Stories for peer pressure
10 Buddhist wisdom stories for peer pressure from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Bare midriffs in a Melbourne winterStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Giving talks in Melbourne in winter, Ajahn Brahm sees the fashion for halter tops and low-slung jeans leaving about six inches of bare midriff in the cold; he swears some girls'…
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and I always also remember the time I was in Melbourne once don't worry about Fashions you know just do what you want to do because I remember going to Melbourne during the winter time giving a series of talks there and going from one place to another looking through the window I saw there was a fashion of these halter tops you know these low slung jeans or skirts and just you know High um jumpers or whatever leaving the whole midriff you know about 6 Ines of bare flesh in the cold me Melbourne winter and I swear I saw a few girls it was blue those poor women they were suffering so much because of fashion what what do you do that for you attra attract a guy do you really need a guy you get freezing to get a guy there's other ways so in the end sort of you know live simply
- Cambridge medicine — then mowing lawnsStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: One of Ajahn Brahm's best school friends won a place to study medicine at Cambridge, started on marijuana, progressed to heroin, was expelled for stealing from medical-school…
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One of my best friends at school, he also went to Cambridge with me, studying medicine. Imagine getting a place in Cambridge University to study medicine. What a great start in life. Started taking marijuana. You don't control yourself. You're lost. And eventually heroin. Became an addict, got kicked out of university from stealing from the medical supplies at the uh the med school. And the last time I saw him, he was mowing people's lawns, just trying to get by. A brilliant man. And he was one of my friends. Now, when I was a young monk so in Thailand, my other friends said that you know, that he got He even knows our friend, whenever you go to our house, he would steal, steal.
- “Doctor Buddha's orders”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A new Buddhist refuses a drink at a work party — 'I'm a Buddhist' — and a colleague replies that Buddhism is all about letting go, so let go and have a beer; caught out, he…
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there was this one guy who used to come here, and he said that when he started keeping his five precepts and gave up drinking alcohol, it was very difficult for him because the first time he went to a party or a reception, one of his work friends gave him some alcohol and he said, "No, I can't take it cuz I'm a Buddhist." And his friend said, "Oh, you're a Buddhist? Yeah, I know about Buddhism. I really respect Buddhism. Buddhism is all about letting go. Come on, let go. Have a beer." So, he's caught out. That's the trouble that people know a little bit about Buddhism. They don't know enough. So, he had to take the beer that time. He was put in a spot, but afterwards he told me that he found the solution. Cuz the next time he went to a reception or a party at work and someone offered him a drink, he said, "No, I can't take the alcohol. Doctor's orders." And people left him alone. Because now, if it's doctor's orders, it's a medical condition, no one would actually challenge you. But when he told me that, I actually criticized him back. I said, "Aren't you keeping one precept by breaking another? You're lying. There's nothing wrong with you. You're perfectly healthy." But then he actually he actually taught me some Buddhism because now, he was what So, I make mistakes sometimes. Please correct me sometimes if I make a mistake and he actually taught me more because it was true. He said, "Look, don't you remember Ajahn Brahm? In many of those old teachings of the Buddhas, the sutras, many, many times he actually compared himself to a doctor." And so, it was a doctor's orders. Doctor Buddha's orders.
- Free beer — and the beer-garden roof fell inStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Nyanaponika as a young man in Germany: beer-garden brewery catches fire; friends run in for free beer; the house collapses and many are killed — a formative shock that kept him…
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they were sitting outside a nice summer's day. They're drinking some beer. And then the owners of the beer garden, they said that they'd there was a fire in the the house which where they brewed the beer and they said they started running out and telling people to please get out. The house is on fire. But many of this monk's friends, he wasn't a monk, just a young man, they thought, "Wow, free beer." So they ran inside the house to get free beer. Well, so many of his friends were inside. The house collapsed. And these were the people he grew up with. The people he was friends, sisters, cousins were killed. and he had to sort of try and dig them out and do whatever they could to save them. But it was such a really difficult experience to bear seeing all of his friends die at such a young age just because they were just wanting some beer
- Green velvet jeans at the Isle of WightStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Going to the 1970 Isle of Wight rock festival, young Ajahn Brahm wears green velvet jeans to be rebellious and individual — and finds thousands of others in green velvet jeans:…
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remember going to the the Isle of Wight rock festival 1970 So the famous rock festival and I had to be cool, so I had green velvet jeans When I went down there I found I thought I was being rebellious, I thought I was being individual I thought I was just just rebelling against convention setting a new style And when I went down there I found thousands of other people had green velvet jeans It is another type of uniform
- “How many of you have ever eaten rice pudding?”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Unexpectedly facing 60 Year 1 and 2 children, Ajahn Brahm asks who doesn't like rice pudding; a few hands go up, then, looking around, all of them. Then he asks how many have…
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some years ago i went to rolly stone primary school and they invited me to give a talk to some of these students there and i didn't realize who i was talking to and they were year grade ones and grade twos how can you teach buddhism to grade ones and grade twos you know can you actually tell that story about the most beautiful sound in the world to them or talk about the four noble truths the great great ones and great twos and i had no preparation but what i did there when i went into the room i had to think on my feet very quickly actually i wasn't standing so i thought on my aoi arse i was sitting down and i just asked them so how many of you like i don't know how many of you yet don't like rice pudding you know what rice pudding is you don't have to know but anyway how many of you don't like rice pudding and you know what grade ones and grade twos are like these little people we know two or three people put their hand up they did not like rice pudding all the other kids the boys and girls they were looking around they saw these three or four people had their hands up so they put their hands up as well and after two or three minutes the whole about 60 kids had their hands up they agreed in grade one grade two rollerstone primary school they didn't like rice pudding okay put your hands down now how many of you have ever eaten white sporty and two kids pull their hand up and everyone else laughed you taught dhamma to grade ones and grade twos they got it straight away and so did their parents and the teachers as well
