She called me a pig — three more times

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• The twin who forgave at Auschwitz

  In brief: Ajahn Brahm recalls an article about a woman who, as an identical twin at Auschwitz, was subjected to the experiments of Dr Mengele's…

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  remember reading this article [snorts] about a lady and one of these articles which really moved me that she was in Awitz. [snorts] When she was in Awitz, she was there because she was a younger uh sister of a twin. And when they discovered they were identical twins, they're so not younger sister but identical twin. They were forced to go on this program of experimentation. I think the name of the doctor at the time, Dr. Mangali, I think it was this was doc, one of Dr. Mangali's assistants, she remembered as her sister, the other twin was basically just treated so badly and tortured and killed. as an experiment. His other sister survived and after many many many years she discovered the location of one of the doctors who had helped Dr. Mangali and according to the story which she wrote she invited the person who had basically tortured and killed and her sister to meet her in Awitz. This is a true story. when he met them there sort of she forgave him say said look I've been I found you and I've been hating you and hating what happened to my sister all my life now you're here I don't want to be a victim anymore I want to be a victor so she forgave

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• Still in the POW camp

  In brief: Two Australian veterans who were captured at the fall of Singapore and held in prisoner-of-war camps meet at a reunion. One asks the other…

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  this was the story of those two Australian soldiers meeting together in a reunion, they'd both been in the Second World War, they'd both been in Singapore, the fall of Singapore, and both been put in P.O.W. camps. Well, one met the other, and said, "Have you forgiven the Japanese yet for what they did to us and our friends?" "No! Never! How can you forgive that??" said one of the soldiers. "What about you?" His friend said, "I forgave years ago. But you, my friend, are still in the P.O.W. camp." I love that story, simply because until you forgive -- until he forgave what those guards, those soldiers, did to him and his friends, in the camps in Changi on the Death Railway in Thailand on the Burmese border. Until they forgave, they were still being tortured. They're still in the camps. They can never be happy. His friend had let go and therefore he was free.

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• How many times should you forgive?

  In brief: At a Singapore concert based on his book, asked how many times in Buddhism you should forgive someone who hurts you again and again, he…

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  when I was asked at a concert in Singapore based on my book 'Open the door of your heart' when they said "How many times should you forgive?" People have hurt you again and again, "How many times, in Buddhism, should you forgive?" The answer is always: "One - more - time.

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• Celebrate the ending of the stuck song

  In brief: After years without music in a NE Thai forest, a Bangkok visa trip lets a pop song stick in his head for days. Fighting it made it worse;…

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  somebody walked past my room uh with one of these radios and they were playing some pop music and I made a mistake of really listening to it and it was very delightful to listen to sort of some some song which was probably in the hip parade somewhere but the point is as soon as I started listening to it and enjoying it got stuck in my head and I couldn't sort of get it out and I kept it instead of meditating repeating the music to myself over and over and over and over and over again. It's the songs pop up and get stuck. So a long time in a couple of days being concerned with this the solution I found which worked for me anyway was actually instead of trying to stop the sound which didn't work. It made it come up more and more and more. I was trying I always discover when you fight something it usually makes it worse. When you try to get rid of it it stays much longer. So instead of trying to get rid of it, I decided to really get into it. And especially with the ending, the finale, the last few seconds, instead of D whatever it was and then carrying on again, I really gave it everything emphasis. When I emphasize the endings, then the beginnings never occurred

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