Ajahn Maha Bua said carry on eating

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• The trail of blood into Mum's council flat

  In brief: Staying at his mother's London council tower block (a supposed 'hotbed of crime'), Ajahn Brahm is about to walk to a talk when the lift…

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  I remember when I went to visit her and stayed in that tower block for a short while I was going to give a talk in the Sri Lankan Vihara is Chiswick one day and it was not that far from where my mother lived so I wanted to walk. I enjoyed those walks in the streets of London especially in my robes. Because I was always a radical I wanted to surprise and stagger and confront people with my sartorial elegance of brown robes. But I also enjoyed having fun because people would look at me and sometimes not knowing exactly what you were dressed in these robes, these are like what people used to called bed blankets sometimes they are cross the other side of the road but I'll always take pleasure in wishing them Good Morning with a smile to an Englishman when someone actually wishes you 'Good Morning' you have to say Good Morning back. It is psychological torture for them. Being a sadist I enjoyed that. But anyhow on this particular occasion when I in the elevator when I got to the bottom as the door was open I was the only one in the elevator and as the door was opened I was confronted by an old lady who was covered with blood. It was like scene out of a movie I didn't know what had happened to her whether she has been attacked, mugged or whatever but she actually told me that she had fallen down by the flight of steps. She must have been about sixty five or seventy because she could still stand so immediately I forgot about giving a talk at any sort of Vihara it's more important I am kind and compassion; I like to practice Buddhism rather than teach it. So I forgot about the talk and I took this old lady upstairs to my mother's apartment where we bathed her wounds called the ambulance, she did have a broken leg but because of the shock she couldn't feel the pain at the time, so we bathed her, comforted her, called the ambulance but the wonderful thing which happened was that because it was an accident and because I took her into my mother's apartment very quickly, my mother left the door opened and there was a trail of blood which was leading into my mother's apartment and I was so pleased in a matter of five minutes I don't know how many people had come into my mother's apartment to find out what was going on and whether she was alright. And when they found out the reason why one of the tenants in these apartment blocks had an accident, fallen over and was wounded, it was wonderful to see the community coming together and helping one and another I was bathing the wounds because my mother doesn't like blood someone else was going to her house to actually to turn her oven off because she had something in the oven cooking and somebody was going to ring her daughter somewhere else and everybody was working together so well I thought, this is not a hot bed of crime this is a community where people cared about each other.

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• Jumper leads on the prison road at dawn

  In brief: Driving the monastery road between the prison and the dam at dawn, the monks find an elderly couple stuck all night with a flat battery.…

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  there was this old couple had been stuck in the car all night their car had had a low battery and they didn't know how to fix it and that part of the world that's kings we drive between the prison and the dam no one uses that road at night time so this elderly couple had gone out for a nice little Drive and got stuck in the middle of nowhere and they stayed there five or six hours all night until the dawn came up and of course the first car on that road with us the Buddhist monastery car what and our car had some jumper leads in it so he could charge up the charge up there their battery so that car could start again although it is so happy and almost nothing could convert to Buddhism if we were like that but we're not doing things to get anything out of anybody

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• Kindness after the dye shed

  In brief: Wat Pah Pong: three monks dyeing robes two nights without sleep; young Brahm secretly helps so they can rest. Next morning chanting he is…

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  three monks and they were dying their robes and they hadn't slept for a couple of days know you can't sleep you have to keep on working that was why almost a test of endurance for them you know that sometimes I remember reading in the Buddhist books when I was young that to make sure that a monk or none was really uh wanted to become a monk or none They would actually test them by having them sit outside the front door of the monastery for three days and just to see if they really wanted to become a monk or a nun. And over in Damasara, you don't have to do that. You just have to make your own robes. It's just kind of similar. Don't make it too easy. See just what your your commitment is. But anyway, over in uh W Babong in those days, we had to uh cut sew white cloth, sew it all up into the monk's robes and make the dye and dye it. [clears throat] It took a long time. And these three monks have been up at the dying shed two nights without sleep and had another night or two to go before they could finish. I what would you do? You know, I would just felt so sort of sorry for them. I've got compassion just like every other monk and none and each one of you as well. I said, "Look, um I won't tell if you won't tell. I'll do the dying tonight. You go and take, you know, 4 hours of rest." And that's what they did. They didn't argue with me. They were off, you know. I felt so good about that because you could see they were suffering in pain, you know, not physical pain like you've broken a leg or something, but just really, really, really tired. So, I did that work for them that night. I hadn't slept that day. I didn't sleep that night cuz I was busy looking after the dying pot. And then also in the morning, the bell went 3:00 in the morning. would get up in Thailand when the bell went they all came back thank you thank you thank you just that you know 4 hours of rest you know just meant a lot of difference to them me I went back to the morning chanting and that morning I still remember the morning chanting we did in Thailand It was really depressing. Honestly, I'm not I'm not just saying that because he didn't have any energy, you know, and just getting up really early in the morning, 3:30, and just chanting. But that morning, yo, I had so much energy inside of me and it was unique. I think the other monks told me quiet down a bit, [laughter] but why? And I hadn't slept all night and I just I couldn't figure it out why I was just so full of energy. And I asked one of the senior monks and that's what they told me. He said, you know, I confessed, look, and we're not supposed to do this. I'm sorry, you know that they're supposed to make those robes up for themselves, but I helped. And and I said, "I had so much energy." Why? He just said, "Because of kindness." When you're really kind and you sacrifice something, you get a big boost of energy and power back

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• All his questions vanished before Ajahn Tate

  In brief: Ajahn Tate, a famous monk once sent home from hospital to die of cancer (he lived another 25 years), is so revered that young Ajahn Brahm…

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  I went to visit this famous monk called Ajahn Tate in Sri Chiangmai on the Mekong River over in Nong Khai Province, the north of Thailand. He was supposed to be an amazing monk. In fact, when I first became a monk, he was dying of cancer. He was in the main hospital being looked after by the King of Thailand because he was a famous monk. And the doctor said okay, waste of time looking after you anymore, there’s nothing more we can do, you’re going to die. So he said, well I might as well die in my temple in Bangkok. So he went back to his temple and he died about 25 years later. [laughter] And he was an amazing monk and of course he had such a good reputation that, I could speak Thai, and I just wanted to go to these great masters and ask all my questions. It was just like, you know, we all have these questions inside of us, you get these incredibly wise beings and you just wanted to ask questions from someone who knows what they’re talking about. And so, you know, he was very famous, had to make an appointment, went up there, spent about two days waiting. When I went into his room, and you know what happened, all the questions totally vanished. My mind was so blank but what I felt instead, was this incredible, and I mean just this incredible unconditional love. I was a young monk. I still had my fantasies, my defilements and all that sort of stuff. And this guy he loved me for who I was, I didn’t have to become enlightened. I didn’t have to sort of be a good monk. I didn’t have to clean up my act. You felt totally accepted for who you were with all your faults. And that’s the feeling I had. As soon as I got a feeling like that, the next feeling I had, I don’t want to move, I want to stay in here. for the rest of my life. I’m not going anywhere because it was such a beautiful feeling of having this total, absolutely hundred percent acceptance. This guy would not criticize me at all and he never would.

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