The Dalai Lama accepted the poor woman's skirt

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• Lakshmi's knitted socks on Friday night

  In brief: Before a Friday talk Lakshmi gave him hand-knitted socks he rarely wears; he put them on anyway, and during the talk she delighted that he…

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  she gave me a pair of socks. I never wear socks. Very, very, very, very, very rarely, but she gave me some socks. She knitted them herself. So, I put them on for the Friday night talk. And during the Friday night talk, you know, it's just I'm getting old. You have to move every now and again. And I was moving and I just put a foot out with a sock on. And I remember you actually you said he's wearing my socks. He's wearing my socks

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• He almost bought lunch for the lady who looked like Mum

  In brief: Stuck out of the monastery before noon, he queues at a food court behind a little old pensioner who looks like his late mother. He wants…

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  I remember going to a food court and the person in front of me you I was with the anara the the the attendant holding the M the person in front of me with this very old lady and she was ordering herself I think a roast meal and as soon as I saw her I thought of my old mother cuz you know she she looked about the same size the same type of curly hair and this little old lady a pensioner was just trying to get her lunch and nice probably treat for her and as soon as I saw her now the thought was in my mind I know this and I shouldn't do this I know this is not my Mindy but I wanted to ask the fellow with me you know you buy a her meal you know I want to sort of donate it because it was like my mom and you just I felt really sad and that was one moment I said no you're not really supposed to do that it's not my money it's a Buddhist society's money and I really regret that you know I think I should have done that because I thought of the consequences I lost my compassion

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• The burglar who came back for compassion

  In brief: An abbot finds a knife-wielding burglar at the donation box, hands him the key, notices how thin he is and offers him leftover food —…

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  its a nice story about a monastery somewhere in the world and in the middle of the night the Abbot was woken up when he heard a noise in the main shrine room So he got up and checked, and sure enough there was a burglar in the temple. As soon as the burglar saw the Abbot the burglar was trying to open the donation box and he told the Abbot just get out of here. And the Abbot took one look at the burglar instead of actually stopping the burglar opening the donation box 'here's the key' so the burglar took it and told not to do anything But the Abbot took one look at the burglar and like many burglars and this guy was so thin. So the Abbot asked him when was the last time you ate. Burglar said 'shut up' . When I give talks I always like to wake people up every now and again (audience laughs). 'Shut up' he said. But the Abbot didn't shut up he said 'look there is some left over food from this mornings meal in the cupboard, help yourself. And the man was hungry. So just looking at the Abbot and brandishing a knife from the kitchen he said 'don't come near. He quickly sort of stuffed some food into his mouth and the Abbot said 'don't rush, there is plenty of time' and the bugler opened the donation box emptied it, took some more food and ran away saying don't call the police, Abbot said I wan't the donations are there for charity, for compassion you are a poor person just take whatever you want I will clear with the committee tomorrow So the next day when the committee heard about this At least the guy was being kind and they liked the Abbot for being kind but usually what happens a few days later that bugler was caught robbing another house somewhere and was sentenced to jail The abbot forgot all about that and few years later The bugler returned with another knife. He came and said you remember me? I robbed this temple five years ago, now I have come to rob again; but the burglar said this time; but last time I took the wrong thing I took the money Putting down his knife he said now I have come to take compassion and wisdom, please show me how you were so kind to me, even though I was about to kill you and rob your tample. So the Bugler realizing for the first time he thought that money was happiness after those five years realized that kindness is more important than money he said the first time he have stolen the wrong thing now he come to take the right thing and asked the Abbot to teach him; compassion and Kindness.

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• The trail of blood into Mum's council flat

  In brief: Staying at his mother's London council tower block (a supposed 'hotbed of crime'), Ajahn Brahm is about to walk to a talk when the lift…

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  I remember when I went to visit her and stayed in that tower block for a short while I was going to give a talk in the Sri Lankan Vihara is Chiswick one day and it was not that far from where my mother lived so I wanted to walk. I enjoyed those walks in the streets of London especially in my robes. Because I was always a radical I wanted to surprise and stagger and confront people with my sartorial elegance of brown robes. But I also enjoyed having fun because people would look at me and sometimes not knowing exactly what you were dressed in these robes, these are like what people used to called bed blankets sometimes they are cross the other side of the road but I'll always take pleasure in wishing them Good Morning with a smile to an Englishman when someone actually wishes you 'Good Morning' you have to say Good Morning back. It is psychological torture for them. Being a sadist I enjoyed that. But anyhow on this particular occasion when I in the elevator when I got to the bottom as the door was open I was the only one in the elevator and as the door was opened I was confronted by an old lady who was covered with blood. It was like scene out of a movie I didn't know what had happened to her whether she has been attacked, mugged or whatever but she actually told me that she had fallen down by the flight of steps. She must have been about sixty five or seventy because she could still stand so immediately I forgot about giving a talk at any sort of Vihara it's more important I am kind and compassion; I like to practice Buddhism rather than teach it. So I forgot about the talk and I took this old lady upstairs to my mother's apartment where we bathed her wounds called the ambulance, she did have a broken leg but because of the shock she couldn't feel the pain at the time, so we bathed her, comforted her, called the ambulance but the wonderful thing which happened was that because it was an accident and because I took her into my mother's apartment very quickly, my mother left the door opened and there was a trail of blood which was leading into my mother's apartment and I was so pleased in a matter of five minutes I don't know how many people had come into my mother's apartment to find out what was going on and whether she was alright. And when they found out the reason why one of the tenants in these apartment blocks had an accident, fallen over and was wounded, it was wonderful to see the community coming together and helping one and another I was bathing the wounds because my mother doesn't like blood someone else was going to her house to actually to turn her oven off because she had something in the oven cooking and somebody was going to ring her daughter somewhere else and everybody was working together so well I thought, this is not a hot bed of crime this is a community where people cared about each other.

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