Interview with Malika Gandhi

Maliki Gandhi lives in Leicester, United Kingdom with her husband and two children.. She is a talented writer, whom I've had the pleasure of reading all her books and beta reading her current WIP (Work in progress). Her new book is out Witch Crystal. Although ment for 10 and up, I believe adults who like fantasy would like it also.

Q. How long have you been an author?
A. 3 years
Q. How many books have you written?
A. I have written three with one wip. 1. Freedom of the monsoon -historical romance 2. Where the secret lies - paranormal romance 3. Witch crystal - fantasy and I'm currently working on Lost Soul-Paranormal.
Q. Why did you become an author.
A. I have always had a passion for writing. I read widely as a young girl and decided that one day I will be an author.
Q. Tell me about your books.
A. FOTM is about a Pooja who is the main character. The story unfolds as we see her struggle against the backdrop of pre Indian independence. We see her lose the love of her life and then she is married to an older man who has a grown up child and two younger ones.

Where the Secret Lies is about a spirit from post independence 1948 and a girl from the present 2012. The two characters are related to each other's story.

Witch Crystal is a book for ages 10 plus,  and runs along the lines of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. It is about Larissa who diacovers the depth of her witch abilities and a prophecy she is to fulfill.  With her are Jake who is Xyth,  he has come from the planet Zrotaz which is also Larissa's home planet.  Larissa is also acquainted with the Witch Crystal.  Together they travel to Norway where their real adventure begins.
The other side of Witch Crystal we follow Zleus who is the witch brother of Xyth. He is on the journey to the Sacred Witches meeting where they will bring a plan to free his mother from the clutches of the High Witch.

                                                             Freedom of the Monsoon

                                                               Where-Secret-Lies

                                                                     Witch Crystal

Peaceful Liberation

I have the impression that many of us are afraid of silence. We’re always taking in something—text, music, radio, television, or thoughts—to occupy the space. If quiet and space are so important for our happiness, why don’t we make more room for them in our lives?

- Thich Nhat Hahn, "Fear of Silence"

We instinctively avoid unpleasantness, often without our awareness. When we touch something unlovely in ourselves—fear, anger, jealousy, shame, disgust—we tend to withdraw emotionally and direct our attention elsewhere. But denying how we feel, or projecting our fears and faults onto others, only drives a wedge between us and the people we yearn to be close to.

Freedom from desires and passions is not the same as the attainment of 'liberation by mind' and 'liberation by insight' which alone can cut the root of dependent origination: ignorance. Buddhism was not conceived as a means to become liberated from desire, but as a means to become liberated.

My Beautiful Life

Today, I have gratitude. My life is so far from where it once was, that the past is just a faint echo. Just a faint reminder of where I could be, making each moment of this life all the more sweeter, better and precious. I value each moment, for these moments are filled with joy, love, contentment and peace. How far I've come from the pain, chaos, and depression that once was all I knew. Like a butterfly emerging from the cocoon, I have shed my past, spread my wings and took flight into this beautiful world.

simplify your holidays

For many people, the holiday season is the busiest, most complicated, most stressful time of year.

Holiday parties, gift shopping and wrapping, decorating, travel plans, end-of-the-year projects, planning for the new year … these are all added on top of your regular business. And life before the holidays was already pretty busy.

So what can we do to simplify? Is it even possible to simplify when things are getting crazy?

Yes, it’s possible — with some willingness to change. If you want things to be exactly as they are, you can’t simplify. But if you’re open to change, and have an open mind about your routines and priorities and projects and more, you can simplify.

One method to go about this is to ask yourself a series of questions. Now, it takes a minute or two to reflect on these questions … but if you have five questions, that will only take 5-10 minutes. That’s totally worth the time investment if it greatly simplifies your life, reduces your busy-ness and stress, and makes you calmer and happier. Take the time now to reflect.

Here are the ones I’ve found useful:

1. What are you striving for? In our lives, we’re always striving for something: success, higher numbers at work, a new house, achievements to add to the notches on our belts, financial independence, an image that we want others to have of us … something. We aren’t always aware of it. So take a minute to reflect: what are you striving for right now? You can tell what it is by what’s stressing you out, what’s been occupying your mind, what fills your life with things to do. But if you can loosen your grip on what you’re striving for, you can simplify. You might even realize that this thing you’re striving for isn’t real, and is only a fantasy. It’s not important. In fact, you can have happiness right now, without this thing you’re striving for, if you accept that what you have is already good enough. Where you are is already perfect.

