All Posts

The first rain of the season has already fallen, and I watch the water flowing across the land. But where is it going? This question cannot be answered easily. Is the motion of the water aimless? Does its speed serve no purpose? Yet this question does not arise only from observing the flowing water; it arises also from watching those who follow, moving like the water itself. The water flows seemingly without direction because its source—the clouds—is itself without fixed aim.

Some children come to speak of their school day. Some speak of science, others of mathematics, language, or history. And some speak of fights, of scoldings, of moments of anger. How beautifully innocent they are—speaking simply, describing life exactly as it is. And yet, one cannot help but reflect. Will these children retain their stillness, their purity, their fearless courage to move forward, their intense longing to know the unknown? Or will the pressures, the expectation

A man came to a village and found a shop, and while he was buying something he saw a jar, a box, and over the jar was written “Ram” — Ram, the name of God. When he had bought his goods, the man asked the shopkeeper what was in that jar. And the shopkeeper told him: this jar is empty, there is nothing within. Upon the jar the name of God was written, and yet the shopkeeper said it was empty. And of a sudden the man grasped something — that true realization comes to pass only w

Many times we know not what goes on in our mind; but our bearing of the body says a great deal of it — whether we are happy, whether content, in an easeful temper, or in discontent, weariness. The bearing of the body says much: how you sit, stand, look upon another, how your body answers to things. In differing states of feeling and of mind we hold a differing bearing of the body. So to understand the mind, it is easier to understand the body. When we are stressed, low, cast

Today, some children have come to me, speaking animatedly among themselves. I could sense a curious fusion of imagination and intellect in their speech. They are small in years, yet they consider themselves great in wisdom. And yet, the spontaneity of this intelligence seems to have been lost somewhere along the way. I asked them a simple question: “What gives a person strength? What gives energy?” One by one, they answered from memory and instruction: “Eating food gives stre

The experience that arises in a state of completeness is a rare and wondrous joy. This joy can never be known in half-heartedness or incompletion. Those who mistake partial experience for wholeness live in confusion. In a school, a two-kilometer race was announced. It was declared that whoever reached the finish line in the least amount of time would be the winner and would receive the prize. A boy, very skilled at running, entered the race. He ran the first kilometer at grea

Standing on the bank of a river at the feet of the mountains, I notice something unusual today: the river is calm, clear, and serene. I had stood here a few days ago as well, but then the water was muddy and restless. When I enquired, they said, “It has rained heavily on the hills. That is why the river is swollen and dirty.” This made me wonder. A river flows so humbly, so gracefully—why does it become muddy and violent? Why does it overflow its banks? Today, as if in dialog

Our inquiry today is into the meaning of life. First we must ask: is there any meaning of life at all? Men commonly think upon the purpose of life; but this we must think anew. Is there a purpose of life? In truth there is no purpose of life — yet there is a meaning of life. When we think that life has a purpose, we shut every door to doing something new, something of our own making. For if the purpose is already set, it means another has set it — nature, or God, or destiny,

A diamond merchant once came, displaying his diamonds. One diamond caught my attention. It glowed so brilliantly that it felt as if the sun had gifted it a fragment of its own light. Then the merchant announced its price. The moment I heard the value, something strange happened. The diamond's glow seemed to dim—just a little, but noticeably so. I asked, “A moment ago your shine was so radiant. Now it seems lighter, faded. What happened?” The diamond replied softly, with pain

It is one thing to have energy, and quite another to know how to balance it. Sometimes men beget their energy but know not how to balance it — and energy unbalanced can do harm. This is why, after meditation, many say that they feel a vast energy and cannot master it, that the energy runs off in a wrong direction, and not the right. So to balance the energy is as needful as to beget it. If you but waken and beget energy within the body, yet know not how to balance it, that en

A king let a condemned man choose his own punishment: a hundred onions to eat, or a hundred lashes to bear. Onions seemed the easier thing, so he chose them. But a few onions in, his eyes streaming, he begged instead for the lashes. A few lashes in, he begged to go back to the onions. And so it went, back and forth, until in the end he had eaten all hundred onions and taken all hundred lashes too. This is the restlessness of the mind, and it is what makes a man suffer. Pain,

A young camel asked his father: why are our feet so thickly padded? So that we can walk with ease over the desert sand. And why is our neck so long? So that we can reach the high leaves; in the desert the bushes grow tall. And this hump on our back? So that we can store as much water as we can. And why so much hair over our eyes? So that when the desert storms blow, the dust does not get in. Then the young camel asked: if our padded feet and our long neck and our hump and our

A man's years have grown, but the usefulness of his life keeps shrinking. He wastes his time on show more than on substance — living little and displaying much. He forgets what he ought to eat, but knows exactly how to eat it; he has the manners and neglects the health. He spends his hours arranging his hair and none shaping his life; he gives little attention to the body and much to buying the ornaments to hang on it. He learns to make speeches, and forgets where, to whom, a

A woman was searching for something. From the morning she had been searching. Those who went out to the field came home at evening and found the same old woman still searching. So they asked her, in wonder: what do you seek? When we passed this way in the morning, we saw you searching; and now, coming home, we see you searching still. What do you seek? And she said: I have lost my necklace, and I am searching for it. Then the whole company said to her: that necklace hangs alr

A fire was burning at a fireplace, and the smoke had spread until all was half-hidden. A parrot has eaten the seed of the gram and left the husk. A cow has eaten its fodder and scattered half of it about. Two children are playing — one wholly absorbed in a single toy, the other only spreading his many toys around, not playing at all. And a great share of the world's food, they say, is left half-eaten and the other thrown away. A young man comes, and after we talk a while, tel

A wooden horse a thousand years old, from the old times, was stumbling as it went along the ground. “Why do you stumble?” I asked. “I am old,” said the horse, “and the roads are new. I cannot bring the two into step.”

A fish was swimming past in a great hurry. What is it, another asked — where are you rushing off to? I have had news, said the first, that clouds have gathered over the far shore of the sea. And I must go and see what water is — so I am hurrying to see the water.

Winter has arrived again. It came last year as well, and now it has returned. It has come at the same time, in the same form. Why does nature not change its ways? Why does it appear exactly as it did before? Change is said to be the law of nature—then why is there no visible change here? Why does winter return just as it was? Why does nature not forget its past, leave it behind, and bring something new each time? A man came to me a few days ago. Some painful incidents had occ

It feels as though someone has revealed the secret of my silent conversations. Today, my effort to go to the rooftop was fruitless. The clouds, driven by the wind, covered the radiant face of the sun. I could not see the sun, and so I could not speak with him. The ticking of the clock kept announcing that the sun was moving, yet I was surprised. The force of the wind and the thickness of the clouds had no effect on the sun at all. He continued on his path, untouched, uninflue

When an individual thinks only of himself, when a nation thinks only of its own citizens, when a religion thinks only of its own followers, then the good it does becomes very small, and the harm it causes to the world becomes immense. Any decision that is not rooted in concern for the whole world, the whole society, the entire human family, inevitably turns narrow. It is essential that decisions arise from a vision that includes the welfare of all humanity, not just one fragm