Present moment isn’t “enough” because I always thought there’s something precious that future holds or a beautiful memory the past had borne. If we start writing down everything that is present in this moment, we find that there isn’t a single thing lies outside of it. Sun and the moon, stars and the sky, birds and the flowers, lakes and the wind — this moment contains the entire existence including this very thought in my mind about the present moment containing everything. Can you find anything that is not present in this moment?

“選佛塲” (Xuǎn fú chǎng) — I read these words outside a chan monastery and they are deeply inspiring. As soon as I returned to India, I drew this calligraphy and saved it carefully. Roughly they mean “Buddha’s selection site”. It goes that Chan master Danxia Zichun of Sichuan province was…

Keeping aside enlightenment and other things: I realised that Zen’s emphasis on daily life is a simple arithmetic fact. If we write down everything we do on a daily basis, we realise right away that we clean our floor more than the number of times we sign nuclear disarmament deals…

A while ago, I had a rare opportunity to speak to an old, internationally renowned buddhist monk from Sri Lanka. His disciples thought that I could share something about science and I spent (rather, wasted) one hour engaging in abstract metaphysical discussion. Others enjoyed it and the monk was very…

Earlier, I had an impression that while praying or meditating, leaving our eyebrows locked, clenching our jaws and sitting like a dead rock, is a sign of intense spiritual practice. Sculptors, for generations, have mis-represented our sages to look serious. How can that be? Anyone who touches the truth, shall…

We usually grow up following what I can term as “museum religion”. We go to a place of worship, do some rituals, read some texts and carefully place them back into the altar and come back to live our lives normally. But if we don’t free Buddha, Jesus and our gods from the shackles of our altars, how can they inspire peace and compassion, harmony and fraternity in the society? We need to carry them with us, while we scrub the toilet floor, while we cook, while we walk, so that peace becomes a possible reality, not a mere hope. Birds and flowers don’t merely pray in the altar but carry god in their song and blossom. It is by this that they can sing songs of peace and emanate fragrance of love in all directions~

Speaking about suffering maybe helpful but if our prose and poetry, movies and conversations are filled with unskilful speech about suffering, we may end up watering and strengthening the seed of suffering in us and others. …

19th Feb, 2022

Most of our economy thrives around the tenet that “we are not enough”. Though we bought the phone which was announced to be the “best” that year, we ironically hear that it is no longer “best” enough. Same with cosmetics or any other consumerist goods. Power structures know that it’s…