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Essays by Yao Xiang Shakya

A Flash of Fiction about the Furniture People

The furniture people want to matter.
They want to be loved.
They want to count.
They want to be useful rather than be free.

In this FLASH of fiction, Yao Xiang Shakya shows how it looks to be caught up in the dust of the material world.

ENJOY!

Mu…It’s Mine!

“The storyteller’s claim, I believe, is that life has meaning—that the things that happen to people happen not just by accident like leaves being blown off a tree by the wind but that there is order and purpose deep down behind them or inside them and that they are leading us not just anywhere but somewhere. The power of stories is that they are telling us that life adds up somehow, that life itself is like a story… it makes us listen to the storyteller with great intensity because in this way all his stories are about us and because it is always possible that he may give us some clue as to what the meaning of our lives is.” Frederick Buechner

Yao Xiang Shakya helps us see in the film, Never Forever a spiritual awakening in modern garb.

The Sale of the House

Common sense promises made with the knowledge of our diminishing volition are safeguards against the irrational deals we make when we are higher than a kite…especially when we’ve been plucked from the jaws of death-by-drowning. An important lesson on the recognition of our limits

Words: As images of God

As the Way of Life says: “Existence is beyond the power of words / To define: Terms may be used / But are none of them absolute”. In “Words: As Images of God”, Yao Xiang Shakya steps into the terrain where words strive to become Real.

The Dog on the Ice

A story of a dog trapped on the ice with the help of Sensei Wong, a fictional character in Anthony Wolff’s novel, Revenge, Recovery and Rescue: The 3R Murders show how cause and effect is not a one to one relationship of laying blame or claiming praise. It’s much more difficult. Find out the straightforward Zen Way of Sensei Wong and get off this slippery spot of praise and blame in “A Dog on the Ice”, by Yao Xiang Shakya.

AHA! Mystery Story, A Moral Tale?

Anthony Wolff, pioneer in spiritual storytelling where good guys, bad guys and Zen make for subtle spiritual entertainment is appraised in Yao Xiang Shakya’s “AHA! Mystery Story, A Moral Tale?”