Stories for facing fear
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for facing fear from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Ajahn Ganha pats the king cobraStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Ganha ('ajan gun how'), the forest monk, meets a king cobra — the local 'one-step snake'. He raises his hand and pats it on the head, thanking it in Lao for coming to…
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a monk called Ajahn Ganha— Many of you may know him from 'Opening the Door of Your Heart'; he's the one who patted the king cobra; the king cobra came to see him in the jungle; head up, the hood out (HISSING), right in front of him— and what did this monk do? He pat the cobra on the head; thank you so much. (LAUGHTER) Now that's a monk. (LAUGHTER) Absolutely true story, no exaggeration; he did that
- I've been waiting for you for hours — get outStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Five years a monk, walking without lifts, Ajahn Brahm asks Ajahn Suwat for a cave toward Sakon Nakhon and is warned of a ghost that drove monks mad. A villager leaves him at a…
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So, I had my great chance when I was only just 5 years as a monk, and had the opportunity to go walking through Thailand with everything I owned on my back, sleeping out, going to any sort of village for alms round in the morning, getting enough to eat, maybe just some rice, but nothing. But, I was well fed. And I stayed in a monastery. It was a Wat Tham Seua Khao. And so, at that time, Ajahn Suwat was the abbot of that monastery. It was quite a well-known monastery. I went there for the the full moon day. And afterwards, I was time to go. I had a resolution I would walk. I wouldn't take any lifts to go anywhere. And I asked the head monk, "Is there any nice caves on my journey halfway between where I was and going to the town of Sakon Nakhon?" He said, "Yes, there is a cave, but be careful. Because he said there was a ghost in that cave. And some monks have gone mad staying in that cave too long." And now this was a senior monk told me this. And so I had no doubt he was telling the truth. So I said, "Yes. I'm going to meet a ghost the next night told to me by a very senior Thai monk, Ajahn Suwat Thamsatika." So I managed to find that cave. And it was a spooky cave. The one of the villagers took me to the cave. There was a beautiful spring outside, lovely water. And inside the cave, there was an old bench which you could lay down on. There was a very, very, very old Buddha statue there. And the villager told me that deeper in the cave, there was a skeleton, a human skeleton. And then it was getting dark, so the villager didn't explain much more. He went back to his his house and left me there in the spooky cave with a skeleton and a reputation of a ghost who drove monks mad in the dark all night. And I was very excited. Okay, come on, ghosts. So I meditated there and meditated and meditate and meditate. No ghost came. That's really disappointing. I was expecting the ghost. It never came. So maybe about 10:00 or something at night, I'd been walking all day. I lay down. It's in the dark, pitch black. And as soon as I lay down, something ran towards me. It was a ghost. Came to see me. You know what I replied? I said, "I've been waiting for you for hours, and now you decide to come. Get out." And I said to the ghost, I chased it away. I think ghosts should be more respectful to monks. And be more polite. Been waiting for you, and now you come and I just want to go to sleep. Get out of here. That's true story. So that was the end of that ghost.
- The ladder taken awayStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Pre-Vietnam-War Laos monastery: abbot marches exhausted monks all day to huge old trees with cushion-sized platforms and no railings; they climb the bamboo ladder; he takes the…
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there was this one Monastery in the nor in Laos just before the Vietnam War and the Communists took over the Abbot of that Monastery is a very very famous he would take his disciples on a walk all day through the jungles to Tire them out sweaty tired exhausted and they would get to a part of the forest in Laos where they had these huge trees hundreds of years old and the monks had made little platforms high up on those trees just the size of these cushions which the monks sit on with no railings on the outside just a flat piece of board with a bamboo ladder going up and the app at the teacher would send amongst climbing up these ladders to this High platforms to meditate and he would take the ladder away and so he'll be back in the morning so they're exhausted facing a drop which will kill anybody the monks had to meditate all night and that was not safe at all but many monks said they got into an amazing peaceful wonderful meditations at least the ones who survived to tell the tale said that