'You can't be any good then'

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• Cough once, get eight bottles of medicine

  In brief: Once in Australia Ajahn Brahm coughs at the start of a talk. By the end there are eight or nine bottles in front of him — Ayurvedic,…

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  this happened once when I was in Australia I coughed in public the beginning of a talk by the end of the talk there was about eight or nine bottles of medicine in front of me and people said you must take this this is Ayurvedic it's very good this is homeopathic it's much better this is horrible you have to take this I took this this is no usual medicine you've got to take that had so many medicines and now being compassionate and watching people to you know to make merit I said yeah I'll take that I'll take that so I had to take every of those bottles of medicine and that really made me sick

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• The politician who talked the walk

  In brief: On a free afternoon in Singapore, Ajahn Brahm takes his followers to a charity walk raising funds for a fellow monk's indebted Buddhist…

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  that reminded me that i was in singapore many years ago and i did have a free afternoon i can't actually remember what they're like but had a free afternoon and i did hear that one of you know the fellow monks he was the the head of the buddhist library in singapore and they were in a lot of debt because they wanted to get a good center but you know it's very expensive and they were having to pay off that so i heard they were having a charity walk in the afternoon so all the people who were following me over in singapore i said if you feel this afternoon let's go and help somebody else let's do some some nice kindness and raise some funds for one of my mates so we all went over there and of course the head mark over there was very very surprised and very happy that i turned up and that's because i was well known over there i was also asked to give a little speech but before i gave the speech it was a politician gave a speech first they invited a politician to also to speak at this event and he said you know best of luck i really support this it's a good temple and all the best and then i asked him when i gave my talk i said are you actually going on the walk he said no no it's too important i just i'm just giving the speech i'm going to another event and so i told him he said you're one of the politicians who talks the walk but you don't walk your talk and he took it well

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• 'Become a monk and I'll cook for you'

  In brief: In the early years in Perth, before Sister Vayama came, Thai women married to Australians brought delicious food to the two monks. Some…

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  We had complaints in the first years when I was a monk because sometimes we had these Thai ladies married to Australians, and they'd come and bring food to the two monks who were there. This was before Sister Vayama came. And sometimes the Australian men, the husbands, would complain. They'd say, "My wife never cooks anything like that for me! This is unfair!" And the Thai women would say, "You should become a monk. Then I'll cook for you."

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• Feeding the mosquitoes

  In brief: Bitten all night in an Indonesian hotel room, Ajahn Brahm reframes the mosquitoes as recipients of his dana: laypeople feed him every day,…

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  there was a room and there was so many mosquitoes were in the room so I was being bitten all night another night without much sleep so what did I do so this is Indonesia's Asia what do you expect there are mosquitoes around it's Asia so I accepted the mosquitoes and I was kind to them because I thought to myself well you know I don't work for my food I don't cook my food and buy it in a supermarket people come and feed me every day so this is my chance of feeding the mosquitoes it was what we called in Buddhism dhana generosity so now I know you know you have to work very hard working hard gaining the food from the supermarket cooking it for me presenting to me sometimes you come all the way to Monastery to feed me so I thought now this is payback time so mosquitoes come on because I thought look they're going to eat me anyway so I might as well give come on take service so you had the choice that you often have in life you can't change the world but you can't change the situation but you can change the way you look at it and as soon as you change the way you look at it there's something much more positive like an act of kindness an act of generosity these poor mosquitoes because have you ever had thought about what a mosquito must feel like you know they're really hungry and they sort of come and land on a human being it's really dangerous imagine you go to a restaurant and you don't know if you're going to come out alive that's what a mosquito does every time so it's also I imagine those mosquitoes you know when they had with that all the time in the world they could relax and drink as much as they wanted most of these mosquitoes because they're so afraid of being swatted they must probably have really bad digestion they're so anxious to get it out of the way quickly and run away as far as they can but so now I gave this beautiful kindness and time please have as much as you like and I got plenty left in there and my bread is pretty good it's like holy blood so it's like giving them a blessing as well

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