LORD BUDDHA SAID

 

                LORD BUDDHA SAID

            According to historical records  Siddhartha Gautama, the Lord Buddha, was born in 623 B.C. in the famous gardens of Lumbini located in the Terai plains of Southern Nepa. His is testified by the inscription on a pillar erected by the Mauryan Emperor Lord Asoka (c.304-232 BCE) who himself was one of the pilgrims.                          

            The word“Buddha” means “the enlightened one. It is a word derived from Sanskrit/Pali root Budh which means to wake, observe, become  aware.

            “Buddha”  is a title for “someone who has awakened from the slumber of ignorance, transcended desire and hatred, and achieved complete insight into reality and freedom from suffering.’

                        Buddhism sheds light on :  overcoming suffering and the cycle of rebirth to achieve nirvana i.e. enlightenment . The means to be employed are :   ethical living, meditation, and wisdom.  

                        Like many other saints Lord Buddha was  a poet. His collection of sayings in verse is printed in the book titled Dhammapada. It is a famous  scripture which is widely  read all over the world.

                        Here are a few citations from the English translation of Dhammapada  by Ven. Thanissoro, Bhikhukhu.

  *Phenomena are preceded by the heart, ruled by the heart, made of the heart. If you speak or act with a corrupted heart, then suffering follows you ---as the wheel of the cart, the track of the ox that pulls it.

**Phenomena are preceded by the heart, ruled by the heart, made of the heart. If you speak or act with a calm, bright heart, then happiness follows you, like a shadow that never leaves.

***He insulted me, hit me, beat me, robbed me’ for those who don’t brood on this,  hostility isn’t  stilled.

****He insulted me, hit me, beat me, robbed m’---for those who don’t brood on this, hostility is stilled.

*****Hostilities aren’t stilled through hostility, regardless. Hostilities are stilled through non-hostility: this, an unending truth.

            Unlike those who don’t realize that we’re here on the verge of perishing, those who do: their quarrels are stilled.

                                                                        *****

G.R.Kanwal

13 May 2026

 

 

 

ARROGANCE

 

ARROGANCE

            “Arrogance” is defined as the behavior of  persons when they feel that they are more important than other people, so they are rude to them. An arrogant person is proud, his behavior is unpleasant, and he shows little thought for other people.

            Some synonyms of the word arrogant are : haughty, conceited, egotistic, snobbish, overweening, overbearing, high-handed, disdainful, imperious, lordly, presumptuous, pretentious, swaggering, blustering, and insolent.

             It is one of the deadly sins, others being --- greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

            Arrogance is repulsive. It shatters relationships, inhibits personal growth, and creates poor performance in many circles.

            Arrogance is also dangerous because it contributes to loneliness, depression, lack of direction, and dearth of success.

            One of the relevant views about arrogance is that it impacts all facets of life. It is one of the serious problems in the business world where it can harm one’s  performance and further growth.

            The causes of arrogance may be many. One of the important ones is an inflated sense of superiority, often masked by insecurity or a lack of self-awareness.

              Lack of empathy is another cause. It means ignorance of one’s own weaknesses and a failure to see how their actions affect others.

            The Scottish philosopher, historian and essayist David Hume (1711-1776)  said: When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities,

            According to the  English bishop Richard Cumberland (1631-1718) : Nothing is more hateful to a poor man than the purse-proud arrogance of the rich. But let the poor man become rich and he runs at once into the vice against which he so feelingly declaimed. There are strange contradictions in human character.

            Finally, the following quote by another English Bishop Jeremy Collier (1650=1726):

            The arrogant man does but blast the blessings of life and swagger away his own enjoyments. To say nothing of the folly and injustice of such behaviour, it is always the sign of a little and un-benevolent temper, having no more greatness in it than the swelling of the dropsy.

                                                            *******

G. R. Kanwal

12 May 2026.          

 

 

SOME USEFUL THOUGHTS

 

SOME USEFUL THOUGHTS    

1.     What is this life if full of care,

      We have no time to stand and Stare. --Welsh poet W.H.Davies(1871-             1940) .

2.     He prayeth well, who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things great and small,

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all. ---The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).

