Once, philosopher George Santayana came into a sizeable legacy and was able to relinquish his post on the Harvard faculty. The classroom was packed for his final appearance, and Santayana did himself…
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Sitting by the side, watching
One day Buddha is passing by a forest. It is a hot summer day and he is feeling very thirsty. He says to Ananda, his chief disciple, “Ananda, you go back. Just…
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Resist not evil
Some people brought a woman to Jesus and said, “She has committed adultery. It is written in the ancient scriptures, that she should be stoned to death. What do you think?” Jesus…
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‘Put your hands on the top of your heads’
I have come across a very beautiful Zen story. Listen to it attentively; it is your story. Behind a temple there was a field where a lot of squashes (vegetables of the…
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Bhamati
I shall tell you of a wonderful incident in the life of Vachaspati Misra. His father urged him to marry. Vachaspati understood nothing of marriage. He however, bowed to his father’s wishes,…
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What type of men were these?
I was just reading an anecdote… A school teacher told the famous story of the elephant and the five blind men to his children — but he didn’t mention the word blind.…
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You cannot hide from yourself
You can hide something from others but you cannot hide it from yourself, and it is there that God is hiding. It is not in the object, it is in the subject…
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Why are you not yourself?
The Hassid mystic, Zusia, was dying, and he started praying. Tears were flowing down his eyes and he was trembling. And somebody asked him, “What is the matter? Why are you trembling?”…
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Love
The enormous redwood tree, ancient and failing, trembled. With a crackling, tearing sound, the unimaginable began to happen. Near the base, one side of the giant trunk began to crumple, like the…
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Trust
“Ask the Creator for what you want,” they told her, “and the Creator will always answer you.” They had told her that since she was a baby. Now she was almost seven.…