One-pound bet — sober for a year

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• The jewelled goblet: his last drink

  In brief: At an Emmanuel College scholars' dinner in Cambridge, after much port and claret, the students must drain a jewel-encrusted silver…

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  on one occasion the scholars dinner having drunk so much alcohol already we had to do a toast with this goblet silver goblet encrusted with jewels a cottage heirloom that was Emmanuel College in Cambridge and we had to fill with claret if I can remember properly to the brim we had to drain it drink the whole lot and then say a toast in Latin this was supposed to be an intelligent university I decide this this didn't make any sense to me and the following morning I don't know how I got back to my room but I woke up in the morning with a part of vomit on my pillow right next to me I didn't realize that that could have killed me people choked on that and died and I felt terrible for the next 24 hours everyone was saying what wonderful evening that was that was the last time I took any alcohol in my life

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• The bottle ghost

  In brief: Told in Asia, where people fear ghosts: the most dangerous ghost in the world, one he has seen many times. It possesses people — they…

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  I like telling the story of the bottle ghost. I get really serious because it's one of the most dangerous ghosts in the whole world. And I like many people say they don't believe in ghosts. But there's evidence for this ghost. I've actually I've Okay. I've seen it myself many times and I've seen what it what it does to people. You know, it it actually possesses people, the bottle ghost. And they they they don't act in the normal way. They're they're strange. You know, they they don't speak in the normal way. They don't even walk in the They don't act in the normal way at all. They're totally different characters. And I've even seen this ghost possess people. It's no exaggeration. I've seen them get killed. It's that dangerous a ghost. And so, I warn people and listen, my honesty is there. This bottle ghost exists and it does possess people and it does kill them as well. And people are actually very impressed cuz, you know, I don't exaggerate. I don't tell lies. And that bottle ghost, I explain what it really is. It lives in bottles of whiskey, rum, and other things cuz as soon as you take the bottle the top off, you get possessed. And you speak in very strange ways and you can't even walk in a straight line and you do really weird things and sometimes you kill yourself in an accident. It's called a bottle ghost. That's actually why we call these things spirits. Have you ever wondered why they call it spirits? It's the bottle ghost. But it is true. It does kill you.

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• The actuary they called “Flash”

  In brief: Visiting England, Ajahn Brahm meets a Cambridge friend he hasn't seen for 40 years — now a highly respected actuary, among the top in…

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  a couple of years ago I met one of my friends when I was visiting England. He's an old friend from Cambridge days. Now that was about 40 years now. Now he's this highly respected businessman. He's an actuary. An actuary is this mathematical geniuses who work out just the odds of you know falling off a building. It works out the the the probabilities for insurance companies. And he was one of the top if not the top actuary in the whole of Europe. And so when I met him we hadn't seen each other 40 years. A highly successful very sort of good man. And I reminded him of the nickname we had for him at Cambridge which was Flash. And the reason we called him Flash was because one night at one of the parties we had he did get drunk. He went into the toilets and he came out with nothing on. That's why we called him Flash. And he said, "Better not talk too much about that Ajahn Brahm.

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• “Doctor Buddha's orders”

  In brief: A new Buddhist refuses a drink at a work party — 'I'm a Buddhist' — and a colleague replies that Buddhism is all about letting go, so let…

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  there was this one guy who used to come here, and he said that when he started keeping his five precepts and gave up drinking alcohol, it was very difficult for him because the first time he went to a party or a reception, one of his work friends gave him some alcohol and he said, "No, I can't take it cuz I'm a Buddhist." And his friend said, "Oh, you're a Buddhist? Yeah, I know about Buddhism. I really respect Buddhism. Buddhism is all about letting go. Come on, let go. Have a beer." So, he's caught out. That's the trouble that people know a little bit about Buddhism. They don't know enough. So, he had to take the beer that time. He was put in a spot, but afterwards he told me that he found the solution. Cuz the next time he went to a reception or a party at work and someone offered him a drink, he said, "No, I can't take the alcohol. Doctor's orders." And people left him alone. Because now, if it's doctor's orders, it's a medical condition, no one would actually challenge you. But when he told me that, I actually criticized him back. I said, "Aren't you keeping one precept by breaking another? You're lying. There's nothing wrong with you. You're perfectly healthy." But then he actually he actually taught me some Buddhism because now, he was what So, I make mistakes sometimes. Please correct me sometimes if I make a mistake and he actually taught me more because it was true. He said, "Look, don't you remember Ajahn Brahm? In many of those old teachings of the Buddhas, the sutras, many, many times he actually compared himself to a doctor." And so, it was a doctor's orders. Doctor Buddha's orders.

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