Stories for burnout
18 Buddhist wisdom stories for burnout from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Anita Moorjani: “I'm cured”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In Hong Kong, Anita Moorjani, riddled with cancers and expected to die, dies on the operating table. She sees and hears everything said (the doctors confirm it), floats out of…
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her experience while she was in hong kong she was uh indian but working in hong kong and brian joseph um walker was the her gp but she had so many cancers inside of her and all of those cancers which she had were literally killing her she had many operations and this operation was you know they think last chance for her they thought she was going to go and she did die on the operating table and when she died on the operating table she obviously came back again and then she told the story what it was like being first of all being able to see and hear everything which was being said the doctors confirmed it how the heck do you know that you were unconscious at the time and not only being able to see and hear everything but then floating out of her body and to this big beautiful light and those of you who heard me teach the deep meditation on retreats we call those nimiters in meditation beautiful lights what it is is a manifestation of your mind that's one thing which i disagreed with her on not sort of god who might feel like that but it's actually your own mind and when it's freed from the five senses it's very powerful and extremely blissful like being in the middle of pure love or pure bliss those meditation experiences which i said earlier they're such powerful happiness and and joys literally is blissing now very deeply and then when she came out afterwards she came out afterwards she didn't know how long she was in there she came with what we called in buddhism insight understanding but her main concern at the time obviously was her health her sicknesses her cancers and when she came out and became conscious again to the surprise of the doctors and they thought she would have died and then the first thing she said to the doctors is i'm cured and the doctors thought she was just being hallucinating because you know she had big tumours inside of her what do you mean you're cured and that's when afterwards she mentioned because i've understood the cause of my cancers and the cause of the cancers was the emotional stress of trying to live up to other people's expectations all the time like you your partner in life your children's expectation of you as a mother as a father as a grandparent your parents expectations of you your boss's ex expectations of you and more powerful your own expectations of you what do you think you should be doing how do you really feel that inner stress inside trying to live up to some standard and you don't know where those standards are from and when she saw that she was success a very successful woman when she saw that that was what was causing the stress which manifested in the tumors in her body she understood that was the reason why she had the cancer now she saw that and could understand the main cause of the cancers then she said i'm not going to try and live up to other people's expectations anymore i'm going to relax and just be me and you know that as soon as you if any of you ever do that you find out the you you end up being is much much much better than the you that you try to be all of that force you're not working well enough you're not good enough you're not trying hard enough you're not successful enough you could do more you could do better that is a terrible burden on your body which means that you work too hard injury don't work much at all you're still just trying too hard you still have that stress inside of your body and mind and she said that was what's causing my cancer
- Celebrate the ending of the stuck songStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After years without music in a NE Thai forest, a Bangkok visa trip lets a pop song stick in his head for days. Fighting it made it worse; emphasising the finale until the…
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somebody walked past my room uh with one of these radios and they were playing some pop music and I made a mistake of really listening to it and it was very delightful to listen to sort of some some song which was probably in the hip parade somewhere but the point is as soon as I started listening to it and enjoying it got stuck in my head and I couldn't sort of get it out and I kept it instead of meditating repeating the music to myself over and over and over and over and over again. It's the songs pop up and get stuck. So a long time in a couple of days being concerned with this the solution I found which worked for me anyway was actually instead of trying to stop the sound which didn't work. It made it come up more and more and more. I was trying I always discover when you fight something it usually makes it worse. When you try to get rid of it it stays much longer. So instead of trying to get rid of it, I decided to really get into it. And especially with the ending, the finale, the last few seconds, instead of D whatever it was and then carrying on again, I really gave it everything emphasis. When I emphasize the endings, then the beginnings never occurred
- How heavy is the glass?Analogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Brahm's own analogy (he laughs hearing someone else quote it): how heavy is the glass? The longer you hold it the heavier it feels — minutes to pain, agony, hospital. When it…
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how heavy is the glass and i was laughing my head off when she was saying this because i i made that this story up how heavy is the glass the longer you hold it the heavier it feels if you hold it for two or three minutes you'll be in pain four minutes should be in agony five minutes you'll be in a hospital case and really stupid what do you do when it starts getting too heavy to hold comfortably you put it down
- Lying down for the benefit of all beingsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: The Buddha takes an afternoon nap, and Māra taunts him: you're no real monk — lazy, sleeping while others work to feed you. The Buddha replies: “I'm lying down for the happiness…
