Wrap yourself a gift of peace

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• The tired schoolteacher on alms round

  In brief: An old friend who became a schoolteacher visits Ajahn Brahm in northeast Thailand. Exhausted and stressed, he resists the dawn alms round;…

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  he came to visit me in thailand many many years ago and he was he became like a school teacher and i was a monk and he came to visit me in thailand and when he arrived there it's amazing to actually define me all that way and so i settled him into his room and i said one of the wonderful things to experience in those days in northeast thailand was the arms round in the morning could we get up really early at dawn and just as the they get slight the monks take their ball and they walk silently mindfully through the village and it's really poor people they get up early to put some rice in the monk's bowl and if you don't go there they sort of come and ask you where have you been we want you to come here seeing peaceful calm people first thing in the morning it starts our day and we'd really miss it if you never came so it was just a sight of peaceful people calm quiet people just walking through the village reminding them of their spirituality and they'd come in there and quietly they put a bit of rice in the poll and then we come back to the to the monastery afterwards for our meal and you know that i said this is one of the best times of the morning it's cool the light is perfect you know you must come and he said listen i'm just i'm so tired i get so stressed at work there's no way i can wake up at that time of the morning and i said you don't have to worry at all i'll come to your room and i'll knock on the door 15 minutes before we go so you can get time to get ready okay that was the agreement and i obviously did that and as we were walking back he thanked me because there was a wonderful time of the day and it was really spiritual peaceful kind people looking after one another and he on the way back he told me thank you for

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• Lying down for the benefit of all beings

  In brief: The Buddha takes an afternoon nap, and Māra taunts him: you're no real monk — lazy, sleeping while others work to feed you. The Buddha…

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  where one day the Buddha took a nap in the afternoon and then this being called Mara called him out I've caught you out you're not a real monk you're lazy look all these other people have to work hard feeding you they're not sleeping during the middle of the day you lazy monk he said what are you doing that for why are you sleeping and the Buddha replied I'm laying down for the happiness and benefit of all sentient beings

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• The social worker's solutions that popped up

  In brief: A senior social worker with heavy responsibilities arrives at a nine-day retreat in North Perth at 8:30 p.m., straight from the office…

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  A classic case is one of the old members here who died a year ago. She came on this meditation retreat which I gave a couple of years ago. And she was a very high profile social worker, senior social worker, had lots of responsibilities. So the retreat which we give, the nine day retreats, they usually start at about seven o’clock. I don’t think she turned up till about eight thirty. Because she was working at her office, getting all of the papers and stuff done and she couldn’t leave it. I don’t think she had any dinner. She came straight from her office to the retreat center in North Perth. Tired, but you know, obviously I told her to rest for a couple of days before she can really got into the meditation. But she told me at the interview a few days later that she had come to the retreat straight from the office finishing very late, with all of these problems, big problems. But she was wise enough, she heard those teachings many times before. When she came to the retreat center, she completely forgot about them for two or three days. She done all of her research, she got all of the information, she just hadn’t processed them. And just three days, she was meditating there quite quietly, and her mind was very peaceful and these solutions started popping up. And she said when she basically listened to the solutions in her mind, she didn’t know where they came from, they just came up, popped up, she said: “Wow, these are really good solutions!” And she was so impressed with these solutions which came up automatically, she told me afterwards. She said: “As soon as I go back home, I’m going to implement these things. These are innovative I can see just how they are gonna work.” But she also said there’s no way . she could have thought of those solutions It was a decision making which arrived by putting in all of the information and waiting, and waiting for the brain, the mind, to process these things and for the decision to come up.

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• The Ananda method of enlightenment

  In brief: After the Buddha's death, Ananda — his attendant for 25 years — is still not enlightened, while 499 of the 500 monks gathering for the…

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  But Ananda, he was a He was the attendant of the Buddha, the chief No, the chief disciples of the Buddha, and when the Buddha passed away, Ananda was still not enlightened. And he thought, "If I can't be enlightened after being with the Buddha for 25 years, almost every day, listening to all of his teachings, being one of the greatest masters, and I've blown it. 25 years, I'm still not enlightened. What chance do I have now?" But there was a big meeting of all the great monks. 500 monks were meeting together. 499 of them were perfectly enlightened with psychic powers, all except this poor Ananda guy. Imagine the peer pressure. Imagine. So, he stayed up all night meditating and meditating and meditating. Now, that's the reason why he didn't get enlightened. Trying. Trying to get enlightened, trying to achieve something. But then when he got to dawn, he was absolutely nowhere, hopeless. You'll have that feeling sometimes. You're meditating and meditating, nowhere, absolutely hopeless. So, what did he do? He decided to go and take a nap. So, as he lay down, according to the legend, just before his head hit the pillow, he became fully enlightened with psychic powers as well. Brilliant. So, we call that the Ananda method of enlightenment.

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