Who Am I?

  14 Alan Watts Quotes That Will Change the Way You See the World “The only Zen you’ll find on mountain tops is the Zen you bring up there with you” Image by The Alan Watts Organization via Big Think I first fell in love with Alan Watts because of his humour and profound wisdom. He saw the world in such a lighthearted, playful, and brilliant way that it made my life more lighthearted, playful, and beautiful too. After being on a spiritual path for a few years, I was taking my life a little  too seriously, so he came as a refreshing surprise. During his 58 years, he was a self-proclaimed philosophical entertainer, fusing Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoist traditions. The only thing he did more than making babies was write books, 25 of them in fact, which is 18 more than had children, just in case you were wondering. So, here are 15 of my favourite quotes by the man himself. And if applied, can change the way you see the world forever. 1. “The meaning of life is just to be alive. It...

  Maharaj: " People would scarcely believe if I said that life in this world is like photography. Those who trust the Guru's words as Truth, might believe in it and appreciate this analogy. The photography starts from the day of conception, nine months prior to birth. The child's parents are first chosen to pose for this picture, followed by the picture of the world and of the entire Universe, including the stars and planets. It is as if these pictures assigned the fate of the child. It doesn't stop there. All that could be seen with the eyes, heard by ears, felt by the sense of touch and smelled by the nose, are captured. How is this photography conducted? The child is too innocent and helpless to understand or perform it all. In fact, the Cosmic intelligence, a quality of Sattva, which is called Hiranyagarbha, takes care of the process that is known as 'birth'. A Chemical in the Sattva does the job. Then this life force is separated from its source(...

Michael Ignatieff, whom I have long admired since reading his superb biography of  Isaiah Berlin , has given us some fascinating reflections on the subject of Consolation, illuminating the Book of Job and the Psalms in a most enlightening way. His talk, the first of several on the subject of Consolation, can be found on BBC Sounds  here . 

I saw that the entity I had taken to be “me” was really a fabrication. My true nature, I realised, was much more real, both uglier and more beautiful than I could have imagined. The feeling began shortly before eleven o’clock at night on October first. I was browsing on the eleventh floor of Butler Library. I knew the library was about to close, and I saw a book that concerned the area of my research. I slid it off the shelf and held it in my two hands. It was large and heavy. I read that it had been published in 1892, and it was donated to the Columbia Library the same year. On the back cover was a slip of paper that recorded the names of borrowers and the dates they took it out of the library. The first time it had been borrowed was in 1915, the second time was in 1932. I would be the third. Can you imagine? I was only the third borrower, on October 1, 1962. For seventy years, only two other people had stood in the same spot I now stood, pulled the book from the shelf, and decided to...