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where one day the Buddha took a nap in the afternoon and then this being called Mara called him out I've caught you out you're not a real monk you're lazy look all these other people have to work hard feeding you they're not sleeping during the middle of the day you lazy monk he said what are you doing that for why are you sleeping and the Buddha replied I'm laying down for the happiness and benefit of all sentient beings
- Meditating through Cambridge finalsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During six days of Natural Sciences finals in 1972 — three hours each morning and afternoon — Ajahn Brahm skips lunch to meditate in his room. He lets go of the morning paper and…
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when I was doing the final examinations at Cambridge University that's where I did my studies, 1972, Natural Sciences Tripos final exams, final exams I really meant that FINAL, everything else in the whole time you did in the University counted for absolutely nothing. You got your Degree or you failed on one series of examinations. Those examinations on Natural Sciences, that year, 6 days -- Monday, Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, one after the other, morning examination 3 hours, afternoon 3 hours, 1 hour for lunch. I don't think Amnesty International was formed at that time, if they had found out that was torture, 3 hours, 1 hour lunch, 3 hours, 6 days in a row. The worst of that, everybody was telling me that my future depended upon those examinations. If you did well, you would have a wonderful life, if you failed you will be snuffed for the rest of your life. If only I had known I was going to become a monk, I wouldn't have worked so hard. I didn't know at that time so as other people I really worked hard But my trick was, this is how you deal with stress, this was a stressful situation for me, how I dealt with that was using basic tricks of meditation I've already had started meditation about 2-3 years when I first went up to that University. So, I never had any lunch for those 6 days. Had a big breakfast and a nice dinner in the evening. At lunch time I went back to my room only 5-10 minutes from the examination room, and I meditated for half an hour, Now this is what happens, as soon as I sat down, the first thing which came in to my mind was the morning exam, how did I do, did I do that question correct, we all know how stupid that is, the examination paper is in, right or wrong is too late to change it, it's obvious isn't it, you should let it go, let go of the past this is not the time you can do anything anymore, it's easy to say but I trained, I could do that, I could let go, of that very very important exam in the morning. This is what you can learn in a place like this. It doesn't matter what has happened in the past, you can't change it, examination paper of your past is in, it's a waste of time thinking about it. Good or bad you can't do anything about it. I could let that one go. So, the next thought I was not concerned about the morning paper, The next thought which came up in my mind was the afternoon exam. Should I get out of my meditation, get out a book and start studying, last minute just in case and of course if you remember your studies, every time I did that, whatever I looked at, half an hour before the examination never ever came up, never, total waste of time. It was a waste of time, because this was the time I am supposed to rest, not work, if you are worried about the future, you can't stay in this present moment, and do the preparation necessary for success in the future, that preparation was resting. If you don't know how to rest you will fail again and again and again, because you don't know how to prepare your mind for the challenges it faces in the future. I had to let go of the future because I trained in meditation, it was easy to do, even though important, what I thought was a life defining moment, those afternoon examinations, I could totally forget about them and stay in the moment. So, that was called present moment awareness, when I put in the context of an important part of my life you can understand how relevant it is. But what happens next shocked me because when I stopped thinking about the past which for me was the morning exam, the future-the afternoon exam, I found out I was physically shaking, Look ! I go up here every Friday and talk to people, watched on internet by 1000s of people, I go on live TV, I am not a nervous person, but at that time I found out I was physically shaking, the pressure of final examinations had got to me, I was nervous. What shocked me even more than being nervous, was that I hadn't noticed it before that point. I've been so fixated, with the future exam, what I'v done in the past I was totally unaware of the present reality of my body. That shocked me and from that moment on I learnt why many people get sick. They get sick because you are not aware of your body, so up in the future, so up in the past, so busy, you are not here, with your body, listening to the signs. When I got into that present moment and saw I was shaking, it was pretty easy to relax the body, exactly as I told you here at the beginning of the meditation. With mindfulness, kindness the body totally relax and all that shaking stopped. The next part of that meditation when I let go of the past, let go of the future, the shaking all stopped, the next thing I noticed was how tired my brain was. How totally worn out it was. I compared it to like a tea bag which had already been used, no juice left, an old used tea bag that's what my brain felt like. And again those experiences told me again why a lot of depressions and negativity, where they come from. Most of the people in this room, if you've only noticed the status of your brain, you'll probably know it's really tired. It just really needs a rest, because I noticed the need for my brain to rest, I could just keep it not working for 10 or 15 minutes, really relax it keep it still, so by the end of that meditation, all the energy had come back to my brain. I was awake, alive, clear, energised and I still remember, my friends after the examinations they commented, I was the only student who went in to that examination hall in the afternoon with a smile on my face. I could do that because I was relaxed and that's why I did really well.
