The mouldy hay outside the fence

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• Junior-monk suffering, senior-monk suffering

  In brief: As a skinny young monk Ajahn Brahm resents the senior monks: they get the cushions while he sits on concrete (they have their own…

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  When I was a young monk, when I first or date, I wasn't as fat like this. I was really skinny, all bones and hardly any meat on me, any flesh at all. And when we would sit meditation or sit in a ceremony, only the senior monks had all the cushions, the junior monks, we had to sit on hard concrete. And I thought that was really unfair because those senior monks, they don't need a cushion. They've got their own upholstery. It's called fat. Then also those senior monks they didn't have to do any physical work you know in the monastery whether it was shoveling earth whether it was using the wheelbarrows or the hard labor was done by the junior monks and those fat lazy senior monks they didn't do anything and now it comes to the food as well because if you ever come to any of our diners ders is the what the giving especially feeding the monks and the nuns you always give the f the best food to the senior monk first of all and then it goes down the line one after the other to the junior monk and maybe the lay people afterwards and I was so thin in those days and I thought that's really unfair. The best food should start with me first and then go and then go to the big monks afterwards because after all know all the senior monks they're all enlightened already. They didn't need the good food. People like me did but I had to get the leftovers every day and really thin. I started getting what I called junior monk suffering and now I'm a senior monk. Now I don't need cushions, but I get lots. Now, now I don't need to do physical work. Other people do that for me. Now I get first choice of the food every day. But have I let go of my suffering yet? No. Cuz I see all these junior monks, they don't have to talk to people all day. They don't have to hear all the problems people actually load on me about their marriage, about their children, about the economy, about terrorism, about climate control and all these drives me crazy sometimes. I became a monk to get rid of all of that and all the other administration work, any complaints, it comes to me first of all. So now I do not have junior monk suffering anymore. I have senior monk suffering.

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• A terrible retreat — he only got the first jhāna

  In brief: A retreatant complains his retreat is terrible because he can only reach the first jhāna, not the second. Ajahn Brahm: one jhāna is more…

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  this guy who came up to me once and said he's having a terrible retreat. He can only get into the first genre. He can't get into the second. This is crazy stuff. If you know what the jas are, there's deep meditation. You're blissing out. Just one janna is more than good enough

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• The hundred-baht wish list

  In brief: A grateful Thai supporter who knows the rules offers the young monk a 'mendicant allowance' of 100 baht for anything he personally wants.…

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  Cos that happened to me many years ago, maybe over thirty years ago in Thailand, I had helped a man with some problems, and he was very grateful, he knew the rules, cos he was a Thai, been around the forest tradition a long time, so he came up to me and asked me, "Is there anything I can get for you? Just for you, not for the temple, one hundred baht." That's thirty-seven years ago, and these days, it's only worth about two or three dollars, but that to me was a lot of money. So you know, my mind went blank, as it often does, maybe I meditate too much, I don't know. But anyway, I couldn't think. And he was getting very impatient, and he had his work to go to. I came up with an idea, I said to him, "Why don't you come tomorrow morning? Tonight I'll think about what I want, and I'll write it down and give it to you tomorrow." He said, "Good idea - I'll be here about the same time tomorrow." So that night, after the evening meeting, chanting and meditation, I went back to my room, I lit a candle, cos there's no electricity - and I got out a old piece of paper and a pen, so I started thinking, "what do I want?" Straight away the pencil broke, so I said, actually - I need, not pencils, pencils are hopeless, I need like a pen. just a simple, biro pen or something. And as for the piece of paper, it's just a scrap piece of paper, I need a little exercise book - you know, nothing fancy, just a little exercise book, and also you know the candle is very, very difficult to write, it's bad for your eyes, just you know, reading or writing by candle light. What I wanted is one of these little oil lamps, little lamps you know, you see maybe on the boats, over here in Australia, just a little oil lamp, and a bit of kerosene, and talking about lights, my flash light was really terrible, and I needed a new flash light, and some batteries - and I put all of those things down. I suddenly realised one hundred baht, was not enough. And you know, it was so difficult to actually take any of those things off the list now, Cos now I thought about it, I don't know how I survived without them. I mean how can you survive, you know, and actually I needed some new sandals, you know, if I'm going to be walking through those forests, I needed some more new sandals, and actually talking about pieces of paper, I really needed to write to my family, I needed these aerograms. And soon, a thousand bahts was not enough. And every one of those items I put on the list, now was so important to me, I just could not scratch any one off. And that's when I had the insight, I realised what's this thing was doing to me. At that point, I screwed up that piece of paper, and I threw it in the waste bin, this little spittoon we had. And the following day, when that man came, I scolded him, "Don't you ever do that to me ever again. I was such a happy monk, before you gave me one hundred dollars. Or a hundred baht, now I had all these desires."

