Sex, drugs and a buddhist monk

The inspiring true story of an Aussie man’s journey, of fighting to escape violence and learning to face fears, that changed his life forever...

- By Luke Kennedy

Severely obese, depressed and an avid drug and alcohol addict, Australian author Luke Kennedy was trying to get his shit together and reset his life. After venturing to Thailand for one final hurrah, he partied hard, overdid it and his path collided with prostitutes, drug dealers and shocking violence. In this edited extract from his latest memoir, he gives us a glimpse into his life before it led to that fateful, and nearly fatal, Thai trip which ended in enlightenment after a Buddhist Monk forced him to confront his demons. The debaucherous trip became much more than just a good story but a fundamental mindset shift and stepping stone towards a silent mind.

I don’t want to do this. What if they’ve got weapons, too? I might get locked up. I might get…

“Punchy, how much do you think they’ll have?” my old friend Stintz asked me, seated next to me in the driver’s seat of a stolen car, his words interrupting my inner thoughts. Punchy, my nickname, I had picked up through graffiti and winning organised street fights. I loved it. “I’m not sure, bro. Don’t know about cash, but they’ll have heaps of pills,” my mouth spat out, trying to drown the other conversation in my head: my doubt and my fears. My thoughts were always there, always loud. Those loud thoughts were the reason I was sitting in that car about to run through a drug dealer’s house to rob him and his friends.