A Fistful of Sand

Hongaku Jodo Website Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. Fish don't know they're in water. If you tried to explain it, they'd say, "Water? What's water?" They're so surrounded by it, that it's impossible to see. They can't see it until they get outside of it. This is how I feel about culture. We're so surrounded by people who think like us, that it's impossible to see that what we think are universal truths are just our local culture. We can't see it until we get outside of it. Management and the board are often, if not always, blind to their own culture - fish can't see water - and may not realize derailing cultural dynamics, in time leading to under-performance or, in the worst case, financial disaster. The message of this book is simple: national culture, through its influence on corporate culture, has a powerful but often invisible impact on the success or lack of success of any organization or compani...

The terms  Hinayana  (Small Vehicle) and  Mahayana  (Great Vehicle) are unknown to Pali literature. They are absent from the Pali Canon (Tripitaka) and the Commentaries on them. Not even in the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, Pali Chronicles of Ceylon, use this term. The Dipavamsa (about the 4th Century A.D.) and Pali Commentaries mention Vitandavadins, apparently a sect of dissenting Buddhists holding somewhat “unorthodox” beliefs respecting some aspects of the Buddha’s teaching. The Vitandavadin and the Theravadin both quote the same authorities and name the sutras of the Tripitaka in order to support their opinions, the only difference being in the approach they take in their analysis. The Mahavamsa (dated from the 5th Century A.D.) and a Commentary on the Abhidhamma both discuss the Vetulla, or Vetulyavadins (Sanskrit: Vaitulyavadin), instead of Vitandavadin. From the internal evidence of the texts, it may not be wrong to consider that these two expressions, Vi...