Stories for career change
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for career change from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Giving away the motorbike before ordinationStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Before Thailand he realises monks cannot keep a motorbike (robes balloon on one ride); he does not need the money — he wants to give the bike away.
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motorbike and I was going to become a monk and I knew enough about Buddhism that monks can't ride motorbikes there's a good reason for that that only once in my life as a monk have I ridden on the back of a motorbike once and never again cuz when you're on a motorbike with these robes the air gets inside it balloons up and you have to hang on because everything is trying to blow you off it doesn't work with these robes so never again but I had a motorbike when I was a lay person a nice Mo nice bike I thought what am I going to do with this I can't take it to Thailand you can't ride a motorbike as a monk and I don't need the money cuz monks don't have money so I want to give it away
- The nightmare was that I was a laymanStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In his first nights as a novice the nightmare that wakes him is that he is a layman again. Seeing his folded brown robes beside the mat, he sighs with joy, sleeps deeply — and…
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when I first became a monk, how long ago, 37 years ago, I had nightmares. This is true. I'd wake up in a sweat, in my nightmare, this is no exaggeration, this is how much I really, really wanted to be a monk. My nightmare was I was a lay person. I thought I wasn't a monk after all. And I'd open my eyes and I'd see my robes next to the bed. Ah, I'm a monk! I really am a monk! [laughter] And I'd just go to sleep in this very peaceful deep sleep. And that was about for a week. That's how much I really loved being a monk and I never looked back. So that was my nightmare. I was terrified that I wasn't a monk
- The principal who heard the three questionsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Invited to an education seminar 'for the free breakfast', he's greeted by a woman: 'Do you remember me?' He doesn't. A year earlier at a Gosnells school he told Tolstoy's three…
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I was invited to give this uh seminar once on on an education day over I think the eastern suburbs education department or something. They were having a seminar. They had a nice hall. They said, "Ajent, if you come, we give you a free breakfast." That was good enough for me. So, I went over there for the free breakfast. And of course, as soon as I walked in, I'm not really sure why I was invited. They never told me. And it was like an education seminar. And the lady came up to me and said, "Thank you, Ajam Brown, for coming. Do you remember me? That's why this story comes up." I said, "No, I haven't got a clue who you are." And actually she told me the story that about six months earlier or maybe a year earlier I've been invited to give a a talk uh in Gossnol's uh I think it was a primary school you know that I go to all these places to give talks I don't really get much feedback but I went to this school and gave a talk and one of the uh stories I told was the old emperor's free question story now is the most important time, the one in front of you, the most important person in the whole world, the only thing to do is to care. And that really hit her very hard just like it actually meant so much to me when I first read it as a student. I remember first reading in this book by Leo Toltoy. And after I read that, wow, I mean, that was powerful. And I just got up from my room and just went walking around Cambridge for an hour just wow. It really blew my mind literally. So anyway, did the same to her. She was a principal of a school, a very successful teacher. That night, she told me after hearing me talk about that story, she resigned. She gave it up a job instantly. And then what she did, she knew that Gossnos is was a low socioeconomic area at the time. There were many kids had left school at a very young age and she wanted she kind of knew what had happened to them. They run away from home, boys and girls, dealing drugs, prostitutes living on the streets underage. And she thought, I can't just ignore this. So what she did was um now is the most important time. She had to do it straight away. And she went, you know, to these places in Perth, under the bridges, the places where homeless people hang out, especially underage, and she went to talk to them. But when she was talking to them, she didn't feel fear. Instead, she felt, "You are the most important person in the world to me. You underage prostitutes. You kid on drugs or selling drugs. And the only thing I'm going to do is care. How that care works out, I don't know, but just be kind." And she felt that she could now communicate with these people who were in immense social difficulties. And it was actually some of those kids were at this conference or which I went to and they were telling me just how it was the first time someone was listening to them. They didn't have an agenda. They didn't want to try and get them back to school or anything. They just wanted to listen and give these little kids importance instead of discriminating against them or just just trying to reject them or bung them in a school in a prison somewhere. She was listening. And when she was listening and get that connection with these underage prostitutes and drug dealers and kids, 14, 15 year olds, she connected so well with them. She learned what they the kind of things they needed, what kind of things they would need to bring them back into the school system. Not just an ordinary school, but being able to have times when they can come when they feel they want to come. and to have lessons or education tailored for them so they could feel that they were part of the education system not something just given to them but they were contributing towards it and she got the funding from the education department even when she went to see these people behind the desks in East Perth still that she remembered now is the most important time and the person behind the desk is the most important person in the whole world for her. And she really cared and that came out and she got the funding. And this little seminar was actually um celebrating the success of that program. I gave a talk, but my talk was totally overpowered by the next boy who gave a talk. He told where he'd come from and the pain and difficulties which he'd gone through in his life. And then just under the bridge somewhere in Perth, this lady came up to him and was the first person who did actually listen to him, not judging him. Never made him felt afraid. What do you need? What can I get for you? You know, I I have the resources to make sure that we can, you know, get you some food, a place to stay, get off the drugs, get a career. and he gave this very eloquent talk and he said he's got a place at university next year. When he said that, it's amazing where he'd come from and where he got to. I said, "I can't match that. Whatever I talk, that was a real person who'd been really down, had bad luck all his life, and somebody actually cared, listened, gave him that sense of importance, and now he was going to university. He's got his life back. And that was just one out of many. A girl talked next and she was just as good.