Stories for decluttering
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for decluttering from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Move huts every two years — by wheelbarrowStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Bodhinyana rule: monks may stay in a hut only two years, then must move — no tractor or car, only a self-pushed wheelbarrow — which reveals how much stuff has accumulated.
Read full story
every two years as a monk in voting down a monastery we have to move we have to move huts so you're only allowed to stay in heart for two years and what when you move you cannot use the tractor you cannot use a car you can use a wheelbarrow but you have to push it yourself
- The torn-up degrees his mother taped back togetherStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On his first visit home as a monk, Ajahn Brahm finds his BA and MA certificates at his mother's and, needing them no longer, tears them up and throws them in the bin, feeling…
Read full story
when I went first went home to visit my mother know she had them my ba my ma and I thought I'm a monk I don't need these I tore them up and threw them in the Dustbin and I thought that was a wonderful thing to do until an hour later I saw my mother patiently taping them together with C on the kitchen table I felt terrible when I saw that and I realized they weren't my degrees they were hers cuz her son she was proud of me
- Walking off with everything he owned on his backStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After five years as a monk in Thailand (around 1979) Ajahn Brahm leaves his monastery to wander on foot. Nothing can be stored, so he must carry everything; in the tropical heat…
Read full story
One of my most memorable experiences in my training as a monk after 5 years being a monk in these monasteries in Thailand you are expected, encouraged to actually leave the monastery, just go wondering on foot. Its a great opportunity to visit other teachers' You have been in a one monastery and to see how the other teachers teach To get a wider experience or may be go and find some solitude in the jungles or the mountains That was after five years--what would that be 1979 or something; somewhere around then. I left the monastery; and the rule was you couldn't store anything there. You can give it away but once you gave it away nothing would be kept for you. So everything which was yours you had to carry with you. And of course if you are walking especially through the hot tropics carrying lots and lots of stuff is just really really unpleasant. It was reminding you how much a burden your possessions were. So after a couple of days, you gave this away and you gave that away and you are down to the absolute minimum you needed Once you got down to that minimum, my goodness it was so light. You can imagine the experience. Just put yourself in that experience that everything you own you are carrying on your back and it's light. And you can dance, there is hardly any burden there at all. Because as a monk we knew that, there are monasteries everywhere any place you go you can get a bed for the night. If you don't get a bed for the night you can sleep under a tree. Its the tropics, it is easy to do. You can go anywhere, you get something to eat, not delicious food but enough to keep you going through the day, there is waters in the well. There was this total sense of freedom freedom from possessions. And that was just like being in heaven. You didn't have any worries at all. You had cloths to wear, you had this little mosquito net umbrella which you could park anywhere to sleep at night. And the best thing about it; you had no appointments. Your future was blank. I could go anywhere I wanted. Every cross road, you can go left, go right, turn around, go forward, stay still No one was asking you to go anywhere, to do anything or be anything. That was one of my wonderful experiences of being free from attachments at all.