Stories for volunteering
8 Buddhist wisdom stories for volunteering from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- 'Are you the YouTube monk?'Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Walking through Paddington Station on his way to teach in Oxford, Ajahn Brahm is stopped by a woman running up: 'Are you the YouTube monk? ... Yes, you are.' She tells him that…
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Last time I was in the UK, just getting off the Underground, going to Paddington station to get to Oxford where I was going to give a talk. Just walking through Paddington Station, just minding my own business. And this woman came running towards me and said, "Are you the YouTube monk?" [laughter] That's what she called me "the YouTube monk". And then, I didn't have time to answer. She looked me in the face. "Yes, you are." And then she said, "I just want to say thank you to you. You saved my life". She was going through a divorce, oh not a divorce, a separation from her long term partner. And that she got really depressed, suicidal. Doctor couldn't help, psychologist couldn't help, psychiatrists, whoever she saw, none of them could help. And then she was just at the end of her rope, as they say; And then she just managed somehow or other, to get on YouTube. And I think she got that one of my famous talks 'four ways of letting go'. And she listened to it and "wow It made so much sense". She listed about three or four that time, one after the other. She said that got her through her crisis. She told all her friends, "You must go and listen to these things as well from the BSWA, all for free." And then, afterwards, she said, "Thank you Thank you so much for saving my life."
- Banned from being presidentStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Ajahn Brahm asks a busy businesswoman to become president of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia; she says she has no time. So, 'out of compassion' so she won't feel…
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And I said some years ago we were trying to get you know the president of our Buddhist society and there was one person which I thought would make a very good pres president. She's not here this evening. It's Rachel in Aral group and she admits it is totally true. Now I approached her and said, "How about being the president of our committee if I bought a Society of West Australia next year?" And she, you know, she was running her own business and she said, "Look, I'm really busy. You know, my business is growing. I've got to give all my attention to the business. I just can't find the time." So she said, "No, it's very easy to get your own way as a Buddhist monk cuz I know psychology. I teach psychologists. You know, I know more than they do." So, even though this was a good business lady and she was supposed to be smart, but well, she is very smart. I say this cuz this is being recorded. I got to be very careful what I say when these talks are recorded. So, I said, "Look, now I'm I'm really compassionate." I said, "Look, I know you you probably go home and worry and feel guilty about this now that you've refused this offer of mine cuz I've helped you before and now I've asked you to help me and you can't do it. So to make sure you don't feel guilty about refusing this offer, I'm telling you here right now, I ban you from being president next year. Don't even think about it because if you do, I won't allow it. I'll ban you. I'll use everything in my power to stop you." She went home and she thought, "What do you mean banning me? He can't ban me. Who do you think? Who does he think he is? He can't stop me. I can do whatever I want." And so she nominated for being president. And she was president for 2 years and she admitted I got her. I checked her.
