The above is a page from Mitch Albom’s ‘Have a Little Faith’ (which I have not read fully). Te below are comments on it: Being attached is an extreme. Being detached (as in being apathetic) is the opposite extreme. Being attached to being detached is extreme too, a marriage of the above. The Middle Path [...]

She spoke of her fears of how he might not return. I consoled her that we all face the same problem, that our loved ones might not return due to many reasons. Even if they do not walk out on us, they might die suddenly in a mishap, like her, like me, like anyone else. [...]

What is the difference between an actual flower and a dream flower? That’s the only difference… The first is an actual flower and the latter a dream flower. That’s all. All conditioned dharmas are like dreams. The actual flower is dream-like, though not a dream. Both flowers are of emptiness: they are impermanent, and lack [...]

In ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’, Johnny Depp plays a character who says this to a lady in her imaginary world: Prepare to be reborn. And remember: Nothing is permanent. Not even death. Sounds like the stuff of the Heart Sutra, which goes a step further and says that there is no birth and death [...]

The magical ulcer in my mouth seems to come from nowhere, to grow and grow. It doesn’t seem to go, till it shrinks and shrinks, before it disappears into nowhere. But what about the ulcer, the sore, that trouble in mind? That too, will pass! But you can hasten it, you can heal it, but [...]

Oscar Wilde said that ‘Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.’ What is disturbing about the hyper fashion-conscious is how much time energy and money they spend chasing the transient and material. One cannot be fashionable forever as it requires continual efforts to keep up. [...]

Yet another random lesson from Taiji class: Taiji is ultimately about fluid movement; not rigid postures, even as we learn fixed postures at first, as punctuation points of movement. Likewise, life is about fluid motion; both physically (unless we are sleeping or meditating seated) and mentally. To be static or stuck is to no longer [...]

Question: While the three spheres (of self, other and connecting action) are interdependent of each other, how does emptiness come into this framework? Answer: Here is a simple illustration… First, we need to remember emptiness means being empty of a fixed unchanging self. Next, let’s look at how the components of the trio are each [...]

A fool, even though he is associated with a wise man all his life, does not understand the Dhamma, just as a ladle does not know the taste of soup. An intelligent man, even though he is associated with a wise man only for a moment, quickly understands the Dhamma, just as the tongue knows [...]

The ingenious film that is ‘Inception’ begins with the assumption that it is possible for multiple persons to enter someone’s dream, that can even be designed without that person knowing, thus digging out deep secrets from his sub-consciousness, or even implanting ideas which eventually shape one’s decisions. Thank goodness this doesn’t seem technologically viable at [...]

A scene in Taiwan’s Danshui’s Starbucks: A student’s T-shirt reads, ‘There is no rule without exceptions.’ (E.g. Most but not all crows are black.) But if that is a rule, that rule too is without exception, which means there are rules which are with exceptions. (E.g. All mind and matter is subject to change.) Next [...]

I turned the digital clock off before stepping out of the house. Since all will be away for some time, there’s no need for anyone to know the time. And in the house, everything is ‘frozen’ still, as if time does not pass. Reminds me of the Buddha’s definition of time as the measurement of [...]

This is one of my favourite scenes from one of my favourite movies, where Bob (played Bill Murray) sings Roxy Music’s oldie ‘More Than This’ in a karaoke room. ‘More than THIS – there is nothing.’ THIS is THIS now. All we have is now. Live in the moment – because the future is uncertain and we [...]

‘I’ am an experiment experimenting with this ‘I’. ‘I’ am change changing this ‘I’. ‘I’ am (r/d)evolution* evolving this ‘I’. * Evolution or Devotion or Revolution?

All instances of being peeved in the past came to pass. Phew! All instances of being peeved in the present will pass too. Phew! But if all such instances come only to pass, why get peeved at all? Why invest even an iota of energy, time and emotion in senseless peeved-ness? Without any good reason [...]