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• Declining Amnesty International's dinner

  In brief: Invited by Amnesty International to speak at a dinner for an anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Ajahn Brahm…

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  a few years ago there was I think the 25th anniversary of the international Declaration of Human Rights and Amnesty International invited me to the dinner to give a speech I had to decline I said to them your Amnesty International of all people you should never invite a monk to dinner cuz if I came I'd have to sit down in front of an empty plate we're not allowed to eat in the evening I'd have to look at all the delicious food you guys are eating and I can't taste any of any of it that's as you would understand Amnesty International that's torture for a month and you should be embarrassed even contemplating torturing a monk you bunch of hypocrites so that's how I declined

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• Six months alone, and the kangaroos ate the pizza

  In brief: Sometime between 2000 and 2008 his year's sabbatical shrank to six months. Instead of touring, he stayed in a hut in the Serpentine forest…

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  I spent six months without seeing any human being, without talking to anybody else. What had happened was, I was supposed to have a sabbatical, a year off, but then it, one thing led to another, I can only have six months off, so you go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go for six months? I could go touring here, visiting this monastery or that monastery, but I said, "No." Why do people always have to seek for happiness somewhere else? Why can't I find that happiness right where I am in that monastery where I worked so hard to build it up? So I said, “No, I'm not going to seek for happiness contentment anywhere else,” I could go wherever I wanted to, but I decided to find the best happiness and truth and freedom and wisdom right here. So I had a hut in the forest in Serpentine and I stayed there for six months, never went anywhere except deeper and deeper inside.. And it was arranged that we had a box…, actually where's that box now? The box which…, I think it's over… Okay, still is there somewhere, anyway, we had a little box there, and in the morning, at a certain time, about 10:30, one of the monks would actually put my bowl with food in the box, and I'd know the time they were coming, so I knew to be in my hut, and afterwards I will go to the box, open it up, eat the food, and then wash the bowl, put it in the box there for the next day. So I never, it's much better than Uber Eats, it was “Monk Eats". I never got charged, I never saw anybody. So there I was, and they knew I was alive because they see my bowl, and the food was eaten, so and it could have been the Kangaroos, I suppose, eating the food, but no it was me, although sometimes, those kangaroos…, you know, that they're really really really smart, and they soon found out that I was, you know, in that hut, and sometimes you'd leave your food outside on the veranda, it's a walking path, and leave the bowl there just for a few minutes to go inside to get something 'cause I liked eating on the veranda at first, and you know what happened? You find a kangaroo with it's head inside my bowl, (laughs) taking the first choice of food before I ever got to it! And so I from that time I decided to, to eat inside my hut, and so even inside, but, you know, the window was open and the kangaroo will come up onto my path, and look at me through the window, and ahh… a poor kangaroo, so you know, you felt sort of some compassion for this poor.. They had plenty of grass, but then, I started by putting some healthy food outside, I remember, like a carrot, or some…, but you know, they weren't interested in that, you know the food they liked the most when I was on retreat? Pizza! Honest! (laughter) Like…, it was, I don’t know if it's healthy for them, but, you know, that's what the Kangaroos decided they wanted to eat, see a little kangaroo with a little pizza in their mouth, they loved that

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• Imprisoned in a six-star hotel

  In brief: On a conference tour in Japan, his hosts put Ajahn Brahm in what he later hears was a six-star hotel room. He's afraid to touch the taps…

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  I remember going this one time and I was giving some talks in Japan and going to I'm not sure if it's possible because I couldn't speak Japanese, but this hotel, it looked like it was a six-star hotel. It was crazy. We was just, you know, going to give a series of talks and conferences and stuff when I got inside of there in this hotel and I don't know if you know the Japanese culture said, "Please, we want you to be in here because we want to know where you are." It was a bit of a conference and so had to make sure I was in the right place. And then just I was inside this and I thought this is like a prison for me. I'm a monk. I'm not used to hotels. They had this big bath and a jacuzzi or something. I never been in one of those before. I own too scared to turn on any tap cuz any button or something. If I turned it on, I don't know what would happen. And of course, being a monk, you can't turn on the TV. That's against our rules. And the beds not like beds we have in in Serpentine where monastery where I live. And let many of you been inside my place where I live. And it's just it's not a bed. It's just a mat on the floor about that that thick. That's happy for me. I don't if you put me on big bed, it's very hard to fall asleep. And a small bed is very very easy and comfortable for me. And so what am I doing with this big beds? They're buttons on them. I don't know what to do with those buttons. I must admit though, when I went inside the toilet in this fancy hotel, I well, I couldn't resist pressing the buttons and see what happened. It was crazy. They don't have toilet paper. They just press a button and something squirts out in the right place. And sometimes it's in the wrong place, but never mind. [laughter] you get it hot and cold and all sorts of stuff. It was good fun. But then after a while I said, can't I just have a simple place to stay and it was one thing which I noticed that it was obviously that somebody paid a lot of money for me to spend a night in this hotel. It was part of a conference tour and and I was thought I don't want to be in here. I just want to be a nice little cave know where I stay in serpentine or under just over here just a nice little room. You don't need all this special stuff. And you know after a few minutes I didn't want to be in there. I want to get something else more simple. It's just too elaborate for me. They had many sort of TVs in there. Obviously didn't know which one to turn on. I didn't turn any on. And after a while I realized that I was suffering. You know what was probably I think I heard later on it was a sixstar room in the hotel. Six star. Have you ever been in a six-star hotel room? It really sucks. It's terrible. If you're a [laughter] monk, why on earth? And I realized that what is suffering is not if it's a six-star hotel or if it's just out in the bush somewhere. Any place you don't want to be is called suffering. Any place, even a six-star hotel, any place you like to be, you can feel something nice, beautiful, or simple, or whatever it is. If you want to be here, then you're free. you're happy. If you don't want to be here, you are in a prison.