- “Can meditation teach you to fly over walls?”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: On his first prison visit, at the old Canning Vale jail, over a hundred of about 110 prisoners crowd in to learn meditation; inspired, Ajahn Brahm gives his best. Ten minutes in,…
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this is when I first went into a prison to teach meditation and you cannot make up these stories real life is funnier than any story anyone can concoct because when I went into this prison to teach meditation it was actually the old canning Vale jail I think it's called what's it called now hakia yeah Alvin canning Val and at that time was about 25 to 30 years ago in that time the prison population there was just over 100 Maybe 110. and over a hundred prisoners came to my talk almost the whole prison population the only ones who didn't come were those in solitary confinement or seeing the doctor or something and I couldn't believe just how many criminals were interested in meditation interested in actually doing something with their life improving themselves that was just so inspiring to see and so I really gave the best possible talk I can on meditation I really wanted to actually meet them halfway if they were going to be interested in this and do something with their lives and make themselves better I was also going to help them and I'd only been talking about meditation maybe about 10 minutes when this big guy stood up he was one of the leaders in the prison you know they all have their gangs he's one of the gang leaders he was about six foot four and that was just across his shoulders lots of lots of scars on him and when someone like that I often say when someone like that stands up to interrupt you and say can I ask a question say yes sir yes sir please and he said he said this is on behalf of all the people here is it really true he asked is it really true that through meditation you can learn how to fly over walls sure that did break this up and then I realized why so many prisoners have come to my meditation class stupid they believe that a couple of meditation classes you could do that and they're all out of jail so when I told them look yeah levitation can sometimes happen it's incredibly rare you have to be a really skilled meditator for Life hours and hours to do something like that when I went back next week to continue the cross only three people turned up
- The floor the monks finished overnightStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Building Jhana Grove for an Easter 2008 opening by its patron, former Premier Geoff Gallop, Ajahn Brahm is assured it will be ready well ahead of schedule. On the Thursday…
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Notice the floor in the meditation room, it hasn't got a carpet because we thought there's some people want to meditate and they have allergies. So, it's just a bamboo floor. It's very beautiful, but on bamboo floor. You know what happens again, Ajahn Brahm being the builder. I'm not really the builder, but it's my project, so I had to make sure everything was done properly. And it's a huge project, I asked the person in charge of doing the building, "Are you sure it's going to be ready by Easter 2008 or nine or 12? What was it, about 12/13 years ago? 2008. Are you sure it's going to be ready?" He said, "Yes! No trouble at all! Well ahead of schedule." And I should know by now. I'm really stupid. I trust people too much. Because it wasn't. It was a real rush. Especially the last day. We're going to have the opening ceremony, it was on the Easter retreat. And we're going to have it on Friday, the Good Friday. And we invited even the the former Premier, Geoff Gallop. He was gonna, he still is the what do you call it? The patron of Jhana Grove Retreat Centre. And he was gonna come and open it for us. And as soon as the opening was finished, we're gonna have our retreat, the 8/9 day retreat, and we had all this ceremony all arranged. And you know what happened? You know what happened? It wasn't finished. Thursday evening. Half the floor had not been laid. It was just concrete. Half the floor was finished. Half the floor was bare concrete. We tried to get floor makers in to come and finish it off for us. Would they work on Thursday evening, before the long weekend? No way. So what happened? Duh duh duh, in come the monks like the seventh cavalry to save the day again. And it was brilliant. It's beautiful. Ajahn Brahmali and Ajahn Santutthi, they were the main collaborators. They worked till 4am. All night. 4am. And that's a beautiful job they did. If you sit on that, when every time I see that, I feel so much joy and happiness. Just finishing off like that. They had a lot of fun. A lot of joy, not sleeping, working hard. Had an hour or two to sleep before we started the ceremony in the morning, big ceremony all day. Have a look at it. It's gorgeous. That is how we work. Do we get paid? Imagine if we did get paid. There'll be it's Easter. So that's double time. Overnight, that's double time again. So, night time work, oh, they could have made a fortune. If we were paid. But we don't do that. Do it for the fun of it, the joy of it because you don't have fault finding. You have the opposite. Joy finding, beauty finding. And that's one of the reasons why we don't get paid, we get exploited. Please exploit us some more. We don't think like other people. So instead, we just see the joy of doing these things and the wonder of doing these things, which means the fault fighting is not there. So we don't get upset and don't argue. And if you notice carefully, there is a mistake in that floor. Have any of you seen it? It's in the corner, which is closest to the entrance door. Doesn't quite match. But that's beautiful. It doesn't have to match and be perfect.
