Waiting for Gotama

Forthcoming, 2026

Through a series of chance meetings, two Buddhist monks engage in a series of debates, written in dialogue form, concerning central issues in Buddhist philosophy – and how these issues impact on their practice of the Buddhist Path.

Following the lives and discussions of the two monks allows a reader to take a journey which connects scholastic and personal components of Buddhist thought.

Waiting for Gotama touches on key Buddhist ideas including sensual and conceptual attachment, the idea of craving and suffering, along with karma and impermanence. Through their conversations the two monks offer an analysis, critique and interrogation of how a Buddhist reacts to human existence. The monks cite Canonical Buddhist texts, as well their own phenomenological experiences, to chart their path through ageing, discomfort, belief and finally death.

By placing the reader amidst a conversation, the book tries to bring alive Buddhist ways of making sense of existence. Through a Buddhist response to life’s vicissitudes, their causes and solutions, can Bhikkhu Vladimir and Bhikkhu Estragon come to terms with the consequences of being alive, and find the wisdom necessary for living a meaningful, and maybe even sometimes joyous, life?