Story 88 from 'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' by Ian McCrorie
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I volunteered with Mother Theresa at her Sisters of Charity palliative care hostel in Calcutta. My service was to help with the lunch meal as well as a certain undefined “nursing.” The hostel was smaller than I had expected and the number of volunteers fewer than I had hoped. I thought a larger cohort would allow me a few days to get my bearings. That was not to be the case....

narrated by Ian McCrorie
2023
5 minutes 09 seconds

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Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/a-lifetime-doing-nothing.

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Story 87 from 'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' by Ian McCrorie
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Two more salient points about mettā. Mettā must be tempered by wisdom. There is a parable from India of a kind man who came upon a frog in the middle of a busy road. Concerned that the frog might be crushed under the wheels of a bullock cart and feeling uncomfortable leaving him to his fate, he gently picked him up and transferred him safely to the side of the road from whence he had come....

narrated by Ian McCrorie
2023
3 minutes 32 seconds

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Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/a-lifetime-doing-nothing.

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Story 86 from 'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' by Ian McCrorie
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Mettā is a Pāli word meaning loving-kindness. As the mind deconditions, many positive mind states arise. The emergence of these so-called divine abodes had been held back by the continually self-reinforcing habitual patterns that you thought defined you....

narrated by Ian McCrorie
2023
6 minutes 14 seconds

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Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/a-lifetime-doing-nothing.

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Story 85 from 'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' by Ian McCrorie
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In Maharashtra a few decades ago, my elderly meditation teacher was delivering his evening discourse when a deranged sādhu rushed at him from the back of the hall. The sādhu screamed incoherently and thrashed his arms about, ready to strike him. My teacher stopped his talk…and closed his eyes. He remained seated....

narrated by Ian McCrorie
2023
3 minutes 06 seconds

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Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/a-lifetime-doing-nothing.

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Story 84 from 'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' by Ian McCrorie
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In her book, Educated, about growing up in a survivalist Mormon family where school was not an option and daily manual labor a necessity, Tara Westover relates how she found herself standing on a rooftop in England during a windstorm....

narrated by Ian McCrorie
2023
3 minutes 43 seconds

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Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/a-lifetime-doing-nothing.

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Story 83 from 'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' by Ian McCrorie
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Friendship. Where would we be without our friends? This is true for the homeless alcoholic who followed his friends’ lead, quit school, took to the road, lived high and free until he lost his health, his integrity, and the courage to turn his life around. And this is true for most of the titans of Silicon Valley who succeeded thanks to friends....

narrated by Ian McCrorie
2023
3 minutes 43 seconds

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Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/a-lifetime-doing-nothing.

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Story 82 from 'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' by Ian McCrorie
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An old proverb says that “as a man thinketh, so he is.” I’d like to alter this somewhat and proclaim that “as a man is conditioned, so he is.” Oft-repeated behaviors, beliefs, views, and thought patterns define who we seem to be. This we feel is carved in stone, because we feel comfortable with what is familiar....

narrated by Ian McCrorie
2023
2 minutes 26 seconds

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Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/a-lifetime-doing-nothing.

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Story 81 from 'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' by Ian McCrorie
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One time I chose to simply live in a small guesthouse on Gnat Agi Pagoda Road in Bahan Township in Burma. I would forego all travel. Across from my guesthouse was a tea shop from which I could watch all of Burma, past and present, pass by. Further down the road was a stitcher lady who would alter and repair my longyis. And behind her was a monastery where I could meditate....

narrated by Ian McCrorie
2023
2 minutes 44 seconds

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Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/a-lifetime-doing-nothing.

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Story 80 from 'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' by Ian McCrorie
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Matthew 21:22 promises us, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, ye shall receive.” Now I grant you that few people read the Bible these days, perhaps because they took Matthew too literally. But it doesn't matter, because today the good news of the Bible has been replaced by the Gospel according to Wellness. Pursuit of a good life has been replaced by the pursuit of the perfect life. “Everything ye pursue to become better, smarter, buffer, younger, more assertive, more caring, more inclusive, more diverse leads thee to a perfect life.”...

narrated by Ian McCrorie
2023
5 minutes 37 seconds

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Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/a-lifetime-doing-nothing.

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Story 79 from 'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' by Ian McCrorie
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Our cottage is on a small lake on the Canadian Shield. Our shoreline is very rocky, with large boulders deposited there as the glaciers retreated 10,000 years ago. Amazingly this shoreline provides sufficient sustenance for trees to grow and, in their own way, thrive. They protrude out perpendicularly from crevices between the rocks before turning upwards to catch a modicum of sunlight and spread their gnarly majesty....

narrated by Ian McCrorie
2023
2 minutes 58 seconds

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Audio copyright, 2023 Pariyatti

'A Lifetime Doing Nothing' as a book and eBook can be found at https://store.pariyatti.org/a-lifetime-doing-nothing.

More by Ian McCrorie.

View more books and audio resources available in the Pariyatti bookstore.