The Long Thread - Ancient Stories For The Present Moment.

During the years of exile Arjuna traveled to the heavenly realm of his father Indra. The celestial dancer Urvashi fell in love with him. She came to him and said so. Arjuna bowed his head and called her a mother figure — an ancestor of his lineage. He meant it with complete respect. Urvashi did not receive it that way. She cursed him to become a eunuch — to live among women, dancing and singing, f...

A monk named Punna asked the Buddha's permission to go teach in a distant and notoriously violent land. The Buddha had one question. "If the people there insult and ridicule you — what will you think of them?" Punna answered. "And if they hit you?" Punna answered. "And if they use weapons?" Punna answered. The Buddha kept asking. The answers kept coming. Each one more surprising than the last. Unt...

Ryokan was a Zen monk who lived alone in a small hut at the foot of a mountain. He owned almost nothing. One evening a thief broke in. He searched every corner. Every shelf. Every possible hiding place. There was nothing to steal. When Ryokan returned and found him there he felt something he didn't expect. He gave the thief his clothes. The thief took them and slunk away into the night. Ryokan sat...

Dronacharya placed a wooden bird high on a distant branch and assembled all the princes. One by one he asked them to draw their bow and aim. Before letting anyone shoot he asked one question. "What do you see?" Yudhishthira said he saw the bird, the branch, the tree, the forest, the sky. Drona told him to step aside. Each prince gave a similar answer. Each one was told to put down his bow. Then Ar...

A great monk lay dying. His successor sat beside him waiting for whatever wisdom would come in these final moments. The room was full. Everyone leaning forward. The monk opened his eyes and said these words - "Never allow a cat in your life." And died. The successor was baffled. Why a cat? He had no intention of allowing a cat in his life. An old monk who had been in the monastery for decades came...

One day the Buddha was walking through the forests of Magadha with his monks when a great fire broke out ahead of them. The flames spread rapidly. The monks began to panic. The Buddha simply stopped. And the fire stopped too. Right at the spot where he stood. The monks said — it must be your power, Lord, your attainment, that stopped the fire. The Buddha shook his head. "This spot has not burned s...

Ajaamil was born a Brahmin. Disciplined. Devoted. Obedient. One afternoon on a forest path he saw something that undid eighty-eight years of discipline in a single moment. He abandoned everything he knew. He spent the rest of his life in fraud, deception and sin. As he lay dying he saw three dark terrifying figures approaching with nooses in their hands. In his terror he called out the only name t...

Matajuro was disowned by his father for being a mediocre swordsman. He found the great master Banzo and begged to be taught. Banzo told him never to speak of fencing and never to touch a sword. For three years Matajuro cooked, cleaned and carried water. Then one day Banzo crept up behind him with a wooden sword. After that the blow could come from anywhere. Day or night. Without warning. Not a mom...

When Mirabai was a small child she saw a wedding procession and asked her mother - "Who will be my husband?" Her mother pointed to the Krishna idol in their home and smiled. "That one." She was joking. Mirabai was not. She grew up, was married to a Rajput prince, and when he died her in-laws expected her to observe the customs of widowhood. Instead she kept dancing. Kept singing. Kept receiving co...

Two merchants. One bowl. One knew its value and lied. One knew its value and told the truth. This 2500 year old Jataka story knows exactly what each choice costs - and what it earns. New story every day. Follow so you never miss one.

After the war at Lanka was won and Ram was crowned king of Ayodhya, Sita gave Hanuman the finest gift she possessed — a magnificent pearl necklace from around her own neck. Hanuman accepted it with great humility. Then he began biting the pearls open one by one. The court watched in horror. Vibhishana finally stood up. "What are you doing? Those are priceless pearls given to you by the Queen herse...

In 17th century Maharashtra a grain merchant lost everything. His wife died. His child died. His business collapsed. What remained was an overwhelming love for Vitthal - and poems that began arriving whether he sought them or not. He wrote in Marathi. The language of ordinary people. The Brahmin priests were furious. They ordered him to throw every manuscript he had ever written into the Indrayani...

