Sarah Shaw

Emlyn Chand

A Bird Brain Book

Poppy the Proud

Davey dubs himself the luckiest crow in the entire world when he finds a wonderful, shiny object. It even has a fantastic name: "paperclip." Wow!One dark and dreary day, Davey's treasure goes missing, and he is beside himself with grief. Luckily, he knows just how he can find out which of the forest animals is to blame for the theft. Inspired by the torn pages of a Sherlock Holmes story that were used to fashion his nest, Davey calls on the help of Sarah the sparrow to investigate the mystery and, hopefully, retrieve his prize.Together the two birds begin to collect clues. Their trail leads them straight to Mr. Bushtail, a greedy squirrel who keeps a giant store of objects in a hollowed-out tree trunk. When Mr. Bushtail refuses to cooperate, the two birds have no choice but to break into his tree house in search of the truth.Justice will prevail and treasure will be found in this intriguing tale of mystery.

Davey the Detective

Peter David

Keith R. A. DeCandido

Some say the line between good and evil is narrower than we imagine -- a divide as subtle as a mirror, and perhaps just as deep. To peer into its black, reflective glass is to know the dark potential we each possess, and we cross that obsidian boundary at our peril . . . into a world where we no longer recognize who we are or what we believed ourselves capable of. In the late twenty-fourth century, decades after the fall of the once-mighty Terran Empire, the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance dominates the worlds that, in another reality, made up the United Federation of Planets. Humanity and its former subject races are now bound together by their shared oppression, slaves to their cruel and brutal conquerors. But a downtrodden few have found the courage and the strength of will to act. Inspired by visitors from another continuum to fight for their freedom, they have rekindled hope . . . and rediscovered an ancient truth: that every revolution begins with a vision. Star Trek: VOYAGER ® A rebel ship commanded by a former slave named Chakotay attempts to evade pursuit in the Badlands . . . only to encounter a strange ship that was catapulted seventy thousand light-years across the galaxy. On board the craft are two aliens, one of whom has the potential to completely alter the balance of power within the Alliance. But as both sides of the struggle race to get to the stranger first, treachery throws all schemes into a tailspin. Star Trek: NEW FRONTIER ® Following the Terran Empire's collapse, its longtime rival, the Romulan Star Empire, has absorbed many of the fringe civilizations spread across that part of the galaxy. One of the Romulans' slaves is M'k'nzy of Calhoun, a savage and unpredictable Xenexian who dreams of death . . . and who learns the value of freedom from the unlikeliest of teachers, a Romulan named Soleta. Star Trek: DEEP SPACE NINE ® One fallen dictator's struggle to regain her power and her position leads to the discovery of a bold rebel plan for a decisive military strike against the Alliance. But while Kira Nerys navigates the dangerous road of politics, sex, and military intrigue that she believes will lead her back to reclaiming the Intendancy, cracks form in the rebel leadership, leading to a showdown that will change the course of the Mirror Universe.

Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Obsidian Alliances

Portland Place is the diary of Sarah Shaw for the year of 1971, which she recently uncovered whilst clearing out her loft. Working as a secretary for the BBC at the time, Sarah's diary describes the life of a suburban girl who certainly wasn't 'swinging' but who was, ironically, not only working on a cutting edge BBC survey on sex education but also in the throes of an unlikely affair with middle-aged, working-class, Irish lift attendant, Frank. Sarah talks humorously and frankly about what it was like to be a young, working woman at the time as well as life at the BBC during the 1970s and the difficulties of navigating her first romance. She is funny and self-effacing with a self-knowledge that only few attain. Her innocence and naivety are hugely charming and the diary forms a valuable snapshot of a time not so far away that is now lost to us.