 

3.Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign.

    Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes

     Like ours; the land our brothers walk upon

      Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.---The English poet James

       Kirkup (1918-2009).                                    

      

4.     Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;-

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing, o’er life’s solemn main,

Seeing, shall take heart again.-----The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).

 

5.     Not gold, but only men can make

A people great and strong---

Men who, for truth and honour’s sake,

Stand fast and suffer long.                                                  

Brave men who work while others sleep,

Who dare while others fly---

They build a nation’s pillars deep,

And lift them to the sky.----The American poet Ralph waldo  Emerson (1803-1882).

 

6.     Just to be tender, just to be true ;

Just to be glad the whole day through;

Just to be merciful, just to be mild;

Just to be trustful as a child;

Just to be gentle and kind and sweet;

Just to be helpful with willing feet;

Just to be cheery when things go wrong;

Just to drive sadness away with a song;

Whether the hour is dark or bright,

Just to be loyal to God and right! ------Anonymous.

                                        *******

G. R. Kanwal

11 May 2026              

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

THE QUALITIES OF A MOTHER

 

THE QUALITIES OF A MOTHER

            The qualities of a mother are uncountable. They are as many as of Almighty God. According to a Jewish saying :God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.

            The German religious reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) said: When Eve was brought unto Adam, he became filled with the Holy Spirit, and gave her the most sanctified, the most glorious of appellations. He called her Eva, that is to say, the Mother of All. He did not style her wife, but simply mother, mother of all living creatures. In this consists the glory and the most precious ornament of woman.

            A mother’s love is unconditional; her self-sacrifice is unlimited; she is exceedingly patient and tolerant; her degree of forgiveness is immeasurable ; she stands by her children through every thick and thin; when nobody is there to look after them and help them in a crisis, she is generously there with all her stamina and resources; she never becomes  outdated ; she is always young for her children  and they  are always  children  for their old mother even when they  have become  a father or a mother in their own separate home and are no longer small children.

            Here are two famous quotes about mothers.

1.     English critic and historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859):

“Children, look in those eyes, listen to that dear voice, notice the feeling of even a single touch that is bestowed upon you by that gentle hand! Make much of it while yet you have that most precious of all gifts, a loving mother. Read the unfathomable love of those eyes ; the kind anxiety of that tone and look, however slight your pain. In after life you may have friends, fond, dear friends, but never will you have again the inexpressible love and gentleness lavished upon you, which none but a mother bestows.”

2.     American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian and diplomat Irving Washington (1783-1859):

“A father may turn his back on his child; brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies; husbands may desert their wives, and wives their husbands. But a mother’s love endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world’s condemnation, a mother still loves on, and still hopes that her child may turn from his evil ways, and repent; still she remembers the infant smiles that once filled her bosom with rapture, the merry laugh, the joyful shout of his childhood, the opening promise of his youth; and she can never be brought to think him all unworthy/”

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

10 May 2026

 

SOME THOUGHTS FROM SHAKESPEARE’S WRITINGS

 

            SOME THOUGHTS FROM SHAKESPEARE’S WRITINGS

            The English playwright and poet William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom on 23 April 1564 and died there on 23 April 1616. He wrote 37 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and a few minor poems. He is known as the world’s pre-eminent dramatist and most influential writer in the English language.

            What follows are some memorable thoughts from his writings.

*If the great gods be just, they shall assist the deeds of justest men.

*Friendly counsel cuts off many foes.

*Respect and reason, wait on wrinkled age.

*An old man is twice a child.

*Brevity is the soul of wit.

*Care is an enemy to life.

*Pitchers have ears.

*Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.

*It is a wise father that knows his child.

*How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.

*Conscience is but a word that cowards use.

*My crown is in my heart, not on my head.  

*Men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.

*Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

*Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

*I must be cruel only to be kind.

*He thinks too much ---such men are dangerous.

*As flies to wanton boys, are we to gods; they kill us for their sports.

*The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.

*Corruption wins not more than honesty.

*In delay there lies no plenty.

*Let your own discretion be your tutor.

*Dreamers often lie.

*Good wine needs no bush.

*Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney sweepers, come to dust.

