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LEAD ARTICLE | EASTERN HORIZON 5

Sarah (second from the right) with her friends and colleagues at an In April 2023, Sarah attended a Buddhist samatha breathing
Abhidhamma conference in Shan State, Burma (November 2019). mindfulness meditation retreat, which was held in the Blessed Trinity
Shrine Retreat.

them before moving to Oxford, where I studied Pāli and Since the pandemic, a lot of stress has been put on
Sanskrit with Professor Richard Gombrich. teaching and there have been various changes in the
department. I realise that I have been working very
Can you share with us your research interest and hard. I am hoping that I will not be working as much in
what are you working on at the moment? And what the coming years!
are your vision and mission for the next 5-10 years?
What has been your biggest achievement and
My research interests span from early Buddhist suttas biggest challenge in your academic career?
and Abhidhamma materials on meditation to early
Buddhist narrative including literary features of Jātakas I have done research on meditation systems and
and Dhammapada stories. Currently, I am looking very comparative work as part of the academic sphere. I
closely on Southeast Asian meditation systems. hope that other people will continue this journey. It was
not just because of me because I was not doing anything
I am writing a book on “Reading Mindfulness”, which particularly revolutionary, but at the time when I
I enjoy immensely. I also edited a book by my teacher started, nobody worked on this area as a field of study. I
Lance Cousins. It took a long time to edit because the am happy to see that it has changed a lot since. I do not
book was left unfinished when he passed away (in 2015). know whether this is an achievement, but I hope I have
contributed to that. I also enjoy teaching students here
In addition, I also do a lot of work on Abhidhamma. in Oxford, because they are very happy to be studying
With my husband, I am editing the Abhidhamma series Buddhism. Personally, I would say my achievement is
for the King of Thailand, because they want a new “The Art of Listening”. That was the book I really wanted
translation of all the Abhidhamma materials based on to do and loved doing.
Thai version of the Pāli. This is a big translation project.
My husband and I are two of the editors and the team is I think the biggest challenge in my academic career was
made up of a group of very experienced scholars. This starting to study Pāli and Sanskrit later in life, when I
project is led by Ven. Dr. Khammai Dhammasami and was 40 years old. Although I had picked up some Pāli
it is a huge collaborative effort, which involves people and Sanskrit informally for a long time, it took me quite
from Australia, America and other European countries. a while to master the languages, but I totally enjoy
I used to travel to Asian countries like Thailand, Burma, studying them. I would say it is definitely easier to pick
Sri Lanka and India once or twice a year, to meet my up a new language when you are younger.
colleagues and attend conferences. The last time I
visited Asia was in the winter just before the COVID-19 Do you practise the Dharma, if so, what is your main
pandemic, I attended a conference in Shan state, Burma. methods of practice? And how has the practice of the
Dharma helped you in your daily life and research?