A jewel in this ocean of samsara

After having watered my plants I was busy getting on with my day, when while walking across the room, I saw the run-of water caught like a jewel in the leaf. This sudden gift of beauty reminded me of a conversation I had yesterday with a friend who is in the midst of intiating a public arts project ( my best wishes with her). We were discussing about the city, it's extremes, the contrasts, how we all battle with it on a daily basis. I spoke of Thich Nhat Hanh's gatha (verse), "In the garbage I see a rose, in the rose I see garbage...", meaning when you take out the trash you do it with the understanding that a rose can/will come out from it and when you see a rose you know that it too will wilt and turn to garbage.....I was hinting at seeing the contrasts around us, as being impermanent....changing, beauty turning to ugliness, that which is repulsive to beauty...but on reflection while I was alone I realized all this also questions the very meaning of what we consider as beautiful.

It will be interesting for me to see how I view this in future, my own relationship with the city is always changing, I try not to react, but it is there, all the chinks in the system....I try to be the change rather than expecting the city to change around me. I try.

All I know is a seeking mind can find beauty even in the mundane and be uplifted till the next mundane joy comes along.

Love & light!

Walking with child and feeling like one.

One of the simple joys of life is to take a walk with a child holding their hand, the exchange of energy is wonderful. As you can see, here I have presented two facing pages from Thich Nhat Hanh's book, The Long Road Turns To Joy on walking meditation.


Walking with a child is meditation itself, even having a child around invites you to meditate, that is, practise awareness in present moment. The child will stop you in mid-conversation about something that was'nt so important after all (but to us evrything is so serious). I like these moments when you must stop whatever is it that you are doing and pay attention to the world around you in the present moment.
My girl-friend Gaurika's little girl sure does a pretty good job at this, being two years and old and all. I love it when she makes momentraily interrupts our conversation, and for a while I have stopped thinking and am just being....Thich Nhat Hanh is right when he says, a child is a bell of mindfullness.

Love + light

Breaking Blog Silence

Flowers, Temple of Heaven park, Beijing. I chose this picture because it reminds me of a flower laden path towards a brighter future.

I am finally breaking blog silence. So many words have been said about the unfortunate events which occurred from 26 to 29 December 08 in local and international media. At the time, wether you were in a train or were simply walking down the street, you only heard about the horror of the unfolding events.

It was surreal to find oneself caught in this web of interdependence, where we were turned into spectators of death and destruction. While we slept, ate and watched the continuous stream of media footage, people lost their lives, were injured and traumatized for life, something in me and everyone changed, irrevocably.

During those days and in the aftermath I could not bring myself to write anything about it which would be published on the internet. Of course I spoke about it, it was all one could think about.

Seeing men with guns in camouflage guarding the station where I alight for work , walking past metal detectors, listening to announcements alerting you to unclaimed baggage that may contain explosives is giving me a glimpse of what life must be like for people in conflict-zones.


Realizations – within and without.
Inward - I don’t see myself coming to town (as we call south Bombay) six days a week anymore. All life is precious and I might as well live as if I am on a sacred journey. Outwardly, where do we go from here? I will leave asking of major questions to more knowing minds but can we re-write history in a brief period? After I read ‘Three Cups of Tea’ by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin I realized that the problem is very deep rooted. I would think it has to do with ignorance, no education, a situation where madarasas crop up sooner than non-secular schools.

Respect in our hearts, sending out love.
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Zen Master who has done a lot for promoting peace and I like his writings. The first book I had read was 'Old Path, White Clouds', it changed me and I have read more books written by him since then. Recently he visited India.

In his pocket-sized book on walking meditation , Thich Nhat Hanh speaks about, how on his return to France after witnessing some shocking incidents he was repulsed by the contrasting sight of people living extravagantly, and he vowed to live in such a way that would help others.

Coming back to what I said about being on a sacred journey, with respect in our hearts for the lives lost and so that peace may grow we can go about our daily lives sending out waves of peace and harmony. Every positive thought matters, cultivate them today.

Returning arrows with flowers
Another thing, I could not understand people’s reactions – all those hate sms’s, what was that all about? Fixing appointments between terrorists and God ! have we forgotten ?
“An eye for an eye, makes the whole world blind” – Gandhi

Related links
* Plum Village where Thich Nhat Hanh lives http://www.plumvillage.org/
* more about Three Cups of Tea http://www.threecupsoftea.com


Peace, love , light and harmony !