2. What are you clinging to? We all cling to things in our lives: our Christmas traditions, our love of sweets, our Internet distractions, our need to be right, our desire for justice in unfair situations, our craving for recognition and admiration. We are not usually aware of this clinging, but it feels like a tightness, stress, unwillingness to let go of how things are or how you want them to be. Take a minute to reflect on what you don’t want to let go of, what causes you this tightness and stress, what makes you dig in your heels.

3. What can you limit yourself to? If you have 50 things on your plate, will you really have time to eat all those things? Will you have the space to give any of them focus? Will you enjoy all of them? What if you only limited your plate to five things? You’d have more space, more focus, more enjoyment. Take a minute to look at the various areas of your life right now, and see if you can limit each one: have a limit on your tasks each day, a limit on meetings or parties, a limit on requests you can say yes to, a limit on how much time you spend on email or social media, a limit on how many hours you work. Set arbitrary limits and force yourself to make choices. Adjust the limits if absolutely necessary, but don’t just widen the floodgates because you don’t want to choose. Choose, and your life will get simpler. Say no to the rest, or get out of those commitments by saying you can’t do them.

4. Who do you want to spend more time with? Spending time with friends and loved ones is the best way to use your holiday time. But you can’t say yes to everyone: what if you could only choose 3-5 people to spend more time with? Maybe fewer, depending on what your family situation is (people with 6 kids can’t cut out a few kids from the list, but if you don’t have kids, your list can be shorter). Take a minute to think who that might be. Now prioritize your time so that you limit everything else (Question 4 above) but make time for those people. Make some dates/appointments with them, block off time on your calendar, and make this time actually happen.

5. What can you let go of? Think of the things you’re striving for, clinging to … can you let go of them? Before you say no, consider how it might be possible. And when you limit things in your life, see if you can let go of the things that don’t make the cut.

Letting go isn’t easy, because if it’s in our lives, that means we’ve already said yes, have already decided its important enough to be in our lives. But if you don’t let go, your life remains complicated. You are trying to say yes to everything, and that means you have too much on your plate. That leads to busy-ness, stress, unhappiness, and worse health.

Simplicity requires asking these tough questions, and then learning to let go. That isn’t easy work, but the alternative is much harder.

Be a blank page....be a mirror.....

“As soon as you begin to believe in something, then you can no longer see anything else.” The truth you believe in and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new. Remember faith is not blind belief.

Holding on to beliefs limits our experience of life. That doesn’t mean that beliefs or ideas or thinking is a problem; the stubborn attitude of having to have things be a particular way, grasping on to our beliefs and thoughts, all these cause the problems. To put it simply, using your belief system this way creates a situation in which you choose to be blind instead of being able to see, to be deaf instead of being able to hear.

When you explain or hear the teachings, if your mind and the teachings remain separate, then whatever is explained will be inconsequential. Hence, listen in such a way that you determine how these teachings apply to your mind. For example, when you want to find out whether or not there is some smudge, dirt, or whatever, on your face, you look in a mirror and then remove whatever is there. Similarly, when you listen to the teachings, your faults such as misconduct and attachment appear in the mirror of the teachings. At that time, you regret that your mind has become like this, and you then work to clear away those faults and establish good qualities.

Happy Bodhi Day

Happy Bodi day, Dec. 8 Bodhi Day is the Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautauma (Shakyamuni), experienced enlightenment, also known as bodhi in Sanskrit and Pali. According to tradition, Siddhartha had recently forsaken years of extreme ascetic practices and resolved to sit under apeepal tree and simply meditate until he found the root of suffering, and how to liberate oneself from it.

Traditions vary on what happened. Some say he made a great vow to Nirvana and Earth

 to find the root of suffering, or die trying. In other traditions, while meditating he was harassed

 and tempted by the god Mara (literally, "Destroyer" in Sanskrit), demon of illusion. Other traditions simply state that he entered deeper and deeper states of meditation, confronting the nature of the self.

