Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.

‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.

Don’t Count Your Chickens

Once upon a time there lived a woman called Truhana. Not being very rich, she had to go yearly to the market to sell honey, the precious product of her hive.

Along the road she went, carrying the jar of honey upon her head, calculating as she walked the money she would get for the honey. ‘First,’ she thought, ‘I will sell it, and buy eggs. The eggs I shall set under my fat brown hens, and in time there will be plenty of little chicks. These in turn will become chickens, and from the sale of these, lambs could be bought.’

Truhana then began to imagine how she could become richer than her neighbours, and look forward to marrying well her sons and daughters.

Trudging along, in the hot sun, she could see her fine sons and daughter in-law, and how the people would say that it was remarkable how rich she had become, who was once so poverty-stricken.

Under the influence of these pleasurable thoughts, she began to laugh heartily, and preen herself, when, suddenly, striking the jar with her hand, it fell from her head and smashed upon the ground.

Seeing this, she was as cast down as she had been excited, on seeing all her dreams lost for illusion.       

World Tales – Idries Shah

Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.  

You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:  

World Tales by Idries Shah

As I conclude today’s episode;

I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”. 

My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.

Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:

Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood

And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.

‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.

The Two Travellers

There was once two men, one good and one bad, who went on a journey together. They were in quest of their fortune. The good man shared his food with his companion until it was all finished.

The good man then asked: ‘May I have some of your food?’

‘Certainly not,’ said the other, and he became so irrationally infuriated that he plucked out the eyes of his unfortunate partner, robbed him of everything he had, and left him alone and helpless in the wilderness.

The blinded good man became aware of some birds singing, and decided to climb, feeling his way, into the tree in whose topmost branches they were, to be safe from any prowling wild beasts, at least until the morning, when he might be able to think of some way of continuing his journey.

Now it so happened that he found that he could understand the language of the birds. As he listened, he learnt from their discussion that any blind person who bathed his eyes in the dew of that place would have his sight restored. Further, the birds said that the daughter of a certain king was ill, but could be healed by the use of a flower which grew nearby. The same flower had the power of locating water and restoring fertility to gardens.

The blind man immediately bathed his eyes in the dew and found that he could see. Then he plucked the plant. He made his way to the place where the Princess was ill and, having gained admittance, cured her. When he made the King’s garden flourish again and found water which was badly needed, he was rewarded by being given the hand of the Princess in marriage.

He continued happily in life, until the villain who had blinded him turned up gain, having heard of his inexplicable good fortune. The miscreant asked him how he had arrived at such a happy and prosperous state.

‘It was quiet simple, in fact,’ said the honest man, for he was one who bore no ill-will. ‘All I did was go up a certain tree, and I heard what to do from the birds, whose speech I suddenly understood.’

The bad man thereupon hurried to the place where he had blinded his companion, and waited. Presently the birds arrived and perched on the top of the tree. He found that he understood their speech. They said:

‘Someone has overheard our conversation, for the King’s daughter is now well, the garden is blossoming, and water has been found!’

They looked all around to see whether an eavesdropper was about, saw the bad man, flew down – and pecked out his eyes.      

World Tales – Idries Shah

Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.  

You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:  

World Tales by Idries Shah

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.

‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.

The Ass in Pantherskin

There was once a donkey belonging to a washerman, which was exhausted through carrying heavy loads of laundry. His owner, to help him recover, put a panther’s skin over him for warmth and turned him into someone else’s field to graze.

The ass could eat as much as it liked, for people thought that he was a panther and did not drive him off, and so he revived somewhat.

A certain farmer, glimpsing the wild animal’s skin, was greatly afraid and stole away as cautiously as he might, wrapped in his grey cloak.

But the donkey, seeing what he took for a female ass in the distance, started to run after it. The man put on speed. The ass thought that he would give a mating-call, in case his quarry had mistaken him for a panther.

As soon as the man heard the donkey braying, he knew what he was, and, drawing his bow, killed him on the spot.     

World Tales – Idries Shah

Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.   

You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:  

World Tales by Idries Shah

As I conclude today’s episode;

I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”. 

My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.

Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:

Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood

And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘Tales of Dervishes’ by Idries Shah.

Dervish tales were never presented merely on the level of a fable, legend or folklore. They stand comparison in wit, construction and piquancy with the finest stories of any culture, yet their true function as teaching stories is little known.

The Ant and the Dragonfly

An Ant with a settled programme in its mind was looking at some nectar when a dragonfly swooped to taste from the flower’s cup. It flitted away and came and swooped again.

This time the ant said:

 ‘You live without a labour, and you have no plan. As you have no real nor comparative purpose, what is the dominant feature of your life – and where will it end?’