*Allow not nature more than nature needs.

*The purest spring is not so free from mud.

*Be not afraid of shadows.

*It is sin to flatter.

*What can be avoided whose end is purposed by the might gods?

*Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.

*A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities.

*Lord! we know what we are, but know not what we may be.

*We cannot but obey the powers above us.

*Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.

                                                ********

G. R. Kanwal

8^th May 2026               

THE LOOM OF TIME

 

                THE LOOM OF TIME

            “Loom” is defined as a machine for making cloth by twisting threads between other threads which go in a different direction.

            “Time” is defined as  ---the continuous, measured progression of existence –past, present, and future ---quantified in seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years.

            Some of the frequently used synonyms  of time are ---age, duration, span, period, interval, occasion, moment, epoch, era, while, spell, stretch, term, etc.

            Given below is an anonymous poem titled THE LOOM OF TIME. According to some of its literary interpretations the poem depicts life as a “web” or tapestry, where God controls the shutters i.e. events to create a hidden, beautiful, pattern.

            The poem says in the very beginning that man’s life is laid in the loom of time to a pattern he does not see, while the weavers work and the shuttles fly till the dawn of eternity.

            Man’s life is his fate which has its duration fixed by God. Its day to day events become visible only when they occur but what will happen in future remains a secret.

            The English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) says in his An Essay on Man: Epistle 1

                        Heav’n from all creatures hides the book of fate,

                        All but the page prescrib’d, their present state

 

            The threads of life’s web do not depict the same colour day after day. They are changed by God as and when He likes. As the anonymous poet says:

                                    He only knows its beauty,

                                    And guides the shuttles which hold

                                    The threads so unattractive,

                                    As well as the threads of gold.      

The full text of the poem follows:

 

Man’s life is laid in the loom of time

To a pattern he does not see

While the weavers and the shuttles fly

Till the dawn of eternity

 

Some shuttles are filled with silver threads

And some with threads of gold

While often but the darker threads

Are all that they may hold.

 

But the weaver watches with

Skilful eye

Each shuttle fly to and fro

And sees the pattern so deftly wrought

As the loom moves sure and slow

 

God surely planned the pattern

Each thread, the dark and fair

Is chosen by his masters skill

And placed in the web with care.

 

God only knows it’s beauty

And guides the shuttles which hold

The threads so unattractive

As well as the threads of gold

 

Not till each loom is silent

And the shuttle cease to fly

Shall God reveal the pattern

And explain the reason why

The dark threads were as needful

In the weavers skilful hand

As the threads of gold and silver

For the pattern which he planned.

 

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

7^th May 2026             

 

SOME USEFUL IDEAS

 

                                SOME USEFUL IDEAS   

            An idea is defined as a plan, thought, or suggestion, especially about what to do in a particular situation. But an idea of something is a picture or an impression in one’s mind of what some body or something is like.

            An idea also means: concept, thought, image, perception, notion, view, viewpoint, opinion, feeling, outlook, belief, impression, judgment, conclusion, intention, purpose, goal, target, design, pattern, vision, example, etc.

               Given below are some useful ideas to be stored in your mind. They can help you to express yourself impressively on appropriate occasions.  They are loaded with both theoretical and practical wisdom.

·        Every man is a volume, if you know how to read him.

·        Manners are minor morals.

·        A mob is a monster, with heads enough, but no heart, and little brains.

·        Good laws make it easier to do right and harder to do wrong.

·        Occupation is one great source of enjoyment. No man, properly occupied, was ever miserable.

·        Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our own deeds.

·        A small debt produces a debtor; a large one, an enemy.

·        A light heart lives long.

·        Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye; and where care lodges sleep will never lie.

·        Anxiety is a word of unbelief or unreasoning dread. We have no right to allow it. Full faith in God puts it to rest.

·        When anger rises, think of the consequences.

·        The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

·        The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors.

·        Philosophy, if rightly defined, is nothing but the love of wisdom.

·        The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their excess.

·        It is to live twice, when we can enjoy the recollections of our former life.

·        Modesty is the citadel of beauty and virtue.

 

                        ************

G.R.Kanwal

6^th May 2026