Peter Malakoff

"Let me tell you a Story"

Before we begin

Lets go back

Lets start again

from where things have a beginning

in a story. . .

In the Jewish tradition, a person who tells stories about stories in the Bible is called a darshanim and his story is called a midrash. I felt myself as a darsanim since the first time I heard the word and I intend my stories to be a midrash. The great tradition of religion and spirituality is my Bible. The great saints and Siddhas of the world are my Teachers. I spin like a wheel around their hub. These are some of the stories that I remember. . .

Give people a fact or an idea and you enlighten their minds. Give them a story and you awaken their soul. -Hasidic saying

	There are two versions to many of the stories and poems below The first version is text only The second version includes voice and music. (Use the (audio) buttons to LISTEN) You can use the search box above to find any word or topic on this site Stories
	Beware of Storytellers \| (audio)
	Why We Tell Stories (audio)
	Harper's Ferry (audio)
	Taj Mahal \| (audio)

	Train Out of Cicero \| (audio)
	Set me as a Seal upon thy Heart (audio)
	Hanuman Story for Ram Dass (audio)
	De Felly Frog \| (audio)
	A Thousand and One Arabian Nights (audio) A Thousand and One Arabian Nights (Movie)
	Three Non-Existent Princes (audio) The Mad Elephant \| (audio)
	The Seed and the Soil
	The Cure of the Mustard Seed \| (audio)
	King Hussein
	Tragedy Fate Nemesis
	Wish Fulfilling Tree \| (audio)
	Let Me Tell You a Story
	The Sadhus
	Character and Fate \| (audio)
	God Willing \| (audio)
	23 Psalm
	Manikarnika Ghat - India 2004 \| (pics)
	Tsunami- India 2004 \| (pics) The Gift of a Cow -India 2004 (pics)
	The Nadi Readers - India 2004 \| (pics)
	The Bear, The Rabbit and The Man (audio)
	Going to Town(audio) Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby(audio) The Water of Life (audio) A Thorn, a Gold Coin and The Law of Karma Shit Happens NEW!!! Who Bears the Burdens of Life-a short story of Ramana Maharshi (audio)
	Erotic Stories

Poetry

"There was a myth before the myth began,
Venerable articulate and complete.

From this the poem springs: ."

-Wallace Stevens

Babushka (audio)

Quadraplegic Love (audio)

Mango Butt and Veda Head | (audio)

Like the Worm (audio)

I have Lost Myself (audio)

Breathe Easier (audio)

A Small Little Puddle

Tall Trees (audio)

Those Calves (audio)

What I Call My Heart (audio)

A Poets Hope is in Dying| (audio)

Sometimes You Need a Miracle(audio)

What Kind of Praise

The River of Drowning

Pourin Like A River(audio)

Reading Rumi

Slaves of Each Other

Gravity's Easy Way (audio)

The Love of a Woman (audio)

Something Left Out (audio)

What it is I am Practicing For (audio)

My Appetite (audio)

The Law of Karma and The Rainbow Grocery Reggae (audio)

Job's Friends (audio)

Big Doggy an Da Wabo (audio)

Lonely Traveler (audio)

When I Was No Longer

Cleaning House

Now That You Have Left (audio)

Prayers

Gestures of Giving

Lost Face (audio)

Splittin the Arrow and Threadin the Beads (audio)

THE SECRET OF HOW TO CHANGE

True change and higher human adaptation are not made on the basis of any self-conscious resistance to old, degenerative, and subhuman habits. Change is not a matter of not doing something. It is a matter of doing something else-something that is inherently right, free and pleasurable. Therefore the key is insight and the freedom to feel and participate in ways of functioning that are right and new.

The tendencies and patterns of our earlier adaptations are not wrong. They were appropriate enough in their own moment of creation, and there is no need to feel guilt or despair about them. Likewise, efforts to oppose and change them are basically fruitless. Such efforts are forms of conflict, and they only reinforce the modes of self-possession.

What is not used becomes obsolete, whereas what is opposed is kept before us. Therefore the creative principle of change is the one of relaxed inspection and awareness of existing tendencies and persistent, full feeling orientation to right, new, regenerative functional patterns. If this is done consistently and in ecstatic resort to the Living Divine, free growth is assured.

Have no regrets. Resort to the Divine in Truth and in the present. All that has been done by anyone had its logic in its time. Only God avails. Whatever is your habit in this moment is not wrong. It is simply a beginning. No habit is necessary, but it is tending to persist, because it has not yet been replaced by further growth. Hear the Teaching of Truth, and understand what is the right, ultimate, and regenerative pattern of each function of Man. Feel free of all negative judgments about what you have done and what you tend to do. Turn with full feeling-attention to the creative affair of new adaptation in most positive communion with the God who is Life, and who is Alive as all beings.

-AdiDa Samraj

One finger pointing up and one finger pointing down

"There is neither one God nor many Gods.

There is Only God:

-AdiDa Samraj

That is what I am miming in this picture.

(Standing by a roadside sign in Northern India)

I am

on a road that follows the Ganges

into the Himalayan Mountains

about 15 miles up river

from Rishikesh

I have just bathed in the beautiful, clear sacred river

and sat in the

thunderously silent and ancient cave

used by the Rishi Vasishta

I have moved to India as of April 2011. I am living in

Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, South India during the winter months

and Old Manali, Himachal Pradesh in the foothills of the Himalayas

during the summer and fall

I continue to study, write and teach and will be working on

a book on Ghee as well as many other topics of interest.

For my latest work and doings, including the three books I have recenlty published

- Click to read my BLOG

INDIA- MY WALDEN POND

It could be said that most of India does not exist

in the world of science and technology,

it exists in the world of 'God'

a world in which the Mystery of all life

is still felt to be breathing.

India is a land of colorful paradoxes

of Divine ideas and representations,

of temples, saints and sadhus,

sacred rivers and holy mountains

and even road signs devoted to the Supreme.

I have only 'ideas and stories' about what is going on

or who or what 'God' is

The journey where I have placed my feet seems blessed

and the mystery in which we live

grows deeper

As of the end of 2012

I have now published three books and am working on a fourth.

Please go HERE to view them all.

Each book is viewable online from beginning to end.

" All doubt, despair, and fear become insignificant

once the intention of life becomes love,

rather than dependence on love."

-Adi Da Samraj

Vasishta Gufa (cave)- thought to be the cave of the ancient Rishi Vasishta about 15 miles up the Ganges from Rishikesh

Here are some stories

and ideas

about

'What Is'

or what has been called-

Vidya or Knowledge:

Since ancient times, mankind has sought for knowledge.
But, all 'knowledge' is not the same.
My teacher,
AdiDa Samraj, spoke of what is meant by knowledge:

"I find people’s losses and sorrows to be heartbreaking and terrible,
an immense burden.
And, I am inevitably sympathetic and bless people in their trouble.
However, you must understand; That is the nature of this place.
It is not utopia. It is not paradise.
It is a place of death, of endings, of suffering.
Brief amusements.
It is not enough.

One day, it will be your death.
All will pass. Everything will pass.
Everything will be lost. Everything will change.
Every conceivable separation will occur.
You must know the place you are in
and live according to that knowledge."

-AdiDa Samraj

To see Adida Samraj

All of these stories are what I have
heard and experienced about 'Knowledge'
They are a 'Consideration' of Llife

It cannot be stolen by thieves

Nor taken away by kings

It cannot be divided among brothers

It is not a load on your shoulders

If spent . . . It always increases

The wealth of knowledge

Is the most superior wealth of all

- Vidyaprashna

Videos