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• The nun, the mouse, the cat and the cow

  In brief: A nun living contentedly in a cave finds a mouse has chewed her robe. To keep mice away she asks a supporter for a cat; the cat needs…

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  In this particular story, it was a story of a Buddhist nun. A Buddhist nun, who was living in a cave, just happy, meditating, peaceful, just being content with the simplicity of her life. But one day when she came back from her morning alms round, because the monks and the nuns, we traditionally go out in the morning, with our bowls, to collect almsfoods, from our disciples, and that's what we feed on. It's a very simple way of living. And when she came back from her alms round, she found that one of her robes, which she left in her cave had been chewed by a mouse. And so, then she had to get out some spare cloth, needle and thread, and sew up her robe. I remember doing that, many many times in Thailand, sometimes you had to be very careful, sometimes very poor. I remember one monk, he hung his robe on the line, he just went to the toilet, and a cow chewed it. [laughter] Now, this is the only robe we got, we can't go to the robe shop and get a new one. So we just get some rags, or whatever, to sew it up. But after spending all this time sewing up her robe, she thought, "Why don't I get a cat?" The cat, you know maybe won't kill the mouse, but at least it'll chase it around, chase it out. The mouse will be able to smell the cat and it'll disappear. So the next time she was on alms round, she told one of the villagers there, her supporter, "Look, I really need a cat. You know, to make sure there's no mice, so I can keep my robe safe." So, they managed to find a little cat, and just left it with her. So she had a cat, so no more problem with the mice. But then the cat needed some milk. And she only got a little bit of food on alms round. So she had to ask one of her disciples, "Look, when I go on alms round in the morning, can you give a bit of milk? For the cat, not for me." So the disciples, and they're very supportive, so they started giving her some milk. But you know, sometimes it's hard to always be asking for things. So she thought, "Look, instead of having, asking for milk everyday, why don't I ask him for a cow? Because then I can actually make my own milk and I won't have to bother everybody." So she ask another of her disciples, "You got lots of cows, can you spare me one, so I can get some milk for my cat. So the mouse won't eat my robes." So they're very kind, Yeah, you're all very kind to the monks and nuns here. So they managed to give the little nun, a cow, a very nice cow. But of course. the cow have to eat as well. And so, they were always asking the people in the town, "Can you bring some grass?" And so they'll come every morning, to bring grass for the cow. And she thought - such a hassle getting grass for the cow everyday, and then she asked, "Is there a small little piece of your farm - little field - can I just let my cow graze in your field?" And they said, "Okay, fine - we're Buddhists, we're very generous." So they gave her a little field so she could graze her cow. But you know what cows are like, sometimes they go in other people's field. So she realized, that, you know, to be able to make sure that she didn't allow her cow to go and graze in other people's field, she needed a little boy to look after the cow. So, you know there are such things like temple boys, those people who have been to Sri Lanka and Thailand. The young people, they can actually stay and look after the monks or the nuns, or the cows - in this case, and you know, they can go to school as well. So, that, one of the supporters said, "Yeah, I've got this son. It'll be very good, because they can associate with the nun, and maybe learn some Buddhism, and get very good character." So they sent this little boy to her, so she had a boy to look after the cow. But then, just like for monks, monks can't have, like women staying in their caves so she need some place for the boy to stay. So she asked the villagers, if they wouldn't mind sort of, building a little hut just outside the cave you know, for the boy. And then one day, one day, someone came up to her and said, "Um, I'd like to ask you a few questions on meditation." She said, "No, I'm sorry, I can't make it right now, because I've got to look after the builders who are building the hut for the boy, who looks after the cow, who looks after the cat, who keeps the mice away from eating my robes." And, then she realised where she had gone wrong. Just a simple thing, just like trying to keep the mouse from eating her robes, and led to her having a cat, a cow, a field, a boy and trying to find a place for the boy to stay, And she realized, just how complicated things get. So what did she do? She sent the boy home, she sold the cow or gave it back, she sold the field, She even gave the cat away. And from then on, whenever her robes, the mouse returned, and she was very happy with her little mouse. And everytime the robes were bitten, and chewed, she would just put a little patch on it. Because that gave her much more time than having to look after all these other things.

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