From the author of Being Home and Becoming Bread, a primer exploring the simple principles of meditation practice and mindful living. Sharing Silence is an irresistible gem of a book that is handy for carrying around in your pocket or keeping at your bedside. Line drawings.

Burma remains the odd man out in South East Asia. It is a military dictatorship, not part of the region's still-dynamic economy, and has a troubled relationship with the outside world, including that fact that it is the second largest supplier of heroin. This exceptionally readable account of Burma gives a graphic, often moving, and always insightful picture of what life under military rule is like for ordinary Burmese. This survey takes in a wide diversity of ordinary people and communities.

This is a book on the practice of silent meditation and its transforming power. The brief poetic texts are thematically grouped to address the various aspects of the meditation practice, such as the nature of silence, the importance of the present moment, obstacles the practitioner may encounter, and the integration into our everyday lives of the new insights the practice can give us. Silent meditation is the practice of letting go and allowing the silence to be heard and take hold. The reader catches glimpses of how practitioners of silent meditation become aware, little by little, of 'feeling connected with everything in a unique way', of being at one with all, and finding their lives gradually transformed. Silvia Ostertag’s texts are based on talks she gave to the hundreds of students who 'sat' with her. Sometimes humorous, sometimes sharply critical, through each one we feel her hope that we reach an awareness of the pure silence and the deep sense of oneness that is present in every human being who becomes conscious that the 'here' and 'now' – this very moment, this very place – is all that there is.

Eight years after the first edition of this insightful and highly regarded book, Burma remains one of the most troubled nations in Southeast Asia. While other countries have democratized and prospered, Burma is governed by a repressive military dictatorship and is the second largest producer of heroin in the world. In this exceptionally readable yet scholarly account of Burma today, Christina Fink gives a moving and insightful picture of what life under military rule is like. Through the extensive interviews conducted inside and outside the country, we begin to understand Burma's political and domestic situation and a comprehensive understanding of why military rule has lasted so long. This significantly revised new edition includes material taking the reader up to present day action and accounts, including the impacts of the dramatic 2007 monks' demonstrations, which were coordinated with former student activists and members of Aung San Suu Kyi's party. The book explores the regime's continued attempts to weaken and divide the democratic movement and the ethnic nationalist organizations and explains how the democratic movement and ethnic groups have sought to achieve their goals; in part, by working more closely together.

In recent decades, the level of moral acceptability of choice at the end of life has reached record highs. Legislative responsiveness to public opinion, however, has resulted in far fewer and much slower adoption patterns. For example, if a growing number of Americans support aid in dying legislation, why are so few states adopting them? While extensive research that explores matters of death and dying from the medical, legal, and religious perspectives exists, scholars have yet to consider the role of politics in explaining end of life policy adoption patterns. The Chronic Silence ofPolitical Parties in End of Life Policymaking in the United States retraces the right to die movement’s legislative history from its beginnings to the adoption and diffusion of its most recent innovations—the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Paradigm and death with dignity—to identify the various forces that hinder its progress.

Silence in Modern Irish Writing examines the meanings and forms of silence in Irish poetry, fiction and drama in modern times. These are discussed in psychological, ethical, topographical, spiritual and aesthetic terms.