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It is rare for a foreign woman to be accepted for instruction in intensive meditation in a Buddhist temple in Thailand. Jane Hamilton-Merritt writes about this experience from the inside, describing the extraordinary journey into the self, the expansion of her consciousness. In a personal account of her struggles, her fears and her experiences - some euphoric, some terrifying, some beautiful in the form of psychedelic visions and some that were genuinely threatening. A Meditator's Diary is an intellectually disciplined attempt to understand what Buddhist meditation techniques have to offer us, those in the Western world caught up in a cycle of destruction that we cannot control, and shows how to access its secrets. Jane Hamilton-Merritt describes her own dawning understanding of 'compassion without attachment', her eventual arrival at a state of peace and reconciliation and the sense of living flow with the whole of the universe that has transformed her life. Encouraging her readers to try meditation she describes how we can take the first steps on the long road to tranquillity for ourselves.
Tragic Mountains tells the story of the Hmong's struggle for freedom and survival in Laos from 1942 through 1992. During those years, most Hmong sided with the French against the Japanese and Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh, and then with the Americans against the North Viemamese.
Buddhist meditation, while attracting less popular attention than some other meditative disciplines, has given rise to a particularly rich literature in recent years. Despite differences in style and terminology, these modern writings on Buddhist meditation serve much the same purposes as did the manuals and commentaries of the classical masters: to explicate and interpret the Buddha's teachings on meditation, to clarify the nature and value of the various meditative techniques and attainments, and/or to offer advice on the actual practice of meditation. Meditators are increasingly inclined to compare and evaluate critically what the different contemporary meditation masters have to say, to ...
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"... the ultimate insider's account of the war from the South Vietnamese side, including the appalling story of how the American intervention actually happened." --Washington Post "This book gives Americans a rare opportunity--the chance to see the Vietnam experience through Vietnamese eyes. Few Vietnamese know their recent history as well as Bui Diem does. And none has told it better." --Ambassador William Jorden "... well-written and at times illuminating... " --Library Journal In the Jaws of History is the most important book written on the Vietnam War from the viewpoint of the South, from an author who was a senior official of the South Vietnamese government and later ambassador to the U.S.
"To Bear Any Burden is necessary to understand the most significant aspect of the Indochina wars: the human one." —Tran Van Dinh, author of Blue Dragon White Tiger: A Tet Story "At least this reader would like to spend hours if not days talking to each of the people within these pages." —Jack Reynolds, Network Correspondent, NBC " . . . remarkable insight into the human aspect of the war." —Library Journal The 48 American and Asian veterans, refugees, and officials who speak in this book come from widely divergent backgrounds. In their narratives we hear them reliving crucial moments in the preparation, execution, and aftermath of war. It is a riveting, eyewitness account of the war and also reclaims from this tragic continuum larger patterns of courage and dedication.
For half a century (ever since the Japanese invasion of 1942), much of Southeast Asia has been racked by war. In the last 20 years alone, some three million people fled their homes in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. This book is their story. It is also the story of the international community's response. Spearheading this was the United Nations agency responsible, UNHCR. It pioneered innovations like the Orderly Departure Programme, anti-piracy and rescue-at-sea efforts, and later on, ambitious reintegration projects for returnees. Today the camps in Southeast Asia are closed. Half a million people have returned home. Over two million have started new lives in the United States, Canada, Australia and France. This compelling book is the history of this modern exodus. It also takes stock and poses important questions. How did the flight of refugees and international response evolve? How do we measure the achievements and the failures of that international effort? What has been the legacy in Asia itself? And what lessons can be drawn for use in other refugee situations around the world?