travels in Southeast Asia, including a month as a lay nun in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand, a face-to-face encounter with a cobra, and a month-long trek to the Mount Everest Base Camp with her mountaineer son. Through all of this she remained tranquil and trusting, sustained by her daily Zen meditation. About the Author: Ellen Warburtnon was born in 1928, in Madison, Wisconsin, to Professor Walter L. Dorn and Broadway actress Margaret Barnstead. Ellen's mother died before she was two. After graduating from National Cathedral School in 1946, she went to Berlin, where her father was a military advisor. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1950 and earned a Master's in Psychology from Ohio State. With Peter Warburton, a philosopher and computer analyst, she raised two sons, in a household that enjoyed camping, hiking and venturing into the outdoors. After her divorce in California Ellen held various jobs, including cook at the Jikoki Zen Center. In 1974, she began seriously practicing zazen (meditation) as a Zen Buddhist. At the time of her trip in 1981-1982, she had been an aide to third grade teachers at Monta Loma Elementary in Mountain View, California. Books printed in the US and the UK.