He almost bought lunch for the lady who looked like Mum

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• The Dalai Lama accepted the poor woman's skirt

  In brief: Early story: dirt-poor woman offers the Dalai Lama an egg-stained/skirt gift; he accepts because she needed to give — wisdom of receiving…

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  Dalai Lama years and years and years ago. This is one of those stories I I read, you know, the very beginning of my Buddhist life. And it was something which really moved me. It made me understand a little about what compassion is really about cuz this was before the Dalai Lama actually uh left Tibet. you know, he's obviously a famous young man at that time and he would go from village to village visiting the people in Tibet and there was a journalist from United States was accompanying him doing one of the very first stories you know on the Dalai Lama and as he was going from village to village people were lining up to offer him gifts you know it's supposed to be good karma to offer someone like the Dalai Lama some gifts But this was an American who didn't really understand what generosity, compassion was about. And so he started to get more and more upset because some of those gifts were coming from very, very poor people. And on this one occasion in this one village, there was a woman who was obviously dirt poor, you know, hardly had anything. You could see by her eggs. And she lined up and when it came to her turn, she presented his holy Mr. Dalai Lama with one of her skirts. Her best skirt is what she gave to the Dalai Lama. And that American, he just could not contain his anger and disgust any longer. He shouted, "What are you doing?" Now, I don't sh If I got a cough, I'll really mess up my throat. But you can imagine what he would say. What are you doing now? Accepting a skirt from that poor white woman. You're so wealthy. You live in this great monastery. You have everything you want. And you don't need a skirt. You're a man. What do you want with a skirt? She needs it more than you. Shouldn't accept it. What are you doing that for? That's not right. And he had a point in there. When I thought that I read that, I thought, my goodness, what does a monk need with a woman's skirt? But then, you know, whenever you get someone gets angry at you or shouts at you, this is the way to react. You know, you're very quiet and soft. You take it first of all and that's a very good way of disarming other people's anger by not giving anger back. You just sit there quietly silently cuz if you give anger back you just feed you know the other person's ill will. So you see this very often in you know great people they someone shouts at you but you just sit there stand there quietly and wait and when they're finished then you can say something what the Dal Lama said he said it's true I don't need this skirt but that woman needed to give it to me

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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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• Ten pounds for the Sikkim orphanage

  In brief: As a student who dozed through talks by professors and monks, Ajahn Brahm never forgets one by an old English woman, a Tibetan Buddhist…

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  But I remember one of the talks which I heard which I would never forget, it didn't say very much about Buddhism at all. Not as I'd expected it, it didn't say about Four Noble Truths or seven enlightenment factors and all these other stuff which you can read in books anyway. It was just this old English woman, who was a Tibetan nun who was running an orphanage with very poor kids in Sikkim. And the way that she described her compassion was really inspiring. I realised from that time that Buddhism isn't a theory, Buddhism is actually what you do, how you behave, just your kindness, your virtue, your peace, your forgiveness, that's what Buddhism is. It's not what you find in the books. What you find in the interaction between two very kind and caring people. I didn't realise at that time but she taught Buddhism more eloquently than any professor or any monk at that time which I knew. So that's why, the day after, I was so inspired, I went to my bank and took 10 pounds out of my account. Now this was in 1969, I was a very poor student, that was 2 weeks food money for me. So I went hungry. I make up for it these days. But you know, [laughter], I was really hungry, I wasn't starving but I didn't have as much as I would normally have, and it hurt. And because it hurt, I got so much happiness out of that, so much joy, I put 10 pounds for this little orphanage for poor kids. That was meaning, that was purpose, that was something which made life have a resonance, and something very solid which I could respect. It was a pointer to how I could find deeper meaning in my life.

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• The woman who fell asleep in the meditation hall

  In brief: During Friday meditation a woman lies down, points her feet at the Buddha, falls asleep and snores — breaking every rule of etiquette —…

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  I remember some years ago, somebody was just over there and they fell asleep during my talk and started snoring, really snoring loudly, and somebody woke them up. And I told them off afterwards, you shouldn't wake them up like that. We found out afterwards they were having horrendous domestic violence. And they came here, and they felt safe in this room. They felt so safe, they hadn't slept don't know how many days you can imagine with domestic violence, even if it's not happening to you right now the memory of that makes you so tense. You can't get a good night's sleep and they came here they felt so safe. It was the first time they've slept in I don't know how long. And I said, "let them sleep". If anyone snores here during one of my talks well done, let them sleep. You don't know where they've come from. At least they realize this feels a peaceful place and they're protected. They don't feel fear. That's actually why they slept.

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