Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

Eye shades for a stranger at Changi

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Seeing the goodness in the world | Ajahn Brahm | 28-11-2014

1 min read

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

changy airport once and I saw this poor Western lady trying to get some rest I know what it's like when you've been over an all night flight and you know feel really terrible you just want to get a few hours of sleep before you get your connecting flight and know she was on some sort of couch trying to get some shut ey you know moving all over the place and I had uh I ey Shades you know from the air aircraft and I got out the eye shades she didn't know me I didn't know her I said have some eye shades ma'am

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 26:33 (to 27:10)

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

Between flights at Changi, Ajahn Brahm saw an exhausted stranger tossing on a couch and handed her his airline eye shades. Her grateful smile still makes him happy. It cost him nothing. Small kindnesses to strangers feel wonderful. Keep something small in your bag to give away.

In brief (our summary)

Between flights at Changi he gives airline eye shades to an exhausted Western woman he does not know; her smile stays with him.

Teaching point

A tiny gift to a stranger can outlast the flight.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Seeing the goodness in the world | Ajahn Brahm | 28-11-2014 · 2014-11-30 · ▶ watch from 26:33 to 27:10 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'changy' = Changi.

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

  • Eye shade for a stranger at Changi

    In brief: At Changi Airport a Western woman could not sleep on a busy bench after an overnight flight. Ajahn Brahm, carrying eye shades for…

    Read full story

    I was going through Changi Airport and saw this Western woman, she was trying to get some sleep on one of the benches and she was moving out all over the place because she'd obviously done an overnight flight and it was in the middle of the day and so busy, she couldn't get any sleep. And I carry all these —what's it called—eye shades because I get these eye shades, I use them for meditation retreats so people can actually meditate and not see things. I had one in my pocket so I... I'd never seen this girl before in my life, and I said, "You're having a hard time sleeping; try one of these." I just remember the look on her face: it was astounded. What? Someone's being kind to me? I don't even know them. And I gave it to her and said, "Have a nice sleep," and walked away. And I know that I made that woman's... certainly her day maybe her week, her month. Simple thing like that just means so much in this world

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • Free buffet lunch on the Norway ferry

    In brief: Hitchhiking student on a cheap Norway–UK ferry; a couple say he reminds them of their son and buy him a huge buffet lunch — first and only…

    Read full story

    cheap boat going over from uh Norway over back to UK. I was just hitchhiking, living on a cheap and this uh couple came up to me and they said, "You remind us of our son who was also hitchhiking during a summer vacation over in Europe." So [snorts] I said, "Please let us give you this wonderful lunch." And they paid for this incredible lunch for me. And it was like a big buffet. And it was actually the first and only

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • The tourist whose car Bill Gates fixed

    In brief: Remote northern California: a tourist's car fails with no mobile coverage; a farmer stops and fixes it. Later the tourist learns the…

    Read full story

    tourist in the north of California who broke down. Not in uh busy traffic, sorry. This was breaking down in some of the more remote parts of northern California. And he couldn't fix his car. And then when he managed to get uh he tried everything but couldn't fix it. There's no mobile coverage. He had a mobile phone there. He was quite tech savvy the the driver of the car, but he couldn't fix his car. And a farmer came by and the farmer fixed his car for him. A simple thing because farmers have to know that. Because there's no one else to fix the car for the farmers. So the farmer fixed his car. They shook and they left. Thank you very much, said the driver. And it was just a few few weeks later that the farmer he had a letter from his bank saying that all the debts for his farm had been paid off. And for his equipment and a quite a large sum of money had been deposited to his credit in the bank. Because the the driver of that car who broken down was apparently Bill Gates

    Open story page·Watch this telling

  • Jumper leads on the prison road at dawn

    In brief: Driving the monastery road between the prison and the dam at dawn, the monks find an elderly couple stuck all night with a flat battery.…

    Read full story

    there was this old couple had been stuck in the car all night their car had had a low battery and they didn't know how to fix it and that part of the world that's kings we drive between the prison and the dam no one uses that road at night time so this elderly couple had gone out for a nice little Drive and got stuck in the middle of nowhere and they stayed there five or six hours all night until the dawn came up and of course the first car on that road with us the Buddhist monastery car what and our car had some jumper leads in it so he could charge up the charge up there their battery so that car could start again although it is so happy and almost nothing could convert to Buddhism if we were like that but we're not doing things to get anything out of anybody

    Open story page·Watch this telling

All stories·Find a story for your situation