Stories for spiritual ambition
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for spiritual ambition from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A terrible retreat — he only got the first jhānaJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A retreatant complains his retreat is terrible because he can only reach the first jhāna, not the second. Ajahn Brahm: one jhāna is more than good enough — a complaining mind…
Read full story
this guy who came up to me once and said he's having a terrible retreat. He can only get into the first genre. He can't get into the second. This is crazy stuff. If you know what the jas are, there's deep meditation. You're blissing out. Just one janna is more than good enough
- Stream-entry certificates on the wallAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Analogy: a Burma monastery giving stream-winner certificates to hang next to degrees and swimming certificates — spiritual materialism as framed paper.
Read full story
certificates to people stream winning certificates so you're authenticated that you are a stream win or once returned a night and so you had you on your wall next to you sort of your degree and next to your swimming certificate whatever else you've got and this is my life a certificate and when I heard that there's something fundamentally wrong with that
- The fifth child wished to need no more wishesStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Five children play the wishing game. First wants a Big Mac; second a McDonald's restaurant; third a billion euros; fourth three wishes forever. The fifth wins: 'I wish I was so…
Read full story
five children playing the wishing game it's a great story a wishing game goes like this every child has to think of a wish and the child who comes up with the best wish wins the wishing game so the first child a young boy was thinking and said yep if I had a wish I would wish for a Big Mac with double fries an ice cream afterwards and a coke cuz my mother never allows me she's a Buddhist she comes to the temple vegetarian she never allows me to go and have a Big Mac so that was his wish fair enough and asked the second girl what was your wish and the girl was thinkinking and she'd heard what the boy said had a bit more time bit smarter than the boy and said if I had a wish I would wish for a McDonald's restaurant when I've got a restaurant I can have many burgers whenever I want and fries and everything else cuz I own the joint so that would be my wish for McDonald's restaurant and obviously a much better wish so the third child a boy had again longer to think and he thought he was a very smart guy he said if I had a wish let's put away in this just restaurants let's go big time if I had a wish I would wish for $1 billion us I think it's going up again now was it which is worth more actually which is is euros worth more now okay 1 billion euros cuz with 1 billion EUR I can buy my own McDonald's restaurant that' be first of all there be plenty of money left the next thing I would buy said the boy was my own video game store cuz I love playing video games I can get whatever video game I want but thirdly my mother is always stopping me playing video games saying I should do my homework so the third thing I will buy is my own school cuz when I own a school I can always give myself top marks I employ the teachers and at the end of you know my school career I spent all time playing video games and no homework cuz I own the school when I graduate from the own my own school I sell the school and buy my own University you got lots of universities in the United States where you know they can give you degrees for anything so I buy my own University and at the end of two or 3 years give myself a first class honors degree or whatever and I can spend all my time doing video games and he said with $1 billion when I grow up I still have billion euros sorry I'll still have many many millions left to do whatever else I want whenever I wanted cuz $1 billion you just cannot spend in a whole lifetime and so the third child was a child with a $1 billion wish beat that saying $2 billion or 3 billion is it's not beating at all it's the same it means like as much money as you can ever spend so the fourth child the girl had to think very deeply how can I do better than the billion Euro wish she was really clever said I can beat that she said if I had a wish I would wish for three wishes that's a wish for my first wish I'd have the madonald restaurant my second wish I'd have the billion billion EUR and for my third wish I'll have three more wishes that way I can go on forever be that so the fourth child was a child with the Infinity of wishes can you do better than that the fifth child won the wishing game very clearly he managed to think of a wish which was clearly Superior than having an Infinity of wishes granted whenever you wanted a wish it was granted for you that fifth child said if I had a wish I wish I was so content I never needed any more wishes ever again