An old heron could no longer catch fish the way he once had. So he sat at the edge of the lake and wept. When the creatures of the lake asked what was wrong, he told them he had heard terrible news — a drought was coming, the lake would dry up, every creature in it would die. But there was hope. He knew of another lake — full of water, covered in lotus flowers — and he would carry them there himse...

The man who wrote the Ramayana was once a highway robber. His name was Ratnakar. One day he stopped a sage on a forest road. The sage asked him one question before submitting to being robbed. That question changed everything. What followed — and what Ratnakar became — is one of the most extraordinary transformation stories in all of Indian tradition. New story every day. Follow so you never miss o...

Two men visited a Zen master on the same afternoon. Both were thinking of moving to his town. Both asked the same question. "What is it like here? Is it a good place to live?" The Zen master asked them both the same question in return. "What was your old town like?" The first man said it was dreadful. The people were unfriendly. He couldn't wait to leave. The Zen master told him this town was very...

Narada had been asking Krishna one question for as long as either of them could remember. "What is maya?" He had read everything written about it. Understood it perfectly as a concept. And never once experienced it. One afternoon Krishna finally agreed to explain. "Lie down in the shade of this tree and I will tell you everything. But first — it is terribly hot. Would you get me some water from th...

A king made a mistake. Exhausted and thirsty after a hunt, he came upon a sage deep in meditation and asked for water. The sage did not respond. In a moment of frustration the king draped a dead snake around the sage's neck and left. When the fog lifted he sat very still. What had he done? Before he could act, word arrived. The sage's son had pronounced a curse — in seven days the serpent king Tak...

A sadhu was bathing in a river when he saw a scorpion drowning. He reached in to save it. The scorpion stung him. He reached in again. A hunter watching from the bank had one question. "Why do you keep trying? You know it will sting you. That is its nature." The sadhu's answer has been remembered for centuries. New story every day. Follow so you never miss one.

A man prayed the same prayer every night for decades. "Why me? As far as I can see I am the most miserable person on earth. Everyone else manages perfectly well. I am not asking for bliss — just let me exchange my misery with anybody else's. Anybody will do." One night God answered. "Gather your miseries into a bundle. Bring it to the temple. Tell everyone to do the same." The man woke up happy fo...

A monk named Malunkyaputta had had enough. The Buddha had never answered the great questions. Was the cosmos eternal or not? Was the soul different from the body? What happens after enlightenment - does the self continue or not? He went to the Buddha with an ultimatum. Answer these questions - or I leave. The Buddha listened carefully. Then told him a story about a man who had been shot with a poi...

His name was Thinnan. He was a hunter. He had never set foot in a temple or learned a single mantra. One day he found an ancient Shiva lingam alone in the forest. And fell in love with it. Every day he brought what he had — fresh meat, flowers from his hair, water carried in his mouth. The Brahmin priest who maintained the shrine was horrified. He complained to Shiva. Shiva told him to hide. And w...

A crow and his wife had built their nest in a great tree. Every season a black snake lived at its base - and every season without fail, when their chicks had hatched and the nest was full of new life— The snake climbed up. They could do nothing. The snake was too large, too powerful, too indifferent to their distress to be fought or reasoned with. So the crow went to his friend the jackal. The jac...

A boy was born with eight curves in his body. His father cursed him before he was born. At twelve years old he walked into the most learned court in ancient India to win his father's freedom. The moment he entered — the greatest scholars in the kingdom laughed at him. Ashtavakra stopped. Looked around at all of them. And laughed back. This story is the doorway to one of the most radical teachings...

A farmer in drought-stricken India needed water for his crops. His neighbor had a well and offered to sell it. They agreed on a price. The farmer paid every coin. The neighbor shook his hand warmly and wished him well with his crops. The next morning the farmer arrived at the well with his buckets. His neighbor was already there. What he said next was technically true, completely legal, and one of...

A demon performed years of severe penance in the Himalayas. Shiva appeared and offered him a boon. He asked for the power to reduce to ash any living being whose head he touched. Shiva granted it. Bhasmasura immediately turned toward Shiva - hand outstretched. The destroyer of the universe turned and ran. This story from the Hindu Puranas has a phrase named after it in Sanskrit - used to describe...