Stitaprajna: Standing Consciousness
By U. Mahesh Prabhu Feelings and emotions are explicit testimonies to the fact that we are men. But when we fail to tame them and flow with them, our life is on a sure path to disaster. There is a word in Sanskrit, which is largely unparalleled in any other language, called Stitaprajna. Simply translated the word can mean “Standing (Stita) Consciousness More...
A Better Way to Counter Depression
By Stephen Knapp Depression, according to recent statistics, is practically an epidemic, with over 70 million people suffering from its affects, such as a feeling of moroseness, uselessness, lack of energy, inability More...
Sleeping in the Daytime
The master Soyen Shaku passed from this world when he was sixty-one years of age. Fulfilling his life’s work, he left a great teaching, far richer than that of most Zen masters. His pupils used to sleep in More...
Wisdom through Adversity
Shwetank Dubey writes philosophically about Adversity. Fair enough to make an enduring read for the non-philosophical mortals. The higher you fly, the farther there is to fall. Every rise in luck is packaged with More...
Reciting Sutras
A farmer requested a Tendai priest to recite sutras for his wife, who had died. After the recitation was over the farmer asked: “Do you think my wife will gain merit from this?” “Not only your More...
Story of Okpoko
There was a bird, called Okpoko, whose head was odd and abnormally large. Other birds of the air frequently teased him and made disparaging remarks about his appearance. They did so with intent to hurt his feelings More...
Story of an Unusual Determination
In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that More...
The Silent Temple
Shoichi was a one-eyed teacher of Zen, sparkling with enlightenment. He taught his disciples in Tofuku temple. Day and night the whole temple stood in silence. There was no sound at all. Even the reciting of sutras More...
Is That So?
The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life. A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she More...
Finding a Diamond on a Muddy Road
Gudo was the emperor’s teacher in his time. Nevertheless, he used to travel alone—a wandering mendicant. Once when he was on his way to Edo, the cultural and political center of the shogunate, he approached More...