- Mother's mantel shelf and the wombatStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Each visit Ajahn Brahm brings his mother another stuffed Australian animal; when the big wombat arrives, everything falls off the crowded shelf, and he likens a cluttered mind to…
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I told a story a long time ago about my mother's mantel shelf. She's an English woman, well she's in a home now, she's very old, but in her house like many English people's house they had a fireplace, and above the fireplace they have a mantel shelf and on that mantel shelf they keep the knick-knacks, the mementos, the photographs and all the things which which bring back happy memories. And so that one day I had just been in Australia for a few years and I went to visit my mother, and so I brought her a gift, and what sort of gift do you bring? Someone gave me a stuffed kangaroo, you know a little fluffy toy, really cute. So I brought that back and gave it to my mother, and she liked it very much, and she put it on her mantel shelf. Next time I went over there someone managed to get me a koala and so I took that back, and she said "Oh, it's so beautiful, everytime I see this I can remember you in Australia." So she put it on her mantel shelf next to the kangaroo. The next time I managed to get a kookaburra, the time afterwards a platypus, and the fifth time I went, I managed to get a wombat. The trouble was the wombat was so big, she tried to put it on the mantel shelf and all the other ones fell off. She spent about an hour trying to balance it on her shelf and everything else fell off. I said, "Why don't you throw those other things away?" She said, "Noooo, these are nice, they remind me of you." You had so much rubbish on that shelf and I said, "Mother, this is like the person, they get one more thing in their head, they have a nervous breakdown, your mantel shelf's having a nervous breakdown." That's what happens, we collect so many thoughts and so much stuff. So if that was my mantel shelf, everytime, if I got a kangaroo, I just put that on, everything else would be clear. The next time someone gave me something else, I'd throw that one away and get something new. So one thing at a time in your head. And then your mantel shelf inside your brain never, ever has a nervous breakdown.
- The Ananda method of enlightenmentStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After the Buddha's death, Ananda — his attendant for 25 years — is still not enlightened, while 499 of the 500 monks gathering for the great council are arahants with psychic…
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But Ananda, he was a He was the attendant of the Buddha, the chief No, the chief disciples of the Buddha, and when the Buddha passed away, Ananda was still not enlightened. And he thought, "If I can't be enlightened after being with the Buddha for 25 years, almost every day, listening to all of his teachings, being one of the greatest masters, and I've blown it. 25 years, I'm still not enlightened. What chance do I have now?" But there was a big meeting of all the great monks. 500 monks were meeting together. 499 of them were perfectly enlightened with psychic powers, all except this poor Ananda guy. Imagine the peer pressure. Imagine. So, he stayed up all night meditating and meditating and meditating. Now, that's the reason why he didn't get enlightened. Trying. Trying to get enlightened, trying to achieve something. But then when he got to dawn, he was absolutely nowhere, hopeless. You'll have that feeling sometimes. You're meditating and meditating, nowhere, absolutely hopeless. So, what did he do? He decided to go and take a nap. So, as he lay down, according to the legend, just before his head hit the pillow, he became fully enlightened with psychic powers as well. Brilliant. So, we call that the Ananda method of enlightenment.
