I still remember the crisp air and clear stars.
From that night under the Kent’s wintry sky.
This night, under India’s sky in the same season,
I see mist and dust clouding lives of the poor.
I always thought that we share the same sky.
How could that night be so different from this one?
Tonight, I yearn for a world [...]

Yup, Depeche Mode does slow and sentimental songs too. The above is the moving studio version of ‘Come Back’ from their new ‘Sounds of the Universe’ album (which some say is better than the album version). It is angsty yet calming at the same time, with the element of dark majesty that DM is renown [...]

Pic: Mahakala
Re: You cannot always be an ‘angel’. Sometimes you have to be a mara.
Me: The constant ‘angel’ might be a mara!

(Even the Buddhas and the best Bodhisattvas need to manifest greater wrath to the wrathful at times – albeit free of anger)

< Click to enlarge
The Three Saints of Western Paradise (L-R):
Mahastamaprapta Bodhisattva, Amitabha Buddha, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva
A Purelander friend brought to my attention this less popular but nevertheless important Pureland Sutra. It’s so important that I decided to spend one and a half off-days to translate it. I hope it inspires you as much, if not [...]

In a bus…
Where to?
For what conventional reasons do you journey?
So what when you get there?
In a life…
Where to?
For what ultimate reasons do you journey?
So what when you get there?
Notes: Mahayana Buddhists see the conventional journeys in life
as part of the larger ultimate journey to transcend life and death,
thereafter manifesting as Bodhisattvas to aid others to [...]