Changing Perceptions of Buddhist Meditation in the West

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Sarah Shaw

Abstract

I found myself with no money, no friends and a large dose of homesickness, and ended up staying in a Buddhist monastery in Bangkok for six weeks. I lived with the monks, meditating for eight hours a day. And, to my surprise, this turned out to be the best thing that had ever happened to me…..in the monastery, with no other option but to sit and at least try to meditate, I slowly found that I could sit for longer and longer, sometimes more than an hour.

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How to Cite
Shaw, S. (2019). Changing Perceptions of Buddhist Meditation in the West. The Journal of International Association of Buddhist Universities (JIABU), 2(1), 1–27. Retrieved from https://so06.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/Jiabu/article/view/204834
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Author Biography

Sarah Shaw, Oxford University

Dr. Sarah Shaw holds a Ph.D. in English literature from Manchester University and studied Pali
and Sanskrit under Prof. Richard Gombrich at Oxford and Samatha meditation under Nai Boonman
and Lance Cousins. Author of Buddhist Meditation: An anthology of texts from th e Pali cannon
(Routledge: 2006) and Introduction to Buddhist Meditation (Routledge: 2008), she teaches Buddhism
at the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Oxford, UK