Sixteen fails, one blessing

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• Blessings are cheering for your team

  In brief: Simile: when supporters shout 'Come on, the Dockers! Come on, the Eagles!', the team does better. That's what his chanting and blessings…

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  when you shout for your football team. ‘Come on, the Dockers, come on, the West Coast Eagles, come on!’. When you actually shout for your team and you've got lots of supporters, of course, the team do much better. You're encouraging them. So that's what I do to you. When I do the chanting and the blessings, I just shout for you, ‘come on, you can do it, yeah, come on, yes yes yes!’. That's what I did for that guy in the ICU, ‘come on, you can come out of coma, come on, yeah, you can, yes, you did it

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• The kung fu pose

  In brief: Walking from his mother's flat in Acton to give a talk at the Sri Lankan temple, Ajahn Brahm takes the short way past a block of flats…

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  I told him the story of when I was uh over in London visiting my mother and that's where I grew up in London in West London Actton. part of that area was very rough and I just in the afternoon I was walking from my mother's house or rather flat apartment to the Sri Lankan temple to give a talk that evening and I decided to go the shortest way which was also past this block of flats for poor people which was known as a hot bed of crime. Basically, it was like a nogo area unless you knew who you were and where, you know, and the other people knew you. So, I was walking along the street minding my own business. And this gang, maybe first of all, a dozen or maybe 14 or 15 guys came out just to meet together to, you know, find out what business they were going to get up to that evening. And as they saw me coming towards them, just walking peacefully, minding my own business, then they realized I was a Buddhist monk cuz they started chanting Buddha. Budda, Budda, Buddha. As I got closer, it became louder and faster. Buddha, Budda, Buddha, Buddha. They were trying to intimidate me. But even I was alone and these were many young you must call them thugs just they were waiting for me chanting louder and louder Buddha Buddha. I had a choice. I could turn around and just go back and go another way. I could cross the road to the other side of the street. That is not my character. My character was that I walked towards him calmly. When I got to within about five or six meters of them, they're really chanting loud now. Buddha, Buddha, Buddha, Buddha, and I raised my arms in a kung fu pose. At least what I saw on the TV as a kung fu pose. You know, sometimes I actually did that sometime. I don't know if it was stupidity or courage, but I don't know, but it worked. and and I just walked the same pace with my arms like this [laughter] and they parted and let me right through. They didn't hit me at all or harm me at all. They could have wasted me so easily.

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• The bomb next door in the Blitz

  In brief: During the London Blitz a bomb falls right next to the terraced house where Ajahn Brahm's mother and grandmother are. The neighbours, only…

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  Even my family, parents and grandparents would tell me about life in London during the Second World War during the Blitz where a bomb fell right next to a terrace house. The next terrace house where my mother and grandma were. People in the next house are neighbors. They were instantly killed. My mother had her arm lacerated. She hardly remembers it, but it did happen apparently. And these were the old terrace houses which was only maybe what maybe 5 mters wide, 6 m wide to the next house. And they said there were some of the most wonderful times when even though many people were dying, there's so much kindness and help and joy and even joy as well.

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• One toe in the pool

  In brief: Simile: a four- or five-year-old who has only just learned to walk is taken to a pool for the first time. Mummy lets it dip one toe and…

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  just like the story of the kid being taken, maybe four or five year old kid taken to the swimming pool to learn how to swim for the first time. Imagine what it must feel like be a child. You've just learned to walk, you know, be able to stand up and run without falling over. And now you have to to somehow understand and cope with this stuff which is not solid water, the whole pool of it. It's okay jumping in a puddle and making everybody wet but just a whole pool. So how do you get a kid to do that? So the mommy just lets it put one toe in first of all. Take it out. That feels okay. A whole foot. Take it out. Let's say it's only a foot. A leg. then dip it in and then take it out again. Mommy's still holding it. And then eventually you let the kid go into the pool. And once the kid's in the pool splashing about enjoying itself, it's very hard to get the kid out of the pool again. It's too much fun.

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