Secret Diary of a BBC Secretary

Secret Diary of a 1970s Secretary

Wise Studies

This lecture series with Sarah Shaw looks at several texts in the Pali Canon from the Dīgha Nikāya, the “collection of long discourses”. Sarah explores the Buddha’s teachings on subjects including meditation, ethics, meditative states and conditionality. This series is an excellent foundation for understanding the underpinnings of all Buddhist philosophy. The discourses are set within narratives of the Buddha’s life. These texts have varied genres designed to have different effects. They range from prescriptive ways to apply the practice, to evocative imagery that symbolises the teaching, to ethical recommendations about how to act in the world. This course explains the context and background of these timeless teachings. Session 1: Sarah gives an overview of the course. She offers a historical and cultural background for the early suttas and discusses some of the key teachings in Buddhist philosophy including the four noble truths and the eightfold path. Session 2: Samaññaphala-Sutta: The Fruits of the Contemplative Life – Through the story of King Ajātasattu’s visit to see the Buddha we are introduced to the stages of meditative absorption, the jhānas. Session 3: Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna-Sutta: The Great Discourse on the Establishing of Mindfulness – Sarah covers the four foundations of mindfulness in this, one of the most famous, important and most widely studied texts in the Pali Canon. Session 4: The Mahāsamāya-Sutta, a very popular ceremonial text, and the Mahāsudassana-Sutta, a visualization of the ‘palace’ in the ‘city’ of the mind, ruled by a great king, the Buddha in an earlier life as Bodhisattva. Session 5: The Sangīti-Sutta – Sariputta, one of the Buddha’s chief disciples, gives a talk listing the principles of the Buddha’s teaching. Session 6: The Sigālovāda-Sutta – The Buddha instructs a young man on how to live an ethical life. Session 7: The Mahānidāna-Sutta – The Great Causes Discourse – In this session Sarah explains this key text on the principle of dependent origination. tipitaka in english tipitaka book pali canon sutta pitaka tripitaka buddhist holy book buddhist philosophy essential readings buddhist teachings book

The Dīgha Nikāya, the collection of long discourses

The Early Teachings of the Buddha with Sarah Shaw

Linda Covill

Ulrike Roesler

Buddhist biographies have different kinds of textual history and are conveyed through various media. They are composed by named poets or written down by anonymous redactors and compilers; they are told by bards and even enacted by performers. They are also written by historical persons as autobiographies, both "public" and "secret." They are addressed to different kinds of readerships and have diverse purposes, including forming a model for emulation, an explanation of the foundation of a particular community, or a narrative explication of doctrine. This book presents a multifaceted, multitradition portrait of Buddhist biographies. Part one deals with biographies of the Buddha, investigating Chinese sources and featuring poetic versions by Ashvaghosha. Part two contains modern Buddhist life stories, including a rare autobiography from Burma. Part three explores the Tibetan tradition. Together, these biographies give students and seekers a thoughtful overview of how diverse Buddhist teachers understand and explain the highest purpose of life.

Biography in the Buddhist Traditions

Lives Lived, Lives Imagined

Meditative practice lies at the heart of the Buddhist tradition. This introductory anthology gives a representative sample of the various kinds of meditations described in the earliest body of Buddhist scripture, the Pali canon. It provides a broad introduction to their traditional context and practice and supplies explanation, context and doctrinal background to the subject of meditation. The main themes of the book are the diversity and flexibility of the way that the Buddha teaches meditation from the evidence of the canon. Covering fundamental features of Buddhist practice such as posture, lay meditation, and meditative technique it provides comments both from the principal early commentators on Buddhist practice, Upatissa and Buddhaghosa, and from reputable modern meditation teachers in a number of Theravadin traditions. This is the first book on Pali Buddhism which introduces the reader to the wide range of the canon. It demonstrates that the Buddha's meditative tradition still offers a path of practice as mysterious, awe-inspiring yet as freshly accessible as it was centuries ago, and will be of interest to students and scholars of Buddhism as well as Buddhist practitioners.

