Christopher Nightingale and the tin-can bomb

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• Mum left him on the High Street

  In brief: As a child in London his mother leaves him outside on the High Street while she shops — early lesson in trust, fear and return.

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  my mother took me not to the shopping center in London those days were just the High Street

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• Telling the kids what their dad got up to

  In brief: Visiting his brother, Ajahn Brahm tells his young nephew and niece about all the naughty things their father did at their age; fascinated,…

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  I did that to my brother once I was visiting him he had you know a son and a daughter they're about you know six and eight or something and I still my brother was doing something else in his house and I started talking about to my nephew and niece what my brother got up to when he was their age all the naughty things he did and they were really fascinated tell us some more about our dad because he never tells us that foreign and then he came into the room he said what are you telling my children I've been doing all these years trying to teach them not to do those things which he did himself and I knew because I was there at the time

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• The honey and the milk

  In brief: In parallel supermarket checkout aisles, at almost the same moment, one child drops a jar of honey and another drops a carton of milk —…

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  And this was an example of the two children at the supermarket checkout, they were in parallel lanes. And almost exactly the same time, one child took out a carton of milk from the trolley, and he dropped it on the ground, and it went "splat" all over the floor, making a whole mess. And his mum said, "you stupid child". Almost exactly the same time in the parallel aisle, another child, they picked up the jar of honey. And it was slippy they dropped it. And they went "smash" all over the floor. But that mother, because she must have come to the Buddhist Society in Nollamara. That mother, she didn't say, "you stupid child". She said, "that was a stupid thing you did." And we emphasise the huge difference between those two responses. Now, if you examine it, you call, that's your "stupid child", it's as if they are totally stupid. They're, like, totally sort of corrupt, that when they were made, there must be some genetic malfunction that they are actually stupid. They're permanently stained with stupidity. And that's that first child. And many of you can recognise, such reactions when you make a mistake, and someone calls you stupid, someone calls you dumb. Someone calls you all these things. And what they're saying is, you're fatally flawed. There's nothing worth redeeming in you. And you know what it's like when that happens to you. You feel totally diminished, totally hopeless. You lose all your self esteem and that's no way to bring up a child. The other child received "that was a stupid thing you did". You're not a stupid kid. But, you had a moment of stupidity. And what that means is that you're recognising the truth, that was the sort of a silly thing to do to pick up that jar of honey making it all slippy. But, you're not a stupid person. There's more to you than that.

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• The only one who knew the answer

  In brief: A boy tells his dad he was the only one in class who knew the right answer today. Surprised — usually it's detention — the proud father…

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  Of course it's a joke about the kid who came home from school and he told, his dad said, “How did you go at school today, Son?” and his son said, “Dad,today teacher asked a question, “and I was the only one in class who knew the right answer,” and the father was both surprised and impressed, say, “Usually you get detention, usually you get extra homework, “just how come today, you know, you did so well?” and he said, “Oh well, I just knew the right answer, Dad.” Dad said, “I'm so proud of you,” and gave him a $20 note as a reward, trying to encourage him to be smart in the future. So as the kid took the $20 and walked out of the room, the dad said, “Oh, by the way, what question did your teacher ask?” “Who broke the window in the classroom?”

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