Neti Neti

  Icarus's father Daedalus , a very talented Athenian craftsman, built a labyrinth for King Minos of Crete near his palace at Knossos to imprison the Minotaur , a half-man, half-bull monster born of his wife and the Cretan bull . Minos imprisoned Daedalus himself in the labyrinth because he believed Daedalus gave Minos's daughter, Ariadne , a clew  (or ball of string) in order to help Theseus escape the labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur. Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings for himself and his son, made of metal feathers held to a leather frame by beeswax. Before trying to escape the island, he warned his son to follow his flight path and not fly too close to the sun or the sea. Overcome by giddiness while flying, Icarus disobeyed his father and soared higher into the sky. Without warning, the heat from the sun softened and melted the wax. Icarus could feel melted wax dripping down his arms. The feathers then fell one by one. Icarus kept flapping his "wings...

    October 17, 1946   D’Arline, I adore you, sweetheart. I know how much you like to hear that — but I don’t only write it because you like it — I write it because it makes me warm all over inside to write it to you. It is such a terribly long time since I last wrote to you — almost two years — but I know you’ll excuse me because you understand how I am, stubborn and realistic; and I thought there was no sense to writing. But now I know my darling wife that it is right to do what I have delayed in doing, and that I have done so much in the past. I want to tell you I love you. I want to love you. I always will love you. I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead — but I still want to comfort and take care of you — and I want you to love me and care for me. I want to have problems to discuss with you — I want to do little projects with you. I never thought until just now that we can do that. What should we do. We started to l...

  King Bimbisara had a son, Prince Ajatshatru. One silent, moonless night, the prince crept into the king’s room with a knife strapped to his thigh. His intent was clear: to kill his father. But the palace guards caught him, and the king learned of the plan. Kind Bimbisara thought, “Perhaps it is time to step aside. Let Ajatshatru rule, and I may retire into a peaceful life of reflection.” Instead of punishing his son, he made him king. Yet no sooner had Ajatshatru ascended than he struck. Swift as a viper, he had his father thrown into the darkest, coldest dungeon, forbidding anyone to bring him food except his mother. But Bimbisara did not die. His loyal queen smuggled food in her clothes, then in her hair. When Ajatshatru discovered and forbade that, she covered herself with honey, butter, ghee, and sugar, allowing her husband to lick sustenance from her very body. Still, Ajatshatru’s rage found her plan, and she was banned entirely. Now, the king faced certain starvat...

There was neither non-existence nor existence then; Neither the realm of space, nor the sky which is beyond; What stirred? Where? In whose protection? There was neither death nor immortality then; No distinguishing sign of night nor of day; That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse; Other than that there was nothing beyond. Darkness there was at first, by darkness hidden; Without distinctive marks, this all was water; That which, becoming, by the void was covered; That One by force of heat came into being; Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? Gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe. Who then knows whence it has arisen? Whether God's will created it, or whether He was mute; Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not; The Supreme Brahman of the world, all pervasive and all knowing He indeed knows, if not, no one knows

  Kṛśā Gautamī  was the wife of a wealthy man of Shravasti .  After losing her only child, Kisa Gotami became desperate and asked if anyone could help her. Her sorrow was so great that many thought she had lost her mind. After some time, an old man told her to see the Shakyamuni. The Shakyamuni told her that he could bring the child back to life if she could find white mustard seeds from a family where no one had died. She desperately went from house to house in search of such a case, but to her disappointment, she could not find a house that had not suffered the death of a family member. Finally, the realization struck her that there is no house free from mortality . Even when grief was real, it was part of the universal law of impermanence. She had to let go. She became awakened and entered the first stage of enlightenment and eventually became an arhat .  Clinging to what is gone only deepens suffering. When one accept impermanence, whether of love, ...