- The paper lotus on the shrineStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: In a Thai village a young woman, brain-damaged from birth, cannot speak but grunts, and her friends understand every grunt; she joins in dances and lives a full life. One day,…
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There was one lady in the village, lovely lady. Uh but she had some sort of um uh injury when she was born and she was uh mentally impaired, brain damage. But even though she was brain damaged, she couldn't speak any Thai, certainly not any English, a village girl, but she would always grunt. And her grunts, she growing up with her sisters the same age, all her friends knew exactly what grunt meant which. That's a special language she had with her friends. And she was almost at ease with her friends. She would go out to dances and stuff with her friends, have a wonderful life. She wasn't sort of sectioned aside in some institution for people who couldn't speak or were brain damaged. So other parts about her were wonderful. She had a beautiful life and I was very impressed with how people included her in rather than excluding them. So she didn't really worry about the things she couldn't do in other areas. She was brilliant and I love remembering her because she was responsible for one of the greatest acts of kindness and generosity I've seen because I was like, you know, monks, we do work. We don't just sit around all day doing nothing. That's what I should be doing. But anyway, we were I was just sweeping the hall in this monastery in Thailand. That was my job. I was just behind a cupboard when I heard somebody try and sneak into our our main hall and I just peeked around. It was this girl. It wasn't a thief. You I knew her because I've been in that monitor for years. And she was sneaking into the hall. She couldn't speak. She was, you know, brain damaged, but she was in there by herself. And I wonder what the heck she was up to. She never saw me. She went up to the shrine. She put something on the shrine and then as soon as she put it on the shrine, she did her little Buddhist boughs and then she ran away as fast as she could so she wouldn't be seen. But she was seen. I saw everything. And I thanked her for what I saw. I went up to the shrine. She made a paper folded into like a lotus and offered it in front of the Buddha statue. No one could no one could ever call it a work of art, but it certainly was a work of kindness. It's the best she possibly could do. He didn't need to be a mind readader to know how she was thinking. She wanted to give it to the shrine to the Buddha. And she thought if she come when other people were there, they'd have thrown it away. It's not beautiful enough for the Buddha, but it's the best she could possibly do. When I saw that, to me it was beautiful. Not because of what it looked like, but where it came from and how hard it was for her to do that. And so afterwards I told all the monks, you know, I wasn't a senior monk there, but I said to them, look, that little paper flower which was handmade on the shrine, if anybody tries to throw that away, I'm not a violent monk, but I will sort of really sort of fight against you because I know where that came from and how beautiful that was to have a person who felt they were rejected. They managed to find a way in and give a gift. The best they could possibly do.
- The secret security pen — “We like you, that's your best security device”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a dangerous men's prison (Canning Vale, as he corrects himself) Ajahn Brahm is given a 'secret' alarm pen to point at the ceiling sensors if attacked — but monks' robes have…
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I remember the time once I I went into the prison at casarina used to be no not casarina sorry the one in Canning it used to be called canning Val a long time ago I think it's now called hakei or something they changed the name still the same place and because it was a prison and had some very tough and mean people in there many other visitors had been attacked it was a Men's prison but it didn't mean because you were also a m you won't get attacked and raped and it happened many times so at the gate when I checked in they warned me it's a dangerous place and some people have been in that prison for so long didn't matter what they did it's not really going to make much difference they were going to die in that prison so what's a you know they got no no reason not to offend again they can't add to the sentence so it's a very dangerous place and so as I checked in at the gate they gave me what looked to all intents and purposes like a pen like an ordinary bro pen but they told me this is not an ordinary pen it's a secret security device and they said if you look at the ceilings you will notice what looks like smoke detectors they're not smoke detectors they're are security devices if someone if anybody tries to attack you point the pen at one of those devices and press the top and then the alarm will go off and we'll know exactly in the prison where you are and we will come and save you and he said put it in your pocket and I looked at the person I wear robes I don't have pockets you know really really we cause a lot of problems for many people you know sometime sometimes the reason I got a a microphone in front of me is because sometimes people like clip these things on your um use it on your jacket or on your shirt you know but I this keeps on falling off it's a terrible thing to do that's why sometimes you go into these radio shows or TV shows and they'll try and clip things on and say forget it it's