Sarah Shaw

This paper discusses the role of the Buddha’s wife, Yasodhar?/R?hulam?t?, in P?li J?takas. Noting her continued popularity in South and Southeast Asian Buddhism, it considers her path to liberation seen as a composite whole, through many lifetimes, and considers some of the literary implications of this multiple depiction. The intention of this paper is to initiate more discussion about this figure as a sympathetic and central presence in Southern Buddhist text and practice.  

In many Southern Buddhist regions, the Jātakas offered ethical codes, an informal rule of law, and, indeed, in some areas such as Myanmar/ Burma, a narrative means of communicating a code that could establish precedent in courts of law (Shaw 2006). Can they contribute now to the growing international discussion on secular ethics? Describing the Bodhisatta exercise of both sīla and the deep resourcefulness in Jātakas, that results in great adeptness at skill in means in variously described situations, Charles Hallisey coins the term ‘moral creativity’ with regard to these tales (Hallisey 2010). It covers, as he notes, not just the ability the Bodhisatta demonstrates in the five precepts, but also, through enactment in narrative, a means of demonstrating great resourcefulness in ensuring benefit – not only for himself but others too. Such moral creativity, he suggests, is crucial to a more nuanced understanding of Buddhist ethics as they are enacted in Jātakas. Citing commentarial sto...

This paper discusses the poetic richness of the nuns' verses discussing their value as the earliest female contributions to the spiritual literature of the world. The emphasis on trust and friendship in these oral compositions emerge as crucial elements in their individual paths to awakening.

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, as well as from reputable modern meditation teachers in a number of Theravadin traditions. This is the first general book on Pali Buddhism which introduces the reader to the wide range of meditative advice in 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 should be of interest to students and scholars of Buddhism as well as Buddhist practitioners. Sarah Shaw read Greek and English at Manchester University, where she took a doctorate in English. She studied Pali at Oxford and is on the steering committee of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. She is a mother, teacher and writer. She practises with the Samatha Association of Britain.