The Bodhisattva was once born as a pious hare. One evening he was about to meditate when his eye caught the almost complete orb of the moon in the distant sky. He remembered that the coming day was the holy fifteenth day of the brighter half of the month – the day on which one…
Siddhartha felt revitalized after eating the food offered him by Sujata, a girl from a nearby village. Feeling much better, he walked to the river’s edge. There, he washed. The riverbank was lined with some very tall krusha grass. Siddhartha gathered a good bundle of it and returned to the forest. Under the pippala tree,…
A man was very much interested in self-knowledge, in self-realization. His whole search had been to find a master who could teach him meditation. He went from one master to another, but nothing was happening. Years went by, he was tired, exhausted. Then someone told him, “If you really want to find a master you…
There is a beautiful story. Gautam Buddha comes into a town. The whole town has gathered to listen to him but he goes on waiting, looking backwards at the road — because a small girl, not more than thirteen years old, has met him on the road and told him, “Wait for me. I am…
“By the time Buddha became ill and died, he had been teaching for 45 years and many of his disciples had become enlightened. One who had not was Buddha’s ever-present attendant, Ananda. This might be seem strange because of all the disciples, Ananda had heard every word that the Buddha taught and memorised them all….
One day Buddha is passing by a forest. It is a hot summer day and he is feeling very thirsty. He says to Ananda, his chief disciple, “Ananda, you go back. Just three, four miles back we passed a small stream of water. You bring a little water — take my begging bowl. I am…
Joshu saw one monk and asked, “Have I seen you before?” The man said, “No sir, there is no possibility. I have come for the first time, I am a stranger — you could not have seen me before. Joshu said, “Okay, then have a cup of tea.”Then he asked another monk, “Have I seen…
I will tell you one story Jesus used to say. He repeated it many times- he must have loved this story. He said, “Once it happened, a very rich man needed some laborers in his garden to work, so he sent a man to the marketplace. All the laborers who were available were called and…
A king was very much interested in a young man who always remained underneath a tree, sitting silently. Every night the king passed around the city in disguise to see whether everything was right or not. He always found that young man sitting like a statue, without any movement. Finally, he could not contain his…
One day one of Buddha’s sannyasins was passing through a street where he had gone to beg. The most beautiful woman of that town, the prostitute of the town, fell in love with the monk. She came down out of her house and requested the monk to come and reside with her. And soon the…
