Stories for office politics
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for office politics from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Five fingers arguing who is most importantAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Fable: five fingers argue supremacy — mirror of egos asking who matters most in the Buddhist society.
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five fingers. Once upon a time there were five fingers and they were arguing which finger is the most important. You know that human beings like to do this, who's the most important? Who's the most important person in our Buddhist society? Is it the head monk, the head nun? Is it the committee? Who's the most important person in this Buddhist society
- The minister who read their mindsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Long ago a Thai minister is so wise that the king always prefers his advice, and the other ministers, jealous, plot to embarrass him. In front of the king they flatter him:…
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There was this guy actually he was a a minister in the Thai government many many know decades ago, hundreds of years ago. And they he was really smart. He was so smart that everyone else was jealous of him. The king always prepare preferred this minister's advice than anybody else. So you know what it's like in politics. They decided to gang up to get rid of this guy. He was always embarrassing them. So they decided to challenge him. So in the morning in front of the king they said your minister you're so lucky to have such a wise and experienced minister you know he knows everything and the said yeah that's true he was so arrogant and the other minister said he probably knows how to read our minds and he said yes I do he'd fallen into their trap already agreed even if they he could read their minds. Even if he said exactly what they were thinking, they would deny it. How can you prove what a person is thinking? So he said, "Yes, I can read all your minds." So what are we thinking? And then this minister said, "Actually, every one of you is thinking the same thing. You're always thinking kind and benevolent and loyal thoughts towards his majesty. I said, "Yes, it's amazing. You read our minds." [laughter] Of of course they weren't thinking that at all, but to deny that would put them in big trouble.
- Why the German worked harder in AustraliaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A society member who migrated from West Germany before reunification is told by Australian workmates that Germans have a strong economy because they work hard. No, he says — he…
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many years ago when I first came there's one of the members he just migrated from West Germany this was before unification at that time I think the West German economy was the best in the world beating Japan China United states there's a very very strong economy and he told me that when he when he came and worked here in Western Australia his work friends sort of said to him oh you Germans you got such a good economy because you really know how to work hard no that's not right I work much harder here in Australia than I ever worked in Germany and I asked him well why was your economy so strong he said because when I was working in Germany family. This was before unification. He said we would work cooperatively here in Australia. He said we work like this competing against each other in the same office in the same company. He said that was why we had to work so hard to be competitive to be productive. Sorry when you work together you have cooperation instead of competition you get far more success far more productivity and also you don't have this jealousy business