Stories for self-acceptance
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for self-acceptance from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- “In the building trade we call it a feature”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: After Ajahn Brahm tells the two-bad-bricks story at the Cancer Support Association, a builder reassures him professionals make the same mistakes — and shares the trade secret:…
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Once when I was teaching in Cancer Support Association over in Cottesloe, they're still over there. Teaching...teaching that story because sometimes going through chemotherapy and radiation therapy can really cause a lot of depression. So I told that and yeah you got cancer but there's many other things happening in your life. Look at all the parts of the body which haven't got cancer. There's two bad bricks there, two bad tumours, what about the other parts which are beautiful, which are healthy? Look at that, it actually takes away a lot of fear. And anyway I told that, one of these builders came up afterwards and he said Ajahn Brahm please don't be upset you made two mistakes when you're laying bricks, professional builders do the same, he said. But then he said I'll tell you a secret, and I've told his secret to millions of people...internationally. He said...don't tell me your secrets, they'll be on YouTube next day...[LAUGHTER]. He said, in the building industry where we make a mistake like that we call it a feature. We call it a feature and we charge our clients an extra few thousand dollars for it.
- Sunsets need cloudsAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile from the hills at Serpentine: the best sunsets come when there's cloud or dust in the sky; the imperfections spread the light into crimsons and gold. Without them the…
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Sometimes there are some very glorious sunsets. But the best sunsets are always when there's a cloud in the sky, or when there's some dust from a hot day, `a windy day. As it's the dust, it's the imperfections, which spread the light into these glorious crimsons and gold. When they're not there, the sunset isn't beautiful. It's imperfection, which is the cause of beauty. It's imperfection which creates this beauty in our world.
- The happiness licenceStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Some years ago a person whose life was going well came to Ajahn Brahm feeling guilty about being happy. So on Bodhinyana Monastery letterhead he typed and signed a licence: 'I,…
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in fact some years ago I was counseling another person having a very good time but they felt guilty about it, so on our monastery letterhead, you know, nice letterhead, Bodhinyana Monastery Serpentine, I typed out a letter and I signed it, and it was a license. I said this is a happiness license “I, Ajahn Brahm, Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia hereby grant you permission to be happy” and I signed that for her [laughs], so they could put it on their wall