Review: The Art of Listening: a guide to the early teachings of Buddhism by Sarah Shaw.

Published by Shambhala 2021

Most treatments of the Digha Nikaya (DN) seem to be directed at devoted Buddhists or University academics and students. Shaw’s The Art of Listening, places the Digha Nikaya in a distinctively aesthetic mould with a sympathetic and often deeply technical treatement and an airy feel that would make it highly accessible to many. Maybe not novices to Buddhism, but those interested in exploring its teachings, through one of the most seminal collections of discourses by the Buddha. Shaw is keen to emphasise the DN as Oral literature and something of tremendous importance to Buddhist Asian cultures for over two-thousand years. By locating the Mahasatipattana sutta as the “locus classicus” of the “modern” Mindfulness movement — she articulates its relevance to contemporary society and its virtue signallers.

This book has received assistance & guidance from Ven Bhikkhu Bodhi, who has provided it a little endorsement.

The first part of the book taking up about a third of the work is somewhat hard going. It deals with the Digha Nikaya as oral literature and some of the history behind it. It also places the numbers and symbology in the work in a wholistic historical context. Many allusions are made to Western oral traditions such…