- The big rocks go in firstStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A business-school professor fills a jar with large stones and asks if it's full; the students say yes. He adds gravel, shaking it into the gaps; then sand; then water. 'What is…
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This a professor came into his lecture hall. This was at uh a business school. And he had a jug and he asked he took out some from his briefcase took out a bag of stones and one by one put the stones into this jug until he could get no more stones inside the jug. And he asked his students, "Is the jug full?" Said, "Yeah, of course. You can't get any more stones in. He smiled and from his briefcase he picked out a bag of gravel, smaller stones. And one by one he put those into the jar, shook the jar, and many of those smaller stones found their way in the spaces between the big rocks and the smaller rocks. Is it full? No, they said they were on to him by now. So from his bag, he picked out his briefcase. He got a bag of fine sand, sprinkled the fine sand onto the rocks and gravel, shook the jar until much of the sand found its way in the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. "Is it full yet?" he asked the class. He had nothing more in his briefcase and said, "No, you'll probably find some other thing to put in there. He got the water jar and poured the water into that big jar. So that much of the water found its way between the rocks, the s the gravel and the sand. And he didn't want to try and find any other thing to put in that jar. He said, "Now what is the meaning of this lesson?" Modern times. Okay. Business school. One smart ass kid put their hand up and said, "It shows us, sir, no matter how busy we are, we can always fit something more in." Have you ever heard your bosses saying that? No, said the professor. What it shows us, if you want to put the big rocks in, the precious stones, you have to put them in first. Otherwise, you'll never get them in. You can fit the other stuff in afterwards, but the important things in life, you have to put in first priority.
- The company that banned overtimeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An English engineering firm Ajahn Brahm remembers as 'Farrell and Sons' wins a best-business-practice prize after trebling turnover and doubling profits in a year — by banning…
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someone sent me this years ago about a company in UK who won a prize for best business practice in that year and I still remember the name called Farrell and Sons. It was an engineering company and in one year they treble turnover, doubled profits. I told this to a few business people. They said, "Well, that's a concern. If you treble turnover and only double the profits, you know, maybe you're just underelling things, but that's still pretty good." And they did this on the simplest of new strategies. They banned all overtime. No one was allowed to work beyond their allotted time. Nor were they allowed to take work home with them. They finish work, go home to your families. Relax. Because that little strategy meant when they went back to their families, their kids saw them, wives, husbands saw them. They had really rich family life and they could relax. So when they had a good sleep at night instead of just working all hours and finishing off some project or some contract or something had a good evening with their family, they went to work the next morning. They were fresh. So they work really well. Yes, they did not spend as much time in the office, but the time they spent there was far more productive because imagine what happens. You know, you may unfortunately have experienced this had a argument with your your wife or your husband, the kids are in trouble at school and you go to work the next day and that's praying on your mind. You can't focus on your job which you're being paid for. You're worried about the family life and that's not going to be very good for the company. Imagine great family life could spend time with them. You go to work mindfocused, fresh, energized, you do really well. So productivity went up even though they weren't spending so many hours at the office. And number two, staff turnover went down to zero.
- The executive who slept for three daysStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a retreat in Sydney many years ago, an executive arrived at 11:30 at night after tying up loose ends at work. Told in her first interview that most people are tired and that…
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the classic story many many years ago teaching a retreat in Sydney and an executive you know from some big company in Sydney she arrived really late about 11:30 at night because you had to try and tie up all the Loose Ends before she could arrive at The Retreat so she arrived in the middle of the night so she missed the evening talk and when I sort of uh she asked for quick interview in the morning when I told her this that most people are tired so to practice your kindness and take as much sleep as you want she really took that advice on board she went straight back to bed got up for lunch after lunch went to sleep again she got up in the morning just before breakfast after breakfast went to bed got up for lunch went to bed again afterwards she said for the first two or three days she slept and slept and slept she was just catching up after 3 days she had hardly done any meditation at all but you felt so good as you do do when you really caught up on your sleep I really feel got energy now I feel healthy and then the next three days you know she started to get into her meditation and she caught up with everybody else so by the sixth day she was on a par with all the other people and of course the last few days she just took off she was one of the star meditators really got some really deep meditation and I used her courage and wisdom as an example for all others
- The postulant who tried too hard to be perfectStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A former monastery postulant tells Ajahn Brahm in Melbourne that he was so afraid of breaking a rule, controlling his body, speech and mind, that the tension became unbearable…
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There was one of the men I saw in Melbourne, he used to be an Anagarika in my monastery down in Perth a long time ago. But he was saying when he was first there, he was trying so hard to be perfect. He was so afraid of breaking a rule. And that's why he got so tense trying to control his body, control his speech, control his mind. He got so tense, he couldn't stand it and he left.