- Singing the anthem of his own free willStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a Cambridge psychical research society demonstration, a hypnotist puts a student in trance and tells him that when the hypnotist touches his right earlobe he'll stand and sing…
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this was the the time in Cambridge psychic research Society every year we get a hypnotist to come up to teach us a uh a little bit about hypnotism and being students everybody was willing to give it a try I went up there but I was not a good hypnotic subject at the time and there's always a few of the students were really really easy to hypnotize and they do make them do silly things which you know being you know undergraduates 18 19 years of age was great entertainment but what they did to this one poor student put him totally in in hypnotic trance and after he was in trance the hypnotist said when I touch my right earlobe you'll get up and sing the British national anthem in full loud voice and then he said I'm going to take you out of Trance now but you remember that instruction and so he took him out of the trance and he went back to sit in his seat and we were waiting to see what would happen of course eventually the hypnotist uh uh touch his right earlobe and this young man in the middle of a just like you know of 300 students like 300 of you you imagine you just suddenly get up and sing the Australian national anthem in four what an idiotic thing that would be to do but this guy did it he sang the British national anthem beginning to end in a loud voice even all the students were were howling with laughter you know it was the most funniest thing I'd seen and when he finished he sat down and we'd all sort of settled down as well this fellow was not embarrassed at all and so the hypnotist asked him he said why did you decide to sing the British national anthem and this student he gave a logical reason and that was when I realized that that student he had assumed he had sung that Anthem out of his own free will there's no way that he could distinguish between what was hypnotic suggestion what we all seen he was conditioned to do that and what he took to be free will it wasn't free will that was implanted into him by the hypnotist even though it's the most ridiculous thing to do
- The actuary they called “Flash”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Visiting England, Ajahn Brahm meets a Cambridge friend he hasn't seen for 40 years — now a highly respected actuary, among the top in Europe. He reminds him of his student…
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a couple of years ago I met one of my friends when I was visiting England. He's an old friend from Cambridge days. Now that was about 40 years now. Now he's this highly respected businessman. He's an actuary. An actuary is this mathematical geniuses who work out just the odds of you know falling off a building. It works out the the the probabilities for insurance companies. And he was one of the top if not the top actuary in the whole of Europe. And so when I met him we hadn't seen each other 40 years. A highly successful very sort of good man. And I reminded him of the nickname we had for him at Cambridge which was Flash. And the reason we called him Flash was because one night at one of the parties we had he did get drunk. He went into the toilets and he came out with nothing on. That's why we called him Flash. And he said, "Better not talk too much about that Ajahn Brahm.
- The first beer tasted awfulStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At 14 in London, rebellious and egged on by mates, he sneaks his first glass of beer (the drinking age was 18) — and can't believe how disgusting it tastes, like something…
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one of my experiences as a young man is being like 14 years of age, being rebellious, you know, being with my mates, a bit of peer pressure, but also being rebellious, going to take my first glass of beer. The drinking age was 18. I was only 14. Sneak in there. I can take a glass of beer thinking how clever I am, how rebellious. And taking my first glass of beer I couldn't believe just how disgusting that tasted. I did see in the newspapers there was a uh suggestion of actually Perth drinking recycled waste water. You mean from your toilets. And that's what I thought beer was, somehow recycled from the lavatory. Cuz that's that's what it tastes like. Even actually people do call it piss in Australia. So that must have been that must have been recycled from somewhere. But it tasted awful. But because my culture, this was in London, said that beer is fun, beer is good, beer is what you're supposed to enjoy and you spend a lot of money and many evenings drinking the stuff, it only took me about three or four months to start to like the taste. And once I became a monk and I looked back on that experience, I thought why did I like that? Because I had to. I completely reconditioned myself to go against my natural instincts of disliking the taste of beer to actually thinking it was delicious. And being a monk when you stand back and you watch these things, how much more of what I think I like is actually been conditioned into me cuz I have to like it. Cuz my society says I must like it.
- The jewelled goblet: his last drinkStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At an Emmanuel College scholars' dinner in Cambridge, after much port and claret, the students must drain a jewel-encrusted silver heirloom goblet brim-full of claret and give a…
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on one occasion the scholars dinner having drunk so much alcohol already we had to do a toast with this goblet silver goblet encrusted with jewels a cottage heirloom that was Emmanuel College in Cambridge and we had to fill with claret if I can remember properly to the brim we had to drain it drink the whole lot and then say a toast in Latin this was supposed to be an intelligent university I decide this this didn't make any sense to me and the following morning I don't know how I got back to my room but I woke up in the morning with a part of vomit on my pillow right next to me I didn't realize that that could have killed me people choked on that and died and I felt terrible for the next 24 hours everyone was saying what wonderful evening that was that was the last time I took any alcohol in my life