Stories for emergencies
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for emergencies from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Harrow Brook neighbours filled the sitting roomStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Mother injured; blood trail into the apartment; before the ambulance, Harrow Brook neighbours pack the sitting room asking how to help — a village in a high-rise.
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trail of blood going into my mother's apartment and before we'd know washed her before the ambulance came I don't know how many people from that Harmon Brock were inside my brother my mother sitting room asking what has happened is anything we can do to help I saw there was a village here and people actually cared for each other
- The 'fearless' monk on the burning busStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During a spate of deadly bus fires in north-east Thailand, someone on Ajahn Brahm's bus shouts “fire!”; the driver leaps out the window and everyone flees, including his fellow…
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In Thailand many years ago when I was there about five years as a monk, that all the buses in the Northeast were very old, 'cause they just tried to use them until they could literally not to run anymore, so they're very old buses. And it happened that one bus caught fire because it wasn't well maintained, and actually people got incinerated inside. I don't know why it was, but one bus after another, it was a whole spate of these buses suddenly catching fire. I know one of the monks I was practicing with in the monastery, he was actually on one those buses, he managed to get out but I think his bowl and his robes all got burnt in the fire and he got some compensation from the bus company. That's how dangerous it was. I was on one of these buses once. As a monk they always put you in the front seat, you know why that is, so that you can stop people having head-on collisions because you've got good kamma, you protect all the people around the back. But .... There was a fire in the back and they shouted out "fire, fire," and the bus driver slammed on the brakes, you almost went through the window but you managed to stop yourself, so he slammed on the brakes, and he was out the window himself. And all the people, they rushed out of the door. And it was actually another monk with me, now as a monk we're not supposed to get in contact with women, and nuns are not supposed to get in contact with men. So there were women on the bus, but this monk sitting next to me, he didn't mind, he was out. But I was a very well-behaved monk and let the other people go out first of all, you know I was brought up in England being a gentleman. [laughter] But most of the reason why I didn't get out was 'cause my Thai wasn't that good, I wondered what all the commotion was about, 'cause I didn't understand "fire," and I hadn't read the newspapers of how many people got killed. So I just sat there quite peacefully and actually I was... I wasn't the last one out, I was the second last one out because it was another man who lingered in the back, and he looked, there was only a small amount of smoke, and he shouted out to the other people, everyone was out except me and this guy, and he said, "It's only a cigarette, it's not a real fire, just cigarette smoke." So when people heard that, they put the cigarette out, and everyone started coming in, I was sitting in the front seat, and they said, "Oh, the saint, the arahant, the holy enlightened Western monk. Oh, you're so wonderful, you had no fear," not like that the other scalawag monk who ran out and touched all of us. [laughter] That was a wonderful moment for me but to be honest, I wasn't a hero I was just stupid 'cause I didn't know what was going on.
- The heart-attack role playStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Teaching hospital nurses and doctors in Hong Kong, Ajahn Brahm pairs them. At the bell, A pretends to have a heart attack and B responds as usual — “Keep your eyes open, stay…
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i was in hong kong years ago you know that i got people to double up you know you're a b a b a b and all the a no an a and b go together and a is okay it was in a hospital nurses mostly a few doctors when i ring the bell then one of you number a will pretend to have a heart attack because they've seen it many times they work in the hospitals every day pretend you have a heart attack and then b be the first responder and so i rang the bell and then you know they did all the holding their hearts and falling to the ground stuff and then the first responder said keep your eyes open you know stay with me help is coming and then we asked afterwards to the a's what did it feel like they said it was just really intrusive you know it was caused more stress having the first responder trying so hard to keep you alive okay let's turn it around now when i ring the bell bees expect uh pretend to have a heart attack which they did and a's how are you going to respond and when they responded it's okay relax help is coming if you want it it's okay to die it's not a big deal we all die one day anyway it was so much more calmer and it was so much more pleasant when people don't just rush around panicking when you're about to die i'm sure actually that probably kills more patients than the disease itself having all these people rushing around putting tubes inside here and tube inside there and defibrillators and of course other stuff and and injections and stuff crikey can you just die peacefully it's your body why is other people getting so involved in it they're trying to keep you alive but are you or are you hastening the death for that poor person that's a question to ask anyone who's been in hospital seeing that but anyway those doctors and nurses they got the message so they said next time that somebody has a serious incident they're going to be much calmer and not just stress their patients out