Said the dragonfly:

‘I am happy, and I seek pleasure, this is existence and objective enough. My aim is to have no aim. You may plan as you will; you cannot convince me that there is anything better. You to you plan, me to mine.’

The ant thought:

‘That which is visible to me is invisible to him. He does not know what happens to ants. I know what happens to dragonflies. Him to his plan, I to mine.

And the ant went his way, for he had admonished as far as was possible in the circumstances.

Some time later their paths crossed again.

The ant had found a butcher’s shop, and he was standing under the chopping-block with discretion, awaiting what would come to him.

The dragonfly, seeing the red meat from above, came gliding down and settled on it. At that moment the butcher’s cleaver descended and cut the dragonfly in two.

One half of the body rolled on to the floor at the feet of the ant. Taking up the corpse and starting to drag it towards his nest, the ant recited to himself:

‘His plan is finished, and mine continues. “He to his plan” is ended, “Me to mine” begins a cycle. Pride seemed important, it was transitory thing. A life of eating, to end with being eaten by something else.

When I suggested this, all he could think was that I might be a killjoy.’   

Tales of Dervishes – Idries Shah

You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:  

As I conclude today’s episode;

I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra” which in turn has inspired many story telling traditions directly or indirectly. 

My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.

Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:

Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood

And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about,

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’

The Lion Who Saw his Face in the Water

There was once a lion who lived in a desert which was very windy; and because of this, the water in the holes from which he usually drank was never still, for the wind riffled the surface and never reflected anything.

One day this lion wandered into a forest, where he hunted and played, until he felt rather tired and thirsty. Looking for water, he came across a pool of the coolest, most tempting, and most placid water that you could possibly imagine. Lions, like other wild animals, can smell water, and the scent of this water was like ambrosia to him.

So the lion approached the pool, and extended his neck to have a good drink. Suddenly, though, he saw his reflection – and imagined that it must be another lion.

‘Oh dear,’ he thought to himself, ‘this must be water belonging to another lion – I had better be careful.’

He retreated, but then thirst drove him back again, and again he saw the head of a fearsome lion looking back at him from the surface of the pool.

This time our lion hoped that he might be able to frighten the ‘other lion’ away; and so he opened his mouth and gave a terrible roar. But no sooner had he bared his teeth than, of course, the mouth of the ‘other’ lion opened as well, and this seemed to our lion to be an awful and dangerous sight.

The Idries Shah Anthology – Idries Shah

This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his (Idries Shah’s) work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.

You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:  

As I conclude today’s episode;

I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra” which in turn has inspired many story telling traditions directly or indirectly. 

My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.

Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:

Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood

And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’

The Tale of the Sands

A Stream, from its source in the faraway mountains, at last reached the sands of a desert. Just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream tried to cross this one, but it found that as fast as it ran into the sands, its waters disappeared.

It was convinced that its destiny was to cross this dessert, yet how was this to be achieved?

All at once, a voice came from sands: ‘The wind crosses the desert, Allow yourself to be absorbed by the wind, and it will carry you across in its arms.’

This was not acceptable to the stream. It feared it would lose its individuality. Once having lost it, what guarantee was there it could ever be regained?

The voice of the sands said: ‘You cannot in any case remain the same stream you are today. If you allow the wind to take you, your essential part will be carried away and will form a stream again.’

When it heard this, certain echoes began to arise in the thoughts of the stream. Dimly it remembered a state in which it, or some part of it, had been held in the arms of a wind. It raised its vapour to the welcoming arms of the breeze, which carried it gently above the dessert and dropped it as rain upon the roof of a mountain, many miles away.

And because it had its doubts, the stream was able to remember the details of the experience more strongly. It reflected: ‘Yes, now I have found my identity.’

But the sands whispered: ‘We know, because we see it happen day after day and because we, the sands, extend all the way from the desert to the mountains.’

And that is why it is said the way in which the stream of life is to continue on its journey is written in the sands.

The Idries Shah Anthology – Idries Shah

This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his (Idries Shah’s) work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.

You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:  

As I conclude today’s episode;

I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra” which in turn has inspired many story telling traditions directly or indirectly. 

My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.

Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:

Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood

And also let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly.

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’

The King Without a Trade

There was once a king who had forgotten the ancient advice of the sages that those who are born into comfort and ease have greater need for proper effort than anyone else. He was just a king, however, and a popular one.

Journeying to visit one of his distant possessions, a storm blew up and separated his ship from its escort. The tempest subsided after seven furious days, the ship sank, and the only survivors of the catastrophe were the king and his small daughter, who had somehow managed to climb upon a raft.

