Teaching 650 schoolchildren to meditate

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• Ajahn Chah's eyes stop on the four-year monk

  In brief: At Magha Puja at Wat Pah Pong, before thousands of lay people and some 150 monks, Ajahn Chah's gaze runs down the line of monks, passes…

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  Imagine this, this was in February after my - I had only been a monk for four years, and this was the second biggest festival in the whole Buddhist calendar in Thailand. The full moon of February. It was called Magha Puja. Second only to Vesak in its size. So together with all the other disciples of my teacher Ajahn Chah, we went to his monastery, Wat Pah Pong, where there must have been five or six thousand people, lay people, and all the monks were there as well. And in the evening after the chanting, it was time for the talk, for the sermon, and I was looking forward to hearing Ajahn Chah teach something inspiring. But sometimes he didn't give the talk. Sometimes he would ask his second monk or his third monk to give the talk. Sometimes he would ask for any monk to give the talk, and that was scary. And what he'd do, he looked down this line of monks, this line of maybe 100, 150 monks, and if his eyes stopped at you, you were in trouble. Big trouble. So I remember this very clearly, his eyes went down the line, past all these very senior monks who could give really good talks, and he came to me, and went past. Phew. I was so relieved he was going to choose someone below me, someone who could speak Thai, because the talk had to be in Thai. But then his eyes stopped and went up the line again - he was a sadist - and stopped at me. "Brahmavamso, get up and give the talk!" I'd only been four years as a monk and I had to give the talk on this huge occasion in front of about six or seven thousand Thais. As I tell the story, it was 6000. Now it has gone up to 7000. This is just what happens when you give talks. And with all these senior monks and in front of my teacher, how would you feel? You were trained it didn't matter. You just went up there and gave a talk in Thai. It didn't matter how it came out, because the whole purpose of that was teaching you how to overcome your fear.

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• One toe in the pool

  In brief: Simile: a four- or five-year-old who has only just learned to walk is taken to a pool for the first time. Mummy lets it dip one toe and…

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  just like the story of the kid being taken, maybe four or five year old kid taken to the swimming pool to learn how to swim for the first time. Imagine what it must feel like be a child. You've just learned to walk, you know, be able to stand up and run without falling over. And now you have to to somehow understand and cope with this stuff which is not solid water, the whole pool of it. It's okay jumping in a puddle and making everybody wet but just a whole pool. So how do you get a kid to do that? So the mommy just lets it put one toe in first of all. Take it out. That feels okay. A whole foot. Take it out. Let's say it's only a foot. A leg. then dip it in and then take it out again. Mommy's still holding it. And then eventually you let the kid go into the pool. And once the kid's in the pool splashing about enjoying itself, it's very hard to get the kid out of the pool again. It's too much fun.

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• The tiger that was a mouse

  In brief: Meditating alone at night deep in the Thai jungle, Ajahn Brahm hears rustling. As a Cambridge-trained scientist he assesses it: a small…

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  so I was meditating in the jungle really dark no lights had a sort of flashlight but it was you know had to conserve the power and there was no mobile phones no one took court if there was any danger there deep in the jungle alone meditating now the jungle can be really peaceful at first especially you know when they see Carters you know start to die down after Sunset you'll be very peaceful and very cool you know Tyler is a very hot country but in the forest the shade of the trees maybe it's just the oxygen which they give up gives a beautiful atmosphere it's really cool and very peaceful and so secluded hardly any disturbances at all so I was getting into some really nice deep meditation until I heard a sound there's always something in the jungle crawling around and so I was mindful as you know I've been practicing this for years I was very mindful I didn't need to open my eyes if I did I couldn't say anything it was pitched dark I just listened and and assessed I was brought up as a scientist in Cambridge University so I did some like assessment gather some data and use some reason and by the sound of this animal it was only just you know not really crushing leaves it was just a little bit of rustling in the leaves so I assessed it and said oh it's only maybe a small little animal just you know walking through the jungle nothing to be afraid of so then I started meditating again but then after another couple of minutes I realized it was coming much closer and as it was closer I could hear it more clearly and I realized no no it's not a small animal it's a medium-sized one you could tell by the way it was actually crashing the leaves and breaking the Twigs but still nothing to be really afraid of and then when it got really close wow that's not a medium-sized one that's a big one because the way it was making a noise it must be something really heavy to actually to break not tweaks but like almost like small branches and crushing the leaves on the forest floor because you can't walk in the forest without any noise there's too much undergrowth and too much leaves litter on the ground this was a big animal that was dangerous and I got really scared and I picked up my flashlight and you know the waste of time for that really was a tiger that just tell you the tiger where you were but that's how stupid you are you pick up your flashlight and you look for it where's the big tiger and then I saw it I saw it just not that far in front of me this tiny Mouse about this big that's what it was and that tiny Mouse had been making us more noise but it was my fear with an exaggerated that sound into thinking it really was a tiger

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• The cold that vanished mid-talk

  In brief: On his first visit to Canberra, his hosts take Ajahn Brahm everywhere all day in the cold, getting lost, with no rest. By evening he has a…

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  first time I went to Canberra to give a series of talks and to my house they took me all over the place all day and they got lost and it was one of these days no rest and just from early in the morning it was really cold so by the end of the day I had this terrible cold and I was supposed to give a talk public talk in a big Temple advertised all these people came and as soon as I started trying to give a talk every other sentence I'd sneeze and cough and stuff was coming out of my nose ears everywhere it was disgusting so after about 15 minutes there's no way I could give a talk like that so I said let's all meditate so I had half an hour meditation altogether and afterwards I gave this beautiful talk Not a Cough not a sneeze really impressive people saw that wow is that possible he had a cold you know any stuff coming out of your nose you weren't sort of imagining this it's real you meditate you know because I had to sometimes we're lazy don't really do it unless you really want to unless you have to mostly so you'd sit there and just after a while the cold vanish and I gave us lovely fluent talk without any interruptions wow that's interesting this meditation actually works

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