Random Musings

Bullies! They are everywhere. And come in all sizes, color, shapes and gender. Sometimes they take the form of a parent, a teacher, a boss or co-worker, a relative (mother-in-laws seem to top the list here) a friend or most tragically - even a spouse or a lover.  While every bully is unique and has his/her own reason for being a bully, one thing is clear - they cause tremendous heart-ache and stress. And based on how you are as an individual, dealing with these bullies might be easy to stressful to outright damaging for you.  I, as a kid was fairly gentle and usually happy minding my own business. However it soon became pretty apparent to me that whether at home or school, there would be people who would want me to do things the way THEY wanted them to be. And sometimes it was baffling because the people bullying me would be people very near and dear to me.  As I grew older and developed my own personality, the bullies still remained a grey area. I could never reall...

For some time now, I have been thinking of sharing some of the insights I have gained through 16 years of my spiritual seeking with a wider audience in a manner which might be easy to relate to.  There are many giants who walked on this earth before us and about whom there is a large enough literature to be able to learn about them. These are those I would refer to as "Masters" in this series. And the biggest of them in my mind, the man who lived a huge, titanic life was Gautam Buddha (as we call him in India or Shakyamuni Buddha as he is referred to in historical accounts). One of his teachings which I find the most enlightening is the concept of "dependent origination" . Wikipedia defines it as: Pratītyasamutpāda  ( Sanskrit :  प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद ), commonly translated as  dependent origination  or  dependent arising , states that all  dharmas  ("things") arise in dependence upon other  dharmas : "if this exists, that ...