going to fall off we cause a lot of problem for a lot of people we monks but nevertheless I enjoy that and so there's no place to so just hold it they said Hold the pen but they said be careful this is really secret if the prisoners found out we wouldn't be able to use this anymore so don't tell anybody and as soon as I went into my class one of the people I knew there he said oh you've got one of those security devices too of course they know that's why I tell all the monks down at Serpentine and the nuns at Gigan don't think that the people here in D Loa don't know everything which is going on in those monasteries there is a very strong grape vine goes on and if there's any problems in any of these monasteries you know about it so the monks we know no secrets and it's wonderful not to have any secrets but anyway so when I went in there this prisoner and you he was actually a really good friend cuz I known him a long time and you know he's a violent man but you know you get to know these guys and he said to me he said brah do you really think you could press that button before I jumped you and held you down and I said no you get me first he said yeah I would but I wasn't scared CU what he said next I knew he was going to say he said but brah if any of these guys behind tried that i' would get them first we like you and that's your best security device
- Volunteering with the kids who taught him to be huggedStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At Cambridge, when a Christian friend starts volunteering at the local mental hospital, Ajahn Brahm feels he'd better go too. The Christians drop out; he keeps going for two…
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Again, just when I was at university, I was the only Buddhist, I knew at that college. So it was very lonely. So, you had your friends and you have great philosophical arguments. There's one guy who was a very close friend, he was Christian. So we had these great discussions. It wasn't sort of antagonistic, but it was animated. And when I heard he was going to the local mental hospital to do voluntary work, I thought I'd better go along as well. I'm a Buddhist, I'm supposed to be compassionate, even though you are very busy and all this other stuff you're supposed to do at university, I went. And I enjoyed it so much that I kept going for 2 years, those Christians, they just actually dropped out. And I went for 2 years, sometimes, "what are you trying to prove?" they asked me. And I think about it, actually it went way beyond doing service, I wasn't there to do service, I was actually getting joy out of this. It gave my week meaning, just to go and hang out with Down's Syndrome kids, and that's really all I was doing. I wasn't an expert, I wasn't trying to do anything much with them, except just be with them. And to this day, I credit that with teaching me what I call like "emotional language". So if I'm a good teacher, 4 years, not just the way you speak, anyone can say words, it's just where they come from. These were kids who can't speak, in the same way, at least these kids, were institutionalised, couldn't speak the same way as I speak to you if you come to ask me a question or we just talk about whatever. They didn't have the vocabulary or the way to articulate their thoughts. But they communicated through their emotions, through their hugs, through their facial language. And my goodness, they were just so clever. I remember many times, just going there and they, they sized me up straight away, if I was in a bad mood, they'd know - what's wrong. They'd give me hug. It was the first time as a man I'd allowed another man to hug me. I was a heterosexual. I was afraid of, sort of homosexuality. That's just the way I was conditioned and they had to allow, as a male, a young male in 1969 or 70, allow another male to hug you. That was tough, you're English, stiff upper lip and all that. But it was so wonderful for me to learn just how to be loved. I got so much from those kids. I really thank them so much. So I thought I was giving when I first went there. No, I got heaps and heaps, I got enormous gratitude, what I learnt when I gave that's where you start to understand what meaning is.
- Who learned the most after Cyclone NargisStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Groups in Singapore took privileged, highly educated teenagers to southern Myanmar to help villages destroyed by Cyclone Nargis. The students told Ajahn Brahm they learned more…
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They took a whole bunch of kids, elite, I think you probably call elite, rich parents, very comfortable, highly educated uh to it was I think southern Myanmar after the the Naris um cyclone destroyed so many villages in southern Myanmar. And because I go to Singapore, I've got some groups over there. Some of the kids were telling me that they learned more in those two or three weeks than in their whole school life. Being able just to be with children who they couldn't really understand their language and the Singaporean English or Chinese which they were talking totally incomprehensible but they could still bond. They could feel one another. and connect with one another and work together and have something which who benefited the most from that interaction. Was it the kids who had no place to go to school, no place to go to sleep, their houses destroyed, infrastructure disappeared by cyclone Naris? Was Naris, wasn't it? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. by that devastation. Who learned the most? It was the kids from Singapore. They learned so much about the big world and how they could help.