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• The most beautiful sound in the world

  In brief: A Sydney trekker lost in the Himalayas shelters at an ancient monastery and at midnight hears the most beautiful sound of his life. The…

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  he got lost and getting lost in the hillary mountains or the foothills is really really dangerous so the the sun was going down really quickly but he was lucky you saw there were some lights in the distance so he made for those lights and it was a monastery an old monastery been there for centuries and so you know they allowed him to come in because apparently he wasn't the first westerner got lost in that part of the world and the the abbot really kind monk he said well look you know the place is pretty full but you can actually have my room for the night it's got like a nice mattress there sort of thing you're used to it's only for the night in the morning we know where the the group has gone to we'll take you there and you can join up with your your trick so they put him in the albert's room overnight it was very comfortable they gave him some food for the night and but about midnight he was woken up by this sound he called it a sound but it was almost like music but it's much better than music is the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard in his life it brought tears to his eyes and it was just so peaceful so melodious i didn't know what instruments it was but he used to say afterwards that it was even better than anything good to hear the sydney opera house it was really fine fine music and it put him into a very calm and deep sleep when he woke up in the morning he was so rested and they gave him some food before they were going to take him over to the the place where the rest of the trek was and he couldn't help asking said what was that music last night and the alberts just stopped and said oh you heard that last night said yeah i was just woke me up in the middle of the night what was it and the abbott said and sir i'm afraid i cannot tell you the origin of that sound the only monks are allowed to know that and for you it's forbidden and so what the australian did he got out his wallet okay how much he said no i don't you give me the whole thousands of dollars we still won't tell you the only way that you can find that sound is you have to become a monk yourself and so he's he got really fed up he said look you've got to go now otherwise you'll miss the trek again so this guy from sydney joined the trek and eventually came back to sydney and what that noise was or the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard in his life you know that just bugged him so much he went to every psychologist and therapist he could find in sydney because you know he couldn't even forget it he couldn't put it aside and after one year of suffering not knowing what it was he said well nothing more to do he just got on the plane to kathmandu went up into the himalayan mountains found that monastery knocked on the door and said to the upper who remembered him he said i was here about a year ago and i heard this amazing sound and i can't put it out of my head it's obsessing me please tell me what it is and the abbott said look i can't tell you exactly said this man so you know you say i have to be a monk to know the meaning of that sound so please ordain me as a monk and the other said it will take over a year of training before you can become a monk i don't care i'll do that training please ordain me so i can hear what that sound was so he entered the long hard training of being a monk learning all the chanting learning all the rules and 12 months later on the anniversary of his arrival they gave him the ordination and as soon as he was ordained what did he ask the abbot i'm a monk now please you must tell me what that sound was the most beautiful sound in the world he said okay look i'll do better than tell you i'll show it to you tonight come to my room at midnight and i will show you so he arrived of course about about half an hour before midnight he was so excited he given up so much of his life to become a monk and so he could find out the meaning of this sound and i was a monk yeah but could tell him you would better show him so that night about 10 minutes to midnight the abbot let him into the room and he drew a curtain aside from the room behind that curtain was this very ancient wooden door i mean like really old it must have been built there hundreds of years ago and the abbot from this desk took out these ancient keys the first one was a wooden key and he put it in the the keyhole turned the wood key and opened the door almost as soon as he opened it you could hear the noise the music it was like heavenly music not the sort of thing you'd hear at any concert hall much much better than that and he was so excited he waited such a long time to hear this and he went down the passage with the abbot and there was another door and that was an iron door solid iron must have been dug from the mountains again centuries ago and cast into this really heavy iron door you can see the rust on it had been open for years had the iron key put it in the latch turned the key and opened the door and of course the music was even more sonorous even nicer to here and it went down the the passageway a bit further and the third door was a silver door it had lots of uh jewelry in it no precious stones they're getting closer to the source of this most amazing music and by this time he was shaking with eggs not with anxiety anticipation he put the silver key in the silver door turned it and it opened and you could see the last door was a as you would expect a golden dog solid gold but embedded was precious jewellery ancient heirloom of this monastic order and you could hear the music so much clearer by now and it was just so thrilling again he was crying it was like weeping it was so beautiful and by the time they got to that last door the abba got out the gold key but then stopped and said look what's beyond this door the source of this music is almost supernatural are you okay to actually to look at this because some people look at this some monks who see it go crazy i mean it's not just ordinary stuff it's really supernatural it's powerful stuff are you ready for this and yeah but you know you got to know this abbott over the last year or two and of course you know he trusted the albert the apple wasn't playing games with him so he thought for a while he said look i've come so far if you don't show me i'll go crazy for sure so please open the door okay said the abbott he put the key in and he opened the door and what he saw inside was i'm sorry i can't tell you because you're not monks

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