The Self, having in dreams enjoyed the pleasures of sense, gone hither and thither, experienced good and evil, hastens back to the state of waking from which he started. As a man passes from dream to wakefulness, so does he pass from this life to the next.
Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it…
Fasting in the monastic community is considered an ascetic practice, a “dhutanga” practice. Dhutanga means “to shake up” or “invigoration”. The Buddha, as is well known, emphasized moderation, the Middle Way that avoids extremes, in all things. Fasting is an additional method that one can take up, with supervision, for a time.
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent school-masters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