After many hours, the raft was washed upon the shore of a country which was completely unknown to the travellers. They were at first taken in by fishermen, who looked after them for a time, then said:

‘We are only poor people, and cannot afford to keep you. Make your way inland, and perhaps you may find some means of earning a livelihood.’

Thanking the fisherfolk, and sad at heart that he was not able to enlist himself among them, the king started to wander through the land. He and the princess went from village to village, from town to town, seeking food and shelter. They were, of course, no better than beggars, and people treated them as such. Sometimes they had a few scraps of bread, sometimes dry straw in which to sleep.

Every time the king tried to improve his condition by asking for employment, people would say,: ‘What work can you do?’ And he always found that he completely unskilled in whatever task he was required to perform, and had to take to the road again.

In that entire country there were hardly any opportunities for manual work, since there were plenty of unskilled labourers. As they moved from place to place, the king realized more and more strongly that being a king without a country was a useless state. He reflected more and more often on the proverb in which the ancients have laid down:

‘That only maybe regarded as your property which will survive a shipwreck.’

After three years of his miserable and futureless existence, the pair found themselves, for the first time, at a farm where the owner was looking for someone to tend his sheep.

He saw the king and the princess and said: ‘Are you penniless?’

They said that they were.

‘Do you know how to herd sheep?’ asked the farmer.

‘No’, said the king.

‘At least you are honest,’ said the farmer, ‘and so I will give you chance to earn a living.’

He sent them out with some sheep, and they soon learned that all they had to do was to protect them against wolves and keep them from straying.

The king and the princess were given a cottage, and as the years passed the king regained some of his dignity, though not his happiness, and the princess blossomed into a young woman of fairylike beauty. As they only earned enough to keep themselves alive, the two were unable even to plan to return to their own country.

It so happened that one day, the Sultan of that country was out hunting when he saw the maiden and fell in love with her. He sent his representatives to ask for her farther whether he would give her in marriage to the Sultan.

‘Ho, pleasant,’ said the courtier who had been sent to see him, ‘the Sultan, my lord and master ,

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to one of many, ‘Teaching Stories’. This week I bring to your attention yet another teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’

The Happiest Man in the World

A Man who was living in comfortable enough circumstances went one day to see a certain sage, reputed to have all knowledge. He said to him:

‘Great Sage, I have no material problems, and yet I am always unsettled. For years I have tried to be happy, to find an answer to my inner thoughts, to come to terms with the world. Please advise me as to how I can be cured of this malaise.’

The Sage answered:

‘My friend, what is hidden to some is apparent to others. Again what is apparent to some is hidden to others. I have the answer to your ailment, though it is no ordinary medication. You must set out on your travels, seeking the happiest man in the world. As soon as you find him, you must ask him for his shirt, and put it on.’

The seeker thereupon restlessly started looking for happy men. One after another he found them and questioned them. Again and again they said: ‘Yes I am happy, but there is one happier than me.’

After travelling through one country after another for many, many days, he found the wood in which everyone said lived the happiest man in the world.

He heard the sound of laughter coming from among the trees, and quickened his step until he came upon a man sitting in a glade.

‘Are you the happiest man in the world, as people say?’ he asked.

‘Certainly I am,’ said the other man.

‘My name is so-and-so, my condition is such-and-such, and my remedy, ordered by the greatest sage, is to wear your shirt. Please give it to me; I will give you anything I have in exchange.’

The happiest man looked at him closely, and he laughed. He laughed and he laughed and he laughed. When he had quietened down a little, the restless man, rather annoyed at this reaction, said:

‘Are you unhinged, that you laugh at such a serious request?’

‘Perhaps,’ said the happiest man, ‘but if you had only taken the trouble to look, you would have seen that I do not possess a shirt.’

‘What, then, am I to do now?’

‘You will be cured. Striving for something unattainable provides the exercise to achieve that which is needed: as when a man gathers all his strength to jump across a stream as if it were far wider than it is. He gets across the stream.’

The happiest man then took off the turban whose end had concealed his face. The restless man saw that he was none other than the great sage who had originally advised him.

‘But did you not tell me all this years ago, when I came to see you?’ the restless man asked in puzzlement.

‘Because you were not ready then to understand. You needed certain experiences, and they had to be given to you in a manner which would ensure that you went through them.’  

 The Idries Shah Anthology – Idries Shah

This anthology is intended to provide a basic sample of his (Idries Shah’s) work, an essential reader, to allow people to do exactly what he would have wished them to do: to think for themselves and to make up their own minds.

You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:  

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), Last week I drew your attention to, ‘Teaching Stories’, what they are and what is their utility. This week let me bring to your attention a teaching story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, by Idries Shah, ‘The Idries Shah Anthology.’

