Stories for retreats
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for retreats from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Six months alone and never lonelyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm's record is six months alone, not speaking to or seeing anyone; food was left in a box, and he left his bowl back there to be filled the next day. Asked whether he…
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my record was 6 months by myself not speaking or seeing anybody and it was an amazing experience because throughout that whole 6 months never seeing anybody Not a Human Being no they just leave food in a box and I know when they were coming there and afterwards I go and pick it up I put my ball back there afterwards so they fill it up the next day never spoke to anybody for six months said didn't you feel lonely and the answer was I never felt lonely and I asked myself why I didn't feel lonely and the answer was because there was always someone there me and I quite like myself so because I quite like myself where throughout those whole six months I was with my best friend how can you feel lonely when you're with your best friend all day the reason was I was my best friend
- Six months alone, and the kangaroos ate the pizzaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Sometime between 2000 and 2008 his year's sabbatical shrank to six months. Instead of touring, he stayed in a hut in the Serpentine forest without seeing or speaking to anyone.…
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I spent six months without seeing any human being, without talking to anybody else. What had happened was, I was supposed to have a sabbatical, a year off, but then it, one thing led to another, I can only have six months off, so you go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go for six months? I could go touring here, visiting this monastery or that monastery, but I said, "No." Why do people always have to seek for happiness somewhere else? Why can't I find that happiness right where I am in that monastery where I worked so hard to build it up? So I said, “No, I'm not going to seek for happiness contentment anywhere else,” I could go wherever I wanted to, but I decided to find the best happiness and truth and freedom and wisdom right here. So I had a hut in the forest in Serpentine and I stayed there for six months, never went anywhere except deeper and deeper inside.. And it was arranged that we had a box…, actually where's that box now? The box which…, I think it's over… Okay, still is there somewhere, anyway, we had a little box there, and in the morning, at a certain time, about 10:30, one of the monks would actually put my bowl with food in the box, and I'd know the time they were coming, so I knew to be in my hut, and afterwards I will go to the box, open it up, eat the food, and then wash the bowl, put it in the box there for the next day. So I never, it's much better than Uber Eats, it was “Monk Eats". I never got charged, I never saw anybody. So there I was, and they knew I was alive because they see my bowl, and the food was eaten, so and it could have been the Kangaroos, I suppose, eating the food, but no it was me, although sometimes, those kangaroos…, you know, that they're really really really smart, and they soon found out that I was, you know, in that hut, and sometimes you'd leave your food outside on the veranda, it's a walking path, and leave the bowl there just for a few minutes to go inside to get something 'cause I liked eating on the veranda at first, and you know what happened? You find a kangaroo with it's head inside my bowl, (laughs) taking the first choice of food before I ever got to it! And so I from that time I decided to, to eat inside my hut, and so even inside, but, you know, the window was open and the kangaroo will come up onto my path, and look at me through the window, and ahh… a poor kangaroo, so you know, you felt sort of some compassion for this poor.. They had plenty of grass, but then, I started by putting some healthy food outside, I remember, like a carrot, or some…, but you know, they weren't interested in that, you know the food they liked the most when I was on retreat? Pizza! Honest! (laughter) Like…, it was, I don’t know if it's healthy for them, but, you know, that's what the Kangaroos decided they wanted to eat, see a little kangaroo with a little pizza in their mouth, they loved that
- The mushy peas that explodedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Every year Ajahn Brahm spends 15 days alone in his cave, not talking, just meditating. On the first day out, the first spoonful of food at lunch — ordinary mushy peas — explodes…
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I did my 15-day retreat in my cave every year it's my holidays my vacation and of course no not giving any talks not talking not doing anything just meditating all day and every day for 15 days in a row not saying anything you get really deep meditation and of course after you get that you get really powerful mindfulness so the first day out lunchtime I always remember the first the first piece of food I put into my mouth was a spoonful of mushy peas and it was it exploded honestly it just wow that was such incredible flavor and taste I never ever tasted mushy peas like that all it was was that my mindfulness was so incredibly strong you could have tasted anything it tasted a carrot and that carrotness would be so intense just an ordinary carrot