Stories for helping others
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for helping others from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Oxfam charged for the corrugated ironStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: As a new monk Ajahn Brahm read about Oxfam's earthquake relief in Guatemala: instead of giving corrugated iron free, they charged about 5% of cost. Critics called it wrong for an…
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an example of that which I I read when I was first a monk was uh a case of an organization which you may know, it's one of the biggest NGO aid organizations, Oxfam, who went into this the country of Guatemala uh during uh after some earthquakes which devastated uh many areas in Guatemala. And the notable uh exception to their relief effort was that they charged the people who received corrugated iron to to build their new houses. They charged them a small fee to buy the corrugated iron. And many people criticized them. "You're an aid organization. You should be giving these things out for free." But the fellow in charge of this group in Guatemala said, "No, listen." And they were charging maybe 5% of the the cost price you know, of the corrugated iron, so they could build shelters for themselves in the devastated areas. They're charging 5%, which was just a a token for what the thing really cost. But the man in charge said, "We don't just want to build them houses. We want to rebuild their self-esteem as well. So the people who rebuild their houses with a tiny bit of money, which doesn't know come nowhere near to covering even 5% of the costs, is so that when they've built their house, they can feel they have actually contributed
- Paddington crash — those who skipped counselling did betterStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Paddington rush-hour crash; free counselling offered; follow-up finds (adjusted for severity) those who declined counselling often fared better — anecdote on not forcing talk.
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Paddington Station there was a fault in the signals and an incoming uh rush hour train uh slammed into an outgoing train. They were on the same track. These sorts of things should never happen, but of course Murphy's law always happens. If it can happen, it does happen. Rarely. So, there was this huge train crash outside of Paddington Station. Many people died and more people were injured. And many people were traumatized witnessing this. But the interesting part of this anecdote was that you know the British government they did offer free counseling to anybody who was involved in that tragedy. And then some very smart psychologists they did a follow-up. They got as many people as they could who'd been through that counseling. And those people who refused to go through the counseling. It was all offered to them for free. And of course they adjusted their findings to you know how seriously they were injured or how close they were to that tragedy, what they actually saw. And their results were so convincing. The people who depe
- Total listening — the counsellor threw away her learningStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Wealthy client exhausted usual therapies; counsellor at a Buddhist conference describes going totally quiet, discarding training static, listening — then words come unbidden when…
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counseling from this woman this woman said in her presentation that she knew the background she knew that know all the usual ways of dealing with this problem wouldn't work because they had already been tried so she decided to do this total listening when the woman came in the room this is her client the counselor just went very peaceful very quiet no thoughts throw away all of the learning which you've had before cuz that just creates more a static between the ears and she listened to this person for a few minutes as she described what was happening to her and then when it was a turn for the counsel to speak she said the words came out of her mouth