The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the water close to Japan has not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring the fish. If the return trip took more time, [...]

A few weeks ago someone gave me an interesting article on suffering, and the first part of it was on the meaning of the word – “suffering”. I’m interested in these meanings; they are teachings in themselves. The writer of this article pointed out that the word “suffering” is used to express many things. The [...]

There is no need to be afraid of death. It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we’re alive – to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a façade designed to conform to external definitions [...]

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker [...]

An anonymous reader of these reminders was inspired to write the following after reading some essays by Paramhansa Yogananda: Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces I would still plant my apple tree. – Martin Luther We often base our actions on the anticipated results. Soon enough, though, we realize [...]

We have become very skillful in dealing with our daily life; skillful, in the sense of being clever in applying a great deal of knowledge which we have acquired through education and experience. We act skillfully either in a factory or in a business and so on. That skill becomes, through repetitive action, routine. Skill, [...]

We each have the choice in any setting to step back and let go of the mind-set of scarcity. Once we let go of scarcity, we discover the surprising truth of sufficiency. By sufficiency, I don’t mean a quantity of anything. Sufficiency isn’t two steps up from poverty or one step short of abundance. It [...]

A son and his father were walking on the mountains. Suddenly, his son falls, hurts himself and screams: “AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!” To his surprise, he hears the voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain: “AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!” Curious, he yells: “Who are you?” He receives the answer: “Who are you?” Angered at the response, he screams: “Coward!” He receives the [...]

Once upon time there was a poor peasant in Russia. He was very contended whatever he had. He was managing his family’s affairs with whatever he was earning. But his elder brother was richer than him. One day, as his mind wandered, he thought that his brother was getting richer and richer, day after day. [...]

There lived a woodcutter who was very poor. He had a wife and three little children. He used to cut wood the whole day and still he could not arrange the food of two times for the family. He was very tired of his poverty stricken situation. One day he was bringing the wood load [...]