Stories for envy of others
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for envy of others from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Junior-monk suffering, senior-monk sufferingStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a skinny young monk Ajahn Brahm resents the senior monks: they get the cushions while he sits on concrete (they have their own 'upholstery'), they do no hard labour, and they…
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When I was a young monk, when I first or date, I wasn't as fat like this. I was really skinny, all bones and hardly any meat on me, any flesh at all. And when we would sit meditation or sit in a ceremony, only the senior monks had all the cushions, the junior monks, we had to sit on hard concrete. And I thought that was really unfair because those senior monks, they don't need a cushion. They've got their own upholstery. It's called fat. Then also those senior monks they didn't have to do any physical work you know in the monastery whether it was shoveling earth whether it was using the wheelbarrows or the hard labor was done by the junior monks and those fat lazy senior monks they didn't do anything and now it comes to the food as well because if you ever come to any of our diners ders is the what the giving especially feeding the monks and the nuns you always give the f the best food to the senior monk first of all and then it goes down the line one after the other to the junior monk and maybe the lay people afterwards and I was so thin in those days and I thought that's really unfair. The best food should start with me first and then go and then go to the big monks afterwards because after all know all the senior monks they're all enlightened already. They didn't need the good food. People like me did but I had to get the leftovers every day and really thin. I started getting what I called junior monk suffering and now I'm a senior monk. Now I don't need cushions, but I get lots. Now, now I don't need to do physical work. Other people do that for me. Now I get first choice of the food every day. But have I let go of my suffering yet? No. Cuz I see all these junior monks, they don't have to talk to people all day. They don't have to hear all the problems people actually load on me about their marriage, about their children, about the economy, about terrorism, about climate control and all these drives me crazy sometimes. I became a monk to get rid of all of that and all the other administration work, any complaints, it comes to me first of all. So now I do not have junior monk suffering anymore. I have senior monk suffering.
- The mouldy hay outside the fenceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A stingy farmer wants to get rid of last year's mouldy hay. His cows won't touch it in the paddock, and when he mixes it with good hay they nose the bad hay aside. Then he…
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the farmer with moldy hay. A long time ago, this Aussie farmer had a whole lot of hay, which was from last year, which was moldy. And of course, trying to save costs, he wanted to give it to his cows before he would give them the new hey. But the cows they knew that was moldy old hay. So, would they eat any of it? No, they refuse to eat it. So, plan number two - let's mix it up with the good hay, the new hay, the moldy hay, and the new hay, mix it all up together and the cows won't know what's what and they'll eat it all. That way he gets rid of the old hay. And the cows were much smarter than the farmer, they just with a nose pushed the old hay to one side, pushed the new hay to the other side, and ate the new hay. It is just like the kangaroos in Bodhinyana Monastery in Serpentine. Because when we go on retreat, we take food, the food that is given to us, we got all this food, the monks give us far too much, and a lot of time we put the excess food out for the kangaroos. Now people might say oh, that's bad for the kangaroos. Ask the kangaroos! They don't think it's bad, they love it. As I remember the first time I did that. You care for the animals, so you give them some healthy food, some carrots and lettuce and some apples and stuff. But I couldn't believe the first time I did that, had this really healthy food there for the kangaroos, they, with their nose, they pushed aside the carrot, they pushed aside the lettuce, you know what they went for? The pizza! They did! They left all the healthy food, they loved pizza. And I think this is the only kangaroos in the whole of Australia who get pizza. The kangaroos in a Buddhist monastery It is their good karma to be reborn in a Buddhist monastery. They get pizza, no other kangaroos get that. And they like it, they love it, so good on them. And some of those kangaroos that they know the monks now. Because the monks are just so kind, you know, and so sort of gentle. I remember that happened to me once - you put your bowl just outside the door, you just go inside to get something, and before you know it, the kangaroo has got his nose in your bowl. That's your one meal of the day. And he's getting the first choice - going to bowl, looking what he wants. It is nice to be with animals, but anyway. So the cows pushed aside the hay that didn´t want and ate the hay they did want. So, he was still left with all this moldy hay and didn't know what to do next. Until he got a brainwave, an insight; he should have done this to start with. If ever you go into the countryside, and you see cows in a field or sheep in a field, have you ever noticed there's always a fence around to keep the cows away from the road. But the cows or the sheep love putting their head through the fences. And eating the grass just on the other side of the fence. You always see that well eaten, well grazed. So, what he did? Very simple solution: he put all the moldy hay, not in the paddock, but outside of the paddock. Away from the fence, but just far enough, if they really stretch, they could just get it. And the moldy hay was gone in a day. Anything which is forbidden, anything which you don't know, anything, which is just on the other side of your fence.... is very delicious. I know that people did once say that hunger is the best sauce. No, that's not the best sauce. Being forbidden is the best sauce
- The runners who stoppedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Many people have told Ajahn Brahm about a Paralympic final in which one competitor stumbled just before the line — and instead of racing on, all the others stopped, picked the…
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You remember that sort of just comes to mind the parolympics. I never actually saw this, but so many people talked to him about it in the Parolympic race when one of the competitors in the final fell over and everyone stopped to pick them up and help them along across the line all together. Just what an inspiration that was. Did I describe that correctly? Cuz I I didn't see it cuz I don't watch the TV. They said this was Olympic, Parolympics or finals of some race and the last competitors they trained for years to get to this level and they were in the final watched by millions of people throughout the world and one of the competitors stumbled and fell just a little bit before the light and instead of all the others carrying on to win, they stopped or they all stopped and picked up this person and they all cross the line together. That was inspirational.