- The social worker's solutions that popped upStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A senior social worker with heavy responsibilities arrives at a nine-day retreat in North Perth at 8:30 p.m., straight from the office with big unsolved problems. She has…
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A classic case is one of the old members here who died a year ago. She came on this meditation retreat which I gave a couple of years ago. And she was a very high profile social worker, senior social worker, had lots of responsibilities. So the retreat which we give, the nine day retreats, they usually start at about seven o’clock. I don’t think she turned up till about eight thirty. Because she was working at her office, getting all of the papers and stuff done and she couldn’t leave it. I don’t think she had any dinner. She came straight from her office to the retreat center in North Perth. Tired, but you know, obviously I told her to rest for a couple of days before she can really got into the meditation. But she told me at the interview a few days later that she had come to the retreat straight from the office finishing very late, with all of these problems, big problems. But she was wise enough, she heard those teachings many times before. When she came to the retreat center, she completely forgot about them for two or three days. She done all of her research, she got all of the information, she just hadn’t processed them. And just three days, she was meditating there quite quietly, and her mind was very peaceful and these solutions started popping up. And she said when she basically listened to the solutions in her mind, she didn’t know where they came from, they just came up, popped up, she said: “Wow, these are really good solutions!” And she was so impressed with these solutions which came up automatically, she told me afterwards. She said: “As soon as I go back home, I’m going to implement these things. These are innovative I can see just how they are gonna work.” But she also said there’s no way . she could have thought of those solutions It was a decision making which arrived by putting in all of the information and waiting, and waiting for the brain, the mind, to process these things and for the decision to come up.
- The tired schoolteacher on alms roundStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An old friend who became a schoolteacher visits Ajahn Brahm in northeast Thailand. Exhausted and stressed, he resists the dawn alms round; Brahm insists. Walking back afterwards…
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he came to visit me in thailand many many years ago and he was he became like a school teacher and i was a monk and he came to visit me in thailand and when he arrived there it's amazing to actually define me all that way and so i settled him into his room and i said one of the wonderful things to experience in those days in northeast thailand was the arms round in the morning could we get up really early at dawn and just as the they get slight the monks take their ball and they walk silently mindfully through the village and it's really poor people they get up early to put some rice in the monk's bowl and if you don't go there they sort of come and ask you where have you been we want you to come here seeing peaceful calm people first thing in the morning it starts our day and we'd really miss it if you never came so it was just a sight of peaceful people calm quiet people just walking through the village reminding them of their spirituality and they'd come in there and quietly they put a bit of rice in the poll and then we come back to the to the monastery afterwards for our meal and you know that i said this is one of the best times of the morning it's cool the light is perfect you know you must come and he said listen i'm just i'm so tired i get so stressed at work there's no way i can wake up at that time of the morning and i said you don't have to worry at all i'll come to your room and i'll knock on the door 15 minutes before we go so you can get time to get ready okay that was the agreement and i obviously did that and as we were walking back he thanked me because there was a wonderful time of the day and it was really spiritual peaceful kind people looking after one another and he on the way back he told me thank you for
- The young doctor who wanted to quitStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A first-year intern loses his first patient, a young mother, and must tell her husband that his wife is dead and his kids have no mother. Shattered, he comes to Ajahn Brahm…
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The doctor, he’s not here this evening, he lost his first patient first year as a doctor, as an intern, came to see me, wanted to resign, “I don’t want to be a doctor anymore.” Why? He said, “Cos I had to tell, I had to tell this girl’s widow, this young man, the one he loved the most in his life, is dead. And your kids have got no mother.” And you could see just the pain in this poor young man’s face. He’d just come back from the hospital, I don’t know whether it’s Royal Perth or Charlies Gairdner’s, just having told, you know, this poor guy, you know that he lost his wife, kids have no mom, and that just hurt him so much. Can you imagine having to do that? He said, “I can’t do this anymore, I have to just give in. I can’t be a doctor. Cos that’s going to happen again and I just can’t face having to be the one to tell somebody the incredibly painful news.” That’s when I told him and said, “You’ve misunderstood what being a doctor is all about. If you think that being a doctor is curing all your patients, you are going to fail so many times in your life. You’re going to go through this so many times. The reason is because you haven’t understood what the role of a doctor is. The role of a doctor is not to cure, is to care. To care for your patients, not to cure them.” You know what I mean, if curing is the number one thing you're supposed to do, some of the interventions which happen in hospitals today – cure at all costs, forget about caring for the patients. If it hurts, it’s going to prolong their life unnecessarily, that’s curing. Caring is a totally different agenda. If it’s caring, a lot of times, I have to care for this person, it’s time to let them go. No more interventions. The quality of their moment is more important than keeping them alive. And I said, “If your job as a doctor is to care for people, you will never have to fail. You can always care for people, you can’t always cure them. Therefore you can always be a successful doctor. You will lose many of your patients. They will die. But you will be able to go to their widow, to their family and say – they were cared for. They were cared for to the max, and the family, yeah they will be sad. They’ll realise everything was done and your loved one died, being loved and cared for.