In the Pali Canon, there are several discourses said to be by Buddha himself, relating to this story. In The Longer Discourse to Saccaka (MN 36),  Buddha describes his Enlightenment in three stages:
During the first watch of the night, the Buddha discovered all of his past lives in the cycle of rebirth, realizing that he had been born and reborn countless times before.

During the second watch, the Buddha discovered the Law of Karma, and the importance of living by the Eightfold Path.

During the third watch, the Buddha discovered the Four Noble Truths, finally reaching Nirvana.

“

My heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, was released from  the fermentation of sensuality, released from the fermentation of becoming, released from the fermentation of ignorance. With release, there was the knowledge, 'Released.' I discerned that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'

”

In his words:

All traditions agree that as the morning star rose in the sky i

n the early morning, the third watch of the night, Siddhartha finally found the answers he sought and became Enlightened, and experienced Nirvana. Having done so, Siddhartha now became a Buddha or "Awakened One".^[2][5]

The enlightenment of the Buddha is yearly celebrated in many Buddhist countries.

Bodhi Day is observed in many mainstream Mahayana
 traditions including the traditional Zen and Pureland Buddhist schools of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.^[6] In Japanese
 Zen, it is also known as Rohatsu. In Tendai and other Japanese sects, it is called either Shaka-Jōdō-e(釈迦成道会^?) or simply Jōdō-e (成道会^?).

Services and traditions vary amongst Buddhist sects, but all such services commemorate the Buddha's achievement of Nirvana, and what this means for Buddhism today. Individuals may choose to commemorate the event through additional meditation, study of the Dharma chanting of Buddhist texts (sutras), or performing kind acts towards other beings. Some Buddhists celebrate with a traditional meal of tea, cake, and readings.

The word Rōhatsu (臘八) is Japanese and literally means 8th Day of the 12th Month. It is typical for Zen monks and layman followers to stay up the entire night before Rohatsu practicing meditation, and the holiday is often preceded by an intensive sesshin.   It is observed on the Gregorian date of December 8 as a result of the Westernization of Japan during the Meiji Restoration (1862–1869).

Bodhi Day is not as popularly celebrated as Wesak Day, on which the birth, enlightenment (Nirvāna), and passing away (Parinirvāna) of Gautama Buddha are celebrated. Traditionally, Wesak Day is celebrated on the 8th day of the 12th lunar month in East Asian countries that still observe this calendar (See Chinese Calendar).

important points of Buddhism in today's world.

As a factor of the Buddhist path, faith (saddha) does not mean blind belief but a willingness to accept on trust certain propositions that we cannot, at our present stage of development, personally verify for ourselves.

Starting with this most simple of expressions, as Thich Nhat Hanh explicates dependent origination as a vision of radical interdependence, or what he calls “interbeing,” in which all beings support and are in turn supported by all other beings. This elaboration encompasses the foundation, the practice, and the fulfillment of spiritual life.

It is important to have strong spiritual friendships not spiritual in the rarefied sense, but in a really down-to-earth way, to have good friends in the dharma with whom you can talk things over, share experiences, share difficulties and whose spiritual support you're assured of.

We’re afraid all the time of what the future will bring—afraid we’ll lose our jobs, our possessions, the people around us whom we love. So we wait and hope for that magical moment—always sometime in the future—when everything will be as we want it to be. We forget that life is available only in the present moment.

If you separate from everything you have done in the past, everything that disturbs you about the future and apply yourself to living the life that you are living—that is to say, the present—you can live all the time that remains to you until your death in calm, benevolence, and serenity.

Meditation is about seeing clearly the body that we have, the mind that we have, the domestic situation that we have, the job that we have, and the people who are in our lives. It’s about seeing how we react to all these things. It’s seeing our emotions and thoughts just as they are right now, in this very moment, in this very room, on this very seat. It’s about not trying to make them go away, not trying to become better than we are, but just seeing clearly with precision and gentleness. We work with cultivating gentleness, innate precision, and the ability to let go of small-mindedness, learning how to open to our thoughts and emotions, to all the people we meet in our world, how to open our minds and hearts.

If we learn to keep our mind quiet through meditation, to just stay present with our feelings, to connect with our heart, to let go of the story lines, and to directly feel all the unpleasant sensations associated with our emotional hurts, then the heart will open and we can approach each situation from a wider perspective.