The High Cost Of Learning

There was once a sage who set up business in the market place as a seller of knowledge.

One of his customers was a young man, newly married, who wanted to test out this strange form of commerce. ‘How much is your knowledge, if I buy it piece by piece?’ He asked the wise man.

‘It can cost as much or as little as you can offer, but the advice will be proportionate to the price in its usefulness,’ was the answer.

‘Very well,’ said the young man, I’ll try a piece for one copper coin.’

‘The advice is,’ replied the sage, Don’t eat more than you have to, and get exercise – or you’ll get fat!’

‘Nothing cheap without reason,’ thought the customer to himself. Aloud he said:

‘What can I have for five pieces of copper?’

‘For five I can tell you that if you neglect your duty, you may lose eighteen years of your life!’

‘I shall certainly try not to have that happen to me; but what will you tell me for one silver piece?’

‘For that I can tell you that if you attempt to act without a proper basis and lack of understanding, you will ruin your life.’

Partly out of politeness to the older man, whom he now thought of as perhaps a little mad, or perhaps just a minor swindler, the youth thanked him and said to himself, ‘Perhaps what I have learnt today is to follow my own good sense and not to try to buy advice when I should gain wisdom by experience.

He put the whole matter out of his mind.

Not long afterwards, the young man was walking along a street when he saw a beggar, who said to him: ‘It is your duty to give alms, and I call upon you in the name of that duty, so that good shall befall you and so that evil shall be averted!’

Instead of giving the man anything, he started to walk faster, muttering, ‘May God give you something!’

It so happened that his increasing his speed brought him face to face with a military patrol whose task it was to capture strong young men for the army, for the king of his country was waging a war. He was seized and spent the next eighteen years in fighting and captivity.

This gave him a great deal of time to think, and the words about the eighteen years which would be taken from his life if he failed his duty now bore strongly upon his mind.

Finally he was ransomed, and found himself back in his native town, looking for the house where he had left his wife, such a long time before. No sooner had he approached the building than he saw a woman, whom he recognised as his wife, going through the front door with a young man, holding him by the hand.

The blood rushed to his head, and he put his hand to his sword, thinking, ‘I might as well die for murder, but I cannot stand the sight of this infidelity!’

Then he remembered the words of the sage: ‘If you attempt to act without proper basis and lack of understanding, you will ruin your life.’ At that moment he could not see that there was any lack of understanding, or that there was no proper basis for killing the miscreants. But somehow he restrained himself, just in case there was some better course of action.

All that day he walked about,

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), This week let me bring to your attention an interesting excerpt from this thought provoking & an important work, by Dr. Robert Ornstein & Sally Ornstein. Robert Ornstein was a noted psychologist and a leading expert on the brain. Founder and president of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, Ornstein wrote more than 20 books on the brain, mind, and consciousness emphasizing our urgent need and ability to develop perceptions beyond our biological inheritance. Sally M. Ornstein is the editor of “Ideas That Shaped Our Modern World,” a comprehensive overview of the role of religion throughout human history.

Teaching Stories

Certain narratives, legends, parables, myths and fables are intended to establish in the mind not a belief but a pattern, a blueprint that helps it to operate in “another” manner, without resorting to indoctrination, emotional stimulation, intellectual discussion or becoming magnetized around certain ideas.

These special stories exist in every culture, but as with other esoteric psychological techniques, if they are arbitrarily selected, simplified or taken literally, they lose their instrumental function.

The effect of “teaching stories,” is not only to provide pleasure or a useful parable, but also to connect “with a part of the individual which cannot be reached by any other convention, and establish in him or in her, a means of communication with a non-verbalized truth beyond the customary limitations of our familiar dimensions.”

Teaching stories purposely contain specially chosen patterns of events. The repeated reading and absorption of the stories allows these patterns to become strengthened in the mind of the person reading them. Since many of these events are improbable and unusual, their effort begins to create new constructs in the reader – new “organs of perception,” so to speak.

The stories can also serve as reflection points. “Reflection” can mean both “to think about” and “to mirror.”

Some stories can serve as templates for consciousness, patterns frozen so that we can observe ourselves.

GOD 4.0 – Dr. Robert Ornstein & Sally Ornstein   

This book is a stunning unification of science and tradition. It presents a concept of spirituality to address the challenges of the modern world.

It explores how our “everyday” mind works as a device for selecting just a few parts of the outside reality that are important for our survival. We don’t experience the world as it is, but as a virtual reality – evolved to keep us safe and to ensure our survival. This system, though essential for getting us safely across a busy street, is insufficient for understanding and solving the challenges of the modern world.

You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link:  

As I conclude today’s episode;

Let us remember: Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.