Creative Writings and Musings

Author: Amy Hofstadter I think I was sleeping, when a deep male voice woke me up. In front of me was standing a handsome old man, with all his hairs silver white. I saw around, the room looked different, it was not my usual studio apartment. The room was much larger and very dimly lit. The old man was standing about five feet away from me near a strange looking light source , surrounded by two coils glowing with light. The old man was talking perhaps to me or to himself! I am not even sure that he knew I was present there. His voice echoed in my ears, “Today I am 120 year old, almost the last surviving male of my generation!   Inventor of   life force generator, a device that can generate infinite energy from nothing.”   Saying this, he moved towards the central light source.   I don’t know if it is my imagination, or just pure sleep, but I am sure I saw at that moment the   light source flickered and few firefly like things flew from it, they merged   into that old man’s face. The f

Image source: http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Human-Friends-Hiking-Leisure-Rest-Meeting-Group-2156513 One day as Lord Buddha was on his way to ask for alms, he found a young boy Sigala offering prostrations to the six directions.  Seeing him Buddha asked the young Boy what he is doing the boy replied his father had instructed him to prostrate thus so as to increase prosperity and wealth Buddha said this is not the right way to prostrate. The curious Sigala then requested the enlightened one to shed light on the right way to prostrate, for increasing prosperity and wealth. Buddha also told him about how to identify good friends and foes disguised as friends. We will talk about foes disguised as friends in another post. Today we talk about four types of good friends as told by Tathagat to the young Sigala: Helper Friend : Helper friend protects you when you are vulnerable. He guides you, counsels you against wasting your wealth. He helps you in protecting your wealth. When you are a

We all search for happiness and peace, and most of the times it eludes us. Perhaps we are looking it at wrong places, through wrong means. The law of Karma says that we reap what we sow. This means that, if we want to reach a state, where we can even become aware of the path of true happiness we have to first sow the right karmas, the good Karmas. But, how do we know what is right and what is wrong?  Lord Buddha gave to all people, especially the householders, who cannot leave their houses and have a duty towards their parents, their children, their spouses, a guide, commonly known as the Five Percepts: Panatipata veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami :  " I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures".  Lord Buddha says we should not involve in activities which kill any other sentient being. Each life is precious, and human life even more so. Let us not waste this precious life by killing other beings, or by becoming a cause of killing/destroying other beings