Stories for loss
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for loss from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Adopt a Muslim orphanStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In a Gandhi film clip, a Hindu whose son was murdered by Muslims asks what to do with his grief. Gandhi: adopt an orphan — and bring him up as a Muslim.
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a clip video clip of a movie about Mahatma Gandhi. Don't know whether this was a valid and historically accurate but in this particular part of the movie I think Gandhi was going through a fast or something and one of his supporters uh Indian Hindu came up to him and said just I don't like this being peaceful you don't know what it feels like when your own son is murdered you know by in this case is said by Muslim s and he said, "You talk about peace. Give me some understanding why and what I should do when I still feel this grief so deeply." And what Gandhi said, "You've lost a son. There are many children in this area who got no fathers or mothers. Adopt one. Doesn't matter who you adopt. You're a Hindu. please bringing him up as a Muslim. When I remember hearing that, I thought I'd never forget that. What a beautiful piece of advice that was. Don't just say, "I forgive you. Do something more. Muslims killed your son. Go and find a Muslim orphan and bring him up as a Muslim devout." Oh, that was beautiful
- Thank the burglar for the whiskeyJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Someone's house is burgled of expensive whiskey; Brahm says thank the burglar — he stopped you breaking precepts — and asks for the burglar's name to give other addresses.
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burglar came into their house? I said, "What did they steal?" Oh, they stole all these expensive bottles of whiskey. I said, "Oh, thank the burglar." They stopped you breaking your precepts. Thank you, thank you. What a wonderful burglar that is. Can you please get the burglar's name? I can give them the addresses of many other people sitting here today. [laughter] ...so we can relieve them of their alcohol as well
- The suicidal spider — eight webs smashedAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Mindful spider builds a perfect first web; broom smashes it. Second, third… eight houses destroyed. Exhausted, nearly dead, she asks what's the point — banks foreclose, owners…
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story of the suicidal spider. When was the last time I told about the suicidal spider? Did you really know that even spiders sometimes get depressed? But they don't have like a telephone line to call. So many spiders become suicidal. This particular spider ah, she was just born and I told the story recently. Okay. This spider was born and it made a nice little web in somebody's house. And this the spider was very Buddhist, very mindful, very careful, took her time, didn't rush, in the moment, and constructed this amazing web. Now it was just absolutely perfect. And it was her home, her first house. If that spider had built like a real like one of the brick and tile or whatever else you use to make your homes, that would have been on the front cover of the spider equivalent to Home and Gardens. It was architectural masterpiece. And she put so much time into building it that once it was finished she put her herself in the middle to take a rest and wait for for the the food to come. Not Uber Eats, you know, because this was just natural way before people thought of home deliveries. You wait there and soon as a fly comes in, that's your lunch. So exhausted, resting, waiting for lunch to arrive, then the owner of the house saw in the corner of his room there was a spider web. So she got the broom and she smashed the spider web to bits. And that poor spider had to run for her life. She only just escaped the broom. And she ran ran as fast as she could to the house next door and another web. Of course your second home is nowhere near as good as your first because you put more energy and love into it. And she built another home and she just when she finished she rested in the middle of it. And of course what happened? Somebody else in that home a maid saw the the spider web in the middle of the the corner, smashed it with a stick. So that spider had to run away to to another home. The same thing happened to the third house. Now, how many houses have you built? Imagine that happened to you. You just finished a house, you haven't even paid off the mortgage yet, smash. And even worse, haven't had any lunch or anything to eat. So that four, five, six, seven, eight houses the spider had some Chinese connection because I thought the eight was a lucky number. So tried number eight but didn't work. Eight houses. Eight webs it built. And after the eighth web was destroyed, smashed to bits, and just that close to dying that spider just started to recollect. What's the point? What's the point of