism of Indian mythology with impeccable scholarship, to tell the evocative and deeply moving story of an extraordinary life. https://www.vanessarsasson.com/home-vanessarsasson daily 1.0 2025-06-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608615201411-0SW179SFVWRBIS7F1G6P/VanessaRSasson.png Home - About Vanessa Vanessa R Sasson https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/a6b5bada-3961-4c89-a611-ba11aab225ee/gathering+front+cover+hig+res.jpg Home https://www.vanessarsasson.com/academic-1 daily 0.75 2023-06-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1609380043644-1RF3RY4E9UPIP7D6R6WW/LITTLE+BUDDHAS.jpg Academic Little Buddhas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/0da12006-e64b-493d-bf7d-3a04f7cfd371/9780824887858-600x906.jpg Academic - Jewels, Jewelry, and Other Shiny Things in the Buddhist Imaginary Jewels, Jewelry, and Other Shiny Things in the Buddhist Imaginary https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1606685461654-SUV8PV7COKPHFP39FAFB/TO+FIX+TORAH+IN+THEIR+HEARTS.jpg Academic To Fix Torah in Their Heart https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1607528438969-VZ84VVK5NBFHVD9S41DH/IMAGINING+THE+FETUS.jpg Academic Imagining the Fetus https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1606684967365-2SVDPDJ5IIQOMUJBUUM5/THE+BIRTH+OF+MOSES+AND+THE+BUDDHA.jpg Academic The Birth of Moses and the Buddha https://www.vanessarsasson.com/podcasts-vanessarsasson daily 0.75 2025-06-23 https://www.vanessarsasson.com/interviews-vanessarsasson daily 0.75 2021-03-03 https://www.vanessarsasson.com/sample-writing-vanessarsasson daily 0.75 2025-06-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1609380680960-TUN3EPRIWYVRVCB89BUL/Hand+touching+rainy+window.jpg Essays and Short Stories about Buddhism - Forbidden from Saying Goodbye Buddhistdoor Global | 2020-12-15 | Every morning, I went to work by opening my computer. Like everyone else, I had switched my college classes to an online platform and was growing accustomed to my students as small boxes on a screen. Despite expectations to the contrary, teaching online had quickly become the most important part of my day. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608685085456-NB5VAASXCP7H5V31RKCU/decapitated+buddha+heads.jpg Essays and Short Stories about Buddhism - Decapitated Buddhas At Borobudur Buddhistdoor Global | 2018-01-15 | I knew to expect them. But it’s one thing to know something theoretically, and something else entirely to experience it for oneself. My seven-year-old son and I made it to Borobudur just before sunset. We walked toward the ancient Javanese Buddhist complex in silent awe. The stupa rose before us like a haunted memory, unearthed from a mound of volcanic ash after centuries of isolation. It was more beautiful than I ever could have anticipated. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608685060852-1C4VNGG7TSYUDVCLGTXZ/man+facing+fence.jpg Essays and Short Stories about Buddhism - Monastic Robes and Tattoos Buddhistdoor Global | 2018-05-15 | My father used to tell me that appearances matter. When I was a teenager, we fought about this often. He insisted that the way we present ourselves affects how others see us. In my stubborn idealism, I insisted that he was wrong. I told him that what mattered was what we carried on the inside. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608685019065-K3IQBOVMP20LAPPC7E8Z/handprint.jpg Essays and Short Stories about Buddhism - The Handprint Left Behind LIONS ROAR | 2019-06-06 | A young monk in Nepal practiced so many prostrations that he left his handprint pressed into a mat. Vanessa Sasson can’t forget him. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608684999118-FI6GEAGWA4K2HEKX0IWC/person+in+mask.jpg Essays and Short Stories about Buddhism - Let there Be Loss Buddhistdoor Global | 2020-04-01 | Like almost everyone alive on the planet today, I am consumed by the news. I have been watching, first with an ignorant disregard, then with disbelief, then with a slow dawning of comprehension as the world apparently stopped spinning on its axis. