Stories for making mistakes
5 Buddhist wisdom stories for making mistakes from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Can I have a pineapple, please?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At poor Wat Pah Pong, requisites were kept in a big water jar and you asked Ajahn Chah for what you needed. Needing soap, the new monk asks in his halting Thai — but mixes up the…
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And of course, you know, the first time I learnt the Thai language, many of the Thai people know this story. That very early days in Thailand, all the monasteries were very poor. Wat Pah Pong where Ajahn Chah lived when I first went was really poor. So whenever you got anything, they had a big water jar. And you just put those things in the water jar, maybe toothpaste or toothbrushes, or anything you needed, like a towel. And so if you needed something, you just go and ask Ajahn Chah and say, "I need some toothpaste" and he just look inside there and said, "There is some. " and just give it to you. So this time I needed some soap, obviously you know to wash. But you had to ask in Thai so you know my Thai was not that good. So, the word for "soap" is S̄bū̀, not "S̄ạbpard". It's hardly any differences there, "S̄ạbpard" ,"S̄bū̀" but apparently "S̄ạbpard" means pineapple. So, I asked my great master, "Can I have a pineapple, please?" [laughter] And he said to me, he's very kind, he said, "What do you want the pineapple for?" I said, "To wash!" He never let me forget that. He said, "Oh, you know people in England, you know, they don't use soap like us. They are far more advanced, they use pineapples. [laughter] This Western culture is way ahead of ours."
- Engine running in NorthbridgeStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On a day out on business, a driver takes Ajahn Brahm to a Northbridge shop for 'the best pies in Perth' (just okay, he says — the only pies he doesn't like are magpies).…
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he decided to take me into this little shop in Northbridge, in Newcastle Street, which sold, he said, the best pies in Perth. So he took me in there, and just after it was it was okay pie, not that great, but you know, it was good enough. I'm very easy to please. The only pies I don't like are magpies. Don't [laughter] eat them. No, they're okay, little magpies. But anyway, that was a joke, by the way. Pies, okay. So anyway, the There I was uh uh After we After we finished the meal, then the driver, he couldn't find the keys to the car. He said, "Where are they?" And so we I really can't find them. So we decided now to retrace our steps, go to the car to see if he dropped them somewhere. You know what had happened? When I got to the car first, the car doors were open. The engine was running cuz the keys were still in the ignition. This was in Northbridge. [laughter] And I don't know what it is. Sometimes if a thief had gone past, he thought, "This can't be happening. This can't be real. No one This must be a trick. This must be a trap." Because who would leave the car doors open for about half an hour, probably a bit longer, half an hour with the keys in ignition and the engine running? [laughter] In Northbridge.
- Loose robes at the yacht clubStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After a talk on Buddhism to Perth executives at a yacht/boat club, a woman who grew up in a Catholic convent tells Ajahn Brahm that his constantly falling-off loose robes are a…
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I went to give a talk over in quarry I think it's one of the boat clubs there though or yacht clubs and a little restaurant nearness is one of these talks I love going to talks to places I've never been before and it's one of the interesting things about being among you get all over the place and this was a group of executives you know executives in Perth who met her once a month in this know your club had dinner and wine and all sorts of other stuff that never gave me anything good job because I can't eat it or drink it but it was after the talk I gave Ono and Buddhism and sort of attitudes we have I was a member of this executive came up after with me and said yeah I was listening to what you said it's very interesting and important but what I really noticed is your robes and just how loose they went how they keep falling off and he said she said I take that as a symbol of Buddhism because she said she was brought up in a Catholic convent where the nuns there were just so tight nothing ever fell off and he said it was just so strict and so tight there was no freedom there there's no relaxation no ease if something went wrong like something fell off you can't do that that's wrong but she saw me in this very loose robe with things falling off that's Buddhism and I easy comfortable and if things fall off we learn from that we accept that we just put it up again finish what's the problem but if you feel guilty I'll be the monk for 36 years and I still can't keep my robe on when I give a talk you hopeless hopeless hopeless
- The honey and the milkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In parallel supermarket checkout aisles, at almost the same moment, one child drops a jar of honey and another drops a carton of milk — two big messes. One mother says, “You…
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And this was an example of the two children at the supermarket checkout, they were in parallel lanes. And almost exactly the same time, one child took out a carton of milk from the trolley, and he dropped it on the ground, and it went "splat" all over the floor, making a whole mess. And his mum said, "you stupid child". Almost exactly the same time in the parallel aisle, another child, they picked up the jar of honey. And it was slippy they dropped it. And they went "smash" all over the floor. But that mother, because she must have come to the Buddhist Society in Nollamara. That mother, she didn't say, "you stupid child". She said, "that was a stupid thing you did." And we emphasise the huge difference between those two responses. Now, if you examine it, you call, that's your "stupid child", it's as if they are totally stupid. They're, like, totally sort of corrupt, that when they were made, there must be some genetic malfunction that they are actually stupid. They're permanently stained with stupidity. And that's that first child. And many of you can recognise, such reactions when you make a mistake, and someone calls you stupid, someone calls you dumb. Someone calls you all these things. And what they're saying is, you're fatally flawed. There's nothing worth redeeming in you. And you know what it's like when that happens to you. You feel totally diminished, totally hopeless. You lose all your self esteem and that's no way to bring up a child. The other child received "that was a stupid thing you did". You're not a stupid kid. But, you had a moment of stupidity. And what that means is that you're recognising the truth, that was the sort of a silly thing to do to pick up that jar of honey making it all slippy. But, you're not a stupid person. There's more to you than that.
- The runaway car at ByfordStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Years ago, while Ajahn Brahm and a driver queue in the Byford post office, someone asks whose car is rolling down the South Western Highway. The driver forgot the handbrake on a…
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that some years ago just uh the local post office was over in Byford. And you know, it wasn't so busy in those days, that road, the Southwest Highway. So, I remember we had to go to the post office. And so I went in there with the driver, different driver, but just the same same stupidity. I don't know why I was picked. Oh, the driver took me this morning is sitting over there, so I better not say this. But we went into the post office, and then trying to get in the queue, waiting for to do the um the business. And then they somebody came and said, "Oh, who's that Who's the owner of that car outside which is rolling down the Southwest Highway?" The driver forgot to put the brake on. And you wouldn't believe there was a gradient there. I know today it is a totally You know, you wouldn't believe it was going down a hill, but it certainly was because the car was going down the hill. And so in those days I was much fitter than these days. I was running after it. The Venerable Garrick, he was just way behind me. I had to run behind it and jump in and put the brake on. It was halfway down, and maybe went a hundred to two two hundred meters. And I wasn't the abbot then. In those days I was Ajahn Jagaro was the boss. So we never told him about that.