Zen Moments

“Practice Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty” The Kindness Offensive was born earlier this year on Hampstead Heath (London, UK), when James Hunter, David Goodfellow and David Crane, set up a desk on Parliament Hill and asked passing members of the public to describe what act of kindness they would like done for them. [...]

A man surprises people at a gas station and offers to pay for their gas. He selects his target cars almost at random and tells his amazed recipients: “Just do something nice for somebody else…”

“Who is this man?” Mary Menth Andersen was 31 years old and had just married Norwegian Dag Andersen. She was looking forward to starting a new life in Åsgårdstrand in Vestfold with him. But first she had to get all of her belongings across to Norway. The date was November 2nd, 1988. At the airport [...]

“I was tossing the coin to decide whether to buy an apple or an orange with our last dollar…” In August 1987, I left my job in Sydney, and hitch-hiked to Ayers Rock to see the Harmonic Convergence – a special alignment of planets which was supposed to usher in the New Age. My friends [...]

“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. [...]