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.

Telling the Truth Could Get Them Killed. Remaining Silent Could Be Worse. When Cooper, Hiro, and Gordy witness a robbery that leaves a man in a coma, they find themselves tangled in a web of mystery and deceit that threatens their lives. After being seen by the criminals—who may also be cops—Cooper makes everyone promise never to reveal what they have seen. Telling the truth could kill them. But remaining silent means an innocent man takes the fall, and a friend never receives justice. Is there ever a time to lie? And what happens when the truth is dangerous? The three friends, trapped in a code of silence, must face the consequences of choosing right or wrong when both options have their price.

“Mother father deaf” is the phrase commonly used within the Deaf community to refer to hearing children of deaf parents. These children grow up between two cultures, the Hearing and the Deaf, forever balancing the worlds of sound and silence. Paul Preston, one of these children, takes us to the place where Deaf and Hearing cultures meet, where families like his own embody the conflicts and resolutions of two often opposing world views. Based on 150 interviews with adult hearing children of deaf parents throughout the United States, Mother Father Deaf examines the process of assimilation and cultural affiliation among a population whose lives incorporate the paradox of being culturally “Deaf” yet functionally hearing. It is rich in anecdote and analysis, remarkable for its insights into a family life normally closed to outsiders.

This book collects excerpts from many of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar s talks. The journey for this collection began in New Delhi and ended in Rishikesh, India, and included many passages around the world.In this book, Sri Sri discusses topics rangi

The Silence Living in Houses unlocks the doors to houses of secrets and dreams where ghosts of the past are more real than the living. In unsettling poems rich with intrigue, Esther Morgan traces the presence of those whose stories are fading like the wallpaper: the servant girl who smashed the dinner service and disappeared; the sisters whose macabre end is still spoken of in whispers; the mistress who breathes sweet nothings from behind the roses. At the heart of the book is the darkest of interiors where the threat and practice of violence forges a bond as unbreakable as the Mafia's code. But not all these houses are unsafe: the final poems summon up the haunted blood of family, revealing how what remains unspoken is as much concerned with love as it is with loss.