Being Mindful Stories

Joke · Ajahn Brahm

You know when the Gurkha visited — your head falls off

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Why Meditate? | Ajahn Brahm | 30 October 2020

1 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

gurkha and a gurkha was some of the most dangerous military figures you could possibly imagine and now he was a real gurkha and you know he used to tell us that the gurk is saying they always carry these big you know very sharp knives and said you always know when the gurkha had visited you in the middle of the night when you wake up and you shake your head and it falls off

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 2:03 (to 2:38)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A former Gurkha monk joked that the sign a Gurkha visited in the night is that you shake your head and it falls off. Asked about the conflict with Buddhist values, he said he'd worked in accounts, only cutting costs. Later Ajahn Brahm met frontline Gurkhas. He listened rather than judged. Seek to understand before you condemn.

In brief (our summary)

Former Gurkha monk: you always know when a Gurkha visited in the night — you wake, shake your head, and it falls off.

Teaching point

Even a monk can keep a Gurkha's sense of humour.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Why Meditate? | Ajahn Brahm | 30 October 2020 · 2020-10-30 · ▶ watch from 2:03 to 2:38 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'curcus' = Gurkhas.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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