One book down!

Yeah the title speaks for itself. We are now one book down!

Many…many and many more to go…

Thank you all for your love and support.

It is time I tell you more about the book. This is one of our favorite stories about a pair of specs, Mr. Shiny and an ant, Mary. It is quite an offbeat tale from the standard. The story came into conception four years ago when we did not have anything but just the verbal version. Then it found a way to reach into our laptops. Then it traveled a long journey between friends, well-wishers, publishers, authors, editors and so on. Finally, after a long period of 4 years came the moment we all had been waiting for!

Yes, we found a publisher!

Thank you Orange Publishers and team for all your support and hard work.

Thank you Krishna for all the inspiration.

A lot of sweat and hard work has been put into it. A long journey has been traversed to reach this far. A lot of people have put in their love and patience into it.

This is first story from the series – The Adventures of Mr. Shiny. We are working on the second one and it should be out anytime next year. We really look forward to your support and love.

Please spare some time to order a copy and share your reviews and feedback.

We highly appreciate critics and comments.

You may also order your copy at Amazon or Flipkart.

 

Love,

Mohit

Place of no Questions

Dear Seekers!

I bring you a very short Zen story today (only 44 words!)

Some of you already know by now that Zen stories points towards Zen (Experience) and it does not matter how many words it has. It is a pointer towards the essence of life.

There are only 3 statements in this story. Let us read the story and then we can go through it in detail:

Upon meeting a Zen Master at a social event, a psychiatrist decided to ask him a question that had been on his mind.

“Exactly how do you help people?” he asked.

 “I get them where they can’t ask any more questions,” the Master answered.

 A psychiatrist got lucky to be able to meet a Zen Master. It is a really graceful event in itself to be able to meet a Master. Master only appears to those who have a real desire for the truth.

Even though the psychiatrist got this profound opportunity to meet the Master, he is incapacitated by his mind (beliefs/programming/patterns/habits) and ends up asking a stupid question.

We are all a victim of our own minds. Our mind lead us and we find ourselves helpless and bound by its conditions and whims. We are imprisoned by it.

Only a Master is free to choose his response. Only the one who has Mastered his mind.

But even though a stupid question is asked it is still very meaningful. Meaningful because Masters don’t reply to the questions. They reply to persons. Master’s reply is subjective for a person. Different seekers asking the same question to a Master might get different replies. It is because Master is not answering the question. He is answering the person by looking at all what one is filled of and all that one is capable to be. The answers from the Master are insightful and point towards the real experience.

The psychiatrist thinks the Master is famous because he is able to help people. He wanted to understand what he might be doing to be able to help people. The question is coming from the kind of life psychiatrist must be dealing with. It must be in his profession to meet different patients who are sick and need help on the mental front.

Now look at what the Master replied. He said “ I get them where they can’t ask any more questions.”

You can see that the Master is not answering the question but he has still answered it.

He is not telling any techniques or process but he is simply pointing towards the real thing.

What is that place where you can’t ask any more questions?

Think about it.

All the questions that you have are simply a byproduct of all the conditioning and learning your mind has gone through. Are they worth more than pennies? Even after getting answers to your so-called questions, no change actually happens in your life. You continue to live as it is and nothing happens. These questions never get you anywhere.

Points for Contemplation:

 What are my questions?

Even if I get answers to all my questions, would it really help me?

What is that place where you can’t ask any more questions?

 

Happy Thoughts!

Mohit

The present moment

Dear Truth Seekers!

It has been a while since we connected, and what other best way it is to connect other than a Zen story!

I bring you a very small Zen story but very profound.

Let us read and contemplate on few questions before we read the actual story. Request you all to ponder over these questions for couple of minutes before you read ahead.

·   What is the present moment?

·   What is beyond this present moment?

·   Does life dwell in the past/future or in the present?

Let us read the story now.

A Japanese warrior was captured by his enemies and thrown into prison.

That night he was unable to sleep because he feared that the next day he would be interrogated, tortured, and executed.

Then the words of his Zen master came to him, 

“Tomorrow is not real. It is an illusion. The only reality is now.” 

Heeding these words, the warrior became peaceful and fell asleep.

 

 

The story is very profound and symbolizes the importance of the present moment. Is there any life beyond the present moment? Think about it.

What you wake up, you walk, read, write, eat or do any sort of mundane or important activity, you always find yourself doing it in the present moment. And that moment is very tiny. It goes away even before you realize it. It is just there, each moment, moment to moment. If you are not aware, you happen to lose it.

Try a little experiment. Sometime, take a break for 10 minutes and tell yourself that in these 10 minutes, I am going to live moment to moment. I am going to aware in the present moment.

