Story · Ajahn Brahm

Buddhism in a minute

1 min read

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

when a singapore gentleman he came up to me many years ago and he said no i hear that you're a very wise monk so can you teach me what buddhism is i've only got about a minute because i've got to go to work so you know that sometimes when people just want really deep teachings and they've only got a minute instead of saying that's impossible i always like to challenging myself and just finding sort of see what you can do in such a short time and what i came up with i often repeat to people if i just stuffed it and failed and got something stupid of course i wouldn't remember it wouldn't repeat it what i said is like the suffering is asking from life what it can't give you is asking from life something which you cannot have that's called suffering so learning the limitations of life for yourself

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 2:05 (to 3:04)

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

A man in a hurry asked Ajahn Brahm to explain Buddhism in a minute. Suffering, he said, is asking life for what it can't give. Learn its limits. Make plans, then adapt when they fall apart; he once found his flight simply cancelled, with no phone and no money. Anger at the counter wouldn't change a thing.

In brief (our summary)

A Singapore gentleman asks Ajahn Brahm to teach him what Buddhism is — he has only a minute before work. Challenged, Brahm answers: suffering is asking from life what it cannot give; learn life's limitations and adapt when plans don't work out.

Teaching point

Suffering is demanding from life what it cannot give; wisdom is knowing the limits.

When this story may help

  • feeling life owes you
  • rushed and wanting wisdom

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Lower Your Expectations | Ajahn Brahm | 24 Nov 2017 · 2017-11-24 · ▶ watch from 2:05 to 3:04 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned.

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

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