Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

The nun and the last pokie coin

As told by Ajahn Brahm in How to Resolve Conflicts Wisely | Ajahn Brahm | 3 November 2023

1 min read

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

this nun, a very famous Buddhist nun, who was teaching a retreat over in UK. That's what I'm going to do after on Monday or Tuesday. Two retreats, two small retreats. So she was teaching a retreat in UK, and when the retreat was finished, had to drive to Heathrow Airport to fly back to I think she had a monastery in Germany. I shouldn't give too much [clears throat] I will give all the details, why not? She's dead now. So anyway, after teaching the retreat, they had to go to have something to eat cuz monks and nuns, we have to eat finish eating before midday. So the only place they could find, it was a restaurant, but next to a pub. You're not supposed to go in a pub, but it's only just going in the front door and then a side door into the restaurant. Nothing wrong with that. So they went there, they had their their lunch, and when they paid for it, had to pay for it in English money. It was in the days before credit cards. And so they had their change, had a few English coins which they couldn't it's not really worth um exchanging, there's not enough of them. So the driver had about £6 of English coins to get rid of. There's a good solution. There's one of these what we call in Australia pokie machines. I know in in UK we used to call them one-armed bandits

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 17:07 (to 18:51)

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

Rushing to eat before noon, a famous nun stopped at a pub while her driver fed his spare English coins into a pokie machine. On the last coin, he invited her to pull the handle for luck, and she did, a slip she shouldn't have made. Ajahn Brahm leaves the punchline hanging. Even good people have heedless moments. Laugh, and stay mindful.

In brief (our summary)

After a UK retreat a famous Buddhist nun must eat before midday; the only place is next to a pub with pokies; the driver feeds coins as she arrives — last-coin / one-armed-bandit awkwardness.

Teaching point

Even a famous nun can land beside a pokie when the clock says eat.

When this story may help

  • awkward travel
  • rules vs reality

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in How to Resolve Conflicts Wisely | Ajahn Brahm | 3 November 2023 · 2023-11-04 · ▶ watch from 17:07 to 18:51 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions with machine-added punctuation; 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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