After Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment, he held a meeting with all his cabinet ministers or disciples. This was called “The Ceremony in the Air.” It was time to hand over the baton for propagating the Mystic Law. Rather than entrust it to bodhisattvas from other worlds, the Buddha decided to entrust it to the ordinary people or […]
Read more "The Cabinet Meeting"For anyone who has listened to the rather baffling lyrics of “Come as you are“, I’m quite certain you’ll agree that Kurt Cobain didn’t mean to convey a Buddhist message through the song. And yet, the phrase does, at a slight stretch, bear significance in the context of increasing self-awareness. While listening to Robert Harrap’s “Pause for Thought” on […]
Read more "Come as you are"Balloons are normally associated with festivity and levity. Not for all. For the below street children in north Delhi, balloons are their sole means of livelihood. When the traffic light turns red, and the relentless zigzag of vehicles comes to a fleeting halt, bunches of skinny little children leap out from behind concrete islands of […]
Read more "When the balloons aren’t for you"The last week has been an utterly useless one for me, when viewed in terms of concrete work done. Down with an awful flu bug that robbed me of my voice (my husband didn’t seem too displeased at the rare silence), I lay flopped on the sofa burning with fever and feeling absolutely miserable. Though all […]
Read more "Christmas Stockings, Fairy Lights and the Gift of Flu"I was walking past a row of pastry shops the other day when a big colourful sign on a window distracted me. It said, “The more you weigh, the harder you are to kidnap. Stay safe. Eat Cake.” Below the sign was a prize array of the most delectably decorated cakes. Obediently, I glided in like […]
Read more "Clarifying Goals. Taking the Next Step."The extensive study of understanding Karma and its myriad shades requires more than one sitting. With that in mind, the aim of this blog is to give a decent introduction by: Broadening the lens through which we look at karma Understanding how we create karma Understanding how to empower ourselves to change it I was moderating […]
Read more "Karma and Self-Empowerment"BAM! Apart from this being the noise that my heart made when I handed in my identity card at the till on my last day of work, BAM also stands for Buddhist Action Month. Lisa Cowan’s editorial in last month’s Art of Living included encouragement on reaching out beyond Buddhist activities, into the community. Taking […]
Read more "“BAM!”"“When Shakyamuni Buddha left the palace of the Shakyas, seated himself under a Bodhi tree in Gaya and attained enlightenment, he realised that he had already attained enlightenment immeasurable and boundless, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of kalpas ago…”* After studying the concept of “casting off the transient and revealing the true” (refer to footnote below if […]
Read more "Casting Off the Transient and Revealing the True"Something very strange happens to one of my bosses every time he goes on holiday. He inevitably falls ill within the first couple of days. It has now become too much of a trend to dismiss as a co-incidence. In fact it has become so glaringly evident now that the last day before he goes […]
Read more "Finding stillness in motion and motion in stillness."I had to make a presentation on the macro-economic developments of the week at a recent conference. I knew what I was going to say and was fairly confident that my tongue wouldn’t betray me and start acting like a cuckoo clock under pressure. The world was a mess as usual. Pro-separatist tensions were flaring […]
Read more "Secure in the face of questions"
The Highest Frequency 