Where everybody thinks the same, no one thinks at all

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• Why some are born intelligent

  In brief: From a sutta: a man asks the Buddha what karma makes people wealthy, then what makes them beautiful or ugly (Ajahn Brahm breaks off to…

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  And there they tell the story of this man who came up to the Buddha and asked him like a question on karma. He was saying, you know, I've noticed in this world, some people are just born wealthy, and they managed to maintain that wealth and increase it. Now other people are born poor, and sometimes they get wealthy, but you know, there are some people, they're poor, they work really hard, and they try very hard and they work just all hours of the night and still, it's just so hard to make ends meet. Why can't you be wealthy? While other people they seem to work much less than you, they just got the gift of making money. It must be some karma from a past life that we're born poor in this life. So he asked, What do I have to do in this life? What karma do I have to make in this life to be rich in my next life?" That's a fair enough question. so the Buddha gave him an answer. He was so happy with it. He asked the second question, he said, I've also noticed that sometimes people are very beautiful, while other people are ugly. And you may notice when I mentioned the word "ugly", I stared at the carpet. And the reason for this, the reason for this is I told this story in Singapore once. And I just, I just happened to be looking at a certain woman when I mentioned the word "ugly". Oh, my goodness, did she complain. She said, "Why did you mention the word ugly when you're looking at me?" It's even worse, if I've mentioned the word "beautiful" when I'm looking at someone, they get the wrong idea. (laughter) So anyway, he, the Buddha explained the cause for beauty and ugliness in your next life. But then the killer question, why are some people intelligent, and other people they just have such a hard time at school and university. You've been with some people, they hardly do any of the homework, they just float through school, they get the prizes, and they go to universities, they get double first. You know, for the rest of us. It's just so hard just now just getting the TEE passed. He said, "Why is it? What's the karmic reason why people are born intelligent, and other people aren't intelligent? What's the karmic cause?" And the Buddha said, and this was a beautiful answer. "The karmic reason for stupidity in your next life is not asking questions in this life."

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• Exams kill by degrees

  In brief: Cambridge graffiti outside the Cavendish Physics lab: 'Exams kill by degrees' — study aimed at the credential kills curiosity for its own…

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  graffiti which I remember outside the philosophy department, no, this was actually outside the physics lab in Cambridge. Graffiti in those days, you'd actually go looking for it because it was really profound. And that was - "exams - kill by degrees". It's a wondeful pun - they kill by degrees. They kill learning, they kill the excitement of investigating knowledge

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• Half of what we teach you is wrong

  In brief: A doctor driving Ajahn Brahm to a retreat recalls the welcome speech at his Sydney medical school: the head of the school told the new…

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  he was the head of warp in Salford Hospital in Sydney head of the Medical School and I heard this from one of the the doctors who's taking me driving me to a retreat who said there are the beginning of his years as a as in medical school the head of the department giving the welcome speech to everybody who was gonna spend the next four years in war pins half-wit Hospital Medical School who said 50% of what we're going to teach you in the next four years is wrong this was the professor saying what we're gonna teach him next for you is 50% of it is wrong the problem is he said we're not quite sure which 50% it is

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• The dog, the lion and the monkey

  In brief: A dog wanders too far into an African forest and a lion decides to eat him. The dog finds some bones, sits with his back to the lion and,…

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  once upon a time there was a dog who went for a walk in the forest in Africa and he walked a bit too far because a lion saw him and the lion thought that dog will make a good dinner and a dog heard that. How could a dog escape from a lion? But this dog, he must have listened to some of the the uh YouTube talks from here because he was a very very smart dog. I'm sure he was a Buddhist. So what he did, he managed to find some bones and he sat in front of the bones with his back towards the lion totally unafraid. And as the lion was about to pounce, the dog licked his lips and said, "M, what a delicious meal. These lions are very, very tasty. I wonder when I can get my next lion to eat. And the lion heard that, thought, "My goodness, that must be a really vicious dog. He's eaten another lion. I'm not going to be his dinner." And so the lion turned around and ran away. But there was a monkey and that monkey saw that that conversation and he said, "I'm not going to let the dog get away with tricking this lion." So he went up to the line and said, "You've been tricked. you're a fool. You know, this dog, you know, can't eat lions. You know, he just said this to scare you away. And so the lion got very upset and said, "I'm going to go and eat that dog." And the monkey said, "I can't come with you to watch." So the monkey jumped on the lion's back and the lion went straight towards the dog and the dog saw them coming. So he went in front of the pile of bones again with his back towards the lion and the monkey on the back. And as they came close, the dog licked his lips again and he said, "Where's that damn monkey? He promised he'd bring me another lion.

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