Zen Moments

“He has said to us that we can keep it!” Elusive artist Banksy made his own addition to the collection of Gallery 49 in the British Museum. A drawing in the style of prehistoric cave art showing a caveman with a shopping trolley, appeared alongside finds from 4th Century Roman Britain. A British Museum spokeswoman [...]

“I discovered why the universe wanted me to be a teacher… the day I broke my toe…” Well to be fair, it was a few days after I broke my toe. And I’ve always suspected that what the universe wants is really what I want. So perhaps it would be better to say: I discovered [...]

“It is my intention to work into each of my lectures … one lie” One of my favorite professors in college was a self-confessed liar. I guess that statement requires a bit of explanation. The topic of Corporate Finance/Capital Markets is, even within the world of the Dismal Science, (Economics) an exceptionally dry and boring [...]

“He has a lot of personality, but he couldn’t possibly defend himself in court…” Angry fishermen in Scotland wanted a grey seal shot for eating valuable salmon stocks. The hungry grey seal found his way into in a shallow stretch of the River Leven near Balloch, south of Loch Lomond, and appeared to get trapped [...]

“Zen monks at one with Flash.” The Laughing Buddha or Budai is a wandering monk who clears away the woes of the world. He carries an alms bowl and a cloth sack, which never empties, and is filled with many precious items, including rice plants (symbolizing wealth), sweets for children, food, small children and animals. [...]

A Bit of Fun… The Other Side of Life… One day a young Buddhist traveller came to the banks of a wide and deep river. There was no way to cross and he walked along the edge of the water for miles, feeling hopeless. Just as he was about to give up and go back [...]

“…a grotesque figure moving erratically, crab-like toward me…” At the end of World War II there were more Kentuckians in Detroit, where they had come to work in defense plants, than there were back in Kentucky. Well, maybe I exaggerate a bit but there were a lot of mountain people working in Michigan back then. [...]

“I love it when a small, unexpected happening makes me smile…” I do not consider myself a cheerful person. I love to be cheerful, and I love to laugh. I love when it makes my ribs hurt, and I love when a small, unexpected happening makes me smile. I am capable of happiness, joy, warmth, [...]

“Seeing I had nothing of value for him to steal he sat and chatted with me…” While sitting on a bench one evening, waiting for the bus to Old San Juan, I met a young Puerto Rican dude. He was evidently a mugger. He sat down next to me, smiled, and saying, “permiso,” (excuse me), [...]