hermit's chronicles

The problem with being clever all the time is you have no time left for anything else.

When the wind blows through the scattered bamboos, they do not hold its sound after it has gone. When the wild geese fly over a cold lake, it does not retain their shadows after they have passed. So the mind of the superior man begins to work only when an event occurs; and it becomes void again when the matter ends. - Hung Tzu-ch'eng in Discourses on Vegetable Roots

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself? - Lao-Tzu in the Tao-te-Ching

Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you are alive, it isn’t. - Richard Bach

The closest definition of Meditation I have come to is, Meditation is open-ended concentration. Remember, “open-ended”. Meditation is not an exercise in concentration, or of rigid straight backs for that matter. The mind has this habit of either dwelling on the past or jumping to the future. It hates staying in the present moment. It normally revels in the gamut of “could”, “would” and “should”. It hates being in the What Is. Simply put, Meditation is what gets the mind to stay in the What Is. In the beginning there is a meditator who is doing the meditation to achieve an objective . As the meditation progresses, there is no meditator, no objective…just the meditating. Two things more to contemplate upon. First, do you remember the geometry theorem we all learnt in school? “The smallest arc of a circle is a straight line.” The present moment is the smallest arc of this circle of life. If this present moment can be perfect, and the next moment, then the moment after that…life becomes ...

Believe in miracles but don’t rely on them. - sign outside church at Amboli, Mumbai

This is where the mind wandered whilst I was busy chanting this morning in the autorickshaw to work: … [ seen: flooded road ] God, when will the waters clear?! Wonder how they get into the shops by the road? … … [ seen: drug store sign ] I need to buy some Laviest. All those antibiotics have screwed up my system … … [ bending to bow as the Krishna Temple is seen approaching ] I really like this, the way they light up the deity with diyas instead of those ghastly light bulbs … … [ heard: a sharp horn and a shriek of brakes ] F***k! That was close! He was just inches away. Ass****! … [ seen: a roadside cart with pineapples ] They look so fresh. But look at that filthy plastic on the cut slices. So many flies! Eat this and you’ll shit to death! … … [ leaning forward to check out the ATM ] Thank God, it’s working again after the floods. I don’t have to go to the one three blocks away … … [ seen: a cropped view through the auto’s hood of a tight rainbow-coloured tanktop on a very slim girl...

As Mumbai recovers from the deluge, one is reminded of this delightful story: The flood waters were rising fast and the villagers were evacuating and they told the rabbi, “Rabbi, let’s go. We have organized a bus for all of us. The water’s already up to the knees and rising really fast.” The wise old rabbi shook his head and smiled benignly: “The good Lord shall take care of me.” A while later the flood waters reached the waist. The remaining villagers came in a boat to pick up the rabbi. The rabbi’s faith was strong and he refused to leave, saying: “The good Lord shall take care of me.” Two hours later the water was touching the chin and a helicopter droned in above the rabbi’s head. The last of the villagers dropped down a ladder: “Rabbi, climb on. You are the only one left. The waters will be above your head in no time.” The rabbi waved them off. “The good Lord shall take care of me.” The rabbi drowned and when he faced the good Lord, he grumbled bitterly: “You let me down! I truste...

There is only one reason why you do not find any posting here from June 16. The writing did not happen.