Stories for living alone
4 Buddhist wisdom stories for living alone from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A map to the toiletStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Blessing a riverside mansion in Perth, Ajahn Brahm asks the way to the toilet and the lady draws him a map. Ten or twelve bedrooms — and she lives there alone. Why not have…
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that house which I went to bless I won't say where in one of the suburbs in Perth was on the river and when I went there, this huge mansion and this is no joke when I went there I was travelling from serpentine I needed to go to the toilet. And when I asked the lady where is the toilet she got out a piece of paper and drew me a map. That's a big house. It's true... that's what ... . But the point was I asked how many people live in this house I don't know how many bedrooms-10 12 bedrooms ..she said just me. I live in this house alone. And you'll find in many of those big mansions may be one person, two at most. Isn't that telling you something? What it's telling you is that in those big places people are imprisoned by their wealth. You know why ... when I asked why don't you have some friends and relations? she said 'I am afraid of my relations'
- Six months alone and never lonelyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm's record is six months alone, not speaking to or seeing anyone; food was left in a box, and he left his bowl back there to be filled the next day. Asked whether he…
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my record was 6 months by myself not speaking or seeing anybody and it was an amazing experience because throughout that whole 6 months never seeing anybody Not a Human Being no they just leave food in a box and I know when they were coming there and afterwards I go and pick it up I put my ball back there afterwards so they fill it up the next day never spoke to anybody for six months said didn't you feel lonely and the answer was I never felt lonely and I asked myself why I didn't feel lonely and the answer was because there was always someone there me and I quite like myself so because I quite like myself where throughout those whole six months I was with my best friend how can you feel lonely when you're with your best friend all day the reason was I was my best friend
- Six months alone, and the kangaroos ate the pizzaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Sometime between 2000 and 2008 his year's sabbatical shrank to six months. Instead of touring, he stayed in a hut in the Serpentine forest without seeing or speaking to anyone.…
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I spent six months without seeing any human being, without talking to anybody else. What had happened was, I was supposed to have a sabbatical, a year off, but then it, one thing led to another, I can only have six months off, so you go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go for six months? I could go touring here, visiting this monastery or that monastery, but I said, "No." Why do people always have to seek for happiness somewhere else? Why can't I find that happiness right where I am in that monastery where I worked so hard to build it up? So I said, “No, I'm not going to seek for happiness contentment anywhere else,” I could go wherever I wanted to, but I decided to find the best happiness and truth and freedom and wisdom right here. So I had a hut in the forest in Serpentine and I stayed there for six months, never went anywhere except deeper and deeper inside.. And it was arranged that we had a box…, actually where's that box now? The box which…, I think it's over… Okay, still is there somewhere, anyway, we had a little box there, and in the morning, at a certain time, about 10:30, one of the monks would actually put my bowl with food in the box, and I'd know the time they were coming, so I knew to be in my hut, and afterwards I will go to the box, open it up, eat the food, and then wash the bowl, put it in the box there for the next day. So I never, it's much better than Uber Eats, it was “Monk Eats". I never got charged, I never saw anybody. So there I was, and they knew I was alive because they see my bowl, and the food was eaten, so and it could have been the Kangaroos, I suppose, eating the food, but no it was me, although sometimes, those kangaroos…, you know, that they're really really really smart, and they soon found out that I was, you know, in that hut, and sometimes you'd leave your food outside on the veranda, it's a walking path, and leave the bowl there just for a few minutes to go inside to get something 'cause I liked eating on the veranda at first, and you know what happened? You find a kangaroo with it's head inside my bowl, (laughs) taking the first choice of food before I ever got to it! And so I from that time I decided to, to eat inside my hut, and so even inside, but, you know, the window was open and the kangaroo will come up onto my path, and look at me through the window, and ahh… a poor kangaroo, so you know, you felt sort of some compassion for this poor.. They had plenty of grass, but then, I started by putting some healthy food outside, I remember, like a carrot, or some…, but you know, they weren't interested in that, you know the food they liked the most when I was on retreat? Pizza! Honest! (laughter) Like…, it was, I don’t know if it's healthy for them, but, you know, that's what the Kangaroos decided they wanted to eat, see a little kangaroo with a little pizza in their mouth, they loved that
- The ghost dog who brought back the ringStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A woman living alone with her beloved dog loses a sentimental ring in a park and can't find it after hours of searching. Days later the dog dies. She keeps hearing its…
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One of those ghost stories was a lady, I'm not sure if she's here this evening, but she told me this story a long time ago. She was a uh lived by herself. No, not really by herself. You know, she didn't have any any other human friends. She had her dog. And she told me here in front here just after a Friday night talk she said that uh you know she loved her dog her dog and her was you know basically the the contents of the house and she said one day she would taking her dog for a walk in the the park or the reserve and she don't know h didn't know how this happened but she lost her fingering you know in the in the park. As soon as she came home she realized she'd lost this ring. It wasn't expensive, but it had sentimental value. So, she immediately returned, traced her steps trying to find her fingering. She looked everywhere, but in a in a park, there's just too many twigs and leaves and grass. You just can't find it. It's hard enough to find things in your house, let alone in a park. So, after a couple of hours, she gave up and then she just came home. Few days later, her dog died. And of course she was devastated because that was the the being she was close to, she loved very much. And she swore to me in front here saying, "Absolutely honest, Ajam Brah, I won't lie to you, not a Buddhist monk. I heard that dog many times in my house barking. I couldn't see it, but I heard it." And if you've had a pet dog, you know its bark. You know its bark is different than any other dog. You recognize that was my dog. She's heard it many, many times. It was always behind a door around a corner and she'd rush around the corner, try and open the door. She could never see it. She could hear it though. But she was really wanting so much to see the dog that one day she was right in front of her front door inside the house and she heard the dog barking just outside the front door of her house and she was right there. So she immediately opened the door trying to get a glimpse of her dear dog. No one was there, completely empty. But she heard the sound there. And that's when she looked down at the welcome mat. And right in the middle of the welcome mat was her fingering. It was a dog who found her ring once. It was a ghost. True story.