The cremation pyre exploded — and Ajahn Liem went to bed

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• The stolen Harley on the wrong level

  In brief: An early member owns almost nothing except his prized Harley-Davidson. In a Sydney shopping centre car park he returns to find it gone,…

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  I can't pass by this story of one of the people who used to come here in the very early days. The only thing he was ever attached to, the only possession he had was his Harley Davidson, incredibly beautiful motorbike. And those things are worth 50 60 thousand dollars. even more than that. just a bike; it's just worth a huge amount of money. But that was his pride and joy. He just stayed with friends, He just rented houses with people, wore old cloths but he had his Harley. And he told me once, I think he was over in Sydney somewhere, he went shopping and he parked his Harley in the shopping center. Just may be half an hour that's all it took. He went to buy something when he came back to the car park his Harley was gone. someone has stolen it. And he being a Buddhist for a long time. and he thought 'Am I attached to this', can I let it go; someone has stolen it. He wrote to me about this afterwards; and he said he really thought about it ; it is proving what the Buddha kept on telling me what the monks and nuns always said I don't own these things. It's not really mine and he actually let it go. That's what he wrote to me.. he was so proud of himself All these teachings he had been hearing year after year they finally worked. He lost his only possession, the only thing which was really worth anything has been stolen and he could be at peace with it. Ok I let it go, I can live without a Harley And he was so pleased with himself, he could actually do a letting go. Showed him that he wasn't attached. Some karmic forces which is really weird because as soon as he realized he let it go; that he felt the joy that he wasn't attached it was only then he realized he was on the wrong level of the car park. (laughs) You know what it is you have done that sometimes. And of course when he went back to the correct level , there was his Harley Davidson sitting there (laughs) He says it was a beautiful experience for him. It just tested him and now he knew he could enjoy that Harvey Davidson knowing he wasn't attached. Enjoy the extra months and years which he had with his Harley and he knew that when someone eventually stole it or got it crashed or whatever happen he knew he could let it go. He realized yes he can enjoy without being attached.

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• The Tibetan monk who never got to speak

  In brief: A former caretaker became a Buddhist because of a talk in a Melbourne public library that never happened. As a Tibetan monk was about to…

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  one of our ex-caretakers here a long time ago said he became a Buddhist because an experience he had listening to a talk in Melbourne many many years ago there was a Tibetan Buddhist monk was to give a talk in the public library and so he went along just for interest not really a Buddhist yet and well this Tibetan monk just before he got up to give the talk one of these fundamental Christian people stood up and started to harangue the monk say he was evil a messenger from the devil and Jesus Jesus was the only way and Buddhist being quite gentle said okay you said your stuff Nana please sit down and be quiet we want to listen to the Monk but that just made the Christian fundamentalist even more speaking louder and more aggressively and it took 45-50 minutes to get this guy to leave the auditorium and that's all the time they had for the talk so everyone had to go home and they might never said anything but this young man said that was the most inspiring thing he'd ever seen simply because when this monk was being criticized and put down and scolded and said was evil and part of the devil's crew or whatever the monk was just sitting there peacefully and calm even though he's being scolded he realized that's not what he was

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• Letting the rip carry him out

  In brief: A New Zealand monk, tramping with a friend on a hot day, reaches a secluded, pristine beach in (he thinks) the South Island; they strip…

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  This monk, he was from New Zealand and he was trekking over in New Zealand with one of his friends— they call it 'tramping' over there. It was a hot day, just like the weather today—it's been really hot today— and he was walking all day, and he managed to get to this pristine beach somewhere in the South Island I think it was. It was one of the most magnificent beaches: secluded, no one was there; they had it to themselves. It was the sort of beach that you built a resort on if it was in close proximity to civilisation, but this was totally wild. It was only him and his mate there and they were very hot, and so they thought let's go for a swim! A very natural decision. So they stripped off—they didn't have any bathers; there's no one around— and off he went into the water and did some swimming. And that's when he realised that he'd made a big mistake because there was a big rip there—this very, very strong current. Later on—he survived, obviously to tell the story—he told me later that many people had perished on that particular beach; he didn't realise that it was so dangerous. How he survived was a very brilliant strategy, and I think this was because he'd been a Buddhist before— he was a Buddhist monk, obviously— but the teachings of Buddhism actually saved his life there because as he was being taken out by the strong currents, straightaway, he realised that it was such a strong rip current that fighting it was useless, so he totally relaxed, he let go, he didn't try to do anything. He let that current take him a long way from the beach, knowing that eventually that current will stop, it will change, it is impermenant; eventually, the force will wither away, and eventually it did, and that's where he started swimming, that's where he put forth all his effort. When he could make a difference, that's when he applied himself. And he managed to swim back to the shore exhausted, but he survived. And he told me if he'd fought that current, he'd still have been taken the same distance away from the shore, but when he got to that distance, he would've been exhausted, he would not have been able to swim back—he would've died. Knowing when to let go and when to put forth effort saved his life, but more importantly, having the courage to let go, the courage to let go when you know you can't do anything, but you're really scared of what might happen. He did let go and that saved his life.

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• The mother who never drops her baby

  In brief: Simile from the Mirrabooka shopping centre: mothers carry their babies through jostling crowds with a trolley in the other hand and never…

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  I see these uh mothers with their baby in their arms. And they've got the sort of the trolley in their other arm or something. And they navigate through these shopping centers and there's lots of people bumping this way and bumping that way. They never drop their kid. Never ever. And the kid knows it so much. The kid is fast asleep. Totally trusts his mother not to drop him. But you, you know, you so watch your breath and you drop it after 5 minutes. And worse, you don't know where you've left it. But imagine that. The mother is Is a mother who's gone in the shopping center with the kid and gone back home afterwards. Say, "I I thought I had the baby with me. Where did I leave the baby? I had it somewhere." Cuz why is it the mother never drops a baby? Why is it the mother never leaves it and forgets where they've left it? Cuz the mother cares for the baby. That's all. She's not tense. She's just got this beautiful constant care. Which means the baby is always safe, never gets dropped, never gets left anywhere. See, that care is the important ingredient of mindfulness. That's what maintains it. If you care for the stages of meditation, so you care for this present moment. Don't need to control it. Don't need to force it. Don't need to hold the baby so hard you strangle the poor thing. No, you just hold it gently and you care for it and then you'll never drop it.

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