Whatever may happen, I will not lose my focus. I will be in the present moment. Your mind will wander away due to its lifelong habit, but be in the present. Tell yourself consciously, there is no future or past. It is only this present moment that I have and then live in the present. See what happens after those 10 minutes of awareness. How do you feel?

In the story, even at the eve of death night, the warrior could sleep peacefully. How is this possible?

His mind must be wandering about thoughts of death, torture and brutality that was yet to come. But remembering the words of the master, he could sleep peacefully. He knew that tomorrow is yet to come, it may come or may not, or it might come in another way but this moment is all I have. This moment is here, with me, now but tomorrow has not happened yet.

This brought him back in the present.

Thoughts for contemplation:

·   What % of my time during the day is spent in complete awareness of the present moment?

·   What kind of thoughts drift me away from the present?

·   What is past/future?

Think about it.

Happy Thoughts!

Mohit

Software design

Today i spent the afternoon watching a very useful video on software design principles in a very easy way. 

Go take a look but be ready to invest some time. For people in the software field, it’s totally worth it
Software Design principles by Venkat

Happy Diwali

Happy Thoughts
Here is lakhshmi prarthana, samajh ke saath🙏🏻

Thank you England!

Hellllooo friends.

We are back from England. Sorry to not write for a very very long time. It was lovely and safe flight sitting alongside Mr. Robin Williams (I’m not kidding – see for yourself:))

Very fruitful and wonderful trip.It was a time of learning and observation. Travel and adventure, cooking and cooling and so on. It was a very successful, productive, lovely and rich experience. About 10 months trip in United Kingdom and Europe. We covered more than a dozen cities and about 3 countries. Met new people, new legends, learned new lessons and qualities.

Krishna got the best of it which was the very purpose. May he continues to get the best. If I am going to write everything about what happened, i am sure it is going to take a very very long time. So I will share as it comes to me, as it flows when needed.

Thanks for being so kind and supportive for me and accepting me as I am. I am back from a  long, good, well-deserved break and time demands me to look after new career options now. I am in the process of contemplation and accepting new learnings and experiences to apply my skills in the best way possible.

I am heartily grateful for your lovely support who regularly talk to me, meet me, call me, listen to my problems and support me all the time. Thank you all my friends, family and relatives who have been with me in thick and thin.

I would really appreciate if you continue your support with me by reading my articles, sharing your thoughts and ideas and post your questions and comments on how we can contribute towards a highly evolved world in a creative and lovely way. This is the purpose.

There are two purposes: Mission Earth and Mission Livelyhood.

Mission Earth reminds us of the first and the most important question. What are we here for?

Mission Livelihood reminds us of investing your time and energy in a creative way to earn your expenses in a lively manner.

It is important to have these two purposes sorted out and aligned together in a rhythmic way. This, I believe is the key to live a happy and purposeful life.

A lot of thoughts and questions are racing through my mind right now. What to do ? What not to do? When I see deeper inside me, I see a lot of skills and qualities which need creative and systematic utilisation which will help me earn my expenses and provide a good service to the world.

I am a supporter of Love, Joy and Peace. Without these three qualities things just aren’t right howsoever they appear to show up.

Let me start by telling you what we did in this trip –

1. Churwell parties with Smriti, Jayesh, Priyanka, Anil, Firoz, Febin, Rajesh ji, Ashay, Vignesh, Abdul, Radha, Praful, Pranita and many more…
2. Visited Scarborough Castle – a very lovely experience
3. Visited Amsterdam
4. Visited Cologne and Bonn in Germany
5. Met Agata and her family – She is an old friend of ours and deserves a very special place in our heart
6. Met Shiela and Peter and stayed with them in their lovely zen house in Stoemmeln
7. Evening hangout at Rhineau riverside, Bonn with Varsha, Shiela and Shravani
8. Lived in Leeds – our hometown in England
9. Visited London a couple of times – Priceless experience
10. Visited London Book Fair!! (I am not joking) – By far one of the best things that happened. There are already articles about this. You can read London Book Fair and Train to London.
11. Learned and experimented a lot with Cooking
12. Learned Presentation
13. Stayed at Mr. James’s artistic and larger than life house near Olympia, London
14. Made several new friends
15. Musical hangouts with Neha, Darren and her family
16. Visited Scotland – Isle of Skye
17. Road trip to Wales
18. Biryanis and Sheer Kurma with Nilofar Sayyad
19. Learned Backgammon
20. Special bonding with Krishna
21. Krishna studied in Cottingley Children’s center – A council affiliated children’s day care centre. Wonderful people and experience. Special thanks to Angie, Lisa, Lauren, Jess, Karen, Jayne, Katie, Stephanie, Mel, Simone and all the staff members and kids!
22. Wrote and edited 7 children stories.
23. Communicated with 50 publishers, 20 submissions, 5 replies (rejections in a way) and 2 vanity contracts (rejected by me)
24. Did lawn mowing. Ha haha!
25. Change my looks 🙂
26. Zen stories
27. A lot of reading

This is for now. More to come later…till then

Tschüss!

