Little Book of Bhavana

When a dozen young boys found themselves trapped in Tham Luang cave in June 2018 in Northern Thailand with their 25-year-old coach, their chances of survival seemed very slim. They had only a handful of snacks they'd bought for one of the boys' birthday that day, and no drinking water.

Not only that, while they sat there, waiting, the level of the water in the cave was rising all the time. Also, unbeknownst to them, the oxygen level was dropping.

Trapped in darkness and unaware of the desperate search efforts going on in the outside world, the Wild Boys coach, Ekkapol Chanthawong, felt it was his responsibility to do everything he could to keep them alive.

One of the survival tactics he implemented was getting them all to meditate. Ekkapol had trained for ten years to be a Buddhist monk in a temple in Northern Thailand. He could meditate for an hour at a time, and knew of the countless benefits that came with such a practice.

This book explains how meditation within the framework of Bhavana works, why it's something we should all be doing, and how to do it.

Bhavana - which refers to mental and spiritual development - is the cultivation of wisdom and tranquility through meditation. It is the means to developing resilience and strength that will serve when it is most needed. This book makes Bhavana accessible and practical by distilling the insights of thousands of years of tradition. It integrates the teachings and practices with the most recent neuroscience of how our brains and behavior can change to give us the tools to withstand suffering and fear.

Auteur

Dr Leah Weiss

Résumé
From the author of Grey Souls and Brodeck's Report: a chilling island fable of murder, exploitation and complicity&quote;A timely and elegant examination of the migrant situation in the Mediterranean from the point of view of a remote, volcanic island&quote; The New European BOOKS OF THE YEARThe Dog Islands are a small, isolated cluster of islands in the Mediterranean - so called because together, when viewed from above, they form the shape of a dog, twisting and baring its teeth against a brilliant blue sea. One of the only inhabited islands (the one that takes the place of one of the dog's teeth) is dominated by a gently smoking volcano, fringed by black volcanic beaches and under the iron rule of the heads of community who are loath to let any outside influence disrupt the quiet way of life on the island.Then one morning, an old woman comes across three bodies that have washed up with the tide: three young black men, who have apparently drowned in their attempt to cross the sea. The initial reaction of the island community is that this tragedy must be covered up, lest any association with the drownings damages the island's tourism industry . . .But the island's deliberate isolation from the realities of the world cannot last for long, and when a visiting detective arrives on the island and starts asking awkward questions, it becomes clear that the deaths of these three men indicate something far more sinister and deeply rotten lying at the heart of this godforsaken fragment of sea-bound land.