The walking stick that always missed

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• Letting the rip carry him out

  In brief: A New Zealand monk, tramping with a friend on a hot day, reaches a secluded, pristine beach in (he thinks) the South Island; they strip…

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  This monk, he was from New Zealand and he was trekking over in New Zealand with one of his friends— they call it 'tramping' over there. It was a hot day, just like the weather today—it's been really hot today— and he was walking all day, and he managed to get to this pristine beach somewhere in the South Island I think it was. It was one of the most magnificent beaches: secluded, no one was there; they had it to themselves. It was the sort of beach that you built a resort on if it was in close proximity to civilisation, but this was totally wild. It was only him and his mate there and they were very hot, and so they thought let's go for a swim! A very natural decision. So they stripped off—they didn't have any bathers; there's no one around— and off he went into the water and did some swimming. And that's when he realised that he'd made a big mistake because there was a big rip there—this very, very strong current. Later on—he survived, obviously to tell the story—he told me later that many people had perished on that particular beach; he didn't realise that it was so dangerous. How he survived was a very brilliant strategy, and I think this was because he'd been a Buddhist before— he was a Buddhist monk, obviously— but the teachings of Buddhism actually saved his life there because as he was being taken out by the strong currents, straightaway, he realised that it was such a strong rip current that fighting it was useless, so he totally relaxed, he let go, he didn't try to do anything. He let that current take him a long way from the beach, knowing that eventually that current will stop, it will change, it is impermenant; eventually, the force will wither away, and eventually it did, and that's where he started swimming, that's where he put forth all his effort. When he could make a difference, that's when he applied himself. And he managed to swim back to the shore exhausted, but he survived. And he told me if he'd fought that current, he'd still have been taken the same distance away from the shore, but when he got to that distance, he would've been exhausted, he would not have been able to swim back—he would've died. Knowing when to let go and when to put forth effort saved his life, but more importantly, having the courage to let go, the courage to let go when you know you can't do anything, but you're really scared of what might happen. He did let go and that saved his life.

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• Walking into the DMZ

  In brief: During the brief Trump–Kim thaw, Ajahn Brahm joins a peace conference in South Korea. The senior monks are to lead a fast three-hour…

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  the last time I saw this monk that was in the demilitarized zone. I mentioned that story a couple of years ago. I went to Korea, South Korea and was having a peace movement at the time. That was a time when you may remember it over a year and a half ago when Donald Trump and Kim Jong- fell in love. That's what it said on the newspapers. Anyway, [laughter] so anyway, so they wanted to move on that and just have this the big peace conference up there. So I went there to join in and I thought it was a really worthwhile thing to do. But then they had these big senior monks. I was one of the senior monks. They wanted us to go on this walk, meditation walk inside the deulatory zone. Wow. The senior monk. No, he couldn't go because he was busy. Ajan Ganha, he was sick. So that left your own aan. Yay. Would you have allowed me to do that? It was a three-hour walk really fast. No rest b leading oh 6,000 uh jogj yeah yeah jog jj buddhists over into the de DMC demilitarized zone walking yeah so off I went just doing that had a wonderful time could you do that would you be anxious no I wasn't anxious at all but I must admit I did mention at the time There was a lot of shooting in there. There was I can't lie to you. I was shot a few times. Actually, many times click. Click. Photographed and videoed and stuff.

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• The ward that focused on the good hours

  In brief: After a talk at Singapore's mental-health institute, a Christian ward head quietly tells Ajahn Brahm his ward now focuses on patients'…

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  This whole attitude was reinforced when last weekend I was teaching at a conference of the Institute for Mental Health in Singapore. Those from Singapore, a few here, the old Woodbridge Hospital, which now they've moved and renamed because maybe it had a bad association with mental sickness. And I was so pleased that after I gave a presentation that was so well received, that one of the fellows there who was quite a staunch Christian, he asked me, "Can you come and bless my ward? Give a Buddhist blessing, please." Those of you who know Singapore know that's quite something. But when I was talking to him, and to many other staff there, the heads of departments, they told me that the philosophy in that hospital was to focus on that part of their patient which was sane, sociable, which was kind, which was intelligent. They weren't focusing on the psychosis. They weren't ignoring the schizophrenic fantasies. They were focused on something else. I thought, "Wow! You guys have understood." Because if you focus on somebody's faults -- you know the old two bad bricks -- the fact that sometimes they act in a dysfunctional way, or they speak in hallucinatory ways or they behave in sort of a violent to themselves or other ways. If you focus on that, then you make this person into someone.. or make this dysfunction the whole of them, rather than just a part of them. And a positive psychology says let's put that aside. Let's focus on the other half of them. Too often, we focus on the dysfunction. How about focusing on the rest of the time when they're perfectly -- I won't say normal because being normal is stigmatising the so-called abnormal -- when they are kind, sociable and able to sort-of flow in society without any problems or reactions from other people. When you focus on the other side, the healing happens. This is such an important psychology to see. I was so pleased that at last, somebody is getting the message.

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• Ajahn Chah's eyes stop on the four-year monk

  In brief: At Magha Puja at Wat Pah Pong, before thousands of lay people and some 150 monks, Ajahn Chah's gaze runs down the line of monks, passes…

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  Imagine this, this was in February after my - I had only been a monk for four years, and this was the second biggest festival in the whole Buddhist calendar in Thailand. The full moon of February. It was called Magha Puja. Second only to Vesak in its size. So together with all the other disciples of my teacher Ajahn Chah, we went to his monastery, Wat Pah Pong, where there must have been five or six thousand people, lay people, and all the monks were there as well. And in the evening after the chanting, it was time for the talk, for the sermon, and I was looking forward to hearing Ajahn Chah teach something inspiring. But sometimes he didn't give the talk. Sometimes he would ask his second monk or his third monk to give the talk. Sometimes he would ask for any monk to give the talk, and that was scary. And what he'd do, he looked down this line of monks, this line of maybe 100, 150 monks, and if his eyes stopped at you, you were in trouble. Big trouble. So I remember this very clearly, his eyes went down the line, past all these very senior monks who could give really good talks, and he came to me, and went past. Phew. I was so relieved he was going to choose someone below me, someone who could speak Thai, because the talk had to be in Thai. But then his eyes stopped and went up the line again - he was a sadist - and stopped at me. "Brahmavamso, get up and give the talk!" I'd only been four years as a monk and I had to give the talk on this huge occasion in front of about six or seven thousand Thais. As I tell the story, it was 6000. Now it has gone up to 7000. This is just what happens when you give talks. And with all these senior monks and in front of my teacher, how would you feel? You were trained it didn't matter. You just went up there and gave a talk in Thai. It didn't matter how it came out, because the whole purpose of that was teaching you how to overcome your fear.

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