- The young people's biggest problem: tirednessStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At an afternoon youth seminar in Malaysia for about 200 people aged 15 to 25, the participants wrote their biggest emotional problem on slips of paper. Ajahn Brahm expected…
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it was last April uh in Malaysia uh I travel many many countries they wanted me to take a youth seminar for the afternoon it's about 200 35 to 25 year olds and know we had many discussions and one discussion was what's your biggest emotional problem and I thought it was going to be like depression or sort of a lack of self-esteem you know for people because the peer pressure in adolescence is so strong but what they came up with the clear winning they wrote These on pieces of paper and we so collected everything and collated the biggest problem 15 to 25 year olds in Malaysia this is probably the same in most countries of our modern world was tiredness our kids are exhausted
- What drug is he giving you?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A high-flying Sydney executive has to beg and grovel to her boss for time off for a nine-day retreat at Jhana Grove. Afterwards she emails Ajahn Brahm: as soon as she got back,…
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This lady from Australian girl from Sydney, one of these high executives. When she came, she said, "I had to beg and crawl and grovel from my boss to get the time off." But then she sent me this email after the 9-day retreat had finished and she said, "AJ, as soon as I got back to work, my boss took one look at me." And she he said to me, "Look, I don't care what drug Ajan Brah is giving you, but please bring me back some next time." She looks so peaceful and happy. It's weird.
- Wrap yourself a gift of peaceAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: For a birthday or anniversary, wrap an empty box carefully, put inside a paper that says 'peace — to me, with love from me', hide it, 'find' it next morning and play along until…
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go to the cupboard and get an old box, get some gift wrapping paper and maybe a bow and a little gift dedication card, and then in that box put something really really really important for you - a real gift - something you would really treasure - peace. Even write it on a piece of paper "p e a c e - to me", your name, with love from me, with your name again. And then put that little piece of gift paper, "peace to me with love from me", put it in the box, put the lid on, and wrap it as carefully as you possibly can with beautiful gift-wrapping paper, tie a nice little bow and put a little card, "happy whatever, happy anniversary, happy birthday, happy Mother's Day, Father's Day or whatever day" to yourself and then put it somewhere and then just go and have your lunch or go to work or go to sleep and when you wake up the following morning - you find it! Wow! Surprise! Someone's given me a gift. And play the game as best you possibly can - "wow I wonder what it is inside" and when you open the parcel and you open the lid you see a gift of peace from me with love to me. Ohh, how sweet, what I've always wanted - peace
- “You're a much better mum when you come home”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A tired mother tells her children she will skip the meditation group; her daughter insists she go, because she is a much better mum afterwards.
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Many times when I've been teaching meditation, especially down at Armadale, I don't know why this happens always in Armadale group. In Armadale group, sometimes after the meditation, talking to people afterwards, and very often people say, "You know, this evening, I never wanted to come." "It's Tuesday evening, I've been at work, and I'm tired, and I told my kids I'm not going this evening, and my daughter said, 'Mommy, you must go to meditation.' I said, 'I don't feel like it darling, I'm tired.' 'Mommy, you must go to meditation!' 'No, not this evening.' 'Mommy, go to meditation!!' 'Why darling?' 'Because you're a much nicer mommy when you come back.'