Stories for low self-worth
4 Buddhist wisdom stories for low self-worth from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- “I don't think I deserve so much happiness”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: An Australian nun ordained in the UK visits Perth and comes right to the edge of the jhānas — immense bliss and power. Ajahn Brahm keeps teaching and encouraging her, at his…
Read full story
And the classic story was of this wonderful nun, many years ago, who was staying at Bodhinyana monastery. It was during a Rains Retreat, I can't remember exactly, because it's a long time ago. And she was a brilliant nun, a great meditator. And because - I was like giving her interviews - and when her meditation got really hot (that was almost every day), she was coming out to me seeing incredible Nimittas, these beautiful lights which you see in your mind, it's really beautiful. And you're so close to the deepest of meditations. She was so close, but she couldn't get through to the next brilliant stage, the Jhānas. Really just going for it. And I was giving every piece of advice which I could, and it came to this - ‘Well I don't know why, I can't understand why it is you're not just going to these beautiful, blissful, freeing states of mind’. And then, on one interview, she told me. And it's almost like - I felt like I should burst out crying. She said her major problem was she thought she didn't deserve such happiness.
- Penance: a carrot for the rabbitStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A postulant who broke a minor precept is very upset with himself and asks for a penance. Ajahn Brahm tells him to take a carrot from the kitchen to the hungry wild rabbit…
Read full story
a beautiful little wild rabbit at our Jhana Grove retreat centre turned up a few days ago. And one of the Anagarika's broken a little precept. And he's really upset about himself. And so I said, I'll give you a penance. So what's the penance? What do I have to do? There's a, there's a hungry rabbit over in Jhana Grove, go and take a carrot from the kitchen and go and give it to the rabbit. It's a wonderful little thing, a little wild rabbit is just hiding there. Because it's really hot in the forest. Next to the wall by the Japanese garden, those of you who know Jhana Grove, he's just been hanging out there to get away from the heat of the forest. And so just go out to him and just give him a carrot. And it's just so cute. And you know, even if you're a multiple murderer, it will soften you just seeing a little rabbit, just twitching its little face, and smelling the rabbit and then really getting into it. And apparently, he eats it really fast. It's a very guzzly rabbit.
- Puppies for young offendersStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm reads that Western Australia gave repeat juvenile offenders, aged 16 or 17 and beyond the reach of counsellors, a puppy each to train. Every session the puppy jumped…
Read full story
I read it in the newspaper in the local Western Australia. There's some really smart person here in this state, there're lots of smart people in government. Rare, but there are some. [laughter] Decided to take some of these juvenile offenders who got into all sorts of trouble with the law. Instead of like bagging them up in a jail again, or giving them counsellors because sometimes the counsellors can't do anything either. Instead, they gave them dogs. They assign every one of these really bad juvenile offenders, a little puppy to look after, to train. And the results were incredible. And they were saying instead of like a counsellor, another human being. Yeah, they've been there. They've done that. They went to sort of to that little puppy little dog to train and to get to know and every time they went to this session with their puppy, the puppy would jump all over them and lick them. No counsellor ever does that. [laughter] Not even a monk does that. I'm not going to lick you. But, these dogs would do that. And they just melted some of these really repeated offenders. And they were just only 16 or 17 and gone through just a lot, a lot of therapies, and that really got to them.
- The crooked trees are the beautiful onesAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a mental-health conference a woman apologises to Ajahn Brahm: when he walked in she thought “who is this wanker?” — but his talk made her laugh and cry. What made her cry was…
Read full story
this is the story I told this at a conference on mental health during the wintertime last year, and that was over in the convention centre in Perth. And they were the person came up to me afterwards and said, she apologised to me, because she said, "When I first saw you coming into our conference", now please excuse the language. This is what she said, "I thought who is this wanker coming to our conference?" And she came to apologise for thinking like that, because I made her laugh, I made her cry, what made her cry. These were clients who have been through mental health problems. And were just trying to do something to improve the service for others. So the story which made her cry, is my story of the the trees in the forest. I often use this when people go to Bodhinyana monastery or go to Jhana Grove, but you know, don't need to say it there, say it here as well. If you go this weekend and go for a walk in the forest somewhere, please find a perfect tree for me. A tree which has got all of the branches equally spaced, only green leaves, no yellow leaves, no brown leaves, no leaves which have been eaten by the insects, which is perfectly straight, not crooked, or leaning to the left or the right. And with a bark, which hasn't been damaged by the bush fires or by the winds and things hitting it. A bark without scars on it. If you can find such a tree, you'll be the first in the world to find a tree in the natural forests because every tree you look at them. They're all bent and crooked. They've all got branches which have fallen off and that leaves holes where the birds and other animals can nest. And if you look at the leaves, there's lots of yellow leaves and brown leaves and leaves which have been eaten by insects and all the trees are crooked and bent. And the scars on their bark, they're just the bark is really rough, and knobbly and scarred. They're the beautiful trees. And I said in this talk if you are one of those trees, all bent and crooked, with heaps of scars on the bark with branches which have been ripped off by the storms of your life. You belong as one of the beautiful trees in the forest, you're my favourites. Because certainly I like the crooked trees, the bent trees, with all the scars and the knobbly bits on the outside. They're the ones which are beautiful.