Bent like an old farmer — healed with the cobra

Related stories

• The fall from the ladder

  In brief: Building the ablution block at Serpentine, he falls a long way when a fully extended ladder loses its footing and he gets caught in it. No…

  Read full story▾▴

  I remember just years ago falling off a ladder in the corner of of ablution block when we were building it over in uh Serpentine. It was really a long fall. This is one of those very long ladders fully extended because uh it was um it was actually stupid thing to do. But nevertheless, he fell off the ladder, or rather the ladder just lost its footing and went all over the place and he got caught in the ladder. And you know, I was just amazed. I didn't break any bones at all. That night, I couldn't sleep very well because my hands were just I couldn't sleep at all because the hands were very, very painful. So, I went to the doctors the following morning to have an X-ray and say, "Nothing wrong there." I kind of knew there would be nothing wrong because sometimes just the way you meditate, you could look at a part of your body and heal it pretty quickly.

  Open story page·Watch this telling

• The executive who slept for three days

  In brief: On a retreat in Sydney many years ago, an executive arrived at 11:30 at night after tying up loose ends at work. Told in her first…

  Read full story▾▴

  the classic story many many years ago teaching a retreat in Sydney and an executive you know from some big company in Sydney she arrived really late about 11:30 at night because you had to try and tie up all the Loose Ends before she could arrive at The Retreat so she arrived in the middle of the night so she missed the evening talk and when I sort of uh she asked for quick interview in the morning when I told her this that most people are tired so to practice your kindness and take as much sleep as you want she really took that advice on board she went straight back to bed got up for lunch after lunch went to sleep again she got up in the morning just before breakfast after breakfast went to bed got up for lunch went to bed again afterwards she said for the first two or three days she slept and slept and slept she was just catching up after 3 days she had hardly done any meditation at all but you felt so good as you do do when you really caught up on your sleep I really feel got energy now I feel healthy and then the next three days you know she started to get into her meditation and she caught up with everybody else so by the sixth day she was on a par with all the other people and of course the last few days she just took off she was one of the star meditators really got some really deep meditation and I used her courage and wisdom as an example for all others

  Open story page·Watch this telling

• A Sunday in Singapore that 'Amnesty would call torture'

  In brief: Ajahn Brahm recounts a Singapore Sunday from 6:15 a.m. meditation through a 'breakfast banquet', talks, counselling over lunch, a…

  Read full story▾▴

  Again just being in Singapore last Sunday -- there's couple of people here from Singapore, you know this is true -- started off my Sunday morning at 6:15 in the Canning Fort Park teaching meditation. It was only supposed to be a short meditation. But you know what it's like afterwards, people start asking you questions and taking photographs. I had to rush for the morning..so-called breakfast. It was not a breakfast, it was morning banquet. People saying "Please eat this, please eat that, because I made this specially for you Ajahn Brahm." [laughter] And now you may always see I'm a fat monk. It is not my fault. [laughter] I get pressured, forced, cajoled. And if you don't believe me, you just come and follow me for one day and see what happens. So I had to eat this big breakfast and then talk to people. And then as soon as that was finished, had to go off to this morning service at the Buddhist Fellowship, which was only supposed to be a talk for an hour but went on and on and on with questions and stuff. And then we were supposed to have some lunch. But on the lunch, people come up and ask you to sign a book and ask some questions because they have some really big problems in life. So you give them free counseling. You're trying to put a spoon of food in one mouth and counsel them about their marital problems in the other. It is really working. And after that was finished, then I had to sort of rush off to a seminar they'd organized for four hours of giving talks and asking questions. And of course it wasn't four hours, it lasted for five or six, finished about eight o'clock. And after that, I had to go to this golf club where they were having a sort of a launch of an education program which I had to give another talk; didn't get back to bed till about quarter to midnight. And if anyone looked at that schedule, you'd call that torture. Amnesty International will probably take the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore to court for that.. [laughter] human rights abuse; war crimes. But of course I enjoyed every minute of it.

  Open story page·Watch this telling

• The company that banned overtime

  In brief: An English engineering firm Ajahn Brahm remembers as 'Farrell and Sons' wins a best-business-practice prize after trebling turnover and…

  Read full story▾▴

  someone sent me this years ago about a company in UK who won a prize for best business practice in that year and I still remember the name called Farrell and Sons. It was an engineering company and in one year they treble turnover, doubled profits. I told this to a few business people. They said, "Well, that's a concern. If you treble turnover and only double the profits, you know, maybe you're just underelling things, but that's still pretty good." And they did this on the simplest of new strategies. They banned all overtime. No one was allowed to work beyond their allotted time. Nor were they allowed to take work home with them. They finish work, go home to your families. Relax. Because that little strategy meant when they went back to their families, their kids saw them, wives, husbands saw them. They had really rich family life and they could relax. So when they had a good sleep at night instead of just working all hours and finishing off some project or some contract or something had a good evening with their family, they went to work the next morning. They were fresh. So they work really well. Yes, they did not spend as much time in the office, but the time they spent there was far more productive because imagine what happens. You know, you may unfortunately have experienced this had a argument with your your wife or your husband, the kids are in trouble at school and you go to work the next day and that's praying on your mind. You can't focus on your job which you're being paid for. You're worried about the family life and that's not going to be very good for the company. Imagine great family life could spend time with them. You go to work mindfocused, fresh, energized, you do really well. So productivity went up even though they weren't spending so many hours at the office. And number two, staff turnover went down to zero.

  Open story page·Watch this telling