Stories for temptation
5 Buddhist wisdom stories for temptation from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A hundred cakes and nowhere to sleepStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: For a Serpentine monastery fundraiser, about a hundred home-baked cakes fill the tiny Magnolia Street kitchen. Ajahn Brahm's bedroom is next door; all night he smells fresh cake…
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Actually, you know, the worst suffering I ever had when I first came here just to that was this house in Magnolia Street, North Perth where we first lived. Cuz one day they were doing they were doing this fundraiser for our the monastery down at Serpentine. They decided to have a cake stall. So one Friday night it's only a small house in a really small house in North Perth. And everybody brought these cakes, you know, home baked cakes and they put them you know, in the kitchen. Maybe about 100 cakes there. You know what a freshly baked baked cake uh smells like? And everybody went home after the Friday evening. And I went into the room right next to the kitchen. That was my bedroom where I slept. You couldn't sleep. You had all this aroma freshly baked cakes in your room and you couldn't eat any of them and it's really unfair. And all you could smell all night is like the smell of freshly baked cakes. That was the most tortured evening I ever had. You can smell them. You can't eat them.
- Declining Amnesty International's dinnerJoke · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Invited by Amnesty International to speak at a dinner for an anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Ajahn Brahm declines: a monk can't eat in the evening, so…
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a few years ago there was I think the 25th anniversary of the international Declaration of Human Rights and Amnesty International invited me to the dinner to give a speech I had to decline I said to them your Amnesty International of all people you should never invite a monk to dinner cuz if I came I'd have to sit down in front of an empty plate we're not allowed to eat in the evening I'd have to look at all the delicious food you guys are eating and I can't taste any of any of it that's as you would understand Amnesty International that's torture for a month and you should be embarrassed even contemplating torturing a monk you bunch of hypocrites so that's how I declined
- Steal where no one sees youStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A famous ancient Indian teacher must marry his daughter to his best disciple and also needs money for the couple. To 'cut two carrots with one knife', he tells his students to…
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in Ancient India many hundreds of years ago the education system was such that you went with a one teacher and the teacher had many many disciples and he taught you everything Le like what they call a polymath and once you graduated from your teacher then you could actually set yourself up as a teacher so in Ancient India many many centuries ago there was a very famous teacher who only receive a limited amount of disciples and he taught them many many things not just things like um medicine and calculation astronomy and all these other Arts which were there at the time but he also obviously taught them to be good people now what happened when they were just all about close to graduation he wanted to give them a test but it wasn't just a test to see how much they learned over those years he also had another problem and that problem was his daughter who was of marriageable age and it was a custom in those days to have arranged marriages and being a teacher he was supposed to marry off his daughter to his best disciple so he brought all of the guys together and said you know my daughter she's very pretty I know you all like her you know you all love to marry her and I got to choose which one should marry and it's also to give her find out which of you has learned the most over all the years you've been with me so I decided to give you a test to find out who's the smartest and the most obedient but also I have another problem you know when people get married they need to find themselves a house or at least a little Hut you know they got to get their sort of their basic necessities of life together he said I've got to find some money for the two of you and I'm so poor so in order to in the old days I would say kill two birds with one stone but being a Buddhist now I don't use that I say cut two carrots with one knife you know you got to use Buddhist terminology these days it's a terrible kill two birds with one stone that's a terrible so cut two carrots with the same knife there a much better one so in order to to cut two carrots with the same knife he said this is the test I'm going to give you I need some money I also got to find out who's a smartest so I want each one of you to go into the local villages at nighttime to steal take whatever you can find and bring it back and what we all steal will give to the winner of this competition and the one who steals the most will win my daughter you know everyone was really shocked the guy was asking him to steal this was terrible he said no this is what I want you to do but one important Point make sure no one sees you still and so all make sure no one sees you still so all the boys went in the middle of the night creeping through the villages waiting till the people went to sleep or they went out and they crept into the houses and they stole this and they stole that and they brought it back to their teacher and their teacher would keep a meticulous record of what they stol and from where and at the end of the the period of one week the teacher brought all the students together and said you've all stolen lots and lots of stuff there's enough here to keep the happy couple You Know Rich for a long time you're going to be very comfortable you've all stolen a lot and they always waiting to see which one has stol the most and the teacher said you've all stolen a lot except for one of you and this one little student was very ashamed and embarrassed he said why didn't you steal anything and he said because I followed your instructions teacher but my instructions were to steal he said yes I tried you also told us if anyone is watching don't steal he said I went into the houses at night I waited till no one was there and I went in there and I saw these valuable items I went to pick it up and I realized someone was looking me I was seeing me steal that's why I couldn't follow your instructions and of course the teacher said at last I've got one wise disciple after all I've taught you about self-responsibility it's true that other people won't see you but you see you and he said that's the only student that's followed my instructions after all these years only one of you is wise enough so you can marry my daughter and as for all this stuff you stolen I'm rich enough I don't need it take it back to where it came from and don't worry because I told all the villagers to expect you this was a setup a scab to find out how many of you knew what it meant not to steal if someone is watching
- Stop the train as it leaves the stationAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Simile: a train going 110 km/h with all its weight can't stop for an obstruction — it takes half a kilometre, which is why there are crashes at level crossings. Catching lust or…
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What mindfulness does is like trying to stop a train. When a train has left the station, it's going 110 kilometers an hour down the track with so much weight behind it. If the train driver tries to stops and put on the breaks because there's an obstruction on the road or on the rails in front of it, sometimes you just can't do that. It's going too fast and the momentum is too strong. A train going that fast takes maybe half a kilometer to come to a halt which is why that sometimes there are these terrible crashes when a car crosses the railway line. The driver sees it but it's going too fast to stop. This is what happens when we try to catch our lust or whatever, our anger, when it's a bit too late. It's gone too fast, the momentum is too strong, we can't stop it straight away. Many of you know that when you're in the power of lust, you can't stop just straightaway. You just can't say no I'm going to stop now. It's like a train just trying to pull on the breaks and stop immediately, it just cannot be done. But the best time to stop the train is when it's first moving out of the station. It's maybe going at one kilometer an hour and then you can put on the break, it's easy to stop it.
- Three months without looking at a girlStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: One of Ajahn Chah's own stories: as a lusty 18- or 19-year-old novice in a town monastery, he resolved that for the three-month rains retreat he wouldn't look at any girl at all,…
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one of Ajahn Chah's stories was that when he was a young, lusty novice, you-know, 18, 19 years of age, with all the hormones running through him, he wanted to become a monk, but, obviously, he saw young Thai girls, and he would have lust towards them. And so for three months, during a period of what we call Rains Retreat, the time when I don't come here, Sister Vayama doesn't come here. Those of you who have been coming here for a long time know for three months we always go back into our monasteries. He was staying in a town monastery, so for three months, he decided he would not look at any girl at all. He would keep his eyes down, and not even look at anybody, thinking that that type of restraint would overcome his lust. So for three months, he refused to even look at a girl. And he said what happened, for those three months he was fine, but after his resolution was completed, the first girl he looked at he went crazy with lust.