On the morning of a great battle, the warrior Arjuna looks across the field, sees his own family and teachers on the other side, and puts down his bow. What his friend and charioteer Krishna tells him next became the Bhagavad Gita.
For years an old woman in the forest waits for Rama, sweeping the path and gathering fruit each morning in case today is the day. When he finally comes, she has only berries to give him. What she does with them surprises everyone.
Every evening, a big white dog waited at Shibuya Station in Tokyo for his master's train. One day his master did not come home. The dog kept waiting, for almost ten years.
A poor farmer and his wife find a golden egg in their goose's nest. Then another. Then another. One golden egg a day should be plenty, shouldn't it?
An old sage sees a scorpion struggling in the river and reaches in to save it. It stings him. He reaches in again.
On the hottest day of the year, a tired crow finds a pitcher with a little water at the very bottom. Her beak can't reach it. So she thinks.
Two monks bound by strict vows come to a flooded river, where a young woman is waiting, unable to cross. One of them does something the other cannot forget.
For 28 years, a wall divided Berlin. On 9 November 1989, a confused answer at a press conference sent thousands of people to the border, and history changed overnight.
His horse runs away, and the neighbours say what bad luck. The old man only says, "Who knows?" An ancient Chinese story about good fortune and bad.
The fastest animal in the meadow is so sure of winning that he stops for a nap. The slowest one simply keeps going.
A king believes he would never fail if he knew three things - the right time, the right people and the right thing to do. Tolstoy's quiet parable about the answers.
In January 2009, a passenger jet lost both engines minutes after take-off from New York. The pilots had about three and a half minutes to decide what to do.
A giant builds a wall to keep the children out of his beautiful garden. Then spring refuses to come. Oscar Wilde's fairy tale about a heart that opens.
Mira's seeds were supposed to grow faster with music. When nothing happened, she thought she had failed, until her grandfather showed her what a real scientist does next.
A reflection on hurry, attention and the quiet details of an ordinary day, and on what we might be missing while we rush towards the next thing.