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608685039436-D5AQGIIHBIR0Y33HT0N9/hands+and+type+writer.jpg Essays and Short Stories about Buddhism - How to Become a Writer: Combine Orientalism with a Divination Master, and Stir Buddhistdoor Global | 2019-03-19 | I was so young. Impossibly young when I think about it now. And yet I was convinced that I had already lived lifetimes. I was in my early 20s and had spent nearly a year wandering around Nepal. I was on my way home (my visa had long since expired, so I had no choice), but decided to make one last stop before my feet were torn from South Asian soil. With romantic idealism, I boarded a bus bound for Dharamsala and drove through the mountains all night long. https://www.vanessarsasson.com/reviews-vanessarsasson daily 0.75 2025-06-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/bcb6d22a-08a6-4b9e-a32d-7325b1b753cd/buddhist-women-renunciates-1024x736.jpg Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - A Review of The Gathering in The Journal of the American Academy of Religion Volume 92, Issue 1, March 2024, Pages 184–186 Vanessa R. Sasson’s work uniquely explores the founding of the Buddhist order of nuns through a captivating blend of fiction and scholarly research. Described as “hagiographical fiction,” her storytelling combines imaginative storytelling with respectful admiration for religious figures, grounded in Buddhist texts. Her books offer readers a rich, immersive experience that bridges history and narrative, making complex topics accessible and engaging. Perfect for those interested in spiritual history, Buddhist traditions, or compelling storytelling rooted in academic insight. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/5996eec4-0fc2-4387-9546-67a559e4d83b/september-2023-books.jpg Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/e9d2d41d-e606-49fe-bdc1-bdfb042b83fb/Budda_Daibutsu_front_1885.jpg Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/f14a8769-f0b0-4c95-ac3c-edd456609965/women+in+buddhism.png Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/c5548765-e17e-4c6b-9736-6c03e8175aa1/vanessa-sasson-the-gathering-682x1024.jpg Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1627316265892-D7W89QLXYSBTAQW20YYC/p26-heller.jpg Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - The Times Literary Supplement, London “The Princess and the Sage: The Buddha’s Story From his Wife’s Point of View” by Natasha Heller “Early in Vanessa R. Sasson’s Yasodhara and the Buddha, the title character menstruates for the first time. This occurrence prompts her to ask her mother why women’s monthly bleeding is associated with pollution. Her mother helps her to understand that what “the elders” (men) say about pollution does not need to dictate women’s understanding of their own bodily rhythms. Having to be confined during monthly bleeding gives women time to rest, and time to be together. As Yasodhara’s mother clarifies: “What we do is one thing. How the elders explain it can be quite different. They can say that it is because we are polluted but that is not necessarily what is happening”. Her mother’s explanation – and her attitude – help shape Yasodhara into a young woman willing to look critically at the world around her...” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1627318090623-V0KRR5P3PZCWHZQWT7JY/IMG_6449.JPG Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - Asian Review of Books “Yasodhara and the Buddha” by Soni Wadhwa “Vanessa R Sasson’s debut novel Yasodhara and the Buddha takes the life of Gautama Buddha, the stuff of scripture and legend, and lays out a story about love between him and his wife. And a fascinating story it is, too, about ego, love, and renunciation as love…” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/7327cc2b-a88c-45ab-8253-817954f40270/daniele-salutari-NAdinUQTy2c-unsplash.jpg Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - The Woman Who Married The Buddha Scholar Vanessa R. Sasson tells the often overlooked story of Yasodhara The following excerpt was adapted from Yasodhara and the Buddha, a novel by Vanessa R. Sasson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1627400478299-LNF7HKCNV9K4IDI5H4DG/amulet+market.JPG Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - Shambhala Times “Yasodhara and the Buddha: A Novel by Vanessa R. Sasson” by Christine Heming “Abandoned? After lifetimes together? Without even saying goodbye? On the very day his son was born? How could he? Most of us probably haven’t thought about the ones the Buddha left behind when he made his departure from the palace, abdicating the Lion Throne of the Sakya. I know I had not. This seemingly callous abandonment aroused Vanessa Sasson’s curiosity. Sasson, professor of Religious Studies at Marianopolis College in Westmount, Quebec and Research Fellow at the University of the Free State in South Africa, was particularly interested in the females in Prince Siddhattha’s world. How did they react to his leaving? Did any follow him? How did his wife Yasodhara take the news? What happened to her?…” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1627401205079-OT0SMEL0GQ2VLPCFTYLU/IMG_5762.JPG Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson Buddhistdoor Global “Yasodhara: Retellings and Hagiographies of the Buddhist Feminine,” by Raymond Lam “Is an alternative narrative simply a non-canonical work to enrich our imagination, to make us look at something familiar from a different angle? Or does an alternative narrative (the formal word being hagiography) have the potential to be a “statement of possibility”—something that causes us to glimpse something new in a text that we did not see before?…” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608687461567-C920DTZQXIM0FSO3E4GP/Ancient+city+outdoors.png Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - The Free Press Journal “Yasodhara: A Novel About the Buddha’s Wife” “Buddha is an iconic spiritual leader. Countless devotees, strongly connected to the moorings of Buddhism, adore him with devotion. The scholars of Buddhist literature have been delving deeper into its sacred texts since time immemorial…” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608687489824-PZCXHD6TIZ8OG5PI45JE/buddha+at+gal+vihara.jpg Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - Naomi Appleton’s blog “I love reading novels as well as academic books, but usually, these two categories are firmly separate. Recently this separation broke down as I read Vanessa Sasson’s novel about the Buddha’s long-suffering wife, called Yasodhara and available from Speaking Tiger Books…” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608687509451-0LLHN220O4RQ266VOLPC/water+lillies.png Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - Sunday Chronicle, Shelf Life “More Than Just Buddha’s Wife,” by Suridhi Sharma “Very little is known about Yashodhara beyond her being the beautiful young wife of Siddhartha, the prince who went on to become the enlightened one — the Buddha. But there is much more to her as a person, and the story of the life she lived…” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608687657016-699BHEJ0JTGRH2S419GU/Front+doors+of+temple.jpg Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - Buddhist Fiction Blogger “A Novel About the Buddha’s Wife by Vanessa R. Sasson,” by Kimberly Beek “The novel cuts across various genres. In the book’s Introductory Note, Sasson calls her retelling a work of hagiographical fiction vice historical fiction, drawing attention to the (somewhat sparse) information about Yasodhara in Buddhist narratives and texts given her role in the Buddha’s enlightenment narrative…” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608687589771-GGR76D03E5U0IXA2MDU6/Temple+with+Buddha+image.JPG Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - The Montreal Review of Books “The Wife’s Tale” by Ian McGillis “For many lay readers coming to Vanessa R. Sasson’s powerfully imagined new novel Yasodhara, the nearest previous equivalent might be Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha… Serving as an introduction to Buddhist precepts for many non-adepts, it nonetheless left a gap for a popular treatment from another perspective. Thanks to Montreal scholar Sasson, we now have a book that is not only an ideal complement to Hesse, but very much its own thing…” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fb914ae5d27c00d5965729a/1608687242959-A9UJQQQ7MJ158GKCQJ29/godess+image+at+door.JPG Reviews of the written works of Vanessa R Sasson - Buddhistdoor Global “Fearsome and Impeccably Coiffed: Centering Women in Yasodhara” by Caitlin Dwyer “First he leaves me, and then he comes back only to take away my only son! How can he do this me?” the woman wails. “How does he keep finding ways to splinter me apart?” Her anguish feels familiar, even personal; stories of mother-child bonds and absent husbands pepper our modern psyche. But this story has a twist: the absent husband is the Buddha...” https://www.vanessarsasson.com/home daily 0.75 2020-12-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cec313d79e46600019959fb/1559154840855-HGPV37P63PDTX3G5SGD9/image-asset.jpeg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cec313d79e46600019959fb/1559250423957-ZJ0CYEGWSA9Y6AUP3PGD/image-asset.jpeg Home I believe that in a world of modern maladies caused by work and lifestyle, food is often the best medicine. I teach my clients how to make small dietary changes that stack up big gains over time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5cec313d79e46600019959fb/1559165146340-DCON2SWINPURX5M1DA8I/image-asset.jpeg Home - “Colette’s method is incredible. I completely changed my eating habits, but never felt like I was missing out on anything.”