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Story · Ajahn Brahm

You don't have to join — Cambridge Buddhist Society

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Living With Non-Buddhists | Ajahn Brahm | 21-01-2011

1 min read

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

society's fair day where all the societies they had a stall at the University and you can join whatever Club you wanted to even fox hunting if you want to go fox hunting remember this is Cambridge University snobby place but as soon as I walked in I just I will never forget this experience they had Buddhist Society of Cambridge University I saw they had a store and to me that was like finding gold I never expected to have a Buddhist Society University so I went straight up to the counter said I want to join and the guy in front of the counter said look this is Buddhism you don't have to join

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 18:44 (to 19:25)

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

At Cambridge, young Ajahn Brahm found the Buddhist Society stall and rushed to join. The student behind it said: this is Buddhism, you don't have to join. He insisted on paying his pound anyway, and that student became a lifelong friend. Real welcome asks for nothing. Keep your doors open and free.

In brief (our summary)

Cambridge societies fair: finds Buddhist Society stall like gold; wants to join; the person behind the counter says this is Buddhism — you don't have to join.

Teaching point

The door that does not demand membership is the Buddhist one.

When this story may help

  • finding community
  • university

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Living With Non-Buddhists | Ajahn Brahm | 21-01-2011 · 2011-01-22 · ▶ watch from 18:44 to 19:25 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

2 other tellings of this story

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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