Ask the horse!

Dear Seekers.

We bring you a very short, sweet and funny Zen story today. Short and funny however does not mean it is not a Zen story. Think about it.

More after the story –

A horse suddenly came galloping quickly down the road. It seemed as though the man had somewhere important to go.

Another man, who was standing alongside the road, shouted, “Where are you going?” and the man on the horse replied,

“I don’t know! Ask the horse!”

 

Where are we going?

We wake up, get up from the bed everyday and jump into an endless cycle of things that just repeats daily. Same things go on over and over without an end.

What does this all lead to?

Do we know?

No we don’t.

Life brings us new situations everyday and every other day but we tend to stick to what we are. We rather not change and just react to everything that comes in. We complaint, regret, feel guilty and sometimes proud to have chosen the right thing but essentially we have not.

We don’t change rather we just let the changes pass by. We don’t grab opportunities. We cannot even blame life for the endless vicious cycle because it is not about the life, it is about us.

A couple of people were asked that same usual question – Why are you doing all this?

Most of them didn’t know the answer while the smart ones replied – “To be happy.”

Is it true?

Are we doing everything for happiness?

We earn, we drag ourselves at work everyday, we perform our duties, we take care of our kids and family, we travel and we support them. We fulfill everything but we are not full yet. We feel so empty inside.

Happiness evades us no matter what we do.

 

Back to the story –

The story is very symbolic. There is no master and no disciple, only fellow travellers. It is a very subtle indication that should be contemplated deeply.

A traveller sitting on a horse is passing by the road and while another traveller watches him. When the horse rider is asked – “Where are you going?”

He replies with something that should be understood well. He says – “I don’t know. Ask the horse!”

This is true. The man on the horse indicates towards the kind of life that we all live. We chase happiness but never find it. The horse drags us wherever it pleases.

 

Who is the horse?

The horse is your mind. It runs endlessly in different directions and chases things that appear lustrous from the outside. While the person sitting on the horse is you.

Who is driving? You are driving the horse or is the horse driving you?

Think about it. The horse does not need you rather you need the horse more than anything. You have become a victim of your own mind. It is only from the outside that you appear to be in control but things are quite opposite actually.

 

Example –

You saw a beautiful car passing by.

A thought passed by your mind. “What a car! I should have this!”

And the chase starts.

Then you tend to think more and more about the car. Your horse is running behind the car now. Day in and day out you become obsessed with the car. You want to have it at any cost.

You want to buy it, borrow it or even steal if it comes to that. But you want it.

Why? Because you allowed to give attention to that passing thought.

Only if you had just let that thought pass by, it would not have troubled you. Thousands of thoughts are passing by your mind every now and then. You witness a scene on the outside and become involved. This is the horsepower. Your attention and involvement gives the power to the horse. Your attachment with that thought makes it a part of you. Then it covers you and attacks you from all direction like a whirlwind until you possess it.

What happens when you posses it?

You might love and drive that car for some time. You may even take selfies and post it on Facebook to let people know that you have such and such car.

What happens then?

The car goes in the background after a while and you start chasing something else. This is going on for ages.

It is time to literally ask the horse!

Question the mind!

Technique and Contemplation –

Ask the horse.

Whenever your mind starts chasing something – wait.

Ask – What do you want?

Why are you chasing this?

The mind will reply – “Only then I will feel happy and peace.”

Then tell the mind – “You said the same thing last time. When have you felt happy after achieving something? When was the last time you were at peace?”

The race goes on and on. It is important to talk to your own mind and understand that chasing things on the outside does not give you happiness.

Rather when you take possession of something, the thought/dream that was filling the mind completely withers away for a moment and you get a glimpse of Zen.

This is where the happiness comes from. Zen is the source of happiness. Zen is not on the outside or inside. It is your very core.

There are no preconditions to achieve Zen. Just wait, let the horse down and relax. Then, Zen may find you!

 

Best,
Mohit

Thank you Papa!

I love you dear papa. I have not said that often and neither have I said sorry enough but I still love you.

You are wonderful. I cannot imagine my life without you dear papa. I remember sitting on your shoulder when you carried me for miles without complaining. I remember my tantrums when I wanted something and you brought it for me in spite of anything to make me happy.

You taught me to eat, to walk and to talk. I grew up observing your wonderful knowledge, qualities of talking and convincing people, getting things done on time and leading the way. I owe all this to you. You are an epitome of love, wisdom, devotion, service, compassion and leadership.

You are a tall pillar under which our family stands tall and sleeps peacefully. You are the lighthouse that ensures that none of us can go astray. With your presence we have nothing to worry about. Nothing ever went wrong in your leadership.

