Precious Folly

When a Paiute Indian woman asks a Buddhist monk if she can "steal" Bodhichitta, she instantly becomes a spiritual guide for the monk and his prized disciple Daniel.

Bodhichitta-the effort to perfect oneself for the sake of others-is the most refined of Buddha's instructions. The Native American woman demonstrates how this Buddhist maxim is an accurate description of the Paiute state of mind.

As a result of her theft, an entourage of tech-savvy San Francisco millennials, Daniel, and the Buddhi...