# Being Mindful Stories

> The right story for the moment you're in. Buddhist wisdom stories matched to your life situation. Complete stories from talks by Ajahn Brahm, each credited to the teacher and linked to the exact moment in the original talk.

Being Mindful Stories is a library of Buddhist wisdom stories. You describe the situation you are in, and the site shows a story a Buddhist teacher told that speaks to it. It currently holds 1,164 complete stories, analogies and jokes from talks by Ajahn Brahm; collections of stories from Ajahn Chah and Thich Nhat Hanh are under way. Each story keeps the teacher's own telling (verbatim captions), a separate editorial synopsis and reflection, and links to the original YouTube talk at the exact timestamp. When the same story is told in several talks, the tellings are merged into one story page that lists every source. New stories are added most evenings.

Most of the stories so far come from Ajahn Brahm. We are working our way through all the talks the Buddhist Society of Western Australia (BSWA) has posted over the years, and stories from Ajahn Chah and Thich Nhat Hanh will follow.

## How to cite

- Credit the teacher (e.g. "Ajahn Brahm") as the storyteller and link the original talk (the YouTube deep link on each story page).
- Link the story page on Being Mindful Stories as the place you found it, e.g. "https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/<story>".
- The synopsis is Being Mindful Stories editorial text; the reflection is either written in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk (labelled as such) or an editorial interpretation; the narrative is the teacher's own words from the talk captions.
- Every story is also available as markdown at https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/<story>.md.

## Key pages

- [Home: find a story for your situation](https://beingmindfulstories.com/): describe what you are going through and get matching stories; also accepts https://beingmindfulstories.com/?q=<your situation>
- [All stories A–Z](https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories): index of every story with a one-line synopsis
- [Stories by theme](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes): themes such as letting go, grief, anger, fear and kindness
- [Stories by life situation](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations): situations such as burnout, parenting, grief and perfectionism
- [About](https://beingmindfulstories.com/about): why Being Mindful Stories exists and how the library is built, by Avinash M B
- [Full text of every story (markdown)](https://beingmindfulstories.com/llms-full.txt): all stories with synopsis, narrative, reflection and source links
- [Sitemap](https://beingmindfulstories.com/sitemap.xml)

## Popular themes

- [humour](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/humour): 524 stories
- [meditation](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/meditation): 115 stories
- [death](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/death): 77 stories
- [monastic life](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/monastic-life): 76 stories
- [kindness](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/kindness): 74 stories
- [fear](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/fear): 71 stories
- [compassion](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/compassion): 57 stories
- [letting go](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/letting-go): 51 stories
- [acceptance](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/acceptance): 47 stories
- [family](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/family): 44 stories
- [forgiveness](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/forgiveness): 43 stories
- [animals](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/animals): 36 stories
- [generosity](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/generosity): 35 stories
- [grief](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/grief): 34 stories
- [marriage](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/marriage): 32 stories
- [wisdom](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/wisdom): 32 stories
- [illness](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/illness): 31 stories
- [mistakes](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/mistakes): 31 stories
- [rebirth](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/rebirth): 31 stories
- [Ajahn Chah](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/ajahn-chah): 28 stories
- [perception](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/perception): 27 stories
- [anger](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/anger): 26 stories
- [travel](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/travel): 26 stories
- [humility](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/humility): 25 stories
- [mindfulness](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/mindfulness): 25 stories
- [relationships](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/relationships): 25 stories
- [work](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/work): 25 stories
- [suffering](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/suffering): 23 stories
- [contentment](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/contentment): 22 stories
- [expectations](https://beingmindfulstories.com/themes/expectations): 22 stories

## Common life situations

- [needing a laugh](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/needing-a-laugh): 75 stories
- [travel](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/travel): 26 stories
- [parenting](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/parenting): 22 stories
- [burnout](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/burnout): 18 stories
- [grief](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/grief): 18 stories
- [perfectionism](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/perfectionism): 16 stories
- [fear of death](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/fear-of-death): 15 stories
- [overwork](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/overwork): 15 stories
- [bereavement](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/bereavement): 13 stories
- [illness](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/illness): 13 stories
- [depression](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/depression): 12 stories
- [peer pressure](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/peer-pressure): 10 stories
- [trauma](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/trauma): 10 stories
- [addiction](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/addiction): 9 stories
- [anxiety](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/anxiety): 9 stories
- [conflict](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/conflict): 9 stories
- [marriage](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/marriage): 9 stories
- [public speaking](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/public-speaking): 9 stories
- [terminal illness](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/terminal-illness): 9 stories
- [exam stress](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/exam-stress): 8 stories
- [funerals](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/funerals): 8 stories
- [judging others](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/judging-others): 8 stories
- [volunteering](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/volunteering): 8 stories
- [anxiety about the future](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/anxiety-about-the-future): 7 stories
- [chronic pain](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/chronic-pain): 7 stories
- [dating](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/dating): 7 stories
- [embarrassing mistake](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/embarrassing-mistake): 7 stories
- [exhaustion](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/exhaustion): 7 stories
- [fear of failure](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/fear-of-failure): 7 stories
- [health anxiety](https://beingmindfulstories.com/situations/health-anxiety): 7 stories

## Optional

- [Story index](https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories): 1,164 story pages, each at https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/<story>