You led our way all the time while teaching us the rights things to do. You showed me the path whenever I was confused and bewildered. You gave me my first mantra and you are my first guru. Without your support there would have been no growth in my life.

I have said too many things and done too much that should not have said or done, but I ask for your forgiveness papa. Please forgive me. I am learning and life has taught me a lot of new lessons that helped me understand your point of view. I feel more comfortable at understanding your situation, problems and decisions now. No amount of words can ever be enough to thank you for all that you’ve done for us. We all owe you papa. Our life is incomplete without you.

May god forgive me for all the wrongs that I have done and give me strength and wisdom to not repeat the mistakes. I feel more confident in expressing my thoughts to you that will ensure that there is a natural flow of thoughts between you and me.

May God bless you with wonderful health, love, devotion, peace, courage, laughter, happiness and prosperity. May you fulfill your true goal and achieve the purpose of life.

Thank you papa once again for being in my life.

Thank you mamma and papa for being in my life.

I am proud of both of you to be my parents.

I am proud to be your son.

Love you both!

 

Happy Fathers Day!

Stepping on a frog

Dear Seekers.

We bring you another Zen story today that is so powerful that if contemplated properly and applied completely, it can change your whole life; just because your life is nothing but a part of you.

More after the story –

Once there was a monk who specialized in the Buddhist precepts, and he kept to them all his life. Once when he was walking at night, he stepped on something. It made a squishing sound, and he imagined he had stepped on an egg-bearing frog.

This caused him no end of alarm and regret, in view of the Buddhist precept against taking life, and when he finally went to sleep that night he dreamed that hundreds of frogs came demanding his life.

The monk was terribly upset, but when morning came he looked and found that what he stepped on was an overripe eggplant. At that moment his feeling of uncertainty suddenly stopped, and for the first time he realised the meaning of the saying that “there is no objective world.” Then he finally knew how to practice Zen.

The story revolves around a monk who has studied Buddhist precepts. He has been practicing and learning Buddhism by reading and remembering all the rules and regulations that are there. He knows not the experience but the facts and formulae.

“If this happens you do that and if that happens you should do something else and things like that.” This is all he has. Once he steps on something during the dark and hears a squishing sound, the kind of sound that comes if you squeeze the juice from a juicy orange using your fist.

He is unable to see what he has stepped on but he only hears. This gives him an imagination that he has stepped on a pregnant frog and has sinned. This is a sin as per the precepts that he knows. His mind starts to haunt him from then on. He cannot sleep or rest. All he can see is thousands of frogs crawling up on him and questioning his sinful act.

One false imagination and the mind has all the luxury to paint an entire new world around it. You see that world more and more and continue to believe in each of its fragment causing your bondage in your own web.

What exactly had happened? Did he know? No.

He did not know what had happened. He just thought about it. Rather a thought came and he thought that only this thought is right. Why?

Because it came to him!

This happens to all of us. This is our story.

Thoughts are just visitors. If you decide to host them and feed them, they enjoy it.

Imagine the example of a coat that is hung on the back hook of the door. In the dark, it appears to be like a thief standing behind the door.

When you switch on the light what happens?

The thief runs away.

No.

It was not there from the beginning.

Another example –

You walk on a lonely road and two branches from a tree intertwine to form an outline. You see a ghost. But there is no ghost. Your mind is the only ghost there is.

There is no objective world. Nothing is fixed. Don’t assume that what you see is what others see. No. They see a completely different version of the world. Rather everybody sees and lives in his own world.

We all carry our little, false and illusory world around us, all the time. We live in it, breathe in it and stick to it.

Subject (mind) works like a projector and projects its own movie everywhere. It sees what it wants to see, hears what it wants to hear and feels what it wants to feel.

This is dangerous. Because you have not experienced what is present, you have experienced your own false mind.

 

To the answer –

How to come out of it?

Turn on the light!

There is nothing to be done. No fighting and no running away. Just watch. The light of awareness burns down all that is false.

The knowing itself is the remedy.

 

Back to the story –

Next day, the monk comes back to re-examine the spot and re-spect it.

He comes to know that it was an eggplant and not an egg-bearing frog. This knowing strips him of all that was haunting him. He comes to know Zen for the first time.

He knows the experience. When all that is false withers away, the bright experience which is always there shines forth.

This is realization.

 

Last thing (Contemplation and Application)

Meditation / Sadhana

Whenever you see, hear or feel anything in your mind, question it.

Re–Spect it.

Re Look at it.

Don’t label immediately. Do not be in a hurry to form a judgment.

Ask yourself – Is this exactly what happened?

Am I 100% sure that this is exactly like I think?

Ask yourself a couple of times and this questioning will dissolve all that is false. Right questioning is the technique. For the first time, you will know what is. The Zen!

 

Best,
Mohit