Hi Brahm — I still meditate every day

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• “Can meditation teach you to fly over walls?”

  In brief: On his first prison visit, at the old Canning Vale jail, over a hundred of about 110 prisoners crowd in to learn meditation; inspired,…

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  this is when I first went into a prison to teach meditation and you cannot make up these stories real life is funnier than any story anyone can concoct because when I went into this prison to teach meditation it was actually the old canning Vale jail I think it's called what's it called now hakia yeah Alvin canning Val and at that time was about 25 to 30 years ago in that time the prison population there was just over 100 Maybe 110. and over a hundred prisoners came to my talk almost the whole prison population the only ones who didn't come were those in solitary confinement or seeing the doctor or something and I couldn't believe just how many criminals were interested in meditation interested in actually doing something with their life improving themselves that was just so inspiring to see and so I really gave the best possible talk I can on meditation I really wanted to actually meet them halfway if they were going to be interested in this and do something with their lives and make themselves better I was also going to help them and I'd only been talking about meditation maybe about 10 minutes when this big guy stood up he was one of the leaders in the prison you know they all have their gangs he's one of the gang leaders he was about six foot four and that was just across his shoulders lots of lots of scars on him and when someone like that I often say when someone like that stands up to interrupt you and say can I ask a question say yes sir yes sir please and he said he said this is on behalf of all the people here is it really true he asked is it really true that through meditation you can learn how to fly over walls sure that did break this up and then I realized why so many prisoners have come to my meditation class stupid they believe that a couple of meditation classes you could do that and they're all out of jail so when I told them look yeah levitation can sometimes happen it's incredibly rare you have to be a really skilled meditator for Life hours and hours to do something like that when I went back next week to continue the cross only three people turned up

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• Coffee with a control freak

  In brief: Someone invites you for coffee then dictates Gloria Jeans not Dome, latte not cappuccino, Anzac biscuit not muffin, back seats not front,…

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  this is where I come to my little simile which I developed over a few years of the coffee shop the similar the coffee shop goes like this now those of you whove come to every Retreat you are going to hear the same story again and again and again until you understand it it when you understand it you don't need to come to a retreat anymore you become enlightened so your Penance for coming every time is to hear the same stories every time so anyway this is a coffee shop simil someone gives you a call in the afternoon and say are you free this afternoon come for a cup of coffee they say okay I'm free this afternoon and then they tell you we are going to go to Gloria Jeans not Dome not coffee beans not Starbucks we're going to go to Gloria Jeans cuz I like Gloria Jeans I know you don't like Gloria Jeans by the way that this should be sponsored by Gloria Jeans I expect a free cup of coffee the next time I go there for sponsoring Gloria Jeans coffee shops and I should get sponsorship as a monk you know because I know this is actually recorded and you do go sort of uh uh online overseas and many people actually listen to my talks how many the talks in Mar how many people actually download them is that 30 40,000 that sort number so imagine we can get sponsorship I could sort of open up my robe and underneath the robe was where's it gone Gloria Jeans we can make a lot of money for the Buddhist society that way we can finish off the Damar NS monry no worries at all aab only uses Gillette razor place the possibilities are endless but anyway so she said I want to go to Glory jeans I don't want to go to those other coffee shops cuz I don't like them and you are going to have a latte not a cappuccino cuz I know you just know like your cappuccinos but I like lates and you're going to have one too and you're not going to have one of those muffins those blueberry uh nambi pambi muffins you're going to have a Anzac bis biscuit cuz it's like anac day soon so we're going to have a biscuit and that's what you're going to wait we're not going to sit out in the front where you like sitting we're going to sit in the back we're not going to talk about your stupid Buddhism we're going to talk about politics and I like talking about politics we're going to stay there for an hour and a half because that's how much time I have not an hour not 2 hours 1 hour and a half okay now if someone invited you for a cup of coffee and they told you where you going to go what coffee you going to drink what are you going to eat what are you going to talk about where you going to sit and for how long would you want to go with them of course not you make up some excuse I just remembered oh I'm terribly sorry I've got to go to the dentist this afternoon it slipped my mind I'm terribly sorry anything to get out of going with such a control freak

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• Eye shades for a stranger at Changi

  In brief: Between flights at Changi he gives airline eye shades to an exhausted Western woman he does not know; her smile stays with him.

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  changy airport once and I saw this poor Western lady trying to get some rest I know what it's like when you've been over an all night flight and you know feel really terrible you just want to get a few hours of sleep before you get your connecting flight and know she was on some sort of couch trying to get some shut ey you know moving all over the place and I had uh I ey Shades you know from the air aircraft and I got out the eye shades she didn't know me I didn't know her I said have some eye shades ma'am

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• “That monk, he's on the gear”

  In brief: At a Buddha-statue installation in an English open prison, Ajahn Brahm is beaming as he circles the statue; one watching prisoner tells…

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  One time, I was visiting a prison in UK You know, we spend a lot of time in prison as monks, I often tell people: Visiting prisons, I always would keep a log of how many hours and minutes I spent doing community work in prison to be used as credit, in case I ever got sentenced for something (Laughs) look, I've already done about... the equivalent of about two or three months you should take that off (Laughs). But anyway, I was inside this jail, cause it was a ceremony, somebody had sweet talked the British government into putting a Buddha statue In the middle of an open prison, a big one! And you know, it's very easy for people to sponsor a Buddha statue especially inside a prison, wow, it's amazing! And so we did a installation ceremony. And for those who ever come and see some of the Buddhist rituals, one of the favourite ones is actually we go around three times flowers, candles and incense, we go around It's like an act of worship, reverence you know, it's interesting, where this comes from we don't know but they also do that in Mecca, when they go around the, whatever it's called ...the Kaaba, always go three times around, wearing white this is incredible similarities between our different traditions where they came from I don't know, but it's... that's Buddhist Anyhow... There we where, going round three times, and I was inspired I was happy, Amazing, something good being done in a prison! Not just locking people up and reenforcing how guilty they should feel but no, just something which is inspiring and I was just so happy with a big smile on my face much more than I usually have cause, you know, more inspiration and at the corner of my eye I saw these two prisoners they just got nothing to do, nothing was on the TV that night so they just hung out to see what the hell was going on with these crazy people with brown robes and a Buddha statue so just, you know, having a quick look and then I heard them, one looking to me... looking at the other prisoner and pointing to me he said: "That monk, he's on the gear" (Laughs) If you don't know what gear means you know, it's like, some sort of drug cause that's the only thing they could explain the happiness from just some medication; it's not medication! you know, it's meditation, not medication

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