An Anthology of Texts from the Pali Canon

Buddhist Meditation

An accessible introduction to the teachings of the Buddha told through the oral tradition of the Dīghanikāya--the preeminent text of the Pali canon. The Dīghanikāya or Long Discourses of the Buddha is one of the four major collections of teachings from the early period of Buddhism. Its thirty-four suttas (in Sanskrit, sutras) demonstrate remarkable breadth in both content and style, forming a comprehensive collection. The Art of Listening gives an introduction to the Dīghanikāya and demonstrates the historical, cultural, and spiritual insights that emerge when we view the Buddhist suttas as oral literature. Each sutta of the Dīghanikāya is a paced, rhythmic composition that evolved and passed intergenerationally through chanting. For hundreds of years, these timeless teachings were never written down. Examining twelve suttas of the Dīghanikāya, scholar Sarah Shaw combines a literary approach and a personal one, based on her experiences carefully studying, hearing, and chanting the texts. At once sophisticated and companionable, The Art of Listening will introduce you to the diversity and beauty of the early Buddhist suttas.

A Guide to the Early Teachings of Buddhism

The Art of Listening

Samuel Shaw

Naomi Carle

Edwardian Culture: Beyond the Garden Party is the first truly interdisciplinary collection of essays dealing with culture in Britain c.1895-1914. Bringing together essays on literature, art, politics, religion, architecture, marketing, and imperial history, the study highlights the extent to which the culture and politics of Edwardian period were closely intertwined. The book builds upon recent scholarship that seeks to reclaim the term ‘Edwardian’ from prevalent, restrictive usages by venturing beyond the garden party – and the political rally – to uncover some of the terrain that lies between. The essays in the volume – which deal with both famous writers such as J. M. Barrie and Arnold Bennett, as well as many lesser-known figures – draw attention to the nuanced multiplicity of experience and cultural forms that existed during the period, and highlight the ways in which a closer examination of Edwardian culture complicates our definitions of ‘Victorian’ and ‘Modern’. The book argues that the Edwardian era, rather than constituting a coda to the Victorian period or a languid pause before modernism shook things up, possessed a compelling and creative tenor of its own.

Beyond the Garden Party

Edwardian Culture

Is it possible to capture the spirit of Buddhist meditation, which depends so much upon silence and unspoken wisdom? Can this spirit be found after two millennia? This wise and reassuring book reminds us that the Buddhist meditative tradition, geared to such concerns from its inception, has always been transmitted through texts. A great variety of early writings—poems, stories, extended practical guides, commentaries, and chants—were purposely designed to pass teachings on from one generation to the next. Sarah Shaw, a longtime practitioner and teacher of Buddhism, investigates a wide and varied range of ancient and later Buddhist writings on meditation. Many of these texts are barely known in the West but, as the author shows, they can be helpful, moving, and often very funny. She begins with early texts of the Pali canon—those that describe and involve the Buddha and his followers teaching meditations—and moves on to “commentaries,” with their copious range of practical tips, anecdotes, and accounts of early meditators. The author then considers other early texts that were inspirational as Buddhist traditions spread through India and on to China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet. Centuries after being written, early Buddhist texts have lost none of their relevance, this authoritative book shows. In a tradition characterized by flexibility and mobility, these writings offer wisdom unchanged by time.

The Spirit of Buddhist Meditation

When my concentrated mind was purified; I directed it to the knowledge of the recollection of past lives’ —The Buddha on the night of his enlightenment Associated with the living traditions of folk tale; drama and epic; the Jatakas recount the development of the Bodhisatta—the being destined to become the present Buddha in his final life—not just through the events of one lifetime but of hundreds. Written in Pali; the language of the Theravada Buddhist canon; the Jatakas comprise one of the largest and oldest collections of stories in the world dating from the fifth century BCE to the third century CE. Generations in South and South-East Asia have grown up with these tales. This volume contains twenty-six stories drawn from various ancient sources; and each story reflects one of the ten perfections—giving; restraint; renunciation; wisdom; strength; acceptance; truthfulness; resolve; loving kindness and equanimity. A detailed introduction elaborates on the ten perfections; explains the forms of enlightenment as well as the structure; and the historical and geographical contexts of the stories. Sarah Shaw brings to life the teachings of Buddhism for the scholar and lay reader alike.

Sarah Shaw

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