Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

From the park dance to the gorillas

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Manifestation of Consciousness and Future Predictions | Ajahn Brahm | 29 December 2017

1 min read

Content note: substance use; homelessness

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

Asberers which is a form of autism. Had a terrible time at school, left very early. Um hated it. Um difficult parents. So she left home very early, was on drugs for 5 years, drugs and alcohol to cope and um homeless. And anyway, she was apparently lovely mover. And one day she was just just sort of stretching and just pre-dancing in the park and she was noticed by um a lady who was actually a dance teacher. She had a school and she said could you you know could could you please come and join us? You're so good and we'll pay you. So she sort of agreed to that. And um so from the money that she earned from the dancing, she used to go to the zoo and sit with the gorillas and just stay there and she just sort of for two hours at a time and the staff actually noticed this after quite a while and they came up to her and they offered her a job. They said please come and you know please because you love the you know we love you with the gorillas

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 1:08:32 (to 1:09:42)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A young woman with Asperger's left school, drifted into drugs and homelessness, then was paid to dance after a teacher saw her stretching in a park. She spent hours watching the zoo gorillas until staff hired her, and she went on to become a leading expert. Everyone has a place. Notice what someone loves, and help them find it.

In brief (our summary)

Young woman with Asperger's leaves school early, drugs and homelessness; a dance teacher spots her stretching in a park and pays her; with dance money she sits with zoo gorillas for hours until staff hire her — path toward becoming a leading gorilla authority in Perth.

Teaching point

Everyone has a place once someone notices what they love.

When this story may help

  • feeling rejected
  • finding vocation

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Manifestation of Consciousness and Future Predictions | Ajahn Brahm | 29 December 2017 · 2017-12-29 · ▶ watch from 1:08:32 to 1:09:42 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; words left exactly as captioned. 'Asberers'/'gerillas' = Asperger's / gorillas.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

  • Puppies for young offenders

    In brief: Ajahn Brahm reads that Western Australia gave repeat juvenile offenders, aged 16 or 17 and beyond the reach of counsellors, a puppy each…

    Read full story

    I read it in the newspaper in the local Western Australia. There's some really smart person here in this state, there're lots of smart people in government. Rare, but there are some. [laughter] Decided to take some of these juvenile offenders who got into all sorts of trouble with the law. Instead of like bagging them up in a jail again, or giving them counsellors because sometimes the counsellors can't do anything either. Instead, they gave them dogs. They assign every one of these really bad juvenile offenders, a little puppy to look after, to train. And the results were incredible. And they were saying instead of like a counsellor, another human being. Yeah, they've been there. They've done that. They went to sort of to that little puppy little dog to train and to get to know and every time they went to this session with their puppy, the puppy would jump all over them and lick them. No counsellor ever does that. [laughter] Not even a monk does that. I'm not going to lick you. But, these dogs would do that. And they just melted some of these really repeated offenders. And they were just only 16 or 17 and gone through just a lot, a lot of therapies, and that really got to them.

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • Penance: a carrot for the rabbit

    In brief: A postulant who broke a minor precept is very upset with himself and asks for a penance. Ajahn Brahm tells him to take a carrot from the…

    Read full story

    a beautiful little wild rabbit at our Jhana Grove retreat centre turned up a few days ago. And one of the Anagarika's broken a little precept. And he's really upset about himself. And so I said, I'll give you a penance. So what's the penance? What do I have to do? There's a, there's a hungry rabbit over in Jhana Grove, go and take a carrot from the kitchen and go and give it to the rabbit. It's a wonderful little thing, a little wild rabbit is just hiding there. Because it's really hot in the forest. Next to the wall by the Japanese garden, those of you who know Jhana Grove, he's just been hanging out there to get away from the heat of the forest. And so just go out to him and just give him a carrot. And it's just so cute. And you know, even if you're a multiple murderer, it will soften you just seeing a little rabbit, just twitching its little face, and smelling the rabbit and then really getting into it. And apparently, he eats it really fast. It's a very guzzly rabbit.

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • Milk for the vegan cat

    In brief: Years ago, while vegetarian, Ajahn Brahm stays in a house whose owners are trying to make their cat vegan, feeding it soy milk. When they…

    Read full story

    I had this when I was a vegetarian many years ago. I was staying in a house with a vegan cat. At least the owners tried to make get their cat to be vegan and they feed it soy milk. I was a vegetarian at the time. So when the owners weren't looking, I slipped the cat some milk. Oh, the cat really loved me for that. You know, some cow's milk instead of soy milk. That poor old cat.

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • The parrot that kept vigil

    In brief: A gardener coming to Bodhinyana each day noticed, early one morning at the corner of Kingsbury Drive and the South Western Highway, a…

    Read full story

    some little time before, we had a gardener who was coming up every day to do some work in Bodhinyana, and he told me the corner of Kingsbury Drive and the South Western Highway, he just noticed as he came early one morning, not much traffic, there was a parrot, was on the branch of a tree, looking down at a dead parrot, which had been hit by a car, maybe early that morning, and when he finished work, he noticed that parrot was still there, looking down, hadn't moved. The next morning, the parrot was still on the tree, looking down. About three or four days, the parrot hadn't moved, looking down at the dead parrot on the side of the road. If that wasn't grief, I don't know what is.

    Open story page·Watch this telling

All stories·Find a story for your situation