Stories for pride
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for pride from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Sariputta and the novice who corrected himStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Told as a monk that even kings must bow to him, Ajahn Brahm reads of Venerable Sariputta, wisest monk after the Buddha, on alms round: a little novice says, 'You're badly…
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But then I read in this story of the one of the wisest monks next to the Buddha Venerable Sariputta. He was walking on alms round, and a little novice, this little squeak of a novice, came out to him and said, "You're badly dressed." Now, usually, that would be a no-no. You can't sort of tell these very high monks and criticise that they're badly dressed. But the wisest monk next to the Buddha had a look and said, "My goodness, you're right." He went behind a bush. He adjusted his robe, and he came out afterwards. And he put his hands up, and he called this little novice "teacher".
- The Dalai Lama accepted the poor woman's skirtStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Early story: dirt-poor woman offers the Dalai Lama an egg-stained/skirt gift; he accepts because she needed to give — wisdom of receiving so others can give.
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Dalai Lama years and years and years ago. This is one of those stories I I read, you know, the very beginning of my Buddhist life. And it was something which really moved me. It made me understand a little about what compassion is really about cuz this was before the Dalai Lama actually uh left Tibet. you know, he's obviously a famous young man at that time and he would go from village to village visiting the people in Tibet and there was a journalist from United States was accompanying him doing one of the very first stories you know on the Dalai Lama and as he was going from village to village people were lining up to offer him gifts you know it's supposed to be good karma to offer someone like the Dalai Lama some gifts But this was an American who didn't really understand what generosity, compassion was about. And so he started to get more and more upset because some of those gifts were coming from very, very poor people. And on this one occasion in this one village, there was a woman who was obviously dirt poor, you know, hardly had anything. You could see by her eggs. And she lined up and when it came to her turn, she presented his holy Mr. Dalai Lama with one of her skirts. Her best skirt is what she gave to the Dalai Lama. And that American, he just could not contain his anger and disgust any longer. He shouted, "What are you doing?" Now, I don't sh If I got a cough, I'll really mess up my throat. But you can imagine what he would say. What are you doing now? Accepting a skirt from that poor white woman. You're so wealthy. You live in this great monastery. You have everything you want. And you don't need a skirt. You're a man. What do you want with a skirt? She needs it more than you. Shouldn't accept it. What are you doing that for? That's not right. And he had a point in there. When I thought that I read that, I thought, my goodness, what does a monk need with a woman's skirt? But then, you know, whenever you get someone gets angry at you or shouts at you, this is the way to react. You know, you're very quiet and soft. You take it first of all and that's a very good way of disarming other people's anger by not giving anger back. You just sit there quietly silently cuz if you give anger back you just feed you know the other person's ill will. So you see this very often in you know great people they someone shouts at you but you just sit there stand there quietly and wait and when they're finished then you can say something what the Dal Lama said he said it's true I don't need this skirt but that woman needed to give it to me
- The samurai who asked about heaven and hellStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A samurai who has asked everyone whether heaven and hell exist finally demands a straight answer from an old monk. The monk says he's too stupid to understand; then calls him a…
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there's this old story and this is great Buddhist wisdom because it brings things down from Superstition down into ordinary daily life many of you heard the story before but it's a great story about the the old samurai warrior who too wanted to know what do really Buddhist think about heaven and hell is there a heaven is there a hell no really and he gone around to many many people and no one could give him a a good answer there may be the same with you may have gone to many sort of temples many talks ask many people and it's sort of satisfying you can't really get a straight answer which really satisfies you and answers the question once and for all so this sumai eventually found this old Monk and said old monk look this is my question you know I I've gone around asking so many people this I'm almost fed out to ask it again but is there a heaven is there a hell now if you know this and really know it say so but if you don't know it don't waste my time just say I don't know okay and the mark looked up on it up for this samurai warrior and said you're St to you're too stupid to understand the samurai said what you call me stupid I'm not stupid I'm a samurai warrior these Samurai Warriors have to go through an enormous amount of training and it's not just the uh martial arts it's a lot of um virtuous training and training in medic meditation said I'm not stupid I'm a samurai warrior and the mon looked up at him you a samurai don't give me that you fool you're just a country bumpkin that's all and the samurai said that's twice you've insulted me and he took hold of his sword if you insult me one more time monk I don't care who you are I'll cut off your head just with one swipe of my sword with that stupid old rusty piece of iron you couldn't even slice a a slice of bread with that and that was enough the samurai insulted three times was incense and he got out his sword and was about to Smite the monk's head off when the monk looked right into his eyes and said samurai that's hell and I keep on saying that was pushing his luck but it worked maybe if it didn't work he wouldn't be able to tell the story but that Samurai understood that anger was what hell is like at last he got an answer which wasn't anything to do with Superstition the Mark wasn't saying it says in my scriptures cuz that really offended me a lot when people say it says in the books that's not what I asked you what's in the books I asked you you now you're supposed to be a Christian you're supposed to be a Buddhist you're supposed to be a teacher I'm not saying what I can read the books myself you is there a heaven is there a hell explain I'm not asking the books I'm asking the person and the last he actually got a proper answer he could understand what hell was and he was so impressed he put aside his sword and he bow to that monk that's what you do in Asia out of respect it's not asking for favors it's an act of like thank you so much and remember Mark looked at him again and saw his eyes were watering out of respect and gratitude and the Mark said to him very softly and Samurai now this is heaven that gratitude and respect that's what heaven is like