Telling my story from conflict to Buddhist monk
A CAIRNS man who suffered significant trauma as a soldier in the Vietnam War has written a book about his life and his journey towards becoming a Buddhist monk.
Darrell McDowall said he felt like he had to write Gurus’ Bodyguard to let out all his emotions, but it was a tough process.
“It was very difficult, the nightmares came up again. I burnt the whole book once but then it wanted to keep writing itself so I wanted to rewrite it,” Mr McDowall said.
“It was confronting but I had to do it to have my own peace of mind.”
Mr McDowall is now 75 years old and the book details many of his experiences.
“The first part of the book is about Vietnam. I was an infantry soldier then a special service soldier,” he said.
“It’s mainly to show the madness of war and how hopeless it was there.
“The rest is about, you know, I was a bodyguard for Johnny Farnham then a bodyguard for spiritual leaders and I interviewed them about certain aspects of life and that’s what the book is about.”
Mr McDowall said after the war he felt like he needed to follow a different path because of all he saw.
“I thought I have to think about something different. I went and lived with the Muslims
in Malaysia and for a while I studied the Quran,” he said.
“Then I became a Buddhist monk in Thailand. I went to India and met different gurus.”
So far Mr McDowall said
the book has had great reviews.
“Everybody who reads it so far tells me they can’t put it down. It offers a different way of looking at life,” he said.
The book can be found online at Amazon.