Japan – Ameravith

A young guy named Mori went to Japan, to one of the temples around Kyoto, with the intention of learning meditation. He brings along an interpreter, gains permission to join the class of a Zen master and begins lessons. The master neither encourages nor discourages the presence of the interpreter.

A couple of weeks go by. Rising early, Mori attends daily meditation sessions, joins the communal meals, helps with cleaning tasks and other duties, same as everyone else at the temple, who were mostly novice monks. All the while, the interpreter explains things and relays instructions to Mori, who believes he is doing well and is on his way to becoming an adept meditator.

Then, unexpectedly, the interpreter falls ill and is taken away to another part of the compound. Young Mori is left in a quandary, thinking if he is not able to understand the Zen master’s instructions, he will need to stop. Continue reading “Mori the Student”

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms – Muriel Rukeyser

It has never been easier in the history of humankind, to write and send out one’s writings to a larger potential audience in the world, than it is today.

The internet has not only opened up the possibility of creating stories to anyone who cares to do so but the technology now exists that has so simplified publishing to enable those stories to be placed in the hands of readers everywhere in as many forms as one can dream of, even going beyond the traditional form of books and their more recent electronic cousins. It’s mightily easier than finding and learning to use a Gutenberg press and sending finished manuscripts out on the backs of mules, taken by monks, to far away lands.

But what type of story works? Is there a type that’s sure to succeed at the expense of others? How different can successful works of fiction be? Continue reading “Deserving a Place in the Known Universe”