Stories for sport
3 Buddhist wisdom stories for sport from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Can I play for the other side?Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In his last ever soccer match, for his Cambridge college, the other team turns up with only nine players against eleven. By half-time his side is about six-nil up, so he asks his…
Read full story
The last soccer match I ever played this is absolutely true for the college you know which I went to in Cambridge if you know soccer it's 11 aside only nine of their team turned up and we were 11 so we had two more players than they did and at halfime after 45 minutes we were about 6n up it was such a onesided game that I went to my captain and said, "Can I play on the other side for the second half to make a game of it?" He swore at me. He said, "No, we're here to win." And that just I wasn't going to play anymore because for me it was like playing for fun. It didn't matter who won.
- The runners who stoppedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Many people have told Ajahn Brahm about a Paralympic final in which one competitor stumbled just before the line — and instead of racing on, all the others stopped, picked the…
Read full story
You remember that sort of just comes to mind the parolympics. I never actually saw this, but so many people talked to him about it in the Parolympic race when one of the competitors in the final fell over and everyone stopped to pick them up and help them along across the line all together. Just what an inspiration that was. Did I describe that correctly? Cuz I I didn't see it cuz I don't watch the TV. They said this was Olympic, Parolympics or finals of some race and the last competitors they trained for years to get to this level and they were in the final watched by millions of people throughout the world and one of the competitors stumbled and fell just a little bit before the light and instead of all the others carrying on to win, they stopped or they all stopped and picked up this person and they all cross the line together. That was inspirational.
- Twelve blessed strings for Sri LankaStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During a one-day match at the WACA, with Australia hammering Sri Lanka, young helpers come to Ajahn Brahm: the Sri Lankan captain wants holy string from a good monk. He blesses…
Read full story
This was the um the time I got into trouble. I had to I had hid this for many years. I should have just admitted it straight away. And that was with the with the um cricket. Many of the Sri Lankans know this story. I haven't told this to the the last uh uh there's a Sri Lankan New Year over in 70th anniversary was it Was it? Or independence or whatever. Anyway, in front of the the former um governor of Western Australia, Quentin Bryce. And she reminded me of this. But fortunately she's she's retired now, so I can't get into any more trouble about this because it was the um sometime people ask, "What are you doing going to the Sri Lankan Independence Day when you're a Brit? You know, that's like you know, that they kicked your ancestors out of the country. So what are you coming to celebrate?" I said, "Because I support Sri Lanka and their cricket team." Because what happened? There was a cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia at the old West Australian cricket ground, the WACA. And only one day match. And at lunch interval the Australians, they were just hammering the Sri Lankans. They were winning by such a big amount. So some of the boys who actually come here, they were helping out at the stadium. They came here and said, "Ajahn Brahm, Ajahn Brahm, we've been asked by the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team to get some holy string from a good monk and we think you're a good monk. Can you do this blessing string?" And so now I shouldn't have done this. I mean, it's a ridiculous thing to do, but I I blessed 12 pieces of string. Cuz you know, one for the 12th man in the cricket. I knew cricket. So 12 pieces of string I blessed and I sent them to the ground. You know what happened? Sri Lanka lost. But because they asked for it too late. [laughter] But that was not the really important match because that that was a warm-up game for the World Cup cricket. And as every Sri Lankan knows the Sri Lankans had never won much before. But this they had the final Sri Lanka this World Cup cricket final, Sri Lanka versus Australia. And you know how much Australians love their cricket. And Sri Lanka won. Against all predictions, Sri Lanka beat Australia and won the World Cup cricket. And that was Any Sri Lankan remembers that. Remember the occasion. It was uh the captain. I remember his name, Arjuna Ranatunga. Cuz I saw people show me in the the Western Australian newspaper, the big picture of the captain holding up the World Cup and the whole Sri Lanka, they just celebrated. I don't know for how long. And of course Australia was just so upset. They just missed out. But as he was holding up the cup, you know what I saw? On his hand my string. It was my string which was on all of the cricketers' hands there except the Australians. That was why they won the World Cup. Cuz an Australian monk and it took years before I admitted that. Otherwise I got kicked out of the country.